Chapter Two:
Khamun
The mummy Khamun stood in the spot where his sarcophagus had once been, flexing his fingers and moving around, examining his resurrected body. General Kenpachi and the rest of his team carefully approached him, each with their own firearms drawn. Doug stuck close behind the general, Harriet close beside him, Tammy and Sean a few feet away.
General Kenpachi took one more tentative step forward. "Who are you?" he said. "What do you want with us?"
The mummy continued to ignore him, far more interested in himself at the moment. "Soto spoke truly," he said, his ribs heaving as his desiccated lungs breathed in and out, his joints cracking with every movement as dust fell from them. "The stone restored me to life."
General Kenpachi repeated his question. "Who are you?" he said again. "Are you an agent of the Black Cross?"
Khamun looked up at him curiously. "Surely you should know me," he said. "I ruled over Egypt for more than a hundred years, leading them into a glorious era of prosperity unlike anything they had seen before. The entire world knew of my greatness."
Doug and his teammates glanced at each other, none having any idea what he was talking about. The mummy tilted his head. "Have I truly been dead so long?"
His eyes started to glow again, and Doug could hear the strange processing sound coming from inside it once more. After a moment, the eyes grew dark. "Ten thousand years," he mumbled to himself in rapid succession. "The Egypt I knew long since fallen. My reign nothing more than myth and legend. Persia. Greece. India. China. The Roman Empire. Britain. Russia. The United States. Empires. Colonies. Wars. Revolutions. Atom bombs."
The mummy stopped and looked up at them all. "Unification," he said, slower this time. "Silver City. EAGLE. The Black Cross. The Black Cross Fuhrer." He glanced at Sean, studying his bright blue armor. "Power Rangers."
He took a step closer. Doug and Harriet took a step back while General Kenpachi stood his ground. "I know all of you," the mummy said. He stepped up to General Kenpachi, pressing his chest against the gun barrel. "Edgar Kenpachi. General. Four stars. Edogawa Kenpachi. Born in Hokkaido, Japan. Fought as a squad leader during the unification war. Once made a costly mistake that led to . . . two thousand soldiers dead."
General Kenpachi took a shaky breath but kept his composure. "Enough."
Khamun kept staring at him. "Current head of the Power Ranger project."
The mummy turned away, facing Doug and Harriet now. "Douglas Cummins. Stone Canyon. Harriet Nixon. Blue Bay Harbor. Best friends. Both passed over as rangers."
Doug and Harriet looked at each other out of the corners of their eyes but held their ground too. Khamun turned his head to Tammy. "Tamara Hayes. Agent. Struggles with interpersonal relations. Hides behind a clipboard."
Tammy's cheeks flushed red, and she looked down. Sean stepped up in front of her. "That's enough," he said.
The mummy looked up at him, but didn't respond. "You are all enemies of Soto—The Fuhrer." He held out his hand and a scepter appeared in it, topped by a jewel-encrusted skull. "You have fought against his new world order and are worthy of death."
He held out the scepter, the skull's eyes glowing.
"No!" Sean shouted, rushing forward and slamming him backwards, smashing him into the pedestal nearby and holding him down. "I said that was enough," he said.
The mummy didn't struggle, but simply cocked his head and looked up at him. "Sean Cassidy," he said. "See also Aquila Shumway. Born on a farm in Texas. Twenty-seven years old. Blue ranger. Formerly a cybernetic super soldier enhanced by a Dr. Daniel Kuchar." His eyes glowed for a second as he scanned him up and down.
"Interesting," he said. He reached up with one arm, two fingers extended. "You still have some of it inside you, don't you?"
Dr. Kuchar rushed forward between Doug and Harriet. "Stop him!"
Khamun's fingers connected with Sean's helmet and started to glow. Sean reeled back, screaming in pain, but his head stayed glued to the mummy's fingertips.
"Sean!" Tammy shouted, trying to rush forward but being kept back by General Kenpachi.
"Open fire," the general shouted.
He, Doug, and Harriet all fired on the mummy. Khamun didn't even flinch, every bullet passing right through his body or bouncing off his armor. After a few seconds, Sean broke free of his hold and crumpled to the ground, unnaturally still. Tammy broke past the general's hold and rushed to his side.
"Sean, are you okay?" she asked.
Khamun got to his feet and smoothed his robes. "Rise, my new servant," he said.
Like an obedient dog, Sean got to his feet and kneeled before him. "I live to serve you, my master," he said.
Tammy raised her eyebrows. "What?" she said.
General Kenpachi turned to look at Doctor Kuchar. "What just happened?"
The doctor, pale in the face, stared at his former pupil. "The enhancements inside him, they were only dormant," he said. "But the structures were still intact. He must have reactivated them somehow. Used them to override his free will."
Tammy looked up at him, her hand on Sean's back. "Can you undo it?" she said.
Dr. Kuchar bit his lip. "Maybe," he said. "With enough time. Not with him here."
General Kenpachi scowled and turned his gun back on Khamun. "Let him go."
The mummy cocked his head. In one swift movement, Sean got to his feet and stepped in between the pair, blocking the path of the bullet. Doug thought he heard a chuckle coming from inside the mummy's mask. The mummy turned his head to Dr. Kuchar.
"Doctor Daniel Kuchar," he said. "Creator of the cybernetic enhancements filling this young man. I could use a man of your talents." He extended one hand. "Please, join us."
Dr. Kuchar stared at him. His face turned a furious red. "I would never help someone like you," he said.
Khamun tilted his head. "Really?"
He held up his hand and clenched his fist. Immediately, Sean collapsed to the ground, writhing and thrashing in agony, clutching his head and letting out a bloodcurdling scream. Tammy grabbed him and held him close.
"Stop it!" she shouted.
General Kenpachi, Doug, and Harriet opened fire on the mummy, once again to no avail. Instead, Khamun kept his full attention on Doctor Kuchar. "You can end his suffering in an instant," he said, clenching his fist just a little bit harder for emphasis.
Doctor Kuchar stared at him, his face pale, his eyes glued to his suffering student on the floor.
"You said you could free him with enough time. You'll never get that time unless you come with us."
"Daniel," General Kenpachi warned.
Doctor Kuchar closed his eyes and let out a breath. "I'm sorry, Edgar," he said. He stepped forward and stood beside Khamun, his face hard, but bowing halfway down. "I live to serve you," he said through gritted teeth.
"Excellent," Khamun said. He raised his hand and released his fist. Sean's suffering stopped immediately and he slumped limply against Tammy.
"Now," Khamun said, "rise once again."
Sean got immediately back to his feet, brushing Tammy aside and standing at attention. Khamun looked between his two new servants. "Now that I have the two of you, I have no need of the rest. Blue Ranger, finish them off."
"Yes, sir," Sean said. He turned to face his former companions, his bow appearing in his hand. He drew it back, aiming the arrow at General Kenpachi.
"Sean, stop it!" Tammy shouted, pulling on her boyfriend's arm and trying to divert his aim. "Wake up. It's me, Tammy!"
Harriet moved quickly, grabbing Tammy by the waist and pulling her away from him. Sean let the arrow fly and Doug pulled General Kenpachi out of the way, the arrow instead striking a console behind them and exploding.
"Take us out of here," Doug heard Khamun say. He looked up to see Sean grab both his new master and Doctor Kuchar, his birdies firing up and taking off into the air. General Kenpachi rolled over and tried to shoot at them, but he couldn't get a clear shot at Khamun with Sean and the doctor in the way, and he was unwilling to hit either of them. Ultimately, he dropped his gun and ran to the nearest intercom.
"Red alert," he shouted. "An enemy bogey is in the base. Agent Cassidy and Doctor Kuchar are compromised. Stop them at all costs, but try to keep them alive if at all possible."
Sean reached the lift, touching down for a second and setting his companions down. He grabbed the lift by its edges, using his sheer strength to rip the box from its shaft and throwing it backwards.
"Look out!" Doug said, pulling the general out of the way as it headed straight for them, demolishing the console where they had just been standing. Sean grabbed his companions again and took off up the shaft.
"We've got to stop them," General Kenpachi shouted. "Where's the stairwell here?"
"We'd never make it in time," Harriet said, hurrying over with Tammy. "That's fifty stories up."
Doug dug around in his pocket, pulling out a special keycard. "I have an idea," he said. "Follow us."
He led the general and their companions to a door on the far side of the room and through a short corridor to a heavily secured door on the other side. He and Harriet tapped their matching cards to it, and it opened into a large garage where the Ranger Tank stood.
"What is this doing here?" General Kenpachi said, stepping inside.
"Doctor Kuchar requested it after the Ranger Project went inactive," Tammy said. She tapped the tank's hatch and it popped open. "It was good for some subterranean surveying expeditions."
She stepped inside and went straight to navigation, pulling up the camera feed from the base above, where Sean and his companions were just emerging onto the ground floor, EAGLE soldiers waiting to intercept them.
Doug hopped into the driver's seat and started getting the tank powered up. Harriet took the seat beside him and started up the tank's weapons.
"They've made it out of the base," Tammy reported, her feed showing Sean blowing right past the soldiers and out into the open air. "I'm tracking them now."
A red blip appeared on the tank's windshield almost directly overhead and slightly to the left. "Got it," Doug said, keeping an eye on it. He pressed the controls to open the garage's port, revealing a long steep shaft heading toward the surface. He thumbed the ignition and the tank barreled up through the shaft, climbing the drive at top speed.
"They're still flying," Tammy said. "They're headed north."
She updated the blip, just as light appeared at the end of the tunnel and Doug shot out onto a wooded rural highway. Up above, he could just barely make out a tiny blue figure streaking through the sky.
"There he is!" General Kenpachi shouted. "Aim for his birdies but try not to hurt him or the doctor."
"Got it," Harriet said, lining up her targeting reticle with the blue streak. She fired off a missile that came within mere feet of the blue ranger before he dipped to one side, dodging the projectile entirely. The mummy in his left hand looked back at the pursuing tank and pointed his skull scepter at them, firing off a beam of red light. Doug veered off into the trees just as the beam struck a large sequoia behind him, reducing it to mere ashes.
"Whoa," he said, his eyes wide. "Definitely not getting hit by that."
He drove swiftly through the trees, his driving skills no less sharp then they were during his time in the Ranger Project, staying on Sean's trail no matter how he tried to shake him, Harriet peppering the ranger with missile fire. Finally, a shot connected, and smoke started billowing from Sean's left birdie, the ranger slowing and descending through the trees.
"We got him!" Harriet cheered.
"Stay on him," General Kenpachi said.
"Got it," Doug said. He steered his way through the trees, heading straight for the distant blip. A few moments later, he emerged into a large clearing, where Khamun and Doctor Kuchar stood waiting for them.
General Kenpachi squinted at them. "Where's our blue ranger?"
Something slammed hard into the side of the tank, crumpling one wall and almost tipping the tank over. Tammy pulled up camera feed from that side to see Sean flying toward them at high speed. "Hold on!" she shouted.
Sean slammed into the side of the tank again, the tank tipping all the way over, slamming into the ground as the opposite wall fully crumpled. Doug and his teammates fell from their seats, landing hard against the back wall.
"Sorry," Doug said, disentangling himself from Harriet, the pair having landed on each other.
The tank started to rumble and move around. Tammy pulled herself back to her station, bringing up video feed of Sean lifting the entire tank into the air, flying them over to a nearby ravine.
"Oh no," she said, grabbing her seatbelt and strapping herself in. "You all might want to brace yourselves."
Doug and Harriet pulled themselves over to two sets of straps built into the wall and strapped themselves in, General Kenpachi right beside them. Doug just barely managed to get the last buckle fastened when Sean threw the tank. They hit the ground, demolishing a tree and rolling down the hill, knocking the crew inside back and forth as the tank flipped head over heels, the lights flickering overhead. Finally, they collided with a large rock and came to a sudden stop.
Doug undid his straps and fell to the crumpled wall across from him. "Is everyone okay?" he asked.
Harriet unbuckled herself and dropped to the wall beside him. "I am," she said. General Kenpachi and Tammy followed shortly after. The general brushed himself off and went to the nearest hatch, popping it open and letting them all out onto the rocky river bottom where they'd landed. High above, three figures stood at the top of a cliff, watching them, one of them a bright blue. As Doug and Harriet stepped out, the figure in blue grabbed his two companions and took off into the sky, disappearing into the distance.
Tammy slumped back against the side of the tank, watching the spot where they had disappeared. Harriet scowled. "There they go," she said.
General Kenpachi rested against a large, rocky outcropping. "There they go," he said, taking off his hat. "It seems our war has started anew."
Doug perched himself next to the general. "What do we do, sir?" he asked.
"The only thing we can do. We have to gather the rangers once more."