Power Rangers: Steam Force

Ch18: Auxiliary Aid

"Hey Mia, I could use a hand here!" Called Lucas from the kitchen of a modest Cafe in the heart of Vicdon's Education District. Earlier that day, the black ranger had asked a several of the rangers if they could fill in at her workplace, given how shorthanded they otherwise were that day. Unfortunately for Mia, she hadn't anticipated how bad of an idea asking her teammates was.

Rushing into the kitchen, she was met with with a cloud of smoke wafting up her nose and forcing her to cough as she breathed in the burnt smell of meat. "What's happening in he-" The black ranger stopped abruptly, seeing the disorganised mess the Cafe's kitchen was in. The green ranger frantically tried to save a batch of what was once bacon, or at least that's what Mia thought it had been, there wasn't much left to identify exactly what it was. As Lucas ran back and forth between different stations, trying in vain to salvage any order, Kivo watched from a safe distance.

"Crap! Hey Kivo, find something to put out that fire in the trash can!" He ordered, still frantic as he briefly gestured over to a trash can that had somehow set alight.

"Okay!" the Cog ranger said as he darted his eyes back and forth looking for a way to put out the fire quickly.

Mia rubbed her forehead. "Oh god, they're gonna burn this whole place down aren't they… My manager's gonna kill me…" She mumbled as another of the rangers stepped in the kitchen.

"Hey, table seven's complaining! What's the holdup?" Yelled the yellow ranger Ayana. Then she spotted the brewing fire. "How the hell did you guys set the trash can on fire!?" She exclaimed over the noise in the room, getting the attention of both Kivo and Lucas.

"...We aren't very smart men." Lucas admitted a little reluctantly as Kivo hurried over with a bucket full to the brim with water, sloshing side to side and spilling over the edge as he hurried over and doused the trash can in water, extinguishing the flames.

"Well that's one disaster over, you got those orders yet?" Ayana asked Lucas who just hung his head in shame.

Before they could decide how to proceed from the complete disaster the two guys had somehow accomplished in the kitchen, panic came from the patrons of the Cafe's patrons as the sound of one of the large glass panel windows smashing caught their attention. Heading into the front, they saw a Terrasoid drone lying crippled between the shards of glass and broken seating it had landed on as Civilians fled the area.

The drone attempted to rise, only to fall back down, completely defeated. Taking the lead, Lucas lead the others out onto the latest battlefield. "I think we should put those orders on hold." He remarked with a grim expression as they saw the large group of Terrasoid Drones led by what appeared to be a large bipedal scarab beetle standing close to the Cafe, their attention completely focused on their opponents

Opposite the latest Terrasoid Champion stood the Steam rangers that had been absent from 'helping' at the Cafe. The red and blue rangers stood, with their Pipeblades and Steam Blasters in hand, several drone bodies scattered around them.

"We better join in too." Kivo suggested as each of the remaining unmorphed rangers brandished their morphers.

"Full Steam Ahead!" "Gear Shift!" Came the chorus of the four rangers as three Steam rangers emerged in their ranger suits from a thick cloud of white steam and the overlay of gears parted to make way for the morphed Cog ranger.

Each of the rangers had instantly called on their weapons and sprinted over to join their other two teammates to prepare for the upcoming fight.

"You guys got here fast, good timing." TJ greeted them as they took formation.

"Well we were in the area and decided to drop by." Ayana commented as Alex took to the front.

The red ranger turned her head back to the other rangers and gave an acknowledging nod. "Glad you could join in." Turning back towards the latest incursion force of their insectoid foes. "Alright Terrasoids, looks like you guys haven't learned your lesson yet. Don't worry though, Class is in session." The red ranger stated as she pointed her Pipeblade at the Terrasoid Champion.

"No, you will learn." The deep menacing voice of the Scarab inspired Champion spoke as its mandibles twitched. "You will see how inferior your species is and I Scarabak will show you. Terrasoids, charge!" The creature known as Scarabak rallied the drone footsoldiers, leading the charge as the rangers braced themselves from the upcoming melee.

Leaping back from the erupting battle, the Cog ranger dropped to one knee and took aim with his rifle, picking off several drones on the outskirts of the battle and giving his teammates room to breath as the large attack force swarmed around them.

From within the melee, Ayana and TJ stood back to back. The former took aim with her Steam Blaster and fired several bolts into advancing drones. As a few enemies dropped, an advancing drone came in close. Looking over his shoulder, the blue ranger saw this and cut down the drone in front of him with a sideways slash. Following through with the momentum built from his previous attack he span himself sideways, spinning Ayana around and swapping places with the yellow ranger as he dealt a side kick and finished up with a spinning back kick. He and Ayana quickly traded places once again as the yellow ranger finished clearing what little remained of TJ's side to deal the final blow to last of the drones swarming the two by shooting the drone square between its big buggy eyes. The two nodded and gave each other a back fistbump before turning their attention to Scarabak.

While the blue and yellow rangers began exchanging blows between them and the Terrasoid Champion, the remaining rangers focused on defeating what remained of the drone attack force. Backflipping away from a group of four drones, Alex shot at their feet, stopping the enemies in their tracks as several rapid fire bolts shot out from behind and punched holes in the drones' chests, dropping them like the flies they were themed on.

"Nice shooting Kivo." Alex called over the communicator in her helmet.

Kivo gave a silent nod of acknowledgement. "Focus on the Champion, I'll help Lucas and Mia finish off the remaining forces.

"Gotcha, thanks for the assist by the way." She added as she sprinted over to aid her other teammates.

As the battle with the drone attack force wound down, Lucas threw out his leg in a heavy front kick to a drone, pushing it back as he shot it in the head. Turning, he swung his Pipeblade, connecting it with the skull of a drone and knocking it sideways toward the black ranger. Mia intercepted the drone with an upward swing of her own Pipeblade, taking it down for good. In the corner of her eye she saw another drone charging and lifted her blaster and quickly aiming before unleashing several rapid bolts to be sure her weapon would hit. The drone skidded to the ground within a few seconds and the black ranger looked around with a sigh of relief to see that the bulk of their foes had now been decimated by the combined efforts of their team.

"Good work Mia." Lucas complimented as he walked up. "Looks like that's the last of them." He observed just as a bolt of high powered plasma whizzed past his shoulder.

The green ranger jumped before looking behind him and seeing to dead drone on the ground, realising he had missed one. Directing his gaze to where the shot had originated from, he saw Kivo standing up with his Cog rifle and jogging over.

"Watch your back." He said as he went by the two and prompted them on with a wafe forward. "Come on, we've still got a Champion to take care of!"

The green and black Steam rangers followed Kivo toward where the red, blue and yellow rangers stood, holding their weapons low and panting.

"Damn, what's with this thing's armour?" Ayana asked as she tried to gather her breath.

"Nothing we've done works. Any ideas leader?" TJ asked the equally exhausted ranger.

The three remaining rangers joined up quickly and sized up the enemy. "So what're we dealing with?" Lucas asked as he checked his weapons were still in peak condition for the upcoming battle.

"We're dealing with a tough one, I think we might have to bring in the big guns to even put a dent in its armour." Alex summed up.

"That bad?" Mia asked with a sigh.

Before they could devise any sort of strategy to even wound the Champion, several blasts of energy shot into Scarabak. Then came the yell of a voice none of the rangers expected, a distinctly German voice. "Sky Strike Overcharge!" The voice called as a powerful burst of silvery energy spiralled toward the Terrasoid and collided with its side, knocking it to the ground.

Scarabak clicked its mandibles and let out a pained yell and it stood up and placed two of its limbs on its side to support itself. "Lucky shot humans… Revel in it all you want, it'll be the last one you get!" It declared before fleeing through the City.

The rangers stood stunned as another figure entered the scene of the battle. "Welkin!?" all but the Cog ranger called in surprise as the Sky Strike ranger came to a halt opposite the other rangers and holstered his pistol.

"Nice to see you guys too."

[Steam Force]

Returning to the Operations Station, the seven rangers were immediately called into the control room. Lohan stood at the central holographic console which projected a smaller scale image of the Terrasoid Champion the rangers had fought against.

Turning towards them, the greying General nodded, acknowledging their arrival as he began to brief them on this new threat. "I'm glad Welkin got to you before the Champion took the upper hand. I'm sure you remember the kidnapping incidents several weeks ago orchestrated by the Terrasoids. We haven't worked out how they managed it, but they turned humans into more Terrasoids. It's a drastic change from their original goals to eliminate humans but we're still looking into how."

"Great, first it was bugs out to exterminate us, now it's bugs out to turn us into more bugs." TJ remarked as Lohan continued.

"One of these successful conversions just happens to be Scarabak, the last to emerge as you started your attack."

Alex's eyes grew in concern. "Then that means, Scarabak was… human once?"

Lohan nodded, a grim expression plastered across his face. "That's right, and that's why I'm making a hard call. We don't know if the process can be reversed but it's too risky with Scarabak's defenses and physical power to play it safe in an effort to capture it."

"I see where you're going with this." Welkin interjected as he turned around to the door of the control room. "Just let me know when we're hitting it, in the meantime I'll be hitting something else." He added with a wink and a smirk as he left.

The other rangers besides Kivo felt uneasy after that last comment. "What's he mean by 'hitting something else?'" The Cog ranger asked in his naivety.

"Kivo." Ayana started. "It's better if you don't know, just don't dwell on it, okay?"

Noticing that the conversation had gotten off track, Mia decided to get it moving again. "You said something about a hard call." The black ranger directed her words at Lohan. "Does that mean what I think it means?"

Lohan nodded keeping his grim expression. "You have to destroy it, what might happen to the innocent it once was… I can't say. But we don't have the means to keep a live Terrasoid and without any remains from previous battles, we can't find a cure just like that. When it next appears, put everything you have into making sure that thing goes down. Understood?"

The rangers gave reluctant nods as Lohan signalled their dismissals. While the rangers trickled out into the wider complex of the Operations Station, Lohan turned back to the console table. Leaning his hands upon it, he dropped his head and gave a deep sigh. If the Terrasoids could keep this up, the citizens of Vicdon were in far more danger than before and with no knowledge of how to create a cure or if there even was a way to reverse such a metamorphosis, things would only worsen progressively. If things did, he knew it wouldn't be long until the Governor of Vicdon took matters into his own hands. That's when the old General's thoughts were interrupted by a tap on his shoulder.

He jumped, startled by the sudden contact and spun around in a surprisingly fluid motion to meet whoever had gotten his attention. "Kivo? You're still here." He observed as the Cog ranger nodded.

"You said you didn't have any way to find a cure right? You know how I was hybridised with Terrasoid DNA back when I fought against the others, how I managed to resist it in the end. Could I hold the answer you're looking for?"

Lohan scratched his chin and shrugged. "You're better off asking a scientist, I'm just an old man with a degree in ordering people around. But it's worth a shot. You need to decide if it's what you want though. If you're certain you want to try, I can gather together the right people for the job. Just take some time to think it over, I know you might be in a rush to try and save the person inside the Terrasoid but not everyone can be saved. If we had the time…" Lohan averted his gaze from the ranger "Maybe we could. But we don't have that luxury. Just be ready to do the best thing you can for everyone the next time Scarabak shows up."

Kivo gave a slow nod as he thought over the words Lohan had imparted. "I'll do my best." he said sounding distant from the conversation as he headed to the door.

"That's all we can do kid." Lohan murmured as he returned to his own duties while Kivo exited into the wider area of the Operations Station.

As Kivo looked around, observing what activities his teammates were up to, he heard someone shout over to him. "Hey!" Turning his head, he saw the burly bomber jacket sporting pilot striding toward him. "I heard you're the new guy on the team. You know what that means?" Welkin asked.

Kivo just shrugged, he had no idea what he was about to get into.

"You have to wash my plane!" He grinned, hooking his arm around the younger ranger.

"Really?" Kivo asked, a mix of confusion and a strange sense of wonder filling him as he looked at the large ranger.

"Relax, I'm just joking around. Nah, I've got something special planned, name's Welkin Stross by the way, Sky Strike ranger." He introduced himself, running his fingers through his hair in a bid to act cool in front of the younger teammate.

"Kivo, Cog ranger." Kivo returned an introduction of his own. "I thought you said you were hitting something."

"I did, I hit a local bar and then I hit on women, check this out." He said flaunting numerous scraps of paper with phone numbers scrawled across them.

"Phone numbers? Why would you need these?" Kivo asked in his cluelessness.

Welkin's face seemed to somehow shift through three different expressions in a fraction of a second, from surprise to contemplation and finally it settled into a wide, excited grin. "Oh Ki boy, have I got a lot to teach you." He said with an amused chuckle. "Don't worry though I'm a pro at this, come on, let's hit the town." He decided.

Unfortunately for Welkin's plans, the alarms around the Operations Station sounded. Hitting the town would have to wait for another time.

[Steam Force]

The seven rangers soon arrived in the previously damaged area of the Education district of the City, this time Scarabak stood alone as it lifted an empty car and tossed it onto a pile up of cars in the middle of the street. The Terrasoid Champion let out a dark unnerving chuckle as it made its way to another abandoned car and set to work again.

"Just watch humans. Watch as your precious City burns when I'm through with it.

"Not so fast Scarabak, the only thing being burned today is you!" Alex called out defiantly as she and the other six rangers arrived to meet the heavily armoured Terrasoid and finish things.

"Bring it rangers, I'll take everything you throw at me, my armour is impenetrable!" It boasted as the rangers each readied their morphers.

"Full Steam Ahead!" "Gear Shift!" "Ready For Takeoff!" Each of them called, the steam rangers being enveloped in a cloud of steam as rows of gears overlaid Kivo's body and Welkin was shrouded in a bright white light.

As all dispersed, Scarabak was left facing the seven fully morphed rangers. Sight which would unnerve most other Terrasoids to face so many foes at once, but the Champion's confidence in its armour was too great for it to even flinch. That's when the Steam rangers keyed in for their weapons.

1-0-1 … Shipping … Pipeblade … Arriving

0-7-3 … Shipping … Pipeblade … Arriving

Fixing together the two weapons, the Steam rangers configured their weapons into Steam Flamers and took aim at the heavily armoured Terrasoid.

"Alright, let's try this out." Alex started. "Kivo, Welkin, get to charging your weapons while we cover you." The red ranger ordered as she and the rest of the core rangers charged Scarabak while spraying flames at the creature.

The two nodded and fixed their weapons, following the creature as it dodged and avoided flame spray from the five rangers fighting it. "We're gonna need bigger guns than this Ki boy." Welkin concluded as observed the amount of fire that the creature's shell was absorbing.

"Understood." He replied as he held his hand to his ear. "Guys start doubling back, we're gonna need the big guns to finish this one."

"Time we switch things up then. TJ, Ayana, with me!" Alex ordered as the blue and yellow rangers nodded.

While Lucas and Mia kept back the Terrasoid with more sprays of fire, the three rangers disconnected their weapons and charged Scarabak. Firing off their Steam Blasters, they soon began hammering the Champion's shell with their Pipeblades, keeping the foe suppressed for as long as they could hold out.

Ayana looked back to the green and black rangers. "Set up the rail cannon by Kivo and Welkin you two, we'll keep this guy busy." The two nodded and sprinted for their teammates who had almost finished charging their own weapons.

0-3-4 … Shipping … Rail Cannon … Arriving

"Alright, it's here!" Lucas exclaimed over the sound of the rangers and Scarabak clashing.

Just as it unleashed a powerful blow, the three rangers dove out of the range of its arm weapon and doubled back to the rest of their team. Scarabak locked its focus on the rangers amassed in one place and began advancing.

Kivo and Welkin's weapons had finished charging, giving confirming nods to the rest of their team as they prepared their own weapon to finish off the heavily armoured Terrasoid.

"Loading compression shell!"

"Aiming Rail Cannon!"

"Locked and loaded!"

"Firing Rail Cannon!" The Steam rangers announced as they pulled the trigger, unleashing the powerful shot of colourful energy toward Scarabak.

As they did, Kivo fired out a shot from his own supercharged Cog rifle. "High noon blast!" He called as the bell of the clocktower rang and the bronze energy shell exited the rifle.

"Sky Strike Overcharge!" Welkin yelled as he unleashed a silvery energy projectile from his overcharged pistol.

All three blasts quickly converged on their target and in the last moment as the three powerful attacks tore through the Terrasoid's armoured carapace, the creature had a sudden realisation and yelled in agony as it went up in a vividly coloured explosion.

The rangers sighed in relief for a moment that they had overcome the problem. But they knew how short lived it would be as the dark spores that remained of the Terrasoid descended to the ground and resurrected Scarabak into a giant Terrasoid.

The rangers looked up at the menacing Champion and knew that as with how they had just defeated it, this would require all of them and they wasted no time at all in calling their Zords.

"Red express rider engaged!"

"Blue speed rider engaged!"

"Green tram rider engaged!"

"Yellow bus rider engaged!"

"Black passenger rider engaged!"

As with the previous time, the White mono rider followed on auto-pilot into the configuration line. "Coupling Zords! Steam Titan Megazord engage!" The Steam rangers called together as the Zords combined into their Megazord, the head emerging and placing the Steampunk train conductor's hat upon its head as its eyes lit up. "Steam Titan Megazord ready!"

"Wing Straffer Zord ready!" Welkin also confirmed as his large bomber plane Zord flew overhead to join the battle, landing a few pre-emptive shots on the giant Champion as it flew by.

"Watchtower Megazord Engage!" Kivo commanded as he gave the gear shaped wheel on his morpher a quick spin. Vicdon's Clocktower awakened and uprooted, transforming into the Watchtower Megazord as it came to aid the others in this next battle. Kivo entered to see both the Steam Titan and Wing Straffer struggling to put a scratch on the Champion.

Kivo observed this and directed his Megazord to attack with it's clock hand blade, clashing against the giant limb weapons as his own megazord was pushed backwards several feet. Kivo doubled back in his cockpit, directing the Watchtower Megazord to follow on with him, narrowly avoiding an attack from their foe.

Directing the head of his Megazord to look at the other beside it, Kivo opened up communications. "Any bright ideas leader?" He asked the red ranger as the Steam rangers took the few seconds Kivo had bought them to rest and decide on a plan of action.

Before she could answer though, another voice intercepted her on the comm channel. "How about we try out something I've been wanting to try in a fight with the Wing Straffer for a while." Welkin's voice suggested.

"Care to explain?" Alex asked as Scarabak thrust forward with its weapon appendage, only to be intercepted by the Watchtower Megazord as Kivo fought desperately to hold the foe off.

"Well there's this big red button that's just sitting their labelled transformation and the only time I've pressed it is when I've been blackout drunk." He began to ramble.

"Could you just get to the point before we're all crushed?" Lucas asked, slightly irritated, over the comms.

"Fine. Basically it transforms this thing into a giant gun that shoots explosives… I think that's it anyway."

"Better than nothing." TJ commented as the Watchtower Megazord retreated and the Steam Titan took point, blocking and countering with its arms.

"Kivo, you take the Straffer when it transforms then. You're a better marksman than any of us." Alex decided.

"Alright, here we go. Wing Straffer, transform!" Welkin announced as his hand slammed down on the big red button in his cockpit.

The Wings of the Straffer Zord slid backwards and rotated down to form the grip while the nose of the Zord opened up to form the barrel. The rear landing gear also seemed to configure into a trigger as the weaponized form of Welkin's Zord slid into the Watchtower Megazord's hands and it took aim at the Terrasoid Champion.

"Wing Straffer, assault mode, ready!" Welkin coined it as he sat back in the cockpit throwing his feet up over the console ready to watch the fireworks. "Make this thing feel the force Ki boy." The Sky Strike ranger told the Cog ranger over the comms channel.

"Understood." Kivo responded as the Watchtower Megazord began the advance and the Steam Titan shifted from Kivo's line of sight, retreating further to watch the carnage that was likely about the unfold.

"Watchtower Megazord, Strafing Assault!" Kivo exclaimed as he sprinted forward with the Megazord, pulling the trigger on his Cog rifle repeatedly.

The Watchtower Megazord followed suit as it advanced rapidly at Scarabak, unleashing missile after missile from the nozzle of the weapon, striking the armoured carapace head on, cracking it in several places and severely weakening it until the final pull of the trigger unleashed a much larger and heavier missile that shattered through Sacrabak's armour and penetrated deep into the Terrasoid.

The inside of the defeated champion lit up brightly as in but a moment it exploded into a brilliant fireball, and with that their toughest adversary so far was finally defeated.

[Steam Force]

Returning to the Operations Station, the rangers, save Welkin were sat around the lounge area, enjoying a well deserved rest as music played from a nearby speaker and the rangers chatted amongst themselves.

That was when the absent ranger joined the six teens with General Lohan in tow. "Well done rangers." The eldest man spoke up. "I know you've all fought a tough battle today. In light of everything we've learned and the troubling power of this new Terrasoid, you'll have to train harder and keep working as a team to defeat whatever comes next." Though the rangers could understand why, the fatigue of the battles this past day had taken its toll and the old General was met with a collective groan from the six, that's when he gave a small chuckle. "That's why I'm giving you the weekend off. You've earned it. Enjoy your free time rangers." He finished as he turned around and strolled off back toward his office.

The rangers sighed in relief, then Welkin looked Kivo dead in the eyes. "Hey Ki boy, still wanna hit the town? I've got a lot that I can teach you if you're up for it, I am amazing after all." He boasted, feeding into his own ego.

Kivo's eyes lit up. "So you're gonna teach me about hitting the town and uh… what was that other one? Right, hitting women!" Kivo incorrectly recounted, blissfully unaware of the weight his words bore as Alex, Ayana and Mia looked at Welkin with both disgust and contempt.

Welkin's went wide eyed and held his hands up defensively. "Woah woah woah! I said I'd show you how to hit on women. On. Come on before you get us both in trouble kid." Welkin said as he dragged the naive Cog ranger out of the Operations Station, all the while feeling the eyes of the three girls burning into the back of his head. It would take some work to teach Kivo his ways, but he intended to turn the kid into a casanova, just like him.

|Steam Force|

Finally after nearly a year, chapter 18 is finished. So first I want to apologise for the major neglect this series (And many others) has had. I was focused solely on making sure I got to a good point with another series that I had to put everything else on an indefinite hiatus. With this chapter I'm back from the break I took and I'll be working on everything I can with some things already in progress, so stay tuned for that. Lastly, I want to thank anyone who's stuck with this for being patient for the next release and I promise as best I can that I won't leave something for so close to a year again and you'll be seeing more of Steam Force soon.

So, what's next for Steam Force you might be wondering. Well things are going to get very interesting and the team conflict is going to rise through the roof in this next arc as the new white ranger is revealed. That's all for me so thanks for reading and until the next chapter!

Next Chapter: New Arrival

Synopsis: Upon visiting the comatose Lloyd in hospital, the rangers find an unfamiliar face entering their downed comrade's room. Who could this individual be? Why have they only surfaced now? Will they be a help, hinderance or even both? Find out next time on Power Rangers: Steam Force.