Far Beyond Love & Hate
Chapter 1: Run and Scream in terror...from PLANTS GONE MAD
Wiping sweat from his brow Edwin Scott examined the wreckage of the old command centre. "Paris! Calypso! Quickly" he exclaimed. The twins approached. Paris had dark hair that was faintly curly and slicked with sweat. He dropped the bags and heavy cases of equipment along with his sister.
Calypso had platinum blonde hair that was cut to frame her face perfectly.
"And they wonder why he needs us" Calypso chuckled as she and her twin walked up to the huge steel doors. Each gripping the metal and pulling it away into the doorframe. They entered the destroyed building.
"After all this time" whispered Dr Scott. "I have finally found the one place all my questions can be answered in. The Technology of the power rangers will reform the world"
Calypso and Paris rolled their eyes as he launched into his usual rhetoric concerning his life's quest-slash-purpose. It was what they heard all the time. Just a little different because they stood a chance of normal lives (as normal as they could manage) as soon as he had research to sink his teeth into.
"Okay Dad" Calypso sighed. "We get it, do your thing". Paris tossed a block of concrete away like it was tissue paper and examined the console. "Relatively intact, a good bit of stuff survived". He edged around a hole in the floor that dropped towards a pinpoint of water under the mountain.
"Here's the laptop Dad" Calypso said as she handed him the device which he hooked into the console and began to download information into. "Finally we'll not have to chase down technology".
"It's not over Calypso" Paris said. "Dad won't stop until he knows every last thing about the power rangers, that includes their secret identities and individual powers" they watched their father from afar. "And we'll be upgraded every time he hears about a new team."
Calypso nodded and she and her brother began to investigate the other hatches and doors underneath rubble and in the midst of the ruins. Suddenly their father shouted.
"Security protocols activating" a voice said. It was a flickering image of the Red Zeo Ranger. "Whoever you are, your attempts to take our secrets will be thwarted - " their father was fast, he ripped the wires out of the side of the laptop and threw it to his son. The Ranger was still speaking. "---You can't have our secrets. You've failed"
There was a flash from the console and their father disappeared in a haze of sparks and smoke. They saw him disappearing backwards into the hole. He cried out in anguish…Calypso steadied herself on a wall. Paris just stared at the hologram as I vanished and then looked to the laptop.
Reefside Botanical Gardens - Present Day
"Well this is fun" snorted Conner. "Who likes flowers?"
"Devin, Alexi, Trent, Cassidy, Haley – need I go on with people we know or should I just break into the ethnic groups in general?" Kira asked. Devin, Cassidy and Alexi were admiring a large purple flower.
"Looks like Doctor O is trying to do another field trip move on Randall" Ethan sniggered as he pointed at the principal in a beige suit standing on a bridge. Tommy approached.
"This was a –um – very ---original trip," he said sheepishly. Principal Randall turned and faced him. "The-uh-students appear to be enjoying themselves"
"Half of them don't know the difference between a rose and a weed" was the cool reply. "They spend more time stepping on them then learning about them."
"A rose by any other name" Tommy said. "Would still smell as sweet"
"Not if they sit on it," she replied curtly.
"She just shoots him down every time" Cassidy muttered as she watched with them.
"I support his effort" Kira said. "He tries…bless him."
Alexi shook his head considering how crazy America was in general (ignoring the fact he was in Reefside where mummies came back from the dead) and continued to watch the teachers talking.
And suddenly there was screaming. People were shrieking and hollering about a monster. Kira, Conner and Ethan looked at one another and split apart. Cassidy, Alexi and Devin looked around but the three were gone.
The Monster was a cross between a Cactus, a flower spraying gun and very faintly a duck. It sprayed a group of students with green smoke and rendered them unconscious. "Students, students, students" he rasped.
Elsa stared at the mutate. It wasn't one of the masters. "What on earth…" she whispered. Tommy grabbed her and pulled her away as a bolt of green energy blew the bridge up.
"Come on" he said as he pulled her towards a group of students. "I'll look for the others you get these students out!"
Elsa smirked inwardly. Oh no you don't she grabbed his arm. "I can't take that risk, you have to come with me." He blinked in surprise…a vine coiled around his ankle and dragged him away. With surprising speed and strength Principal Randall gave another pull on his arm and dragged a girl from the flowers. Before he could get a proper look at the girl Tommy was hauled to his feet by the Principal as the girl vanished.
"What was that?" he gasped.
The rangers attacked Quacktus. He blasted them with his green spray but it was set alight by blaster fire and blew his arm off. Kira attacked, diving in and slashing repeatedly, seconds later Ethan dropkicked the duck-vine thing and let Conner use a Max Thunder Sabre to knock it down.
"Let's finish this" Conner said as they combined their weapons. The blast fired… a green crescent of light intercepted the blast. A shape formed in a ripple of green light, a hurricane of black spots and a burst of silver lightening.
He was dressed in green, black and gold. His upper body, legs and arms were covered in green plating with black visible between the plates. The dark was dabbled with silver circuits and he had a strange helmet that was flat headed and had a large ridge out the back, the opaque black visor on his face was pitiless and empty.
The two long black streams from his body flowed behind him as he advanced.
"Well this is nice, you finally have a good collection of colours"
The blaster was turned on him. "I'm guessing you're evil," Conner said.
"Perceptive, go to the head of the class Mr McKnight"
Conner did a double take. "What?"
"Don't speak, you'd only ruin the moment" the stranger replied. He bent his arm up and touched his elbow. He gripped something and pulled, the green light flickered out as the bone came out and revealed a short sword of green bone mixed with steel. "Ready?"
He slashed three times, knocking them flying and separating their weaponry. He laughed and advanced. Kira took flight at him. "Thank you for flying air yellow ranger" she crowed, snaring his neck with her legs and dragging him straight towards a wall. He grabbed her ankles and swung his body up, kicking her in the back of the head.
"Oh do I get my frequent flier miles now?"
He ducked the blast from Ethan and pulled small blades from his knuckles, throwing them at the Blue Ranger and sending a shower of sparks out of his chest. "Damn!" Ethan groaned. "That hurt!"
"It gets worse" deadpanned the man.
"For you that is!" Conner exclaimed as he performed a flying kick to their opponent's stomach. It knocked the attacker off his feet but he sprang rapidly back up and slashed Conner with his sword.
"Not very clever dear chump" the man said.
"Who are you? One of Mesogog's thugs?" Kira exclaimed.
"Hah! Not in this lifetime! Call me the Green Man, it'll do for now" he raised his hand over his head, lightening dropped into his palm and he flung it at them blowing them off in opposite directions.
"No fair!" Tommy's punches and kicks came from the side; the Green Man was caught off guard and dispatched. "You ambushed them"
"Surprise is everything" Green Man said. "Don't worry…it'll be your turn soon enough." He tossed something into the air. Large Seeds with skulls on them landed in the dirt and split open forming strange monsters. They were made of black vines covered with bright green bones over them. Some held spiked bone clubs and others held sharpened spears of bone like spinal cords. "Exol's! ATTACK!"
The creatures hissed and lunged at the rangers as their leader turned and walked away from the fight.
They were stronger then Tyrannodrones and all worked with a collective mind. "They're like one big enemy!" Trent exclaimed as he slashed one down.
"Then we take them down like one enemy" Conner exclaimed as he and the others raised and fired their blasters at once. The explosion destroyed one crowd of them another joint blast took down the others and the stragglers were destroyed with one last bolt.
"Let's go after him" Kira said. They raced out into the entrance porch that stretched around the front of the gardens. They stopped. A woman in white armour quite similar to (but more feminine than) the Green Man's was talking to the emerald clad villain. They were out of earshot unfortunately. Suddenly the White Woman swung around and spotted the rangers, the Green Man raised his hand and a crackling bolt of energy charged up on it. The White woman thrust out both hands and three blasts of white energy hit the ground at their feet as the green bolt shot at them. They collapsed as the green bolt blew a hole in the wall.
"Later" the Green man sneered. He vanished turning away into a ripple of green, a blast of silver lightening and a hurricane of black spots. The White Woman looked at them for a moment then turned away vanishing in a similar method however her ripple was white.
"Who were they?" Conner groaned.
Reevodyne Chemical Plant - Late Morning
Elsa strode down the hall with the monster at her tail. "Zeltrax, do what you always do" she smiled. The monster was Zeltrax but Elsa had changed him, she had rebuilt him with bare circuitry and cybernetics and his left hand was now a gold plated talon.
Zeltrax grunted a "Yes Mistress" and slashed open a fuse box. Elsa smiled darkly as the power went out. Triptoids and Tyrannodrones swarmed the building and forced the workers out of the path. Elsa climbed a flight of steps and entered a room. A guard reached for his pistol but was blasted into a corner.
"Time to make this atmosphere ideal…for reptiles" cackled Elsa. She adjusted the controls of the chemical plant.
"Stop!" one of the technicians exclaimed. "You'll pump out the chemicals into the atmosphere." Elsa looked at him like he really was the idiot she saw him as.
"That's the idea you twit" she snapped. She pushed a button and reached for a switch to press the level of expelled. Kira grabbed Elsa's wrist.
"Don't touch that dial" chirped Kira.
"Oh but there's nothing good on" sneered Elsa. She kicked Kira away and lunged for the switch again. Tommy caught her and swung her away. She stumbled away.
"Black Ranger" she said. "There's someone who died to meet you" she ducked and Zeltrax blasted Tommy from the doorway behind her. "You can't keep a good robot down!" laughed Elsa. She swung her sword…Trent caught the blade and took a slash at her. She pulled away and their blades met with a clash again.
"Zeltrax!" Tommy exclaimed. "I thought I destroyed you!"
"Die Black Ranger" rasped Zeltrax. A pad on his chest clicked away to reveal a strange circle of cylinders. The laser bolts blasted Tommy down. Zeltrax caught Tommy's ankle in his gold talon and swung him around the office into Conner and Ethan who were battling Triptoids and Tyrannodrones.
Tommy landed in the hall and dodged a hack from Zeltrax. He rolled backwards and swung his staff. Using a rapid combo he took down Zeltrax. The cyborg shouted out but Tommy delivered a strike to the side of his head and caused a glitch in his systems.
"Oh ranger!" a voice called. Tommy turned around and was blasted by a bolt of green light. He crashed to the ground as Zeltrax managed to crawl away. Elsa and Trent were locked in combat.
"Honey…the silver I can forgive" a voice said. "But the hair? Po-Lease" A girl was standing in the doorway, behind her green Exol's were in fighting stances. She was dressed in white top with silver lining and a high collar that appeared to be made out of rose petals. Her trousers were black leather and attached to her 5-inch heel boots. Her dark brown hair was styled up in a small beehive-bun at the back of her head with petals and thorns in it and a crown of black briars and emeralds around her forehead. She smiled and examined her green nails. "And the fact you can't even handle someone wearing white after labour day? What kind of femme fatale are you?" The girl walked forwards and put her hands on her hips. "KILL THE RANGERS!"
The Exols rushed the rangers, working together to attack. Elsa dived away. "Leave them to it!" she exclaimed. A portal opened and Mesogog's forces vanished.
"My name's Calais" the girl said. "And it's the last name - - - no I won't go there" she said. "What can I say other then…Bye." She waved a hand and a cyclone of black rose petals lifted Trent off the ground and slammed him into a wall.
Kira opened her mouth and screamed. The woman screamed right back. Yellow and purple sound waves clashed together and a tremor ran through the office. "That's one loud disagreement" Trent exclaimed. Suddenly the woman spun aside and pointed her hands. Long black briars grabbed Kira, lifted her up and hurled her at her friends.
"Shake rattle and roll!" Calais sneered. She raised her hand, the air around it rippled… she hurled it back into the floor…the tremors began
"That can't be good" Ethan exclaimed. The office floor caved through and dropped the rangers into the factory floor. Black rose petals swirled around and in a black flash Calais appeared on the ground floor. There was a squelching noise and Exols grew from twisting eel-like green vines that rapidly extended upwards from the ground.
"End of the line rangers!" she exclaimed and stalked forwards.
"Don't count on it" Conner said. He fired a blast at her she twisted her upper body to one side rapidly and the bolt missed. She swung back; her eyes glowed magenta and Conner touched his head. Ethan fired a blaster bolt at some pipes. The burst of steam hit the Exol's and Calais confusing them.
"We're out of here!" Tommy said. He hit a valve on the side of a vat with his staff. The pipe it was on burst open and yellow smoke hit the Exol's they shrieked and withered away. Calais hissed in rage.
"Next time!" she spat then muttered "What a cliché" and turned away becoming a swirl of black petals and pink smoke as she did.
"Who was that mad girl?" murmured Ethan faintly. Then he collapsed into Tommy's arms.
Elsa stalked into the main lab and stared. Standing before her was a bizarre sight. Her Master Mesogog was shaking hands with a Green Clad Man…from the Botanical Gardens. Her master making a deal with this Green clad brat, it was impossible!
"Elsa!" Mesogog growled. "This industrious youth has made an interesting offer". The boy faced Elsa. "He knows a technique by which we can restore the Earth to its Jurassic Beauty. Tell her"
"We change the world," the Green Man said. "Human's have ruled long enough and now it is time for mother Earth to start again!" He showed Elsa the vial of seeds. "My plants are of prehistoric quality, stronger and more deadly. My insects are bigger and better. With these tools I can start a new echo system perfect for dinosaurs to begin once more. And all we need is to make the world - - a greenhouse"
"I have a bad feeling" Tommy said. They were back at the lair. "Where did these villains come from? What do they want? Aside from killing us?"
"Isn't that enough?" Ethan exclaimed.
"They need a motive" nodded Haley. "It's more then just dislike for us. They have an angle, all villains do."
"It's usually world domination" Conner said.
"Usually. We need to know more" Haley said. "I'm going to try figure out where those Skeleton-Plants came from." She took the tiny green shrub Ethan handed her. "Just as well their little vines stick to ranger suit fabric."
She slid over to the microscope and slid the sample on a slide onto the tray.
TBC
Next Chapter: The identities of the White Woman and the Green Man are revealed in the biggest anti-climax I've ever written. There's a brawl at the school…and Haley may never eat artichokes again.