Power Rangers: Steam Force
Ch13: Gear Shift: Part 1
Within the Terrasoid hive, Queen Nyllia sat upon her organic throne, an expression of annoyance upon her face. All her months of planning and preparation for the destruction of Vicdon were stopped just because Kivo chose humanity, and now she was trying to get revenge or the young man's disobedience, yet all her previous attempts had failed and her patience was now wearing thin.
Stinger, the Terrasoid Commander, rushed into the throne room of the Terrasoid Hive and knelt quickly at the foot of his queen's throne.
Nyllia had a frustrated look on her face as she looked down at her underling. "This had better not be yet another waste of my time, for your sake." She told the Commander who arose slowly.
"My Queen, I have a plan to solve all of our problems at once, a new Terrasoid has been spawned with the ability to both destroy Kivo, the rangers and the city in one go. At your command I will unleash this beast upon the humans." Stinger informed her, causing the Queen of the Terrasoids to smirk.
"Very well, but be warned, my faithful commander, the punishment for yet another failure against that traitor and the rangers will be far worse than any that you've faced before.
Stinger gulped in fear of the thought as he gave a nod in acknowledgement and left to prepare the monstrosity of a Terrasoid that could take on such a task.
[Steam Force]
Ayana, Mia, TJ and Lucas were sat down in the lounge area of the Operations Station doing their own individual things as usual between fighting the Terrasoids and everyday life. Recent events had divided the rangers' views on certain matters and there was more tension between them than usual, it wouldn't help matters if they did anything more to hinder themselves as a team.
As the rangers present kept to themselves, they looked over to the doorway when they heard footsteps and saw that it was Alex. However to correspond with her new role as the leader and new red ranger of the team, her attire had changed up slightly.
Her new outfit consisted of a red sleeveless athletic top along with jean shorts and a pair of black sneakers. Over her hands were a pair of black fingerless gloves with a red trimming around them. Around her waist, as usual, was her low hanging and heavily stocked tool bet that she always wore around her waist.
Lucas looked up from a book he was reading and noticed the red ranger as she sat down between the others. "Hey, you seen Lohan around lately? Ever since Kivo appeared he's been absent most of the time, none of us know where he's gone."
Alex gave a shrug. "I'm afraid you'll have to put me down on that list too, he is a general in the military though, maybe he got called elsewhere. Who knows where he could be right now."
As she finished her sentence a very familiar voice to the rangers spoke up from afar, getting the five's attention. "Well you were somewhat right, I was indeed called away on some rather important business along with the completion of a project we have been working on in recent times. However I'm back now, I'm thankful you've managed to sort out a replacement for Lloyd, yet the team is significantly weakened with only the five of you. Because of this-" The mentor was cut off from what he was about to say as the alarms in the Operations Station sounded off.
"We'll be careful for now till we figure something out, okay?" Alex replied to General Lohan who stood there open mouthed as the rangers quickly passed him.
"Alright, I've been itching to kick some more Terrasoid butt all week!" Ayana enthused, making a couple of the rangers laugh as they went to fight another Terrasoid, but just another wasn't at all what this new threat was.
Lohan stood there with an amused look on his face. 'I did try to explain to them, but I suppose when we have everything ready, they'll find out for themselves exactly what I've been working on. But first, I need a little chat with someone.' The old General thought to himself as he headed for the exit too, heading in the opposite way to where the rangers were going, more specifically, to Vicdon's Clocktower.
[Steam Force]
The five rangers arrived on scene to find a squadron of drones on scene, but there was no trace of any Champion in charge of the insectoid warriors.
"I thought those alarms only go off when there's some major threat to the city." TJ said to the others who nodded in agreement, the five of them had confused expressions on their faces as they readied themselves to fight the drones.
"Maybe we should just stop these drones doing whatever they were sent here to do before we go any further." Mia suggested to which they all agreed.
Alex stepped forward. "Then without further ado. It's morphing time!"
"Full Steam Ahead!" The five threw their arms out and pushed the lever on their morphers and were absorbed in a flash of bright light which quickly disappeared in a stream of steam, leaving the five of them morphed and ready to fight. Alex was now in the red Steam Force ranger suit which had been modified to accommodate her figure.
They charged in, ready to fight the drones that seemed to just stand there without motion, each of the rangers taking one of the footsoldiers to attack. Alex and Lucas let out a few punches to the drones they were fighting, but were surprised when the drones stopped their attacks at the exact same time as each other. In turn, the other drones were now on the move and had already began attacking Ayana, TJ and Mia.
Despite the appearance of these drones, they were far from the usual kind that they had faced before. While the rangers tried to recuperate from the synchronised attack of these drones, the minions charged as one battering the five of them with of series of kicks and punches that knocked the rangers to the ground.
As the rangers struggled to get up after being hammered by this unusual group of drones, the minions walked backward until they grouped together. The five rangers eyes went wide behind their helmets as they saw the drones transform into humanoid masses of small insects that were the size of flies. As quickly as the 'drones' had revealed what they truly were, the swarms flew up high and joined together before landing back on the ground in a humanoid from, yet still appearing as a massive swarm.
The mass of insects spoke up in a distorted voice. "You have provoked us, rangers, so we must swarm. We are Myriad, but our primary target is not here. Stay out of our way rangers, it will all be over soon." The new Swarm-like Terrasoid Champion introduced, before parting and flying up in a more classic swarm formation, leaving the rangers to lick their wounds.
The five of them got up with a groan and demorphed before regrouping. "So now we're fighting a swarm of little things that can change into different things, just great." Lucas complained, holding his shoulder.
Ayana had a thoughtful look on her face. "It said something about its primary target. Any idea who that could be?"
Alex gave the others a stern expression as she realised who Myriad was going after. "If recent events have anything to do with it, I think we all know who Myriad is going after."
[Steam Force]
Atop the huge towering Clocktower in Vicdon, situated on the metallic balcony just underneath the large clock itself was Kivo, he was crouched down and stood on the corner of the overlook. The young man simply stared out into the city below, not taking his eyes off of it for a second.
As he stood there on the edge, he heard the maintenance access door, which was to only real way up to the balcony, open. Looking around, he saw General Lohan approaching, and thusly swivelled around and hopped off the balcony and began walking towards the old man before the two met.
"So you managed to find where I was hiding out, so what do you want?" Kivo asked as the General produced a set of documents from his jacket.
"You know that the Terrasoids will never stop hunting you. You can spend you life free from them running if you choose, but looking over your shoulder for the rest of your life isn't any way to live. I want to offer you a chance to be part of something bigger. You're a fighter, and you don't know anything more than fighting. This gives you a chance to direct that at our mutual enemies. Just give it some thought, get back to me when you're ready."
Kivo began to look over the files and became interested in what they said quickly. As the mentor got back to the maintenance door, Kivo stopped the old man. "Lohan, wait!" he called, getting the attention of the General.
Lohan had a smirk on his face as he turned to listen to what Kivo was about to say.
[Steam Force]
Half an hour after the rangers had returned to the Operations Station to work out a plan of action against the swarming Terrasoid Champion, the alarm sounded off again and the five rangers were called out into the field to try and defeat Myriad.
The rangers had been called out to the port district and were now on the waterfront as they faced down the latest of Terrasoids. Myriad retained the humanoid shaped swarm form when he had initially revealed himself and had noticed the five morphed rangers running up, they had all called upon their Pipeblades and Steam Blasters, configuring them into Steam Flamers.
"Your interference ends here rangers." Myriad growled.
"I think someone called pest control, because you're about to be exterminated." TJ mocked as they held the Flamers out, pointed at the swarm being.
Myriad flew forward taking a larger swarming form and getting closer to the five of them. When he got in range, the five of them let out bright streams of flames that ignited the hivemind which let out a pained screech.
"We are dying!" Myriad let out as the flaming swarm became frenzied before the whole swarm dove into the waters by the docks, extinguishing the fire.
As the rangers looked over to where Myriad had submerged himself. The swarm arose, quickly morphing into a large fist that slammed into the rangers, knocking the weapons from their hands and sending them colliding into the thick wooden doors of one of the old warehouses, knocking them out of their ranger forms in the process.
"So much for that plan." The yellow ranger coughed as the five of them attempted to get up after such an impact.
"Your interference can no longer be tolerated rangers. We will not allow you to get in the way of our plans. We must finish you here." Myriad told the five wounded teens that were now defenseless.
"Hey hive for brains!" a familiar voice called out, the rangers looked over to see that Kivo had arrived to the fight with a determined look on his face.
"What are you doing here?" Alex asked as the five teens slowly got up, holding their sides.
"Well I'm pretty sure you'll have to ask Lohan about that when this is all over, for now. This is something between me and this thing." He told the red ranger before turning to face Myriad. "This is where it ends alright? All this hunting me, is gonna stop. When I'm done with you, Nyllia is gonna know that!" Kivo declared as the swarming Terrasoid Champion approached.
"We have found the primary target, our mission cannot be abandoned, if you resist you will be eliminated swiftly." Myriad informed the young man.
"Oh, I don't think so." Kivo responded with a smirk before lifting his right arm up to show a device strapped to his wrist. While it was largely similar to the Clockwork morpher, it had a sleeker design and sported a cog themed activator/switch in place of any other buttons on the device. "Let's give this thing a whirl." He said to himself as he span the cog on the morpher.
"Is that?" TJ asked looking at what Kvio was doing with interest as to what was happening and wondering how Lohan was involved in all this.
"Gear Shift!" Kivo called out as he was overlaid by a multitude of turning cogs and gears.
[Morphing Sequence]
Kivo stood in front of a clock, the hands of which were turning quickly, with turning gears and cogs expanding past its circumference, the rest of the area being completely dark. As both hands hit twelve, a white suit appeared on him. In quick succession, the hands hit twelve again and a bronze shirt with a white collar appeared. Yet again, when the hands hit twelve, he now had bronze sleeves and boots. On the next strike of Twelve, a pair of black pants materialized onto his suit. As it his twelve again, silver banding around the arms and legs and a silver belt with a bronze gear as the buckle materialized. The next rotation brought what appeared to be the lower half of a duster coat in the same bronze material of the majority of the suit and attached to the rest of the suit at the belt. A penultimate strike of twelve made a gear symbol in black with a hollowed out center appear on the chest of the suit. With the final strike of twelve, the helmet of the suit was largely similar to what it was before, it was sleek and had a gear for the visor, two bronze clock hands were in the five and seven positions and the small space between them was silver as a mouthpiece. At both sides of the helmet, were small cog shaped gaps with glass over them, from these, one could see the inner workings of the helmet as gears, cogs and other components that would be inside a clock. The inner workings were also illuminated by a warm orange light, also giving the glass a orange tint/glow.
[Morphing Sequence]
As the gears dissipated, the five other rangers looked at Kivo in surprise, for one that he had chosen to fight and another for the new ranger form that he had donned.
"Making the Clock Strike Twelve! Cog Ranger!" Kivo announced, titling himself as the Cog ranger, successor of the Clockwork ranger.
Myriad looked over Kivo in his new suit. "Not even that power can save you now Kivo, the effectivity of Myriad is unmatched, we will complete our mission, even if we have to destroy you. There is no defeating us, we are infinite."
"I'm not the one who needs saving." Kivo laughed as he pulled out a modified version of the Clockwork rifle, now sporting the theme of cogs and gears more than it had. Another feature to note was that there was now a wind up mechanism on his weapon, presumably for powerful charged bursts from his weapon. "Let's see how the cog rifle fares now." He said, firing into the humanoid figure of the collective swarm.
When the shot hit Myriad, it blasted a huge hole in the swarm and Kivo smirked under his helmet as he viewed his handiwork. Yet the smile on his face was quickly wiped off as the swarm came together and repaired the hole.
"Foolish boy, we are numbered beyond comprehension, there is no way to defeat us." Myriad boasted as the swarming humanoid figure approached Kivo quickly.
Yet when reaching the Cog ranger, Myriad was blasted back by a point blank range shot from the Cog rifle. Kivo placed his hand on the buckle of his belt before removing his hand, only for the buckle to come off too.
A red light activated in the center of the gear buckle before a mechanized voice came from the object. "Cog mine armed, please keep to a safe distance when detonating."
"My belt buckle is also a mine? I'm just glad it didn't go off while it was still attached to me. But this gives me an idea." Kivo said to himself as he threw the Cog mine through the air and he span the winding mechanism on his Cog rifle to charge it up.
"High noon blast!" Kivo called out as the bell on the clocktower rang as the clock struck twelve, marking midday. With that he pulled the trigger and sent out a powerful blast of energy that collided with the Cog mine as it reached the Terrasoid Champion.
The blast caught all of the swarm and effortlessly incinerated Myriad. Kivo turned around and shouldered his weapon as the flames of the explosion died down. "Stop the Clock." Kivo said as he walked over to help the other rangers.
As he did so, the dark spore remnants of Myriad clustered together and the hivemind creature was reborn. Though the insects remained the same size as they had originally, the amount of there were now was far more than originally and they had clustered together to create a giant swarm being capable of destroying the city.
"That's a big Terrasoid alright." Lucas said as the six of them looked up at the towering monstrosity that let out a enraged roar.
"Anyone got a really big can of bug spray, because I think we're gonna need it." Ayana commented as they looked up at the supersized Myriad.
"If they did make that stuff, I think we'd be all out by now." Alex commented as the rangers lined up and held their arms out.
"Full Steam Ahead!" They called out, morphing into their ranger forms, ready to attempt to defeat the lastest supersized threat to the city.
|Steam Force|
That is chapter 13 everyone. We have the latest ranger, the Cog ranger, who has a similar design to the Clockwork ranger but it's been updated, more because I can't for the life of me remember or find the design of that suit, I'm not even sure I did a design for it, but it's here now and I enjoyed designing it. Myriad means Innumerable, which I think fits a being that is based off of a swarm. But now the rangers and Kivo have to fight together to defeat Myriad once and for all, it's gonna be an exciting chapter for sure.
Now, I have recently completed the baseline plot for Steam Force, which means I actually have a plan on how things are gonna go for once. I'm planning on being finished with this by late september to early/mid october. Mainly because I have another story I want to start pretty soon, which is Occult Circle if you haven't seen. But also because I want to make up for lost time with my general procrastination. Now I'll be trying to get out a few chapters of this out per week, but for this Martial Strike and Primal Protectors are gonna go on hiatus for a little bit. I'll still be getting out Mythos every week as I have to reach a certain point with that before a certain deadline I set myself for story reasons. So expect more updates from this. Let me know your thoughts on this, because it will help to make my mind up, but that is my plan for now. Yet for the time being, I'm going to have a little break, until the next time everyone.
Next Chapter: Gear Shift: Part 2
Synopsis: Now the Cog ranger, Kivo and the other rangers must work together to fight the now gargantuan swarm Myriad, using both of their megazords to fight it off, the rangers must work together for the very first time to have any chance of defeating Myriad.
