"Well, well Green Ranger. You're in quite a predicament." The Greenhead Krybot taunted.
Bridge knew he was in trouble. He knew that without a weapon this new Krybot was too powerful to be defeated. With only his psychic ability to aide him his chances of winning a fight were very low. He needed to find an advantage somehow. A quick glance around was futile. There was nothing in the immediate area that could help him. He needed to get away and quick, but he didn't get a chance. The Greenhead lunged at him with its blades extended and ready. Bridge rolled to the side, but the Greenhead swung one bladed hand to the side and sliced Bridge's shoulder eliciting a sharp cry of pain from the teen.
"I'm going to slice you to pieces." The Krybot declared.
Bridge rolled to his feet and held his bleeding shoulder. He dodged to the side as the Krybot lunged, but the agile robot swung around to the side and slashed a neat line across Bridge's side. That was the last thing Bridge could take. Without a second glance at the robot he turned and fled into the forest. Behind him he could hear the Krybot cackling as it took off after him.
This is not good. I'm soaked to the bone and probably well on my way to hypothermia, but I'll probably bleed to death first if that Krybot doesn't catch me before all that. I'm cut off from my teammates with no way of contacting them and getting more and more lost as the seconds go by. What else could go wrong?
At that moment his foot caught on a tree root and he went tumbling head first down a hill. He landed flat on his back with the breath knocked out of him. Staring up the hill he saw the Greenhead launch itself into the air and descend toward him with all its blades ready to impale him. At the last possible second Bridge rolled to the side and listened as the blades sunk into the ground. He swung around and used both feet to kick the Krybot in the head with all his might. The Greenhead fell still, but it appeared to just be knocked offline, not destroyed.
It was a breather Bridge desperately needed. He knew he needed to do something about a permanent solution, but all he really wanted to do was sit down catch his breath. In the end he swallowed his need to rest and looked around for a weapon of some kind. All he found was a rather large tree branch, but his injured shoulder gave a painful jolt when he tried to use it. He settled on hefting the branch up with his good arm, but he knew he wouldn't be able to swing it as hard as he could with both hands. That didn't stop him from trying. He lifted the branch high and swung as down as hard as he could at the Krybot's head. Bridge gasped as the Krybot snapped one bladed hand up and sliced through the branch.
"Nice try little Ranger." The Krybot sneered.
Bridge didn't stick around any longer. He dropped the branch in his hand and started running again. He was trying to stave off panic, it wouldn't do him any good, but he was injured, lost, freezing, and being chased by some kind of super Krybot. Panic was on the edge of his mind as things kept looking worse and worse for him.
SSJZBSAK
Gruumm was more than a little pleased with the turn of events. The Greenhead Krybot had been created in the Green Ranger's image for a reason. After seeing how the Green Ranger's teammates had reacted to his abduction by Bork, Gruumm had decided to make him a target. When specifying what he wanted to Broodwing he had been sure to mention he wanted it to not only have the stealth technology Thresher and Stench had used, but he wanted it better and he wanted a Korrin Crystal to be used to block the Green Ranger's psychic abilities. The Krybot had been created to handle any Ranger it was faced with, but it was specifically programmed to make the Green Ranger its main target.
To see how well it worked was extremely satisfying. The Greenhead had the Green Ranger separated from his teammates and on the run. To top it all off, the rest of the Ranger team was heading into parts of the forest he specifically had booby-trapped. What the Rangers didn't know was that they hadn't really sprung the trap yet, everything they had suffered so far was only the beginning.
SSJZBSAK
Anubis Cruger was not pleased. Two shuttles had returned already, but not his Rangers. The news that the two survival training instructors had brought back with them was disheartening. The fact that they couldn't contact the Rangers was unnerving. He wanted to know what was happening to them. There was a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach. He wanted to be out there with them, but with Sam off on a mission he couldn't leave New Tech City undefended. However, there was something he could do.
"Instructor Reece?"
The middle aged instructor saluted. "Sir?"
"I want you to take a shuttle and deliver RIC to the Rangers."
"What if I can't find them sir?"
"RIC will find them on his own." Anubis replied. "Time is of the essence Instructor. Go as quickly as you can."
"Yes sir!"
SSJZBSAK
Sky was dismayed by the amount of damage the avalanche had done. How could Bridge survive something like this? He wasn't sure even the Ranger powers would have been enough to save his friend's life. They were having a tough enough time climbing down using the repel gear, he couldn't imagine what a tumble down the side would have been like. It was taking them several hours to get down, it was hard to believe Bridge had made the same descent in just a few minutes. He was soothed just a little to know that the Greenhead probably hadn't survived.
"He survived." Z said, catching everyone's attention.
"How do you know?" Sky demanded.
Z glanced over at him and even though she was morphed he imagined an exasperated look on her face. "I just know."
"I just wish we could contact Delta Command. They would be able to tell us where he is." Syd spoke up.
"Unless that's blocked too." Jack said.
"There's something really fishy about this whole situation." Z mused. "That Greenhead looked like it was created in Bridge's image, except for the blades of course."
"But why target Bridge? Why not me? Or Sky? Either of us would make more sense." Jack argued.
"Because it wasn't an attack against our strength, but against our weakness." Sky explained. He planted his feet on a ledge and held up his hands to wave off any arguments. "I'm not meaning that Bridge is weak, guys. Think about it. Who has been the glue holding this team together since the beginning? Who has made more of an effort to befriend everyone on the team?"
"Bridge is our emotional center." Z said, catching on to what Sky was getting at. "Gruumm is making a strike at the heart of the team, not the body."
"I bet he got the idea from Bork. I bet he loved how desperate we were to get Bridge back." Jack growled.
"But I don't think we should assume that Bridge is the only target here. That Purplehead nearly caused me to crash the shuttle and Sky and I both would have been killed." Syd remarked.
"We definitely need to stay on our toes." Jack agreed.
He had barely finished his sentence when the world around them exploded. Sky's cable was frayed, but still held while an explosion completely snapped Z's cable. She shrieked in fright as she started to fall, but Jack reacted quickly and grabbed her hand. Several more explosions rocked the cliff face they were hanging on and Sky's cable frayed a little more. Rocks pounded on them from above as Syd finally turned enough to see what was going on. Two miniature purple jets were zooming around and taking potshots at them. Syd looked past Sky to Jack as the Red Ranger struggled to hold onto his friend.
"We've got to go all the way down Jack!" Syd yelled.
"Right behind you!" Jack called back. He looked down at Z. "Hold on Z, we're going down fast!"
With that the three Rangers released their clamps and began to quickly descend. Sky felt his line give way a little bit and looked up. His heart skipped a beat. One of the jets had transformed itself into a Purplehead Krybot and was holding onto Sky's line. The Blue Ranger watched helplessly as the robot looked down at him and its red eyes flashed once before it released the line. Sky gave a shout of fear as he was suddenly plummeting 550ft to the river below. Suddenly his line snapped taut and he was jerked to a stop. He looked up in hopes that maybe Syd had grabbed his line, but instead his heart sank as he saw one of the purple jets had snagged his cable.
"Since hitting the river saved your green friend, I think I'm going to make sure you don't survive." The jet announced to him.
Even though he was facing certain doom, Sky felt hope spark inside when he heard that Bridge had survived the fall. Then his heart sank to his feet as he realized he wasn't going to get a chance to see Bridge again and apologize for the nasty things he had said. That spurred him into action. He was NOT going to die before he got a chance to make amends with his best friend. He grabbed the line and with one good yank was able to pull himself up enough to grab the jet itself. He then used both hands to grab it and in an acrobatic move that would have impressed Bridge, Sky swung himself up and on top of the Krybot jet.
"Get off!" The jet shrieked.
Sky pulled his delta enforcer and pointed it at the jet's head. "Take me to the ground."
"I'll take you to the ground all right." The jet snarled.
Before Sky could react the jet transformed into its robot form and began to wrestle with the Blue Ranger in mid-air. Sky felt his stomach lurch as he began to fall again, but this time he had the Purplehead for company. The robot was hissing and struggling to get the delta enforcer out of Sky's unbreakable hold. The Blue Ranger was NOT letting his weapon fall into the enemy's hands. The Krybot gave up on that plan and instead got a different, much simpler idea. Before Sky knew what was happening one of the Krybot's arms shifted into a sleek, powerful looking cannon that jabbed in his stomach. All he had time to do was gasp before the Krybot fired and Sky knew no more.
SSJZBSAK
Bridge could hardly breathe. He had been running for hours on end and it was to no avail. If he faltered at all the Greenhead was all over him. Unlike himself, the Krybot didn't have to stop and rest. It could chase him until its power source ran out and he would collapse long before that happened.
"You can't keep running forever little Ranger. Why don't you just surrender?" The Krybot taunted. "You don't stand a chance."
As much as he didn't want to believe the Krybot, Bridge knew it was true. Something needed to change quickly or he was going to be killed. He was already shivering from head to toe from a combination of the cold and blood loss. And therein lay another problem. Even when he did manage to get ahead of the Krybot enough to not hear it anymore, he knew he was leaving a nice trail for it to follow. Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do about that until he took care of the Krybot.
Just when Bridge was starting to lose hope, irony helped him along. He saw the trap due to his extensive training and was sure that the Krybot would know it was there too. However, the Krybot was close enough behind him that if he triggered it, maybe, just maybe...Bridge lunged forward and snapped the trip line. He then leapt to the side as a huge tree trunk came swinging down. The Krybot was struck dead center in the middle of its chest and was slammed backward into another tree and was pinned there. Bridge couldn't believe his good luck, but didn't stop to enjoy it. He ran as fast as he could to put as much distance between himself and the Krybot as he could. He wasn't out of danger yet, but at least something was going his way.
SSJZBSAK
There was nothing Z, Jack, of Syd could do but watch helplessly as the Purplehead dangled Sky by one leg. They were almost specks in the sky they were so high up. And then the Krybot let go of Sky's foot and the demorphed Blue Ranger began to tumble to the ground. The two Purplehead Krybots then zoomed away, but the Rangers knew the Krybots would probably be back. Their immediate concern was saving Sky, but there didn't appear to be a way to do that. Even if one of them managed to catch him the shot from the Krybot had demorphed him. There was no way he'd survive the fall.
"This can't be happening." Jack muttered. After all that hard work to get him to open up, this is how it's going to end?
Suddenly something burst out of the tree line on the other side of the river. Jack couldn't believe his eyes, but for once that day it was a good thing. RIC bounded across the length of the river and landed beside the three surprised Rangers. He gave a mechanical yip and his head twisted up to look at Sky's tumbling body. Jack understood the look.
"Battilizer!" Jack called. As soon as the magna morpher snapped on his wrist he began the next past. "Cyber mode!" As soon as the first mode was complete he instantly went to the next. "Sonic mode!"
"Go Jack!" The two girls exclaimed, seeing that Sky was getting closer to the ground.
Jack blasted into action, zooming into the air and straight for Sky. The Red Ranger leveled out his flight, swooped in, and caught his teammate with ease. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, except Jack who could immediately see the damage done by the Krybot's point blank shot. Even worse was the fact that he couldn't tell if the Blue Ranger was breathing or not, which hastened his descent back to the ground. As soon as his feet touched down, Jack knelt and laid Sky on the ground. It was immediately apparent his teammate was breathing and upon closer inspection he realized that the stomach wound wasn't as bad as it had seemed at first glance. It was bleeding slightly and the skin looked like there was at least a small patch of 2nd degree burns, but nothing fatal.
"Man, RIC got here just in time." Z commented as she and Syd both checked Sky over with their own eyes. After the fear of losing him they both needed to reassure themselves that he was relatively okay. "Another few minutes and it would have been too late."
"Now let's hope we're not too late to save Bridge."
TBC
I think it's possible I like whumping this team more than is healthy...for them.
Thanks go out to the following people for taking the time to review: jesusfreak1, Jillie chan, carrie, lgbabyblu, My heart beats only for you, garnetred, cmar, and the real vampire.