Power Rangers: Steam Force

Ch9: Into the Hive

It was evening in the city of Vicdon. The moon shimmered in the starry sky and the usual nightlife populated the city. Within a lab, situated in the Upper Class district of the city, a group of scientists were working frantically as usual. Blueprints for what appeared to be a large clock tower and other clock themed schematics dotted the workstations along with an array of different sized gears and cogs.

A man in his mid-forties with medium length dark hair and a rough beard, wearing a labcoat, his eyes tired with dark circles around them stood tinkering with a small device.

The working of the scientist was interrupted as they heard the smashing of glass in the room. A scientist had dropped a box containing vacuum tubes onto the ground causing them to smash. The cause of this incident was the reason the scientists were currently petrified.

Entering the room was a squadron of drones along with three of the crablike Terrasoids Kivo had faced in his trials. However they were the least of these scientists worries. Striding through the room as any royalty would do in the presence of peasants, Queen Nyllia looked at the scientists with a menacing stare.

"I come looking for a Dr. Moon. If he is not turned in to me, then I shall extinguish every last one of your pitiful lives until he is given to me."

The aforementioned scientist pocketed the device he had been tweaking and stepped up to the Terrasoid Queen. "That's me." He announced.

Nyllia motioned with her hand and a couple of the Drones who walked up and grabbed his arms. "You're going to help me with a trivial matter, doctor." She told him.

"I need my team and my equipment." Dr. Moon informed her, trying not to show any fear in the current situation.

"Very well. Grab everything!" She replied, ordering her minions around.

[Steam Force]

Morning came quickly and the rangers woke to an alarm sounding throughout the operations station. Lazily, and reluctantly, the six rangers shambled over to the control room, eyes half open and still in their nightwear.

Lohan was already awake and sharp as ever. He wore his usual military uniform and wore a stern expression on his face. "Rangers, we have a very dire situation on our hands. Dr. Moon is a scientist in charge the steamworks project. The man responsible for your morphers and the currently missing clockwork morpher. If you make it back, which I'm counting on, I'll explain that to you. For now all you need to know is this. Before you became power rangers, there was another. Aham, he commanded the military till I was forced to come out of retirement. I gave him the clockwork morpher and he descended into the hive of the Terrasoids, back before we knew how much of a threat they were. I lost radio contact with him and both him and the device are presumed missing. I believe, somehow, they got the information needed to make that morpher work for them and have taken the doctor to achieve this goal."

"We're going in then right?" Ayana observed.

"Correct. We need you to halt their plans and bring Dr. Moon back. As for the morpher, recover it if you can, if not, destroy it, you can't let them have it, otherwise we're all in trouble."

"Don't worry Lohan, and if Aham's still alive after all this time, we'll find him and save him." TJ reassured the old man.

"I appreciate it rangers, he was- is a good friend. I'd hate for him to stay behind. Now, move out." Lohan ordered.

The rangers headed to get changed into their usual outfits when Alex noticed Lloyd looking a little distant. "Hey, something up?" She asked, which piqued the interests of the others who also gathered around.

"Well since you're all here, it's best I tell you. What Lohan said back there, brought back memories, some weren't good but others were quite useful." He told them.

"You don't have to tell us if you don't want to." Lucas interrupted. Lloyd gave a sigh and put on a brave face.

"It's fine. I'll tell you. Dr. Moon is my dad. I didn't know how to react, hearing that he was kidnapped, but it brought back what happened around eight years ago, at the beginning of the steamwork project. My older brother cared for me when my parents were off on business, which I wasn't allowed to know about given the whole situation we're in now because of it. During a school camping trip that my brother was on, one day… He was hiking by a fast moving river rapid and he slipped and was carried off… Everyone looked for him, all we found was this." Lloyd held up his red jacket as he began to tear up, however he shook it off and carried on. They confirmed him dead, but his body was never found. Earlier that day he was saying how dad acted like he was hiding something. A few weeks later after more than enough incidents, I followed him to his lab and saw what he was working on. At first I didn't get it, but then, what I saw was terrifying." LLoyd was about to continue before Lohan interrupted.

"Rangers, you need to get moving now. Time isn't on our side." The old general ordered.

"I'll fill in the rest later." Lloyd told them as they hurried to get ready and move out for a confrontation with the Terrasoids, however this time it was on their turf.

Despite this, all the other rangers could really think about was how broken Lloyd was as the rest of them, perhaps even more by the vibe they got from the last part.

[Steam Force]

Within the throne room of the Terrasoid hive, Stinger knelt at the foot of the throne where the Queen sat. "My queen, the scientists are co-operating as intended. So far we have not found any human trespassers, all is well for now." The insectoid commander reported.

She stood up and signalled for him to do so too. "It seems so. It was also useful to keep you around, even after what you did, before I summoned you as Stinger. Your memories are useful, I hope that continues. And it seems your training has paid off. You may not be as you were, but Kivo appreciates the help. And soon enough, he will destroy the rangers for me. Isn't that right?" She said, turning to a shadowed figure.

Out stepped a young man who appeared to be eighteen. He had golden blonde hair that appeared to be just under shoulder length, he had bright green eyes that were overlayed with a yellow glowing tone and he stood at 6'00 exactly with a built up physique. His outfit consisted of a set of jagged plate armour crafted out of what seemed to be bones, this was covered by a tattered grey hooded cloak that would exposed the armour when he moved.

The young man moved towards the throne and knelt before rising. "Yes mother." He spoke, a hint of aggression in his tone as he spoke. This indeed was Kivo, now fully matured and ready to serve Nyllia as he was created to do.

"Now both of you, check on the scientists, make sure they're working properly, and won't destroy the one thing we need to defeat those rangers." She ordered, the two bowed in compliance and then left the room.

[Steam Force]

The rangers stood at the gloomy entrance to the hive which had been fortified since the last incursion there, however no guards were on duty currently.

"It might be a good idea to morph before we get in there." Mia spoke up, being less quiet than usual.

"Good thinking, we might not have enough space otherwise." Lloyd said as they revealed their morphers.

"Full Steam Ahead!" The six of them called out, morphing before proceeding inside.

"Since we have the time, mind telling us more of what you saw?" Lucas asked as they walked through the hive corridors.

Lloy paused and let out a breath of air "Okay then. They were testing with different morphers and abilities. I saw the ones we use work perfectly, then I saw someone use that clockwork morpher and transform into this virtually perfect marksman with incredible evasive ability too. He could even convert that rifle for close quarters combat too, he was quite good. Then came what shocked me. There was a third morpher, it didn't go too well, they said something about it being damaged years before even then and it being unstable. I watched as a subject used it, it went fine for a few seconds,until the electricity surging through it began to spark out of control… it fried the person inside the suit. After that, the project was shut down and it was locked away, until it was needed again. I don't know why Lohan hasn't talked about that thing at all, but I understand why he would want to keep it locked away." He informed them as they made their way into a chamber which contained the scientists.

Kivo and Stinger were conversing with Dr. Moon and numerous Drones were dotted around the room, guarding the scientists as they frantically worked.

"Looks like this is it." Alex said as they halted at the room's entrance.

"Wait something's going down." TJ said as they ducked before the Terrasoids could see them.

Stinger looked at the doctor as his head mounted feelers twitched. "Is the device ready yet?" He asked, looking irritated with the doctor for some reason.

"Yes, we've done as you've asked. Now if you'd please let us go." Dr. Moon begged.

Kivo snatched the repaired clockwork morpher from the hands of the doctor and strapped it to his unarmoured right wrist. "Good. Now kill them, kill them all." He ordered Stinger and the drone guards without a shred of emotion in his words, or knowledge to the weight of his request as he left the room.

"With pleasure!" Stinger enthused as he strode toward Dr. Moon, intent on slaying him. Within no time, he was pinned to the wall where the commander stabbed his large stinger into the man as the drones cut down the panicked scientists.

As quick as they could, the rangers ran out to engage the drones, it was too late to save the scientists, but not too late to save Lloyd's dad. Summoning his pipeblade, Lloyd rushed in and parried away any more blows sent in the way of the doctor before Stinger focused his attention on the red ranger.

"You got in my way just now, that won't happen again." Stinger asserted as he attacked Lloyd.

However, the ranger was angered that Stinger had injured his family. "I'm gonna take you down!" Lloyd roared as he lunged with his weapon, stabbing into the body of his opponent and causing the Terrasoid to collapse from the blow. The red ranger then hurried over and placed his arm around his dad.

"We good here now? This place is starting to give me the creeps." Ayana commented as the rangers finished off the remaining drones in the area.

"What about Aham. We can't just leave him here to rot." TJ said as he looked around the room they were in currently.

Stinger began to chuckle even though wounded. "I *cough* knew that name once. Aham. Captain and clockwork ranger *cough* then he fell at the hands of my queen." He laughed again as he coughed. "Then he was repurposed, reborn."

"What do you mean?" TJ asked, squatting down in front of the monster.

"Now, the one you knew goes by another name. The name of your friend, and now enemy is… Stinger." He told them, laughing as he did.

"T-Then y-you're…H-How?" TJ stammered as he got back up.

Dr. Moon interrupted this as he cleared his throat. "Leave him, we can't do anything for him. We need to get out of here now. They have the clockwork morpher, with that, Vicdon is in more danger than ever."

"Okay… damn…" TJ muttered the last word under his breath as they left, he looked back at the once man now beast one last time before catching up with the others.

[Steam Force]

The six rangers and the injured doctor ran outside of the hive as they were chased by several squadrons of drones that they had encountered on the way.

As the rangers with their hands free shot bolts from their steam blasters, the drones retreated back into the hive to which the rangers celebrated, however, their escape was not over yet.

As the rangers walked away and the doctor thanked them for their efforts in saving him, Kivo stood atop the hive, looking out from high up. "He will not help you. I won't be stopped." Kivo said to himself as he held up his right arm to reveal the morpher. "Clockwork Power!" He called, morphing into the clockwork ranger, donning the same outfit aham had, wielding the very same rifle. Lifting it up to his V shaped helmet, he aimed at the scientist down the scope until Dr. Moon was dead in his sights. Squeezing the trigger, a bolt raced towards the doctor and hit him, causing the man to drop. Kivo simply turned around and demorphed before disappearing into the shadows.

Back on the ground, the rangers rushed over to the fallen man and demorphed at his side. He looked up to see Lloyd looking over him, in distress.

"Lloyd. You're a ranger. I'm so proud you are… I knew you could be..." He smiled as he closed his eyes.

LLoyd began to panic. "Dad, it's okay, we'll get help. Dad? Dad!" He let out as he began to sob over his fallen father.

[Steam Force]

It had been a couple of days since those events, and the others had kept their distance from the red ranger as he grieved in silence. They could see him lashing out on the training dummies and knew they'd have to talk to him about it eventually, however now was not that time.

'It was him who did it. The guy in the robe, who ordered them dead.' He thought as he beat a training dummy with a force full of anger. 'I'm gonna get that guy, and now matter what I'm gonna make him pay!" He said to himself in his head as he landed a spinning kick on the practice dummy that took its head clean off.

|Steam Force|

That is chapter 9 completed. Lots of things happened here, we got another tragic backstory, hooray all our rangers are completely broken, it looks like Aham didn't die which I'll be explaining the whole thing behind that in later chapters, Kivo is all grown up, which means no growth acceleration for him, and he has become the second clockwork ranger (I know a few people who guessed this already, curse you, gotta be more subtle next time), how will that fare? Well stay tuned to see. And Lloyd has a vendetta after another family member has died, which is gonna be real interesting in what's to come.

I'm more relaxed this week since I've had no real need to get a move on with college work so I will be getting two, maybe three things out this week, so that's good. This chapter did turn out shorter than expected, but the golden rule of writing is, only write a chapter as long as you think it needs. Enough stalling, here's the next chapter's synopsis and thank you everyone for reading and supporting me and my work, it means a lot.

Next Chapter: Clockwork Power

Synopsis: In our second story arc, the evil clockwork ranger Kivo attacks Vicdon for the first time and deals a serious blow to the rangers. But is he truly evil? Will the rangers be able to do anything against this new threat? Find out next time on Power Rangers: Steam Force.