"CHARGED FOR MORE"

MARINER BAY. DOWNTOWN SECTOR.

In the heart of Mariner Bay was the classic Metropolitan Museum. It boasted high, beamed ceilings; massive decorated windows; and a food court that spread out into the parklike grounds. At least a hundred people were milling about, sitting on high-backed wooden benches or standing in groups, talking.

The talking ceased once Vypra had strolled in through the front doors. Clad in a serpentine suit of armor, handcrafted to fit her svelte figure, she couldn't help but gleam in the light.

She had surveyed the museum and walked around its perimeter.

She came to halt as she stood before of a glass display case. Inside, was an unusual glittering amulet, smoother and shinier than anything Vypra had ever seen before. The demoness stared at the amulet in awe.

Shattering the case, she reached for the amulet. Even now, she could feel the power rushing through her bones as she held the artifact. Not caring for the alarm that she had set off.

From the far end of the corridor, a security guard - middle-aged, out of shape, huffing and puffing – ran down towards her as best he could.

"Hey! You!" the security guard shouted at her. "Hold it right there!"

She turned toward the security guard in a leisurely fashion and knocked him aside as if he was a ragdoll.

Another guard made a grab from behind, but Vyrpa elbowed him in the face, used the same fist to deliver a sharp jab that dropped him from the fight in seconds.

The demon began firing bolts of energy from her sword every which way. Clouds of dust and debris rained down on the crowd, sending people screaming and turning the panic up to a higher pitch. Now people were fighting and climbing over one another to get out of the building.


AQUABASE. SLEEPING QUARTERS.

On this particular morning, donned in his workout gear, Justin Stewart was, as usual, in the middle of calisthenics. Every day, without fail, Stewart started out with five minutes of stretching, thirty minutes of sit-ups, push-ups, pull-ups, and jumping jacks, followed by another thirty minutes of working out with weights.

The first break in his techno music came, and Justin stole a moment to towel off, and gulped down his water. He always prided himself on staying fit and eating right. He'd first begun this daily regimen over a couple of years ago working with the Mariner Bay Police Department. Once he enlisted with Lightspeed, his regimen slowly became more intense.

He blotted the sweat off of his face as he strode across the room to where a framed photograph sat on his desk. The photo was yellowing around the edges, but still brought a smile to his face. There he was in his blast suit with the boys in blue clustered around him. Standing next to him was his mentor, the Blue Senturion.

"Rangers to Rescue Ops." Captain Mitchell's voice rang from the P.A. system.

Seven young adults jogged into the Command Center and gathered around the screen where they got a lenseful of Vypra, striding through as people panicked and ran in every direction.

"Let's show her what Seven Rangers could do." Captain Mitchell said, turning to his Rangers. "Transport bay, on the double."

The Rangers nodded and headed off at a run for the Transport Bay.


MARINER BAY. CITY PLAZA.

Vyrpa strode purposefully out of the Metropolitan Museum. Her fingers clenched tightly around the Amulet. Nestled in the palm of her hand, gleaming and glowing with an unnatural blue hue, casting a shadow over her face.

Smiling to herself, she eyed it appreciably.

Out one of the doors that led to the front area, was greeted with laser blasts near her feet that sent her tumbling to the ground.

Furious, she looked up to see Seven Rangers armed with Blasters storming into view. They took their courage from their leader, Carter.

"I guess you didn't learn your lesson the first time!" Carter shouted at the demon.

"Some guys never learn." Justin chimed in from alongside Carter, twirling his Rescue Blaster.

"I was wondering when you'd show up." Vyrpa hissed, slowly walking towards them, a cruel grin on her lips.

"You guys ready?" Carter said, raising his morpher, Justin and the others nodded their heads, doing as he did.

"Lightspeed Rescue!" The core five shouted and morphed.

"Titanium Power!" Ryan cried out.

"Cobalt Power!" Justin finished.

The area filled with lights that flashed with crazy tie-die colors. When the lightshow ended, Vyrpa saw Seven Power Rangers, side by side, dropped into attack stances, "LIGHTSPEED . . . RESCUE!"

Vypra smiled coldly at them. "You seven don't have a chance against me," the female demon commented as she looked down at herself, "Now for the fun part!" the demoness closed her fists and blue lights flashed around her.

When the lights cleared, a dark wave of Ghouls sprang up in the streets between her and the Rangers.

Growing denser, they stood facing the Rangers with equal corporeal weight. From behind their cloaks, eyes were lizardlike, sickly green and glowing. Fists clenched as one, they fell into battle stances. "Hyah!"

Joel cocked his helmeted head, "Man, you gotta be kidding me!"

"No fair!" Kelsey wailed, hands on hips. "New foot soldiers?! You're playing dirty, Vypra!"

Vypra gave a low sultry laugh as she stalked toward the Rangers.

"Ask me if I care," the demoness snarled as she snapped her fingers. "Ghouls, take no prisoners!"

With wordless cries the Ghouls drew swords and went in for the attack.

Carter let out a battle cry and his Rangers spread out amongst the Ghoul warriors.

Everyone charged, and the fight was on. The Rangers were making major headway against the Ghouls, but the enemy foot soldiers were confident. They had superior numbers, and there were only a handful of Rangers.

Dana and Carter were working together, flipping in and out of combat whilst Chad, usually the mellowest of the group, went scything through the Ghouls with his V-Lancer.

Kelsey was even faster in speed and reaction time. Unlike Chad, she possessed an unnatural grace that made her seem almost weightless. She ducked beneath a slash, and in one smooth move, she came up slashing her V-Lancer across a Ghoul's abdomen and it fell backward from the force of Kelsey's blow as it shrieked in pain.

Joel went solid for them, spinning side kicks to the face, bouncing one Ghoul into the next. He caught a punch in one hand, flipped the Ghoul head over heels into the two beside him, leapt for a wall, and bounced off into a flying drop kick.

Covering Joel's back, Dana was a flurry of powerful kicks that sent Ghouls pin wheeling wildly across the area.

Energy, excitement and a sense of power flowed through Carter. He tossed a Ghoul over his shoulder, elbowed another in the chest, while kicking a third one in the jaw with booted force.

Justin kiais as he slugged his way through the throng of Ghouls. They kept coming, but only one or two of them could reach him at a time and he was able to fend them off. Alongside him, Ryan became a whirlwind of flying fists and feet as he carved enough space to bring his Titanium Laser into play.

Thick beams of light streaked out at several Ghouls with a rain of sparks, sending them spiraling away like ragdolls.

Justin tried to draw his Rescue Blaster but, Vyrpa knocked it deftly out his hands, sending it skittering down the cracked pavement.

He retaliated with a roundhouse kick that missed her by a mile as she ducked beneath it and came up like a jack-in-the-box, unleashing a powerful sidekick to his chest that staggered him backward.

With a banshee screech, Vypra leapt after Justin, slashing at him with both hands. He ducked and weaved, evading the worse of Vyrpa's blows, while throwing surgical jabs and strikes at her sides.

With luck, he got his foot under Vyrpa and kicked her head over heels solidly into a brick wall, sending sparks shooting out of her serpentine armor.

Justin crossed his forearms striking a fighting pose. "I'm through playing games, Vypra!" he said, breathing heavily.

As Vypra came to her feet she slipped into a fighting pose of her own. Her face twisted in cold fury, eyes zeroed in on Justin.

Her fists clenched, Vypra tensed and lunged at him again, her powerful legs lashed out at him in rapid-fire succession. Driven back by the attack, Justin whirled about into a defensive stance.

Shining her yellow eyes at Justin, Vypra launched. Whirling like a tiger, she spun out a heel kick and slashed him.

Sparks shot out as Justin found himself flung backwards from the charged attack. "NNGH!"

He tumbled down a playground like a stone skipping across a lake, rearing up immediately only to collapse again with a loud "oomph."

Vypra let out a cruel chuckle. "Lesson learned?"

Carter trotted over to the Justin's side and the rest of the team joined him. Carter gently lifted Justin's shoulders. "C'mon, I got'cha!"

Justin winced, holding his side, as he was helped up.

Vypra gazed levelly at Justin and smiled. "If you think that was tough, just wait till you'll see what's in store for Mariner Bay."

Vyrpa turned away from Justin, and started for the alley. Stopping in the alleyway, she turned to look at Justin again one more time. "'Till we meet again, Cobalt Ranger."

Without missing a beat, she disappeared in a bamf of imploding air filling in the empty space left by her body. The faintest scent of sulfur and brimstone filling the alleyway.

"I wonder what Vypra meant by that?" Chad asked.

"Whatever it is, I'm sure it spells trouble." Dana threw in.

"Let's report back to the Auqabase and find out." Carter said, firmly.


AQUABASE. INFIRMARY.

Justin sat on a bio-bed being examined by Dana. She was using a handheld medical scanner.

"Well, at least your cholesterol level is low," Dana pointed out conversationally as she passed her handheld scanner over Justin's face.

From where he was seated, Justin lifted his gaze to meet that of the paramedic. "Look," He said, dryly. "We've been over this, I'm fine." Reaching up, he swatted at the Medical scanner Dana was passing across his field of view.

"Honestly, I am." He said, still hurting in a half a dozen places, but he certainly wasn't going to admit it to her. "I've been through worse scrapes than this."

Dana smile. "Yes, of course."

Behind them, Carter stuck his head in the door. "We gotta jam. The Captain said that he would like to see everyone in the de-briefing room."

"Yeah?" Justin asked.

"Everyone," Carter said, flatly.


AQUABASE. BRIEFING ROOM.

Soundproofed as thoroughly as it was, the de-briefing room had been designed and built for holding meetings as the highest levels of government. In the middle was a conference table, with officers seated all around it. At present, it was occupied by Captain Mitchell and his Seven Rangers.

On the wall of the room a screen came alive with light. On it, a pixilated video feed appeared. It showed an endless replay of the Museum burglary captured by a closed-circuit camera. It was blurry and imperfect, but watchable.

The camera footage panned to a medium close-up of Vyrpa standing on the steps of the Metropolitan Museum.

At that one moment, one image dominated half the screen. It was an ancient artifact.

"The artifact that Vypra stole was called the Lunar Amulet." Ryan supplied his friends. "Legends say that the Amulet that was hidden away by the Sorcerer of the Sands."

Kelsey stared. It seemed that every time something was explained to her, instead of becoming more enlightened, her ignorance doubled. "Quick question." She spoke up. "Why do the demons want this Amulet so badly?"

Ryan got up from his chair. "The Lunar Amulet holds powers from the Shadow World." He elaborated. Ryan clenched his jaw and went on. "Now that Vypra has it, the Demons can enhance their Star Power enough to summon the Nemesis Triangle."

"And if they succeed?" The Captain dare asked.

Ryan sighed. "Then Mariner Bay will be cut off from the rest of the world, like the Isle of Muranthias."

Dana's brow furrowed as she replied. "Backup, Lunar Amulet?" she blurted out. "If this ceremony is taking place at night, then that means the Max Solarzord would be useless."

"Dana's right," Chad spoke up, his dark eyes were serious. "No Max Solarzord, means no Lightspeed Solarzord."

Joel's shoulders sank. "Now what do we do?" he groaned, standing. "We'll need everything we've got against this Maligore guy and without the Solarzord, we're just sitting ducks."

"This . . . This, ceremony could happen tonight, for all we know." Ryan threw in, passing a meaningful look to his father. "The whole city could be fair game."

Feeling the tension soar into the room, the Captain slumped back in his chair, rubbing at his eyes.

The team exchanged looks, feeling as if the whole weight of the world was on their shoulders.

Reaching across, Carter squeezed Ryan's shoulder in the form of reassurance and comfort, "Guys, let's just hope that we can manage without it."

Justin looked full into Carter's face, struck by sudden inspiration. "Or maybe not." he spoke, his voice deep with intent.

Joel looked up, raising an eyebrow as Dana, Ryan, Carter, Chad and Kelsey eyed him curiously.

He stood up in his chair and leaned across the table. "Sit tight, guys." he told them. "I've got an idea."

Tearing out the room, Justin raced down the bright hallway of the Aquabase arriving at his sleeping quarters in mere moments. Once inside, he rummaged through his team locker, coming up fairly quickly with a watch-like device he hadn't used in years.

His wrist communicator.

For a moment, he simply looked at it, memories from his high school days flowing through him like water through a stream. He smiled to himself, it still worked. Keying the communicator, he patched through a familiar frequency, and held it to his chin. "Alpha," he spoke over the radio. "I'm calling in a favor."


AQUABASE. RESCUE OPS.

The weapons lab was a hive of activity, a flurry of constant motion as technicians in white lab coats and goggles hurried back and forth, or worked intently over individual consoles.

In the midst of this self-contained underwater community, the Captain and his Seven Rangers huddled up around the main screen with curiosity and baited breath. All eyes were on Justin.

"Somebody talk to me." the Captain addressed his recruits urgently. "Stewart, how are we coming along?"

Justin, standing at command center's main defense console, tapped a few buttons. Seconds later, brought up a digital model of a police car-like zord rotating on the bright screen.

"Her name's Siren Blaster," he replied, cheerily. "She's my Rescuezord and she comes equipped with the power and velocity of Turbo Technology." Turning, he cracks them a half smile. "She may have mileage on her, but she's charged for more."

"She?" Dana asked, raising an eyebrow.

The Captain held up a hand to silence his daughter. "Duly noted, but her specs aren't Lightspeed Regulation." he hedges back. "And she's parked in my Zord Bay."

"Our Zord Bay." Miss Fairweather swiveled about in her chair. "With Maligore back, we could use all of the help we could get. Siren Blaster will make a fine addition to our Lightspeed Arsenal."

Justin tapped a few more buttons, and bought up a digital model of a Lightspeed Megazord assembly. The Six Rescuezords had folded, unfolded and pulled themselves together into a gigantic humanoid robot before his friend's very eyes.

Justin walked over to it. "I present to you the Siren Justice Megazord." he declared, proudly. "The newest weaponry in our Lightspeed Arsenal."

Flabbergasted by the sight, all six rangers came closer. Each one became enveloped in the huge green glow of the Megazord.

"Incredible!" Kelsey said breathlessly, amusement in her eyes. "She's amazing!"

"That she is!" Joel said from alongside her, clapping a hand upon her shoulder.

Dana looked at Ryan, who returned a small smile. "Not bad." He commented.

Carter was shaking his head, slowly in wonderment, "Maligore, look out!"

The Captain felt a flicker of hope brighten into the room. He steeled his expression, and reluctantly nodded. "I hope you're right." He offered, letting his gaze meet the expectant gazes of his team. "When will she be ready to come on-line?"

Answering his question, the Alarm Klaxons began to blare in the Weapons Lab.

One of the uniformed men rushed into the weapons lab and snapped off a quick salute. He was breathless and very flustered. "Sir, we've got a Code Red!" he reported to his Captain. "The City is under attack- - again!"

The Captain sighed, "Lemme guess, Maligore?"

One of the glass panels on the control console generated a schematic map of Mariner Bay. Their scanning array got down to business, a dot of light began pulsing.

"Aye, sir." The uniformed man confirmed. "X marks the spot. He's downtown and he's moving."

"So are we!" Carter nodded to his friends. "Let's go save the city, guys!"

"Right!" Justin said all at once and flashing a grin and a thumbs up to Miss Fairweather.

Carter headed for the Zord Bay, his friends was close on his heels.

They pounded down a corridor, turning twice before reaching wide doors that opened automatically into a massive Zord Bay.

The vehicles inside were immense and ominous. Everyone sprinted out to their respective Zord and strapped themselves inside. Ryan joining Justin in Siren Blaster.

NEXT CHAPTER: "POWER IS ON ITS WAY"


Author's Note: I would to thank everyone who left a comment on my work. I really do appreciate it.