Power Rangers & All associated trademarks are property of Hasbro
I claim no ownership of anything except my own original characters.
I am making no money from this.
Chapter 65 – Through Fire And Flames
The Inner Sanctum, the Command Centre of the Asteroid Base was in utter, panicked and terror-stricken disarray.
The first indication that something had been amiss had been several garbled and failed transmissions from Mercy along with the other Aegis Rangers, these had quickly been followed by Karone making several efforts to establish contact with Aye-Anor or any member of the Conclave he represented only to be met with deathly silence. From there the former warlord turned Pink Astro Ranger and rebel mastermind had swiftly gathered those she trusted and relied upon for advice, Billy, Justin, Zhane and Charlie having departed several hours prior when it had seemed that the immediate threat had ended and had them frantically try and re-establish contact with their potential new allies and their Rangers.
"Billy, Justin do we have anything?" Karone demanded, every syllable tense like steel cables as she watched the two former Blue Rangers who served as her chief engineer and scientific advisor work; the pair of them having peeled away the exteriors of several consoles as they made countless adjustments and recalibrated hundreds of components and articles of software in a desperate attempt to reach their young charges.
"Almost" Billy ground out through clenched teeth
"There's no satellites around Furrous that we know of" Justin added "It means we can't just hack into one and that combined with the amount of effort they've put into hiding is making this difficult"
"But they do have interplanetary communications and we have an access code of sorts, so it can be done" Billy noted dispassionately before making a few final alterations and wiping sweat from his brow before rising to his feet "Okay….I'm ready to try"
"Do it" Karone nodded and a moment later her command was put into practice, the holographic projector in the centre of the circular desk which took up much of the room flickered into life to display an image of an area of open space, focusing on a single star system.
Including something which made everyone present gasp in horror.
A spherical distortion of the empty void the size of a planet, rippling like water occupied the space where they knew the planet Furrous to be and with the absence of anything else around it a lone fragment of a landmass was far more prominent and noticeable as the darkness rushed into consume and conceal it once again.
"Something breached the magical cloaking field hiding them" Karone stated simply, realising what must have happened
"The Empire" Zhane breathed out, suddenly far more worried than he had already been which was an impressive feat all things considered
"Damn it" Charlie hissed, fist striking the table with enough force to make the entire image flicker as she turned to Justin "Get your new teleportation gate fired up, I'll have a squad ready to deploy within-"
"Stay where you are" Karone ordered, firm and unwavering "You're still injured and we don't know what the situation is on the ground. Billy, can you contact the Rangers?"
"Trying to" answered, continuing to enter an endless stream of commands until finally the holographic image morphed into a plane of crackling, translucent cyan static though finally, after several tense seconds a familiar voice cut through the scrambled crackling
"Mission Control this is Mercy do you copy?"
"We copy Mercy" Karone answered, allowing herself to let out a sigh of relief and to simply breathe before continuing on with the task of hand "What's happening? We lost contact with your team and the planet, we can see that something breached the protections around Furrous"
"An Empire ship" Mercy answered
"A ground invasion?" Charlie demanded
"No" Mercy's voice was mournful "Worse….it was a collision course….Do you have visual"
"Not yet" Justin answered "Give us a moment" with that he took his place beside Billy once again and began frantically making minute changes to the configuration of the communications system whilst silently willing Mercy to be okay, willing her to make it through the waking nightmare that the surface of Furrous must be until finally the two of them managed to access the visual feed from Mercy's helmet and see what she saw.
It was hell
"Gods preserve us" Zhane whispered, several similar pleas and oaths coming from the other members of Mission Control as they took in the sight that greeted them; whilst Mercy's field of vision may not have given a complete picture of what had befallen the city she had reached a vantage point that showed enough to give an accurate and terrifying idea of the scope of the damage.
The Empire warship, recognisable as the Draco-Ocidendum by the wreckage of spires and temple like structures that adorned the broken and twisted remains of its' hull had struck the surface of Furrous from such an angle that it reached the city almost entirely horizontally rather than vertically, crashing through it rather than simply into it. The portion of the city that resided at the valley in the base of the canyon was all but entirely destroyed, torn away with nothing but a ragged gouge and raging infernos in its' wake whilst the rock faces, plateaus and platforms of the canyon walls had been sheared and broken open by the now shattered and sundered wings of the warship, no doubt killing thousands more in subsequent cave collapses. Karone soon realised that Mercy was stood atop the canyon looking down at where the Draco-Ocidendum had come to a stop, the once mighty vessel now utterly obliterated.
"What's your current situation?" she demanded, forcing herself to focus and not be deterred by the seriousness of the situation. In response Mercy turned so that her helmet feed showed Aye-Anor stood beside her and the briefest flash of another Ranger's armour
"Aye-Anor is going to use his magic to put out the fires, his people are falling back and evacuating; he says that the other clans and cities will take them and they have ships if the Empire send more forces but the entire city is on fire, power stations could explode and kill anyone still down there" as if to punctuate Mercy's words the old and regal alien held his hands aloft despite the injury to the shoulder he had suffered and let out a slow breath that howled like the wind and at his command the night sky grew darker still before torrential rain began to fall.
"We have incoming!" Aslaug's voice announced the Yellow Ranger's presence to Mission Control though as Mercy sought out what her fellow Ranger had spotted it soon became clear that the Empires' attack had been no mere final gambit as glowing, hateful red eyes illuminated Putties as the things began to scale what remained of the canyon wall in an effort to hunt down the source of the magic.
"Charlie, Zhane! Organise a strike team, Zhane you'll be leading on the ground" Karone barked before turning her attention back to the Red Ranger "Mercy are you in contact with your team?" there was a moments' pause and it became clear that the answer would be terrible yet that forewarning did nothing to soften the blow
"Not everybody" and then the comms channel fell silent as Mercy ended communications and turned her attention towards the Putties as the first of them drew close.
Rensa had narrowly avoided death as the Draco-Ocidendum tore its' way through the city that the Aegis Rangers had defended only hours ago.
The emaciated and sinister looking teen had frantically ushered the children that had gathered around him inside as enormous and monstrous warship came hurtling into the canyon in which they had made their home, tearing through the buildings of the advanced city and the ancient architecture built and sculpted into the rock-face alike in an apocalyptic crescendo that had culminated in the wings of the Draco-Ocidendum being torn away, its' arrowhead shaped prow being utterly crushed and much of the ships' main body crumpling under the forces acting on it whilst explosions damaged it further still, both from within and without as the vessels' internal systems and buildings that it had ploughed through erupted into fireballs of unspeakable size.
Yet rather than avoid the impact Rensa had charged directly towards it.
The Black Aegis Ranger had morphed and then used the skills he had honed on his Prison World home and the advantages of his physiology to scuttle across the sheer face of the canyon as fast as his empowered muscles would allow; rushing upwards and towards the incoming spaceship in an effort to place himself above it which had thankfully, despite its' obvious perils been successful and as the ruin hulk came grinding to a halt with a deep trench and burning trail of cataclysmic destruction in its' wake Rensa leapt from the ruined wall of the canyon, angling himself and directing his fall so that he slipped through one of the many fresh wounds torn into the hull of the Draco-Ocidendum.
Now he stalked its' carcass in search of opponents to halt before they could storm the remains of the city.
"What….happened here" he whispered softly to himself as he made his way through silence that was interrupted by creaks of metal and the roaring crackle of nearby flames and darkness broken only intermittently by emergency lighting, the glow of fire or showers of sparks bursting from damaged and destroyed circuitry. Rensa had expected to be beset by enemies by now, either in the form of the Empire's warriors firing on him from around every corner or simply a tsunami of Putties washing over him yet neither of these had come to pass and the longer he prowled through the seemingly abandoned warship the more the Black Ranger's instincts screamed that something was terribly, indescribably wrong.
"Mercy? Marigold, Kay?….anyone?" his voice was little more than a hushed murmur as he tried to contact his fellow Rangers but received nothing but static and silence in response and Rensa quickly realised that a combination of whatever protections remained in place aboard the destroyed Draco-Ocidendum and whatever magical backlash the ships' penetration of the protections around Furrous had caused had rendered communication impossible and the youngest Aegis Ranger quickly and instinctively slunk into the shadows and made himself as small as possible as he took stock of the situation and weighed his options.
There was a definite logic to falling back and regrouping with the other Rangers and an appeal to the idea that was nothing to do with that logic yet at the same time Rensa understood that something strange was going on and that he was in the best position of any of the Aegis Rangers to get to the bottom of whatever plan was being enacted.
Before he could make a final decision the choice was taken away from him when the floor beneath his feet exploded.
"GREETINGS BLACK RANGER!" Lord Carnifex of Wyvern, thirteenth of his name roared as he soared up through the hole with a mighty flap of his wings; his double edged and serrated sword wreathed in the same golden fire that had torn through several decks and as Rensa scrabbled to his feet from where he had landed he saw the blood coating the Acheron Hybrids' scaled hide and amour, much of it seeming to have poured from his own body and realised that there was something different about his foe
"Today I reclaim my honour!" Carnifex's cultured and erudite tones were strained, as though he were struggling not to give into furious roars "Today I hand victory to Lord Zedd and today, before the sun rises over this city YOU WILL DIE!"
With no more to be said the two lunged at one another.
Rensa manifested his daggers in his hands in twin pulses of rippling darkness and leapt onto the wall of the corridor, preparing to leap across the distance between them and stab at his enemy only to be forced back, his momentum halted and promptly hurled through the air once again as Carnifex channelled more of his arcane might into his sword and with a wide slash that ripped into the walls beside him, unleashed a wave of golden flames. The Black Ranger hit the ground and bounced, rolling before pulling himself into a crouch and ignoring the warnings being displayed across his visor and simply flinging himself into motion again, weaving around a corner and scuttling across the wall and ceiling a fraction of a second before Carnifex deployed his three-barrelled, shoulder mounted cannon from beneath his mechanical left wing and opened fire; ripping through the interior of his own warship in an effort to hunt down his foe.
"DIE WITH HONOUR YOU WORTHLESS WORM!" Carnifex's roars followed Rensa through the bowels of the vessel "YOU WILL NOT DENY ME A PROPER VICTORY!" the Black Ranger was forced to come skidding to a halt and narrowly avoided being blasted apart as his adversary seemed to guess where he was and halted his escape by shooting through the wall ahead of him, cutting off his only route of even a temporary escape.
Rensa realised that there was no choice but to stand and fight.
"Battleizer….Activate" with a slow breath the Black Ranger felt the now familiar surging rush of power that threatened to strip away his senses and overwhelm him as his armour was transformed and bolstered by the power of the device Andros had entrusted to him. The moment the oversized blades had formed on his arms Rensa braced himself and primed the laser batteries fitted into each weapon, being rewarded with the sight of Carnifex bursting through the nearest wall in an explosion of molten metal an instant later. Rensa opened fire and staggered the crimson-scaled tyrant for just long enough to begin his counter-attack, propulsion system of the Battleizer screaming into life as he lunged forwards in a blur of darkness; the blade on his left arm batting his opponents' sword aside before his right ripped into the surface of Carnifex's mechanical arms, damaging them both but not enough to disable them and so Rensa continued, a spinning kick sent the Acheron hybrid backwards and the Black Ranger pressed his appearance by driving his opponents' skull into the ground before Carnifex simply belched a jet of white hot flames to force Rensa back.
"This is what I wanted!" Carnifex declared as the two of them circled one another, weapons at the ready as they searched for another opening. Rensa realised that continuing to battle Carnifex in his own domain would be an error of judgement and so braced himself once more as a plan of action formed in his mind. Seeing the subtle shift of his weight as an opening Carnifex burst forwards with his sword held at the ready and prepared to impale Rensa through the chest only for the Black Ranger to duck under the attack and seize his opponent by the waist and force all of the power at his disposal into the thrusters mounted on his back.
And then he leapt.
The two of them hurtled upwards, tearing through a dozen or more decks before bursting out into the darkness of the night sky, lit from below by fires that continued to rage even as a torrential rain fell upon them; grappling and trading blows in the air until finally Carnifex managed to free himself and blast Rensa away with a wave of golden fire.
They continued to fall, Rensa being entirely unafraid as he knew that his Battleizer would allow him land with relative ease; what was important was that his ploy had worked.
Though now the two of them would do battle in the burning remains of the city itself.
"What the hell is wrong with these Putties? They look like they shouldn't have made it passed the Empire's quality control!" Marigold called out as she sent one of the offending automatons' toppling over the edge of the canyon with a powerful straight punch to the chest.
"I'm not exactly complaining about it!" Mercy called back, distracted by her own adversaries as she, Marigold and Aslaug continued to surround and defend Aye-Anor from the warped and deformed Putties that continued to assault them as the speaker for the Great Conclave used his magic to douse the flames raging in the canyon below by creating an unnatural deluge.
Marigold returned her attention to the matter at hand, namely a small group of Putties consisting of two of the warbling things' whose bodies had been partially melted and softened to the consistency of wet clay, the first having a face contorted into a wailing scream as its' jaw sank and collapsed whilst the others' limbs had been drawn out and contorted by gravity; another pair of Putties whose bodies had been fused into a single two-headed mass and finally a Putty whose stony hide was cracked flaking and glowed faintly with an ominous green light that triggered warning messages across the Gold Ranger's visor.
With the tailcoat of her armour trailing behind her Mari rushed into combat and engaged the glowing, likely irradiated Putty first and sent it crashing backwards with a spinning heel kick to the gut, deciding to keep it away from Aye-Anor who lacked the advantages of Ranger armour before destroying as it struggled to rise again, her elbow breaking the central plate of its' torso and causing it to shatter with a flash of green light and outpouring of noxious green smog that burned and scorched pristine white and gold of her armour, proving her suspicions correct. From there she lunged back into battle and drove a fist into each of the partially melted Putties only to be shocked when neither of them crumpled under the blows, her fists instead simply sinking into their soften forms until; with her frown of annoyance turning into one of grim determination she manifested her Buster Pistols inside the automatons warped forms and opened fire, the oversized pistols blasting the Putties apart from within and allowing the Gold Ranger to target the last of her opponents, the pair of monstrously conjoined Putties which weathered a barrage of laser-fire as the two circular Z plates it possessed had been fused and merged. Eventually Mari's pistols vanished in twin flashes of golden light and instead she simply charge and delivered a powerful kick to the things' torso, shattering it and sending its' rapidly collapsing remains over the edge of the canyon; allowing her to take a moment to gather her wits before realising that her fellow Rangers were still keeping Putties at bay.
Aslaug was as always an absolute force of Nature, the Yellow Aegis Ranger simply planting herself between the warbling troupe of ruined and malformed constructs and Aye-Anor and daring them to defy her.
Naturally the Putties, unintelligent as they were had accepted the challenge and even now the half a dozen of the pitiful things that remained shambled across the rain slicked and uneven surface of the stony canyon in attempt to fulfil whatever purpose they had been given. The first to fall was a truly grotesque thing, its' body formed of several others that had been melted into one another to leave it a flailing mass of tangled limbs that sported three faces forced onto a single skull, a skull that was promptly cleaved away in a single mighty swing of Aslaug's axe before she tore the thing in half vertically with an earth shaking downward slash which proved to be enough to finally destroy the thing entirely. The sense of victory was short-lived however as another Putty, this one seemingly without any of the horrific damage or odd defects that this batch seemed to be suffering from rushed towards Aye-Anor from the side.
"NO!" the Yellow Ranger bellowed, storming towards the thing which managed to narrowly avoid a swing of her axe aimed at its' face but failed to avoid her follow up assault which came in the form of a boot to the chest which shattered the Putties' body entirely; leaving four of the chattering constructs remaining, each of them sporting flaking and crumbling hides and odd protrusions that could best be described as mould-lines and flash that had been left in place when the things had first been made.
"Aslaug, heads up!" Mercy's voice gave Aslaug all the warning she needed to hold her axe out with its' blade flat so that the smaller woman could use its' surface as a springboard and launch herself into the midst of the Putties, flooring the first as she somersaulted and brought her heel down on its' skull as she landed before manifesting her katana in a pulse of light and cutting her adversaries down in a blur of motion so rapid that the naked eye could barely follow it, plunging her sword through the chests of three Putties in quick succession.
The final Putty, the one Mercy had floored exploded as a bolt of lightning streaked down from the sky and reduced it to a blackened mass of smouldering debris.
"I am no warrior, I am old and I am injured….But never let it be said that I am defenceless" Aye-Anor rumbled, the exhaustion in his voice causing the three Aegis Rangers protecting him to turn and take in just how frail he looked with his robes clinging to his body, soaked by the storm he had created and left shivering in the cold as he clutched the arm that had been injured in the previous assault only hours ago to his body.
"Are you okay?" Mercy asked carefully
"I will live" Aye-Anor assured him "And I have done what I can here, my place is with the rest of my people….Go, find your allies"
"We won't abandon you" Aslaug growled "We don't know what else survived from the Empire's ship-" the Yellow Ranger fell silent as her words became almost prophetic, the sound of shrieking and tearing metal filling the air as something that resembled a shooting star erupted out from within it before breaking apart and revealing itself to be two figures, locked in combat
"Guys" Marigold breathed out, suddenly terrified "That's Rensa"
"You're certain you can make it back to your people safely" Mercy whispered, Aye-Anor gave her a silent nod of confirmation and she quickly turned her attention back towards the two falling figures and upon realising with a stab of fear exactly who it was that Rensa was fighting made a decision
"We'll re-establish contact with the others on the way!" she called out, already in motion and preparing to leap into the canyon "Come on! We're helping Rensa!"
Tempestus had regretted leaving with two, admittedly attractive and dominant females that had wanted in his attention from the moment he had become clear that another attack was underway; he had been entirely unable to contact or locate Marigold who he had been previously.
Though in the panic and confusion that had followed he had managed to rejoin with Panthera and Kay as the Pink and Green Aegis Rangers aided the City Guard in corralling the terror-stricken populace towards safety and desperately tried to stop them from trampling one another in the press of bodies before, at the request of the leader of the City Guard whom Panthera and Kay had assisted earlier venturing further out into subterranean areas of the city that were located within the bowels of the canyon, the City Guard following the trio of Rangers as they searched for any civilians who were yet to flee.
"Do you see anything?" Tempestus asked, twirling his staff in a display of tense agitation.
"Nothing on thermal sensors" Kay answered, the Green Ranger using one of the many of features of their armour to search for anyone too injured, elderly or simply stubborn to evacuate whilst beside them Panthera relied on the heightened senses of her species
"I don't hear anything….but there's a lot of structural damage here; I'm guessing we're close to the outer wall" the Pink Ranger noted as she gestured to several massive pillars, each sculpted with larger than life depictions of figures from the history of Furrous that held up the roof of the vast, cavernous marketplace that they were taking a shortcut through; several large cracks and webs of fissures ran through each pillar and the Rangers had already encountered places where the street or entire layer of the city above had collapsed and fallen downwards and the idea of being caught in such a collapse was a thoroughly unpleasant one.
"Stay alert" Tempestus called back to the City Guard, they had encountered Putties already; pitiful and wretched looking things that were far below the Empires' usual standards but resilient nonetheless and if there were any more of the chattering automatons nearby then the sound of the metallic armour worn by the native defenders would certainly alert them.
"We are close to the next communal housing district, turn left and we can make our way through these narrower passages" one of the City Guard called out, louder than any of the Rangers present would have liked though they prepared to take the offered shortcut all the same
"Kay, cover me" Panthera instructed quietly as she manifested her curved blades only to realise that the darkened alley was too narrow to hurl the weapons in their combined form should something attack her, instead she simply kept the weapons in her hands and at the ready as ran and leapt, leaping from one wall to the other in a series of vaulting pounces until, midway through the surprisingly long alleyway she was brought off-balance and crashing to the ground as something grasped at her ankle. Lashing out the Pink Ranger saw that it was a lone Putty, the malformed and ruined thing dragging itself across the ground with its' legs and entire lower half a twisted and unrecognisable mass of lumpen sludge that stained the ground behind it whilst its' face was twisted and distorted. Panthera slashed at the thing with her blades and tore deep gouges into its' back and skull yet failed to destroy the warbling automaton as it simply lay face down on the ground and protected its' chest until she let out a low growl and simply leapt up and perched precariously on the wall to allow her partner a clear shot.
"Kay, light it up!" she called out and the Green Ranger complied with question, a brief rushing of air preceding the lancing blast of emerald light that tore through the Putty and reduced its' already ruined form to a mass of molten slag which quickly cooled and hardened enough to be shattered as Panthera landed on its' back in a crouch.
Just in time to realise the mistake that they had made.
"We have incoming!" Tempestus yelled out in warning as the unmistakable chattering of more Putties was joined by the thundering of dozens upon dozens of feet made of animated stone; the Putties had been close the entire time, likely prowling through the same communal dwellings that the City Guard had sought to search for evacuees only to be alerted to the Ranger's presence by Kay's attack illuminating everything around them.
Panthera leapt and scurried back towards her friends and the locals that had accompanied them, weaving and dodging Kay's energy based attacks as the Green Ranger opened fire; such was the implicit trust between them that neither was worried about the Pink Ranger being struck. With each flash of light the Putties could be seen drawing closer until Panthera, Kay and Tempestus prepared to rush into the mouth of the alleyway and hold the line only to be stayed by the City Guard Commander placing a hand on the Pink Ranger's shoulder
"We will not stand helpless and watch you suffer for us" she asserted before barking orders out to those under her command "Shields at the ready! Seal their path and push them back!" the City Guard rushed into action without hesitation, laying their shields atop, beside and in front of one another to create an impromptu barricade before each of the guards turned to their Commander who gave a single nod. Many of the people of Furrous were born with and harnessed innate magic, including each of the Guards currently present and at her command they began channelling their magic towards her in steams of golden light which coalesced and swirled around her, the moment being granted a sense of tremendous urgency by the sound of stone fists hammering against metal as the Putties threw themselves against the shield wall until finally, with a roar of exertion the guards managed to force the Putties back a fraction of an inch before pulling their shields aside and allowing their Commander to rush forth. The Rangers watched as her body glowed like a miniature sun and she unleashed a pulse of blinding, fiery light that utterly obliterated the flailing automatons as she collided with them, unleashing power that was, for at least a brief moment equal to what the Rangers themselves could wield and ending the battle.
Though it was not without consequence.
"GET CLEAR!" the Guard Commander screamed as she realised a moment too late, that her attack had heated the walls around her to such an extent that they were beginning to weaken and that the roof and thus the layer of the city above them was about to come crashing down.
As the first enormous slabs of rock began to fall the Commander made peace that whilst short her life had been a good one and she had witnessed things not seen by her people for generations yet a moment before seemingly inevitable demise could come the firs slab of rock was torn asunder by a bolt of emerald light and reduced to smaller fragments that her allies, exhausted as they were could redirect with their magic
"You're safe with us!" the Green Ranger declared, adding their own arcane abilities; focused and enhanced by their armour as much as their reflexes and physical abilities to the struggle, forcing rubble aside or simply crushing it into clouds of dust that hung in the air.
Until a lone Putty, body still glowing from where it had been melted by the Commander's attack charged, flailing and letting out a warbling scream as it bolted towards Kay; whatever limited intelligence it possessed compelling it to attack and kill the strongest magical presence it could find.
Before it could reach them a streak of silver light manifested between the Putty and the defenders and a single beam of light tore through the Putty, ending it instantly.
"Rangers, what's your situation?" Zhane asked without preamble, the Silver Astro making no effort to lower the weapon he had destroyed the Putty with even as the strike team he was leading, comprised of several dozen fighters from a variety of planets and species in a display which stunned the people of Furrous teleported into position around him.
"Searching for civilians that were yet to evacuate" Tempestus explained, Zhane nodded and turned to the Commander
"You'll have to make do with one Power Ranger I'm afraid, but my soldiers and I are at your disposal"
"What's going on?" Panthera demanded
"We've re-established contact with Mercy" Zhane explained "Carnifex is here, Rensa is already engaging and the others are moving to assist" hearing that the Blue, Pink and Green Aegis Rangers were stunned into silence for a moment before Tempestus spoke up, deciding that there was only one thing that could be said.
"Then we should find them immediately"
Carnifex and Rensa threw themselves at one another yet again, both warriors letting out primal roars of uncontrollable fury.
Time slowed to almost complete irrelevancy as the Black Ranger rocketed through streets that were already ablaze and in a state of utter ruination, leaping over and around his opponent in a dozen or more feints and diversions with a contrail of pure, opaque blackness trailing behind him and blocked more and more of Carnifex's surroundings from view with each pass until he was trapped in a seemingly impenetrable void until the darkness shifted and rippled before being blown away entirely by the force of the Black Ranger's attack. Carnifex turned and stabbed at his opponent yet it was to no avail as Rensa simply leapt and bounded across the length of his blade on all fours like an animal before flinging himself into a backflip that brought his foot crashing into the underside of the Acheron hybrids' jaw and as the Black Ranger, still in his higher morphed state sailed back through the air whilst inverted he pointed the weapons mounted on his forearms towards Carnifex, who saw the gathering light in the barrels of those weapons but was powerless to resist as he torn from the ground and blasted backwards through several already crumbling and burning buildings by the force of the impact.
He was on his feet a moment later however, sword in hand and golden eyes wild but alert as he scanned his surroundings. The two of them had managed to control their fall and landed away from the deep trench that the Draco-Ocidendum had torn into the city as it had crashed and though Carnifex were in the midst of a blood filled fury and quest for vengeance, vindication and the restoration of his honour the true goal that Lord Zedd had set him was not as far from his thoughts as it seemed, the most recently deployed of the tracking beacons he had used to co-ordinate his crash landing was close by and the artefact he had been sent to retrieve could not be far away; with that in mind the draconian warrior committed himself to tearing his way through the flames and rubble until he found his prize.
Butchering the Black Ranger would only make the victory sweeter.
The world around his was in flames, though to a native of the world of Wyvern such things were of little concern; the explosions from within his once feared warship and the countless buildings it had carved through and simply unmade spreading rapidly and sending the local populace running for their lives. Currently Carnifex stood where he had come to rest after the Black Ranger's last attack, in the remains of what might have been any number of things that the warlord neither considered nor cared for, the stage behind him and rows of seating he had smashed through being deemed unimportant as movement in the fire indicated that another attack was coming.
Rensa burst through the flames with the howl of a wild animal unleashing itself upon its' prey an instant later and Carnifex responded with equal ferocity; first unleashing his magic not as flames but as a wave of sheer concussive force, a bubble of golden light rushing outwards and pressurising the air so much that the Black Ranger audibly choked and gasped as the air was forced from his lungs and his momentum was unceremoniously snatched away.
Then the counter-attack began.
Carnifex moved with unmatched speed and ferocity, his sword flashing out in a series of slashes that sent obsidian coloured sparks flying out from the points of impact as Rensa blocked with his blades as was forced back one hard-fought step at a time until Carnifex span and delivered an open-palmed strike with his left hand, its' metallic surface glowing and smoking with the hateful magic forced into the blow; hitting Rensa square in the chest and flinging the Black Ranger out of the ruined building they fought in. The Black Ranger charged again, savage and unrestrained as always as he brought the blades mounted on his forearms together with the clear intent to gut his opponent, Carnifex gave the closest thing to a smile that his monstrous visage would allow and held his sword aloft before stabbing downwards.
Impaling Rensa's blades and holding the Black Ranger in place.
"And now you die!" the Acheron hybrid exclaimed, unfurling the cannon hidden beneath his mechanical left wing and preparing to shoot the beaten adversary knelt and bowed before him in their exposed back, only for Rensa to let out a guttural snarl and force every ounce of power at his disposal into the propulsion system of his Battleizer and send himself hurtling forwards and crashing into Carnifex who was flung backwards in an explosion of darkness yet rolled to a stop and leapt to his feet largely unarmed, eyes narrowing at the sight that greeted him.
The Black Ranger's Battleizer had failed and they had returned to their regular morphed state, Carnifex's sword however had been destroyed entirely.
"A worthy sacrifice" he snarled, wings unfurling as he prepared to launch himself at his nemesis and kill the Black Ranger with his own two mechanical hands, an ending to their vendetta that would, in all likelihood be more satisfying; before he could surge forth however the battle cry he had intended to let out died on the tip of his tongue as a series of golden beams of light and emerald green bursts of raw power lanced and tore through the space he occupied, forcing him to leap aside and recover just in time to see a weapon formed of two curved blades ripping through the air around the Black Ranger as a final barrier.
Then the Aegis Rangers strode through the fire.
The Red Ranger, their leader and the one with whom Carnifex should rightly have had this feud and The Green Ranger, the traitorous bastard of Lord Zedd flanked the Black Ranger with the Yellow and Pink Rangers beside them and the Blue and Gold Rangers flanking them in turn; a moment of tense silence passing between them until Rensa managed to drag himself to his feet despite his clear weariness and the way his shoulders sagged, manifesting his daggers and bracing himself whilst the others followed his example, all seven of them standing with their weapons at the ready
"This ends here and now Carnifex!" it was the Red Ranger who spoke yet the crimson-scaled warriors' eyes never left the Black Ranger, boring into eyes hidden beneath a visor and giving Rensa a slight nod of recognition as he answered
"Indeed it does"
Authors' Notes:
So, we're now two thirds of the way through our mid-season finale….And oh boy do we have a fight to remember.
Two chapters left to go for Arc 15, and then things are gonna go crazy.
Also, I'm writing this on Christmas Eve but if I've worked it out right this will be the first chapter of 2021 so, Happy New Year and lets hope it's a better one for everyone and if I misjudged when I post this then all I can say is….."Hi"
I feel like there's something I should say here but I've got no idea what, oh well.
But anyway, let's summarise shall we?:
The last time there was so much magical interference that comms didn't work was on Unus….let that sink in.
When Carnifex breached the magical cloaking field there was a piece of the planet and its' atmosphere visible from the outside for a moment.
Yeah the Draco-Ocidendum is completely gone now, but also it didn't crash into the city, it crashed through it and basically scraped a good chunk of it out of the ground.
Aye-Anor was definitely the MVP here, just casually putting the weather to use.
"Not everybody" could have had a lot more tension if it wasn't pretty clear that I hadn't killed any Rangers off-screen.
Rensa pulled out some Assassin's Creed level nonsense.
Yeah the fact that there was nobody there would honestly be scarier than a horde of enemies rushing at him.
Of course Carnifex is still there and of course we're having a showdown.
Y'know Rensa never did really test the Battleizer out against Carnifex on Unus, only his Knights and they weren't Acheron hybrids like Carnifex is.
And now they're taking it outside, for reasons.
The wrecked Putties aren't specially made, if anything they're just a show of how limited Carnifex's supplies have been but it was nice to play them for body horror.
Ah the generic Putty fight scene of the arc and the trademark Mercy + Aslaug axe-blade springboard combo.
Remember that the Rangers don't actually know that Carnifex killed his own crew.
Of course they saw Rensa and Carnifex fighting, they wouldn't have left Aye-Anor otherwise.
I was originally gonna have Tempestus be part of Mercy's group but decided against it.
Having the Rangers working alongside local defence to search and rescue civilians and coordinate evacuations was something I wanted to show, they're primarily a rapid response and lightning strike but they can do other things.
That first Putty was basically that one Zombie with no legs in every Zombie film.
The alleyway attack was basically the product of me re-watching the Warhammer 40k fan-project "Astartes".
Also having the locals do something felt important.
Zhane ex Machina….Although it was already stated that he was on the way so it's not really a cop-out.
Carnifex vs Battleizer Rensa in a burning and ruined city is the kind of boss fight we deserve, on par with Neo vs Agent Smith in the last fight of the Matrix Trilogy.
That zigzag attack was based loosely on Kamen Rider Zero One's Shining Hopper form Rider Kick.
So Carnifex is looking for the most recently activated beacon, which would be the one that Canis was carrying….What else was Canis carrying that was taken somewhere for safekeeping that Carnifex could use?
Rensa has the raw power but Carnifex had the experience and basically forced him to tear his own Battleizer armour apart to avoid a killing blow; the Battleizer itself is still functional he just won't be able to activate is again for the remainder of this fight.
And now the other Rangers are here; which is why I had to get rid of Rensa's power-up….as good as Carnifex is a seven on one fight where one of them is powered up that much really has no stakes.
Thank you to Blue Legends for their review on the last chapter.
Yeah….Unfortunately heart warming hours are over as you can see.
As always thank you to everyone that reads this, with a special thanks to those of you that follow, favourite and review
