"Power Rangers: Psycho Matrix"
Book Two: "Twisted Element"
Chapter 3: "Deadly Interface"
Disclaimer: Zordon, Dimitria, and the Psycho Rangers aren't mine. Everything else is.
Author's notes: Until now, the Psycho Rangers have done all the work. But what if there was a way for their human vessels to fight with them? Prepare for a serious change in the Psycho Matrix status quo. By the way, the song I used in the last chapter was Kidneythieves' "S + M (A Love Song)," from their first album Trickster, which is now impossible to get in stores. However, you can order the reprocessed version on the Kidneythieves' web site.
Faith woke up the next morning, having recovered enough to move around without great pain, but she still ached in some places. She got up from her bed and threw on a robe over the tank top and cotton shorts she wore to bed. She walked to the bathroom and brushed her teeth, then stripped and stepped into the bathtub, turning on the shower.
She sighed in contentment as she felt the warm water ease away her aches and pains.
Damn, those Kirai Ranger punks hit hard, she thought. Still, it was worth it to see Dimitria get out of that chamber for once. Maybe we can do it again sometime.
Just then, a knock on the door shocked her out of her reverie.
"Faith!" Richie shouted from the other side. "Hurry up!"
"I'm coming out, Richie!" Faith shouted back. Then she mumbled, "You little brat."
In another minute, Faith had finished showering and drying. Then she returned to her room and got dressed. The outfit du jour was a one-strap black shirt with three claw-like tears in the midriff and hip-hugging black jeans with black boots. She went downstairs to eat with her parents and little brother.
Her father was reading the paper when an aghast look settled in his eyes.
"Aidan?" her mother asked. "What's wrong?"
"Look," her father replied. Her mother looked at the article he was reading and gasped in shock.
"Who would do such a thing?" she said, on the verge of tears. "And those poor kids . . ."
Something about this tugged at Faith's instincts. It felt like something not quite in the realm of human crimes. She got up and looked over her father's shoulder. She read the passage from the article that had horrified her parents.
"Late last night, police found the bodies of five teenagers. All five came from the city of Los Angeles, and when the police found them, they had already bled to death from what appeared to be slash wounds to the throat. So far, the police have no idea why the teens were murdered, but there have been suspicions that a cult was involved."
Faith shuddered. Yesterday had been the day she and the other Rangers had met the Kirai Rangers for the first time. And that same night, five kids had been found dead. This felt stranger and stranger to her.
She looked at pictures of the five teens that had been submitted by the high school they had attended. There had been three boys and two girls. Faith looked at the two girls and stifled a gasp.
Those girls, she thought. They look exactly like Kirai Yellow's and Kirai Pink's unmorphed forms! Except for the fact that the girl who was apparently a doppelganger of Kirai Pink didn't have pink hair or red eyes. Instead, her hair was auburn and her eyes were brown. The Kirai Yellow "doppelganger" had blonde hair, too, but her eyes were a gold-green color instead of being amber.
Faith returned to her seat and finished her breakfast, then hurried to school. Once there, she tried to get through class without incident. Of course, it wasn't so easy, considering that all day two sets of identical yet different faces haunted her. The faces of two innocent young girls and the faces of the hateful Rangers that had tried to kill her.
"Miss Darkchilde?" the history teacher asked. "Is my class boring you?"
"No, Mrs. Farikh," Faith replied.
"All right, then," Mrs. Farikh conceded. "But do your best to make your interest more apparent."
Meanwhile, in Kaitlyn's classroom, they had a new classmate.
"Class, say hello to Terry Haller," the teacher said. The new student was strikingly attractive, with long violet-highlighted black hair and piercing golden eyes.
Tsukimaru! Kaitlyn thought.
"Terry, you may take the seat next to Kaitlyn," the teacher said.
"Thank you," "Terry" replied and walked to the seat next to Kaitlyn. The female classmates glanced at him in the throes of infatuation, and at Kaitlyn with envy and resentment. He smiled at Kaitlyn. "Hi, there."
"Tsukimaru!" Kaitlyn hissed in a low voice, low enough so that no one but the subject of Kaitlyn's one-word statement would hear.
"Not here," Tsukimaru whispered. "Dimitria took the trouble to create an identity for me so I could live like a human. Right now, I'm Terry Haller."
"Nice to meet you, Terry," Kaitlyn said.
At lunch, the six Rangers got together. "This is really, really freaky," Liam said.
"And not a coincidence at all," Darien added. "The Kirai Rangers show up, and five kids show up dead that same night? Definitely not a coincidence."
"It's been tearing me apart inside all day," Faith said.
"I know," Kieran replied, placing a comforting hand on hers. "But we'll figure out what's going on, and we'll make the people who did this pay."
"What's the connection, though?" Kaitlyn asked. "It's definitely no coincidence that the Kirai Rangers show up and five kids are found dead on the same day. So . . . what's the connection?"
Tsukimaru hadn't said a word. He had simply stared into space with a haunted expression, as if carrying some dreadful secret.
"Tsukimaru?" Faith asked.
"His name is Terry Haller while he's here," Kaitlyn replied.
"Ok, Terry," Faith said. "Terry?"
"I studied the Kirai Rangers when I was twelve in Earth years," Tsukimaru replied. "Legend said that the only way they could be freed from their gem prisons was through blood sacrifices."
"So that's how they came back!" Faith exclaimed. "And why Kirai Pink and Kirai Yellow look like the two girls the police found!"
"Keep it down, Faith," Kieran said. "I know you're freaked out about those kids, but try to keep your voice low."
"Yeah, we gotta keep our identities secret," Faith said.
Suddenly, there was an announcement over the school's P.A. system. "Attention, students. The midtown area near this school is being attacked. Everyone is instructed to leave in an orderly fashion. We will be going to the nearest shelter."
"Kirai Rangers?" Liam asked.
"Wouldn't doubt it," Faith replied.
However, the students had largely panicked and started fleeing en masse. The six Rangers used the distraction to teleport out.
When they got to the midtown area, it was a mess. And they saw the source, a silver leather-clad female figure, with gold accenting her suit and a silver helmet hiding her face.
"Kirai Silver," Tsukimaru said.
"Psycho Silver," the female said, her voice darkly dulcet.
That voice! Faith thought. "You sound just like . . ."
"Kalysine?" Kirai Silver finished. She demorphed, revealing the spitting image of Kalysine, except that her skin was white with a silver sheen and her eyes were silver. "Her blood freed me. As did those human children's blood for my compatriots." She withdrew her Kiraimorpher, which was designed like the others, but gold with a silver gem. "Kirai Matrix, Ranger Power!"
In a flash of horrible silver light, Kirai Silver was back in Ranger form.
"Psycho Spirit . . ."
"Twisted Aura . . ."
"Exchange!" all six Rangers shouted, morphing.
"Kirai Gunblade!" Kirai Silver shouted as she summoned what looked like a gun with a sword blade melted onto its barrel.
"Psycho Sword!"
"Psycho Rod!"
"Psycho Axe!"
"Psycho Sling!"
"Psycho Arrow!"
"Psycho Blazer!"
Suddenly, Kirai Silver was gone.
"Where'd she go?" Psycho Pink asked.
The answer to that question came in the form of a silver-and-gold blur, slashing through all six Psycho Rangers. The blur landed behind them and stopped, revealing itself as Kirai Silver. The Psycho Rangers turned to face her.
"Damn it," Psycho Red said. "She's even faster than the other five!"
"You'll pay for what you did to those kids!" Psycho Pink vowed. "Psycho Arrow, Jade Lightning!" She fired arrows of green lightning out of her bow. Kirai Silver simply deflected them all with warps in the air.
"Pathetic," she sneered.
"Red, give me your sword," Psycho Pink said.
"Why?" Psycho Red asked.
"Just trust me on this," Psycho Pink replied.
"Fine," Psycho Red conceded. He gave Psycho Pink his sword.
Psycho Pink nocked the Psycho Sword into her Psycho Arrow. "Take this. Psycho Arrow, Jade Lightning Blade!" She fired the Psycho Sword, charged up with the energy of the Jade Lightning Attack. Kirai Silver wasn't quite prepared for that and the electrified sword pierced through the gold breastplate of her suit, embedding itself in her chest.
"Stupid Ranger," she snarled, pulling the Psycho Sword out. Surprisingly enough, the hole made in the breastplate sealed itself. "Did you think that would stop me?" She laughed. "And now I have your leader's weapon." She held the Psycho Sword in her left hand and the Kirai Gunblade in her right. "Kirai Gunblade, Psycho Sword . . . Dark Twin Silver Lightning!" In a blur of impossible speed, she slashed the Psycho Rangers with both blades, which were charged with black/silver lightning.
"Enough of this," Psycho Red snarled. "Phantom Fire Wave!" A wave of unholy fire shot out of his cupped hands and struck Kirai Silver.
"Eclipse Wind Circle!" Psycho Silver shouted. A ball of whirling air formed in his hands and he shot it at his hateful counterpart. The wind whirled around her, then pushed her back.
"You're good, traitor," Kirai Silver said. "But not good enough! Black Whirlwind Slash!" The wind gathered in her hands and she shot it at Psycho Silver. Instead of pushing him as his attack had pushed her, the wind formed blades that cut at him!
"Tsukimaru!" Psycho Yellow shouted.
"I'm all right, Psycho Yellow," Psycho Silver said.
Psycho Red finally retrieved his sword. "It's going to take a combined effort from all of us if we want to do some serious damage."
"You mean . . ." Psycho Black started to say, but Psycho Red finished for him.
"The Psycho Striker."
The five core Psycho Rangers put their weapons together. "Psycho Striker, fire!" Psycho Red commanded.
A blast of green lightning shot out of the Psycho Striker, headed right for Kirai Silver.
"Strike this," Kirai Silver said and kicked the blast right back at the Psycho Rangers. The twisted Rangers found themselves overwhelmed by their own assault, which also separated the Psycho Striker into five individual weapons.
"This is not good," Psycho Blue said.
"That's an understatement," Psycho Pink said. "She's kicking our asses!"
"Then it's time we tried another combined attack," Psycho Red said. Fire collected in his hand.
Earth energies gathered in Psycho Black's hand.
Swirling mists of cold gathered in Psycho Blue's hand.
Golden lightning collected in Psycho Yellow's hand.
Forest energies gathered in Psycho Pink's hand, incarnated in dark pink rose petals.
Whirling air gathered in Psycho Silver's hand.
"Twisted Element!" the six Psycho Rangers shouted, combining their elemental energies into a devastating blast. This time, it did some serious damage to Kirai Silver.
"That hurt," she sneered. "But not that much. It isn't over yet, Psycho Rangers; it's only the beginning." She warped away.
"She's even tougher than the other Kirai Rangers put together," Psycho Yellow said.
"Don't make me think about it," Psycho Pink said.
"We have to get back," Psycho Silver said. "By now, the teachers have noticed that me and your alter egos are not present."
Psycho Yellow linked hands with the other Psychos and they sank into a warp in the ground, emerging inside the designated shelter. Out of sight of anyone present, they demorphed.
"Ah, I see that you've finally found your way," one of the teachers said. "Did you get lost?"
"Yes, sir, we were lost," Kieran lied. Fortunately, the teacher believed him, but it was plausible considering how everyone had fled en masse and it was always easy to get lost in a crowd of rapidly moving bodies.
"I just got word," the principal said. "The attack has just been stopped."
"By who?" a student asked.
"The Power Rangers," the principal replied.
Some of the students snickered. "Power Rangers. You still read comic books, principal?" one of them asked.
Another student said, "Hey! They're Psycho Rangers, and they actually do exist."
"Whatever you choose to believe, you should be grateful that someone stopped whoever was attacking," the principal said. "This means that we can return to the school and you can finish your classes."
Meanwhile, Kirai Silver had returned to the Kirai vessel.
"Good work, Kirai Silver," Kanika said.
"Thank you, Kanika-hime," Kirai Silver said, bowing. "That is only the beginning, however; I have a greater plan. That fight was simply to make them aware of me."
"What is your plan?" Kanika asked.
"Earth's nations are becoming increasingly interconnected," Kirai Silver explained. "A great part of the reason is the 'advancements' in computer technology. They have created an Internet that allows them to communicate with each other instantly no matter where on Earth they are. If we interfere with this, the planet will soon fall apart, leaving it ripe for the taking."
"Perfect," Kanika said. "You have very good ideas, Kirai Silver."
The other Kirai Rangers watched in mixed admiration and jealousy.
"What were we on when we brought her back?" Kirai Pink asked. "She's taking all the glory for herself! Hell, if she hadn't held back, she'd have killed Psycho Pink before I could!"
"Who gives a crap about Psycho Pink?" Kirai Blue asked. "She could've killed Psycho Blue!"
"We will have to keep a very close eye on her," Kirai Red said. "Make sure she doesn't have any plans on taking over as leader . . . or on eliminating us."
Back on Earth, Kieran was doing some online research for a school project. Suddenly, the screen froze.
"What's going on here?" he asked. He turned off the monitor and then turned it back on, figuring that would fix the problem, but the screen was still frozen.
A message flashed on the monitor, read out by a malevolent female voice.
"Greetings, humans. I am Kiraikama. I am a virus created from the blood of Kirai Silver. I am your destruction."
"This is not good," Kieran said to himself. "This is not good at all."
All over the city, all over the state, all over the nation, all over the world the same message read out on computer users' monitors.
Kieran closed his laptop, got up, and went downstairs to the front door. "Where are you going, Kieran?" his father asked from his room.
"Out," Kieran replied. "I have to see some friends."
"Ok," his father said. "But with that virus out, things might get a bit crazy out there. Be careful."
"I will," Kieran replied. He opened and closed the door just to make it sound like he was leaving, then teleported to the Neji Chamber.
"This is the most dangerous plot the Kirai have hatched yet," Dimitria said. "If Kiraikama completely infects the world's computers, then there is no telling just what sort of damage it will unleash."
"I can tell you," Liam said. "The major powers of the world have powerful missiles, smart bombs, and nuclear weapons. Computers control all of those. Kiraikama could easily launch those weapons anywhere it wants."
"Including here to finish us off," Darien added.
"How do we stop it?" Kaitlyn asked.
"Look behind you," Dimitria replied. The six Rangers turned around and saw what looked like a very advanced computer console. The console was circular and had five pairs of slots. The monitor was made up of five screens arranged in a circular pattern.
"What are those slots for?" Kieran asked.
"Your morphers," Dimitria replied. "The Psycho Rangers' spirits will be digitized and uploaded into the Internet to stop Kiraikama."
"Digitize!" Psycho Red shouted, his spectral form appearing with those of the other four Psycho spirits. "No way in hell! The whole digital experience isn't all it's cracked up to be. We know."
"It's the only way to prevent total havoc and destruction," Dimitria stated simply.
"Fine," Psycho Red conceded.
"Your character has greatly improved, Psycho Red," Dimitria said. "Not very long ago, you would have been persistently obstinate in your refusal."
"I think it's just Kieran's influence," Red said, trying to shrug it off. He and the other Psycho spirits vanished from sight.
"It is time," Dimitria said. "Place your morphers in the slots."
The five Ranger vessels walked to the computer console and placed both parts of the morphers in the slots.
"Begin upload process," Dimitria said.
The five-screen monitor glowed bright white and the Psycho Morphers glowed with light of their respective colors.
"So this is the information superhighway, huh?" Psycho Pink said.
"Let's get cruisin'!" Psycho Blue exclaimed.
"Aurora Riders!" the Psycho Rangers shouted.
"How can they call the Aurora Riders on the Internet?" Faith asked.
"They cannot," Dimitria replied. "What they're doing is converting the computer data into what they want it to be."
The data collected into the Aurora Riders and the Psycho Rangers got on. They rode through a digital tunnel to enter the Internet.
"We're here," Psycho Red said once they'd arrived at their destination. They got off the digital Aurora Riders, and their data scattered into its original form.
"All right, you nasty bug!" Psycho Black shouted. "Time to squash you!"
"Squash me?" the malevolent female voice that had spelled out the message of doom earlier asked. The Psychos turned to see a twisted, insectoid creature.
"Looks like a really warped queen bee," Psycho Pink said.
"You're through, Psycho Rangers," Kiraikama declared. It leaped at them, attacking furiously and swiftly with its stinger. The Psychos retaliated by summoning their weapons.
Suddenly, Kiraikama stiffened.
"What's going on?" Psycho Blue asked.
"We're not going to like this," Psycho Red said.
Kiraikama's form became sleeker and less twisted. It also grew taller and more muscular.
"What the " Psycho Yellow asked.
"She changed!" Psycho Red exclaimed.
"She evolved," Tsukimaru said in the real world. "Like all viruses do."
"We have to find a way to stop her!" Psycho Black said.
"Evolve your way out of this!" Psycho Red shouted. His sword charged itself up with unnatural flame. "Psycho Sword, Phantom Fire Blade!" He slashed Kiraikama at super-speed, but just as he was about to make his finishing move, she grabbed his arm and threw him into a cyber-wall. "I don't wanna know just how much data I damaged."
"Psycho Rod, Vulgar Earth Splitting!" Psycho Black shouted. His rod charged with earthen energies and he slammed it into the cyber-ground, sending a splitting wave of energy toward Kiraikama, who simply jumped over it and kicked him.
"Psycho Axe, Bizarre Ice Spinner!" Psycho Blue shouted. His axe glowed with ice-blue energy and he spun around Kiraikama at super-speed, slashing her. Ultimately, that attack met with the same results as those of his red and black teammates. Kiraikama grabbed his wrist and tossed him, adding her own force to his rapidly rotating body's speed.
"Psycho Arrow . . ."
"Psycho Sling . . ."
"Jade Lightning!" Pink and Yellow shouted, firing blasts of green lightning out of their weapons. Kiraikama was hit badly, but retaliated just as hard with furious slashes from her stinger. Suddenly, she stiffened again.
"Oh, no, don't tell me she's evolving again!" Psycho Blue exclaimed.
But she did. Her musculature grew more defined, she grew even taller, and here came the shocker pieces of Psycho Ranger armor grew on her body!
"What the hell is she, Psycho Kiraikama?" Psycho Pink asked.
"Nice name," Kiraikama said. "Thank you."
In the real world, Tsukimaru and the Psycho vessels watched in horror as Psycho Kiraikama beat the Psycho Rangers to within an inch of their lives. Not just that, but E-mails were coming in all over the world from desperate people who were watching the Psycho Rangers' online battle and were rooting for them to stop her.
"I can barely move," Psycho Red said.
"I feel so heavy," Psycho Yellow said.
"Go on a diet," Psycho Pink retorted, though she felt the same heaviness. Psycho Yellow was too weary to say something back.
"I feel like I've got hundred-ton weights on my arms and legs," Psycho Black said.
"Poor pitiful Psychos," Psycho Kiraikama said. "You don't understand why you can't move, do you?"
But Tsukimaru and the Psycho vessels did.
"The E-mails!" Tsukimaru exclaimed. "If too much data converges in one location, then the processor slows down!"
"Then we've gotta tell those people to stop sending their E-mails!" Darien concluded. That said, he and the other Rangers sent E-mails to those that had mailed earlier, telling them to stop.
Online, Psycho Kiraikama smirked. "Time to put an end to you! Warped Lightning Strike!" She shot bolts of black-and-green lightning at the Psycho Rangers, knocking them down to the cyber-ground.
"So weak . . ." Psycho Blue moaned.
"Can't move . . ." Psycho Pink groaned.
"Blue!" Liam shouted.
"Pink!" Faith shouted.
"We have to do something!" Kieran exclaimed. "We can't just let them die!"
"But we can't do anything," Darien responded. "We've got no power whatsoever without the morphers, and even then, the Psychos do all the work."
Kieran just looked back at the screen. "Red . . ."
Tsukimaru looked toward Kaitlyn, ready to say something comforting, only to find that she was gone. Come to think of it, the other four Rangers were gone as well.
"Where'd they go?" Tsukimaru asked.
Online, Psycho Red looked up. Had he been a religious person, he would have believed that the light he saw was the beginning of a journey to a divine place. However, that light was not it. It was shaped like a human and floating closer to him by the second.
The other Psychos saw the same thing. Psycho Red attempted to focus his senses, and recognized the figure drifting toward him as . . .
"Kieran! How can you be here?"
"Our bond, Psycho Red," Kieran replied. He looked to his friends. "We're here to help you fight."
"But how can you?" Psycho Pink asked.
"Not by ourselves," Faith replied. "But that's why we have to work together, right?"
"Help us get up and we'll see about this working together thing," Psycho Blue said.
"No problem," Liam said, and extended a hand to Blue. The other vessels did the same with their Psycho spirit partners. The Psychos gladly took their hands. However, when their hands met, something happened.
"What's happening?" Kaitlyn asked Yellow. "You're glowing and melting at the same time!"
"We are truly becoming one now," Yellow replied. Her features blurred and melted into an indistinguishable liquid light that flowed onto and into Kaitlyn's whole body. The same thing happened to the other four. The liquid glow seemed to concentrate at their wrists and then faded, revealing their Psycho Morphers.
You know what to do, the Psychos' voices said to them in their minds.
The five turned to Psycho Kiraikama.
"You're finished," Kieran said. "Ready, guys!"
"Whenever you are," Kaitlyn said.
"Psycho Spirit Fusion!" the five Rangers shouted, transforming. This time, the transformation melded their minds with those of their Psycho counterparts.
Kieran looked down at his black-and-red-armored form. He clenched a gauntleted fist. "So this is what morphing feels like," he said, his voice his own but twisted and mechanical, a trait inherited from Psycho Red.
The other four looked down at themselves as well. "This is cool on so many levels," Darien said in his altered voice.
"Amazing," Liam said.
"This is so awesome," Kaitlyn said.
"I never noticed how well this armor fits," Faith said.
"Enough of admiring ourselves," Kieran said, Psycho Red's commanding personality manifesting in his voice. "Let's remove this virus."
"You think you can stop me, humans?" Psycho Kiraikama sneered. Suddenly, she was gone.
"That won't save you," Faith sneered. She and the other Psycho Rangers ran through digital tunnels at hyper-speed.
"What just happened?" Tsukimaru asked in the real world.
"The Psycho Rangers have merged their own spirits with those of their vessels," Dimitria explained. "Kieran and the others are no longer merely hosts for the Psycho spirits, nor are the Psycho spirits any longer their other halves. Now, they are the Psycho Rangers."
When the Psycho Rangers reached the end of the tunnel, they gasped in horror.
"Oh, hell no!" Darien shouted.
"This is bad," Liam said.
"Understatement of the millennium, Liam," Kaitlyn said.
Psycho Kiraikama had multiplied! Instead of just one of her, there were now many, infesting cyberspace.
"How many of her is there?" Faith asked.
"I'm guessing at least a million," Kieran replied.
"Great," Faith said. "How are we supposed to defeat a million Kiraikamas?"
"Simple," they said, their voices overlapping. "You don't. You get deleted. One question for you: Do you know how to count backwards?"
"What kind of question is that?" Kaitlyn asked.
"A good one," Psycho Kiraikama said. A timer appeared on the screens of all the active computers in the world, including the Neji Chamber console, counting down from three minutes.
"I don't think I wanna know what that means," Liam said.
"You'll have to if you wanna know why you have to stop them," Tsukimaru replied. "The Chinese military has apparently just fired two missiles, both of them aimed straight at us. Psycho Kiraikama must have invaded their systems and taken over missile control!"
"Time to say bye-bye," Psycho Kiraikama said in mockingly babyish tones.
"You say bye-bye," Kieran retorted. "You won't stop us. We're the Psycho Rangers! Psycho Red!"
"Psycho Black!" Darien shouted.
"Psycho Blue!" Liam shouted.
"Psycho Yellow!" Kaitlyn shouted.
"Psycho Pink!" Faith shouted.
"Phantom Fire Spheres!" Psycho Red shouted, shooting a wave of fireballs at the Psycho Kiraikamas, destroying several tens of thousands of them. "Phantom Fire Kick!" He performed a crescent kick that sent an arc of flame at the remaining Psycho Kiraikamas, destroying more of them.
"Bizarre Hailstorm!" Psycho Blue shouted, calling down a storm of hailstones to destroy even more Psycho Kiraikamas.
Psycho Black embedded his rod in mid-cyber-air and rotated sideways on it, kicking the Psycho Kiraikamas in a circle. When the rotation had reached 360 degrees, he stopped, picked up his Psycho Rod, and swung it in an arc, destroying a good number of the Psycho Kiraikamas.
Psycho Yellow and Psycho Pink flipped to opposite sides, then whirled and fired their weapons. The blasts crossed each other, forming an X before striking their targets, the Psycho Kiraikamas.
"Hurry it up!" Tsukimaru shouted. "You have a little over one minute and thirty seconds before those missiles hit!"
"It's over!" Psycho Red shouted. He and the other Rangers formed a ball of green lightning in their hands and combined those balls into one big sphere. They then raised the sphere over their heads.
"Jade Lightning Nova!" they shouted, throwing the sphere down at the remaining Kiraikamas. The sphere exploded in omni-directional lightning bolts, destroying all the Kiraikamas except for the original one.
"Fifty-five seconds now!" Tsukimaru shouted. "I'm sending an E-mail to all those people that were writing before and telling them to send their E-mails to Psycho Kiraikama, slowing her processing speed like they did to you before!"
True to his word, the E-mails had slowed Psycho Kiraikama tremendously.
"Time to end this," Psycho Red said. The Psychos gathered their elemental energies, shouting as one, "Twisted Element!"
The combined fury of fire, ice, earth, lightning, and forest proved too much for the hateful virus and it was, in a word, deleted.
"We did it!" Psycho Blue shouted.
"Yeah, and now that the Chinese military has control over their computers again, they've redirected the missiles to land harmlessly in the Atlantic," Tsukimaru said.
"Let's get back to the real world," Psycho Pink said. "Cyberspace is boring when you're literally in it."
The Psycho Rangers' human halves were reconfigured into flesh and blood in the real world, while their Psycho halves were downloaded back into the morphers.
"That was a new experience," Darien said. "Are we going to be able to do it again?"
"Yes," Dimitria replied. "You can now directly wield the Psycho Rangers' powers."
"Cool," Darien said. "But it's not over yet, is it?"
"Far from it," Dimitria replied.
In Earth's orbit, on the Kirai warship, a certain hateful Red Ranger was not pleased with his silver teammate's foiled plan.
"So much for your virus," he sneered.
Kirai Silver just stared at him from underneath the visor of her helmet.
"Her plan may have failed, but it proved something," Kanika said. "We know now just how pathetic their cyber-infrastructure is. If it was that easy to break into their computers . . . imagine the ease with which we will annihilate them."
To be continued . . .
Next: When the Kirai Rangers prove to be too tough for the Psycho Rangers to handle, they seek more . . . experienced help.