Power Rangers Nexus

Chapter 50: Resolutions

A deep rumble reverberated throughout the complex as the Rangers raced through the holding bay towards the doors that led into Serpentware's corporate offices.

Skidding to a halt, the group looked around warily as the lights began to flicker, chips of material beginning to dislodge from the ceiling.

"What's happening?" Cassie asked.

"Sounds like the whole building's falling down!" TJ replied.

"We should leave," Terina said. "Now."

"What about Andros and Zhane?" Ashley said.

"If anyone can get out of this alive, they can," Tommy said. "Now come on!"

Turning the Rangers rushed back to the Mega-V shuttles and climbed in, bucking themselves into their chairs. The five spacecraft lifted up off the ground and launched themselves through the dilated entrance in the ceiling, escaping the interior of the asteroid.

Moments after they exited, deep fissures began to spread across the rocky surface, the underground structure collapsing in on itself, leaving a colossal depression in the asteroid right where the loading bay had been, clouds of rocky dust filling the thin atmosphere and shards of splintered stone littering the entire area.

There was a moment of eerie calm as the dust settled.

"So….now what?" Mara asked.

"Find a place to set down," Troy suggested. "We can scour the wreckage."

Landing the shuttles some distance away, the group trekked across the asteroid and began to sift through the rubble, calling Andros and Zhane's names as they went.

Mara grunted, lifting an absurdly large piece of rubble and tossing it aside. Beneath lay…more rubble.

"This," she said, tossing aside stones larger than she was with each word, "Is. Pointless. We're never going to find them in this."

"We'll find them," Ashley argued, her tone leaving no room for disagreement.

Mara sighed, rolling her eyes.

"What if we don't?" Cassie asked, her voice verging on panic. "What if we never find them?"

"Then we recompress the Mega-Vs, load them onto the Silver Wing, and go home," the other Pink Ranger replied. "Oh, and stop to grab Diskette on the way."

"What about everyone on KO-35?" Carlos asked.

"Unless we just happen to find the cure, lying miraculously untouched amidst the rubble," Electra said. "They're as good as dead anyway."

"You're a regular ray of sunshine, Lecca," Troy said flatly. "Hey, did anyone think to grab a Turbo Navigator?"

There were a number of dumbfounded glances and forehead slaps.

"Okay. Someone go back and get one. Who's the fastest?" Tommy asked.

"I am," Terina said.

"You are?"

"She is," Electra vouched. "Go on. Scram."

Terina braced herself, then took off running. She was gone so fast that they could literally hear the air rushing in to fill the space she'd just vacated. A thin yellow streak shot towards the horizon where they'd left the shuttles, and Tommy was slightly surprised not to see it leave behind a trail of fire.

In less than a minute, she'd returned, a number of small devices in hand.

"You have super-speed?" Tommy asked incredulously.

"And in heels, no less," Mara added, sounding impressed.

Terina shrugged, tossing the devices to the others. "I don't like to brag," she quipped.

"Here," Tommy said, handing his to Ashley.

"What about you?" she asked.

"Activating Power Scan," Tommy replied, his visor becoming a high-tech scanning device. A small red light traveled back and forth along the thin horizontal black groove in the now silver metal.

"You could have done that at any time?" Ashley demanded.

Tommy shrugged. "Forgot about it until Troy mentioned the navigators."

Ashley sighed, shaking her head as she flipped open the device.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Three hours later, they were still searching.

"Anyone remember when I said this is hopeless?" Mara asked.

"We'll find them."

"You can say that as often as you like, that won't make it true."

Terina raised an eyebrow at this. Mara herself often came across as though she believed that if she said something often enough, it would become true.

Really, though, she was beginning to agree with the Pink Ranger. If they were going to find Andros and Zhane, wouldn't they have found them by now?

There was a slight rumbling, a shifting of the ground.

The Ranger ignored it. There had been several such aftershocks, instances of the rubble settling below the surface.

None of the prior times, however, had something shiny and red come rocketing up from beneath the rocks, showering them all with sand and pebbles.

"Andros?" Ashley asked, gazing up at the Red Battleized Ranger, taking no notice whatsoever of the small rocks bouncing off her faceplate.

The Yellow Kerovan Ranger wasn't even aware of having run across the battered rocks to meet Andros as he landed, his armored enhancements detaching and vanishing from his normal armor. She only knew that he was back in her arms where he belonged.

He didn't seem to notice her, though.

"Andros?" she asked, backing away enough to turn her face towards his. "Are you okay?"

Andros' response was delayed. "I'm fine," he answered, finally returning the hug.

"Andros!" TJ called, as he and the others of their team trotted over. "You had us worried.

"Where's Zhane?" Cassie asked.

"He…didn't make it out."

"Oh," Cassie said, wishing she hadn't asked.

"Umm...that's…well, did you at least get the cure?" Carlos asked.

For answer, Andros pulled something from a compartment at his belt and held it up…a small vial of crystal-clear liquid.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

The Rangers began the trek back across the rubble towards the Mega-Vs, their visors filtering out the surprisingly bright rays of the sun as it set in front of them.

"Okay, next time we park to the east," Mara said, raising a hand to shade her visor further.

Terina whipped out her Navigator. "Actually, we ARE headed east," she said. "This rock rotates the opposite direction Terra does."

"Whatever, next time we factor in the sun."

As the two continued to bicker, Troy moved closer to Andros, falling into step next to him.

"So…"

"I didn't kill him," Andros said abruptly.

"I never said you did," the Blue Ranger argued.

"You were thinking it."

The Blue Ranger didn't argue.

Andros sighed. "One of the support beams fell. He pushed me out of the way, and it fell on him instead. Crushed him. And then the whole building collapsed. I was knocked unconscious. When I woke up, I was sealed in a small, empty chamber. So I battleized and broke out. You know the rest."

"That's your story?"

"That's what happened."

There was a pause.

"Okay then," Troy said.

"Besides, if I were you, I'd be more worried about my own problems."

"Like what?"

"Like the fact that two of your teammates seem to be missing."

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

"Wow," Diskette said. "I've seen a lot of things since I came online, but never anything quite like this."

"Any idea what happened to him?" Electra asked.

"Which one?"

"Pick one."

Diskette hovered closer to two of the cots that occupied the Darian medical wing.

"Well, Jareth is easy enough to explain. His system contains an extremely high level of residual Ranger energy. More than one coin can access."

"Meaning…?" Terina prompted.

"I think he tried to do Andros' 'Battleizer' trick."

"But this doesn't happen to Andros," Mara argued.

"Is it because Andros uses a complete Battleizer, while Jareth tried to use a depleted Power Coin?" Troy asked, examining the Spirit Summoner on Jareth's left wrist.

"Just the opposite, actually," the droid replied. "Andros little gadget is powerful, but nowhere near as strong as a Power Coin, even a faded one. I'm afraid the Gold Ranger is suffering from a Power overdose, for lack of a better term. He burned himself out. He's sort of in a coma."

"Will he be okay?" Electra asked.

The droid gave a midair wobble, approximating a shrug. "If he will, it won't be for a while. Zord-1 will be able to tell us more when we get home."

"So what about Deacon?" Troy inquired. "What happened to him?"

Diskette rotated, turning to face the other cot. Lying on it, in a somewhat awkward position, was a solid gold statue of the Silver Ranger, his arms still outstretched in the same position they'd been when the Rangers had found him supporting the unconscious Gold Ranger back on the surface of SerpentWare's asteroid.

"I'm afraid I have no idea."

"Hey, good news, guys," Tommy said, entering the medical wing. "Draffut and Kinwon have replicated enough of the cure to heal everyone on the planet."

"Everyone who's not already dead, you mean," Electra clarified.

"Well…yeah. Electra, can Carlos borrow your cardkey? Mega V-2 is best equipped to distribute the cure. Verona says we can have the entire planet sprayed by midnight."

"Sprayed? It's a spray?" Mara asked, as Electra whipped the key out and handed it to Tommy. "You'd figure it'd have to be injected."

"The cure is probably a virus in itself, one designed to feed on the original virus, combined with a self-replicating synthetic agent to reverse the coralizing effect," Diskette said. "Designed to be airborne, so it can be administered to the masses more quickly."

"Umm…yeah. That's more or less what Kinwon said."

"Brainy guy, that Kinwon," Terina quipped. "How would anyone inject anything into a coral statue, anyway?"

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

"The cure has been administered," Verona said later. "And it is already taking effect. At least, it is affecting the less severe cases." The Darian leader's smile faded slightly.

"Karone?" Troy asked.

Verona nodded solemnly at the small group of Terran Rangers standing in a group near the Silver Wing. "I'm afraid her condition is too severe. The plague has halted, but the cure is unable to free her from the coral."

"Is there anything…?" Ashley began.

"A while ago," Andros said. "We received reports of a little girl who'd been stung by a basilizard. She was almost completely petrified, but a colony on Mirinoi was able to cure her. The report didn't say how, but…" he looked back at Verona, who was standing next to him.

"It's the best lead we have, and you can be sure we'll follow it," she finished.

Troy strode back into the Silver Wing's hangar, a small black briefcase in his hand. He held it up.

"All five Mega V-shuttles, recompressed and ready to go," he said as he joined the others near the ship's access ramp.

"You guys sure you don't want to come with?" Mara asked the other four Terrans, who were standing in a group nearby. "Free ride home."

"I AM home," Ashley said, her gaze sliding towards Andros, who smiled back.

"And we're gonna stick around for a while," TJ said. "Help build this place up again."

Cassie produced a handful of small datapads, walking over and handing them to Tommy. "If you could deliver these to our families, we'd appreciate it."

"They're just letters," Carlos said. "Letting them know we're still…you know."

"Alive?" Tommy guessed, smiling. "We'll be sure they get them."

"And give this to Jareth," Cassie added with a smirk, adding a slip of paper to the pile. "You know, when he wakes up."

"What is it?" Mara asked.

"It, um, my personal comm frequency. Have him call me."

Mara twitched.

"You know, rebuilding a civilization is no easy job," Terina said. "You guys sure you can handle it?"

"We're willing to…what's the phrase, Cassie? 'Give peace a chance?'" Andros said. Cassie grinned.

"And we'll have help," Verona added. "A company called Median Angel has offered to provide supplies to help our little endeavor. Food, construction supplies…"

"No weapons, right?" Tommy asked.

"Not if they offered to give them away," Andros assured him.

"Good."

"Guys?" Mara said. "It's time we were off."

The Rangers piled into the ship, taking their seats and strapping in.

Tommy paused. "Does this thing have an autopilot? How do we send it back?"

Andros and Verona exchanged a glance.

"Keep it," they said together.

"Zhane gave the keys to Deacon. He wanted him to have it," Andros said.

"Are you sure?"

"Positive," Verona said.

Tommy shrugged, nodded a farewell, and entered the ship, the ramp closing behind him.

"So….who's driving?" Troy asked.

"I guess I will," Terina answered, strapping herself into the pilot's seat. "Seeing as we've lost our pilot. Everybody buckle up, though. I have no idea what I'm doing."

Seatbelts were quickly fastened. The Silver Wing rolled out of the bay on its massive treads, and once it was free, its wings folded down, snapping into place. The jets in the back roared to life, sending the ship streaking forward. Terina pulled up, and the silver spaceship quickly found itself leaving the atmosphere of KO-35.

"Plotting a course for Terra," she said.

Tommy sighed. They'd done it. They'd actually put and end to the war. Mission accomplished. His gaze traveled to the porthole, catching one last glimpse of KO-35 before it was lost in the blur of Hyper-Rush.

"Hey," Mara said. "Now that that's over…"

Tommy turned.

The Pink Ranger jerked her head at the three cots that were strapped into the ship's cargo hold. He followed her gaze, past Deacon and Jareth, to the still-unconscious, unmoving body of Aviarus.

"What are we gonna do with him?"