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Chapter 75 – The Battle Of The Labyrinth
It was with a sudden and rapidly rising feeling of nervous and uncertain, yet undeniable elation that Canis realised that she had been presented with an opportunity that she would be a fool to ignore.
Lord Zedd had stormed out of his shadowy throne room, the tyrants' entire body crackling and glowing with malignant and monstrous arcane power that acted as a manifestation of his own unfettered rage and desire for conquest as he appeared within the chamber which acted as a Command Centre for the Acheron palace wherein Canis had lurked in the shadows and watched as dozens of more senior military commanders, all of whom had the social and political advantage of being Acheron hybrids bickered and jostled for power as they gave orders to the portion of Lord Zedd's own forces which had been dispatched into the city to quell what had started as an uprising but soon been revealed to be a series of coordinated attacks.
Canis had watched with resigned and detached horror as the titanic warlord she served had executed a dozen or more of them for their failures without thought or hesitation.
Once his terrible wrath had been sated Lord Zedd had informed those who had remained alive, solely by virtue of not drawing his attention or anger of the recent developments and the measures that would be taken to counteract them. The Aegis Rangers had, through trickery, sabotage and misdirection managed to breach the walls of the great palace and were now currently sneaking their way through the labyrinthine corridors of the very heart of the Empires' power, no doubt preparing to enact some unknown scheme of their own; more than this their means of entering the palace had caused complications in Lord Zedd's own master plan and the warlord would need to act quickly to ensure that the defiance of his bastard spawn and their allies did not undermine his efforts once again. Lord Zedd would be gathering the vast bulk of the forces that had remained within the palace within the enormous amphitheatre where he would be proceeding to the next stage of his plans; he had made it abundantly clear that his power was supreme and that his will remained unchallenged and absolute yet still the matter of the Aegis Rangers needed to be attended to, therefore any loyal subjects who wished to forego the honour of fighting as part of their Lords' personal retinue in the coming assault on Earth and instead take a squad of Putties from the freshly forged legions of automatons would be honoured above all others upon Lord Zedd's return.
Canis had naturally volunteered herself for the role immediately.
The former pirate and smugglers' decision raised no suspicion from the armoured tyrant before her, most likely because her thoughts and motivations were entirely beneath his considerations but also due to simple pragmatism, Canis's skills did not lie in open combat and she would be better served prowling through the shadows; there had been others of course, warriors and fanatics who wished to do their Lords' bidding or simply test themselves against a truly fearsome foe and so Canis had found herself amongst a group of perhaps a few dozen warriors setting out into the enormous palace with orders to find and kill the Power Rangers.
Which brought her to her current position and the opportunity it presented.
"Wait here" Canis murmured, voice barely rising above a whisper as she spoke to the group of half a dozen Putties she had been entrusted with; the warbling automatons were of the standard variety rather than any specialised designs or worse still the midnight black and sinister Obsidian Guard which formed Lord Zedd's personal bodyguard and the dog-like alien reasoned that even with her arm still recovering and in constant pain following being brutalised by the Pink Astro Ranger these chattering, flailing constructs were less capable than the robots she had employed in the past and could be easily defeated. She had found herself in a corridor like many others in the palace, gloomy and lit primarily by the crimson glow of the Putties own eyes though this was little problem for Canis herself and she suspected no issue at all to whatever forms of security or spying existed within the halls and so she took a moment to consider her options and plan her next move, silencing and stilling the Putties with a gesture she then skulked quietly towards a nearby door and opened it slowly before making a show of peeking cautiously inside then gesturing for the Putties to enter and sweep the room. It was a private chamber, one that Canis doubted would be subjected to the same level of scrutiny as the open corridors and the moment the Putties had entered the room she turned on them.
The first Putty crumbled to dust and fragments with a confused noise escaping it as her sword pierced its' back and burst through its' chest, prompting its' comrades to wheel around and recognise her as an aggressor despite their orders and from there the battle truly began. The Putties rushed at her and Canis responded with a lack of anything resembling honour and techniques honed through a career of fighting in cramped and unfavourable surroundings; weaving under the wild swing of the first Putty to reach her and forcing the door shut behind her with a spinning kick, its' surface slamming into the things' back and smashing its' body into the stone door frame and causing it to shatter. Without a moments' pause she turned to her next target, completing the spin and carrying the motion into a thrusting stab which impaled another Putty and left it crumbling on the end of her blade.
Then she was tackled to the ground, pain coursing through her from the force of solid stone striking her chest.
Her sword slipped from her grasp and Canis felt blood pour from her nose as the remaining three Putties made to pile on her and simply bludgeon her to death, the first landing a painful blow to her snout; fortunately though they were simply raining blows fro above rather than showing any real intelligence and pinning her in place which allowed the former pirate to use her skills and surroundings to her advantage. Thus far the fight had been confined to the area of the chamber closest to the doorway however, with blows still raining down on her Canis simply rolled aside and flung herself under a large bed within the centre of the Chamber and the Putties, simple and mindless things that they were hesitated for a fraction of a second.
Which was all the time she needed.
As she rolled out from the other side of the bed one of the Putties caught sight of her and made to scrabble over the furniture only for Canis to plant her feet on the beds' frame and slide the entire thing into the automatons' legs, sending it sprawling towards her and flailing over the bed where she promptly ended it with a swift elbow to the chest before it could recover, despite the pain it caused her. Only two Putties remained and they rushed at Canis, coming around the bed she had kicked out of place which allowed her to simply leap over it and quickly reach for the nearest moderately heavy object to hand, a chair tucked into a desk beside the bed; as the surviving constructs charged her again the black-scaled and canine alien rogue simply aimed and hurled the chair and was rewarded with the sight of another Putty collapsing as a chair leg collided with central circular plate of its' torso. Without waiting Canis leapt for her dropped sword and pulled herself into a crouch whilst extending the weapon forwards, just in time to feel the force leave her final attacker as its' stony fist glanced off of her shoulder in the same instant she impaled it.
And then she was alone.
"Okay" she breathed out, wiping blood from her snout with one hand whilst keeping the other firmly clenched around her weapon "That's the easy part taken care of, now what?" after mere seconds of consideration the answer became apparent, her entire goal in turning on her supposed allies had been a bid for freedom; she had never intended to be press-ganged into Lord Zedd's service and had no intention of remaining under the yoke of a tyrant who routinely murdered or inflicted unspeakable horrors on his own subjects in vast swathes and with Lord Zedd intending to leave not only the palace but Empire space as a whole in short order Canis would be free to make her escape. A ship could be stolen, though it would be difficult and would require levels of violence she found herself doubting her abilities to inflict at that moment and so she quickly searched for another option and decided that she would be best served by simply buying or trading for safe passage.
Which brought a vicious smile to her face as she realised that with Lord Zedd and the vast majority of his greatest warriors elsewhere she would be free to plunder and steal whatever she desired from his palace.
"It's a pirates' life for me" she chuckled, the words having a sing-song delivery to them as she slipped out of the chamber, debating to herself whether she dared raid the trophies in Zedd's own throne room or if she should make off with something less conspicuous.
The Aegis Rangers had found themselves in exactly the position that they had hoped to avoid yet had ultimately feared would be inevitable.
Once the initial adrenaline fuelled bout of panicked, terrified and yet almost blissful energy had subsided the seven of them had come to a halt, realising firstly that they needed to devise some sort of concrete, workable plan of action and secondly that rushing blindly through the hallways of the truly enormous palace served no real purpose and they needed a way to find their bearings. From here Mercy, with some input from Panthera whose expertise could not be overlooked had reasoned that the winding maze of corridors and stairways had thus far seemed too empty; suggesting that a combination of both Lord Zedd's own plans and the counter attack against the rebels still fighting in the sprawling city outside had drawn away whatever sentries would normally be present within the palace and that this could be used to the Ranger's advantage. The idea to mount an assassination attempt against Lord Zedd himself first suggested and disregarded in short notice as none of them were foolhardy enough to believe it to be a real possibility and so instead they settled on their original intentions, finding the communications hub that must surely exist with Lord Zedd's base and using it to both send word to any potential targets of the coming attack or even send the Empires' fleets into a state of disarray. With the plan decided on the seven of them had continued onwards, still moving through the palace with no real idea of their location relative to their goals but nonetheless acting with more caution and trepidation, Mercy having Kay and Marigold act as scouts with the Green Ranger reaching out with his magic to try and sense any arcane barriers or protections whilst the Gold Ranger simply used her Buster Pistols to shoot down any more tangible defences.
Until finally they had been discovered.
The Rangers had rounded a corner and been beset by a group of Putties led by an Acheron hybrid warrior clad in the blood coloured robes of the Cult of the Endless Devourer; the fanatic cultist towering above all of the Rangers and having an appearance that could loosely be described as some form of horrific bipedal elephant. Their opponent stood on two thick and sturdy legs as wide as a persons' entire torso and whilst their stained and ragged robes covered much of their flesh what remained visible was a thick and leathery hide of a dull, cement-like grey. Their gait was lumbering and ogreish with a hunched forwards' posture made all the more prominent by the weapon they carried, their chest expanding out into broad shoulders which instead of leading to simple arms were instead attached to thick, sucker lined tentacles which had, for the duration of the battle been wrapped around an enormous war-hammer whose head was roughly the size of a human child and ornately engraved with runes that caused it blaze with magical fire. The cultists' head largely resembled that of an elephant, sporting broad and floppy ears littered with scores of piercings made of bone and various metals, two pairs of red eyes without pupils, a wide maw sporting several tusks so curled that they had begun to loop back towards its' mouth and most prominently a pair of trunks growing from the centre of its' face which moved as if they had minds of their own and were tipped with claw like appendages acting as the monsters' hands.
Hands which currently grasped at Rensa's ankle as he attempted to flip away, dragging him into the path of a downward swing of the cultists' massive hammer.
"Kay!" Mercy called out, terror causing her voice to tremble as much as her hands even as she drove her foot through the chest of one the last remaining Putties; its' fellow automatons littering the ground around it in shattered and unrecognisable pieces. The Green Ranger fortunately heard the call and was in a position to answer it and so a moment later the corridor they fought in was illuminated by a beam of emerald green light as they unleashed one of their signature energy attack from their palm, forcing the cultist to both drop Rensa and adjust their tentacles' grip on their hammer to avoid the searing and concussive blast.
"We need a plan!" Mercy exclaimed as her team-mates regrouped around her, none of them save for Kay and Mari capable of manifesting their weapons as the earlier use of the Power Blaster had taxed them.
"Plan to meet your ancestors Rangers!" the monster before them bellowed, their voice a brassy, trumpeting klaxon "For I am Mammon'th the mountain breaker, the herald of the Great Devourer! I am the voice of the bloody cult and I will be the avatar of Lord Zedd's will! So make your plans Rangers, but plan to DIE!" with the final word echoing from the black stone walls Mammon'th charged at the Aegis Ranges; the magical fire engulfing their massive hammer raged more fiercely so that its' head appeared as a blazing comment and the ground cracking and trembling beneath their thundering footfalls.
"Get around it!" Mercy called out, already springing into motion and rushing forwards to meet the coming onslaught in an effort to evade what she knew that none of her friends would be able to simply withstand; waiting until the last possible moment to act and dropping into a low sliding tackle at the exact moment her enemy swung their hammer before executing a spinning kick whilst still crouched which lashed out and struck Mammon'th just above the ankle to send the cultist staggering off balance and their hammer ploughing through the opposite wall.
The rest of the Aegis Rangers quickly used the opening to follow Mercy's instruction and regroup once again; with Rensa being the first to do so and dropping to the ground beside the Red Ranger after scuttling across the ceiling
"Should I use my Battleizer?" the Black Ranger murmured so that only Mercy would hear
"Not yet" she answered cautiously "Only if we really need it" as she spoke the others began to join them, Tempestus rolling over the monsters' hunched back whilst Panthera weaved around their grasping trunks and both of the landing punishing blows in the form of kicks to the knee and knee-strikes to the gut that staggered Mammon'th long enough to allow Aslaug to simply wrap her arms around the monsters' waist and bodily throw them into another wall which in turn bought time for Kay and Marigold to regroup.
"I don't think we can win the fight like this" the Yellow Ranger grunted, panting for breath as she fell into place beside Mercy "We don't have the room"
"I know, I'm working on it" she answered, privately refusing to allow any harm to come to her friends and especially not to Aslaug yet finding little in the way of available options as Mammon'th ripped themselves free of the wall they'd been slammed into and hefting their hammer once again; almost filling the corridor that their positions had been reversed in as they lumbered towards the Rangers with more caution but no less murderous intent.
And then something unexpected happened.
Mammon'th let out a trumpeting howl of pain and the Rangers watched as the red-robed cultist sagged and collapsed forwards on their knees to reveal that several living barbs had been buried into the thick skin and muscle of their back, barbs attached by thin sinews to the outstretched arm of another Acheron hybrid; this monstrous being roughly resembling some sort of prehistoric ancestor of birds, albeit with quills of a lurid green colour in place of feathers whilst beside them stood two more monsters, one an electric blue and serpentine being whose entire body seemed to be shifting and undulating from the inside out and the other some sort of insectoid horror with far too many limbs, all of which seemed bent at unnatural angles whilst behind the trio lurked a small mob of Putties whose chattering approach had gone unheard due to the cacophony of Mammon'th charging.
"WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS!" Mammon'th roared, glowing red eyes furious as they leapt to their feet and used one their trunks to grasp at the barbs still lodged in their back and pull their assailant of balance; prompting the shifting, serpentine Acheron hybrid to speak in a low sibilant hiss
"Lord Zedd will reward the one who delivers him the corpses of the Power Rangers….That cannot be you Mammon'th, your cult has had far too much leniency….War is for warriors"
"We will be restoring the proper order of things by killing the Rangers" the quilled, avian hybrid added, all whilst struggling to maintain their grip on Mammon'th "And reminding the Cult of the Great Devourer of its' place….I do hope you can attend to your own funerary rites"
"TREACHERY!" with that single word Mammon'th let out a trumpeting roar and stampeded towards the trio of their fellow Acheron hybrids and their attendant Putties, the clang of weapons meeting and the booming impact of powerful blows landing filling the air as the Empires' finest warriors began to turn on one another in the search for personal glory; all the while the Rangers watched on in a state of numb shock until finally Kay nudged at Mercy gently and whispered
"Should we intervene in this?" they asked in open confusion "What do we do?" the answer came instantly to Mercy and she had already half turned before she began to speak
"Let them fight" She knew that the battle between the four monsters would have an eventual victor but there was nothing to be gained from remaining to see who it would be and so the Aegis Rangers sneaked hastily away in order to continue the search for their true objective.
"I've got a bad feeling" Bridge warned as the Lightspeed Delta Rangers continued onwards through the sprawling and abandoned complex in which the criminal Broodwing had made his base of operations; beside him Jack visibly tensed, understanding the Green Delta Ranger's comment as the warning based on vague premonitions and precognition that it was.
"We should be coming to a doorway that will lead us out onto a gangway above where the main factory floor was located" Sky informed his team-mates from his position bringing up the rear of the group; the Blue Ranger having hung back and quietly began evaluating both his own actions and the situation as a whole as the five of them progressed deeper into the gloomy and derelict facility, pausing only to fend of groups of Crybots; some of which carried progressively more lethal and esoteric weapons.
"How do you know?" Z asked from her position beside Sydney, the two young women poised and ready to leap into action and aid their friends both in front and behind them.
"While you were using Bridge as a villain-detector I decided to see what this suit can do….it turns out I was able to find and download the schematics for this building" the comment left the other Delta Rangers stunned and silent, with Jack holding up a hand and motioning for them to halt as he processed the words; taking a moment to appreciate that Sky had given the aid freely and earnestly without any of the smug sense of superiority that might once have been expected though a more prominent and immediate concern demanded the Red Ranger's attention.
"A nice open factory floor and Bridge is sensing something….Either Broodwing is down there or there are Crybots waiting behind the door"
"Or both" Z noted with a resigned sigh
"Then let's rush 'em, if they already know we're here then there's n sense in giving them any more time to prepare" Sydney offered, knuckles clenching and almost certainly popping beneath her armour as she adjusted her stance and prepared to throw herself at opponents that had not yet presented themselves, Jack considered for a few seconds before finally nodding and standing aside to allow his far stronger team-mate to pass
"Take point Syd, Bridge you're in right after her. The rest of us will follow you in" there was a fraction of second of silence as the five of them glanced from one another to see if there would be any objections before finally the Delta Rangers burst into motion with a renewed sense of purpose; Sydney taking the lead and surging ahead at full tilt, letting out a wordless battle-cry as the door which Bridge had promised would lead out onto a raised gangway came into view.
She struck in with the force of a moving train and instantly proved Sky's gathered intelligence correct as the door was torn from its' hinges by her moving front kick and sent hurtling into the first of a group of Crybots that had been waiting behind it to attack, sending the machine toppling over the railings. From there the Pink Delta Ranger flung herself into a roll to avoid a counter-attack from another Crybot which found itself promptly disabled by Bridge who had begun acting on magically heightened instinct before he had ever seen the robot.
An instant later Jack barrelled out onto the gangway, trusting implicitly that Z and Sky would be able to both cover his rear if the situation called for it and take care of themselves. The Red Delta Ranger's attention was immediately taken up by the quartet of Crybots that seemed to possess at least enough intellect to understand that a Red Power Ranger was a priority target and focus on him specifically; the first of which was sent toppling over rusted railings of the rickety gangway by a spinning heel kick to the torso which resulted in the thing being reduced to a sparking and defective mess on the ground below, though before he could savour the victory in any real way he found himself assaulted again and weathering blows that came from both sides. Blocking a barrage of attacks with ease and relishing the rush of power that his Morphed state granted him, each blow from solid metal limbs that should have cracked bone feeling barely more than a light tap Jack sprung into action again and employed a more mobile and acrobatic style of fighting he had learned from instructors and fellow cadets after leaving the Aquabase; first turning to his right and delivering a high kick that arced outwards and struck the Crybot to his right in the cranium and staggered it before carrying his momentum into a spinning elbow strike to parry a blow from the Crybot on his left before adjusting his footing and throwing himself into a cartwheeling kick that saw his left heel collapse the entire head of the machine and as he lunged back to his feet he did so with a spinning sweep to the legs of the Crybot to his right which had recovered from the first blow only to be sent crashing the metallic floor of the gangway.
Then suddenly Jack was falling.
The fourth and final member of the quartet of Crybots had clearly made some internal calculations, weighing the objective against its' continued functionality and simply tackled the Red Delta Ranger with all of its' might; sending them both staggering back into rusted tailing which promptly gave way. Jack fell from a height that he estimated must have been at least two stories and landed on a hard concrete floor with a sickening crack, and felt his stomach lurch and his blood run cold as he expected the sudden wave of pain or numbness from an injured spine to wash over him.
Yet it never came.
"I'm a Power Ranger" he mouthed to himself behind his helmet, finally saying the words allowed to himself making his entire situation make sense in a way that no amount of briefings or even holding a Morpher and saying the necessary words had managed to and with that sudden realisation and acceptance that he was now simply more than a mere human the power of the Morphing Grid flowed into him, allowing the Red Delta Ranger to move and react faster as his powers responded to his needs.
The Crybot that had tackled him had survived the fall after using Jack to break its' own fall, yet it did not survive the Red Ranger's retaliation as it sprung to its' feet only for Jack to fling his entire weight onto one elbow and heel whilst bringing his opposite leg around for a crushing kick which crumpled the robotic drones' body on impact. Leaping to his feet Jack saw his team-mates continuing to struggle against the overwhelming numbers that gave the Crybots their advantage and once again the Power of the Morphing Grid came to his aid, this time in the form of knowledge as it informed the Red Delta Ranger of exactly what his new armour could provide for him.
"Get clear!" he called out as he extended his arms forwards and upwards, not entirely certain of what would happen next until a pair of mismatched pistols, both with the same red and white colouration of his armour appeared in his palms and with deadly speed and precision he opened fire; reducing the remaining automatons to twitching and sparking masses of scrap metal.
"Holy crap!" Z exclaimed as a bolt of fiery red light ripped through the torso of the last robot to stand against her, prompting her glance over the railings as she shoved its' now limp form away "Nice shoot-"
"LOOK OUT!" Bridge's panicked yell reached Jack's ears too late for him to react before a flash of lightning filled his peripheral vision; yet rather than the expected searing pain tearing through his own body he was instead treated to a shower of sparks and a yell of pain from an instantly familiar voice as someone leapt from the gangway above directly into the path of an oncoming attack
"SKY!" he yelled in shock only for the Blue Delta Ranger, who had been flung to the ground by the assault to pull himself in to a crouch and let out a pained chuckle
"You're lucky I had your back….Don't rush in" beneath his helmet the Red Ranger couldn't help but give a small smirk as he helped his friend to his feet and saw that whilst a portion of the armour around his chest and left shoulder was scorched and discoloured Sky himself seemed more shaken than injured yet the moment was quickly soured by the sound of footsteps on the concrete and a new voice as a figure stepped out of the shadows.
"Well that was certainly touching….But ultimately just as feeble and pointless as Elgar's attempt to sell me out to the authorities" every word from the now familiar figure oozed and dripped with smug satisfaction and utter contempt as he added "You'd be a fool to think I trade in weapons and not secrets and information and an even bigger fool to think that I'd let anyone, even Power Rangers follow me to my actual base of operations.
"Broodwing" Jack growled out through gritted teeth, glancing around subtly and seeing that there was indeed little beyond the robotic sentries to suggest that the arms dealer was actually using the facility as a base to manufacture or store his illegal and dangerous wares, instead the open and abandoned floor surrounded by shadowy recesses and a gantry that could be used as a firing position seemed as though it would be more suited for use in an ambush. Such thoughts were given an immediate answer however as Bridge, Z and Sydney leapt down from the walkways above and moved into position around Broodwing whilst Jack and Sky also fanned out to ensure that the criminal was surrounded before the Red Delta finally offered a retort.
"I think you were pretty foolish to set up an ambush and then come in person….We don't need your weapons Broodwing, we just need to bring you in. You're under arrest"
"Oh I am many things but that is not one of them" with that the intergalactic menace charged, keep fanning out dramatically behind him and the Lightspeed Delta Rangers were given the first real test of their abilities.
Lord Zedd gazed down at his loyal followers with eyes that did not truly see.
The warlord and supreme leader of the Dark Empire had, despite the current threat to his palace and the surrounding city which teemed with countless millions of his subjects elected to press onwards with his plans and had gathered the majority of those warriors that remained with in the walls of his home to him as he had told Canis he would; hundreds upon hundred of the most feared fighters, fanatics, killers and masters of the dark arts that the Empire and Acheron genetics with the chimeric ability to absorb and hybridise any material they encountered had managed to produce over countless millennia of conquest, consumption and evolution were now gathered before their Lord and master in the great amphitheatre of the palace; each of them bowing and staring up reverently at their leader with all previous rivalries and vying for position forgotten as the none dared act out of turn or invite they invite Lord Zedd's wrath and face the consequences, the potential threat of being dishonoured so greatly that they lost the right to join the vanguard of the coming assault almost a worse threat than simple death or torture yet Lord Zedd did not register his subjects as individuals, instead simply seeing them as a physical and magical mass and the subject of countless calculations that raced through a mind which was currently not entirely trapped within the confines of the physical realm.
His initial intention had been to expand the Dark Dimension to such a degree that it could accommodate the sheer behemoth mass of the forces he intended to deploy against Earth to cripple the planet in a single blow before reaching out, using the very palace itself to bolster and amplify his own arcane power to godlike degrees and simply pull the entire fleet gathered above him in orbit into the Dark Dimension through sheer force of will yet he had been denied and waylaid at every turn; the Rangers had destroyed one of his teleportation gates which had slowed the arrival of his ships whilst rebels had destroyed many of those already gathered by seizing his own weapons and unleashing their fury, half of the forces intended to be his personal retinue had been sent to quell the rebel uprising and in response the Rangers had managed to breach his palace thereby destabilising the nexus of magical power that it represented; limiting how much sheer mass the armoured warlord would be able to pull into the Dark Dimension in a single instant.
"No matter" he growled to himself, his gathered forces hearing nothing but an indistinct bass note as he prepared himself towering and looming over them on a stage at the head of darkened space. he was Lord Zedd, domination was his birthright and his might was supreme; his plans may have to be adapted but adaption was simply the way of Acheron and soon his current enemies would be destroyed and their greatest attributes broken down and remade for the benefit of the Empire like all before them.
He would finish what his father had started and succeed where he had failed.
With that in mind Lord Zedd began the next phase of his plans; whilst he wasn't able to simply drag the entirety of his forces into the Dark Dimension in a single, instant movement his plan was by no means ruined and the armoured conqueror began to gather all of his magical might to himself, lightning flickering between each of his armours' sharpened and bladed plates whilst unnatural storm clouds gathered and swirled around his form. Part of Lord Zedd's consciousness was in the room, coldly calculating the capabilities of the forces before and assessing where they would be be deployed based on what he knew of Earth, its' defences and its' many cultures and directing his magic outwards to envelop his warriors, another part of his mind was carrying out the same task but on a much larger scale as he formed magical tethers to each of the warships in orbit above his palace one by one and the final part of his consciousness was tied to the Dark Dimension itself, ensuring that no final schemes or ploys could be enacted against this crucial part of his plans. The plan would not be enacted instantaneously, instead Lord Zedd would simply need to gather his power over a relatively protracted period; a feat which caused the ground to tremble beneath his feet and thunder to boom from the clouds that ripped and swirled around him, the sight leaving the gathered Empire forces in awe at his sheer, unfathomable power.
Something which Lord Zedd would only consider a positive if he paused to consider his minions at all.
Mercy felt the impact through her armour as she delivered a spinning back kick to the face of the silent construct made of solid and magically animated black marble; sending the last of the group of Obsidian Guard Putties crashing into a wall where Aslaug promptly drive her fist into its' chest; fracturing the central Z plate of its' chest but failing to shatter it owing to the additional care given to Lord Zedd's own Putties in their construction, the silent automaton slipped around a follow up punch with technique that would rival any boxer and as the Yellow Ranger's fist smashed into the stone of the wall behind it with a dull crunch the Putty prepared to counter-attack, only to be struck in the chest by a vicious roundhouse kick from Panthera who came streaking into the fray from nowhere. The Obsidian Guard Putty finally collapsed into broken fragments and the Aegis Rangers had a moment to collect themselves as they regarded the doorway in front of them.
"I really, really don't like those things" Marigold noted, brushing fragments of at least one other black stone construct from her armour as the seven of them regrouped and earning herself several nods and sounds of agreement.
The Rangers had continued deeper into the palace for some time with a goal in mind but still no way to find what they sought nor any real idea of where within the seemingly endless bowels of Lord Zedd's fortress they actually were, fighting their way through several groups of Putties, Empire warriors and other obstacles until Mercy made an astute observation; since it was obvious that the enemy forces were lying in wait with the goal of capturing or killing them the Rangers could potentially use that information to their advantage, reasoning that Zedd's forces would logically congregate around important locations within the palace rather than blindly chase them which in turn meant that the Rangers could identify potential targets by the defences mustered around them.
Seeing over a dozen of Lord Zedd's personal putties gathered around a sealed blast door had certainly piqued the Rangers interest and now that the immediate threat had been removed they would soon see if this was indeed the communications hub that they were looking for or something of comparable strategic value
"Kay, you think you can get this open?" Mercy asked as she nodded to the blast door, realising that the impossibly dense and heavy armour plates it was constructed from would be immovable even to a Power Ranger; Kay braced themselves though before the swirling nexus of light Mercy knew to expect could gather in the Green Ranger's palms Panthera stepped forwards and placed a hand on her partners' shoulder
"Save your strength, I've got this" with no further explanation the Pink Ranger made her way to the blast door and began examining a keypad mounted into the wall beside it for a moment before using her clawed fingers to pry open its' casing and after several second of manipulating the inner workings of the terminal a dull, crackling buzz filled the air before the blast doors slid open
"What did you do?" Rensa asked cautiously
"Found the emergency override" Panthera answered nonchalantly "Come on I was raised by the Smuggler Guild, you think I can't pick a lock?"
"Good work….Let's move" Mercy said simply and with that the seven Aegis Rangers made their way into the darkened room; traversing several dozen feet across a metallic floor that they noticed was oddly wet before finally an automated lighting system came into life with a droning sound and bathed their surroundings in a harsh, sickly yellow glow.
The Rangers found themselves wishing that it had remained dark
"What the hell is this place" Mercy demanded in a hushed gasp, bile rising in her throat at the sight of countless operating tables with the bodies of various alien species strapped to them, opened, eviscerated and plundered whilst the floor on which they were stood was slick with a rainbow of blood and gore in various colours and shades; as more lights were activated the seven of them saw that unrecognisable husks and chunks of meat hung from the ceiling on cruel hooks whilst the walls were lined with horrific looking tools that varied in nature from the obviously surgical to implements more suited to construction or mining, strewn between them were mechanical limbs made to be integrated into anatomy that was vastly different to that of a human yet it was what surrounded the Rangers and took up the majority of this foul and nightmarish place that almost cost Mercy the control of her stomach, rows upon rows of cylindrical tanks filled with some translucent liquid arranged to form some sort of display or perhaps a simple warehouse of horrors and within each tank was a single subject, a butchered, broken and remade individual whose body had been subjected to the kinds of genetic, surgical and arcane manipulations only the most deviant of minds could devise.
More disturbing still was the fact that many of the subjects were still clearly alive and conscious.
"I know what this is" Kay admitted solemnly, unable to look their fellow Rangers in the eye as they spoke "This is a flesh-crafters' laboratory….this is where the monsters we face are made"
"AND HOW FITTING IT IS THAT IT IS WHERE YOU WILL MEET YOUR END RANGERS!" the booming, thunderous declaration caused the Aegis Rangers to whirl around and they were confronted by the sight on Mammon'th, the elephantine Acheron hybrid that they had encountered standing in the entrance to the lab with his flaming hammer at the ready.
The cultists' body had been truly ruined in his fight against his glory-seeking contemporaries and his robes had been torn and displaced, allowing the Rangers to see the scope of his injuries; much of his right ear had been removed and thick tar-like black blood was smeared across the leathery grey skin of his face whilst his right trunk seemed limp and sluggish, much of the flesh of his torso was blackened and burned with hints of raw muscle visible beneath its' broken surface whilst it seemed that the talons which had been embedded in his back and right shoulder had been poisonous judging by the oddly coloured veins slowly spreading outwards from the injuries, most notable however was the monsters' left tentacle-arm whose entire upper portion was now a bloody, skinless mass which appeared as though it had been subjected to a highly corrosive substance.
That Mammon'th was still standing at all was a testament to his force of will and dedication and Mercy knew better than to think the fanatic could be reasoned with at this point.
"Rangers" she sighed, lamenting that they would have to engage in yet another pointless battle that saved no one and brought them no closer to their goals "Bring him down" Mammon'th responded with an indignant trumpeting sound before charging and the Rangers rushed forward to meet his advance with Aslaug and Mercy taking the lead
"Go high!" Aslaug called out and Mercy wasted no time with questions, simply trusting her partner and leaping onto an empty, yet still blood-spattered trolley before vaulting off of it in an effort to launch a somersault into an axe-kick that strike the Acheron hybrid in the skull; Mammon'th however reached up with their twin snapping trunks and seized Mercy by the ankle before throwing her aside only for Aslaug to take the same trolley the Red Ranger had leapt from and lift it from the ground before slamming it into her opponents' midsection with enough force to knock them back and warp the metal around the hybrids' body.
"PATHETIC!" Mammon'th bellowed before swinging his hammer overhead, boneless tentacles in place of arms allowing it to be brought down in a brutal whipping motion with deadly accuracy yet the Yellow Ranger managed to leap aside; feeling the heat of magical flames scorching the left side of her armour as she narrowly avoided the impact which sent a concussive tremor through the entirety of the laboratory and left the weapon embedded in the floor. Then in an instant Rensa and Panthera had joined the fray, the Black Ranger landing perched on the shaft of the hammer and keeping a foot on the cultists' right tendril so that it was pinned in place whilst the Pink Ranger rushed in close and delivered a punishing elbow strike to the kidneys. A moment later the high pitched sound of laser fire filled the room as Marigold began to close the distance, readying the Buster Pistols and opening fire as she sprinted towards Mammon'th only for the Acheron hybrid to break free in a fit of berserk strength. Rensa and Panthera found themselves grasped by his trunks and slammed bodily into the ground before being thrown aside whilst at the same time Mammon'th reared up to his full height and ripped his hammer free of the ground before simply hurling the blazing and cursed weapon directly at the Gold Ranger as if it weighed nothing at all only to miss entirely as Marigold used on the subtle manipulations of the flow of time around her which aided her marksmanship in order to drop to the ground and slide under the weapon as it sailed overhead.
Smashing through several of containment cylinders and unleashing their contents.
There was a moment of tense, fragile silence filled by only the echoing of shattering glass where the Rangers and Mammon'th alike waited with baited breath and braced themselves for what was to come before finally the scope of the Acheron warriors' mistake was made clear to him when some amalgamation of the various horrific specimens that had been set free retaliated to the perceived attack against them, several lashing tendrils with tips that resembled anchors and forms that could best by described as cybernetics with a segmented and skeletal appearance which was being steadily covered with a layer of rapidly growing and mutating flesh came bursting out of the shadows und sunk into Mammon'th, the elephantine warrior letting out a roar of pain and being dragged forward several paces before bracing himself against the ground and preparing for what seemed to be a battle of wills; only for the creature he had unwittingly set upon himself to reveal both its' true size and nature as dozens of segmented legs, each twice the size of a human unfurled and planted themselves into the ground and sending burrowing roots down into the metal floor beneath it, worming their way through reinforced plates like maggots through rotting flesh
The Aegis Rangers had seen enough
"This is most barf-inducing" Tempestus exclaimed
"We need to get out of here!" Rensa hissed, skulking away from the chimeric and grotesque creature that seemed intent on reeling Mammon'th into whatever maw it possessed
"We can't go back the way we came, there's bound to be reinforcements already on the way" Panthera added with a sense of panicked urgency
"Then look for another way!" Mercy demanded, casting her eyes around in search of any possible solutions; being relieved when Kay's voice sounded out a moment later
"Up there!" Mercy and the other Aegis Rangers glanced up to where the Green Ranger had indicated, seeing with a sense of shock that the ceiling of the laboratory was lined with what were clearly and unmistakably ventilation shafts of some sort. With no time to loose and no other options available Marigold took the initiative and used her pistols to blow several panels away before channelling her strength into a single leap that carried her into the ducts
"Come on!" she yelled out and Mercy was snapped out of her momentary daze, sprinting forwards but making no effort to jump until she was certain that each and every one of her team had already done so and was safe
"That….that was the stuff of nightmares" Aslaug whispered as she helped pull the smaller woman into the cramped and shadowy shafts, Mercy gave no immediate answer and instead glanced down to Mammon'th; silently she debated ordering Marigold to put the Acheron hybrid out his misery yet it was too late and she turned away so that she did not have to watch as the hulking cultist was dragged into the clutches of whatever he had awoken, the squelching and tearing sounds that rose up from the laboratory would haunt her enough without the added imagery.
"Let's go" she whispered and without a word the Aegis Rangers began crawling through the ventilation shafts.
"These must run through the entire palace" Panthera noted several minutes later as they reached a junction "They must be hidden better in the ceilings in the main corridors or I would've seen them"
"So we can find a communications hub without having to fight our way through everything Lord Zedd sends our way?" Mercy asked hesitantly, feeling that such good fortune was unlikely to come without a price
"I mean if we make too much noise or any Acheron Hybrids either have heat sensitive vision, or they smell us or something we're gonna get caught" Panthera answered, limiting her friends' expectations somewhat before adding "But theoretically we can find our way to anywhere in the palace with these shafts"
"That's great, we can-" Mercy fell silent as a massive tremor passed through the entire palace, the Rangers feeling their bodies collide with the surfaces of the shaft around them though thankfully none of them fell into whatever lay below them at that moment and when the tremor itself passed each of the Rangers noticed that there was a low thrumming that filled the air, as if the entire palace were vibrating
"That was not a natural earthquake" Marigold noted pointedly "Trust me, I grew up on a Death-World"
"It wasn't" Tempestus agreed "It felt like it had a direction to it, as though it was expanding outwards from somewhere-"
"It was" Kay interjected "And it was magical….I can sense something building again" Mercy took a moment to process the new information, painfully aware of all eyes being on her even in her cramped and darkened surroundings until finally she spoke; filling her voice with conviction and certainty that she did not feel.
"Okay Rangers, new plan. We're gonna go and find out what that was because it can't be anything good"
Author's Notes:
The penultimate chapter of the penultimate arc….Ooh boy, we're really in it now.
A lot of this chapter actually changed from how it was planned out, but in ways that I feel make it more streamlined and give better lead up to what comes next.
Also I saw the casting for Dino Knight I see we have an alien Red Ranger which isn't something that I'd expect in a series based around Knights or Dinosaurs….Unless the comet that killed the dinosaurs was actually his ship and he's been in stasis ever since; but that's just an idea that occurred to me literally as I was typing it out and is based on nothing.
But anyway, let's summarise shall we?:
If Canis didn't already wanting to leave the sight of Lord Zedd just cutting down the people co-ordinating his plans would have done the job; Zedd doesn't see his subjects as people, just cogs that can be replaced at any time.
Lord Zedd gathering his personal retinue in one place with only a few exceptions works both for practical in universe reasons and also to hand wave away why the Aegis Rangers aren't just being swamped with bodies.
And there it is, the moment we've wanted….Canis is going rogue and getting a Putty fight.
Things like using the bed and chair are a nod to way old MMPR unmorphed fights used t incorporate the environment a lot more, I'd use them more but they always seem to feel a little out of place.
And now she's going to go and steal something before she leaves….But we've not seen the last of her yet, there's one last thing Canis needs to do.
Yeah the Rangers definitely considered taking Zedd out and then they had to remember what happened the last time they tried to fight him.
I'm just throwing anything together for monster designs at this point and yet it's working.
Of course someone from the cult of Lord Zedd decided to stay back to get the promised head-pats from Zedd-Senpai….Also Mammon'th, from Mammon and Mammoth.
The Battleizer powers haven't been forgotten, they're being conserved for when they're needed most.
The way this scene ended was actually one of the changes, the idea to have the different factions all vying for power face off against each other to the point of losing sight of the Rangers just seemed to work; as the main problem with PR villains across multiple seasons is their inability to work together.
Jack and Sky's ideas both work well, especially in tandem; pull up a map and have Bridge use his precognition to get a feel for any incoming attacks.
I actually watched a few of Jack's fight scenes to get a feel for the way he moves again and the idea of Jack using Capoeira just fits, which is exactly what that cartwheel kick was.
Y'know what's funny….Our introduction to Mercy was her having a sparring match with Zen-Aku that was heavily based on the training fight in the Matrix; here Jack is finally accepting his abilities as a Power Ranger after falling, almost like a "Free your mind" moment.
Another Capoeira move, I can't remember that actual name for it and my Portuguese is non-existent but you can literally land a head-kick from the floor, it's great.
Yay for truncated character development to show Sky isn't a total ass-hole.
Oh Broodwing is smooth with it, knew he was being watched and set up a fake base specifically to deal with whoever came knocking….This is gonna be a tough one for the Rangers.
Another Lord Zedd scene with no dialogue, this is the problem when your main villain is on a different level to his subordinates, there's no-one for him to bounce off of.
The Rangers have almost managed to put him on the ropes without realising it.
"He would finish what his father had started and succeed where he had failed" we've seen flashes of this at various points, as much as Zedd wants to act like it's not personal and he's some Godlike figure who's above emotional attachments he really, really isn't.
And the plan is still mostly going ahead; he's getting ready to make his move on Earth and nobody there know he's coming.
This scene was altered and reworked so many times it's unreal, originally Mammon'th wasn't even going to be in it and the Obsidian Guard were gonna be the main problem.
Mercy had a reasonable idea and one that was definitely the product of being on a team with Panthera, since the enemy is on the defensive you can see what's important by seeing what the rush to defend.
Nope not the comms….They never did see Gibil's workshop on the Heliothis; they just destroyed the ship, it was Carnifex who killed him.
Another reworking of this scene involved how the fight progressed, just having another standard monster of the week type battle didn't really work so instead I did something else and let Mammon'th be the author of his own demise.
There are two weaknesses in every villains' base, tunnels and ventilation shafts….We did tunnels last chapter so here we are.
That tremor was obviously the one Lord Zedd caused by starting to power up a couple scenes back….Which means that despite their earlier decision the Rangers are going to be heading right towards him while he's surrounded by the best warriors the Empire has.
Thank you to FandomFreak for their review on the last chapter.
I'm glad you appreciate the story so much.
As always thank you to everyone that reads this, with a special thanks to those of you that follow, favourite and review