Disclaimer: 'Power Rangers' (all incarnations) are property of 'Saban', who are in some strange way related to Disney, who run the show on ABC. No infringement is intended.
ROARING ON THE WIND
By Etcetera Kit
Chapter Seventeen: Don't Say I'm Too Young
"I'm getting fifteen life signals from Mesogog's island. They're in some kind of holding chamber and none of them have their morphers."
Mary Anne Cranston swung around in the captain's chair and faced Hayley, Kendrix and her younger sister. Hayley nodded at the girl. She must be under enormous stress with the fact that her father was gone, but she wasn't showing any of it. Her cool, analytical mind was taking over the situation. Hayley admired the girl, but thought that she needed to have some fun every once in a while like all the other fourteen year olds. She made a mental note to talk to Billy about that if any of them made it out of this alive.
"Is there anything we can do?" Kendrix asked her.
Mary Anne shook her head. "Nothing until we get the teleportation system working." She paused. "If we get the teleportation system working, I can get the rangers with Dino-Gems out fairly easily. The next part is trickier. The other rangers need their morphers on them in order for me to get a lock on them."
"One thing at a time," Hayley interrupted her. "We need to get the teleportation system up and running. After that, we can worry about the other details." She exchanged a glance with Kendrix. It was rather unnerving putting the future of all those people in the hands of a girl who neither of them knew very well. Oh, Hayley remembered Mary Anne from when she was little, when herself and Tommy and Billy had all been at UCLA together along with Trini. The last time she had seen Mary Anne was at her mother's funeral when the girl was six—too little to understand death. All she had known was that her mother wasn't coming home. It made her wonder how Mary Anne had gone from a bright, bubbly kid, rather like Susie, and turn into a duplicate of her father. Undiluted Billy had probably done it to her…
"Are we safe here?" Kendrix asked Hayley in an undertone.
"I hope so," Hayley replied. "We can lock down the lab if push comes to shove. No one can get in unless someone on the inside lets them in."
"Who would be coming here wanting in the lab besides mutant freaks?"
She shrugged. "I don't know. Any one of the guys could have called other rangers that had been on their team." Hayley felt a sick feeling settle into the pit of her stomach. What had made Mesogog change his focus from the Dino Thunder rangers to the rest of the red rangers and now those of them that were left? "Look," she said to Kendrix. "Mesogog knows about you and me and Ashley. But he doesn't know about Mary Anne and Susie."
The two of them looked to the one girl tinkering with the teleportation system and the other girl sitting on the steps, hugging her Good Luck Bear and sucking her thumb.
"Can we get any idea of what Mesogog wants to do to them?" Mary Anne asked from underneath the desk.
"Perhaps," Hayley replied. "However, we cannot get any direct surveillance into Mesogog's fortress. We can only get surveillance from public areas."
"Can he see us in here?"
"No," Hayley reassured the girl. At least she hoped that he couldn't. Ever since he had managed to put the virus on the zords, she was beginning to give Mesogog credit for accomplishing much more than she had ever thought possible. The virus on the zords also meant that Mesogog, or one of his minions most likely, had gotten into the lab and had been smart enough to leave everything exactly as they found it. The creature had also not attempted to get into the vault, because that would have set off the warning chimes on the bracelets and the vault would have automatically sealed itself. It was impossible for anyone other than a Dino Thunder ranger, herself or perhaps one of the other rangers to get to that gem. It certainly was impossible for Mesogog.
Mary Anne shook her head. "I think you guys should at least bring Miss Ashley here," she suggested. Hayley noticed that she was trying to be polite by addressing her senior with a title, but it was rather hard since no one seemed to know if or what Andros' last name was. It was a well-kept secret by the Red Space Ranger.
Kendrix gave Hayley a look that clearly said 'Why did we think of that in the first place?' Hayley had found over the little bit of time that she had known Kendrix, she really liked her. This was not someone who was going to be easily defeated by Mesogog and she was obviously not happy that the reptile freak had her husband.
Hayley went over to the main computer and brought up the sequence that locked down the lab—the lock down could only be undone from someone on the inside. Mary Anne appeared from underneath the desk and studied the sequence with an intensity that Hayley knew could only be found in Billy or his offspring.
"The lock down sequence?" the teen asked.
She nodded. "I want you to engage it once Kendrix and I leave to go get Ashley. You can monitor the entrances to the house and the lab from here. You'll be able to tell when we get back with Ashley and can let us back in." She paused. Mary Anne looked worried, like she thought that leaving was a bad idea even if she thought someone needed to bring Ashley here. "Look Mesogog doesn't know about you or Susie. I want it to remain that way. If any of the drones come here when we're gone, they'll think that we finally bumped up security on the lab. They won't think someone is down here operating the controls."
Mary Anne nodded slowly. "Just hurry," she said softly.
Hayley felt her heart break for the girl. She was on the brink of womanhood and she didn't know where to turn, whether she should act like a child or an adult. Her father was missing, her mother was dead… It was so much to be on the shoulders of a fourteen year old, a girl who should be out having fun with her friends and not locked in a lab working on a teleportation system.
She and Kendrix quickly left the lab, hearing the grinding gears of the lock down moving into place. She didn't know what would happen to them but Mary Anne and Susie would remain safe from it all.
Kendrix's mind was churning with thoughts as she and Hayley climbed into Billy's car. She found it slightly amusing that all the cars had become public property of the Power Rangers and anyone used whoever's car they felt like. Hayley had chosen Billy's car on the basis of size. If they were up against a road block of Tyranno-drones, they had a better chance of emerging on the other side of the road block unscathed.
She felt sorry for the two Cranston girls. Obviously, they had the honor and distinction of being the oldest ranger children. Billy did not seem old enough to have a daughter who was fourteen. And no one seemed to know why that was. Leo did not know Billy all that well and hadn't thought to ask in the few days he had known him. She watched as Hayley steered the car onto the main forest road that would lead them to the freeway and onto the hospital.
Well, the worst she could do was ask. "Have you known Billy long?" she asked Hayley.
Hayley shrugged. "I knew him in undergraduate school." She paused. "Me and him and Tommy all went to UCLA together for a few years."
"What happened?"
"We all went our separate ways once we had our bachelor's degrees. I went to MIT and Billy and Tommy stayed at UCLA to enroll in the Master's program." Hayley gave her a sidelong. "But you want to know about Billy."
Kendrix felt her cheeks flush. "I didn't mean to pry. If it's-"
"It's okay," Hayley said quickly, interrupting any forthcoming apologies. "Billy is a very complicated person. I met him when he and Trini had just married and moved into the apartments on the UCLA campus for married students. Obviously after his time as an active ranger was over… Mary Anne was about four then."
"Is Mary Anne not his daughter?" she asked, feeling confused.
"Of course she is!" Hayley said with a slight laugh. "However she was born when he and Trini were sixteen. He didn't know about her and Trini didn't try to tell him about her until he went to Aquitar. He got back from Aquitar to find his girlfriend and daughter living in practical poverty." She shook her head. "It was a long time before any of us knew about this. Trini was eight and a half months pregnant with Susie when she was in a car crash. Susie survived. Trini didn't."
"I'm sorry," Kendrix said softly.
Hayley's eyes held a distant look. "It was hard on all of us. But Billy… he found himself left with a six year old daughter and a newborn baby. He had just finished his bachelor's degree. I think part of the reason Tommy stayed at UCLA was to be there for him. At any rate, he finished his Master's and then took off for Hawaii. None of us had seen him until he showed up in Reefside just recently."
Kendrix shook her head. "How can someone survive so much tragedy and still live a relatively normal existence?"
Hayley raised an eyebrow. "You call Billy's existence normal?"
She felt her eyes go wide, wondering exactly what else Billy had been through. "I was actually referring more to the girls."
The redhead laughed. "Those girls are a piece of work. Only someone with Billy as a father could turn out like they did." She sighed. "But there's a lot more to Billy's past then even I know about. I know he had a rough childhood. Only Tommy really knows all the details. And found out most of them when they were camp counselors together in high school," she ended with a snort.
"Camp counselors?"
"Scary isn't it?"
They both laughed and fell into a comfortable silence. Kendrix remembered hearing all the horror stories about Leo from Mike just before they got married. At the time, she hadn't been sure if Mike had been trying to scare her or just amuse her. Then Leo had dragged out the horror stories on Mike when Mike and Maya got married. The brothers were insane and, if one didn't know them well, one would say they hated each other. However, for those who knew them well, they knew that it was actually a warped kind of affection. She was an only child and had missed out on all the sibling rivalry and such things that came with brothers and sisters. Her hand went to her abdomen. She definitely wanted her baby to have siblings… and that wasn't going to happen if they never got Leo back.
A tight knot of nervousness settled in her stomach. She could remember plenty of times when she and Leo had been active rangers when she worried about him and prayed that he wouldn't get hurt. But this was different… there had never been a time when she was away from him when fighting and didn't know if he was dead or alive. When they had help the Lightspeed Rescue rangers, he had tried to sneak off Mirnoi without the others knowing. That had worked well. They all followed him anyways and when they got back to Mirinoi, Leo had to endure tongue lashings from her and Mike. At least when he went on the red ranger mission to the moon, she had been secure with the fact that there were many other rangers around and it was unlikely that he would get seriously hurt.
Leo… how many times had she accused him of being overprotective and ridiculous? Now she wanted him here to be as ridiculous as he wanted. For a moment, she considered contacting Mike and Maya on Mirinoi and telling them everything, but that would only make them worry and probably cause Mike to commandeer Maya's Jet Jammer and come to Earth to find out what was going on.
'Recruiting the rest of the rangers who still have their powers would have a good thought about a week ago,' she thought. 'Now there's no time to. And I'm not entirely sure that they would be any help anyways.'
The Reefside Hospital came into view. Hayley pulled the Explorer into a vacant parking space and they both jumped out of the car, checking first to make sure that no Tyranno-drones were about in the parking lot. They needed to get Ashley and get back to the lab as soon as possible.
Ashley felt like throwing up. Cole had left with Karone early that morning and, from the noises out in the hallway, she assumed that Andros and Eric had been captured by Mesogog. Even though she had just had a baby two days ago, she was dressed and ready to go, her morpher in place on her wrist. She didn't know how much good she would be in a fight, but with her husband captured and her newborn gone to God only knows where, she wanted to fight, to help as much as she could until fatigue and pain gave way. Morphing would regain her strength, but not for long. She felt like the world was moving around her and she was powerless to stop anything that was happening.
She limped over to the window of her room. From there, she was afforded a lovely view of the front parking lot of the hospital and the major freeway that ran next to it. A forest green Explorer pulled into the lot and her heart froze. It was the exact same kind of car that Billy drove, but he couldn't be driving it. He was with the others who Mesogog had captured. Who was driving the car? But then again, there could be dozens of the same cars. How could she be sure that Billy or someone related to Billy was driving it?
Two women got out of the car—a redhead and a blonde. If that was not Hayley and Kendrix then she didn't know who it was. In fact, she was not even sure that she had known that Kendrix was here…
Going as quickly as she could in her weakened condition, she moved out of her room and down the hallway towards the elevators. She pushed the down arrow and waited impatiently for the doors to open, giving her a way out of here, a way to help.
"Miss! Where are you going?"
She turned and saw a nurse running towards her. She didn't want to explain about Karone which was the inevitable next question. The doors to the elevator slid open and she hauled herself inside them, smiling ironically as the doors slid shut in the nurse's face. She was a Power Ranger. She did not belong in a hospital where she would be babied and coddled while the others were fighting. She belonged with the others. She had to help them for Andros' and Karone's sakes.
The elevator opened on the ground floor to the lobby just as Kendrix and Hayley burst through the doors.
"Ashley!" they said in unison and hurried over to her.
She smiled at Kendrix and the two women exchanged a brief embrace. "No one told me you were here," she said. She looked at them. "Let's get out of here."
"Will you be all right until we get to the lab?" Kendrix asked her.
Ashley nodded. "I just want out of here, so I can be some place where I might be able to help."
"The first thing we need is to get back to the lab, so we can make sure that we don't have the same fate as the others," Hayley added.
The three of them headed out across the parking lot and to Billy's car. Ashley wasn't going to ask how Hayley happened to have his keys, but she suspected that many things like keys and wallets probably got left around the house. From the tense atmosphere in the car, she suspected that the other red rangers were gone as well.
"Who's left?" she asked as she slid into the back seat of the Explorer.
"Just us," Kendrix replied, snapping her seatbelt in place.
"And Mary Anne and Susie," Hayley added.
"And Cole?"
Kendrix shook her head. "We don't know where Cole is," She paused. "Although we don't think he's with the captured."
Ashley said a small prayer of thanks. That meant that Cole was getting away from Reefside with Karone. The last thing she wanted to hear was that Cole had been captured right along with the others.
"Why do you ask?" Hayley questioned, looking at her through the rearview mirror as she put the car into drive and sped out of the parking lot.
"Some cyborg wanted Karone," she said simply. "Since Mesogog can't track Cole because he doesn't have a morpher, Andros and I gave him Karone and he's supposed to be getting her far away from Reefside."
Kendrix sighed. "Let's hope he succeeds."
The car suddenly came to a stop, throwing all of them forward in its impact. "What the hell?" Hayley yelled, stomping on the gas pedal. The engine of the car revved but it didn't go forward. Ashley twisted around in her seat and saw that three Tryanno-drones were holding up the back bumper, preventing the car from moving.
A loud thud came from the roof of the car and the whole car began to shake. "They've found us!" Kendrix cried as more Tryanno-drones materialized outside the car with a flash of green light.
Ashley quickly unbuckled her seatbelt. Her and Kendrix needed to morph. They might actually have a chance if they could morph. She held up her morpher. "Let's rocket!" The familiar sensation of morphing came over her and she appeared morphed.
Kendrix met her gaze and followed suit. "Go galactic!" She appeared morphed as the Pink Galaxy Ranger. She pulled out her Quasar Saber. "Let's take care of these guys," she said, releasing her seatbelt and throwing open the passenger side door. Ashley called out her Star Slinger and threw open the back door, moving into the throng of Tryanno-drones that had surrounded the car.
She shot at two of the drones and had two direct hits. The car engine suddenly revved again, momentarily startling her. She jumped out of the way as Hayley put the car in reverse and took out the drones that had been holding the car. A blast of pink light caught her attention as Kendrix used her Quasar Saber to take out more of the drones.
However, it was a battle they were destined to lose. The more drones they took out, the more drones appeared. Ashley had a sinking feeling that this is what had happened to everyone else who had ultimately been captured. Desperate, she fired and took out the drone closest to her. The drones then swarmed over her, preventing her from moving. She struggled, but her strength was giving out. The drones dragged Kendrix over to her as more drones surrounded the car and bodily dragged Hayley from the driver's seat.
A crack of green light produced the cyborg that had threatened her earlier. The woman smiled unpleasantly. "It is such a pity that you must share the fate of your husband," the thing said in a mocking tone. "And since none of you are going to tell me where to find the one without a morpher and the baby, it is pointless for me to ask." She nodded to the Tyranno-drones. "Take them back to the fortress and put them with the other females."
With a crack of green light, Ashley suddenly saw exactly what had happened to the others.
Mary Anne frowned as she connected the wires in the teleportation system. It had been a long time since Hayley and Kendrix left to get Ashley—too long. She glanced down at her watch. It was almost supper time. Hayley had not said what they needed to do if they needed food. She supposed that there was some food down here. Susie was dozing in the captain's chair, still holding her Good Luck Bear tight. Her little sister was too young to fully comprehend what was going on here and Mary Anne had to admit that she didn't understand it fully herself. All she knew was what her father had told her and what she had gleaned from the others.
"Mary Anne?"
She looked up from the system at her sister. "What's up Susie?"
"When are Miss Hayley and Miss Kendrix going to get back?" the little girl asked, rubbing her eyes. "I thought they'd be back soon."
"It may have taken them longer than they thought," Mary Anne replied. "Sometimes grown-ups run into obstacles they hadn't seen." She paused. "We might have to stay here overnight," she added, just so Susie didn't get inflated hopes.
Susie nodded and closed her eyes again. Mary Anne waited until she was still and then tapped at the controls. She ran a life signal scan. Her heart fell when she saw that Mesogog was holding eighteen in his fortress. A lump formed at the back of her throat and she fought the tears that were burning in her eyes. She was afraid, but she had to put on a front for Susie. It would be almost impossible for her to get the teleportation system running without her father or Hayley, but she would try. She would not go down in history as the kid who let all the Power Rangers die because she didn't know her technology.
Resolve steeled, she picked up her tools and kept working on the system.To Be Continued...
Author's Note: Thanks for all the reviews guys! I've got a bit of spare time-- my African American Lit prof let us out early-- so I shall do some reviewer responses for people who reviewed chapter 16. Before that, a bit of housekeeping-- there have been some minor changes to chapter 15 in terms of what the Space Rangers say when they morph. But once more, thanks for all the reviews!
cmar- I have to agree with you on Elsa and the Tyranno-drones, but the reason they succeed is sheer numbers. If they have enough Tyranno-drones hanging around and attacking at once, the good guys will be a little overwhelmed (as they are.) Thanks for your kind words though. I'm glad the story is remaining interesting.
Funky In Fishnet- You're right, the Wind Ninja Academy would be a safe place for Cole to go, but since WF never teamed up with NS, I'm fairly certain that he doesn't know where it is. Also, in this story, he doesn't know much about the NS rangers since they aren't part of the distress signal. Although that would be a good place for him to go. Thanks for the nice review-- it was definitely something to think about.
Jason Barnett- You're review struck me as rather ironic (in regards to my own views), I have never viewed the villains as incompetent. Quite the reverse actually, I've always viewed them as more than competent (even Divatox had moments where she was completely competent like when she took out the Turbo Rangers' Command Center.) I just see them as making stupid mistakes which makes them seem incompetent. The idea here is what would happen if they stopped making dumb mistakes for a time and the good guys starting making some. But your review was very interesting-- I enjoyed it!
jenny- Right now, I can't tell you that. But all the couples and issues revolving around that will be resolved at the end, either for better or worse. As I keep on telling people, patience is a virtue. :)
jim hawking jr- Thanks for the kind words!
kakwat- No, I can safely tell you that Cole isn't going to be the Purple Dino Thunder Ranger. If he were, then the gem would have already bonded with him and he'd be in the same boat as the others. But it is a good guess! Right now, Cole is trying to get as far away from Reefside as he can with baby Karone. He could call the other rangers that are there, but all of them have been captured. He's kind of between a rock and a hard place. But thanks for the review!
Ranger Lover- I'm glad you like it. Cole, Andros and Ashley certainly have a lot on their respective plates right now. Poor guys. But I'm glad you're liking the action and the subplots.
sayinjinj7- You shall see what happens to Cole. (I'm such a horrible person for leaving cliffhangers like that! But it is all in the interest of suspense for the sake of the story.) I'm glad you're liking that particular subplot.
silver-sugar- Depends on what your definition of a happy ending is... but this story is far from over, so you shall see in time. :)
SilverRider- I hope this satisfies what you want for now at any rate! :) Updates will be coming regularly.
the-power-of-love- Glad you like it! I'm endeavoring to make the updates regular. :)
white time ranger- Thanks for the review! I'm glad the story is still interesting after all this time. :)
Zeo Star 5- Thanks for your information on what the Space Rangers say to morph. I have to say that I had never really sat down and thought about it. But once I got your review, I looked it up and you are right! Thanks for your insight!