Disclaimer: I own nothing except Ink and Alice who I created myself.
Author Notes: This contains scenes from the Time Force/Lightspeed Rescue team-up episode 'Time for Lightspeed' which I also stole the title from as I think it's totally perfect in its appropriateness. I realise that the scenes in that episode were really quick to fit everything in but I'm going to stretch them out a bit! The reviews for the last chapter were awesome, you guys rock! Thank you so much for your support and kind words! Shout outs at the end. Enjoy!
TIME FOR LIGHTSPEED
"Check."
Alice narrowed her eyes and glared accusingly at the chessboard in front of her. Then she moved her king. Eric's smirk melted into a glare as he scrutinised the board. If he wasn't careful he'd have to sacrifice a rook to stay out of check himself. It had been a while since his chess skills had been stretched like this.
"Ink, do your guardian duties extend to helping me beat your sister at chess?" he asked, his eyes never leaving the board.
"Not a chance my Quantum Ranger."
Eric glanced up at Ink who sat on the couch flipping through the latest batch of Silver Guardian paperwork he'd brought home to read through. Ink lifted her eyes to smile at Eric, amusement sparkling in them. He and Alice had engaged in endless bouts of chess since they'd out found out that the other could play that night that Alex had left weeks ago. Eric had gotten bored with watching Alice and Ink play endless complicated looking card games which he couldn't fathom anyway.
"Tell me Eric, where'd you learn to play?" asked Alice, idly toying with a taken chess piece.
"He learnt at prep school," replied Ink for him before he could even open his mouth. "Wes taught him in their spare time."
"I've told you I hate it when you do that," Eric reminded with sharp aggravation in his voice.
"I apologise Eric, it was a meaningless quick reaction."
"Let me answer my own questions alright? It makes me feel like I'm losing control when you do stuff like that!"
"As you wish."
"I wished it last time but it didn't happen."
"I thought we were playing," interjected Alice, moving a piece.
"I was winning."
Silence settled around the three again as Eric and Alice both stared at the board. A lot of their evenings were spent like this. The three would eat then Eric and Alice would play chess while Ink read Eric's documents or just watched the other two before turning in for the night. Ink often slept on the couch while Alice took the floor. Eric had tried at first insisting his Keeper take the bed but she had laughed him off, reminding him she'd slept in a cave for so many years now that a couch was all the luxury she needed.
"How're the other Rangers?" Eric asked, breaking the silence as he moved a bishop.
"Don't tell me you actually care about someone other than yourself, Quantum?" taunted Alice lightly.
"If I don't have a team then you don't have a mission Protector," Eric shot back.
"You do care!" said Alice triumphantly. "Soon they'll be your friends."
"I doubt it."
"Do not be so sure Eric. No one wants to be totally alone," voiced Ink.
"Least of all someone like you," added Alice.
She looked like she was about to say something else but her words died in her throat as pain suddenly creased across her face. Ink immediately raised her head and looked at her sister assessingly.
"Alice? You alright?" asked Eric, confusion clearly displayed on his face.
As though in reply, Alice shuddered and swept all the chess pieces from the board in a sudden violent movement. Eric flung himself backwards as the pieces shot towards him; he could see her silver energy pouring out from her. It lit up the room with startling brilliance. Ink raised a hand, soft purple light glowing from it and stopping the pieces midair. Alice shook uncontrollably and clamped her hands to the sides of her head, letting out a piercing scream.
"What the hell's happened to her?" yelled Eric, scrambling away from her.
"Something deep inside of her," came Ink's reply, bringing with it feelings of worry and despair tinged with fear.
Ink strode to her sister and raised her arms, her cloak flying backwards suddenly at the force of something unseen. Purple energy clustered in her hands and clung to her skin. It was so bright Eric had to shield his eyes. Ink gripped her sister's hands, her face screwing up in pain or concentration, he couldn't tell.
"The Shadow World," Alice managed to force out of her agonised mouth.
"Quantum Ranger, morph," Ink shouted as she released her hands, her message reinforced hard in his mind.
"Why?"
"Something demonic is rising again. I need my full energy to anchor Alice while she struggles with it. Please do me this service."
Eric winced, the rapid beat of her heart and flooding feelings of despair made him painfully uncomfortable. Alice was acting like she was having some kind of fit and Ink, her cloak swirling and energy burning in her hands, looked both beautiful and terrifying at the same time. He didn't want anything demonic rising in Silver Hills, there was enough trouble keeping mutants at bay.
"Quantum Power!"
As he punched to the sky, red and black mixed strangely with purple wrapped him securely in the peculiar armour Ranger Powers favoured. Instantly he was more aware than ever of Ink's feelings. They were as clear to him as his own.
"Hold your hands out to me."
Eric knew Ink could taste his scepticism but slowly he lifted his gloved hands towards her. Purple and red energy shot from his fingers and joined the light sparkling from Ink's hands. Instantly, Eric pulled his hands back.
"Do not be alarmed Eric. When your Power is needed, it responds."
"Reassuring. Do I get it back?"
"Its sources will replenish you soon after."
Satisfied, Eric stood firmly and allowed the brightly coloured energy to fly from his hands to Ink. It was a peculiar feeling, making him feel light headed for a second. Looking at Alice she needed it. He'd never seen her in such pain. Ink let out a stream of a strange language. Eric tried to identify it but gave up, unable to make out any particular words. The energy flew to Alice, ribboning around her until the convulsions stopped.
"Gather yourself sister," atoned Ink. "We must force her back."
"Who?" demanded Ericm impatient and frustrated at being the only one in the room who didn't know what was happening.
"Hopefully you will never know."
Pain seared through Eric before he could ask anymore. He fell to one knee, a hand clutched to his chest. The pain came from Ink but belonged to Alice. The energy continued to buzz around her, Eric could feel her through Ink, pushing the energy down into a dark evil place and trying to seal it off. Something inside of him told him to keep on supplying her with energy. He fought against the pain and pushed forward. Ink's desperation kept him determined.
He felt something rumble and build. Then there was a massive surge of energy followed by an explosion of something invisible which send all three flying backwards. Eric hit a wall with enough force to wind himself. He felt Ink retract and energy flooded back into him, healing him from the inside out. He braced an arm across his chest.
"Power down," he managed to splutter out.
As the armour melted away, he spotted Ink. She had flown off her feet at the impact and was currently floating off the floor, her eyes closed. Purple energy glowed around her and her face creased in hard concentration. Eric reached out and grasped her feelings. All he felt was taut concentration, an inner strength and worry wavering at the edges of her mind. Alice sat crumpled against a wall, breathing heavily and looking as though she'd passed out. Eric looked from one to the other as he struggled to his feet.
"Ok so who's going to tell me what the hell happened?" he asked.
"A lot," offered Alice weakly. "And all of it totally unexpected."
"How can it be unexpected with Ink around?" questioned Eric as his guardian descended to the floor. "And since when have you been able to fly?"
"I cannot fly, Eric. My powers help me float," corrected Ink.
She walked to Alice's side and placed a hand on her sister's forehead. Purple and silver briefly intertwined.
"Shouldn't this be the other way around?" Alice joked. "I thought I was done with all this."
"You are not damaged sister, merely weakened," reported Ink. "And in answer to your original question Quantum Ranger, Alice was affected by an evil power reawakening and I did not expect it as it was a path I did not think would come to pass and besides, it is more connected to Alice than to I."
Alice lifted her head to look at Eric.
"Vypra's returned."
The weather was particularly and unexpectedly bad in Mariner Bay, a place where the sun usually shone all the time. Thunder rumbled and lightning cracked against a slate grey sky. Fog rolled over the ground, giving the old forgotten cemetery a forbidden look. This was the place where those who people wanted to forget were buried. No one visited it, in fact everyone avoided it. Among the sparse and scattered grave markers, one placed in the shadow of an old withered tree stood out. Scrawled on the plain faceless stone was one word 'Vypra' and nothing else. As the lightning forked again, a hand with blood-red fingernails thrust up through the moist dirt in front of the tombstone. It clenched into a fist and then began digging at the ground around it. Soon a figure pulled itself out from the hole created, not destroyed by time or rotten from burial. The figure stood triumphantly to her feet. Her appearance was that of a beautiful Asian woman but an abundance of something grey and metallic formed a revealing covering over her top half and capped her head and long dark hair with an impressive dragon head helmet. Tight black leather pants encased her legs and a magnificent set of huge grey scaly wings sprouted from her back. Her pupils were reduced to black pinpoints, indicating clearly her demonic reincarnation.
"The time has come from revenge," she hissed through blood red lips.
As she gazed at the ground before her, five shapes appeared from the loosening earth. They had featureless fleshy faces, formed from those long dead and ratty ponytails trailed down their backs. Samurai robes clothed them and as lightning cracked again, they leapt swiftly into crouching positions in a half-circle around their creator.
"Yes my Warriors, even the Rangers must face the fire," Vypra murmured triumphantly.
"So you're telling me that this Vypra was killed and now she's come back?"
Eric's voice dripped with disbelief. Alice, sat safely on the couch and drinking a tall glass of water, glared at him fiercely. She looked more and more like an exhausted young woman. For the first time since he'd met her, Eric found himself unable to believe she was several eons old. Ink sat beside her, a hand placed on her sister's knee.
"The dead are never truly gone," she replied softly. "Especially when they are demon by nature and descend to the Shadow World below; the place where demons are sealed after their demise."
"She's come back, Eric and she's not going to stop until she's destroyed the Rangers," murmured Alice, her eyes serious. "They were her enemies when she was alive and it'll be same now she's back."
"Vypra is different to Ransik and his mutants," added Ink. "She holds demonic powers that you are not used to dealing with. But I believe that help will be on the way for you and the Rangers."
Eric continued pacing furiously, sweeping a hand through his hair. Ink was infuriatingly calm and stable about the whole situation. The fact that her sister had had some kind of mental meltdown seemed to barely phase her now that Alice appeared safe from whatever had shook her in the first place. Eric stopped his pacing; that was what had confused him.
"Alice, why were you affected by Vypra coming back?"
Before she could reply, Eric's headset burst into furious spluttering life.
"Blakeston to Commander Myers, Commander Myers, come in."
Eric growled in frustration and snapped his headset's mouthpiece down.
"This is Commander Myers, what've you got for me?"
"A mutant's broken into the museum Commander, what are your orders?"
His eyes flickered to Alice. She nodded and mouthed Vypra's name.
You will need a lot of firepower and the other Rangers.
I don't need them! This is a Silver Guardian matter!
Ink jumped at the ferocity of Eric's thought. He quickly tried to retract the sharp anger but the thought still burned in his mind; he was fiercely protective over the work the Silver Guardians did and any implication that they needed help in their jobs made him bristle. Alice managed a furious glare at him.
"Never learn do you?" she hissed.
"Do not worry yourself Eric, I am not hurt too badly," Ink reassured him.
Her hand shook a little as she squeezed Alice's knee and folded her hands into her lap. Eric frowned, her discomfort was excruciatingly clear to him. Feeling her pain was a side to their connection he hated. Grudgingly he was realising it was like seeing and feeling his family in pain. He hadn't had a family in a long time, did he want one now? He knew he couldn't neglect his Powers and using them meant he was bound to Ink and by proxy Alice. He was stuck with one.
"Commander? Come in Commander."
"I'm here; send a squadron to the museum. I'll meet you on the way, Myers out."
He gazed down at the sisters. Alice's eyes were still full of pain but Ink seemed composed again. Her feelings were shaky but increasingly strong.
"If we need the Rangers, they'll probably turn up anyway won't they?" he stated.
"Absolutely," Alice answered immediately. "The Power compels them."
"Then I'll go ahead with the Guardians. If the others are needed, they'll be there," he surmised, heading for the door. He paused, turning back. "You'll be here when I get back?"
"Of course," Ink replied with a nod. "We will wait for you."
Be safe Quantum Ranger
Eric nodded; strangely reassured in a way he didn't want to admit to out loud but knew Ink had felt. The warm smile that reached out to him through their link but didn't show on her face told him that much. Alice cracked a tiny smile at him. The two of them sat there could almost be ordinary sisters, waiting for their brother to return from work. But Eric knew differently. He walked out of the door.
In a blur of white-blue light, Ransik, Nadira and his Cyclobots teleported away accompanied by Vypra in a shimmering purple hue of her own. The Rangers, lying beaten and exhausted on the ground outside the museum, were left alone. Slowly they began to move their sore limbs and try and work out what had just happened. It had appeared to be a run of the mill mutant to capture but this had been something more.
"What were those things?" asked Lucas wearily.
"They're not mutants, that's for sure," commented Jen.
Wes looked up at the sky, searching the peaceful darkness for the mysterious thunder and strange noise he'd seen the last time the unknown woman had gotten the best of them. But there was nothing to see. The warriors she'd brought with her were powerful and strong, possessing some kind of demonic magic which made them impossible to destroy. Whoever she was and whatever they were, the combination of her forces with Ransik was not good news for Silver Hills.
The noise of a vehicle pulling up broke through his depressing thoughts. The Rangers watched and got to their feet confused as a yellow Humvee came to a stop behind them. It wasn't recognisable from the Silver Guardians, appearing to be some kind of emergency vehicle from the flashing red lights on top. The driver exited, slamming the door shut securely after himself.
"You're going to need my help," he said loudly, his face masked in shadows.
"And who are you?" demanded Jen suspiciously.
The man took a step forward into the light. He was broad-shouldered with blonde hair and serious dark eyes. He wore a red and black jacket with a crimson undershirt and blue jeans but it was what he wore on his wrist that caught Wes' attention. It was a Morpher of some kind, constructed of silver and gold metal. Wes racked his memory, trying to place which team the man before him represented when the man answered his unspoken question.
"Carter Grayson, Lightspeed Rescue Red Ranger."
AUTHOR SHOUT-OUTS
White Time Ranger: Thanks for your review babe! I'm glad Jen's interaction with Ink and Alice was believable. This story is getting harder and harder to write but I'm determined not to leave it unfinished as so many of my stories are! I hope you enjoyed this chapter:- )
Cmar: Your comments always make me think about the way I write so thank you very much for your review. I'm glad my interpretation of the 'uniform plot-hole' made you smile; it was the only way I thought I could deal with it. I'm also pleased that Jen's shift from Alex to Wes was believable as well as Eric's change of attitude (that's the hardest part of this story to write, he's such a difficult character as well as being one of my absolute favourites). I guess Ink does repeat herself a little doesn't she? Hopefully in this chapter she doesn't! Thanks for the tip, it was a great help! Hope you enjoyed this chapter and keep on reviewing:- )
Blooming Violets: Thanks for your short sweet review, it made me smile! I hope the rest of this story has proved to be just as intriguing. Let me know what you think! Thanks also for your review of 'A Quiet Christmas', a lot of people like that one and I'm pleased with the way it came out so I'm glad you enjoyed it:- )
MagCat: I doubt Alex will remember Ink since we know about the standard procedure of wiping the memories of those who time travel, it'll be interesting to see how it all pans out (I'm not quite done with this story yet as you may be able to tell!). As for TF/WF (my fave PR eps ever!) I'm definitely gonna include them but only at the end and don't worry, there will definitely be Eric/Taylor, I love that pairing. Thanks for your review and I hope you liked this chapter:- )
TF Princess: Its great to have you back reading and reviewing, I've missed finding out what you think! Thanks for saying I have talent (blushes), I'm glad you like this story, I love writing it. Hope you like this chapter :- )