Written by DTM666
Disclaimer: The author of this piece would like to state that 90 percent of the characters featured here are properties of BVS Entertainment Inc and not that of the author. 10 percent of the characters featured here are original creations of the author.
Also, the author understands that this piece automatically negates events that occur any and all PR incarnations that occur after Power Rangers Wild Force; hence no Dino Thunder or Ninja Storm is featured here and hence Tommy is not a doctor of anything. This is an AU, so to speak. Just thought we should be clear on that.
Note: Here's chapter 7. You know the drill. Don't forget to leave a review. Next one's on Friday... maybe.
---
To the Kerovan Andros, the sight of a battlecruiser under the banner of the crumbling Machine Empire towing the Astro Megaship, battered and ravaged from its encounter with the planet-killer ship, to KO-35 wasn't so much an awkward nor humiliating situation. Even though he had been trying to keep up to date with the Empire's politics, he still couldn't get over the fact that these Machines were helping them.
He watched through the potholes of the ship as the Astro Megaship was towed via tractor beam. Several support vessels surrounded the ship, docked at various points of the vessel doing some ship repairs, refitting with replacement parts... heck, they were even adding a fresh touch of paint on some parts of the ship that desperately needed it. Despite these acts of generosity, he could tell by his friends' facial expressions that they weren't exactly on friendly terms. After all, the last time he and the Empire had met, they took out their head generals, even if they were officially rogues.
Eventually after several hours of waiting in private guest chambers, the three Rangers were escorted to the main throne room, where they had expected another machine to be sitting at the throne. Instead, what they saw definitely surprised them; a human male, presumably looking to be in his mid-30s, with light-brown hair and green eyes. One hand was a cybernetic hand, while the other was a regular human hand... minus one thumb.
"Greetings," the humanoid said courteously, "I'm Emperor Aradon."
The three looked at each other confusedly, then turned to face the man standing before them. Other than the fact that Aradon was Mondo's chief rival for the throne, a master strategist, and the prime supporter of the bio-automation process that merged the organic with the mechanical, they knew hardly anything of the individual. Their stunned expressions gave Aradon much needed amusement, which was something lacking since the destruction of Gorah Khan.
"I'm sorry," Aradon said grinning, "I forgot that Machine politics isn't common knowledge, nor is the recogniztion of my reign." Aradon waved his hand away at the two gold-armored Cogs, who promptly exited the room. Aradon's smile quickly faded as he stood and approached the three. "What are you doing here anyway?"
"We found out about your homeworld being destroyed by a massive alien construct capable of destroying entire planets," Andros answered, "Upon discovering the construct, it attacked us and nearly destroyed us." He let out a sigh. "I'm surprised it hasn't."
"I might be able to shed some light on the situation," Aradon offered calmly, "We have been investigating the source of various colony worlds along the Machine/Kerovan neutral zone. We had only learned about Gorah Khan's demise a short while ago from the planetary defense force that engaged the weapon. Like yourselves, they were crippled to the point where they would no longer pose a threat. We hadn't heard from them since."
Zhane swallowed a lump before talking. "We didn't detect any readings. It was possible they were destroyed in the shockwave following the planet's destruction."
Aradon was silent for a moment. It turned away from the Rangers to conceal the tears forming from his eyes. Sometimes he almost regretted this enhanced emotional program. Wiping the tears from his face and regaining his composure, he turned back to the Rangers.
"I appreciate you telling me that," he said bitterly, "Follow me to the main auditorium. I will share what we know about this planet-killer."
"Why help us?" TJ asked, "We might not be enemies, but we're hardly friends. Why waste your resources on us when you could left us to die?"
Aradon shrugged. "I'm a sucker for hard-luck organics such as yourselves."
The three Rangers looked at each other in disbelief, probably thinking the same thing; no wonder Mondo hates this guy.
---
After an hour's drive, Carter Grayson parked the Rover in front of the home of Thomas Oliver. He felt the need to explain his brash strategy to the others in order for them to understand what he was thinking... which would be difficult because even he wasn't sure if it was a strategy or pure desperation, but Carter would never admit that. Shutting the car down, he hopped out and proceeded towards the front door. With the single knock, the door was pushed open to Carter's surprise. Gingerly and with a funny feeling at the pit of his stomach, he stepped inside and approached the staircase going down, where Thomas' command lair was situated. Carter begrudgingly opened the door and...
"You gutless son of a bitch." Thomas' first words summed up his anger to Carter.
From the farthest side of the room, Jason Lee Scott and Cole Evans watched as the former Red Lightspeed Ranger and the Red Zeo Ranger went into a heated battle of words over Carter's vote to hand the rogue Varox the Nukusal.
"What did you expect me to do?" he barked in defense, "There were nuclear weapons in there! I couldn't risk blowing up a shot to capture one potential bounty hunter--"
Thomas cut Carter off at that moment. "The most 'volatile' nuclear weapon are now in the hands of a deadly hunter who will stop at nothing to blow us all to hell!"
"What's so bad about this Nukusal bomb?" Cole whispered to Jason while the two were bickering.
"It's not really a bomb, Cole," Jason whispered back, "From what I've heard about it, it's supposed to send a universal signal to every nuke on this planet, causing them to self-destruct all at the same time. Considering how many hidden nukes are out there..." Jason finished his answer by motioning his left hand across his neck in a cutting motion. Cole hung his head in realization what the first Red Ranger had meant.
Carter's face grew angrier; he couldn't believe that this guy is blaming him for something he believes he had no control over. "I have to consider the safety of thousands of people," he remarked coldly, "I'm not the same man I was two years ago, Oliver. I'm the head of Lightspeed Rescue, which says a lot more than what you're doing!"
This prompted Thomas to go into a fighting stance. Jason stood up and tried to calm his friend, but Thomas wouldn't have it.
"Back off, Jason," he told his friend, "this is between me and Mr. Lightspeed Rescue over here."
Carter took off his uniform jacket and went into his own fighting stance. "I don't want to fight," he said sternly, "but if I have to, I will."
Cole took a step forward in an attempt to calm the two, but Jason stopped him. "Don't bother," he advised, "they'll just kick your ass too." Cole did as he said.
Thomas stared at Carter with rage. Carter stared back at the former Green Ranger with a slight hint of anxiety, although he didn't show it. Both motioned in a circle for two minutes, neither one attempting or even hinting at making the first move. Thomas breathed heavily while Carter let out quick huffs. Jason noticed that Thomas was willing to get into this fight, while Carter would do anything to get out of it.
"Tom," Jason said softly, not caring whether Thomas was listening or not. "As much as I don't like what Carter did, that's no reason for this stupidity." No answer from Thomas, just as Jason expected.
"Remember the old days, bro? Remember when we were under that shark's spell that brought us against each other?" Still no answer.
"Listen to me, bro. Carter's not the enemy." Jason said calmly, although Thomas isn't even acknowledging it. "This isn't going to fix things. You're better than this."
Carter stopped and let his arms hang. He looked over to Jason, who was smacking himself on the forehead as if saying, "Carter, you idiot!" When he noticed Carter letting his guard down, Thomas proceeded to take a step forward, about to make the first move, but Jason stepped in.
"Get out of my way, Jay." Thomas barked.
"No way, Tom," Jason declared, "you want him, you have to go through me."
Thomas looked at his friend. "My problem's with Mr. 'Duuhh ah'm da head of Lightspeed.'"
Jason seemed disappointed by his friend's behavior. "Look, bro," he advised, with a bit of threat behind it, "You're angry and I can understand that. Fighting doesn't solve anything, but if you really need to vent your frustration, then fight me, not this idiot over here." The 'idiot' response got to Carter, but decided against retaliation. He seems angry at me too, he thoughtfully concluded.
Thomas pulled out his Zeonizer from his pocket. Not exactly what I wanted, Jason thought. Since he couldn't get Thomas to change his mind, he decided to play along and pulled out his own Morpher. Thomas noticed this and almost winced; he hadn't expect this from Jason.
"If we're going to do this," Thomas said forcibly, "we're going to do this outside."
Jason nodded in agreement, morpher firmly in hand. Cole, noticing tensions were about to get hot, tried to play peacekeeper. "Wait a minute, guys. We can solve this." he said, but was meet by two glares that told him to back off.
Jason turned back to his friend. "Okay. Let's get this over with."
---
"What you're about see," Aradon stated in an auditorium with the three Rangers, "is what we know about this planet-killer as you call it."
Aradon pressed on a button and an image appeared on the giant viewer. The pictures showed of a spiked egg blueprint, followed by several satellite images of a black egg-shaped object in planetary atmospheres. During the clip show, Aradon dictated his notes to his three guests.
"The ship that you've encountered is called the Wraith," he began, "a weapon of unlimited power. It is, remarkably, the most well-armed and well-armored vessel that the Machine Empire has ever encountered."
"I take it by the tone of your voice that you've dealt with this before," Zhane interjected.
Aradon nodded. "The unfortunate destruction of Gorah Khan was the second meeting with the Wraith. The first meeting took place to a hundred Earth years ago, near a then-disputed sector of space where various planets were found to be missing. An battalion of ten battlecruisers and fifty destroyers were sent to either possibly disable or preferably destroy the ship in question." Andros noticed a bit of sadness in Aradon's tone. "At first, the battle went well, but the fleet was met with seemingly inescapable fire from the Wraith and was subsequently wiped out."
"The name does sound familiar," Zhane mused, "but I don't remember from where."
"The Wraith was a construct of ancient times," Aradon added, "Its origins, as well as its history, was locked away. What is known is that there are... there were three Wraiths built in the universe. This is one of them."
Andros raised a hand, "Did you say three?"
"Wraiths are rarely seen, so it is impossible to ascertain the status of the second Wraith." Aradon said, his voice calm, "There was a Wraith involved in the Alliance Wars, controlled by the inhabitants of the Rugalian Confederation to defend their worlds from an onslaught of Alliance starcruisers. It practically took an entire star fleet of well over a thousand battleships, armed with high-powered plasma weapons, to finally destroy the Wraith, thereby affirming that the incredible durability of the Wraith's outer shell. The Rugalians were the only empire to fully repel the Alliance's advances."
Aradon pressed another button, the image changed to one of the Wraith's spikes that the Megaship encountered. "Each one of these spikes on the Wraith has about 12 pulse cannons each; they're the red spots on the surface of the spike. Seemingly incapable of overheating, the pulse cannons are generally an archaic model, but a great number of them could do sufficient damage."
TJ studied the spike closely while Zhane looked past Aradon to view the outer pothole.
"How would this 'Wraith' blow planets apart?" TJ asked, "I doubt that those cannons would do the job."
"Of course not, the cannons are primitive," Aradon answered. He pushed another button and an image of the Wraith's front view was brought up; a round shape with a red pulsating hole in the middle. "The Wraith uses a super laser," he continued, "whose design is based on the laser weapon of Serpenterra, except the beam is, in theory, more concentrated than that of Zedd's former Zord."
"Wait," interrupted Andros, trying to keep up, "are you saying that Wraith is a smaller, but stronger version of Serpenterra?"
Aradon nodded. "It is entirely possible the two are related, but at the moment, it is impossible to confirm that theory without getting a piece of the Wraith itself. And that, my friends, would be impossible considering the great strength of this enemy."
"Great," TJ groaned, "several hundred pulse weapons, tough as nails armor, AND a planet-killing super-laser. It can't get any worse, can it?"
---
Out on an open field, two longtime friends face each other in combat for the first time in a long while. Some distance apart, Thomas Oliver and Jason Lee Scott locked eyes with each other for some time. Each one holds their respective morpher, waiting for the right moment. Near the house, Carter Grayson and Cole Evans watched the fight from afar. They were about to see a sight they never thought possible; the battle between two Power Rangers.
Jason looked at his friend; Tom had some anger built in him, he thought to himself, and he needs to vent it out. Thomas looked back at his friend; Jason knows I need to vent my anger, he thought, but not on him.
"I was going to let this pass, Tom," Jason said, "but since you really need this, then I should let you know that I'm not holding back."
Thomas nodded with reluctance, "Agreed. Let's do this."
Both Red Rangers stared each down a short while longer before calling out in unison, "IT'S MORPHIN TIME!"
To be continued...