Chapter 15: The Eagle's Cry

Katie Delgado had fallen asleep lying on the nose of the armadillo wildzord. The smallest wildzord didn't seem at all fazed, and sat there calmly, accompanied as always by her eternal friend and partner, the rhino.

Taylor sat beside Danny as he fondly watch his daughter and zords. "I think they like her more than me," he said softly.

"Well, the bison was always your partner."

He nodded.

"Where is the bison, anyway?"

"I visited him down by the lake earlier."

Taylor looked up at the starry sky. "My eagle hasn't shown up yet."

"She will."

Taylor smiled at his assurance. "So, who is Z to you?" The S.P.D. ranger had returned to watch Kira's performance and ensuing contribution to the deer's power, but then stalked off into the forest again.

Danny's face fell, and he looked at her for a moment before sighing heavily. "I never told you about my brother."

"Max?"

"No, I had a biological brother."

Taylor stared.

"He got involved with some secret government organization, and was part of some experiment that went wrong. It... changed him."

"What do you mean?"

"The experiment messed with his brain. He became a completely different person, unstable. He withdrew from the family." Danny leaned forward, looking down. "All that happened before I became a ranger. I... I should have told you guys, but..." He shrugged.

"It's alright." Taylor placed a hand on his shoulder.

"He died a few years ago. That was when we found out he had a daughter, Lizzie. We met her, but my mom... It was too difficult a reminder of how the family had fallen apart." Danny sighed again. "That was when my mom's health began to decline."

He looked at his daughter. "I know that Katie still goes looking for her cousin from time to time, but..."

"But she's doing just fine on her own." The two Wild Force rangers turned to find Z standing behind them.

"Lizzie..."

"It's Z."

"Z." Danny looked down. "I'm sorry. I should have been there for you."

Z stared at him for a moment. "It's okay." Then she turned and walked away.

Taylor woke up to the sound of planes. And not just any planes. Recognizing what she was hearing, she shot up from the hammock and darted towards the temple. Once she was out of the trees, she looked up and saw them.

And then they opened fire.

She dove back into the trees as the strafing fire from the jets crossed right where she'd just been standing.

"What's going on?" The voice was Summer's.

"Get under cover!" She yelled. "Everyone, find cover!"

She looked around, and saw Katie Delgado still sleeping on the nose of the armadillo. Darting back across the clearing, she pulled the girl to her and then dove underneath the zord. A jet's shots crossed the wildzord's face, and it awoke with a furious wail, as did the rhino.

Then Taylor heard another familiar sound: her eagle's cry. Peering out from beneath the armadillo, she saw her zord swoop at one of the jets. The jet fired at point-blank range, and the eagle let out another cry, letting go of the jet and falling towards the forest.

"No!" Taylor yelled. Scrambling out of her cover, she grabbed her growl phone. "Wild Access!"

Morphed, she ran back out into the clearing, peering up at the jets. She wasn't sure what she could do against them, but she needed to do something.

Then she felt an unfamiliar sensation around her arm, and was stunned to see the falcon summoner materialize. Pulling the bow into form, she pulled back and fired an arrow of red energy up at the nearest jet. She aimed for the wing, since she didn't want to hurt any brainwashed pilot that might be flying it. The arrow tore a hole through the wing, and the plane crashed into the jungle.

Immediately, the other planes climbed higher, becoming harder for her to hit.

Then she felt another sensation, this time at her belt. Seeing that the buckle was glowing, she pulled it out, and the Animarium Armor emerged. She watched in shock as the battlizer circled around her, and then felt the infusion of extra power from the Morphing Grid.

Looking upwards, she took off and soared towards the planes, jetting past them. Seeing that the cockpits were empty, she relaxed a little, grateful that none of her fellow pilots could get hurt by her attacks.

The unmanned jets turned towards her, and she evaded their shots, circling around until she had a clear shot at one with the summoner. One-by-one, she downed the jets, doing her best to get them to fall towards the outskirts of the Animarium rather than near the temple or the lake where the wildzords tended to gather.

Once the skies were clear, she swooped down in the direction her eagle had fallen. The zord lay across a downed tree, scorch marks from the jet fire coating her belly and one of her wings. "Eagle." Unmorphing, Taylor placed her hand on the zord's beak, and it gave a soft cry. "You'll be alright," she said, assuring herself more than the zord. "Once Deer regains his energy, he'll heal you."

"Taylor!" She turned as Ronny zipped over to her. "Come with me. He needs help."

"What? Who?" But Ronny simply took hold of her and zipped her over to the first jet that she had shot down. The other rangers were gathered around someone lying on the ground.

"Jefferson?" She stared at her cadet, shocked.

"Hi, Captain." He gave her a weak smile. "So this is where you've been for the past week?"

"Not exactly." She knelt down beside him. "What were you doing in that plane?"

"Just an early morning flight. Sarge gave the okay." He looked up towards the sky he had fallen from. "And then I lost control. Something took over the plane, and I was flown here."

"You'll be alright, soldier. Did you notice anything strange before you lost control?"

"Yeah, there was a signal from Base. I thought it must be from Sarge, but it was all garbled."

Taylor grimaced. Her air base? Was that where the Venjix receiver was hidden?

Andros was smart. Not only would there be a ranger to protect it there, but also a fleet of fighter jets.

She just wished she had been told.

"I need to get to the base. There are a lot more planes there for Venjix to take over."

"How did you get the Animarium Armor?" Danny asked her.

"I don't know, but I hope it wasn't just a one-time thing." She looked at Jefferson. "Hold on. I'm going to get someone who can help you."

Turning, she ran into the forest, until she was far enough away from the cadet. Then she morphed, and ran back. Kneeling down, she lifted the cadet into her arms. As she did so, the Animarium Armor reappeared around her.

Taking off, she flew towards the city, swooping down until she landed outside the hospital, in front of the Emergency Room entrance. A pair of paramedics stood outside beside an ambulance, and they stared as she ran over to them. "Take care of him."

They nodded, and one of them quickly grabbed the stretcher out of the ambulance so she could lay Jefferson on it. Then she took off again, flying towards the base.

Several planes were still out on the tarmac, and more in the hangar. Knowing the quickest way to disable them, she flew to each of the planes in turn and pulled the wires she needed to.

When she entered the hangar, however, she heard a voice that made her freeze. "Taylor, stop."

"Eric?" She looked around.

"I'm sending this broadcast to you from the year 3011. I'm here with Captain Logan, safe. But Taylor, listen to me. You need to stop what you're doing, or I could be stuck here."

She stiffened, turning to the intercom speaker that his voice was coming from.

"Summer Landsdown is lying to you. Her experiences in her own universe have made her paranoid beyond reason. Project Venjix doesn't pose any threat."

Her recent experiences told her otherwise.

"Taylor, please. You need to subdue Summer. Send her back to her own universe, and keep her from changing the timeline, or I'll be trapped here."

"Nice try, Venjix." Turning to the planes, she resumed disabling them.

"Taylor, please, stop."

"I don't think so." Then she paused, turning to the speaker. "You're sending yourself information from the future, aren't you? That's how you know so much about us. You're not just sending rangers back in time, you're sending your data, too."

Eric's voice was replaced by a mechanical one that was far deeper and more sinister. "Very good, Captain Earhardt. And knowing that, you must know that there is no way I can be stopped."

"I come from a timeline where you don't exist. The one you trapped my husband in. I'll find a way to restore it." Was it true, though? After all, the Time Force computer had sent Katie back in time to arrest Summer. Why would it do that, if Venjix hadn't already taken over?

But then why would the timeline change again? And what caused it?

Shaking her head, she got back to the matter at hand, disabling the rest of the planes. "Now what are you gonna do?"

In answer to her question, cyclobots appeared all around her.

She sighed. "I had to ask." Then she went to work, using the extra power from the battlizer to defeat the robots.

As soon as she was done, however, another horde of them appeared.

She huffed, then took off, flying over them and out of the hangar. Wherever the receiver was, she knew Venjix would keep putting more and more of its minions in her path. They needed another way to destroy it.

Returning to the Animarium, she found another horde of cyclobots attacking. The wildzords were helping to defeat them, the lion stomping on any that got to close while the rhino batted them away with its horn.

Joining the battle, she helped the other yellow rangers finish off the robots.

"I guess Venjix didn't like you disabling the planes, huh?" said Summer.

"Yeah. It also used a fake transmission from Eric to try to persuade me to stop you." Taylor looked around, waiting to see if more cyclobots would appear, but they didn't. Venjix was probably holding them in reserve in case the rangers tried to go after the receiver.

She turned to Katie. "It's sending itself information from the future, along with rangers and cyclobots. That's how it knows so much."

Katie stared at her. "Seriously?"

"That explains how it knew about me," said Summer. "And about Eric."

Kira and the Delgados emerged from the temple.

"Are you guys okay?"

Danny nodded. Kira looked miffed about not having been able to join the fight.

"Well there is good news," said Kelsey. "I spoke to Angela, and Venjix's signals haven't been able to gain a foothold anywhere outside of your air force base. The deer zord's power worked." She nodded towards Kira.

The rockstar gave a relieved smile, now knowing that her sacrifice hadn't been in vain.

"That's good," said Summer. "But how do we beat it here, if it knows the future?"

"We need a way to disable all power in the base," said Katie. "An EMP."

"A what?" Tanya asked.

"An Electromagnetic Pulse. It can disable any electrical devices in a large radius. But I don't know where we're going to find a device that can safely produce one in the year 2011."

"I do," said Ronny.