She dreamed of stars. As she looked up into the night sky growing up, seeing only inky blackness had been the norm. It had been accepted, as it had for trillions of years. The void had become a normal fact of life since the earliest era of the universe, back when creation was young enough that stars could form. Now all that remained were the leftovers; red dwarfs that hadn't grown cold yet. Black holes, white dwarfs, neutron stars...stuff too dim to be seen from a distance. It was the end of the universe, though it was a slow end that would still outlive their entire civilization, for hundreds of hundreds of more trillions of years.
Still, it was dying.
She dreamed of stars though, from the stories. The myths and bedtime stories she'd been told as a child, of when the worlds were young, of when the night sky was an endless show of lights. Of when the universe had more stars, more galaxies than grains of sand on a beach. Back when life and energy were overflowing. Back before they had to ration what little energy remained.
She dreamed of stars. And now, today, she might be able to help make that a reality once more. She'd been handpicked to help work on a project that would bring back the stars, by reversing entropy itself. Matter and energy could not be destroyed of course; only transferred. All that they required to reset things was to rewrite the rules on entropy.
Could you imagine it? She'd only graduated from the academy last week, about to start her new job—and here she'd been handpicked for The Project. Her! Fresh graduate! Could you believe it.
Her new fellow coworkers seemed friendly enough, too. Spirits were high; they were close to a breakthrough and everyone knew it. And the project lead seemed to think that with her onboard, they'd crack this in no time. Maybe, someday soon, the universe would be renewed.
And so the woman who would one day become Epsilon dreamed of stars.
Power Rangers Peacekeepers
Season 3
3.10: Family
The yellow ranger raced through the forest, dashing from one dirt patch to the next, her bladed bow weapon in her grip. As she flew into a clearing, she turned about at a ninety degree angle and fired a laser arrow right into the wolf-beast that had been keeping pace with her just as it turned to intercept. She then swung around, bringing her weapon down and across diagonally into the wolf that was in the process of pouncing into her from behind. A third wolf almost struck; she attempted to block but wasn't fast enough-
Andromeda's ghostly form intercepted for a split second, confusing the wolf-beast and giving Sel precious seconds to counter-attack. Sel knew it wasn't Andromeda—not really. Andromeda was gone. But this was the 'dreamlands', where afterimages remained-impressions long since forgotten by all but the Morphing Grid. And she knew she carried part of Andromeda with her at all times; the Lights, after all, were Andromeda's power, her gift to Sel and the others.
More wolf-beasts were coming, Sel could hear them. Alone again, she ran, away from the forest as the pack broke through the tree line. Ahead was a rickety wooden bridge linking this floating island to the rest of the endless maze of floating rocks, all hovering above a churning maelstrom of clouds.
She almost got caught once; Andromeda intercepted again and Sel finished the beast off. Another one struck from the side, coming down on her after leaping into the air—Sel met its fangs with her blade, before shooting it square in the mouth and tossing its carcass off into the void. The yellow ranger charged across the bridge.
There was no way she could take this entire pack like this.
Fortunately, she had an idea. Sel came to a stop on the other end of the chasm, and even as the wolves closed in, she aimed her bow and fired, blowing the bridge apart. The wood planks collapsed as the ropes snapped. A dozen wolf-beasts fell into the storm below, leaving the rest of their pack stranded on the other side, away from Sel. She took a moment to catch her breath and congratulate herself on her own quick think-
A sudden sharp pain overtook Sel, and she clutched at her chest as she dropped to her knees, her vision blacking out for a moment as a splitting headache suddenly gripped her. Doubled over on the ground, she tried to catch her breath as the pain slowly subsided, and she knew.
...Isdilian was gone.
Her opposite, her twin. The presence that had always been there, even long before she'd known it HAD been there, was gone. There was a hole in the Morphing Grid. Honestly, she wasn't sure how she *should* feel, considering. On one hand, he...was gone, dead. Likely destroyed by the others or maybe he just overdid it like she had and simply hadn't survived.
...On the other hand, screw him. All that talk of sibling bonding and all he had ever really seen her as was an instrument, like the rest of the Antipodes. He'd kidnapped her, sent her to the Antipodes. If anyone deserved to die, it was him. If anything, she was more surprised (and worried) that she found she *didn't* care about his death all that much.
Yet, she knew that with him dead, and the Antipodes ambitions unfulfilled, this changed things. Likely they would be stepping up their plans, panicking at the sudden loss of one of their main tool. If she was their last hope, then she might be in serious trouble.
Knowingly or not, the others had probably set off the endgame.
"...I have to find them" she whispered to herself. Andromeda offered her hand, which Sel used to pull herself up, even though once she was standing again, she was once again alone. The yellow ranger looked up at the other bridges and floating islands, raising further into the sky.
"…I will find them" she reaffirmed, before racing forward to the next bridge.
The Megaship was quiet. It had been quiet ever since...well… The workbay was still a mess; Sid hadn't bothered to clean up after his meltdown. Instead he just sat at the computer, working...or rather, trying to work on building his alliance. He was doing anything, everything, to try and cope.
It wasn't working too well.
A blip on sensors caught his attention. Sid redirected ship sensor controls to his terminal here in the workbay, curious and mildly concerned. Sure enough, sensors were detecting a small craft at their six o'clock, in direct pursuit. They were keeping an average distance, a few light-years back with no intent of closing the distance or veering off.
...They were being followed.
A more detailed scan concluded that it was an SPD shuttle, and while Sid initially wondered if it was that admiral they'd saved, he knew that if that was the case they would have been hailed by now...and further, the ship was unregistered—it had never officially entered service. SPD itself was collapsing, and Sid doubted they'd be out this far just to hunt down Peacekeeper Team Twelve. Sid's face curled into a frown as the answer he didn't want was staring him right in the face.
The Antipodes were coming for them. It wasn't entirely unexpected of course; Izzy's death probably would have complicated things significantly, so it was obvious the Antipodes would try to deal with the threat directly. They hadn't attacked or tried to board yet, and instead kept a respectful distance—Sid surmised they were waiting for them to land somewhere. Sid reached for the ship-wide comm.
...He paused. Everyone was still reeling from this whole mess; a mess Sid had helped put them in—they were in no shape to fight. And how many Antipodes were after them? One? Two? All four of them? And how many krybots or carded monsters did they carry onboard?
Sid Drake had once thrown his team of rangers into the grinder and they'd paid the ultimate price. Every night for years he'd revisited that fact, and now no matter what he was making everything worse all over again. And still, they didn't even know where the Antipodes were based at or how long they had left, and they were no closer to finding out.
No. Not again. He wouldn't let them die again.
But they couldn't just keep flying forever; eventually they'd have to stop. And Sid couldn't take them alone.
...At least, not head on. An idea came to him.
Sid wasn't Iota. Iota was smart and could scheme as well as Sid if not better, certainly, but Iota never would have stuck his neck out for them. Iota had seen them as little more than tools. Sid saw them as far more than that. And Sid *would* stick his neck out. If nothing else, Sid could protect them.
His decision made, Sid got up and headed to Trok's workshop, checking the internal sensors first to make sure the horathean was actually in his quarters sleeping. He had a job to do.
Everything had gone wrong. At first, it had seemingly gone right; they'd collapsed entropy further, creating a deeper, truer vacuum. In response, the energy within had ignited—a proof of concept! They could reverse the slow heat death of the universe!
And then everything had gone wrong.
They'd barely escaped the system in time before the chain reaction went critical and their defenses were overwhelmed...and just like that, the dim red dwarf system, one of the last in the galaxy they'd been stationed in, was obliterated, its constituent particles of matter and energy disassembled by the collapse of the physical laws of the universe within the quickly expanding sphere of lower entropy—a new order was rearranging itself within. For all intents and purposes, they'd created an shockwave of infinite destructive power that was propagating at light speed. They'd chosen this galaxy due to its isolation and low population—thank the gods—and while it was expendable, unless they figured this out everything else would die too. Already the closest galaxies were preparing to evacuate their worlds.
The team had pulled together, though. The girl who would be known as Epsilon had met another woman on the team; the one who would one day be known as Beta. The older woman, though often irritable and driven, had gotten a soft spot for the younger, and had taken her under her wing. Then there was the one who would be known as Iota—the best friend of the team leader and closest confidant, as well as the lead idea man. Epsilon looked up to him. The three of them—Beta, Epsilon, and Iota, had gotten the go-ahead from the team leader to try their hand at one of their ideas for fixing this.
There were other projects of course; Sigma, Zeta, and Theta were doing their own thing, while the team leader, Gamma, and Delta had taken to another hypothesis. Personally, she never got why Delta was here—he was a nice enough guy, fun to be around, but not much of a scientist and more of a jock. She'd suspected, considering how well he got along with the leader, that they'd been close friends and that the latter had simply invited the former on in a bit of nepotism. Not that she'd ever voice that opinion of course; she was honored to be here and wanted to prove herself.
Her own team was headed by Iota, who'd come up with what Epsilon thought was a brilliant plan: pocket universes. They'd simply whisk the expanding bubble of entropy away by folding it out of this universe into its own dimension. Early tests were positive—they just needed enough power to pull this off.
Entapur. An odd name for a little out-of-the-way world that orbited two K-class orange stars in a tight orbit. It wasn't a pleasant planet by any stretch of the imagination; being so close to the binary stars it was effected by both the gravitational pull and the heat, ensuring it would be a volcanic world. It had once hosted a large human mining operation from Earth, but when it turned out the world was too volatile for continued use as mineral veins would continually move, the corporation had packed its bags, leaving the planet's natural forces to slowly dismantle the various bases they'd built across the planet.
It had also been right in the path of the Defender Megaship, making it a perfect choice for Sid Drake as he departed the ship in Isdilian's old APC craft—the Megaship having flown through the outer edges of the system as it continued on its path. Not that the Antipodes would know; he'd installed one of Nikki's cloaking devices onto the ship—he knew it wouldn't last long under the pressure of having to hide an entire starship, but it'd last long enough to give the Antipodes the slip.
...Especially considering that Sid had ALSO fudged his ship's sensor readings so as to appear to BE the Megaship, apparently making a sudden B-line for a volcanic world in an otherwise empty system because well would you look at that, sudden engine leak. Guess we gotta pull over and check it out. It wouldn't fool anyone with a detailed scan or at close range of course, but as bait it was perfect.
Sid's ship made a landfall on one of a launchpad of one of the larger surviving complexes, though it was clear even it was starting to succumb to natural forces. He'd have rather had this showdown elsewhere, but this had been the only system close enough to avoid suspicion that had a planet. Beggars couldn't be choosers, he supposed.
The complex rested on the side of a basaltic mountain range, tucked in and above a small valley that looked out towards a semi-molten plane and a front-row seat to the twin suns that dominated the sky. From the mountain end of the valley, a molten 'water'fall cascaded out just behind the base. The structure itself was built into the mountains, with numerous towers and spires that jutted out and were connected by numerous pathways.
Stepping out onto the landing pad, the red ranger found himself surrounded by sparks from the falls. That...wasn't good; it meant the station's shields were starting to fail.
...Well, if they ALL died horribly in hot lava, he supposed it was still a win.
Sid didn't have a lot of time; the Antipodes would be arriving within a few minutes and he still had a lot to set up. He'd spent the trip here studying the layout of the base, figuring out where to best place everything. Opening up his morpher's holomap and, connecting it to the APC vehicle, he began programming drop-off locations. Supplies he'd filled the vessel's hold with to the brim began teleporting out to their assigned locations. The Antipodes would have the advantage of strength, power, and numbers, which meant that Sid wouldn't be able to take them head-on. He'd have to try for something...trickier.
Once the vessel was empty, Sid ordered it to launch and veer off. It would hide on one of the base's undersides with another cloaking device activated. Detecting an incoming ship in orbit, Sid made haste, vacating the landing pad and hurrying further into the doomed complex.
Deep down, he knew this was wrong. Second thoughts riddled him. More than once he'd almost opened a channel back to the Megaship only to back down. Why was he doing this?
You can only stay cooped up in your room for so long before you start to go a little stir crazy, no matter how much you don't want to have to deal with shit outside. And Nikki was discovering that, despite her computer-ness and inherent access to all information everywhere...that this rule still applied to her.
But the ship was empty, as she found as she wandered the halls. Not that she expected a bustle of activity, considering that only three other people currently lived on the ship and after what had happened...well…
Still, this ship wasn't THAT big. The workbay was empty, yet...trashed. Someone had had a meltdown. The simudeck was empty, ditto for the bridge, and Nikki wasn't about to go knock on someone's door because she just...needed to be out, not have a personal conversation with someone.
...Screw it. She'd get some more work done as she watched the stars fly by in the lounge. Nikki had been trying to narrow down possible Antipode base locations in conjunction with Sid and the various scouts they had on the job, but it was tedious and likely fruitless. Yet it was all they could do.
Nikki let the door to the lounge slide open, light spilling into the dark room. ...Why did they never turn the lights on in here? She didn't think she'd EVER had the lights in in here. This room's purpose had never really been fulfilled and so had really become the 'moping room', for whenever someone was sad.
Flick. She turned the lights on.
"AUGH!" Xolin's addled shout rang out from one of the chairs, "OFF! Turn it off!"
Nikki sighed flatly and did as she was told, "...Sorry, didn't realize you were in here".
Xolin gave her a mildly irate yet unfocused glance, before taking another drink from the bottle of something she'd procured from the bar cabinet, "...Issalright. What are you even doing here anyway? It's like...three...four...forty-three AM".
Nikki shrugged as she moved further into the room. She couldn't help but smile at Xolin's drunk misspeak, "Turns out robots do not, in fact, dream of electric sheep".
"...I'm going to assume that's a reference to something".
An inebriated Xolin struggled to pull herself to her feet, nearly falling back over twice before unsteadily balancing herself, swaying slightly, "So what, you come here to mope too?" she asked, slurring her voice.
"...How much have you had?" Nikki asked, sidestepping Xolin's own question as the latter took another drink.
Xolin removed the bottle from her lips and looked down at it despondently, her voice cracking slightly. "...Not enough".
"...I disagree" Nikki said with sadness, reaching for the bottle. She tried to pull it out of Xolin's hands, but the triforian pulled back.
"What are you doing? It's mine!"
"Just give me the bottle!"
"No!"
"Please!"
With another yank, Nikki won as Xolin seemingly just gave up. The latter rubbed her face, "...How much do I have to drink before it stops replaying in my mind?"
Nikki's expression fell. Right now, part of her wished she *could* get wasted, "...That only works if you black out. And only until you wake up again".
Xolin gave a dry, bitter chuckle at that, "...He was one of us, and I killed him".
"He didn't give us a choice, Xol".
"Yeah, that's becoming a theme, huh?" she slurred as she pointed a wobbling accusing finger at Nikki, "We blow up an ani...anima...the zord...place...thing...we kill our teammates, we kill a universe because...why not!" She threw up her hands as she spun around towards an imaginary crowd, "Goooo Rangers! Go good guys! Kill all the things!"
Nikki caught Xolin as the latter tumbled back, "...Would you rather we get killed ourselves?"
Xolin's response was subdued as she stood back up, "...I'd just rather not find new things to hate about myself when I look in the mirror every morning". A thick silence settled over the room for a moment, before Xolin added, "...You know, I figured that by the time I got to this age, I'd have figured it allll out. That at least some of my shit would be fixed, but it's not. I just get more shit added to it. Shit sucks". She moved to take another drink, but remembered she no longer had the bottle. A look of disgust flashed across her face.
Nikki actually let loose a small laugh, "...Life would be so much easier if it was like TV, huh? Easily wrapped up character arcs, ten minute epiphanies that change everything, not having to carry around baggage your entire life..."
"...How do you deal with it?" Xolin asked her, slumping down in another chair.
The hologram shrugged, "...Day by day, I guess. Some days I deal with it better than others. But it doesn't end".
"...No, it doesn't" Xolin said, "Thanks".
"For what?"
"...For being here"
Nikki couldn't help but smile at that. "...You know, the others are here whenever you need anything. We're all pretty alike, more than we'd like to admit".
"...Yeah, I know" Xolin muttered, looking away, "...You know, when I ran away from home, all I thought about was fighting. I thought if I fought hard enough, believed hard enough, I'd make it through".
"I'd say you made it pretty far" Nikki replied, sitting down next to her.
Xolin snorted with derision, "...I think I'm tired of fighting. Tired of..." she waved to their surroundings, "...This. The death, the destruction, the doing the bad thing because it's right..."
"What would you do?"
"Psh, I don't know. I've never really thought about it because it scares the crap out of me. I'm not really good at much else. I dunno, maybe I'll retire".
Nikki gave her an odd look, "...Retire?"
"Yeah, retire!" Xolin said, a faint grin forming on her lips, "Someplace warm, sandy, without stupid people..."
Nikki's bemusement grew, "...You'd go crazy inside a day".
Both laughed at that, "...Yeah, you're probably right" Xolin replied, then sobered a bit, "...I want more than this. I deserve more than this".
Nikki gave her an odd look. A very different Xolin than the one she'd come to know over the last few weeks was forming in front of her. "So what are you going to do for it?"
Before Nikki even knew what was happening, Xolin had snatched the bottle from her hands. She gave a slightly mischievous yet determined grin, "Fight for it".
He couldn't sleep.
Trok had tried, of course. He was pretty sure he'd actually managed it for an hour or so, but then woke up feeling even worse than before. All the stress of everything was getting to him. Deciding there was nothing for it, he'd finally given up on the idea and had headed down to the loading bay he'd repurposed into his private gallery of half-finished projects. He wanted to try another go at the Ultrazord concept; maybe he'd get lucky and have a flash of inspiration-that kind of thing sometimes happened to the sleep deprived, right?
Trok opened the door, and immediately noticed that something was off. For one, half of his projects were missing. His mind spun into overdrive as he tried to come up for explanations for the sudden disappearance of his rejects. Antipode shenanigans? Quantum probability? Machines coming alive and killing everyone? Misplacing them in his sleep?
"...This can't be good".
"...He saved me once, you know".
Nikki turned to Xolin, both of them still seated on the couch in the center of the lounge, with a front-row seat to the windows that consisted of the far wall.
Xolin continued, "Izzy, I mean. I was...we were split into our three individual aspects and couldn't recombine because of a monster's spell. All he had to do was push a button, but still, he did it. He could have let someone else do it while he wailed on the monster, but he did it. He said...he said that he also knew what it was like to hate himself" she paused, "...And then I killed him".
Izzy. Isdilian. He was a person everyone on the team had always had mixed feelings about. When he'd first come aboard, the core four had hated him and he did everything he could to make sure it stayed that way. Even when Nikki had shown up, he was an outsider, though she quickly outpaced him in that regard. But as she stayed on the sidelines, she'd watched him slowly but inevitably get reigned into the group dynamic. By the end, he'd basically become one of them.
Nikki curled up into a ball on the couch, "...It must have been hard for him, knowing he was going to betray you the entire time.
Xolin snorted, "Izzy never knew what he wanted. He had every opportunity to turn back, but instead he wanted a fantasy world where he made his father figures proud AND got us to go along with it and somehow we'd all be one big happy family in his new world. He used to berate us for acting like kids, but I think deep down, that was him".
"Father figures, huh?"
Xolin regarded Nikki then turned away, "Life is full of disappointments".
The conversation halted there, as the door slid open with a sense of urgency, with Trok stumbling in, "GUYS! Big trouble! Sid'snotontheshipandhalfofmystuffisgoneandI'mprettysurebadthingsareabouttohappen!"
"Woah, slow down" Nikki cautioned as Trok caught his breath, "What was that about Sid?"
Forcing himself to calm (though still visibly agitated), Trok tried again, "I went into my work room to tinker because I couldn't sleep, and like, half of my projects are missing. I thought for a second we'd been robbed somehow, or there was some sort of quantum probability event, so I contacted Sid, except I couldn't because he wasn't on the ship"
"Sid's not on the ship?!" Xolin and Nikki both exclaimed as they shot up from their seats, to which Trok nodded in frantic confirmation. Her brow furrowing, Nikki searched the ship's internal sensors herself—just as Trok had said, their leader wasn't onboard. Odd...there hadn't been any alerts that he was leaving, no logs of launches, even though...Isdilian's ship was missing. They'd brought it onboard along with the rest of his arsenal after his death, but now it was missing?
"...This is bad" she muttered, "Izzy's APC is gone too".
"He left without telling us" Xolin surmised, her voice an odd mixture of concern, worry, and disappointment, "...Idiot. Where did he go?"
Trok was already on it, bringing up his morpher's holoscreen, "We can trace his warp trail. I'll need to get to the bridge for a better reading".
Xolin nodded, "Let's go".
"Woah, wait up" Nikki said, stopping Xolin, "You were wasted like, five minutes ago".
Xolin shrugged, "I'm Triforian. I metabolize three times as fast".
Nikki blinked, "...How does that even begin to make sense?"
"Guys, come on!" Trok called, already halfway down the hallway and clearly panicked. The two girls dropped their conversation and quickly followed.
It didn't work.
Their attempt to section off the false vacuum event into its own personal pocket dimension had failed. Their math had been right, their work had been flawless...but the destruction wave had moved much faster than anticipated. It had started at merely light speed...and then had sped up considerably, because as it expanded, it somehow tapped into the underlying expansion of space-time itself which at great distances moved faster than light itself—it was now growing exponentially. They simply hadn't been able to match it.
The other projects had fallen through as well; everyone was panicking. Tempers were running high. More attempts to stop the wave were underway, but they would fail as well.
...Then came the first sacrifice. As galaxies were swallowed up, fleets of ships escaped; exoduses of whole people. But in a universe already close to entropy, energy was hard to find, even harder for whole races on the run. There simply wasn't enough to go around. Wars broke out, people slaughtered each other, left each other to die.
The team who would one day became the Antipodes were no exception. They agonized over it of course. They deliberated over it, argued over it. Tempers flared, terrible things were said. Declarations that this was not what they were about were stated. But in the end, it was inevitable. They needed the power, they needed the supplies. One ship, one fleet was ultimately an acceptable sacrifice in order to save the universe.
None of them slept well though.
Then came the second sacrifice. And the third. And the fourth. It became a running tally. It became normalcy. The heroic spirit of their endeavor vanished in their numbness, as their hearts became colder—a necessity to deal with the horror.
Each of them drew inwards. Beta became bitter, their friendship shriveling a bit. Delta became stoic. Alpha threw himself into his work.
Hope died.
Landing on the launchpad of the mining base, Beta and Delta stepped out of their shuttle, looking out at the battlefield the rangers had chosen for them.
"...Someone likes dramatics, I see" the blue antipode noted, "...But no sign of the Megaship".
"...Reading only one life-sign" Delta grumbled, "Human".
Beta actually laughed at that, "I should have known. Of course the red one would sacrifice himself as a decoy while the others got away. I figured trailing them would make them crack, but I didn't expect this".
"...Should we go?" Delta asked her, "We could still pick up the real warp trail".
Beta shook her head, "No, this actually works out to our advantage. Picking them off one by one is far more palpable than facing the whole team. And taking out the leader first? Icing on the cake". The decision made, she pulled out a deck of SPD cards and tossed them out across the ground in a heap. Channeling some blue energy into them, the cards melted away as the army of monsters trapped within grew to form.
"...Congratulations; you've just won your freedom. However, I think you'd all be interested in knowing that somewhere on this base is a red ranger. Kill him, and you will be rewarded generously".
The monsters were not averse to this arrangement.
The monster army spread out throughout the complex fairly rapidly in a disorganized mob-like fashion.
Just as planned.
The golden robot-themed monster and the humanoid zebra creature wandered into one of the base's ancillary control towers; a small room with a central control pillar with various consoles ringing the outer wall. Well...correction, it HAD been an ancillary control tower until about six seconds ago when Sid had activated the five detonator charges he'd littered about the room. Now it was a shower of debris falling into the lava lake below.
As the red ranger walked away from the severed bridge, a beer bottle monster rushed onto the scene to see what the ruckus was all about.
"I found him!" the monster declared before charging at the red ranger in an attack. But the red ranger flickered on contact as the monster's arm swung right through him. Sid then vanished, having been just a hologram. "What?!"
That was when the monster was met by a battlizer's main gun at point blank range on his backside.
Three minutes later, another ancillary tower went boom.
A minute and a half after that, Sid collapsed a bridge between one of the cargo bays and the main northwest complex, taking three monsters with it.
Needless to say, Beta was not amused. She'd anticipated Sid would play games, but the sheer amount of damage he was doing was almost silly. The hunt had only been going on a few minutes, and they'd already lost over half a dozen monsters.
"...He's really beginning to test my patience" she growled. This had been the boy who had outwitted her the last time they'd met, upsetting the Antipodes' plans and killing off Zeta right when she'd thought they had been on the cusp of victory. And now here he was doing it again; they had all the advantages and yet he was tearing them apart like nothing.
"Allow me" Delta grunted, moving to enter the complex from the landing pad they'd stayed at.
Beta stopped him however, "No. If you go in there, you'll only get yourself killed. We need a plan first".
The large warrior looked down at her, "Like what?"
The wheels in her head were turning, "We need to use his own strategy against him. We need to trap him into a single section where he can't escape". She brought up a holomap of the base. Sid had already taken out a few sections and connecting bridges, and if she could take out a few more… "...We need to guide him here" she said, pointing to one of the secondary hubs just off the main structure, "Then we blow the bridges".
"Found him!" a pterodactyl monster with a scratchy voice declared as he double-checked his scanners, leading his two companions, a lizard monster and a typewriter monster around the corner and into the empty domicile wing of the base. Arriving in what had once been the common room, the monsters looked around confused.
"...I don't get it. I got his energy signature right here!" the pterodactyl exclaimed.
That's when a machine that had been sitting in the corner supposedly gathering dust came to life. It was actually Trok's half-finished transtek monstrosity, and Sid had just set it on autopilot from a distance, its guns heating up and the detonators attached to it counting down. The doors to the wing slammed shut, leaving the three monsters to their grisly fate.
Two hallways over, a hapless vocabulary-themed monster was being devoured by a swarm of Trok's spider-bots.
Another bridge blew, taking with it another handful of monsters after they'd been 'guided' there by a group of hostile aerial drones.
The less said about the poor performance of Trok's half-finished Android with Kung-Fu Grip, the better.
Having just unloaded his battlizer's weaponry on a half-dead monster in the hallway, Sid un-summoned the armor and sprinted towards the nearest exit of the secondary hub he found himself in. It was the last exist standing; his plan was to blow the bridge after making it to the other side, and then cutting the last supports holding his habitat in place. He was almost upon the bridge...and that was when the bridge went boom. Sid ground to a halt at the edge.
This was bad.
The scuffling of feet behind him alerted Sid to the fact that he was now hemmed in. The red ranger turned about, taking stock of the menagerie of mismatched rubber creatures that now half encircled him.
"...Is this all for me?" he asked coyly, "I'm touched".
"You were a fool to come here by yourself" Beta said, pushing herself to the forefront of the small army.
Sid smirked, "About a dozen and a half of your buddies would say otherwise". In truth, he knew this was bad; there was no conceivable way he could win this fight straight up. So as always Sid fell back on his second plan of attack: keep them talking and make them mad enough to make a mistake.
True to form, he was getting under Beta's skin, "Yes, that was very impressive; but it ends now. You're outnumbered and outgunned".
"Let me guess" Sid said, "Surrender now, etc etc?"
To that, Beta actually gave a laugh, "No, not exactly". She motioned to the group to prepare to attack.
"They better aim good" Sid told her as he shifted to a fighting position, "The last time you cornered me with enemy forces, I got better".
She grunted, "Yes, you have had an annoying habit of coming back for more. Kill him".
That brief moment of quiet certainty. That was all Sid needed. As the disorganized mob charged in, Sid activated the last of his cloaking devices he'd 'borrowed' from Nikki, vanishing under the tsunami of rubber flesh before reappearing several feet away from the chaotic pile. He gave Beta and Delta a cocky salute before rushing off down the hallway that ringed the perimeter of the hub.
Flustered, Beta looked at him, then at the monsters who were still trying to fight a non-existent red ranger they had assumed they'd tackled, "...Y-you idiots! AFTER HIM!" she shouted, pointing in Sid's direction.
Sid couldn't help but smile as he raced down the hallway—already he could hear several of the monsters following in pursuit. Up ahead was one of the severed bridges.
He had an idea.
Typing in a few commands into his morpher, he rounded the corner towards the next exit and avoided a few laser blasts directed at his person.
"You guys wanna see a hat trick?" Sid called back to them, before issuing one last command to his morpher.
As Sid neared the severed bridge, the hallway behind him exploded with fire as Trok's Battle Yacht crashed through the ceiling, catching the entire monster hoard off-guard. Approximately one second later, the entire hallway was vaporized by the explosives Sid had stashed on board going off. The fireball almost consumed him, but Sid used his running start to dive off the bridge—which in hindsight as he fell through open air towards the lava pit below he decided was not the best idea—barely grappling and flipping himself over a loose bar of metal before flinging himself to the lowest level—a maintenance catwalk on the very bottom of the base, not too far above the lava. The red ranger tumbled onto the catwalk and rolling to a stop. He was pretty badly bruised—his entire body ached as he forced himself to stand and hobble off to the nearest section of the base; an ancillary maintenance hut.
Up above, Beta and Delta stood, watching with contempt.
"Now what?" Delta asked, eying Sid even through the smoke and fire.
Beta didn't answer him directly, instead speaking into her wrist communicator with barely controlled fury, "Beta to all surviving forces. Red ranger's heading for maintenance bay fourteen. It leads to an auxiliary launch bay. Take him out". She closed the link and then turned away, heading for the elevator to get to a lower level.
The bridge of the Megaship was a blur of activity. Trok hadn't wasted any time backtracking Sid's path while Nikki had started reviewing the ship's sensor logs. Xolin had waited as patiently as she could in the captain's seat, wondering what the hell had happened. She gripped the armrests tightly, fidgeting subconsciously as she waited for the other two to figure it out.
She wasn't very good at waiting.
"...Entapur" Trok muttered finally, "He went to Entapur".
"Where's that?" Xolin asked him.
He turned from his console, "The sole planet in the Uldar-19 system. Small, volcanic, orbits two stars. Has a bunch of old abandoned terran mining stations".
Volcanic? That didn't make any sense, that he would go to such an inhospitable place, "...Why?" Xolin asked.
"...Because we were being followed" Nikki surmised, before throwing her console's holodisplay onto the main viewscreen. On it, everyone could see the ship's sensor records. Including…
"...An SPD shuttle?" Trok asked, confused.
Xolin's gaze narrowed, "...Antipodes".
Nikki nodded somberly, "They were probably waiting for us to stop somewhere and nab us then. Or maybe psyche us out a bit first to make it easier. Sid used one of my devices to temporarily cloak our ship, then used a sensor dampener to make it look like Isdilian's APC was our ship. …And took a lot of weapons with him".
Trok's brow furrowed in further confusion and concern, "This doesn't make any sense though. Why would he leave us? Wouldn't we stand a better chance together? And he didn't even tell us!"
Xolin sighed in irritation, rubbing the bridge of her nose, "I'm getting real tired of Sid assuming he's god's gift to whatever and leaving us out of the loop. He was like that back when we first met and then I thought he grew out of it, but all of the sudden..." she trailed off, shaking her head in distaste.
Nikki digested this information, slowly and silently coming to a conclusion as she thought back to their short exchange after she'd spilled the beans on the Antipodes' objectives a few days ago, "...I don't think he does it because he thinks he's god's gift" she said finally, "...I think he does it because he cares about you".
"He's got a weird way of showing it" Xolin muttered grumpily. She was incredibly frustrated, between this and the whole hiding information thing...damnit, what if he got himself in real trouble? They were supposed to be a team, not Sid and Friends.
Nikki closed her eyes, repressing some awful memories, "...If anything happened to you, I don't think Sid would survive. I think in some way, he's trying to atone for his sins". All those times she threw The Incident in his face. All the times she was awful because she was angry and bitter and wanted him to hurt because of how much she hurt.
And somewhere, she still felt that way. She still wanted him to suffer. But the truth was...she had been right there with him. They'd all made that choice. And she wasn't even the original Nikki. Did she even have the right to be mad for something that happened to her? Did she have a right to her feelings?
Still, she'd pushed him and now felt a bit guilty for it.
A flood of memories rushed through Trok as he connected the dots. Back when they'd first met, when Sid had wanted nothing to do with them or any of this. That time Sid had stupidly messed things up while trying to help when they'd visited his clan on Horath and then had angsted for days afterwards. That time he'd rescued them on Triforia, bringing an entire fleet with him and towering before the SPD commander like an angry god. Whenever he was reluctant to talk about his past. That time he'd told Trok just *why* he hadn't wanted to join the team.
That time after he'd left them—and then came back.
"...It doesn't matter what happens to him" Trok said, his voice barely above a whisper, "As long as we're safe".
Xolin's eyes widened as she locked her gaze with Trok's. Understanding flowed into her: she'd misjudged him. "...I'm an idiot" she managed, then steeled her voice, "How soon can we be there?"
Trok checked his console's readout, "...We passed the system about half an hour ago. I can get us there in half that if we go at maximum hyperrush".
"Do it" she nodded at him.
He nodded back and turned back to the computer. The Megaship made an about-face at FTL speeds and shot back towards its new destination.
"I hope he can hold on long enough" Nikki frowned.
"He will" Xolin said without an inch of question, not peeling her eyes from the viewscreen as she gripped the armrests of the captain's seat even tighter, "And then we're going to kick his ass".
No one else was going to die.
Sid limped a bit into the launch bay. A large chamber, it was actually built into the side of the mountain and housed several ground vehicles for when the mining team had needed to traverse the surrounding area. Ugh, he hurt. Note to self: don't do that ever again.
It also contained three monsters, dead ahead. One was an office supply monster, another was a humanoid pig that had eaten too much. The third was some sort of japanese ghost with lanterns.
"Well well well" the office supply monster chuckled, "Looks like we caught us a ranger!"
"The bounty for you is pretty high!" the pig stated, "You know how much barbecue I could eat with that?" As they spoke, other monsters began trickling in: a firefly sumo wrestler, twin beetle monsters, an elephant in battle armor, a number-themed creature, and a representation of the constellation Sagittarius, among others.
Despite his tiredness and injuries, Sid put on his best show, "Really, you think it's going to be that easy? Your buddies thought that, and I just blew over two dozen of them up. How lucky do you think you're going to be?"
The hoard, despite increasing in size, became visibly more skiddish. Sid grinned, "...Yeah, you're a little nervous, huh? Don't know what else I've got up my sleeve. Maybe between you and me I've turned this section of the hallway into a minefield. Maybe I'm not really here, but just a hologram, and the real me's waiting for you to make a mistake. Or maybe-"
"Or maybe you're just out of toys" Beta growled as she and Delta moved into the room from an elevator shaft to the side, "I know desperation when I see it".
...Wait. Was this…? Ah, it was. Sid's attention flickered to Beta with confidence, "Then by all means. Be the first to try".
Her patience at an end, Beta drew her sword, "ATTACK!"
The army charged, but Sid was ready. He only had one more card to play at the moment, but he intended it to be a good one. Activating it, the ground between him and the nearest monster exploded, sending the wolf-beast flying back into a clock-themed monster. Out of the hole popped another of Trok's unfinished devices, which Sid had strapped a battery pack to: a would-be replacement and/or addition to the Defender Cannon—a laser minigun. Sid threw the weapon's pack over his shoulder and opened fire, mowing through the opposition.
It didn't last long though, as Beta slipped in from the side. Sid tried to counter, but she was too close and kicked the weapon from his hand. Sid dodged her next strike, only to be slammed into the side by Delta's heavy fists. The red ranger went down, rolling back into a crowd of irate monsters. They pulled him up, striking him repeatedly until he managed to kick a few of them away and then pull himself free. Knowing he only had a second's worth of reprieve, he drew his sidearm sword and his battle ax, going on the offensive even though he knew at this point he was likely doomed.
But by god he'd take as many with him as he could.
The journey was endless. As far as Sel was concerned she'd been here only momentarily and yet forever.
Then again, time was a bit fluid here. Or non-existent.
Still, this felt endless. She'd long since left the floating islands and had crossed frozen tundras, deep jungles, empty cityscapes, and even places she had no name for. Now she found herself in the barren expanse of a sandy desert, losing hope again.
How was she she supposed to find three other people in a near-infinite cosmos?
Sel popped down in the sand, exhausted as she let the hot breeze wash over her. The sky above was dominated by a large gas giant and two smaller moons—inwardly she wondered if this place still existed in the 'real' world.
And there was Andromeda, waiting for her in the distance, as usual.
"...What?" Sel asked her with irritation, even though she knew she wouldn't respond, "What am I supposed to do? You've been leading for spirits know how long, am I any closer to finding the others now than I was when I started?"
Andromeda simply gave her a warm smile.
Ugh. She wasn't going to be any help. But that's because Sel knew it wasn't really Andromeda; it was just an after-image, a memory. A projection of what really remained of her friend—the power that now resided within Sel and her friends.
...Wait a second.
"...That IS what you've been trying to tell me, isn't it?" she asked the ghost as realization dawned. Andromeda gave her a mischievous grin, then turned to walk away, vanishing into the air. Sel tapped deep into her connection with not just the grid, but her own soul, finding the part of the Lights that resided within her.
Then she searched for the others.
Landscapes flashed before her senses. Lunar craters, red swamps, towers that reached the suns. She let herself fly, drawing close to her missing counterparts.
Yes, that was it.
She felt Sid—SAW Sid. Her relief and giddiness was squashed however as she saw him as he was...fighting. Struggling.
Losing.
He shouted in pain as his weapons fell from his hands, the swarm of enemies surrounding him. Beta and Delta were there.
Where were the others? Sel felt for them—above! In orbit! Why weren't they helping?! She shifted to them—they were arguing, panicking. They couldn't find him; an entire planet and they had no idea where to look. She had to get their attention somehow. She had to help him! Yet as much as she wanted, she was stuck on this side of reality, unable to reach Sid.
Or could she?
Sel pushed forward, her astral form igniting as she roared against the barrier of reality. She would not be stopped here, not this close and NOT NOW. Not when the others needed her!
PUSH.
Sid's weapons flew from his hands as he received multiple blows to his body. Monsters came to him left and right; the Sagittarius monster and a cloud monster fired their weapons at him. The armored elephant struck him with its staff. Delta's massive fist collided with his midsection, before Beta followed up with three quick strikes from her sword. The twin beetles placed their staffs together and fired a powerful blast of electrical energy at the red ranger, sending him to the ground just outside the launch bay on the volcanic rock itself, prone and surrounded by his enemies. His suit was charred and blackened in places, ravaged from the battle.
This was it; his gambit had failed. All his smarts, his preparation, his will—all of it had been for naught. The best he could hope for was that the others had gotten away and would survive long enough to rebound.
And that was when a brilliant, bright light filled the area. It had no source and no focus—it was omnipresent. And it grew brighter and louder.
"AH!" Sid shouted in reflex as he was forced to close his eyes. The monsters reeled in pain as well as the light overtook them.
"Where is he?!" Xolin demanded to know.
Trok tried a few more controls, then slammed his hands on the console in frustration, "I don't know! The planet has over two dozen mining complexes, and that's even assuming he didn't decide to fight on open ground! I detect morphing energy, but the radiation from the stars are keeping me from getting a lock".
"...Planets are big" Nikki said worriedly, "It'd take hours to find him sector by sector".
"He doesn't HAVE hours!" Xolin shot back, "We need to be down there NO-"
Trok cut her off, "...Woah".
"What's up?" Nikki asked him.
Trok motioned to the holoscreen, "Readings just went off. Like, off the dang charts. I'm reading...I'm reading an insane amount of morphing grid energy".
"Can you track it?!" Xolin asked him.
Trok typed in a few commands, "...Yes! I've got it. I don't know what he's doing down there that's causing that kind of energy release, but we've got him".
"Then let's go!" Xolin ordered. Nikki was already halfway off the bridge, with Xolin following. Trok however stopped her.
"...Xol, I know this is a bad time and all but...are you okay?" he asked her.
She looked at him quizzically, "Okay from what?" she asked as they resumed moving.
"...Everything" he said, "You went to your room after...after the last fight and didn't come out. And everything with Sid and I know it's been rough for a while and...I just want to make sure you're alright". The words spilled out, not a breath between them. It was clear he'd been trying to find a good time to ask this since they'd met in the lounge and just had a chance.
She stopped, looking back at him with an odd yet warm expression, putting her hand on his shoulder. She'd been torn—and while she'd certainly weathered killing a teammate better than he ever could, and while her conversation with Nikki had certainly helped, right now the only thing keeping her together was the mission itself.
Yet no matter what happened, Trok was always looking after her, making sure she was okay. And he was like that with the others as well. Because Trok understood, sometimes better than any of them. He understood what they were really fighting for. No matter how much she and the others got sucked into their own issues and inadequacies, all Trok was ever concerned about was how to keep everyone together.
Xolin brought Trok into a sudden tight hug, "Thank you" she said, before pulling apart.
"...Xol?" he asked, unsure.
She resumed moving down the hall—quickly now, "Nothing's okay right now. Maybe it'll be better tomorrow, huh?"
He got what she was saying as he followed, a smile growing, "...We'll make sure it is".
She couldn't help but return the grin, "That's why we keep you around".
Time had been running out. Every option they tried, every project they helmed, every simulation they ran, all ended in failure.
The camaraderie they'd once shared was all but gone...and yet stronger than ever because they were all they had anymore. They were dead inside, their birth names sloughing off as bit by bit, they began naming themselves by their project code names instead.
It had been Theta who had first suggested the option of colonizing another universe. If they couldn't fix this one, perhaps they could simply move to another one. Hope flared for the first time in ages. It was certainly feasible; they'd been trying to create pocket universes since their attempt to stop the void had begun.
But as it turned out, it was much harder to find a new universe than they had anticipated. Far too often they were met by nothing. When they DID contact other universe, they were found to be too hostile. The rules of physics didn't apply the same way—too few or too many fundamental forces. Or maybe matter and antimatter had wiped each other out. Or maybe it was simply too alien to even comprehend—laws of reality utterly askew to what they could even envision.
Universe after universe they looked, finding nothing. As they searched, people died as the universe collapsed around them. Civilizations ended.
...And then they found one that, while not perfect, was suitable. Their universe had been made of negatively charged matter—this universe was positively charged. Matter vs Antimatter. Most everything else fit—the fundamental forces, the laws of thermodynamics, it all worked. It's just if they tried to colonize it, they'd never be able to exist within it.
Thankfully, this universe had a fifth fundamental force: some sort of underlying energy dimension that they eventually realized was named the 'Morphing Grid'. Sigma, Iota, and a few of the others had done the calculations: if the grid's power was channeled correctly, they could convert this universe into something liveable. It was a resource intensive project with a lot of risk, but it was doable.
Unfortunately, this universe was already crawling with life. In order to convert this universe, the existing life would have to die. It was either them...or them. There was no other option; there was no guarantee that they'd find another match within the little amount of time they had left—nor was there any guarantee that that universe wouldn't have life as well.
So many sacrifices had already been made. So many lines had already been crossed. Yet still the team was split on what was the right course of action—to save their universe and damn this one, or let it stand and doom them all. Salvation was at hand...what was one more sacrifice in order to ensure it?
Sid blinked, squinting as the light faded and his vision slowly returned. Before he could do anything though, a very large foot pressed down on his back—a magma rock monster had him pinned to the ground.
"As far as hail marys go, that one was rather disappointing" Beta told him, "What was that? Some sort of flash grenade?"
"...Something like that" Sid replied. In truth, he hadn't an idea what had just happened, but she didn't need to know that, did she? As far as she knew, he still had more tricks up his sleeve. He didn't and was likely screwed, but might as well make her guess.
The blue antipode keeled down in front of Sid, "Now what, red ranger? Pinned to the ground, defenseless, battered and broken. No more tricks? No more clever ploys? Because I'll be honest, I would love to see you try to get out of this one".
Sid gave a token struggle to get up but quickly surrendered; his body protested every movement. "...So just how many grasshoppers did you pull the wings off of as a kid?" he snarked at her.
"Defiant to the end" she replied, "It wasn't a very smart idea coming here alone; you know that. But...I think I understand why you did it".
"Oh?" Sid asked her, "You sure do love monologueing, so sure, why don't you tell me?"
If her face had been visible, Sid was sure he would have seen the most malicious grin possible, "...You like to put on the role of the confident ace, don't you? You fool everyone. The red ranger's the leader. The red ranger knows what to do. You've always got the plan. And sometimes, you even fool yourself" she stood back up, gesturing around to the crowd of monster, "But being an insufferable jackass only gets you so far. Sometimes, Sid, you have to stop running and confront the truth".
"...This more of your first year psyche student bullshit?"
Beta turned back to him, "You're a fraud. Oh sure, you're clever, but only enough to give your friends rope to hang themselves".
Ouch.
She continued, "You got your first team killed. Then your ex-girlfriend comes back as some holographic abomination—boy, you ever wonder what it must be like for her? She can't eat, can't sleep, can't *feel*..." Beta trailed off for a second, as if ruing her own life, trapped in her suit, "...She's not even really human anymore, just some ramshackle cybernetic ghost. She must *hate* you". Beta giggled at that last part as the fight left Sid's body.
"Most people would have given up there, but you come back with a whole NEW team!" Beta exclaimed in amused exasperation, "And how has that gone for you? We have one of them" she keeled back down, coming in close, "The girl's ours, and there's nothing you can do about it. She's dying, you know. The power's too much for her. But I'm sure she'll be wishing for it before the end; she suffers every moment of every day" she gripped Sid's chin, pulling his face up to look at her, "I want you to know that. I want you to know her existence right now is torture. And it's because of you; because you failed her".
She let go of Sid, "And then you had the *gall* to kill one of your own. Do you have any idea how much that pissed us off? And before you get too happy about that, know that I intend to make your friends suffer for how much you've made US suffer. After I'm done with you, they'll be next, and I will *not* be merciful".
Calming herself, Beta returned to the topic at hand, "So, one ranger in the hands of the enemy. Another dead by the hands of one of your own—I wonder how she's dealing with having blood on her hands...so really, it's no wonder you're here, by yourself. It's perfectly understandable. You're poison; you hurt those you're near. You make them suffer. And in the end, you lead them to their death".
Sid tried his best to resist the flashbacks that were coming fast and hard. No. NO—stay here, in the present. Don't...don't remember smoke or flames alarms were blaring—NO.
Beta stood back up. "You came here alone because deep down, you knew; they're better off without you. You know that you don't deserve them".
And deep down...Sid knew she was right. He hated it of course; these were the simple mind games she liked to play on everyone...but that didn't mean that a broken clock wasn't right twice a day. He'd spent so much time trying to make up for his sins, so much time trying to do it over...and for a while he'd even fooled himself into thinking he had been starting to move past it. But he could never; he was tainted, broken. He hadn't even succeeded here; he was going to die, and Beta and Delta would track down the others and kill them, to say nothing of Sel.
Right then and there, Sid finally surrendered.
"That's not true!"
Beta cocked her head. Wait, that hadn't been Sid. That had been a girl's-
Several laser blasts cut into her and the monsters. The mob fell back as three skycycles roared overhead in formation, flying past as they dropped their cargo. Three rangers—blue, green, and black, now stood in a circle around the fallen red ranger, defending their leader.
Beta rebounded, "...And so the sheep arrive" she sneered, "It's just like you to come to the defense of someone who's failed you time and time again".
"No one's failed anyone" Xolin declared, her gaze focused solely on her blue counterpart, anger and hate building inside her. "When are you going to learn that no matter how much you try to break us with words, we just get back up again to spite you?"
The antipode cackled, "Look around; look where he's led you. Look at how much you've lost. Look at how many mistakes he's made. Look at how many sins he carries with him. You should be demanding your pound of flesh".
"...She's right" Sid said as Trok and Nikki helped him up, "You shouldn't be here". Part of him was glad; exuberant even that they'd come for him—that they cared enough to. But another, louder part part of him was screaming about how this was a mistake on their part.
Trok spoke, "...I left home because I didn't fight for my parents' legacy, instead letting their murderer, my brother, to take control. Then I almost didn't come back to stand trial, even though not doing so meant that innocent people would die in my place. I was a coward. And I've made so many mistakes since; I trusted people I shouldn't, I hurt my friends when I was frustrated, I tried to rewrite time to suit my needs, not thinking of others when I should have".
"I push people away, hurt them. I wallow in self-pity when others' need me. I've made so many mistakes in my life; I can't even count them. If Iota hadn't found me, I'd have ended up dead in a ditch somewhere" Xolin said, turning to Sid, "But you were always there, making sure we were okay. And you messed up...but you messed up because you care. Which is more than I can say for anyone in my life growing up. I shouldn't have called you Iota, and I'm sorry".
"I got myself killed" Nikki said, "And then I denied my guilt by blaming another so that I could be angry". She also turned to Sid, "...You might have led us, but we were all guilty. We all went along with it. We all pushed for it. If you hadn't, I would have. And...I'm sorry".
This was overwhelming; Sid wasn't sure what to say. There were so many things, so many emotions, "...You guys..." he managed to croak out, "...You shouldn't..."
"We're here, got as far as we did, because we did it together. Because you led us" Trok said firmly, "Because we're more than just friends. We're family".
Xolin took notice of Sid's mental freeze, "...Look, we can have our big emotional sitdown after this is done. We need you now. Are you here?"
They were here. They'd come to save him. They wanted him to lead. It meant everything to him. Sid forced himself to push all his emotions aside for the moment; all the questions, all the unresolved tension and issues.
Right now they had a war to win.
The red ranger nodded at blue with a renewed sense of willpower, "...Yeah". She nodded back, and together the rangers turned outwards towards the monster mob.
"...Such a touching moment" Beta sneered, "But it's time to die now" she motioned to the monsters, "Kill them all".
Before the monsters could attack though, something...well, something happened. Light shone forth from the rangers as a warm, familiar power filled them.
"...What's...what's going on?" Xolin asked, looking down at her suit as a golden aura enveloped them.
Sid knew what it felt like though, as bizarre and as unlikely as it sounded, "...It's the Lights of Andromeda" he whispered in disbelief. Then his mind flashed back—the light from before! That must have been…
"...It's Sel!" Trok said with a wide smile, "I don't know how, but she's here! It's the only way!"
"The power surge we detected from orbit" Nikki said, agreeing, "Sel must have a better grasp over the Grid than we thought!"
Warmth filled Sid's soul. They'd all come to help—even Sel. They were all here, together. How could he disappoint now? Tightening his fist in confirmation, he called to the others, "Alright, let's do this! Lights of Andromeda!"
"Phantom Mode!" Nikki commanded, not to be left out of the power-up sequence.
"ACTIVATE!" the team shouted.
The five rangers exploded onto the scene, armor forming around their suits as the aura faded, an explosion ripping through the ground behind them.
"...Impossible" Beta whispered in disbelief, before rage consumed her, "Kill them! Kill them NOW!"
"Break and attack!" Sid ordered as he ignited his jetpack, "Go go go!"
The rangers split off, flying into the enemy forces.
Sid flew into the twin beetle monsters, blocking their staffs with his energy wrist blades, before elongating them into energy whips and pulling them out of the monsters' grips. The clock monster tried to strike from the rear, but as Sid turned the yellow ranger deflected the clock's attacks.
Or...Sid was SURE he'd seen the yellow ranger. So had the clock monster evidently; as it was looking extremely confused. Sid grinned; she really was fighting alongside them, somehow. He kicked the clock monster aside, letting his boot deliver a burst of crimson power into the monster. The stag beetle monster attacked, which Sid deflected, but almost didn't see the horned beetle's attack—only for it to also be deflected by the yellow ranger.
Sid spun as he leaped up, his energy blades cutting into the monsters like angry propellers. As he came back down, he landed multiple hits with his boots before swinging around and stabbing both beetles in the chest. As they fell over and exploded, the clock monster charged in again, wielding twin swords that looked like clock arms.
But Sid wasn't done; he came in with a flurry of attacks, and before it even realized what was happening, the clock monster was gone.
The magma monster opened fire as Xolin rushed in, the blue ranger deflecting each energy blast as she rapidly closed the distance. The last attack outright missed; the blue ranger had jumped into the air, landing twin kicks on the larger monster as she flipped behind it, landing a second set of kicks before bouncing off a metal beam, launching forward again and striking with her energy blades. As the magma monster staggered backwards, Xolin prepared to keep attack.
...Except that she suddenly found herself bound with her arms pinned at her sides. A black circle some sort had her trapped. Looking to her side, she saw a number-themed monster cackling.
"The hero's been trapped by my zer—WHA-" the monster sparked, having been hit from three laser shots from the yellow ranger's blade-bow. The zero holding Xolin vanished, giving her a chance to turn the tide. The monster shot out several more numbers—all of which were evaded by the rapidly multiplying blue ranger. The three Xolins struck fast and hard, and the monster didn't stand a chance.
The magma monster had rebounded and charged, firing blasts that the yellow ranger deflected, giving Xolin a chance to attack three on one. They flew into the air, coming down with their energy blades and cutting through the enemy creature. It toppled over, exploding.
Trok spun in a circle, his energy blades extended and sweeping in a full arc as he took out multiple monsters. The ghost monster flew in in his blind spot and attempted to gut him with her talons, only to be blocked by the yellow ranger. The green ranger's fist soon met with the monster's face for her trouble. The monster floated back in pain, allowing Trok to press forward, cutting repeatedly before landing his foot on her chest, and upon charging his boot up, obliterated her with its green energy discharge.
The pig monster struck at Nikki, only to find she wasn't there anymore.
"...Wha?!" it managed to snort out, before being struck in the backside. Nikki cut through the monster's rear, destroying it in just a couple of moves as the office supply monster came in from the side. The black ranger blocked its first attack—its weapon of choice a giant pen, but almost feel victim to its second weapon—the dreaded stapler gun. Thankfully, the yellow ranger intercepted, allowing Nikki to knock the weapons from the monster's hands. She gripped the monster, throwing both of them into the air with her jets, before tossing the monster back and down. As the creature landed in a heap, she came back down, striking at sonic speeds and leaving a small crater where the monster had been.
Sid struck at Beta, the two trading blows as rapid-paced equals, each narrowly evading the other's strikes in equal turn. Delta attempted to but in, but Sid merely evaded the larger green warrior.
"...How?" Beta demanded to know as they fought, "How are you so strong now?! You were beaten! Defeated!"
Xolin intercepted Delta, her foot flying into his face before she twisted around and delivered a second powered up kick.
"You don't get it!" Sid declared as they locked weapons, "We fight because we have something worth fighting for. We fight because we're a family, and we'd do anything for each other!" Understanding dawned, "...You've forgotten that, haven't you? You don't even remember what you're fighting for. All you have is the mission".
She roared, "Don't you dare try to psychoanalyze *me*!" with a second wind she broke Sid's hold and almost struck at him directly, only to be deflected by the yellow ranger. "YOU!" she seethed with rage, "HOW?!"
She had no time to ponder this though, as Nikki and Trok flew into her, knocking her back.
Delta roared and charged. Xolin and Trok leaped into the air, weapons in hand as their lance and hammer struck into Delta's form. Nikki came next, throwing her daggers at the antipodes. Upon landing, the four rangers gripped their arms together into a platform. Sid jumped on, then leaped off, ax in hand. He came down, his weapon charged up with flaming energy as he struck the antipodes.
Beta rolled back in a heap, Delta staggering backwards in her direction, their armor smoking and charred. By the time they realized what was going on however, it was already over.
Sid, Trok, and Xolin had combined theirs and Sel's weapons into the Defender Cannon. Next to them, Nikki had loaded up Isdilian's Sentinel Cannon.
"DEFENDER CANNON!" Sid declared.
"SENTINEL CANNON!" Nikki followed up.
"Ready!" Xolin reported.
"Aim!" Trok added.
"FIRE!" Sid, Trok, and Xolin ordered as a powerful beam of ranger energy burst forth.
"FIRE!" Nikki followed suit. The twin beams rolled around one another, combining into a singular wave of destruction that washed over the two unfortunate Antipodes. Their suits sparked, their armor ruptured as explosions rocked the area around them.
"Lights of Andromeda!" Sid declared as the red, blue, green, and yellow rangers rushed forward together, "POWER UP MODE!"
The four rangers united into a singular fireball that ripped through their two enemies, reappearing on the other side. As they turned back around, they saw the two Antipodes stagger and limp as their suits finally began to give out.
"Not...not this...way..." Beta declared, pulling out a small object, "Scroll...of empowerment..."
The two Antipodes toppled over, exploding. But before the fireball even dissipated, the two had reformed and grown forty stories. The rangers pulled back at the sudden development.
"Guardian Megazord!" Sid ordered.
"Defender Megazord!" Xolin followed up.
"Sentinel Megazord!" Nikki added.
All seven zords flew in, transforming and combining as the rangers leaped into their respective cockpits. The Defender Megaship, piloted by Xolin and Trok, rolled on its axis, transforming into megazord mode—ditto for Isdilian's old megazord, now piloted by Nikki. Lastly, the five Guardian axillary zords swooped in, unfolding and forming together to form the Guardian Megazord—something that hadn't been seen in months due to their former inability to use the Lights of Andromeda. Sid landed in its cockpit.
The three megazords landed, making defensive poses as they stood opposite the two revitalized antipodes.
"Three on two!" Sid taunted, "Boy I bet you guys wished you'd stayed home today".
"Take the small fry" Beta told Delta, "The red ranger is mine".
Delta nodded in acknowledgment, and the two teams met in battle. The Defender and Sentinel Megazords took on Delta, while Beta rushed into the Guardian Megazord and its staff. While powerful, the Guardian simply wasn't up to the task of blocking Beta's lightning-fast reflexes, and it quickly found itself outmatched and dying of a thousand cuts.
The other megazords found themselves with the opposite problem; while the Defender Megazord was reasonably fast, the simple fact was that Delta was so tough and large that it simply didn't matter. The Defender struck repeatedly while the Guardian blasted at range, but it simply didn't matter. Delta struck at both, knocking them back and to the ground with his powerful fists.
"Final Strike!" Xolin and Trok ordered, as the Defender Megazord swooped in, sword ready as it initiated its finisher. The zord spun on its axis, coming in like a tornado with its sword pointed out front, attempting to gut Delta right through his midsection. Delta however, merely grabbed the Defender as it closed in, before tossing it aside. It crashed into the half-molten hillside.
"Cosmic Blitz!" Nikki declared, the Sentinel unloading its own finisher as every gunport opened fire. Delta was struck dead on, but mostly seemed annoyed more than anything. Powering up his fists, Delta pummeled into the Sentinel, sending it falling to the ground.
Nikki gripped the controls tightly as her zord crashed, "...This isn't good: his power level's way above ours!"
"Then let's change that!" Xolin replied from the Defender, "Defender Battlezord!"
The two megazords transformed and combined, forming a larger, more powerful creation. The Battlezord rolled forward on its treads, unfazed by the barrage Delta unleashed upon it. It slammed its fists into Delta, who knocked them aside before pummeling this new zord just as easily as he had its individual parts.
"Imperial Defense!"
The Battlezord's finisher came down, twin powered-up swords combined into one, but Delta blocked with his gauntlet, knocking it aside and punching again.
"Zenith Phalanx!" Sid ordered as the Guardian Megazord powered up its own finisher. The head of the megazord's staff came to life, twirling rapidly as power gathered. The megazord spun the staff around in a circle, collecting energy. When it made it to the peak, the megazord slashed down diagonally, then opposite. Then it thrust forward, impaling b-
Oh wait no it didn't.
Beta's swords snapped the staff in half, breaking the finisher in mid-function. Powering up her blades, she struck at the megazord, hitting it again and again and again, endlessly as the zord shuttered under the assault. Sid gripped the controls tightly as the megazord hit the ground, soon joined by the Battlezord.
"Delta, now!" Beta commanded. Together the two antipodes powered their blades and fists with blue and green energy respectively, before bringing them together and unleashing a torrent of destruction on the downed zords. Explosions ripped across their hulls, sparks burst forth, and fire roared around them.
The cockpits shook as sparks flew everywhere, consoles shorting out as the zords' systems were overwhelemed.
"It's too much!" Trok cried out, "The zords can't take much more of this!"
"If anyone's got a last minute plan to save us, now would be the time!" Nikki added.
Sid grunted in frustration as his zord was overwhelmed by the continual attack. All this power, and it wasn't enough. They had the Lights back, and it wasn't enough. They couldn't be defeated here; not when they were so close, they couldn't—wait.
The lights! That was it!
"I got one!" Sid said, gritting his teeth, "Trok, you still have that ultrazord project you were working on?"
"It doesn't work!" Trok shot back, "The zords aren't compatible. We'd need to put the zords into dock and refit them!"
But Sid was undeterred, "The Guardianzords weren't meant to combine either, remember? The only reason we can form this megazord is because we believed in each other!" A beat, "...Also ludicrous amounts of Morphing Grid power, but my point stands! We have the Lights, and I trust Sel can pull this off. You guys in?"
"...We don't have a chance" Xolin told Trok, eying the worried green ranger.
Trok took a deep breath, choosing as always to believe in the rest of the team, "Alright. Everyone stand by. Initiating...Defender Ultrazord!" He pulled the program out of his belt and inserted it into the computer, "Activate!"
As he did that, a barrier of golden light surrounded the two zords, protecting them from Beta and Delta's barrage.
"...What?!" Beta exclaimed in confusion and frustration as they broke off their attack. The Lights of Andromeda worked overtime, filling the zords down to their core. As they powered back up, the twin titans stood once more—then broke apart into their individual zords.
The Sentinelzord, now in tank mode, unfolded into a base, its excess guns splitting off. Each of the Guardianzords then unfolded and combined with the Sentinel, forming a chariot of sorts as the cannons reattached. Finally, the Defender Megazord slid into the driver's seat, its shield attached to its arm. The Guardian Megazord's staff front appeared in front of the megazord, pointed forward like another gun front and center.
Light surrounded the zords, forming brilliant golden armor across both the chariot and the central megazord. Chest armor, arm gauntlets, and even a new helmet appeared. In its hand, a golden bow formed from thin air. The rangers arrived in the megazord cockpit.
"Defender Ultrazord, online!"
The Ultrazord roared to life, rolling forward in its chariot.
"...HOW!?" Beta demanded to know, "How do you keep evolving?! How do you keep getting more powerful!?"
"We already told you" Xolin replied.
"Time's up, Beta" Sid added, "Get ready for a world of hurt!"
The Megazord launched out of its chariot, flying into the air as the chariot shot forward like a bullet, powering up and flying into the antipodes. As they reeled from the attack, the Defender Megazord aimed downwards with its bow, flipping about and opening fire with several golden energy arrows. It landed back in its chariot, spinning about as the arrows impacted their targets. Explosions rocked the antipodes.
"Game's over!" Sid declared.
"FINAL BARRAGE!"
The Ultrazord's bow charged with power, preparing for a singular, final shot. Every gun, every cannon, every weapon primed. The Guardian staff spun with power, energy collecting at its head. Tension built.
And release.
The tsunami of firepower that resulted ripped through the air. In a last-second move, Beta threw Delta in front of her, allowing him to take the full brunt of the attack. An explosion erupted where the two antipodes had been, and when it disappointed, only fire and smoke remained.
Cheers went out across the zord cockpit—they'd WON! Against all odds, two antipodes were down for the count.
Only two remained.
Theta's revelation had been the final straw. In order to convert this universe, they would need 'conduits' from which to channel the universe's Morphing Grid energy. And the options to create such devices were few.
Another sacrifice was needed.
An infusion of lifeforce energy, if provided correctly, could create the desired conduit—a stable unit from which to draw and transfer energy.
Theta and Sigma had volunteered. They had gone.
But it was too much; it had been one thing to take resources where they'd needed it even if it meant others wouldn't survive. They'd even all gone along with colonizing another universe. But cannibalizing their own? Iota and Gamma couldn't abide by that. So, there was civil war between the Antipodes. In the chaos, one of the conduits were stolen. Iota hid the girl away when she was still freshly born, preferring to find a different way, a better way to save his universe. He still hadn't given up on the idea of pocket universes.
The other, the boy, remained with the Antipodes for a time. Then Zeta had left with him—outwardly siding with Iota and Gamma, but inwardly a mole—a traitor placed there by Alpha. When the time was right, the trap would be sprung, and all of Iota's efforts would be in vain.
Once, there had been nine of them. Now there were four, and all were cold and distant, their friendships and camaraderie replaced by the need for The Mission. And so Epsilon continued her work.
Once, she had dreamed of stars. Now that she lived under them, she found them unbearable, a constant reminder of how wrong everything had become.
"You failed".
Those were the words Beta was met with when she staggered into the Antipode lab, her armor nearly ruined. She gripped her side in pain, leaning against the wall as Alpha judged her.
"...I'm sorry" she said, "They...they were too much. And...the girl. Sel. She was with them".
"Impossible" he said plainly, motioning to the pod the former yellow ranger was in that was in the center of the room, "She is here. Has been this entire time".
Beta didn't understand; couldn't understand. She shook her head, "But...but she was there. I saw her!"
Alpha looked upon her with disdain, "I would prefer my soldiers take responsibility for their own failures, instead of making up excuses".
"...I have it".
Alpha and Beta turned their attention to Epsilon, currently at work at one of the computer consoles. Alpha spoke, "You have something for us?"
She nodded, "I know how to stabilize the subject's degradation. At least for the moment".
"And that would be?"
Epsilon wavered, knowing what kind of pandora's box she'd be opening, "...A second infusion of lifeforce energy would, in theory, halt the degradation by reinforcing the subject's core".
"You mean another sacrifice".
A pause.
"...Yes" Epsilon said, knowing what was coming next.
Alpha nodded towards Beta, and a moment later she found herself held down by a team of orangehead krybots. Too feeble and injured to put up a fight, she had no choice but to surrender, "...What?!" she exclaimed in a mixture of betrayal and panic, "You can't!"
Alpha glared at her, "What did I say would happen the next time you left a comrade to die?"
Her heart sank—there was no way out of this. "No, please!" she exclaimed as she was dragged off, "Don't do this! I just need more power! I can kill them! I can kill them all! PLEASE-"
"Do not fret" Alpha told her, "You are providing a vital service to our cause. You get to be a hero, a central protagonist in the narrative, a relative rarity".
Beta's increasingly frantic pleas went unfulfilled as she was locked within a backup pod. Alpha gave Epsilon a nod. For a moment, Epsilon remembered the early days, back when they'd all been comrades and friends—when Beta had shown her the ropes as the new girl. When they'd been the best of friends.
And then Epsilon did as she was told.
"I shall leave you to your work" Alpha told her. Epsilon nodded, and resumed her project.
The base had become so quiet.
Searching the wreckage of the zord fight had yielded little. The rangers, now demorphed, had been hoping for something, anything that could give them a lead on the location of the Antipodes' base.
But nothing.
"...I'm sorry" Sid apologized out of the blue as they searched. He sat down on a discarded fragment of Delta's armor, "For...well, I guess a lot of things".
"That's it?" Xolin eyed him, "'A lot of things'?"
He actually gave the barest glimmer of a smile at that, "...I hid things from you. I shouldn't have. I left without telling you, I also shouldn't have. And I just...all I ever wanted to do was protect you. So you wouldn't end up like...like..."
The rest was left unsaid. It didn't need to be said.
"We're your team" Trok said warmly, "We fight *with* you, not for you. We don't want to be protected, we want to fight at your side. We keep each other safe, because we're a team. We're family".
"And there's nothing you can do to stop us. We're responsible for our own choices, not you" Xolin said with a smirk, "But you're forgiven, provided you never do it ever again".
Sid managed a chuckle, "Understood. Thank you".
"I meant what I said" Nikki said, "Before, I mean. We were all at fault".
"...I was the leader. It was my call" Sid replied, "If I'd put my foot down, or been more careful, or-"
"We'd have gone anyway" Nikki said, "Or don't you remember that I was pushing for the mission as much as you?"
"...I see your faces every night" Sid said, his voice a hushed whisper as he looked down at the ground, "I hear the alarms, smell the smoke...I keep reliving it and I don't know how to stop. If I'd just done something different, anything different..."
Nikki shook her head, "There was nothing you could have done. You think I don't have the same thoughts? I will never stop replaying it in my mind, but there was no way we could have known, and nothing that would have stopped us from doing what we did. There's nothing to be done".
"...I'm sorry" he said.
She sat down next to him, "...In that case? I'll do something I should have done a long time ago. I forgive you".
Sid looked at her as if she'd told him she had six stomachs. Forgive? "You..."
"Forgive you" she repeated. "I've decided...I'm tired of holding on to baggage from a former life. I can't figure out if I'm supposed to be Nikki, or Nikki 2.0, or someone else entirely...and I won't be able to as long as I keep holding onto everything like a husk of a person. So...I forgive you. As long as you can forgive me".
Sid wiped away a tear, "I never blamed you".
She gave a small, dry chuckle, "And that's why you're the leader".
"Thank you" he replied. She said nothing; there wasn't much left TO say.
"...I can't feel it anymore" Trok muttered, "The Lights, they're gone".
Sid nodded, "Yeah. Wherever Sel is, she's not with us anymore".
The horathean sighed, "All that work, and for nothing. We still don't know where she is or what they're doing to her".
"If what Beta told me was true...it's not pretty" Sid replied darkly.
"We're out of time" Xolin said, "The Antipodes could bring about their endgame at any time, especially now that we just halved their numbers. We need an upset".
Sid frowned; she was right. But they had *nothing*. But they couldn't fail now, not when they'd come so far...Sel had been WITH them. They were so close…
"...Why was Sel here?" Sid asked, "Did she come just to fight with us? Or was there an ulterior reason?"
...An idea sparked in Nikki's mind at that thought. Quickly, she began scanning local Morphing Grid energy for something, anything out of the ordinary.
...Ah hah.
"...She DID leave us a clue".
The other rangers all turned to Nikki in surprise, "What?!"
Nikki took a few seconds to decode her findings, "I've found an irregular pulse in the local grid. An echo of sorts, like ripples...except Morse code. She left us a message".
"What's it say?!" Trok asked, his eyes wide as he leaned over against a chunk of metal. Everyone waited expectantly with baited breath.
The message was simple, "…'Erebus'".
"...What's that supposed to mean?" Trok asked.
Sid's brow furrowed, "...Erebus? Wasn't that something in Greek mythology?"
"Didn't sleep through that class?" Nikki asked him in good humor. Her seriousness returned, "And yeah. Erebus was an area of the underworld".
"Which...doesn't exactly help us much" Sid groaned.
"...is there a star system named Erebus?" Xolin asked offhandedly.
The group looked at each other, realization settling in. Nikki quickly scanned her database.
...Bingo.
"There's a black hole system in the Argolis Galaxy, a small spiral near the edge of the Canes I galactic cluster".
...Holy shit.
They had a lead. They had a *lead*. Holy shit. They had what they were looking for. They had...they had the means to end this.
"...We have a lead" Sid breathed in disbelief. Silence passed over them, the only sounds being that of the nearby volcanic pits bubbling and the hot breeze that filtered through.
"We...we have to scout this out first, of course" Nikki said, composing herself, "But...yeah".
"We can rescue Sel" Trok said.
"We can end this" Xolin added.
Sid nodded firmly, clenching his fist, "Contact our forces. It's time we assemble the fleet". He gave a determined grin, "It's time to defeat the Antipodes, once and for all".
To be continued...