1. -takes a deep breath- Here we go, people. This is the one-before-last chapter. I've been waiting for this battle for ages, and I hope you did, too.
2. Tuesday night, into Wednesday morning.
3. The song Ashley sings at the end of this chapter is "How Can I Keep From Singing", lyrics by Roma Ryan, composed and performed by Enya.
4. I'm running to risk of sounding like a broken record, but: review, please?
9. Final Countdown
"I guess there is no one to blame
We're leaving ground
Will things ever be the same again"
"The Final Countdown", Europe
They were all standing together at the conference room, watching the strategic display. In the vast darkness of the holotank, small pricks of light moved, engaging and disappearing like the spaceships they represented.
"Everything's going according to plan", said Karone. "Dark Specter took our bait, and sent most of his troops to try and conquer the Alpha Front. As soon as the troops were too far to be called back, the Blue Senturions begun their attack in the Delta Front, attempting to free the occupied planets. As a result, Dark Specter pulled out most of his remaining forces – which is when the Gamma Front Combined Task Force launched their attack on the enemy's territory"
"The Power Rangers assumed command in all Fronts", continued Melissa. "Trey and TJ are holding the Alpha and Delta Fronts' C&C centers, respectively. The Edenoites are working under TJ – each of them assumed command of a planet. Two Aquitian Rangers are fighting at Eltar – that planet got five planets' worth of monsters – and the rest of the Aquitian team are cutting down Dark Specter's lines, thus leaving the Phantom Ranger and Cassie to mop up the Gamma Front"
"Those two are currently on top of Dark Specter's "Hate" list", said Karone, her voice almost amused. "To judge by incoming reports, they seem to be everywhere at once"
"Dark Specter is still sending out troops", said Andros, leaning closer to the holotank. "We have to send in the Gray Guard, but then we have to attack, too: he'll realize something is wrong as soon as he gets reports of the Gray Guard's resurfacing"
"But what will he suspect?" wondered Zhane. "Will he guess that we have Karone, that Melissa is alive, or both?"
"He'll realize that I'm alive", said Melissa decisively. "Someone had to direct the Gray Guard all those years"
"I might have done it, for all he can tell" countered Andros.
Melissa was about to reply, but Karone raised her hand. "Enough", she said, silencing both Melissa and Andros. "We will proceed based on the assumption that Dark Specter will assess the situation wholly and accurately. Now…" she looked at Melissa. "When will you give the Gray Guard their order to strike?"
"Whenever you tell me", said Melissa promptly. "You're the professional"
"Than send it out, now" said Karone.
Melissa's fingers sent off orange sparks as she touched a pad.
"It's done", she said.
Suddenly, the view in the holotank shifted, to show the Netherie solar system. Dots of light appeared all over the simulation.
"They look awfully small", said Ashley.
"Those are the single fighters", explained Melissa.
Several stained-dagger dots moved out of the cloud that surrounded the cloud, aiming to intercept the Gray Guard's fighters.
"You'd better sit down", said Melissa suddenly.
"Why?" asked Carlos.
"That's why", answered Melissa, and the great wall of the conference room became transparent.
Nearly everyone yelped as a fighter passed right next to the Nest's hull.
"Now, sit", said Karone sternly.
They were sitting almost before she spoke.
"Nest", said Melissa evenly, "Begin evasive maneuvers"
"Complying", came the prompt reply.
Outside, the battle raged on.
"Gray Guards!" bellowed Dark Specter. "How in the name of the Great Void itself did those plaguing pests got to The Heart Of Darkness?"
"I ordered to arm and send every available interceptor we have" said Divatox over the comm. Her submarine-like spacecraft was orbiting the planet that was once called Netherie. Dark Specter trusted her to command the defenses of his main base, and she was not about to fail.
Dark Specter seemed to ignore her. "They're all over the galaxies!" he yelled again. "They were supposed to be destroyed!". The frustrated monarch of evil pummeled the nearest wall with a great sphere of ink-black lava, and melted a great hole in the stone.
Growling, he looked at the pirate queen. "The planet's ground defenses are not to be weakened further" he warned her. "Get your reinforcements from somewhere else"
"I'll need command over the Dark Fortress, including its Quantrones and Velocyfighter"
"I will summon Ecliptor for you, but you'd better not fail"
"I won't"
"Did they ran out of fighters, or what?" asked Shiera. "They haven't sent out more in several minutes"
"Dark Specter probably doesn't want the planetbound defenses dwindled", speculated Carlos.
Melissa nodded her head. Flying the "Nest" demanded too much attention for her to speak.
"So far they're doing very poorly", said Karone. She was watching the battle intently, both through the transparent wall and in the holotank. "They need reinforcement"
"Maybe that's the content of that long-distance message we picked before", said Zhane. "I just don't manage to decode the thing!"
"Leave it be", said Andros. "We'll have our answers soon enough"
As if on cue, a hyperspace tunnel opened as soon as Andros finished his words, and out of it emerged the Dark Fortress. As soon as the portal closed behind it, Velocyfighters began swarming from the great battleship.
"About time!", said Karone. She sounded almost relieved. "Everybody knows their parts?"
She was answered by a chorus of "Yes", "Come on" and sarcastic "What part?".
Karone licked her lips, almost nervously, and then stood up and said: "To borrow a line… Let's Rocket!"
"All Velocyfighters have been sent as you ordered, Queen Divatox", said Ecliptor over the visual comm.
Though Ecliptor's manner had been immaculate, he still managed to convey his dislike of her. Loyal to his bratty little princess even that she's gone, like the stubborn rock that he is, thought Divatox through grated teeth.
"I just received new orders from Dark Specter himself", she said stiffly. "You are to assume control over Heart Of Darkness's ground defense. I will command the space troops, from on board the Dark Fortress"
"As you wish", replied Ecliptor.
Has she been less warped in her dismay over Ecliptor's misplaced loyalties, Divatox would have noticed that he sounded strangely calm in complying with the order she has just delivered: to abandon the Dark Fortress to her care. As it was, though, the pirate queen was preoccupied with the raging battle as well as with her own worries.
Above him, the sky was lighted with explosions. Every now and then, the wreck of a Velocyfighter would burn a trail through the clouds, creating a fireball upon impact. Rarely, a Gray Guard Interceptor would crash, too.
If I'm still alive when this is over, thought Carlos as he waited not-so-patiently, perched on top what once had been a tall building and hidden under a camouflage net, I'm going to write the Dummy's Handbook to Infiltrating the Enemy's Bastion. Rule number one: create a diversion.
"You there!" barked Shiera. She felt extremely exposed, walking up to a squad of Piranhatrones unmorphed as she was.
The squad stopped in its tracks.
"Yes, you!" shouted Shiera again. What she was doing would have been silly if she was aiming to kill the stupid creatures – but she wasn't aiming just for the kill.
The Piranhatrones made up their mind, and marched in her direction.
Shiera picked a small red ball from her pocket, and pitched it in the direction of the approaching squad. The ball, the size of a ping-pong ball, exploded upon impact, reducing the Piranhatrones into tiny metal shreds.
"Not bad", murmured Shiera, "I see why Melissa called them Nova Balls"
She was surrounded by massive troops of drones, yet she remained unmorphed: throwing Nova Balls with one hand, and loosely aiming a wide-beam energy rifle with the other, Shiera still had the upper hand.
Perched on the roof, Carlos was loosing what little patience he had to begin with. "Come on", he whispered, as Shiera seemed to be having too much fun. "Come on. Morph already"
Monsters joined the mob surrounding Shiera. First just a handful, but then a whole lot of them. The mob was closing in on her.
"Come on!" whispered Carlos again, more urgently. "Even you can't hold much longer, girl!"
As if she heard him, Shiera threw away the rifle and, clenching her right fist in front of her face, called out: "Green Strike!". She pulled her fist back sharply in perfect coordination with the second word, and her Power suite materialized around her, just as her newly-acquired dagger appeared in her hand.
This was Carlos's cue. He shook off the camouflage net and called out, rising to his feet: "Galaxy glider, hang ten!". His glider was there almost before he knew it, and he jumped on it.
He glided over the fight, shooting any target that entered his view field. Half grimly, half triumphantly, he noticed that the combined surprise of his and Shiera's attacks drew every villain in the area. Rule number two, he thought: create a second diversion.
Sweat gathered on his brows, but Andros didn't dare to spare a hand and wipe it as he worked his way through the main controls of the enemy's sensor arrays, bringing them down. He was in serious danger of exposure, even with the diversion going better than planned.
He shouldn't have thought of it.
"So, what do you have to say about my "ridiculously dangerous" tactic now?" teased Karone's voice in his mind.
"Being successful – so far – doesn't make it any less dangerous" he retorted.
"It's not like they're really alone. It was just the bait. Melissa's monsters joined them now. What I wouldn't give to see the chaos they must be causing!"
"Karone, I need to concentrate!"
"Well, just blow the damn thing away"
"And have every automated intruder alarm shoot poisonous darts at me? No thanks"
"Zhane should be almost through with those damned alarms. Once he is, you're clear"
"In the meantime, I really need to…"
"Yo, guys". Zhane's voice, audibly spoken over the comm, interrupted their conversation. "The alarms are off. Sorry it took me so long: somebody put quadruple backups on those things. How're you folks doing?"
"I finished with the tactic comm like ages ago, so I moved to long distance transmitters to pass the time" said Karone cheerfully.
"Sensors are down, system-wide", said Andros, "But they must have noticed what I did"
"Not like they have any way to report it", answered Zhane. He sounded as cheerful as Karone.
Andros rolled his eyes, though none of them could see him. "You're both impossible, you know that?"
"That's why you love us" said Zhane.
It was a testimony to Andros's anxiety that he didn't bother to reply.
Ecliptor stood up on the balcony and looked up at the clouded sky, wondering: Why?
At Dark Specter's orders, Divatox has taken over the Dark Fortress, commanding The Heart Of Darkness's defenses from there. Ecliptor has been ordered to the surface of the planet – to one particular spot on it.
You must make sure no-one enters that court, unless I allow them to, told him Dark Specter: No-one, unless those are gold- or blue-armored warriors, and unless they arrive from the lower entrance alone.
Gold must be for Phoenix, thought Ecliptor. But who is blue? Not that it matters, as long as I get to fight Phoenix.
That was, in all probability, why Dark Specter assigned Ecliptor to that post: Phoenix was headed his way and, while most villains trembled in fear at the mention of her name, Ecliptor stroke his sword. He would have smiled – if he could – at the thought of confronting the one who took away his child.
My princess, he called her, for a princess she was, tall and magnificent. Yet in his heart – if he had one – Ecliptor retained the memory of the wide-eyed little girl who set on his lap.
My child, he thought fondly each night, as he put her to sleep. My beautiful child, as he remained awake to watch over her. Yet he never told her, not even once, how much he cared for her. True, he could tell from her eyes that she knew, but it wasn't the same as telling her, as perhaps hearing her say: I love you too, Ecliptor: as much as I ever loved my parents.
For Ecliptor considered himself Karone's father. Proudly he thought, that he indeed acted like one in any way that mattered. Even, when chance presented itself, he found her a friend of her species and age.
Phoenix took Shiera away from Astronema. Phoenix took Astronema away from him. True, she also killed Darkonda – but that little merit was drown by her other actions.
Let her come here, to the upper entrance, thought Ecliptor darkly as he paced across his post. Let her come, and be surprised.
Standing under the tall archway, waiting for Melissa to open the heavy doors, a familiar cliché rose in Ashley mind: the fog of war. And she thought: it's more like smog, really.
She could not see the walls of the hallway. Smoke and dust obscured her vision, blurring everything in sight. Around her lay the bodies of their defeated enemies, reminding Ashley of broken toys abandoned by a spoiled child. Toys of a tyrant.
She could hear the clatter of the fight, too. The smog veiled the sound, but Ashley's sharp Ranger's hearing, tuned to the havoc of a battlefield, could make out the high wails of crashing spaceships, the dull thunder-like explosions, and a murmur like the sea that had to be the voices of countless warriors fighting all over the city, all over the palace.
The archway stretched above their heads like a portal, dark and deep. Runes were carved across the stone, broken and burnt by years of malicious intent and deeds. It seemed to Ashley that the archway cried out with tired defiance against the evil in the air.
For there was evil in the air, evil lurking behind the closed doors. Ashley could name it: Dark Specter. The courts locked behind the archway were his dwelling now, as they once had been the Yuria's. Ashley shuddered to think at what they may find waiting for them there.
Ashley stood at the doorway to Dark Specter's lair, and she was not afraid. Far from that: she sang.
"My life goes on in endless song
Above earth's lamentations,
I hear the real, though far-off hymn
That hails a new creation"
"Through all the tumult and the strife
I hear its music ringing,
It sounds an echo in my soul.
How can I keep from singing?"
Melissa's hand froze above the runes she attempted to mend. The soft melody tore at both the surrounding darkness and Melissa's concentration. The fire with which Melissa corrected the runes flickered.
"While though the tempest loudly roars,
I hear the truth, it liveth.
And though the darkness 'round me close,
Songs in the night it giveth…"
As she continued to sing, Ashley could swear that the shadows retreated, that the smoke was not as dense as it was before. Her voice rose with confidence at the ending words of the next verse:
"…Since love is lord of heaven and earth
How can I keep from singing?"
Ashley continued on into the one before last verse, and Melissa drew a sudden breath: she couldn't have found better words to express her emotions even she searched for them.
"When tyrants tremble in their fear
And hear their death knell ringing,
When friends rejoice both far and near
How can I keep from singing?"
The runes shone brightly again, and Melissa laughed as she finished the magic with a wave of her hand. There was no merriment in her laugh, but plain certainty.
"Did you hear that, Dark Specter?" she shouted. "This song is your death knell! Your rule is over, Hunter! I am Melissa of Netherie, heir to Oshra of Eltar, and I will destroy you!"
The song was over.
Melissa spread out her arms, and the great doors opened silently before them.
Next time: "Where is your Sixth, Yuria? Who is the Sixth?"