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Chapter 74 – City Of Lost Souls
The explosion of the Ultrazord had been cataclysmic; Mercy had seen the war-machines' final moments from her perched position from a bridge within the mass of twisting and interlinked spires that was the Acheron city as each of the individual Zords' reactors went critical in the same moment; the power of the Morphing Grid that coursed through the titanic machine being converted into raw, explosive force and consuming the Dweller-Zord in the miniature sun that ripped it apart and in turn caused a secondary detonation which sent a mushroom cloud high into the cursed and perpetually blackened sky of Acheron before a shock-wave surged out from the epicentre where now only a barren wasteland remained.
A shock-wave that had reached deeper into the city.
Mercy had barely a moment to brace herself before being buffeted by the concussive force that flung her across the bridge that her emergency ejection had brought her to and sent plummeting downwards though before she could reach the ground far below her fall was broken by the presence of another bridge; the entirety of the city seeming to be some obscene three dimensional web or maze of walkways, towers and shanty towns forming in the back-alleys and other spaces between them. Catching a railing and using it to fling herself onto this bridge Mercy had simply bolted blindly and without thinking, being beset almost immediately by the Empires' forces in the form of local enforcers whose weapons and body armour made it cleat that they were far superior to the authorities that she and her team-mates had fought elsewhere in the Empire and the flood of Putties that accompanied them. Mercy had manifested her katana and slashed her way through scores of opponents before realising that she was simply too outnumbered and would eventually be overwhelmed before breaking off and continuing to run through the sprawling and incomprehensible metropolis in an effort to lose her attackers.
Thus far it was not working.
"Oh come on!" she hissed through gritted teeth, breathing coming in ragged pants despite the power she channelled in her morphed state as a fresh group of enemies presented themselves ahead of her. Mercy had found herself on yet another walkway between massive towers whose purpose she was unsure of yet now she was only a few stories from the ground with plasma, laser and photon beams along with other more esoteric projectiles whizzing over her shoulders and narrowly missing her helmet as the enemies being her continued to shoot and now a lone alien warrior stood ahead of her at the end of the bridge and barked orders to the Putties that proceeded to barricade it; sturdily built and wide-set things far larger than the average Putty and whose entire left arms had been sculpted to resemble some sort of spiked and studded riot shield.
Yet Mercy continued to press onwards
"Let's see how tough you really are" she snarled, her challenge coinciding with the crimson blade that trailed behind her as she ran beginning to glow as she focused all of the power the Morphing Grid granted her into a single attack that she hoped would cleave through the Putties with ease.
The Empire forces had other ideas however, revealing their plans to be more thorough than simply piling on their foes as a lone aircraft rose into view, a swept forward and crescent shaped thing with a lone pilot whom Mercy could see cackling maniacally as their vehicles under-slung weapons targeted her and the Red Ranger realised that she had been effectively corralled into place and led into a killing field.
Then the aircraft's engines exploded in a fireball and the thing lurched forwards.
Mercy had only a fraction of a second to glance over the bridge and realise that several stories below her Panthera and Marigold faced off against their own swarms of Putties and that it was the Gold Ranger who had shot the aircraft and then she was forced to act; running and leaping over the edge of the bridge and narrowly avoiding the aircraft as it spiralled and crashed into its' surface and ploughed through those same Empire soldiers Mercy had been surrounded by.
"Thanks for the assist" Mercy panted out as she landed in a crouch, the fall doing nothing more than jarring her nerves a little
"You can thank me by helping clear these Putties out" Mari answered as the pistols in her palms shattered and dissolved into fragments of shimmering golden light before she turned her attention towards a trio of Putties that were, thankfully of the standard model and variety rather than any specialised kind. The three warbling automatons rushed at the, piling in and attempting to surround their target only for the Gold Ranger to charge directly at the Putty in the centre and deliver a punishing left handed jab to its' face that sent it reeling before hurriedly following up with a right fist and spinning left elbow strike to the centre of its' torso to crush the circular Z plate which anchored the magic animating it. As the first putty crumbled Marigold turned her attention to the second, continuing the motion of her spin and using its' momentum to launch a crescent kick into the constructs' skull before crouching low to avoid its' flailing retaliation and delivering a truly brutal haymaker to its' torso that left fragments skittering across the ground. With her muscles coiled the Gold Ranger launched herself into the air as the third Putty attempted to rush at her from behind, throwing herself into a wild but effective spinning heel kick that utterly halted its' advance before taking its' skull between her palms and forcing its' body down as she drove her knee upwards; shattering the Putty with a single devastating blow.
Mercy wasted no time on watching her team-mates work and simply busied herself with singing out and dealing with Putties herself; a task made easy as a group of four of them charged towards her and without hesitation the Red Ranger rushed forth to meet them, dropping low to the ground and sweeping the legs of the first construct to reach her before following up by driving her elbow into its' chest with the full weight of her body the instant it struck the floor. Her sword was still in her grasp and a second Putty was felled a moment later as it attempted to loom over the Red Ranger only to be bisected from armpit to opposite shoulder as she flung herself back to her feet with a graceful and athletic spin which she carried into a flipping and acrobatic kick that struck the shoulder of another Putty, dragging it to the ground where Mercy promptly stomped on its' back with enough forced to crush the central Z plate of its' chest. Only a single Putty of the former quartet remained and it charged, flailing with reckless abandon; Mercy's katana vanished in a shower of fiery red particles and she needed only a moment to centre herself before falling into the comfortingly familiar motion of a spinning roundhouse kick that tore through the Putty entirely, breaking its' body in half before the severed pieces began to disintegrate.
Panthera hadn't ceased fighting Putties of her own even with Mercy's arrival and had instead focused her attention on the task at hand; her dedication being rewarded as another two Putties were shattered in a single motion when she vaulted off a nearby wall and delivered a wide and two-footed drop kick that crushed their torsos before quickly rolling to a stop and lunging upwards as another chattering automaton made to drive its' foot into her, her arm wrapped around the back of the things' thigh before she grabbed its' hip and trapped it' leg over her shoulder so that when she stood it was forced backwards and toppled; a single strike could have ended the thing there and then but instead the Pink Ranger saw a group of four Putties rushing towards her, limbs thrashing wildly and so she simply threw her captive construct with all of her might so that its' body shattered theirs on impact and then without warning she manifested her twin curved blades and combined them into the form she used as a ranged weapon. Those Putties that had not been felled by the initial collision were cut down as the spinning blades ripped through them as the Pink Ranger launched it into their midst.
"Come on" Mercy panted out upon seeing the last of the Putties be brought down "We need a plan, we need to regroup….I think I can still find the others on my HUD"
Marigold and Panthera trudged over to her, the three Aegis Rangers ducking into a shadowy crevice in the enormous form of a nearby building and took stock of their surroundings; they had found themselves in an area that could almost be described as normal, something that vaguely resembled a market place that had taken up residence in one of the less claustrophobic streets at ground level though the civilians had long since abandoned it, fleeing for their lives in response to the Power Rangers presence and their furious retaliation from the local enforcers that it would bring.
A realisation which gave Panthera pause
"We need to find a way to move safely through this city" she noted "Otherwise we're gonna be fighting every step of the way, this is the Empire's seat of power and they're not gonna let us just walk around-"
"REBEL SCUM SIGHTED!" the bellowing voice that proved Panthera's assertion correct belonged to an armed and armoured enforcer with a scaly blue hide, all but screaming into a headset from their position several dozen feet away where they had rounded a corner and stumbled upon them.
"REBELS SIGHTED! ON MY POSITION, BRING REINFORCEMENTS!" they continued to yell and Marigold had already begun to manifest her Buster Pistols yet before she or her friends could truly act they were treated to the sight of a dark, emaciated looking shape peeling away from the ambient darkness of the city and pouncing on the warriors' back; legs locking around their torso and arms around their neck choking them until finally with a single, violent jerking motion the aliens' neck snapped and as they fell limply to the ground Mercy, Marigold and Panthera were shocked to realise the identity of their rescuer.
Rensa, in his natural and unmorphed state.
"Holy….Oh my God what are you doing Rensa? The atmosphere here-" Mercy's panicked interrogation was brought to a halt as the Black Ranger raised a hand and flashed a menacing, toothy smile
"I can breathe it" he informed them gently "Remember, I was raised on an Empire Prison World" the revelation stunned them for a moment, though when Mercy had processed it properly she found herself smiling beneath her helmet as she realised that there was hope after all.
"Okay, I'll locate the others on my HUD and Rensa you can scout ahead….the locals won't recognise you as a Power Ranger. Mari cover him, Panthera keep an eye open for anything you think we can use" and with a plan in mind the four Rangers slunk into the shadows of the city, this time moving towards a destination rather than simply fleeing.
Tempestus and Aslaug had been lucky in that their emergency ejections had seen them landing in the seemingly endless city relatively close to one another, allowing them to join forces relatively quickly however that fortune was given balance by the fact that they had also found themselves in an extremely visible and open location. The pair had met in a vast, open and almost perfectly circular raised dais around which the streets had been arranged and the many buildings which rose from the endless sea of ramshackle and older, dilapidated structures that grew around them like fungus; the countless screens displaying messages and what appeared to b advertisements in the glyph like script of the Empires' common language gave the place the feel of some sort of central plaza, or a town square that had been dwarfed as the city grew around it and the age old blood stains littering the ground seemed to lend some credence to the notion as it such a place seemed the most likely venue for the Empire to stage its' public executions.
Naturally Aslaug and Tempestus's reunion had not gone unnoticed by the forces defending the city and the two had quickly found themselves locked in a battle that was still taking place, the Blue and Yellow Aegis Rangers being surrounded by a ring of Putties with armoured hides, more robust frames and a thick riot-shield in place of a functioning left hand and forearm which the chattering and warbling things used as blunt cudgels as they charged, a few at a time in an obvious effort to keep the two of them occupied.
"I know you think fighting like this is radical Aslaug, but it would probably be more tubular for us to motor out of here" Tempestus noted between strikes, panting with exertion made all the more laborious by the lack of rest and water that he was suffering from but still seeing the Putties attacks for what they were.
"Agreed" Aslaug growled out simply, whilst outwardly the battle may resemble some honour duel held in the circular arena dedicated to such rituals in the centre of her tribes' home on Mirinoi she was no fool and understood that they were being corralled into place so that the inevitable Empire reinforcements could pick them off with ease.
With that in mind she returned her focus to the task of rampaging through Putties.
A trio broke away from the steadily thinning circular barrier of automatons that formed both a crows and boundary to rush towards the Yellow Ranger who readied her axe and charged; greeting the first Putty with a carefully measured blow to the shield-arm it covered its' torso with which left the blade of her weapon embedded and anchored in its' surface, allowing her to drag the Putty off balance before ripping her axe free and using its' shaft to sweep the automatons' legs, its' limbs flailed and thrashed as it fell and before it could right itself of protect itself properly she had brought her axed crashing down onto its' chest for a finishing blow. From there the remaining two Putties of the group attacked the Yellow Ranger again and Aslaug momentarily abandoned her axe which remained sunken into the ground after ripping through its' last victim; the first of the pair to reach her was halted with a front kick that reduced its' shield to a web of cracks before the towering woman seized the thing by the back of it's head and drove its' face down onto the edge of its' own shield with enough force to leave what ever primitive intellect the Putty had dazed and stunned whilst she followed up by stepping into its' guard and forcing its' shield-arm away from its' body with a backhanded right and then drove her lift fist through its' body entirely. Before she could savour the victory the remaining Putty reached her and swung its' shield as if it were a mace, the blow was far from enough to harm her in her Morphed state and clattered harmlessly off her armour but in response Aslaug took advantage of the constructs' wide and open stance following its' strike, looping one arm over its' shoulder and the other around its' hip to pick the Putty up and after a moment of grappling bodily slam it into the ground where it remained as she retrieved her axe and ended their bout with another decisive blow.
Tempestus had found himself engaged with a trio of Putties of his own that had similarly broken away from the constructs' rapidly thinning rank in an effort to subdue him and the Blue Ranger laid the first of them low by waiting for the wild and telegraphed wing of its' shield and leaping and kicking out, using the blunt object as a springboard to flip backwards and land in a crouch; from there he sprung upwards as the Putty threw another savage strike with its' more conventional limb and at the perfect moment he seized the things' wrist and pivoted, using the Putties' own momentum and his own body as leverage to send it crashing to the ground which he followed up by launching himself into a somersault which ended with him landing with his knee shattering the chest of his downed opponent. The two remaining Putties were not content to wait however and simply charged, limbs flailing as they did so and in response to their threat Tempestus manifested his staff in a pulse of deep blue light; holding the weapon lengthways as he burst forwards and struck both of his attackers' shields to bring them to halt before flipping over his own weapon and kicking at the legs of the Putty to his right as he landed behind them, once the first automaton had fallen the Blue Ranger was free to swing his staff in a wide arc to floor the second and dispatch his downed opponents with precise blows to the central portion of their torsos delivered in quick succession.
It seemed it was not enough however as the sound of dozens of pairs of booted feet filled the air.
"We're going to have to fight through-Wait!" Aslaug's voice was urgent but hushed and Tempestus quickly sought out the source of her evident shock.
Dozens of Empire soldiers had, as expected come bounding into the plaza the two of them had been corralled into, clad in light and clearly cheaply made but reliable armour and whilst many of them carried simple laser weapons and a collection of improvised melee weapons a small group of them were wheeling what looked to be sort sort of artillery piece into position yet this was not the source of Aslaug's alarm and Tempestus's eyes widened when he saw what his friend had; within the mass of bodies was tall and athletic figure with unnaturally spiked hair whose ebony colour faded to snowy white at its' tips and whose eyes were an impossibly vivid pink set against black sclera
Kay winked at them.
"Dragonzord!" the Green Aegis Ranger morphed and in an instant chaos reigned; the Putties seemed unsure of how to act now that enemies were on both sides of the containment that they had been sent to put in place and more than half of what the Blue and Yellow Aegis Rangers had assumed to be Empire soldiers or local enforcers were revealed to be rebels and insurgents as they turned the artillery piece on the warbling automatons whilst those who were indeed loyal to Lord Zedd found themselves beset by both Kay and their own supposed allies.
Aslaug watched the madness unfold until a long Empire loyalist broke away from the bloody press of bodies that their arrival had been reduced to and charged, screaming and readying a crude and makeshift axe as they came hurtling towards her.
And then they fell, limp and motionless with blood pooling beneath them as a single flash of crimson passed in front of Aslaug.
"Sorry I'm late" Mercy, despite all odds managed some semblance of cheer as she landed in a crouch beside Aslaug, Katana still held at the ready. Aslaug glanced around and saw that an unmorphed Rensa was lurking in the shadows close by whilst Panthera and Marigold were making their way towards Kay and Tempestus respectively to ensure that they were unharmed.
"It's good to see you" Aslaug breathed out, allowing herself to relax if only a fraction with the knowledge that her friends and Mercy in particular were safe "Kay was unmorphed, should we be concerned for their health?"
"They're an Acheron hybrid, they can breathe here; so can Rensa" Mercy noted before beginning to make her way towards the Green Ranger and the allies they had made "Come on"
"Cousin!" Kay exclaimed upon greeting them "These are members of a resistance cell Karone founded, some of them were on Harrow Four" the mention of the world that the Aegis Rangers had acted on previously caught Mercy off-guard and in the brief silence one of the rebels, a thin greyish alien whom the Red Ranger assumed was female stepped forward and spoke.
"Karone always intended a strike on Acheron itself, your Zords' arrival and the fleets Lord Zedd is gathering here forced us to accelerate our plans; you can help us, you can attack the palace directly-"
"What about your people at the weapons batteries?" Mercy asked "The Empire is already sending people to deal with them"
"A diversion, sacrifices will be made but less than the enemy hopes" the alien rebel chuckled darkly "Charlie Morales told us about a near-sentient technological virus she used against a base once, Acheron in origin….we used something similar" at this the original five Aegis Rangers paled beneath their armour, each of them remembering the incident in question with sickening clarity.
"So what's your plan?" Panthera asked hesitantly "You give us a distraction and we fight our way into Lord Zedd's palace to assassinate him?"
"That fleet is being gathered for something" Mercy noted "Even if we can't stop it we might be able to get a message out, Zedd's palace can probably communicate with anywhere in the Empire right? So we find what we can and spread the word to everyone"
"Fighting our way in will be difficult" Aslaug noted in a grim tone that was echoed by her fellow Aegis Rangers as they gathered around
"We can provide you several distractions, we have targets acquired and although our strategic position isn't optimal….We've been waiting for this" the obvious leader of the rebel group's expression morphed into something savage at those words, its' ferocity alone speaking to the generations of torment her people had endured before she added "On our arrival from Harrow Four many of us worked our way into the cities' infrastructure, including waste disposal and sanitation" the idea of something so mundane within such a hellish place seemed almost laughable but upon hearing it Mercy's eyes grew wide and her words became a whisper as she dared to hope
"You know a way into the palace?"
"Possibly" the rebel admitted "We haven't managed to fully assess its' defences or map the area entirely….But I can provide a map that I think will lead you into the palace itself" Mercy was stunned and a quick glance to her team-mates showed, even with their faces hidden by helmets that each of them were in similar states of shock as the idea of a victory that they could never have hoped of before this moment suddenly became a reality.
"Buy us some time" Mercy breathed out before turning to her team "We came here to hit the Empire in a way that they can't ignore….So let's do this"
The Lightspeed Delta Rangers arrived in streaks of brightly coloured light, displaced air whooshing outwards from around them as they teleported.
Their Ranger suits clearly drew heavy influences from the teams of Lightspeed Rangers that had preceded them, each Ranger's armour featuring the customary, loosely X shaped pattern across the torso though instead of solid white it was displayed in black with a white border whilst the belt, gloves and boots of each Ranger's armour were also white. The greatest divergence from these suits and previous Lightspeed teams came in the form of the helmet, each of which featured a sleek, rounded and featureless mouthpiece and a dramatic looking, sweeping and angular visor which wrapped around the sides of the helmet before coming to a halt and the edge of a pair of earpieces that somewhat resembled sirens in place of the traditional shield-like visor of a Lightspeed Ranger. Set on the forehead of each Ranger's helmet, above the visor was a badge which bore the Project Lightspeed insignia in the Ranger's respective colour with a corresponding number between one and five superimposed over it.
It was with no small amount of displeasure that Sky Blake realised that instead of continuing his fathers' legacy as the Red Ranger and presumptive leader of the team he had become the Lightspeed Delta Blue Ranger and bore the designation 'Number Two'
"Oh come on! You, really?" he demanded as he caught sight of the Red Ranger and discerned from their height, build and body language that it was Jack beneath the suit
"Is now really the best time for this conversation?" Z's voice came from beneath the helmet of the Yellow Ranger which by process of elimination meant that Syd was the new Pink Ranger; casting his eyes around his long time friends and comrades who had now become his team-mates Sky saw that Bridge was examining his Green Ranger armour with some mild confusion, which the clairvoyant quickly explained
"Huh….I was thinking it might be black, weird" he shrugged "I wonder if there's a system to which teams get a Green or Black Ranger and-"
"We need to focus guys" Jack interjected, taking a step forwards and gesturing at their surroundings in a way that caused the Lightspeed Delta Rangers to pay attention; the five of them had been teleported to the outskirts of some industrial city and found themselves close to the entrance of a huge building, its' exterior a mass of pipes and chimneys that gave it the appearance of some kind of plant or refinery that had been nominally abandoned and left disused, the perfect place for a criminal such as Broodwing to hide their activities.
"Landors to Mission Control….we're in position"
"Understood" Corcus's bubbling and stoic voice answered in the Red Ranger's earpiece "Be careful, we're almost entirely certain that Broodwing is hiding somewhere in that complex but we don't know where; there's also the matter of whatever weapons and automated defences he has in place-"
"Hold on sir" Jack interrupted as the sound of heavy metallic footsteps thundering towards them reached his ears "I think we just met some of those automated defences….Rangers, get ready!" almost at the exact moment Jack spoke a group of half a dozen humanoid robots came hurrying into view
"Crybots" this time it was Justin Stewart's voice that spoke into the Ranger's helmets "Light infantry from outside of Alliance jurisdiction, a little softer than Putties….you should be able to take 'em"
"Okay, you've got it" Jack answered, forcing himself to sound confident as he examined the robots' bodies which seemed to be made almost entirely of fibrous black bundles of lithe synthetic muscles with sparse metal plating to provide armour to some areas whilst other sections of their bodies were opened to reveal circuitry and other inner workings; their attempts to ape a human form ended with their heads as each Crybot featured a perfectly spherical and slightly too large cranium bearing no features other than three black spaces arranged in a loose triangle to mimic eyes and a mouth.
After a pause of a few seconds where the two sides examined one another the battle began.
"I can handle this!" Sky barked and charged forwards, Jack's warnings and insistence that they should work as a team falling on deaf ears as he convinced himself that not only was he a Power Ranger, he should have been the one to take up his late fathers' mantle and a mere six robots were no challenge to him at all. The Blue Delta Ranger's frustration was transferred into pure force and kinetic energy as he reached the first Crybot and weaved around its' jerky, stuttering motions to deliver a leaping knee-strike to its' torso which warped and pulverised some of the things inner workings before bringing his elbow down onto the back of its' head with enough strength to partially collapse the metal structure and leave the machine sparking and twitching on the ground until it finally stilled. However two more Crybots attacked immediately, proving themselves to have at least a modicum of intelligence as they began working in tandem to block and counter Sky's blows; one parrying his left handed jab and providing the other an opening to deliver a kick to his chest and when Sky attempted to retaliate with a spinning crescent kick both of the machines, communicating through a series of high pitches screeches leapt backwards before rushing in again.
At which point one of them was sent clattering to the ground.
"I've got your back man!" Jack declared as he delivered a slide tackle to the legs of the Crybot and began wrestling with it on the ground, delivering a crushing blow into every opening it presented and leaving Sky with a single opponent left to engage. The machine rushed at him and he responded in kind, striking first with a front kick that buckled the thing entirely and following up by pivoting at the waist to send his elbow crashing into the Crybot's cranium with enough force to leave it misshapen before carrying the motion into a sidestep and taking the now flailing robots' arm and sweeping its' legs to drive it into the ground with a heavy clang.
Finally the initial thrill of becoming a Power Ranger and feeling of anger at being robbed of what he saw as his fathers' legacy subsided and Sky saw that after rushing in his team-mates had been forced to follow him; Jack had finished pulverising the Crybot he had tackled whilst some distance away Z and Bridge were working in perfect synchronisation to bring down another pair, the Green Delta Ranger's limited precognition and acrobatic, unpredictable style of fighting pairing well with the Yellow Delta Ranger's low blows and tackles that had been perfected in the slums of the New-Tech district before she had come to the Aquabase. Syd was close by and whilst she was strong before in her morphed state she was simply a juggernaut, the lone Crybot that stood against her being smashed beyond recognition in just few short blows though before Sky could make his way over to the Pink Delta Ranger he felt Jack's hand on his shoulder
"Don't rush in like that, we'll talk more later….but we're a team, got it?" Sky nodded, grateful for his helmet so that his shame and chagrin could remain hidden; Jack however raised his voice for the entire team to hear "Okay, I think we did okay for a first try but stay alert; we don't know what else is in here. Now let's move out"
With that the Lightspeed Delta Rangers entered Broodwing's hideout and their first mission truly began.
The Aegis Rangers had gratefully accepted the plans, maps and schematics that Karone's rebel cell had been able to give them and had quickly found a way to enter the vast network of tunnels that ran under the immense and sprawling city whilst those same rebels continued to wage their guerilla campaign above them; the incessant sound of weapons, explosions and screaming that reached them informing the Rangers that the battle was still going strong yet doing little to inform them of who was winning; although if they were honest the Aegis Rangers were doubtful that a single resistance cell could withstand the might of Lord Zedd's own personal city guard for very long no matter how well prepared they were.
"We should be close" Mercy breathed out, not daring to raise her voice above the ghost of a whisper and taking care to limit the noise her movements made as much as physically possible as the seven of them pressed onwards through the claustrophobic darkness
"Good" Panthera murmured at the muted volume "There's things living in here" the Pink Aegis Ranger suppressed a shudder at the words. They waded through through waist deep filth that flowed through the cities' drainage and sewer system at pace that created a current strong enough to pull any normal being into its' stinking and poisonous depth, the acrid and sickly coloured steam that rose from the opaque and roiling river of foulness left each of the Rangers grateful for the filtration systems of their helmets and the protection of their armour; said mist, along with the rest of their surroundings was only visible to most of them due to the various features of their helmets acting to counter the oppressive darkness that without the lights of the city seemed even more total here than it had above. Whilst most of the Aegis Rangers were left viewing the narrow tunnels they trudged through and the muck that filled them as a flickering black and white image Rensa and Panthera were capable of seeing in the dark and the Pink Ranger was repulsed by the sight of the things that darted and slithered through the filth.
"We are getting close" Kay noted with a sense of certainty "I can feel it….I can feel the magic in the air"
"Good….if this map doesn't cover anything we'll need to follow your senses" Mercy noted, indicating towards the side of her own helmet where the information had been uploaded before turning to Rensa "Can you get a vantage point? Mari, be ready to fire….there should be an access point nearby and it feels weird that we haven't run into any kind of resistance yet"
"You think they would put guards where they flush their waste?" Aslaug asked, mildly perplexed
"I think in an Empire where you can climb ranks by killing people you don't get to have a dynasty without being cautious" Mercy countered quietly, giving a final nod to Rensa which prompted the Black Ranger to move swiftly to edge of the narrow tunnel and put his natural ability to scale almost any surface to use so that as they continued onwards he was scuttling inverted along the ceiling.
The seven Rangers pressed onwards until the passage of time seemed meaningless, they could have been beneath the city for one hour or several and it would have made little difference to them before finally they came to a halt upon seeing something that they had not expected
"That's a boat, or at least sort of" Mercy stated, gesturing at the floating platform bobbing listlessly on the putrid waves of the drainage system yet held in place by an anchor and the Rangers each quickly and independently came to the same conclusion yet it was Tempestus who said it aloud first
"The rebels said they'd made their way into the sanitation….they must have left this behind"
"I see something ahead" Panthera noted, husky voice becoming breathy with sudden excitement though she still remained as close to a whisper as possible "It's a ladder….I think we just found our way into the palace"
"No, we haven't" Kay sighed, shaking his head almost mournfully "There's an energy field between it and us….it's magical, it feels almost like Lord Zedd himself….like whatever he's doing is using the entire palace as a conduit or an amplifier" as the Green Ranger finished speaking each of their allies, even Rensa who had remained on the ceiling above them took a moment to process the words until Mercy let out a sound of pure frustration and turned to Mari
"Take a shot at it, see what if it holds" the Gold Ranger nodded silently and aimed one of her pistols straight ahead before letting a bolt of light illuminate the pitch darkness of the tunnels only to fizzle out against the field of arcane energy that Kay had sensed, a crackling barrier of crimson that resembled a wall of woven lightning and would certainly be impassable.
"Damn it" Mercy spat before searching for another option and simply trudging towards the floating platform which was fortunately on the Ranger's side of the barrier
"What are you doing?" Mari asked as she and the others began to follow her.
"Seeing if there's anything on here we can use, maybe the crew of this ship had a control for-Oh, oh no"
"What is it?" Panthera hissed, years of honing her instincts telling her that the situation had suddenly devolved; when Mercy remained silent the Pink Ranger made her way to her side and saw what silenced her friend, laying sprawled on the surface of the floating platform was a single figure in torn and blood soaked overalls whose innards were strewn about them after their body had been mauled beyond all recognition
"One of the rebels" Mercy croaked out, sounding very much as though she were struggling to contain the contents of her stomach.
"What did-"
"LOOK OUT!" Rensa's frantic yell reach their ears a fraction of a second before the splash of several forms breaching the surface of the festering water they waded through and both the Red and Pink Aegis Rangers leapt onto the platform just as Rensa leapt down and buried his daggers into the chest of their latest assailant; as the first of the thing crumbled to dust Mercy realised what they were.
Putties.
But not like any she had seen before, these things were hunched and emaciated things with bestial faces, elongated limbs ending in jagged, spindly digits and with flightless vestigial wings gracing their back; these constructs let out piercing screams rather than the usual warbling chatter one would expect and the glow of the blood red eyes seemed to have an animal cunning and ferocity behind it. All in all the things more resembled some sort of gargoyle than a footsoldier
"Oh this is most grody!" Tempestus exclaimed as he batted one of the gargoyle Putties into the nearest wall with his staff, covering Marigold as she opened fire with her pistols to cut down a swathe of the horrific things as they burst from below until Kay unleashed a searing beam of emerald light from their cupped palms.
And seeing the destructive energy being unleashed gave Mercy an idea.
"Kay, Mari! Hold 'em off, everyone else fall back and get onto the platform!" she called out
"They're everywhere Mercy!" Marigold yelled, firing a truly expert shot through the darkness that sailed over Mercy's shoulder to puncture the chest of a gargoyle as it burst from the filthy water behind the Red Ranger and the platform she and Panthera stood.
"We'll do it!" Kay interjected, manifesting the Dragon Blade and bisecting three Gargoyles in a single slash. As this was happening Rensa leapt onto the platform and was closely follow by Aslaug and Tempestus as the Yellow Ranger cleared a path to wade through with her axe whilst Tempestus thrust his staff down into the water to dissuade any of their assailants from simply assaulting them from below until finally the original five Aegis Rangers, Red, Blue, Yellow, Pink and Black were gathered on the now crowded floating platform
"What's the plan Mercy?" Panthera demanded
"Power Blaster" she said simply "We can't get to that opening? Fine, we'll make out own and use this boat as a platform to jump from"
"That's….not the craziest thing I've heard" the Pink Ranger admitted
"Good, then let's do it" Aslaug growled, already preparing her axe for the combination and as Mercy manifested her katana their team-mates began to follow suit and take up firing positions until Rensa took initiative and called out
"Kay, Mari! With us!" Mercy took a moment to ensure that the Green and Gold Rangers had broken away from the swarm of Gargoyle Putties that had continued to flood the tunnels, drawn by the light and noise before taking a final deep breath and giving the order
"Ready? FIRE!" at her command the Power Blaster unleashed a beam of brilliant, incandescent white light wreathed in lightning in the colours of the various Rangers which surged upwards to tear a deep gouge into the stone above them, the moment it struck the magical barrier in the distance flickered and warped; its' crimson lightning crackling and reaching outwards yet it was too let for the moment the first rubble and debris fell into the toxic and swampy filth below Mercy had leapt upwards, forcing the power of the Morphing Grid itself into the motion and surging upwards with her friends immediately behind until the seven off the came staggering and scrabbling to a halt on blissfully solid ground.
Their respite lasted less than a moment as another piercing shriek filled the air when one of the Gargoyle Putties attempted to leap after them, its' spindly grasping talons sinking into the stone which had been reduced to a molten state by the Power Blasters' discharge only for the weakened material to give way under its' weight and send the screaming automaton falling back into the fresh hole; with Kay and Mari wasting no time in unleashing their weapons directly into the platform that the Rangers had used so that none could follow them.
From there the reality of the situation hit them.
As the echoes of screams and weapons faded away a profound silence fell over the Rangers who collectively realised that it would not last long as they peered at their surroundings, a long winding corridor filled with ancient suits of armour and other baroque furnishings and quickly realised that they had indeed reached their destination and that all of their trials thus far would be nothing in comparison to what followed.
"We did it" Mercy breathed out in disbelief "We're in Lord Zedd's palace"
Rage was an insufficient word, its' scope was far too small and frail for what Lord Zedd felt at that moment.
Whilst Canis had been ordered to send fully half of the forces gathered within the palace out into the city to aid the local security forces, each of said warriors being a conqueror or worlds in their own right meaning that they would represent certain death to any rebel or insurgent that they encountered and at the same time the Dweller-Zord had set loose upon the Aegis Rangers and their Ultrazord Lord Zedd himself had been unable to join the battle for the heart of his Kingdom directly; his very nature demanded that he look onwards and forwards and in that aspect there was still work to be done if his plans to strike at the very core of the Alliance were to come to fruition.
And so he had returned to Goldar's Dark Dimension.
Once within the realm that existed beyond the normal flow of reality the armoured tyrant had begun exerting every ounce of not only his own vast magic but that of the very palace itself; for the Acheron palace that his bloodline had held sway over for aeons and generations of Lord Zedd before them since time immemorial was not merely a fortress and symbol of power, it was also very much a powerful magical artefact in its' own right and could be used to channel and amplify the arcane energies of its' current overlord.
Using this boosted and magnified power Lord Zedd had continued to remake and expand the Dark Dimension in his own image, pushing its' boundaries out into the unknown ether in an effort to transform the place from a single chamber that could be used as temple, arena or simple cell into the tool that the warlord needed it to be; a vast teleportation chamber of truly astronomical proportions so that he could not only transport those warriors within his palace but also take the fleet gathering in orbit above him, warships and all to where they would be deployed in a single fell swoop.
And then disaster had struck.
Lord Zedd had felt something writhe and twist hideously within his own magic as it was synchronised with that of the palace, a sensation of something pouring inexorably out of him that reminded the warlord of the most grievous injuries he had received in his conquest of swathes of the galaxy; the magic of the palace was flooding away from him in response to some outside force rendering every act of recreation he undertook a thousand times more difficult.
Without hesitation he had returned to the material plane and found himself once again in his throne room demanding answers of his subordinates which had been promptly delivered by terrified and pleading creatures whose existence the tyrant spared no time to consider, his focus being entirely consumed by a single unshakeable fact.
His palace had directly attacked.
It was then that the rage had come and with it a realisation; whether unwittingly or as part of some devious scheme crafted by the treacherous bastard that he had made the Green Ranger his enemies had not only used the uprisings that had seen half of his forces vacate the palace as a ruse and diversion in order to breach his defences but in doing so they had destabilised the very same wards and arcane power fields that had amplified Lord Zedd's power, leaving the warlord not only with the threat of a team of Power Rangers running rampant through the walls of his palace; breaching Acheron's sanctity in a way that even Tommy Oliver and his army of Rangers could not but also with the chilling knowledge that his master plan had been dealt a heavy blow. Processing this information Lord Zedd let out a low, trembling snarl as he made a decision and his eyes flared with hate-filled light behind his visor; the temptation to enter the fray directly and butcher those who challenged him was great but he would not be overwhelmed by it, he would not be distracted from his true goals.
He could still enact his plan, it would simply have to be accelerated.
Author's Notes:
So….how're we all feeling?
The Rangers have breached the palace and we have to chapters left of this arc; now in most stories this would be a finale on it's own but remember people, we have an entire arc left after this.
So, let's summarise shall we?:
Yeah, Zords go with a bang…..good thing that the Morphing Grid probably doesn't cause radiation poisoning or that whole city would be fucked.
I feel like I could honestly have made the battle in the city an entire arc on its' own but at the same time it wouldn't really add anything other than spectacle, so instead we get the shorthand version of how well prepared and defended they are with things like them just cutting off everywhere Mercy tried to run so that they could trap her on a bridge to be shot by a fighter jet.
But of course we do have our obligatory Putty battle with the standard variety of Putties, because it's always fun to write those.
Panthera makes a solid point, they can't de-morph due to the atmosphere and they really stand out….Or it would be a solid point, if Rensa didn't make the most Rena entrance of all time and remind everyone that he was born and raised in Empire space.
It's funny, we first met Aslaug in a circle very much like the one she was fighting alongside Tempestus in except she was trying to fight against a Blue Ranger there.
Also you didn't think I was gonna introduce the Riot Shield Putties (Which are very similar to 'Claymore' variants from the fifth arc) and not have them sight someone.
Kay is an Acheron hybrid, of course they can breathe the air here this is literally their home world.
Also, this scene was originally gonna go differently and there was going to be a monster of the week type villain leading the Putties but it just didn't work.
So, the team are all together again and now we have Karone's rebels with them.
Of course Karone always wanted to lead an attack and of course she asked Charlie how exactly she managed to attack the Aquabase then used that information against the Empire; see everything gets used.
Sewers and ventilation shafts, the two weaknesses of every secret base.
And back to the Lightspeed Delta Rangers….basically their suits are Lightspeed with SPD helmets but some extra detailing.
Bridge just casually breaking the fourth wall there.
Of course there's Crybots, you didn't think they were getting to Broodwing straight away?
I actually had to re-watch some SPD fight scenes to try and figure out how the individual Rangers move and I realised that Z and Bridge really would work great together.
Also, I want you to reread this scene and think about how much work it took the Delta Rangers to take down grunts and then tell me if you think they're ready for what's coming?
Onwards, into the generic abandoned refinery building that there are way too many of in Tokusatsu shows.
Yeah, again we could have had the fight in the city last for a long longer but I just cut to what was important.
There are no words for how nasty those sewers are.
So anyone remember the start of Zeo, where there was the barrier around the Power Chamber that was buried under the Command Centre….this is basically a take on that; the palace has an energy field around it which extends down into the sewers when its' in use.
...Also Kay mentioning the palace being used as a magical amp so it didn't seem too much like plot convenience when Zedd mentioned it.
The Gargoyle Putties were literally mentioned in the first arc of the story, they skulk across the ramparts of the palace but also dwell under it….Basically I could have done another Putty fight here but I was actually inspired on a scene from Blade 2, if you've seen it you'll know which one.
I think that was the most tension I've ever managed to work into a scene involving Putties.
And now they're in the palace….fun times ahead.
The Lord Zedd scene was awkward because he has nobody to play off of, there's not even any dialogue in the whole scene.
I like the slow reveal that as powerful as Lord Zedd is, the Rangers have been slowly managing to weaken his position without even realising it.
All of his best warriors and legions of Putties were gathered in the palace, half of them were then sent away and took at least some losses.
His fleet was gathering in space but the Aegis Rangers damaged one of his teleportation gates and prompted Karone's rebels to start attacking.
His magic was being amplified by the palace but now that's been taken away from him, potentially limiting what he can do.
But Lord Zedd is still planning on going to Earth….which just made a new team of Rangers.
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