Disclaimer: Belongs to Disney. However, my Conner action figure belongs to me.
RESTLESS WARRIORS
By Etcetera Kit
Chapter Twenty: Protectors of the Right
The morning of Halloween dawned cool and clear. It felt misleading—the warm sun and mild weather. He felt like should have been stormy and dark, fitting with the mood of what was happening. They had decided that the best thing to do would be to switch the herbs and plants out this morning. If it were done earlier, someone would likely detect it. Today, there was not enough time to correct the error, even if it were detected. It ensured the success of their plan along with limiting the number of potential casualties. It also eliminated a full-on battle.
Dustin hated to admit it, but the plan was coming together. Their only challenge now would be to get into the lair and complete the swap without anyone finding out about them until it was too late. That would get interesting.
There were only four of them going into the actual lair. He, Eric, Kelsey and Maya got that happy task. Taylor and Kira were to be stationed somewhere along the tunnel, so that, if a firefight occurred, they could hear it and provide back-up to the people in the lair. Conner and Tori stayed by their entrance to the labyrinth—the idea being Kira could contact Conner if they needed even more back-up, but those two were removed enough to get away if something dire happened and they needed more than they had. Tori could go to the Wind Ninja Academy in the blink of an eye and return with enough ninjas to go on a rescue mission.
Trying to calm the nervous churning of his stomach, he accepted the mug of coffee Eric offered him and sat down at the picnic table. He glanced down at his amulet—Maya had made Eric, Tori and Conner amulets as well. He didn't know what to expect or what to find in that lair. The initial trip he and Eric had taken had been uneventful—almost like someone was trying to lure them into a false sense of security.
Eric looked at his watch and stood up. "It's time."
Dustin nodded, glad he hadn't eaten anything because he would have thrown it up. He glanced to Tori. She looked scared, but determined. What had possessed her and Conner to come help them was beyond him, but it was good to have some kindred spirits.
"Everyone knows the plan?" Taylor asked.
Heads bobbed in affirmation. Dustin fought down the sick feeling rising in his throat. This was no different from other times, why was he so afraid? The spirit realm—Zordon—they trusted them and there was no reason to think that they wouldn't succeed.
After going through the SUV, Eric had enough laser guns to give everyone in case someone de-morphed. The theory would be that the person would still have a means of protecting himself or herself until the others, who hopefully were still morphed, could come to their rescue. Dustin quickly took his laser gun and put it into a weapons' harness that Eric had given him. He then double-checked it to make sure that the safety was. The safety on a laser gun was easy enough to release in a hurry—it was also the reason everyone had laser guns. Eric didn't trust anyone with real guns with bullets, especially with the automatics he had.
They walked over to the entrance in silence. Dustin sighed, wishing he was at his apartment or Storm Chargers. On Halloween at Storm Chargers, they dressed up for the customers and passed out free candy along with having all the Disney Channel TV specials going all day. It was fun, more fun than this.
No one looked comfortable as they came upon the entrance. Kira bent over it and quickly made the handles appear. It still amazed Dustin how that thing worked—like something out of a fantasy movie.
Eric nodded to Conner and Tori. "You two stay here, unmorphed," he said.
They nodded and helped lift the cover from its hiding place. Eric dropped quickly inside the tunnel and everyone save Tori and Conner followed suit. Once the six of them were standing in the tunnel, Taylor gave the signal to morph.
"Go galactic!"
"Lightspeed rescue!"
"Quantum power!"
"Wild access!"
"Ninja storm—ranger form!"
"Dino thunder, power up!"
The six of them appeared morphed. Eric looked slightly out of place in his red uniform amidst a sea of yellow. Dustin couldn't help but think that they weren't all that inconspicuous, running around in colored suits. Then again, the yellow might blend more with the torchlight, making them unseen for a moment, which would give them time to run or retaliate. It was worth a thought—he hadn't paid attention to how much his suit showed up when he and Eric had been in here before.
Tori lowered down the backpack that had their replacement herbs in it. Maya took it and strapped it to her back. She then pulled out her Quasar Saber, holding it in a ready position at her side. He glanced at her and noticed that, unlike other generations of rangers, she didn't have a small blaster at her side.
"Let's go," Taylor said. There was a note of fear in her voice.
They began their journey down the tunnel. The daylight grew dimmer and the darkness seemed to press in on them. Dustin took a deep breath, fully understanding the caution against fear of closed spaces in the riddle. It remained dark until they hit the place where the torches began to automatically come on with their presence. He had been right. The yellow uniforms seemed kind of washed out against the stone and yellow light. They stayed in the shadows cast by the torches.
Eric signaled for Taylor and Kira to stay here, within earshot in case of a problem, but far enough away to get help if needed. They two of them nodded and pulled out their blasters. They took up positions on either side of the hallway, facing each other. Taylor had the direction they were going and Kira had the direction from whence they came.
He, Eric, Maya and Kelsey continued moving down the hallway. Dustin's heart was hammering in his chest. He hoped that no one could hear that, although it wouldn't surprise him to find out that demons could. He felt like nothing could surprise him about the demons, but their presence… that would be scary. The torches continued to come on until they hit the section that had constant torchlight. The dim light reflected off the cold stones, distorting their shadows grotesquely. Eric pulled his blaster from its holster. Dustin followed suit and pulled out his ninja sword, putting it in blaster mode. No one knew how much good blasters would do against demons—they probably would have been better off with holy water and stakes. Eric motioned for them to get against the walls and continue moving against the walls.
Soon, they came to the balcony that looked over the main temple. There was no movement in the temple. Swallowing, Dustin felt Maya come up beside him.
Maya came up beside Dustin. He pointed past the balcony to a small staircase going down. She nodded and moved forward. Eric and Dustin had taken them through the map of the place several times, so she felt confident that she knew what she was looking for. Dustin followed her down the staircase. Glancing back, she saw that Kelsey came after him and Eric brought up the rear, spotting for anything that might follow them. Things were quiet—a little too quiet considering that the demons had to start their ceremony tonight and, as far as they could tell, they didn't have a human sacrifice. She didn't like the fact that things were this quiet, but there was no turning back now. This had to be done and now was the only time.
She felt a hand on her shoulder. Whirling around, she saw that it was only Dustin. He pointed down the staircase and to a small wooden door near the bottom. She nodded and moved forward, grasping the handle of the door and swinging it open. She found herself in a small supply room that was right off the main temple. Dustin then pointed to the large wooden cabinet. Maya nodded and moved forward with the backpack and opened the doors, looking at the various herbs. Kelsey came up beside her to help. Dustin took his position at the side door of this room that led directly into the temple. Eric's post was at the door they had entered from.
The silence and the lack of movement was downright frightening. Her hands shook as she pulled the carefully labeled bags from the backpack. She looked at the jars before her. She would have to go by sight on most of these, since the labels were more of the demon writing. Picking up the first jar on the left, she twisted it open. It was nightshade. She put the nightshade into a larger trash bag they had brought for getting rid of the unwanted herbs and replaced it with some ground mint leaves that Dustin had ground for her earlier. The smell was much the same and no one would notice.
The demon-herbs were slowly replaced by good ones. One of the jars held some fur. Maya looked at that, pretty sure what it was. She dumped it into the bag and found a bag with some cat fur in it. (Dana had a cat and Kelsey had collected hair from the cat once their plan of replacing the herbs had been finalized.) Another jar held something that looked like rocks. She dumped the rocks and replaced it with rocks she had found by the lake.
"Hurry," Eric hissed.
"Is something coming?" Kelsey shot back.
"No. But the sooner we get out of here, the better."
Maya let out a long breath, willing herself to quit shaking. Kelsey quickly nudged her and handed her the next bag of herbs. Sprigs of cloves… to replace the herbs that the demons had that looked like miniature pigs' feet. A part of her knew that was what it might actually be, but she didn't want to think about it.
She came to the last jar on the second shelf. This one had to be replaced with the grated orange peels. She looked through the backpack. "Where are the orange peels?" she hissed.
Kelsey rifled through the backpack. "I don't know. We'll have to do without."
"We need to replace it!"
"Just dump out the jar and let's hope they don't notice."
Maya didn't like that, but there was nothing else to be done for it. She just dumped out the jar and replaced it on the shelf. She then went through the third shelf quickly. As she was starting the fourth shelf, Dustin turned into the room.
"Company in the temple," he whispered. "Hurry!"
Maya willed herself to go faster. It would have been easier to get the bags open if she hadn't had gloves from being morphed and if her fingers weren't shaking. Sounds of people shuffling through the temple hit her ears.
"Where's the human?" a voice asked.
"He'll be here." There was a pause. "In fact, I think he's here now."
"Fuck," Eric muttered.
Dustin backed away from the door and into the close comfort that the room could offer. Maya dumped out the last jar and replaced it with her herbs. "Done!" she said.
"Thank God!" Eric replied.
Kelsey zipped up the backpack and Maya pulled it onto her shoulders. They would have to dispose of the demon-herbs later, but now was not the time. She picked up her Quasar Saber from the floor, where she had left it.
A sudden blast from Eric's entrance got their attention.
Eric was pushing the stone door shut. "We're surrounded!" he hissed.
"We can't get out through the temple!" Kelsey shot back.
Everyone was still for a moment. Kelsey produced her V-Lancer. Eric moved a setting on his Quantum Defender. Dustin had shut the other door leading to the temple and held his blaster like his life depended on it.
"Let's go!" Eric ordered, motioning towards his door.
He pushed open the door and fired a couple of rounds of laser fire into the hall. Smoke and screeching was the result. "Let's move," he said, stepping out into the hallway.
Eric went first, firing at anything in their way. The resulting train covered each other as they moved forward, through a sudden wall of demons. Maya had never seen more things appear at one time—it was like they were coming out of the walls, which they probably were.
"Can we destroy these things?" Eric yelled at Kelsey.
"Yes!" she yelled back. "But it takes more than one shot. Aim for the head!"
The laser fire grew thicker as they made their way to the staircase. Maya realized going up the staircase would be interesting. There were demons on both sides of them if that became the case. She fought off a demon with her saber. A sudden blast of energy came and hit them in the middle, causing the group to split momentarily.
"Batlings," Kelsey muttered.
"Friends of yours?" Eric yelled at her.
"Friends of Vypra's."
"You think you can get away with this with so little effort?" A cold, cruel voice said in a sneering tone.
The four of them froze. A tall man with pale blonde hair stood at the doorway of the small storage room. This had to be Jareth. Maya felt like she was the only one who hadn't seem him and she pitied those who had earlier encounters with him. Pure evil radiated from him.
"You think that is the only store room?" he sneered.
No one had a response to that.
Jareth raised a finger with a long nail and pointed it at Dustin. Eric had his Quantum Defender armed and aimed at the demon. Maya held her saber at the ready.
"Give me him," Jareth said slowly. "And the rest of you keep your lives."
Kira paused at the sound of echoing footsteps down the hallway. She strained through the dim torchlight to see what was going on. Shadows ran ahead of their owners. She exchanged a glance with Taylor. This did not look good.
"Kira!" someone down the hall screamed. "Get Conner and Tori!"
Without giving her mind time to react, she pulled her morpher to her mouth. "Conner?" she said into it, her voice sounding panicked.
"Kira?" he replied.
"Morph and get down here! We need help."
"On it."
She let out a long breath and adjusted her grip on her blaster. This was going to get ugly from the sounds coming from down the tunnel. It sounded like a full-on battle was going on down there, between the demons' snarling and people yelling.
"Should we get down there?" she asked Taylor.
The Wild Force Ranger shook her head. "Wait. They can handle this for now." She paused. "We wait for Tori and Conner. When we go in, the numbers will double and we'll have a better chance. No one will be tired."
None of them would be tired. It made sense, but it didn't stop her from wanting to run down the tunnel and throw herself into whatever battle was going on to give what help she could. Footsteps echoed down the other direction. She whirled around and caught a glimpse of red and blue moving towards them.
Conner had his blaster out and ready to go. Tori was holding something that looked a lot like a sword—it probably was a sword. She couldn't see their facial expressions from underneath their helmets, but it didn't matter. This wasn't good and seeing someone's expression wasn't going to make that any better.
Taylor motioned to them with her blaster. "Let's go," she stated.
Kira took the right side of the tunnel with Conner flanking her. Taylor and Tori took the other side, moving cautiously towards the sounds of a battle. Kira drew in a deep breath. This felt like it was slowly spiraling out of their control. She had never fought demons before—and she was pretty sure everyone with her was in the same boat. Demons didn't seem the same as Tyranno-drones and Triptoids and Kelzacks. In fact, it seemed worse since the assumption would be that… they couldn't beat the things. She went to the movies and most movies featured demons and ghosts that wouldn't go away.
"Get them!" an unearthly voice screeched.
Kira inwardly froze. She had heard that voice before. Vypra… She could feel Conner close behind her. She glanced sideways at Tori and Taylor. If Vypra had joined the fray… then this wasn't good. That particular demon and Jareth were not ones she wanted to tangle with in some battle. Both of them seemed powerful, just not overly bright about how to use it. But when someone threatened them… watch out.
"Try to contact Dustin," Taylor said to Tori.
The Blue Wind Ranger raised her morpher to her mouth. "Dustin?" She paused and there was no response. "Dustin?"
"Tori?"
"Where are you?"
"I'm-" But he was cut off by something.
They started to move faster down the tunnel, the noise becoming greater with each and every step. A red laser blast filled the tunnel, causing some rubble to fall from the ceiling. If they hit something the wrong way in this tunnel, would it collapse? It was starting to look like a distinct possibility.
"Eric!" Taylor yelled. "Don't fire in the tunnel!"
"It's a little late for that!" came Eric's snippy reply.
The dust seemed to settle and the battle came into full view. Eric was in the midst of demons of all shapes and sizes, including some that looked curiously like bats. Further down the tunnel, Maya could be seen hacking away at the demons with her saber. The battle seemed to rage all the way down the tunnel. Two yellow figures in the distance appeared to be Kelsey and Dustin at work on freeing themselves.
Kira fired at the demon closest to her. It went down, stunned. What was going on? Did these demons become stunned from laser fire? She hoped so.
"Kira! Conner!" Eric was yelling through his battling. "Find Dustin and get him out of here!"
She knew what that meant. A sinking feeling hit the pit of her stomach. Dustin should not have been one of the ones to go into the temple. Jareth had been only too clear that he wanted Dustin for the sacrifice and if they captured him… she wasn't going to think about it.
"We can't get through!" Conner called as he fired at the demons.
"Yes, we can." Kira concentrated her energy. "Super dino mode!" she called. She jumped off from the ground, grabbing Conner's arm. They rose above the fray just enough that she could move them down the tunnel towards Dustin, uninterrupted.
"Warn me next time," Conner cried.
Hopefully, there wouldn't be a next time. She continued to fly and dropped them down into the midst of a battle that Kelsey and Dustin were quickly losing. She fired at one of the demons holding Dustin's leg. It squeaked and bounced away. Dustin turned to see her.
"Thanks," he called.
"Thank me later," she muttered.
Kira converted her blaster into a saber and helped get the demons away from Kelsey as they swarmed around her. Dustin suddenly split—there were two of him. The effect of that was short-lived as a blast of power hit him, causing him to go back to one. Two demons jumped on him when he was down.
"Stop!"
Suddenly, Kira found herself face to face with Jareth and Owling. The latter had a cold, hard glint in his brown eyes. She imagined he would be nicer if… "Owling!" she cried, running up to the fairy gone bad. "Stop this! You're good. You're one of us! You can stop this!"
A blast of energy hit her squarely in the chest, causing her to fly backwards.
"Kira!" Conner yelled, running to help her up.
"Fools," Jareth hissed.
A cloud of smoke enveloped them. When it disappeared, all the demons had gone with it. She, Conner and Kelsey stood, dumbfounded, looking at each other. Footsteps of the others came to her ears slowly.
"Where's Dustin?" Taylor asked.
"They've got him," Conner replied.
Kira felt her heart sink. The nightmare had begun.To Be Continued...
Author's Note: I'm starting to fully appreciate my Creative Nonfiction class. We're working on personal essays- issue driven pieces written creatively. I'm debunking the theory that violence on television makes children more aggressive with childhood memories of me and my brothers watching MMPR. It's fun... But thanks to everyone who's reviewed. You guys rock my socks! Also, if someone wants to recommend a story to me or wants me to check out their story, then let me know. I'm always looking for something to read:) Thanks-EK
