Author's note:
I'm sorry this is taking so long to get out. I've been really busy with
real life lately, plus I got a new toy I've been playing with. (I bought
myself a new airbrush as an early birthday present to myself, and have
finished four paintings in the past couple of days.) Thanks again for all
the wonderful feed back from folks.
*****************************************************************
Billy felt the 'zord rock under him from the onslaught of fire. Ms.
Hayes hadn't been kidding when she said that the Kregar wouldn't take Kim
turning them down easily. Almost to the second after Kimberly's answer
passed her lips, the attack had begun. Fortunately, tactics was Jason's
strong suit, so they were prepared- at least as prepared as anyone could be
for the ferocity of that kind of attack.
Two dozen Kregar warriors had appeared out of nowhere- Billy assumed
that they'd teleported in- and went directly on the offensive. Billy found
himself hard pressed to keep them off him, much less go to poor Kim's aid.
The situation completely deteriorated into chaos when the Kregar suddenly
dropped in another two dozen assault walkers onto their position. This
time, they were deadly serious.
Now Billy found himself cut off from the rest of his team, his radio scrambled, strange energy readings coming from his sensors- he wasn't sure, but he thought the Kregar were trying to interfere with the 'zords' ability to draw on the Power- and in the fight of his life. Leaping behind another walker to avoid a blast from the command walker that was leading the group of six attacking his wolf-zord, he turned and fired a particle cannon point- blank into the 'shield walker's' back. It wasn't exactly Marquis of Queensbury rules, but as Ms. Stone was so fond of pointing out, this was war.
He watched with some amusement as the energy punched clean through the 'shield walker' and clipped the attacking command module in the knee of its right leg. He didn't have much time to enjoy his small victory as the other five suddenly launched a concentrated barrage of missiles at his 'zord. It was then, he realized that the Kregar commander had sacrificed the walker he'd dodged behind in order to set him up for the kill.
Desperately, he fought to shift energy from the weapons to the shields, as he watched the missiles close. He knew he wasn't going to make it when the first missile hit the wolf zord square in the flank, sending it spinning to face the next barrage face on. The last thing he remembered thinking before the darkness took him was that he'd at least spent last night with Jason.
Kyle rolled the raccoon zord into a neat ball and sent it flying into the group of six walkers tracking the crane-zord with their plasma cannons. At the last minute he pulled all the energy out of the zord's weapons systems and augmented his shields- he did NOT want another lecture from Jason and Tommy about trying to get himself killed- and shifted to the 'zord's secondary form. In mid-flight the raccoon became a great golden eagle, wings spread and talons out for a strike, as he slammed through the Kregar like ten pins. "Yip, yip, yip, Yeeehah!," he screamed into the radio, knowing that he was going to get kidded for the 'Rebel Yell' later, "Just like shooting wamprats in my T-17 back home in Beggar's Canyon!" he added quickly. Let them chew on that one for a while.
He felt the eagle-zord's talons bite into the lead walker and close around it. Hitting the thrusters in his jets he took to the sky, and in a matter of seconds was flying over the desert outside Angel Grove, trailing the captured walker behind him. Banking hard to the right, and pulling up on the yoke he slammed his prey forward and released the talons. He watched on his monitor as the command walker was whipped around and then went tumbling into the side of a nearby cliff with a very satisfactory explosion. He muttered into his microphone, "Now if this thing only had a cloaking device, it would be perfect," as he brought the 'zord back onto an attack run at the attacking walkers. Off to his right, he noted a missile fired in his direction.
Junking to avoid the missile closing in on him, he cursed when his collision claxons suddenly went haywire. As he flew in low over the city, an energy web of some sort suddenly appeared over his cockpit, engulfing the eagle-zord. The last thing he remembered before hitting the canopy was seeing Billy's zord go down under a barrage of missile fire.
*********************************************************
Kimberly watched quietly as Tommy, Jase, and Adam picked through the wreckage of the two zords, not sure if she was more afraid of finding bodies or not. This last fight had been brutal, with no quarter asked and none given. When the wolf and eagle 'zords went down, the timbre of the fight changed, and Kimberly wasn't sure she liked what she was seeing in the boys, what she was feeling in herself. She could see it in Jason's and Adam's eyes, she could feel it in her own bones, and hear it in Tommy's voice. She wasn't sure for whom she was more afraid, her friends or the Kregar. There was a deep need inside all of them, a need that could only be filled by blood, and lots of it. The Power Rangers had finally come of age, and she wasn't sure it was a good thing. Their innocence had been stripped away, and what lay beneath was cold rage, and a thirst for justice.
Jason silently dropped a piece of the wolf-zord's shattered hull, and Kim noticed that the material normally capable of withstanding a full missile barrage shattered like so much glass. What ever they hit the zord with had done something to change its molecular structure. She watched as one of her oldest friends stared up into the sky, fighting back the tears that threatened to overtake his eyes. "He's not here."
Tommy reached out and put a hand on his friend's shoulder, "That's good news," he told Jason. "That means there's still hope. They're still alive."
Deep down Kimberly felt the beginning of something stir in her soul. Billy WAS still alive- so was Kyle. She could feel both of them. They were injured, but were still alive. She reached out, touched Jason's face and said, "We'll get them back." The steel in her own voice surprised even her. "We'll get them back and make the Kregar wish they'd never even heard of the Power Rangers."
Across the desert in the Power Chamber, Winter Hayes, daughter of her Earth's mightiest hero, thousand year old Time Lord, and all around trouble for anybody who wanted to cause it, had her hands full with a single very determined and very angry transhuman- Murphy Stone.
She watched as the woman gathered every portable weapon she could find in the Command Center and packed them into a single bag. The tall redhead had shed her normal jeans and blouse and was now wearing her old police riot gear, complete with Kevlar vest. She had half a dozen weapons strapped to her- some of which, Winter recognized as advance experimental designs from her father's company- and was cursing under her breath. Finally, Winter managed to get her attention between paint-peeling oaths, "Exactly what do you think you're going to do, Murph?"
"I'm going up to that assault ship and getting them back," Murphy answered turning to face Winter as she checked the charge on a particularly lethal looking energy weapon. "I wont lose him again."
Winter knew that the woman had become emotionally attached to the Rangers, Billy in particular. It didn't help matters that the boy looked and acted so much like her own deceased son, but she couldn't let her take on a whole assault ship full of Kregar warriors just because she was upset. "No, you're not. This isn't your fight," she calmly told her best friend.
"Like hell it isn't," Murphy replied, pulling her flak jacket on. "It became my fight the minute I took the job."
"You took the job, to be a military advisor, not a combatant," Winter told her.
"Fine," Murphy looked at her, "Then I quit. My time is my own now, and I'm going to get those boys back."
"No, you don't Murphy, you can't quit. You're in this one for the long haul." She sighed and put a steadying hand out to the larger woman. She knew that Murphy could walk right through her without ever breaking a sweat, and for the first time in her life, she wished that she was her father's GENETIC offspring, she could use his physical strength right now. "All I'm saying is give the others a chance. They might surprise you." She softened her voice, trying to reach past the hard emotions she knew were threatening to spill over her friend's mind, "They have a stake in this too." She smiled, "Besides, there's still a wild card to be played out."
That seemed to have gotten Murphy's attention. She stopped and gave Winter a confused look. "What wild card?"
"Covenant's bargain. The Rangers are the Power now. It's time they learned what that really means," she told her. What she kept to herself however, was the darker side to that bargain. She was beginning to have suspicions about some of the things she'd learned of late, and they scared her a great deal more than she would ever admit.
***********************************************************
Twenty-two thousand, three hundred, eleven miles above Earth, in a geo- synchronous orbit, somewhere deep in the bowels of the Kregar assault ship, William Cranston screamed in pain.
Now Billy found himself cut off from the rest of his team, his radio scrambled, strange energy readings coming from his sensors- he wasn't sure, but he thought the Kregar were trying to interfere with the 'zords' ability to draw on the Power- and in the fight of his life. Leaping behind another walker to avoid a blast from the command walker that was leading the group of six attacking his wolf-zord, he turned and fired a particle cannon point- blank into the 'shield walker's' back. It wasn't exactly Marquis of Queensbury rules, but as Ms. Stone was so fond of pointing out, this was war.
He watched with some amusement as the energy punched clean through the 'shield walker' and clipped the attacking command module in the knee of its right leg. He didn't have much time to enjoy his small victory as the other five suddenly launched a concentrated barrage of missiles at his 'zord. It was then, he realized that the Kregar commander had sacrificed the walker he'd dodged behind in order to set him up for the kill.
Desperately, he fought to shift energy from the weapons to the shields, as he watched the missiles close. He knew he wasn't going to make it when the first missile hit the wolf zord square in the flank, sending it spinning to face the next barrage face on. The last thing he remembered thinking before the darkness took him was that he'd at least spent last night with Jason.
Kyle rolled the raccoon zord into a neat ball and sent it flying into the group of six walkers tracking the crane-zord with their plasma cannons. At the last minute he pulled all the energy out of the zord's weapons systems and augmented his shields- he did NOT want another lecture from Jason and Tommy about trying to get himself killed- and shifted to the 'zord's secondary form. In mid-flight the raccoon became a great golden eagle, wings spread and talons out for a strike, as he slammed through the Kregar like ten pins. "Yip, yip, yip, Yeeehah!," he screamed into the radio, knowing that he was going to get kidded for the 'Rebel Yell' later, "Just like shooting wamprats in my T-17 back home in Beggar's Canyon!" he added quickly. Let them chew on that one for a while.
He felt the eagle-zord's talons bite into the lead walker and close around it. Hitting the thrusters in his jets he took to the sky, and in a matter of seconds was flying over the desert outside Angel Grove, trailing the captured walker behind him. Banking hard to the right, and pulling up on the yoke he slammed his prey forward and released the talons. He watched on his monitor as the command walker was whipped around and then went tumbling into the side of a nearby cliff with a very satisfactory explosion. He muttered into his microphone, "Now if this thing only had a cloaking device, it would be perfect," as he brought the 'zord back onto an attack run at the attacking walkers. Off to his right, he noted a missile fired in his direction.
Junking to avoid the missile closing in on him, he cursed when his collision claxons suddenly went haywire. As he flew in low over the city, an energy web of some sort suddenly appeared over his cockpit, engulfing the eagle-zord. The last thing he remembered before hitting the canopy was seeing Billy's zord go down under a barrage of missile fire.
*********************************************************
Kimberly watched quietly as Tommy, Jase, and Adam picked through the wreckage of the two zords, not sure if she was more afraid of finding bodies or not. This last fight had been brutal, with no quarter asked and none given. When the wolf and eagle 'zords went down, the timbre of the fight changed, and Kimberly wasn't sure she liked what she was seeing in the boys, what she was feeling in herself. She could see it in Jason's and Adam's eyes, she could feel it in her own bones, and hear it in Tommy's voice. She wasn't sure for whom she was more afraid, her friends or the Kregar. There was a deep need inside all of them, a need that could only be filled by blood, and lots of it. The Power Rangers had finally come of age, and she wasn't sure it was a good thing. Their innocence had been stripped away, and what lay beneath was cold rage, and a thirst for justice.
Jason silently dropped a piece of the wolf-zord's shattered hull, and Kim noticed that the material normally capable of withstanding a full missile barrage shattered like so much glass. What ever they hit the zord with had done something to change its molecular structure. She watched as one of her oldest friends stared up into the sky, fighting back the tears that threatened to overtake his eyes. "He's not here."
Tommy reached out and put a hand on his friend's shoulder, "That's good news," he told Jason. "That means there's still hope. They're still alive."
Deep down Kimberly felt the beginning of something stir in her soul. Billy WAS still alive- so was Kyle. She could feel both of them. They were injured, but were still alive. She reached out, touched Jason's face and said, "We'll get them back." The steel in her own voice surprised even her. "We'll get them back and make the Kregar wish they'd never even heard of the Power Rangers."
Across the desert in the Power Chamber, Winter Hayes, daughter of her Earth's mightiest hero, thousand year old Time Lord, and all around trouble for anybody who wanted to cause it, had her hands full with a single very determined and very angry transhuman- Murphy Stone.
She watched as the woman gathered every portable weapon she could find in the Command Center and packed them into a single bag. The tall redhead had shed her normal jeans and blouse and was now wearing her old police riot gear, complete with Kevlar vest. She had half a dozen weapons strapped to her- some of which, Winter recognized as advance experimental designs from her father's company- and was cursing under her breath. Finally, Winter managed to get her attention between paint-peeling oaths, "Exactly what do you think you're going to do, Murph?"
"I'm going up to that assault ship and getting them back," Murphy answered turning to face Winter as she checked the charge on a particularly lethal looking energy weapon. "I wont lose him again."
Winter knew that the woman had become emotionally attached to the Rangers, Billy in particular. It didn't help matters that the boy looked and acted so much like her own deceased son, but she couldn't let her take on a whole assault ship full of Kregar warriors just because she was upset. "No, you're not. This isn't your fight," she calmly told her best friend.
"Like hell it isn't," Murphy replied, pulling her flak jacket on. "It became my fight the minute I took the job."
"You took the job, to be a military advisor, not a combatant," Winter told her.
"Fine," Murphy looked at her, "Then I quit. My time is my own now, and I'm going to get those boys back."
"No, you don't Murphy, you can't quit. You're in this one for the long haul." She sighed and put a steadying hand out to the larger woman. She knew that Murphy could walk right through her without ever breaking a sweat, and for the first time in her life, she wished that she was her father's GENETIC offspring, she could use his physical strength right now. "All I'm saying is give the others a chance. They might surprise you." She softened her voice, trying to reach past the hard emotions she knew were threatening to spill over her friend's mind, "They have a stake in this too." She smiled, "Besides, there's still a wild card to be played out."
That seemed to have gotten Murphy's attention. She stopped and gave Winter a confused look. "What wild card?"
"Covenant's bargain. The Rangers are the Power now. It's time they learned what that really means," she told her. What she kept to herself however, was the darker side to that bargain. She was beginning to have suspicions about some of the things she'd learned of late, and they scared her a great deal more than she would ever admit.
***********************************************************
Twenty-two thousand, three hundred, eleven miles above Earth, in a geo- synchronous orbit, somewhere deep in the bowels of the Kregar assault ship, William Cranston screamed in pain.