Chapter One
The Bronze Mask
The Hurricane airship flew hard and fast over a vast mountain range in central China. Far below, snowcapped peaks passed by, snow flurries kicked up by the airship's giant turbines. It's white, flame-decorated hull gleamed in the winter sun.
Inside the ship, the Ranger Project team bustled around, each doing what they could to prepare for the mission at hand. Dayton Owens sat in the pilot's seat, flying the airship smoothly and quickly over the snowy mountains. General Kenpachi stood behind him, his eyes locked on the horizon. Katie Young and Tammy Hayes worked at the computer consoles behind them, making sure everything was working properly, while Doug Cummins and Harriet Nixon helped Joshua Cage and Sean Cassidy, the Rangers of said Ranger Project, get suited up and ready to go.
"Now, remember," Joshua said, fiddling with the morpher at his wrist and making sure it was all functional. "We get in, we take out the missile, and we grab the Mask. Whatever we do, we can't let the Mask escape. This guy's been causing way too much trouble out here in this region."
"Got it," Sean said, tipping the cowboy hat he always wore. Dayton glanced back at the pair of them. He hadn't much gotten to know this new guy yet in the month or two since he'd joined, but he didn't much care for his cowboy getup, his Southern drawl, or his tendency to flirt with Agent Hayes every chance he got. It made it very difficult to eat around either of them.
Sitting beside Dayton in the copilot's seat, a scrawny younger kid with freckles and bright red hair bounced in his seat, looking back at the two Rangers behind him. "This is so exciting," he said, looking at Dayton. "Isn't it?"
Dayton chuckled. "Oh, just you wait, kid," he said. "You haven't seen anything yet."
The young recruit, Leon, grinned from ear to ear, stars in his eyes as he studied the morpher Joshua was messing with.
"Eyes on the sky, Cadet," Kenpachi said, nudging him slightly.
"Right," the cadet said, his eyes widening as he remembered he was still on duty. "Sorry, general."
Dayton chuckled. Leon's bright-eyed excitement reminded him a bit of himself, way back in his first assignment as an EAGLE recruit, assigned to the base out in Hong Kong. He looked at the mountains below him, realizing that that old base wouldn't be all that far from here. Maybe a few hundred miles to the southeast or so.
Dayton's thoughts about his old base stirred up old memories, memories he'd have rather remained forgotten. Images ran through his mind. Black Cross running through the base. Soldiers lying dead around him, darts sticking out of their arms and necks. Dayton gripped his controls, his knuckles turning white. He shook his head, forcing himself to think of anything else. He glanced back at his friends behind him. Joshua was laughing with Katie about something, Doug and Harriet chatting while leaning against the railing nearby. Tammy swatted playfully at Sean for pestering her while she was trying to work. Dayton smiled. That did the trick.
He turned to face forward. On his readouts on the panel before him, a small red blip grew closer and closer. "We're about to the drop zone," he said. Joshua looked up from his conversation with Katie. He came forward and leaned over Dayton's shoulder to look at the radar.
"I'm guessing we've got about a minute before we get there," Dayton told him.
Joshua nodded, patting Dayton's shoulder. "Thanks, buddy," he said. He stepped back over to Sean. "You ready?" he said.
Sean tipped his hat. "Born ready, Captain," he said.
Both raised their arms and pressed the buttons on their morphers. "You're going to want to see this," Dayton said, leaning over to Leon.
The recruit grinned and turned in his chair to watch the transformation. Dayton watched too, but kept one eye firmly on the sky ahead. In a matter of seconds, millions of nanites spilled out from the morphers, spreading around Joshua and Sean's wrists and traveling up their arms, bright red and blue in color respectively. The nanites made their way up over their shoulders and spread out across their chests, small features here and there popping up and gaining definition.
Gloves formed around their hands, separating from the rest of the suit. Glowing bars formed across their chest, pulsing with energy from the power core hidden underneath. Belts formed around their waists, tiny rocket boosters taking shape on each side. The nanites pressed up and around their faces, swallowing them up for just a moment before visors formed, their eyes just barely visible through them.
The transformation lasted less than five seconds. Where Joshua and Sean stood, two super soldiers dressed in red and blue took their place. Power Rangers, as they'd started calling them around headquarters. Leon bounced up and down in his seat, holding back a whoop of excitement.
Dayton grinned slightly. "Looks like we're here," he said, tapping on his radar.
Katie punched in some commands on her own console. "Opening the hatch now," she said. "Ready to drop." The grinding sound of machinery filled the air as the large hatch on the belly of the airship opened up, causing a rush of air as the vacuum seal was broken. Everyone on the ship braced themselves against the wind as Joshua and Sean stepped up to the railing around the hatch's edge.
"See you in a few," Joshua said, raising his hand to the crew.
Dayton and the rest of the crew saluted them back. The two rangers turned and dove over the railing, freefalling toward the icy ground far below. About halfway down, they fired up the rockets attached to their belts and shot forward, speeding out from under the Hurricane and racing on ahead.
Leon let out a whoop and leaned forward to watch them streak off toward the ridge in the distance. "That is the coolest thing ever," he said.
Dayton grinned, admiring them a bit himself.
"Stations, everyone," General Kenpachi ordered. "We've got our own job to do."
"Yes, sir."
Tammy and Katie turned to focus on their computer consoles as Dayton flew the ship closer and closer. Doug and Harriet moved out of the cockpit and worked their way back to the back of the ship to help get the claw ready.
The Hurricane crested the ridge, and a huge expanse of desert spread out beneath them. Directly ahead was their target, a large Black Cross complex with a large missile ready to launch on a pad nearby.
"We're here," Dayton said.
Up ahead, the red and blue specks that were the rangers shot for the central building of the base. General Kenpachi leaned over and tapped on the console between Dayton and Leon, pulling up the visuals through Joshua and Sean's visors on two small screens. Dayton glanced at them, watching as the rangers smashed their way through the ceiling and into the base itself. For a moment, everything was dark until their infrared kicked in, lighting up a single figure standing on a balcony above them and a tiny projectile flying directly toward the rangers.
"Look out!" Tammy shouted. The projectile struck Sean in the arm, sticking into his armor. Lights around the room lit up, revealing a masked figure standing on a catwalk, laughing at them.
"Welcome, Rangers," he said.
Dayton's eyes grew wide and he gripped his controls tighter, staring at the familiar figure dressed in solid bronze armor, a helmet covering his face with a single hole cut out for his mouth. In his hand, he held what looked like a high-tech peashooter.
Both Joshua and Sean crouched and held up their fists, ready for combat. Sean picked the dart from his armor and tossed it to the ground, not even a dent left behind.
"Well, well, well," the Bronze Mask said, tilting his head. "Looks like the rumors were true. That armor of yours is the real deal. Looks like I'm going to have to use something a little stronger."
He held up the peashooter in his hands and adjusted it a couple of times, pulling a new dart from his belt. Dayton's breathing became shallow as more memories flashed through his mind. Memories of that same peashooter, the darts sticking into his friends causing them to convulse and foam at the mouth. He shook his head, forcing himself to focus. He curved the airship out and around the base toward the missile, keeping one eye on the fight below.
The Bronze Mask fired his next dart, launching the projectile at far greater speed this time. Joshua's visor tracked it and he dashed forward, smacking the dart out of the air with the back of his hand. The dart hit the wall and stuck there, its tip drilling itself into the wall. "Nice try," he said.
The Bronze Mask growled and fell back. He raised his hand and doors all around the room opened up as at least a hundred Black Cross soldiers spilled into the room, each armed with a baton and an assault rifle. Joshua and Sean stood back to back, their visors scanning the crowd now pressing in on them.
Dayton watched the fight ensue. The normal Black Cross grunts stood no chance against the pair of them, Joshua and Sean easily dispatching every one as they came. The Bronze Mask worked his way around the catwalk, firing off occasional darts to try and get a hit in. Their visors tracked the darts every time, and they ended up hitting his own men more often than not. The effects of the darts on those hit were immediate and gruesome, their bodies collapsing to the floor immediately, breaking out in violent and uncontrollable convulsions.
Dayton tore his eyes away, unable to keep watching.
"We're right over the missile, sir," he said, working the airship into position.
"Good. Keep it steady." The general turned to Doug and Harriet. "Get the claw ready to deploy."
"Yes, sir!"
The two younger officers both took up stations on either side of the hatch. High above them, a huge metal claw hung from the ceiling, attached by a chain to a series of tracks. Doug and Harriet activated their stations, moving the claw back and forth along its tracks and making sure everything was working right.
"I'm going to need your help here, kid," Dayton told Leon. "It's up to us to keep this ship from drifting away from target."
"Got it," Leon said, wiggling back into his seat and gripping his controls.
Dayton tapped on one of the screens between them. "See that right there," he said, pointing to a red dot on the screen. "That's the missile. The cursor in the center is us. We've got to keep both of them lined up."
"Yes, sir."
Dayton looked up from the display, checking on Joshua and Sean's fight one more time. They had fought their way through the horde of soldiers and were now making their way up onto the catwalk to get at the Bronze Mask. The Mask fired off another handful of darts at them in an attempt to flee.
"Dropping the claw now," Doug reported, drawing Dayton's attention away. With the sound of its chain clanking through its track, the claw dropped down through the hatch, headed straight for the missile. The claw's fingers opened, ready to grab it and yank it from its foundations.
"Hold it steady," General Kenpachi said, his hands gripping Dayton and Leon's chairs tightly.
Dayton did his best to focus, keeping the ship lined up as best he could, but his attention couldn't help but drift to the fight going on below. He watched as Joshua and Sean chased the Bronze Mask down the catwalk, catching up to him with no trouble at all. The Mask turned and raised his arm to fend them off, but Joshua's first hit left a dent in his armor that made him cry out in agony.
"Yeah, get him," Dayton muttered under his breath.
"Dayton!" General Kenpachi shouted. Dayton looked up to see that the Hurricane had drifted far off course from where it should have been.
"Sorry," Dayton said, pulling the ship back up sharply, sending the claw swinging wildly away from the missile and crashing into the wall of the base instead.
"Hey!" Harriet shouted.
Dayton's face went bright red. Through the visor, everything went fuzzy as Joshua and Sean found themselves buried by debris as the wall beside them burst open and the ceiling above them collapsed in on itself.
The Bronze Mask stood outside the path of destruction, watching and laughing as his opponents found themselves otherwise occupied. "Better luck next time," he said. He climbed up through the new hole just made and leaped out onto the icy ground below. "Fire the missile!" he shouted, running toward the bunker nearby. "Do it now!"
"We've got trouble," Tammy shouted.
Dayton looked down to see the missile's rocket boosters starting to flare up. Doug and Harriet were trying to get the claw to grab at it, but it was still swinging too wildly to get a good shot in.
"Oh, no," Dayton said.
Look out!" General Kenpachi shouted.
Dayton veered to the side just in time as the missile rocketed toward them, nearly nicking their wing as it careening into the sky at incredible speed. General Kenpachi watched it fly higher and higher, curving slightly as it flew. "Tammy, where's it headed?" he asked.
Tammy tapped on her screen. "Give me just a second to map out its trajectory," she said.
"Head after it, Dayton."
"Yes, sir," Dayton said. He flipped the airship around and flew as fast as he could after the missile.
"It looks like it's going to land about a mile outside a city two hundred miles south of here," Tammy said. "It doesn't seem to be a major city or anything. I think they didn't have enough time to put in the coordinates so it's just going wherever it was pointed."
General Kenpachi scowled, glaring out at the missile. "Hurry, Dayton."
"Hurrying as fast as I can," Dayton said, pressing the airship after the missile with everything he had. "It's no good, sir," he said. "The Hurricane's not got enough in it."
The general swore, pounding the back of Dayton's seat. He leaned forward and pressed the comm just under the visor screens. "Cage, Cassidy, we're going to need the both of you up here as fast as possible."
On the screens below, both visors turned to look up at the quickly fading missile and airship, then back at the Bronze Mask, who had barricaded himself inside the bunker. It looked as though the rangers had been trying to break it open.
Joshua let out an audible sigh. "Come on," he said. He tapped his birdies on, firing them up. "We'll have to come back for him."
"Yes, sir," Sean said, tapping on his own birdies. They both took off into the sky, away from the base. Dayton watched as the Bronze Mask's bunker fell away below them, swearing under his breath.
The Rangers rocketed through the sky, racing past the Hurricane in a matter of seconds and streaking on toward the missile in the distance. In only a few short moments, they caught up to it, splitting up as Joshua raced up along the projectile's body to work on deactivating it while Sean latched his fingers around the base of the rocket, pulling with all his might and tearing it off the missile, tossing it away and letting it fall to the earth below. Joshua lashed out with his whip, the whip latching itself magnetically to the missile's hull as he flew as hard as he could in the opposite direction, forcibly pulling it off course and away from any civilian population.
"Under it, hurry!" Dayton heard him shout. Both Joshua and Sean worked themselves under the missile before it could fall, flaring their birdies and pushing with all their might to carry it into the upper atmosphere high above.
"Follow them," General Kenpachi said. "As much as you can."
"Yes, sir," Dayton said. He and Leon pulled up on their controls, taking the Hurricane higher and higher. Pressure started to build inside the cabin, making Dayton's ears pop, and he eased up a bit. They could still see the Rangers and the missile in the distance, the missile's weight making them not quite as quick as they normally would be. Once they were far enough out, Joshua shouted, "Okay, we're good. Fall back."
He and Sean gave the missile one last push before letting go and falling away from it.
"Take aim!"
Both reached for their holsters on their belts, blasters appearing in their hands.
"Fire!"
Joshua and Sean opened fire on the missile, blasting it with everything they had. A bright fiery explosion lit up the sky as the missile detonated, a green cloud of toxins spewing everywhere.
"Tammy?" the general asked.
"Reading now, General," she said, tapping on her screen. "At this altitude, the poison should dissipate to harmless levels by the time it reaches the ground."
The general breathed a sigh of relief and mopped his brow. "Well, that's a relief at least," he said. "Thank you, Tammy." He leaned over and switched on the comm to talk to the Rangers. "Good work, Cage, Cassidy," he said. "Now head back down. Hurry!"
The rangers turned and saluted the airship. "Yes, sir," Joshua said.
He and Sean lit up their birdies again, rocketing back toward the ground at lightning speed.
"Follow them," the general said, his hand on Dayton's chair.
"Yes, sir," Dayton said. He turned the airship back around and followed the distant figures. The rangers reached the base first, landing on the launch pad hard enough to crack the tarmac.
"I don't think anyone is here, General," Joshua said, looking around. His infrared showed no heat signatures anywhere, except for a handful of tracks here and there all around them.
"They can't have gotten far," General Kenpachi said. "Keep looking."
"Yes, sir." Joshua turned to Sean. "I'll search inside the base," he said. "You fly up and look around for a trail."
"Yes, Captain," Sean said. The pair split up, racing off in different directions, searching around the base as best as they could. Dayton reached the base, pulling up to see the entire scene from above.
"It's no good, General," Joshua said, flying back out of the nearby building about a minute later. "The base has been abandoned. I can't find anyone anywhere."
"I can't find anything either," Sean said. Dayton looked down to see a tiny blue figure zipping around back and forth, looking for any sign of the fleeing terrorists.
General Kenpachi swore under his breath and slammed the console. "They can't just be gone," he said.
Dayton bit his lip, clutching his controls and pointedly avoiding the general's gaze.
"Come on back," the general said, defeated. "We'll regroup and figure out where to go from here. Try to grab as much of their equipment and information as you can."
"Yes, sir."
Dayton felt the general's hand on his shoulder. He bit his lip, knowing what was coming next.
"We'll talk about this later, Owens."