Chapter 49: Oozed
"Oh, I wish I had a mop."
Fighting the Wraith was proving to be much more of a challenge than she had first thought, a challenge that was compounded by the strange disappearance of the Primary Rider and what looked to be the Orange Ranger leaping around everywhere. Her HUD radar wasn't much help either as it kept pointing to the Orange Ranger as the location of her missing teammate, something that couldn't be possible, though she had doubts growing in the back of her mind. Ever since he had reappeared from an Interdimensional portal a few weeks ago, she had taken the camera footage from the entrance hall and compared the styles of the two Orange clad warriors. Although they had slight variations in their moves and techniques, they were practically one and the same; something that couldn't be possible unless…but he had stated that the Rangers of that dimension didn't share their identities with him. Shooting another bolt at the mirrored blob and watching in exasperation as it dissolved into the creature, she looked at the Orange Ranger and growled under her breath.
"Hey," she didn't care if she was being rude. "Can I get a little help here?"
Weihan paused slightly, pulling his Sai free from the head of a Golem with a bubbling slurp and leaping away from the combusting humanoid. He was of two minds of helping her as there was no doubt in his mind that she could connect the dots between his fighting styles. On one hand, the aforementioned fighting style comparison could be easily done as she had seen his dimensional counterpart fighting with the same moves he had used against the Wraiths. Plus, there was the finishing move he had used against the Pup Wraith that everyone seemed to have forgotten about. On the other hand, he couldn't ignore a fellow warrior in need just because of some fears. He was duty bound to help as he doubted the Samurai Rangers would come running to his aid after last time. Muttering a quick Eltarean curse under his breath, he leapt over the heads of the five remaining Golems to deliver a powerful axe kick to the body of the Wraith. As it shuddered and moaned in pain, he looked over at the stunned rider and carefully disguised his voice.
"Sure," he said, already thinking this was a bad idea. "What did you need?"
Serena narrowed her eyes at the voice but mentally shook her head. There was no reason to think that the person under that hood and opaque mask was her missing colleague. She would probably find him after the battle, hiding behind one of the hedges and in awe of the way the Orange Ranger had swooped in to save the day. She didn't like thinking of him as a helpless person but, realistically, there was only so much one unarmed and unarmoured human could do against a Wraith of this viciousness. She knew what it was that could be done just by looking at the slowly dissolving people inside its body. Sometimes, she had to look away as they blinked. Forcing the bile down her throat, she aimed her bow at the blob again and tried to think of a good way of destroying it. No matter what the technical department had told Wei, the way he had created and wielded fire wasn't in any of the design briefs.
Before she had come to the battlefield, she had been talking with Bin at the impossible way he had manipulated the energy conductors to achieve that effect; something that should have only worked for about three seconds before a total and catastrophic suit failure. And, yet, none of the technicians who had designed every single feature of the suit and Turbine knew how he had done it. It didn't add up and she was determined to get to the bottom of things before they faced down another brutal creature like Slashing Vengeance; anything less and he would be risking his life every time he transformed. There was also the matter with the strange ring of symbols that had appeared on his Turbine and their apparent engraving into the metal meant nothing could be done to remove them. Pushing everything out of her mind except the plan that was forming in her mind, she ducked under a spray of purplish goo that had come from the beast.
"I need a distraction of sorts." Her mind was running through the various scenarios that could happen. "This thing won't go down easily and I think it would be tougher than any of the monsters you've fought."
"I can see that," he chuckled, "though I'm not sure if this is tougher than anything I've fought before. There's something else, right?"
It was all she could do not to hit him with her Speed Spear; his chuckle had been rather infuriating and somewhat condescending to her. She understood that she was talking to a distinguished warrior who had saved the Earth on more than one occasion but the least he could do was show some respect for the battles she had fought so far. They weren't powered by alien technology but had made the most of the earth-based things they had. Scanning the battlefield once more for the form of Weihan, she mentally cursed as she came up with nothing…again. Wherever he was, she hoped he stayed in that place for the duration of the battle and didn't come out until it was over.
"Yeah," She spun away from an acidic tentacle before it had the chance to wrap around her. "One of my colleagues was here but now he's not. Can I get you to keep an eye out for him? His name is…"
Weihan slashed away a few tentacles with his Sai and hurled a fireball at the Wraith. He was aware to not make it bleed more than a few drops with each strike as he didn't think he could deal with a multitude of weapons being used against him. He was sorely tempted to see how the Raptor Sabre would hold up against the acidic blood of the Wraith but knew not to push his luck too far. Aware that he had yet to answer her, he turned back just as the secondary Rider loosed a glowing bolt of energy at the Wraith. As it passed him, he was aware of a thin snaking stream of yellow-blue electricity rippling on its surface. Watching the bolt slam home in the side of the Wraith, he turned back and opened his mouth.
"I know what his name is," he said with a barely suppressed laugh. "And I'll keep an eye out for him and ensure he doesn't get caught in the…shit!"
He hit the ground just in time as a wave of sludge and slime slashed the air where he had been just standing. From the disgusted cry that quickly turned into a wail of agony, Serena hadn't been so lucky. Leaping away from the destructive goo, he blinked hard as an image of Ivan Ooze swam up from the recesses of his memory. Although he hadn't gone toe-to-toe with the morphological being himself, he had seen the reports of the rampage done by the Ectomorphicons on the news and the video logs of the Command Centre. However, he had been trapped in the Chapter House with Alex, Will and a few potential Rangers against an onslaught of Ivan's Oozemen. The slime they had shot at civilians had been the regular sticky sort but it had broken apart when Ivan had been destroyed. The slime covering Serena on the other hand…he knew he wouldn't get the images out of his head. Her protective armour had been all but eaten away but it had, by some virtue of the suit or some higher power, stopped from eating away at her skin by the thinnest of margins.
No, not even that. As he dragged the softly whimpering form away from the battlefield, he could see thin tendrils of smoke curling above several welts where the liquid had stopped. However, there wasn't any guarantee that further application of the acidic slime wouldn't show him what was inside a human body. Faint gurgles from behind made him turn around and swear loudly as a large torrent of slime hurtled towards him. Knowing he could only withstand such an acidic bath for so long but knowing he had to protect the unconscious Rider behind him at all costs; he threw up his hands in front of him and pushed everything he had into creating a shield. Much to his amazement, it worked for the first few seconds. But, as the torrent continued its destructive path toward him, he felt the shield begin to weaken. Concentrating on the weakened sections did nothing to slow its pace and he felt the first vestiges of panic begin to creep up behind him. Closing his eyes, he summoned up the last vestiges of strength and energy to fight against the ooze and the rising tide of panic threatening to overwhelm him.
Experience-wise, it was very much like his fight with Psychogre and Xonix as he was up against an overwhelming force with what little power he had being ripped away slowly. Or it was like the battle to rescue his mother from Face Sucker but the others had said he was in a berserker rage-like state and he didn't think it was a good comparison. As his breathing reached the edge of hyperventilating, an image flashed up in his mind's eye of himself fighting alongside several Kamen Riders that weren't the ones he had just met. A surge of energy accompanied that image and, as if by magic, the still image began to move fluidly – more fluidly than anything he had ever seen. He could 'see' his fully armoured form leaping high into the air with both Raptor Sabre and Rider Blades drawn, slicing down into the head of an ethereal beast that looked similar to a werewolf. He didn't think werewolves were all black with bone-white faces and glowing red eyes though. He looked around to try to see where he was but all there was around him were tombstones and five strange auras of amazing power. Steeled by the power flowing into his body, he opened his eyes and uttered a guttural growl that quickly turned into a shout of determination and desperation.
In a brief flash, he found himself morphed in his full Battle Armour but with the Turbine on his belt instead of the ornate buckle that had always been there. Just as quickly as it appeared, it vanished but it left him feeling more energised than he had ever felt. The pressure on the other end of the shield dropped away and he recalled the energy back into his body, the rush of power making a strange dragon-like symbol flash up on his HUD for the briefest of moments. In fact, if he had to say what it was, he was sure it was…
"Weihan, are you there?" The voice seemed quite insistent.
Blinking the thought away, he opened an internal communication with the Ultra Cavern and blinked at the people he saw on the other end. He had absolutely no idea what Wes or Dex was doing monitoring him, but he wasn't going to question the extra assistance. Plus, he was sure they could tell him what had just happened with the sudden powering-up of the Wraith and the Battle-Armour-with-Turbine thing.
"Talk to me, Wes." He ducked under another acidic blast. "What the hell just happened here; both with that Wraith and that blip with my powers?"
"I can't begin to tell you what happened with your powers," the Red Time Force Ranger began slowly, "but Time Force knows about your piercing of the dimensional veil. Captain Logan contacted me about it and has basically given that the unofficial green light to continue. That Wraith though seemed to react with that blast of energy your friend shot it with. From what I can see, the only way to destroy it is with an equally strong or stronger power."
Well, that was interesting. Time Force knew about the dimensional communication link he had set up but was choosing not to do anything about it…which probably meant that them doing something about it would result in the space-time continuum rupturing like his brain if he continued thinking about this. But the last part of Wes' words left him scrambling for ideas like a thirsty man looking for water. He wasn't sure how he had summoned his full Battle Armour or the Turbine but it had been an unconscious reflex. A grin spread over his lips for an instant as he thought of what could have happened if it was the real Turbine that was probably behind several panes of security glass at Australasia Worldwide. Gaby would be having a shit fit and a half…but that was beside the point. The more pressing concern, even greater than his power situation and the strengthening of the Wraith, was that the container he had seen earlier inside the Wraith had shattered apart. He could just make out a dark cloud slowly spreading inside the monster but the viscosity of the liquid looked different than the blood leaking from its dissolving victims.
"Weihan," Dex's voice cut in, "you need to access the powers in your Rider suit or your Power Grid. That's the only way that monster will go down. I'd come down and help you but…"
"Yeah, no worries Dex," He shook his head and looked over to where the RUNNER Rider was laying. "Great. As if I didn't have too much on my plate as it is…"
Dex was a good Rider, the fact Leawood was still standing was testament to the hours of blood, sweat and tears he had put in to defending the Earth from Count Dregon. Interestingly, Lord Zedd or the multitude of evil beings that arrived in later years hadn't once looked in that direction. Edward had stated that the power of Edenoi's Masked Rider had more destructive potential than all of the Power Rangers put together and that the Ultra Rangers were practically the only beings that could go toe-to-toe with them and survive. And if the High Council on Eltare had confirmed that Edenite Masked Rider technology was present in the Kamen Rider Systems used…he didn't want to think about the implications. Wrenching his mind to the present just in time to mostly dodge a blast of acidic goo, he growled in pain as he felt a burning sensation on his left ear. Well, at least that would give him some degree of cover for his 'official' location during the fight. Still, he didn't know how the hell he could access his Rider Powers in his Ninjetti suit. That freaky changing aside, he still needed something to latch on to but he didn't think Gaby would be willing to hand over the Activation Stone to…
"Hey there!" He looked up at AJ and grinned as she tossed him a small spherical gem. "Y'all might need this! Consider it a brief loan from the Kamen Rider!"
His right hand moved instinctively to snatch the stone out of the air and he shook his head as the irony of the situation sunk in. Opening his mouth to declare his readiness to fight, he stumbled slightly as a wave of images and words tumbled into his mind. As strange as it sounded, he swore he could see from the perspective of his Morphing Gem as it had been tossed from Rider to Rider weeks ago; each of the eight Riders whispering words of encouragement and imparting a slight amount of their powers and abilities into it. Amusingly, the one that spent the longest time was Shoichi – Agito – and his words were full of confidence and encouragement in very broken English. Information flowed seamlessly into his mind and he felt his body naturally settling into a pose that looked, to his eyes at least, very much like the pre-Rider Kick pose used by the ancient warrior. A flash of golden light made him look down to see that the Crocodile coin on his chest had been replaced by the abstract dragon-like symbol of Agito. Shaking his head, he laughed and shook his head yet again.
"Goddamn it, Shoichi," he chuckled, gripping the Morphing Gem tight. "You thought of everything, didn't you?"
Clearing his mind, he looked at the Wraith and instantly knew that this was the tipping point. From here on, the battles would begin to become harder and harder. A lot more Wraiths would reach an Awakened state and there would be much greater levels of property damage than before. Added to the fact that Jabarkas could create monsters and Golems meant that the Riders would really have their work cut out for them as the Ultra Rangers were still testing the limits of their reawakened Powers. A trip to Canterlotia was also on the horizon as there was something about the words of the Sunset Wraith that were only now coming back to haunt him. He would need to get the OK from the boss though and use whatever time he could training his body and mind; both for the upcoming seventy five percent merge and the challenges to come in the future. He didn't know how fast his battle in Ninjetti form would affect the merging but Shining Light was staying suspiciously silent on the matter. Pushing fire into the Activation Gem, he blasted the gelatinous beast with chains made of flaming electricity and readied himself for the finisher.
Before he knew it, he soared through the air with his right leg extended and wreathed in flickering flames. Impacting against the rubbery skin of the Wraith, he pushed his leg deep into the belly of the beast to deliver the searing and explosive payload. Flipping away, he hissed in pain as the acidic blood of the creature ate into his leg and foot and he balanced on his left leg on the landing as the Wraith dissolved into a pile of sand dotted with the bloody remains of its undigested victims.
"That's one thing out of the way," he sighed, "but now comes the hard part."
TBC…
