Authors' Notes: Oh woah! An update! We both have been having many problems as of late trying to find time to work on this. Hopefully, the updates will be more frequent. And we hope to keep TIC sane. Poor Jer. Anyway, here we go!
Chapter 11: Black-on-Black
He brushed the hair out of his eyes after turning his face away from the crackling ashes. The Animarium was a beautiful sight but its climate left much to be desired. The island had an amazing ability to adapt to its surroundings to maintain the typical vegetation of an African jungle. A floating island such as it was susceptible to the cold and harsh winds of the sky. It wasn't natural. Adam still couldn't understand it no matter how many times it was explained to him. He fastened another button on his black and green flannel shirt and began to stoke the fire.
"You're going now." It was a statement rather than a question.
Zen-Aku paused behind the man who was furiously searching through his available stack of logs. The wolfman's head drooped momentarily. "Yes."
"You should stay. They're only kids, you know." Adam futilely poked at the embers. A momentary flame lit the wolf's face against the moonlight as he sat his blade down before resting his hulking frame on a larger log. Even through the darkness he could read the concern in the human's eyes.
"They held their own against me in a real battle many times. They'll all make fine warriors some day. They don't need me." Zen-Aku thought back to the day that he awoke mere months ago. Adam had already heard the story three times so it didn't bare repeating. From Zen-Aku piecing together his fragmented mind more and more it seemed that Master Org was attempting to strengthen his forces by releasing his greatest Duke Orgs. Whether this was for his own purposes or to support the Earth's Emperor, that was never clear. The Duke Org Nayzor had found the wolf's tomb and attempted to bring him into their fold.
Adam placed his hand on the wolf's shoulder. "You're right. They will make fine warriors... some day. But that day is not quite here. Right now they still need guidance. A few months ago you were still entombed and unaware of your surroundings. A few months ago two of those kids were going to school and they were all living powerless in fear. Instead of Shayla's one thousand years of quiet civility maybe they could use one thousand years of a real warrior's experience?"
"Adam?" Zen-Aku rose to his feet. "Please don't try to guilt me into staying. It does no one any good. We both know that there's a war coming. This damned mask makes me want to kill those kids every second of every day just because they hold the animal power. I fight that urge because I know that protecting the Animarium is paramount. I can't promise that I will always be able to hold back. For now, I have faith in them and faith in your watchful eye. That will just have to do."
"Tomorrow will be the full moon," Adam spoke knowingly. "Will you be okay in your human form?"
Zen-Aku rose to his feet. "Okay?" He questioned with a laugh. "My human form is when I'm at my best." He walked away once again; this time his hesitation was gone. Adam called out to him; the desperate plea was gone from his words. "Where will you go?"
"I'll protect this land from afar. You told me yourself that Zordon's forces were setting their sights on this island."
"And if they need you?"
"I'll be here." The wind kicked up; carrying Zen-Aku's voice away. Adam winced and looked for the warrior. He knew it was pointless. Zen-Aku was already gone.
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The soft, rhythmic clacking of the creature's approaching black boots on the steel-tiled floor was quickly drowned out by the voice of his commanding officer.
"Psycho Black " the voice of the man in the equally dark outfit tinged with vile and anticipation. Psycho Black held back his own words from the smaller man. Just the idea of another ranger - a black one at that - being able to pull rank on him was enough to send him stampeding like a bull seeing red; or of course in this case, black.
As the door slide back into an airtight lock the Black Ranger quickly managed to compose himself. "I called you here because I have reason to believe that due to recent incompetence on this airship, a perfect target has revealed himself; suitable for your area of expertise."
"Black Ranger..." Psycho Black mumbled against the Major General's words and stared at the ground.
The Power Axe materialized in the Black Ranger's hands with the blade lined up along the throat of his subordinate.
"Please direct your attention to me when I'm speaking," Psycho Black remained steadfast in his lackluster consideration. "The Astro Morpher has been stolen."
Those few words immediately jarred the warrior to attention; increasing his vocabulary exponentially. "Well, that's rather exciting for me, isn't it?"
The Major General flashed a toothy smile. "Just the reaction I was hoping for out of you. The man who took it is most likely headed towards the Wild Force Rangers... including the BLACK Ranger. Track them to their base. Commit its location to memory. You may destroy the Wild Force Rangers. But I'm saving the man who stole the Astro Morpher for myself."
The monster growled like a feral cat not wanting to share his food. "Fine. I'll bring him back alive but I can't promise what sort of condition he'll be in."
"That is all I ask."
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"We're landing." Adam spoke sternly as the Falcon Wild Zord coasted below the trees and out towards a clearing. Ethan quietly complained to himself about twigs in his hair and was promptly ignored. From above Trent could tell just how brilliant of a strategy it was to locate a base here. Unless you were directly above the clearing there was enough overhang from the trees to completely shroud the small, open expanse.
Adam helped Kira and Ethan dismount from the great bird. Conner and Trent jumped off themselves, grateful to be on the ground again. "Judging by the stone columns," Trent pointed to the edge of the clearing. "This area is actually a courtyard of sorts and a larger structure is hidden in the deeper foliage." Adam nodded with a grin. "Brilliant."
"My, aren't you the clever young man?" The teens sharply focused their attention on the velvety smooth voice that echoed from the stone columns Trent mentioned. They indeed provided a well-covered entrance to the temple. The woman's chocolate-colored hair bounced as she walked. She was flanked by a burly man with glasses in a dark t-shirt and vest. His arms were crossed but Trent could tell that his guard wasn't down in the least. The Princess' hands were tucked deeply away in the folds of her white dress until she greeted Adam a hug.
"Princess," Adam bowed slightly before accepting the more friendly gesture.
Kira was sure that it was the same princess from the recording and judging by the cautiously optimistic look on Ethan's face she wasn't the only one that thought so. Kira then turned her gaze to the man behind her and immediately was validated in her assumption.
Shayla's voice sunk to an octave that would be normal for most - but in her case - was only reserved for grave moments. "It's good to see you again, Adam. But if you're here and you've brought visitors than that must mean..."
Adam nodded, confirming her fears. "They're landing as we speak. We flew here directly and it still took us a good 45 minutes. I'd say with them being mostly on foot and not knowing exactly were to go, we've got about five hours tops; six if we're lucky."
The man with glasses - Kira was sure his name was Danny - said nothing. He was pursing his lips and frequently glancing towards the ground; clearly trying to silence his fear.
"If you don't mind me asking," Princess Shayla turned her focus on the time travelers. "Just who exactly are your visitors?"
Adam calmly grabbed Conner by the wrist and held the boy's arm up, focusing the Princess' attention on the bracelet. "Consider them reinforcements... from the future."
Trent brushed Conner aside and looked both Shayla and Danny up and down. "We're here to help you. But before Zordon's forces get here we need to talk to Cole Evans."
"Cole? What do you want with Cole?" Danny still didn't know what to make of these teens. He trusted Adam and if he brought them then they were probably on the up and up. But why would they be Power Rangers too? His team were the only morally sound rangers that he knew about. His mind raced with the possibilities of just how many ranger teams there could actually be.
Kira ran up and pushed Trent back. She momentarily locked her eyes with his just to shoot a few daggers. Her rosy complexion returned and she flashed a smile at Danny. "Adam is telling the truth. We really are from two years in the future. We're looking for our teammate and Cole might be the only person here that would know him."
"Who exactly would that be?" The DinoThunder teens recoiled as a man touched down in front of them, firmly planting his bare feet. Trent cursed himself for not sensing him in the trees earlier. He secretly blamed the high elevation for dulling his senses. The man wore a tattered red shirt, cut-off blue jeans and his long hair hung over his eyes.
"Good God," Trent mused. "You'd think I would have at least smelled him coming."
Ethan had pulled the Holo-dome out from his breast pocket and glanced at the Sequencer. Whatever he saw clearly made him uneasy and Conner seemed to be the only one who noticed. He played it off. If he wasn't sharing he decided not to speak up quite yet. Ethan quickly replaced the Sequencer in his shirt and focused everyone's attention on the Holo-dome. It displayed a quick rundown of the supposedly correct Wild Force time line that was much more peaceful than their current surroundings; very reminiscent of what was shown to the Ninja Storm Rangers.
"Here Go to a more detailed readout Ethan," Conner pointed out the same area near the end of the recording. Ethan nodded and fine tuned the display. The Red Ranger mission on the screen was subtitled "Forever Red."
"This is the guy we are looking for," Conner pointed at a man in a leather jacket with a stylish, short haircut. "That..."Ethan paused the recording, "...is the Thomas Oliver guy we're looking for."
"That's me talking to him," Cole whispered the obvious that was everyone's focus.
"Is there any chance that you've seen him?" Kira begged.
Cole shook his head back and forth. "No, I'm sorry but I haven't. But, wow. That was me."
The teens were clearly dejected. "Now what?" Ethan posed the question to no one in particular.
"We prepare." Danny stepped forward and Trent nodded in agreement.
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Then...
They could have stopped him but simply chose not to. Even as the rod pierced his enemy's heart they did nothing. Psycho Black was beginning to think that he'd fit in with his new teammates perfectly.
"Congratulations," the Red Space Ranger scoffed.
The Yellow Space Ranger began to shriek.
"Sorry Ashley." The Blue Space Ranger apologized profusely. He had yanked his axe free and Psycho Blue's head rolled on the ground; stopping only when it bumped into Ashley's foot.
"Gross, gross, gross " she cried.
"Damn Ash, chill out. It could be worse," the Pink Space Ranger unlatched her helmet, revealing flowing hair of the same color. She gestured towards the body at Psycho Black's feet. "At least you're not Carlos."
"You're sick, Cassie Poor Carlos..." Ashley had dropped to her knees. After all this time Cassie still never knew what to say when her friend got like this. One minute she'd kill anyone as ordered like she had Psycho Yellow and the next minute she'd be completely oblivious to her actions.
"We all signed up for this." Cassie set to work on Carlos' belt to make his suit disappear in order to retrieve the Astro Morpher for her master. She didn't skip a beat. "Zordon said that any five of us on the same page was a stronger team than all ten at odds. Us four Space Rangers won our battles. If Carlos couldn't cut it then it's his own fault. No skin off my back. As long as I'm still around that's all that matters. He clearly didn't deserve to live."
She successfully pulled the morpher off; noting that Carlos was already beginning to stiffen up. Cassie paused to hook the morpher on her own belt before moving closer to Psycho Black. "Now we've got to deal with Mr. Broody here."
Ashley was still wiping her eyes. Cassie rolled her eyes and sighed. "Besides, if Psycho Black didn't kill Carlos, I'm sure that Andros would have eventually. Carlos was always hitting on you Ash. You even told me yourself that he creeped you out all the time."
Ashley mumbled through her tears. The others weren't sure what she was saying. All they could make out was something about how Carlos was nice to her in high school. She could vividly remember watching him on the soccer field while she headed up the cheerleading squad. Back then she saw the passion in his eyes. For that brief period of time that they played soccer, no one thought about the war on the horizon that would lead to Zordon's eventual takeover of the planet.
Was she selfish for turning her eyes to another man? They gained those powers and things changed. Well, they changed. She kept telling herself that. But she didn't change. Right? She loved Andros. It's not that she didn't love Carlos. She just wasn't in love with him. Ashley couldn't control her heart's actions. Black was commanding but you always knew where it stood. Red could still have that dominating presence about it but there was also always that little added bit of mystery which was just so damned intoxicating...
"Ash, let's go."
His arm was gently cradling her. She nodded but didn't turn away from Carlos' lifeless body. Ashley allowing him to help her to her feet and guide her away from the scene. Maybe they had all grown more aggressive. It couldn't have been all bad though. The Psychos showed up soon after they had gotten their powers and by comparison, Ashley's team must have been seen as being rather tame. They could turn into actual monsters. Ashley was pretty sure that her powers wouldn't let her do that.
She clawed at her helmet, desperate to get it off. She had to see. She had to make sure.
Andros grabbed her hands and held her close to his frame until her body relaxed. "It's okay, I'll take the helmet off for you." He unlatched it. The second it was off Ashley raced to a nearby mirrored wall. "You're just under a lot of stress, hun."
Normal. Two human eyes. Two human ears. A human mouth and a human nose. She was normal.
Her boyfriend handed her a tissue and kissed her forehead. Psycho Black leaned against the wall, reflecting his form against the others walls. Ashley shivered. T.J. and Cassie were whispering to one other, looking back and forth between the Psycho and Ashley. She didn't know what to think about that. But she did know one thing for sure. No matter what, she had to get out. Soon.
--------------
Now...
"We've got to get out of here soon," Trent rested his index finger on the map in front of him.
"We can't abandon the Animarium " Max's patience were wearing thin. It was great that these rangers Adam had brought were so willing to help but the white one wanted to call all the shots. "Let's just use a surprise attack." Max remembered that Zen-Aku had taught them all so well how to sneak up on the enemy.
Trent's eyes betrayed him as a clear display of his lack of patience. "A surprise attack? Really? That's your best suggestion? Tell ya what kid, I'll start listening to your surprise attack plan on the same day that everyone on my team decides to start wearing color-coordinated safari jackets with our dinosaur names sewn on the back, okay?"
Max fell silent. He knew he shouldn't have said anything. A large hand rested on Trent's shoulder. The same wall of a man from earlier made his presence known. His presence could intimidate just about anyone. "Ease up, man. Max is just trying to help. Please, just continue with your plan."
The White Drago Ranger shrugged him off as best as he possibly could. "Yeah, well, how about you take the energy drinks away from the hyper kid? It's not like I'm talking about abandoning the Animarium. I'm just saying that we need to lead Zordon's troops away from here without making it obvious. You've all mentioned something about this being sacred lands that controls the island, right?"
Danny nodded.
"Well," Trent was trying his best to remain calm. Never had he had his battle strategy questioned this much in the past. First Conner and now it was getting to be a nasty habit that everyone was taking advantage of, it seemed. "If we hold our ground a few miles south of here then we might be able to keep them away and prevent direct damage. It should give them the impression that we're directly guarding the base of operations there."
Trent was hoping that this wouldn't become a trend. If this was what it took to get Kira off of his back it didn't seem worth it. Compared to the last set of rangers, this group seemed like children. The others were much harder individuals. Trent surmised it was due to them living under harsher conditions than their counterparts from the supposed correct reality. This group was soft. Adam had sworn on his life that they were more than properly trained for the upcoming battle. On top of that, his own team didn't seem to be of much help. Instead of working on strategy, Trent could hear Kira and the girl on the Wild Force Ranger team were just prattling on about nonsense.
Alyssa seemed like the most normal of the bunch. The others were far too untrusting. Kira was so glad to finally find one normal person among the bunch; someone that reminded her of what life used to be like.
Both girls were hugging their knees and sitting across from one another on a large, flat rock. Kira was probing the girl for personal information. It was something that she had wished she'd taken the time to do with the Wind and Thunder Rangers. Inside, they were all still people. She had to remind herself of that every time she was reminded of Dustin.
"What was your dad like?"
Alyssa flashed a sly grin for a moment but quickly stopped almost as if she was scolding herself. "My dad is the one that taught me all I know about martial arts. He said that it was going to take me far in life."
"It does seem to be helping you."
Alyssa reluctantly nodded. "I wanted more out of life though. No one in my family ever went to college. My dad said it was a waste of time. 'Why train the mind with books when you can train the mind, body and spirit?' he'd always say. I agreed that my body was strong but I knew that my mind could take me even farther. I saved up and was going to go to college against his will."
Kira asked her next question even though she was afraid as to where the conversation was going. "So what stopped you?"
"The war. The college I was going to go to doesn't exist anymore. Instead of going to class the university was destroyed to make room for a military base. That same day this gem I've always had began to glow and the Tiger Wild Zord showed up to take me to the Animarium. I bet no one else has ever had such a horrible first day of class." She smiled through the tears.
Kira was ready to hug her but something held her body back. She told herself that she never really was one for hugging even when it was exactly what a person needed.
Conner could see them out of the corner of his eye but was far too focused on what Ethan was telling him to get involved. He had questioned Ethan about his earlier reaction to the Sequencer as soon as he could get him alone. The counter displayed a large number two in LED lights followed by two zeros. The Red Ranger was fixated as the numbers continued to descend.
"Conner, we only have two hours left according to this thing. If we don't leave by then something bad will go down. I'm not sure exactly what but I'm willing to guess that we'll be stuck here."
Conner acknowledged Ethan but he couldn't help questioning him even more. "Ethan, we had a lot more time left with the Ninja Storm Rangers. We had days! Why do we only have less than one this time?"
"I honestly don't know. It could be any number of reasons," Ethan had already been running down a list of possibilities in his head. "Different polarities or frequencies in this universe could be interfering, we could be hurried along with a finite period of time to fix the tear or..." he trailed off.
"Or what?"
"Well," Ethan looked around to make sure no one else was listening. "Let's just assume that this history is set in stone until we change it. The device would know what is supposed to happen here if we don't intervene. It could be protecting us from something. Maybe some sort of cataclysmic event is going to happen in two hours and it has to get us away before then in case we fail."
"Cataclysmic event? Like the Wild Force Rangers losing and Zordon capturing the Animarium?"
Ethan didn't answer which was answer enough for Conner.
"I'm going to tell Kira and Trent. There's no need to get the others worried. We'll stay and fight for two hours and win."
"But Conner," Ethan could see the look in his eyes. He wanted to talk some sense into the Red Ranger. But Ethan wasn't even sure of what would happen himself. Did their actions have any baring at all? Maybe the Ninja Storm Rangers were still stuck the same way they were before they had arrived. Maybe unless they actually found Oliver nothing they did really meant anything. "Fine. We'll stay and we'll win. But two hours is it, Conner. We can't stay any longer --"
Ethan jumped at the sound of the scream. For the second time in one day Trent hated himself for not sensing a possible enemy. In hindsight, he was at least aware enough to make a move before it was too late. The same couldn't be said for the man that was laying on the ground. Danny screamed. Trent recognized the attacker from the ship.
"Psycho Black..."
Trent noted the lance that was pressed against Danny's sternum. The Psycho had him in checkmate. If Danny made any sudden movements the lance could collapse his lungs; killing him instantly.
"What was that you were saying?" His laugh was even more sickening coming through the metallic helmet. "You most definitely cannot stay any longer. In fact, you've all overstayed your welcome." Ethan and Conner held up their wrists. Trent shook his head. If they tried to morph Danny would be dead long before they got to him.
"I made one promise today," Psycho Black's chuckle plowed through his words. "I promised that I wouldn't kill whomever had the black Astro Morpher. This one is the only guy here that stinks of Black Ranger powers. You know, I've never been very good at keeping promises..."
To be continued...
