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Chapter 53 – Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Billy Cranston, former Blue Power Ranger, chief scientist amongst Project Lightspeed and one of the brightest minds of humanity and indeed the Alliance as a whole was, under normal circumstances a calm and methodical man these being traits honed over years of study and hard work in various fields of study and experimentation, several of which he had invented wholesale and was not at all prone to fits of irritability.
These were far from normal circumstances however.
Tempestus, his adopted son and only child; along with the entirety of his team of Aegis Rangers were still missing in action after their disappearance following the battle for and subsequent destruction of Unus, the first and largest of Triforias' moons. It had been mere days since the fateful battle to push the Dark Empire forces out of Alliance space had been a nominal success and yet gone so terribly awry and Commander Cruger, TJ Johnson and many others in positions of authority had reached out to Billy in an effort to assure him that his son would be found and returned, that all was well and that it was only a matter of time yet Billy knew that time was against them all; there was no telling where the Aegis Rangers had gone and the unshakeable truth was that Aquitians needed the water of their home-world to survive, Billy knew Tempestus to be a capable, resourceful and intelligent young man but he had no intention of pitting his only child's abilities against the threat of a slow and ignoble death as his organs failed and as such he, along with the aid of a select group of trusted confidants including his wife Cestria had begun forming their own plans.
Plans that Billy was most displeased to have interrupted.
This displeasure was manifested in an uncommon and entirely unbecoming scowl marring the man's face which seemed to have aged, new frown lines and grey hairs appearing steadily ever since Kimberley, his fellow Ranger and oldest surviving friend had sacrificed herself for the cause. Billy stalked and prowled through the corridors of the joint base the Project Lightspeed and Promethea operated on the colony ship Promethea One which, until days ago had been the home and base of operations of the Alliance's only fully functional team of Power Rangers until eventually he reached his destination and his irritation was momentarily forced from the forefront of his mind as a sudden chill ran down his spine and the unnatural charged sensation in the air caused the hairs on his arms and the back of his neck to stand on end.
"Magic" he noted, his tone grumbling and as a close to contemptuous as it seemed that the former Ranger could manage; whilst he could understand the fundamentals of the healing and shamanic arts that his wife practised the kind of primal, reality bending arcana that Zebidiah Lord and sorcerers of his ilk practised was almost offensive to a man of science and it was Zebidiah's quarters that he had been summoned to, the former Lord Zedd having been insistent in his requests to speak with his one time respected adversary in private.
"Indeed….it seems that you humans struggle with blending the arts and your science together on a fundamental level, as this body shows" Billy cast his eyes around and instinctively braced himself as something came skittering out of the shadows only to be momentarily confused and finally left almost laughing despite himself as he saw a small robot, vaguely canine in shape and sporting a face made of blinking lights that were arranged in a permanently smiling face with a grill like speaker beneath them from which the voice of the former Lord Zedd issued
"This is what Grace has been working on?" Billy asked, burying his amusement beneath simple scientific interest as much as he could though a faint chuckle still coloured his words.
"A proof of concept, to see how feasible it is to transfer my consciousness and memories into-" the machine fell silent, moments later lights that formed its' face flickered out ox existence with several bulbs popping faintly followed by sparks and black smoke spewing from the innards of the machine before it keeled over and collapsed lifeless and inert.
Then the door to Zebidiah's chambers opened with a whoosh of freezing air that howled around the former Blue Ranger which Billy took as a sign that he should enter.
"That" Zebidiah's voice came from the stasis tube that had been fitted into the chamber so that he could at least oversee his own affairs "Was unfortunate" the door sealed behind Billy and with Zebidiah's mental presence having entered his quarters glyphs and runes lining the walls glowed faintly and came to life with a faint magical humming that charged the air like static electricity as well as warming it to something more tolerable; Billy quickly focused as Zebidiah's mental image came into view within the tube, robed and sitting cross-legged whilst levitating in the way the sorcerer had often done whilst his own body had been available to him, a condition that Grace Sterling was hoping to return him to even as his own flesh and blood form continued to slowly waste away.
"You wanted to see me" it wasn't phrased as a question
"I did" Zebidiah nodded, his voice taking on the merest hint of the distorted growl that it had once been "And I'll spare you the pleasantries and get straight to business"
"It would be appreciated"
"A shortlist of potential Rangers has been drawn in case the Aegis Rangers cannot be located before the next threat that requires them arises, you've done nothing to make this prospective team ready" Zebidiah intoned bluntly, raising a hand to silence Billy's retort and continuing "Grace tells me that the Zords are still being repaired yet you've contributed very little to the task….One learns things about those they war against and I know you to be someone who does not give up so easily, especially not on your son; so tell me Billy what are you planning?"
"I have no idea what you're talking about-"
"DO NOT LIE TO ME!" Lightning crackled through the air and Billy dropped into a combative stance, one that he had not needed to use for years only to be left glancing around as the flash of light subsided and the former Lord Zedd's breathing returned to normal from the ragged snarl that it had become
"I had thought that we had come to understand, if not trust one another" the former Lord Zedd noted, Billy being surprised to hear what sounded like genuine hurt in his voice
"There's nothing to tell you….not yet anyway" Billy finally answered, conceding that he was at least planning or attempting something, realising that it would be fruitless to deny it further as Zebidiah simply knew him too well to believe such falsehoods.
"Then you will inform me when whatever you have planned proceeds" Zebidiah demanded bluntly, his voice softening as he added "Kay is my grandchild….I have trained and watched over these Rangers since they became a team; I would not stand by and allow harm to come to them after they have given so much"
"I can't tell you" Billy shook his head, pausing a moment before finally deciding that he owed his enemy turned ally some sort of explanation
"We will find the Rangers" he said simply "But when we do I am going to have to do things that are….beyond questionable and the Rangers are still going to need someone to guide them, I will do everything I can to bring them home and they will need you to be here for them when everything is said and done"
"I understand" Zebidiah nodded, in truth Billy's drive and focus had always been admirable to him even when they were opposed; the former Blue Ranger's determination to achieve his goals by any means without ever stooping to barbarism was an aspect of the image that Zebidiah, when he had still been Lord Zedd had held for his own sons that they had both fallen so terribly short of.
"Good….you'll know when the plans begin" Billy nodded "I have to return to work. I will bring them home" with that Billy turned on his heel and left Zebidiah's chambers leaving the sorcerer oddly reassured.
Even if the Power could not protect them, wherever the Aegis Rangers were they had Billy Cranston and that alone might just be enough.
The Aegis Rangers had learned that the industrial world within the Dark Empire that they had inadvertently been teleported to had no official name and was instead given a numeric designation by those who had conquered it centuries ago and ruled with an iron fist ever since; the locals of the world however, few of whom were descended from the worlds' original inhabitants had dubbed the planet 'Mercator' and the city that the Rangers had travelled to from the ash wasteland that they had initially crashed in was the worlds' capital; a port and merchant city and a shipyard wherein vast resources including raw materials, food, water, breathable air for those planets within the Empire that lacked it and even prisoners were loaded onto freshly made warships that would carry them to whatever world they would do their masters' bidding on. The city and world itself had remained much as they had been upon the Rangers first arrival, if one ignored the twin suns and smoke-clogged pale purple skies or the alien architecture of the massive buildings that a shanty town had risen and grown around like moss it was almost possible to forget that this was a city within the Dark Empire, the brazen crime and callous disregard for life were hardly different to that of any other major city after all and it was only when enforcers wearing ragged robes made periodic appearances to unleash the monstrous canine Putty-Hounds upon the populace with horrific results and seemingly at random that the illusion was shattered and just how lost the Rangers were was made clear again.
Which Mercy was all too happy with, the had no intention of allowing herself to become comfortable in this place.
She and her fellow Aegis Rangers had followed Rocky DeSantos after the former Red Power Ranger and Blue Zeo Ranger had rescued them, though Rocky had ambivalent towards the presence overall as he led them back to what could only be described as a home in the loosest or most mocking sense of the word; the building he resided in was clearly intended to be some sort of storage facility located at the outer edges of the city that had seemingly been forgotten about and slipped through the cracks of a galaxy-spanning Empire and its' bureaucracy that had been looted of all contents before being transformed into some sort of workshop by one of the various criminal gangs brave enough to risk the Dark Empire's idea of justice that operated within the city, those occupants were long since gone and from hints that Rocky had dropped in his few morose and awkward conversations with the Rangers it seemed that the lost Ranger had some involvement in their disappearance. Mercy didn't concern herself with that however and focused on the task at hand, unleashing salvo after salvo of powerful and devastatingly accurate punches into the makeshift pads that Aslaug had fashioned over the course of the several days they had been here. Tempestus was in a part of the workshop that Mercy was yet to properly explore, the Aquitian keeping his mind active and decidedly away from the fact that he was beginning to feel the effects of being denied the water from his home world, Kay and Panthera had ventured out into the city to perform reconnaissance and learn anything of value that they could whilst Rensa and Mari were likely somewhere close by, simply coping by whatever means available to them; leaving Mercy and Aslaug to find their own peace of mind which the Red Aegis Ranger had chosen to do through training, the familiar exercises were oddly comforting and it gave her a sense of purpose, a feeling that she was preparing for some plan that might be enacted at any moment.
That sense of purpose was stolen from her as Rocky strode by, muttering as he passed them
"You won't be able to punch through the whole Empire, I don't recommend trying" Mercy came to a halt, expression faltering as she was left feeling hollow and empty for the briefest moment before she caught sight of Aslaug's suddenly furious expression, icy blue eyes narrowed as she slipped the pads from her hands and prepared to confront the former Power Ranger about his attitude.
"Let me handle this, please" she murmured, reaching up to kiss the much taller woman gently on the lips before rounding on Rocky, following him to a boarded window which he often peered through the cracks of, muttering to himself as he ensured that his home was safe from any potential threats.
"Hey, what is your deal?" she demanded hotly as she drew close "Do you want to win this fight or not?"
"Win?" Rocky snorted, the gloom casting long shadows on his face which deepened his many scars and only added to his harrowed and beleaguered expression; his eyes holding a haunted look and slightly unfocused stare as he shook his head "What I want doesn't matter….It can't be done, we can't win-"
"Okay maybe not against the whole Empire, not from here" Mercy admitted, scrambling to find a new angle "But we can get off of this world, rejoin the Alliance and-"
"And do what?" Rocky laughed bitterly, his words dripping with scorn "Sacrifice more people, throw more lives away just to buy ourselves a little bit more time; how many lives is one more day worth?….We can't win, not against the Empire"
"We have to try" Mercy said simply, voice cracking as saw something that she had never believed possible; a Power Ranger, one of the first of humanities greatest heroes with their spirit broken and crushed "We have to….we're Power Rangers"
"You're a kid that means well trying to play hero" Rocky countered sadly "All the real Power Rangers died twenty years ago….I was there, I saw it happen"
"Kimberley didn't" Mercy retorted, voice dropping to a whisper as she spoke "She kept fighting to the very end and she taught me to do the same, so that's what I'm gonna do. Billy is still out there and I'd bet anything he's working just as hard to get us off of this planet as we are….what happened to you Rocky, you're a legend on Earth, they named an entire class of starship after you"
"Never meet your heroes" Rocky snorted before reaching into his pocket and placing something down in front of Mercy, her brown eyes widening as realised that she was staring at the shattered fragments of what had once been the Tyrannosaurus Power Coin.
"As for what happened" the former Ranger continued "I wasn't using this coin….Jason was, my Zeo Morpher was broken in the assault on Acheron, I found Jason's body in the wreckage three days after the fighting officially ended. I spent two years on Acheron carrying a broken Power Coin and two broken Morphers stealing food and any tools I could find, living in gutters and trying to repair those Morphers thinking that I might, just might be able to go home, to save someone, to do something, anything that made a difference….Then I realised that nobody was coming, they'd just assumed that everybody who didn't make it onto the Astro Megaship was dead; the Power Rangers were Earths' heroes and they left us to die"
"Well somebody came" Mercy said simply "My team are going to go home and make a difference. I hope you'll join us" with that she turned and walked away, Rocky's weary and bitter voice sounding from behind her as she did so.
"They left me behind for twenty years kid….before you try and be the hero ask yourself if the galaxy is worth saving"
The walls of the workshop seemed to blur and warp as the floor shifted and rocked unnaturally causing something akin to bile to rise up in Tempestus's throat before the dark-skinned Aquitian teen recognised these phenomena as simply being signs of his own deteriorating state and steadied himself, taking several deep breaths of air that tasted stale and only reinforced how claustrophobic and airless this hellish planet truly was.
"Gnarly, most assuredly gnarly" Tempestus muttered to himself as he wiped his face with his hand the way one might wipe away sweat though as an Aquitian he did no perspire the same way as a human, instead what he wiped from his brow were countless minute flecks of some rough and coarse material, a mix of dead skin and the hardened mask like tissue that adorned his face; both it and the purple ridges of his skull had slowly began to began brittle and craggy as his body steadily grew more and more sickly.
He was weak, tired, feverish and had been unable to keep food down since yesterday whilst a series of near constant shooting pains in his gut told him that at least one of his organs was faring badly and unless he found a way off of this planet soon, the Dark Empire world of Mercator would be where he perished. Despite the bleakness and increasing severity of his situation however Tempestus's current project was not directly tied to the Aegis Ranger's efforts to escape the planet that they had been stranded on and returning home.
Instead he had found something that his admittedly hazy and addled mind refused to let him turn away from.
Rocky, despite his obvious lack of faith or apparent interest in the Ranger's plans had allowed Tempestus to use the tools and resources at his disposal which had proven themselves to be surprising in their scope, the former Power Ranger had acquired an impressive array of equipment both for his own use and to be sold and bartered for other essentials with the locals; it had been whilst searching through this veritable mountain of scrapped and discarded devices however that Tempestus had found something that had made his coral pink and currently bloodshot eyes widen in shock.
A pair of Morphers, each of them a different design both of them clearly damaged beyond their ability to function.
Seeing this the Blue Aegis Ranger had quickly realised that this must be the source of Rocky's current defeated and dejected state and had proceeded forward in the only way that made sense to him; on Aquitar he had been capable of fixing and maintaining almost any piece of equipment, infrastructure of vehicle within his underwater city state and, being the child of Billy Cranston had seen Morphers being worked on before; Tempestus in what amounted to a rebellious phase also sneaked glances at his adoptive fathers' notes and various prototypes of what would go on to become his own Aegis Morpher, allowing him the confidence to say that he had at least a basic understanding of the concepts involved and having seen Kay's original Morpher that had been cobbled together from the pieces of those belonging to slain Rangers he knew that his idea was possible. It was a potentially risky endeavour with a very low chance of success but until a better plan was presented it was ll Tempestus had and he had thrown himself into the task with all of his remaining strength, the workbench before him was now littered with the components of a Power Morpher and a Zeoniser whilst the walls were covered with a seemingly endless litany of calculations that were all but indecipherable.
And now his dedication and hard work would, hopefully be rewarded.
Sliding another component in place Tempestus stared intently at what he held in his hands, in truth little more than a hastily assembled mass of jumbled parts and by no means a completed Morpher, it was a however a potential proof of concept and he found himself sucking in another lungful of stagnant, dusty air to steady himself before murmuring with the feverish excitement of a madman
"Are you ready to rumble?" as he spoke he activated what would go onto become a proto-Morpher and let out a yelp of surprise as arcs of crackling energy radiated out from the thing before cheering faintly as a series of readings were given and he realised that his work was unstable at best and far from complete but functional.
He could build Rocky a Morpher.
His victory was cut short however as his stomach lurched and the room span, a sudden wave of nausea crashing over him as he became suddenly and painfully aware of the weight of his own body without the buoyancy of water and just how dry the air was before he staggered to the left and toppled over, only to be caught by someone whom he could not quite identify with his vision blurring and his ears ringing.
"Easy Tempestus, we've got you" Mari whispered gently as she and Rensa carefully moved their sickly friend to a sitting position to a corner of the room
"You need rest" Rensa noted
"I need to work" Tempestus countered "I made a breakthrough-"
"Tell us about it when you've rested" Mari countered firmly, the Gold and Black Rangers having entered his workspace upon hearing his outbursts "You can't work like this, you can barely stand up….whatever it is you're working on, you're risking it by working on it in this condition, you can't focus" Tempestus's mouth worked silently for several seconds, the Aquitian becoming aware of how dry it was and in turn how raspy and croaky his own voice sounded as he managed a reply
"You make a most excellent point" with that Tempestus allowed himself to pass out as both his illness and exhaustion claimed their toll on his body.
For Kay prowling the streets of a Dark Empire city was a glimpse into the culture of the Empire that they had been created to expand and fight for and the Green Ranger could honestly say that they had come to loathe it over the course of a few short days.
"Hey, you okay?" Panthera asked as she regarded them with obvious concern, the two of them wore ragged robes that she had acquired days ago when it had become clear that the Rangers would need to explore the city if they were to achieve anything and her amber, catlike eyes gleamed in the light of the city from beneath the heavy hood that had pushed her deep purple hair which naturally formed a spike Mohawk down and aside, leaving ruffled and messy strands falling front of her face.
"I will be" Kay murmured, almost shrinking into their own ragged and nondescript item as they added "This is what I was made for….turning worlds into this. I hate the Dark Empire, I hate everything that Lord Zedd does, it's like the Empire find everything that makes the galaxy special and bury it or take it apart to be reused" there was a rarely heard venom in the Green Ranger's voice and their inhuman pink and black eyes seemed to shine as they vented their anger; they had learned in their short life that the galaxy was a beautiful place filled with things that needed to be seen and experienced to be believed and the idea of reducing it all to the nightmarish vista of smog and steel where life was cheap and fear, violence and simple hopeless apathy reigned supreme like the city that they had found themselves in was abhorrent.
"Yeah" Panthera nodded "I've been in more port cities than I can count….this place, it's like it's had it's soul pulled out" the teal-skinned alien let out a sigh before lacing her fingers through Kay's and lazily swishing her tail before wrapping it around their waist whilst the Acheron human hybrid leaned into her; the two of them taking in the view of the city as the considered their next move.
Panthera's initial plan had been to venture to the ports or shipyards of the city and see if it was possible to simply steal a ship, this idea had been proven to be untenable however as the shipyards were far too heavily defended whilst the ships themselves would need a crew of far more people than they had at their disposal and the idea of forming an insurrection in the limited amount of time at their disposal was laughable; the space ports were also unusable as the traffic entering and leaving them was heavily regulated, Mercator was deep within the Empire territory and there was none of the usual chaotic bustle and clashing with dozens of cultures that Panthera had expected after years of travelling between cities in neutral, contested or otherwise wild and lawless space and so, with their initial plan thwarted the pair had made their way to a bridge between two of the twisted and monstrous spires of the city so that they could look down at the heaving mass of downtrodden and oppressed life in the hope that something would occur to them.
The sudden gleam in Panthera's eye was all the indication Kay needed
"You see something?" they asked hopefully.
"That" she pointed to a something in the distance and Kay followed her gaze, realising that she was indicating towards a specific structure located a little off from the centre of the city, relatively close to where the main space ports were situated though there was still an hours' walk between them on foot. The building was a jagged, branching mass of steel that sported countless sensors and similar contraptions that Kay could almost identify, the knowledge of the Dark Empire that they had been born with not amounting to the sum total of their cultures' history and technology.
"What is it?" they asked
"It's a communications tower….I think I can plan a route from our little hideout to there that would get us to it safely"
"You think we should attack it, or break in?" Kay asked in confusion
"I think it's going to have a long range communication system that lets this planet keep in touch with the rest of the Empire; they have to be organising their shipments somehow….I think we can use that communications tower to boost the signal from our own communicators-"
"And send word to the Alliance" Kay finished "Panthera you're a genius"
"Eh, I have moments….still not sure how I'm gonna-" she trailed off, whatever concerns she may have had falling silent as the sound of stone on metal reached her ears.
"Putty" she whispered, her suspicions being proven correct mere moments later as the automaton in question came into view; rather than the standard bipedal chattering construct this Putty was of the variety that they had seen in the ash wastes, quadrupedal with curved, raking claws and elongated snarling and bestial faces with a heavy, rusted collar around its' neck where it had been released from the chain that bound it; both Panthera and Kay saw the things' handler some distance away strolling lazily and uncaring towards them
"They don't know who we are" Kay realised, suddenly shocked and disgusted in equal measure "They don't know we're Power Rangers, they just wanted to watch that thing kill someone"
"Lucky us, that buys us a few seconds" Panthera noted as she braced herself, taking a stance that was low to the ground with her muscles coiled and ready as the hunting beast Putty came thundering across the walkway towards them.
"Ready" she hissed through clenched teeth "Now!" the Putty pounced and Panthera surged forwards whilst Kay leapt to the side in perfect co-ordination, the unmorphed Pink Ranger sprung upwards and drove her shoulder into the snarling automaton mid-leap, leaving it flailing, uncoordinated and vulnerable as Kay used the railings of the walkway to leap into the air and deliver a kick to the now exposed plate in the centre of the Putties' chest, shattering its' body and leaving debris raining down on those unfortunate enough to be stood below them. Both Panthera and Kay saw that the rag wearing handler of the Putty, presumably some sort of security or authority figure in this hellish city was staring at the two of them in open confusion and they used the few seconds afforded them to great effect, Panthera taking Kay's hand and dragging them in the other direction.
"Come on, we've gotta go!"
The room was dark and the was humid and stagnant, the stench of death hanging thick and oppressive in the steamy darkness whilst the ground was piled thick with corpses in various states of decay; the walls being lined with scores of security cameras and live feeds from all around the Capital City of Mercator, the images given a bloody red filter to match the faint overhead lighting and surrounding the floor of the room which had allowed to become essentially a festering pit of rotten, mulched flesh and nothing more. The room was the Central Command Centre for the Empire appointed overseer of Mercator and whilst it was a bleak and nightmarish place by the standards of most sapient life throughout the galaxy it was a fitting lair and seat of power for the creature currently studying the countless screens intently; a creature as freakish and repulsive as the lair they inhabited.
It was as if someone had misinterpreted the term 'Spider Plant' in the most gruesomely literal sense imaginable.
The original inhabitants of the planet that had become Mercator, long before the Dark Empire had claimed and colonised it centuries ago had been of an order of creature those native to Earth would struggle to comprehend, a mid-point between plant and animal an although the species had been entirely pacifistic; living on sunlight and nutrients in the once rich of the world the Acheron hybrids that had been created from that peoples' genetic stock had been as warlike and bloodthirsty as any other, their hostile and mutable genetics weaving into the unique plant and animal fusion to create something sickening.
The creature that inhabited the Command Centre was not one of those original hybrids who had brought Mercator into the Empire's grasp and crushed the life from its' limited resistance, rather a descendent of theirs who held their title through lineage alone;
Their body was black in colour and mottled with dark and drab browns; an armoured carapace between whose flesh mud-coloured flesh with a texture not unlike spongy or loamy soil could be glimpsed and whose segmented form curled in on itself so that the oversized pair of pincers that adorned its' bulbous and oversized abdomen rested just below the aliens' head, which itself was the stuff of nightmares. The hybrids' skull was an emaciated and dessicated husk of dried skin stretched between exoskeletal plates, a rounded and vaguely streamlined thing that sloped forward with an unsettlingly humanoid mouth filled with jagged teeth resting between a pair of serrated mandibles and wriggling pedipalps whilst they surveyed the various screens with eight compound eyes whose surfaces seemed to be perpetually shifting colour yet never once finding a hue that was less than jarring and unpleasant to look at. They did not stand, instead they hung suspended above the corpse-ridden floor as each of the many smaller segments of their body between their skull and abdomen sported several pairs of limbs, appendages that could best be describes at the sickening combination of insectoid legs and creeping vines, thin yet sturdy things that were covered with carapace armour and yet moved without bone, thin hooks lining their surface allowing the limbs to embed themselves in the walls and ceiling whilst the monster hung in the centre of the lair like the foul and diseased heart of some greater evil.
This was Cleobis-Radix, Arch Overseer of Mercator; an Acheron hybrid whose status within the Empire itself was one of near total unimportance, but here on this world and in this port city, they were a God amongst mortals.
After studying the screens that lined their domain an eager chittering sound that could almost be interpreted as a pleased chuckle. The 'Ragged ones' were a force that preceded his time as Arch Overseer, the line between policing and brutal oppressive force being blurred beyond any relevancy on any Dark Empire world had meant that terror troops like the Ragged Ones and the hunting beast Putties that they employed were well suited to keeping the population in line and Cleobis-Radix allowed them to indulge in their proclivities simply so that they remained feared; what was unexpected however was the sight of one of said hunting beasts being shattered and cast over a walkway by two individuals who were decidedly outsiders.
After some deliberation however, the answer had become obvious.
Rumours of insurgent cells and agitators had spread throughout the Empire, closely followed by rumours of the rewards that would be bestowed upon those who killed or captured these rebels and Alliance operatives; Cleobis-Radix chuckled and chittered to themselves because it was obvious that these figures who had escaped from the Ragged Ones and slipped out of view could be nothing else and after only a brief period of consideration it had become clear what their intentions had been.
They had been surveying their target.
"All Ragged Ones and attached security forces" Cleobis-Radix spoke in a buzzing drone as he slipped from the walls, his vine-like appendages ripping free and wrapping around themselves to form coiled and tangled masses of loamy flesh more suited to bearing his weight on the ground; long slender arms that ended in whip like fingers lined with hooks and legs, the monster seeming to shift between bipedal and quadrupedal stances every few steps as they adjusted their weight and sunk their roots into the rotten flesh underfoot, draining what few nutrients remaining in the festering meat.
"Proceed to the interstellar communications tower" he buzzed, voice filling with sudden eagerness and manic glee "Enemies of the Empire plan to attack us, we will be ready for them….I will be joining the defence in person"
Author's Notes:
So….I'm back.
I said a moth hiatus, two weeks later here we are; starting up arc 13 and the third and final act of the story.
So how have thing been on my end you ask? Well, I finished off a 165 Chapter RWBY Story that I've been writing for three and a half years and that was emotional.
I also got a new job so uploads are going to remain weekly despite this being my only ongoing project because my free time has been massively reduced.
But oh well, things are looking up for me, thank you for bearing with me; I hope you're all well and welcome back.
Now, let's summarise shall we?:
The theme for the titles of this chapter is spy movies, tinker, tailor, soldier, spy fits for this because well, we've got some tinkering and plotting going on here.
So we're picking up pretty much straight after the end of the last act, only a couple days because Tempestus really is on a timer.
Billy is definitely planning something.
The mind of the former Lord Zedd was, at least for a few short moments contained in the body of a small robotic dog and you all have to live with that knowledge….Because, a reminder, his body is dying.
So no Zords for now, they're still damaged.
Zebidiah sees Billy as the man he would have liked his sons to become, let that sink in.
Mercator is just Merchant in Latin.
Just a little scene setting for the Dark Empire city, I wanted it to be bleak but not cartoonishly so.
So the Rangers are holed up at Rocky's little base, because of course he's squatting somewhere he can use as a base.
"You won't be able to punch through the whole Empire, I don't recommend trying" insert the 'It's true but you shouldn't say it' meme here.
Rocky has been stranded in Empire space for twenty years knowing that there isn't gonna be any rescue mission, he's definitely bitter and paranoid as well as traumatised.
"All the real Power Rangers died twenty years ago….I was there, I saw it happen" Ouch.
Mercy is definitely a real Red Ranger, she's too stubborn to be anything else.
So yeah, Tempestus is definitely ill and it's definitely gonna become an issue later on but for now he's still doing his thing.
You didn't think Rocky was gonna have two Morphers and not have them combined right? I feel like the idea of combining two different Morphers into one Ranger was the most interesting and underused plot device that the Drakkon storyline introduced…..And the proof of concept already existed, because Kay had a scrapheap of a Morpher.
In my head the way Tempestus passed out was funny.
Kay has never seen a Dark Empire world in person before.
Recon….totally not a date.
Between the two of them Kay and Panthera have a lot of usable intel and are the best possible choice for scouting work but even then they have their limits.
And there we have our first glimpse at the plot device of the arc.
The hunting beast Putties from the end of the last chapter, they're scary but they can be beaten….Notice that we haven't seen the "Ragged ones" in action yet though.
Coming up with a design for the monster of the week took a while, and then I gave my brother the nickname Spider-plant at work and my brain did a thing; so now we have something that's a cross between a Spider, an earwig and creeping vines or poison ivy that shapes its' roots and vines into limbs to walk and drains the nutrients out of corpses like they were soil then they're not hanging from the ceiling like a fleshy, bug-eyed Glados.
Cleobis-Radix is "Rotten Root" in Latin.
Police that's basically an occupying army….Topical.
So Cleobis-Radix has seen Kay and Panthera but doesn't know that they're Rangers; he think that they're part of Andros's insurgency.
The pieces will continue to move into place next chapter.
Thank you to Blue Legends for their review on the last chapter.
Yeah that cliffhanger came from nowhere to be honest.
But now you know what he's been doing.
As always thank you to everyone that reads this, with a special thanks to those of you that follow, favourite and review.
