Chapter Eight:
The Battle of the Tempest
Sean let his arrow fly. The projectile split in two, one heading for each ranger. Joshua started up his birdies and raced to meet it, smacking the arrow away with the back of his hand and plowing right into the blue ranger behind it. The two grappled with each other for a minute, Joshua throwing a punch and cracking Sean's visor before Sean struck back with another.
Peggy came flying in from one side, knocking Sean backwards. Joshua drew his whip, lashing out and binding up the blue ranger as tightly as he could. "We don't want to hurt you, Sean," Joshua said. Sean's face appeared in one corner of his visor, but his eyes were blank and emotionless. He strained against his bonds until the whip broke under the strain.
Peggy raced up beside Joshua and hit Sean with a blast from her sonic disruptor, knocking him backwards. The ranger collapsed to the ground, the intense sound making his suit's nanites vibrate. He covered his ears, his visor falling on Katie, Tammy, and Harriet standing in the door to the command center nearby. He started up his birdies.
"Oh, no," Tammy said.
Sean took off at high speed, breaking free from Joshua's bonds and Peggy's attack and racing straight at the girls. Katie grabbed Tammy's shoulder and pulled her back inside as Harriet hit the button to close the door. The door slammed shut just before Sean reached it, and he slammed into its heavy armor hard enough to dent the outside.
"What can we do?" Harriet said, watching him come back around to hit the door again through a computer screen nearby.
"I don't know," Katie said.
Sean was mere inches from the door when Joshua slammed into him, knocking him back against a nearby wall and holding him down.
"Come on, Sean," Joshua said. "We know you're in there."
Sean strained against Joshua's hold, his face turning a bright red on Joshua's screen. He put as much force in as he could, pulling his legs up and kicking the red ranger in the chest, knocking him away. Sean then launched himself after his former comrade when a handful of tiny red bombs exploded around him, knocking him backwards.
"He's never going to stop," Harriet said, watching the feed. "He's too strong."
"Not unless we can break the Pharaoh Mask's hold on him," Katie said.
They both looked at Tammy expectantly. Tammy chewed the inside of her cheek, her eyes shifting between her two friends and her boyfriend outside. "Follow me," she said. She crossed back to her own station and started typing on her console.
Outside, Sean made another run for the command center door. Joshua flew up in his way, placing himself between them. "I don't think so," he said.
Sean pulled back and drew his bow again. Joshua slashed it with his rapier, slicing the weapon in two. The blue ranger growled and charged him again, only for another blast from Peggy's disruptor to send him careening to the floor.
Sean got to his feet and shook his head, his eyes glaring between Joshua and Peggy's faces. The rangers held their position, staying between him and the door. Changing tactic, the blue ranger started up his birdies and dove back out through the hole in the ship.
"No, you don't!" Peggy said, racing after him.
"Peggy, wait!" Joshua shouted, but she was gone. He growled in frustration and took off after her.
Outside the ship, Sean raced up and around the Tempest before targeting one of its engines. He flared his birdies and shot toward it at high speed, slamming his body right through it and making it explode in a huge fireball.
Joshua and Peggy pulled to a stop, watching as the airship started to descend rapidly as the right wing billowed smoke and flames.
"We've got to stop it," Joshua said. Together, he and Peggy raced under the plane to try and keep it up.
Back on the airship, the destruction of the engine caused the entire thing to tip sideways, sending Doug tumbling against the wall just as the light from inside the cell started to die down. A few seconds later, the door slid open and the Pharaoh Mask stepped out, his armor glowing and golden.
"Very nice," he said, looking over his hands.
Doug pushed himself back up. "Where's your—I thought someone else was coming through?" he said.
Khamun looked up at him, but the outside door slid open before he could reply, Dayton and Kenny rushing inside. Upon seeing the Pharaoh Mask out of his cell, Kenny immediately activated his morpher, transforming into the Green Ranger and charging him, forcing him back inside. He threw him down against the floor, using his knee to hold him down. Khamun grabbed him by the wrists, and to his surprise, seemed much stronger than he had been before.
"What the—?"
The Pharaoh Mask threw the green ranger back against the wall, getting back to his feet and drawing his scepter. "Now, let's see how well this works."
He fired the beam directly at Kenny's chest, making him cry out in agony.
On the other side of the wall, Dayton rushed to Doug's side, helping him up. "Are you alright?" he asked.
"Yeah," Doug said. He watched through the window as Kenny circled the room, keeping his distance and using his boomerang to attack from afar.
"He's stronger than before," Doug told Dayton. "It's like he's gotten an upgrade or something. You'll want to keep your distance, especially if he's still got that disabler thing."
Dayton looked up. "Right," he said. "I almost forgot about that thing." The yellow ranger scratched at his chin and considered for a minute. "It seemed like he only had one in him before. I wish there was a way we could get him to set it off without him paralyzing the suit."
He watched Kenny and the Pharaoh Mask go at it for a moment, then back at Doug. An idea occurred. "Give me a minute," he said, undoing the straps on his morpher and typing on its screen. "This will probably get me in big trouble with High Command later, but I'm good at that, so . . ."
Back in the cell, Kenny had Khamun trapped in the center, his boomerang striking him over and over again, knocking his arm aside every time he tried to fire off a blast from his scepter. After yet another missed shot, Khamun got angry enough to toss his scepter aside and grab the irritant boomerang out of the air with both hands.
"I have you now, little bug!"
He squeezed it, trying to break it, when it shot two small lasers right in his face. He let out a cry of pain but kept the struggling weapon in his grip. With one mighty clench, he snapped the device in two and threw the pieces aside, only to be caught in the chest by a blaster bolt from Kenny.
Thrown back against the wall, Khamun struggled back to his feet and summoned his scepter back to his hand to fire off another blast, this time catching Kenny in the shoulder and sending him crashing to the ground at Khamun's feet.
Khamun laughed at his opponent's misfortune, crouching beside him. "Well fought, Green Ranger," he said. A small portion of Kenny's arm was slightly exposed by the blast, the nanites forming the suit working to restore the armor. Khamun grabbed the spot and used it to hoist him up.
"Do you like my new upgrades?" he asked, as Kenny struggled to escape his grip. "They come fresh, courtesy of Soto himself." The lines along his armor started to glow with the Flames of Ra once again. "They come with all the original features."
The flames grew brighter and brighter, Kenny unable to break the Pharaoh Mask's grip no matter what he did. A pair of yellow-clad arms wrapped themselves around the Pharaoh's chest, clenching tightly and pulling him backwards away from Kenny.
"Got ya!" Dayton shouted.
Khamun looked back to see the yellow ranger in full armor holding him tightly. "Well, well," he said. "The second finally joins the fray. Though I'm not sure what you think you accomplished." He tightened his grip even harder on Kenny's arm. "Now I can simply take out the both of you."
Kenny fought and pulled against him while Dayton simply held on tight. The flames grew brighter and brighter, overwhelming the both of them.
"Got it!" Tammy shouted.
Back in the command center, Tammy held up the cure for Katie and Harriet to see, a small device sort of like a taser, with two tiny hooks at the end. "Now, if I can just get at his neck under his suit, I should be able to free him from the pharaoh's control."
Katie raised a skeptical eyebrow. "Right," she said. "Because that's the easy part."
Tammy chewed the inside of her lip sheepishly. "Well," she said. "You know." She crossed over to the video screen showing what was going on outside. With Joshua and Peggy focused on keeping the airship from crashing, Sean was looping back around to the command center.
"Come on," Tammy said. "We'll have one shot at this."
She and her fellow agents stepped out of the room, sealing the door shut behind them. "Alright, Tammy," Harriet said. "What's the plan?"
Tammy fiddled with the device in her hand. "Right," she said. "The plan is . . . you two keep him busy for a minute!"
"What?!"
Tammy ignored their protests as she pushed past them and started scaling the nearby ladder up to a maintenance catwalk above.
"Tammy!" Katie shouted.
Her shouts were interrupted as the blue ranger appeared from the hole right in front of them. The two agents swallowed and turned to face their old friend.
"Well, I guess we're keeping him busy for a minute," Harriet said.
Katie nodded. "Try not to die," she said.
Sean launched toward them. The two agents dove out of his way, letting him slam right into the reinforced door again. Harriet grabbed him by the air just as he took off again, lifting her up and taking her with him out through the hole and into the void.
"Help me!" she screamed, hanging on for dear life.
"Hang on, Harriet!" Katie shouted. She took in her surroundings and formulated a plan. She placed herself right in front of the door, right in Sean's path, and cranked her gun up to its highest level. Sean came racing back in through the hole, and Katie shot him square in the face, making him reel backwards in pain as Harriet lost her grip and fell hard on the steel floor across the hole.
Sean shook his head, his visor glitching out. He turned and glared at Katie, racing for her once again. Katie held her ground, waiting to take another shot, when Tammy took a flying leap off the catwalk above onto Sean's back, wrapping her arms around him and holding on tightly.
Sean veered and spun, trying to shake her off, but Tammy wouldn't let go. She worked her arms up to the back of his helmet, undoing the safety latch at the back and pulling the entire thing off his head, exposing his face as his long blonde hair flew wildly in the wind. She tried to get a good shot at his neck with her device when his hand found her leg and tore her off.
He slammed her up against a nearby wall, his hand pressed against her throat and squeezing tightly. Tammy struggled against him, choking for breath, but Sean did not budge. His face was red with anger, not a trace of recognition in his eyes.
"Sean, please," she gasped. "It's me, Tammy."
She grasped his hand, looking him in the eye. "Please . . . don't do this . . ."
For just a moment, a slight spark crossed Sean's expression. His eyes widened and his hand loosened just a little bit. "Tammy?" he said, almost uncertain.
Tammy coughed but met his eyes. "It's me, Sean," she said.
For just a moment, there was silence as they looked at each other. Then Tammy seized her moment, plunging her device's hooks into Sean's neck and pumping every last ounce of serum contained within inside him. Sean screamed and let her go, collapsing to the floor as Tammy held her ground, making sure every last bit of it entered his system. Sean's body writhed and spasmed, his eyes slowing coming back into focus, both centered on her.
"Tammy . . ."
Finally, the strain was too much for him and he slumped over unconscious. Tammy carefully removed the hooks from his neck and stood back up, Katie and Harriet joining her.
"Did it work?" Harriet asked, rubbing her shoulder.
"I think so," Tammy breathed.
Outside the ship, Joshua and Peggy struggled against the rapidly descending airship, doing their best to keep it in the air. "This isn't working, Captain!" Peggy shouted.
"I know," Joshua said. He tapped his earpiece to contact the engineering crew. "Chief Rawlins, what can we do?"
"There should be backup engines," the chief shouted back. "We installed them after the Hurricane's crash. But the corridor to the panel's filled with smoke. We can't get to it."
"Can we activate it from the outside?"
"There should be a panel we use for maintenance. Just a few feet down from the engine."
Joshua looked in that direction. He couldn't see anything from here, but he didn't want to drop the ship to get a better look.
"I can take it, Captain," Peggy said. Joshua looked at her through their visors. "I'm good with that kind of stuff."
Joshua nodded. "Go," he said. "Do it. Get it done."
Peggy glanced up at the massive airship above them. "Will you be alright?"
Joshua strained against the ship's weight. "I can handle it for a little while," he said. "Go!"
Peggy bit her lip and dropped out from under the ship, its full weight pressing even harder on Joshua's back. Peggy flew out from under the ship, looking over the wing to try and see what she was looking for.
"It should be clearly marked in blue," Chief Rawlins said in her ear. "Very close to the blown engine."
"Got it," Peggy said, getting down close to the engine only for the smoke to get in her eyes and cut off all visibility. She cursed and tapped the side of her visor, the sensors highlighting the panel a few feet away. She raced up to it, grabbing the hatch and pulling it open.
Inside, there were a lot of complicated buttons and levers, but nothing compared to the toughest bomb she'd ever worked with. She glanced back at the captain, seeing his face turning red as he struggled to keep the ship up. "Just a few more minutes, captain," she said.
She quickly scanned the controls inside, figuring out what controlled what and how. Finding the switch to open the backup engines, she pulled it, the wing beside her shifting open as lines of bright blue light started to glow. The ship was still coming down however, and the opened engines didn't seem to have any power flowing to them. She scanned through the controls again, figuring out how to switch the energy flow from the main engine to the secondary engine, quickly entering the commands for that too.
With a sudden burst, the airship jolted forward as the engines kicked to life, rising back into the air. Joshua let go of the ship and started to drift downwards.
"That should do it," Chief Rawlins said. "Thanks, Madison."
Peggy nodded. "Thanks, Chief."
"We'll keep working to get the main engine repaired as soon as possible."
His line switched off as Peggy raced down to check on Joshua. He was moving sluggishly, and one of his birdies seemed to be sputtering, but he otherwise looked to still be in good health.
"Are you alright?" she asked.
"Yeah," Joshua said, sounding tired. "Thanks, Madison."
Peggy slipped up under him, putting his arm around her shoulder and giving him some extra support. Joshua looked around, his visor scanning the sky. "What happened to Sean?" he asked.
Peggy looked around herself. "I don't know," she said. "He disappeared after taking out the engine."
"You don't think he went back into the ship, do you?"
Both rangers looked at each other, the realization dawning on their faces. They each flared their birdies and took off after the ship.
Back inside the Pharaoh Mask's cell, Kenny and Dayton fell away from Khamun, Kenny's suit twitching uncontrollably while Dayton simply hit the floor, unmoving. Kenny reached over to shake his companion. "Dayton?" he said. "Dayton?"
Khamun laughed, stepping around the pair and drawing his scepter. "What a futile effort," he said. "And for what?" He held up the skull, its eyes glinting. "Now there is no one to stop me from finishing you two off for good."
He was about to fire when the yellow ranger's suit flickered for just a moment. Khamun paused, taking a step back. The suit flickered again, then flashed, and suddenly, it was gone, leaving behind an unconscious Dayton Owens covered in heavy burns.
"A hologram?" Khamun said, just as a bright yellow club struck him in the head from behind, cracking his mask and throwing him against the wall. The Pharaoh Mask turned to see his attacker, a second yellow ranger wielding a short staff with a clenched fist at one end.
"Hope I didn't mess up your plans too bad," the ranger said in a familiar voice. Kenny raised his eyebrows, looking at the smiling round face that had appeared in the square on his visor.
"Doug?"
Doug didn't answer but simply gave Kenny an excited grin before putting on a serious face and facing his opponent again. Khamun struggled back to his feet, glaring at Doug through his broken mask and holding out his skull scepter to fire at him. Doug switched his staff over to "Paper" and slashed at the weapon, cutting the scepter cleanly in two before rushing forward and grabbing the Mask, locking his arms behind his head while keeping the blade of his staff at his throat.
"You're beat, Pharaoh Mask," Doug said. "You don't have another one of those Flames of Ra in you."
"Don't I?" the Pharaoh Mask said as Doug dragged him away from his friends. The pharaoh's armor started to glow, flames lighting up from every crack once again.
"What the heck?" Doug said, trying to let go and jump back away from the Mask. Before he could, Khamun grabbed him by the arms and held him tight.
"It's a new feature of this armor," Khamun said. "After my previous failure, I requested it from Soto personally."
Doug struggled to get away, but the Pharaoh held on, his flames growing brighter and brighter. "Doug!" Kenny shouted, as a blast of light ripped through the room.
Doug let go and stumbled backwards. His legs and arms moved sluggishly, his visor scrambled. Everything felt weird and fuzzy and out of control. Khamun laughed, watching him try to keep his balance.
"It's not as strong as the first one," the pharaoh said. "Obviously, the first drained most of its power, but it should be just enough for this."
Doug felt a sudden pain in his back as a sharp, wickedly curved blade burst from his chest, his malfunctioning armor failing to protect him. He gasped in horror, staring down as blood spilled from his mutilated torso. His ears rang and his mind started to grow foggy. He could just faintly hear Kenny shouting his name, his face red with anger on the small square on Doug's visor.
Doug looked up at him, everything seeming distant somehow. He looked back to see the greenish-gray face of the Black Cross Fuhrer behind him.
"Sorry about that," the Fuhrer said. "Khamun and I felt it advantageous to disguise my presence at first." He lifted Doug off the ground, his bladed limb digging through the cadet's body even further. "Hope we didn't spoil anything."
Doug tried to speak, coughing up blood. The Fuhrer smiled at him. "It's nice to see you again, my old friend," he said, his eyes turning to the Pharaoh Mask.
"Soto," Khamun said, touching the gem at his chest and bowing to the Fuhrer. "I have missed you dearly."
"And I you. Come."
The Fuhrer backed through the door into the control booth, Doug's body still attached. Khamun followed them inside. "You did your best, rangers," the Fuhrer said through the viewing glass, tearing his limb from Doug's back and dropping him onto the floor nearby. "But now, it is time for you to go."
Kenny used everything inside him to lunge forward, but he was too late. The Fuhrer pressed the trapdoor release, and the floor dropped out from beneath the yellow and green rangers, sending them both falling through the clouds below. Doug did his best to prop himself up against the wall, watching as his friends disappeared.
Khamun and Soto laughed nearby. "You have done well, my friend," the Fuhrer said. "Is it assembled?"
"Nearly," Khamun replied. "With the rangers crippled, shall we depart?"
"We shall."
Doug made a strange gurgling sound behind them. The pair turned to see that he had pulled himself up onto the control panel, his hand over the door controls. He glared at them through his visor and punched the button. The door burst open as all the air rushed out. Soto and Khamun fought against it, but they were taken too much by surprise and were both sucked out into the open air after the rangers they had just ejected.
Doug clung on as tightly as he could, hitting the button to seal the door once again and close the trapdoor. As soon as the wind stopped, he slumped back down against the wall, his chest heaving as he struggled for breath.