Curse of the Power Rangers (I)

"Alright, people! Final preparations; last chance you're going to make sure you have the right equipment!"

"You! Make sure the trucks are loaded and prepped. We're only gonna get one shot at this, so we've got to make it count!"

"E!"

E stopped barking orders to the numerous men and women making the final steps of preparation, turning around to see Clint quickly approaching him. And E didn't like the look of angst that dominated his face.

"Mallory's here," Clint explained, gesturing behind him. "And he's got a bunch of suits with him."

"Shit. Shitshitshitshit," E uttered the curse under his breath, giving a look over his shoulder to the soldiers loading up their tactical vests with ammo clips and making final checks on their rifles. He needed more time, so they could get out and start before they charged into the hangar…

"Stay here, keep the pace up. I've got them on track to move out in ten minutes. I'll try to buy us some time-as much as I can," he ordered, gesturing behind him as he walked towards the same direction Clint had just come from.

"Good luck; he looks pissed," Clint warned, giving a farewell nod before stepping up, and continuing shouting out instructions and ensuring the pace didn't slow.

He glanced over his shoulder after a few minutes, just in time to catch the tail-end of E's trench coat vanish behind the same doors he had come through mere moments ago. Silently, he was glad E had volunteered to go take care of this himself. He was glad his few encounters he had with Mallory were just that: few and far between. The man just unbearable.

A loud crash! broke his train of thought, however, and his head snapped back around to face the source. "Be careful with that!" he barked, his attention, and feet, taking him to a pair of D-13 soldiers unloading a wooden crack. Or rather, attempting to unload; dropping it halfway across the warehouse. "That's delicate equipment!"

"Then why the hell is it in a wooden crate?" one fired back, his face screwing up in an annoyance glance. His inexperienced response, however, earned him an alarmed look from his partner and a glare from Clint. A look that quickly drew the snappy retort out of him.

"Because it's a hell of a lot more discrete than having 'POWER DAMPANNERS' plastered across the side of the box," Clint spelled out, gesturing to the split-open lid of the crate. "I'd like to think a generic 'FRAGILE' would be enough of a sign to handle with care."

"Sorry, sir," the more experienced soldier responded, roughly gesturing for the younger soldier to re-attach the crate lid. "We'll be more careful."

"You'd better," Clint warned ominously, looking between the pair before walking off, leaving the two to re-attach the crate's lid and resumed carrying it across the warehouse. With infinitely more care than before.

/\/\/\

E would've lost count of how many doors he walked through if he hadn't been through them all countless times; though if he were to guess, this was among the fastest he barrelled through them. And that would have continued through the next door that stood in his way, had he not taken a moment to look through the small glass window. What he saw made him come to a sudden stop, almost tripping up in his attempt to keep from going through the door. He paused for a moment, taking a slow breath in and out, his eyes closing to effectively neutralize his expression.

His eyes opened a moment later, and he pushed his way through the door.

"Director Mallory," he greeted loudly, an edge to his words that was far from friendly, as he slowly walked through the corridor. "This is a…unprecedented visit."

His callout gained the attention of the numerous Secret Service agents that seemed to line the width of the corridor. All were dressed the same; white shirts beneath black suit jacket, black trousers and spotless black shoes. They even shared which side the ear piece was inserted into. The only way E could tell one from the others were the minutely different ties and what kind of hair cut they had. He ignored the indifferent glare the group of eight shared; a look he knew was drilled into their training.

But it was the man who came barging through the middle moments afterwards that got E's attention; his grey suit stood out drastically with the black suits backing him, along with the tan trench coat he wore over top. His forehead was lined with wrinkles, which, when combined with the walking stick he had a moderate reliance on, gave an indication of his age. If the visible grey hairs in his otherwise smoothed-back blonde hair weren't already a hint; though E figured that was partially due to the job, as opposed to aging.

"Cut the crap, Elijah," Mallory snapped, his voice coarse but still having that sharp, slightly Southern edge to it; much like a knife that was almost dulled beyond practical use, yet still had a useable slice at the right angle. "You know damn well why I'm here."

The smirk E had across his face faltered momentarily, just barely managing to salvage the façade before anyone picked up on it. But even with the slight smile, it didn't quiet meet his eyes as he responded, "You were growing bored in your office job, and decided a visit to your prodigy was long overdue?"

Mallory looked at E for the longest time after that comment, as though trying to decipher if he was showing a rare side of humour or whether E was trying to be serious. And when no follow up remark came to clarify it for him, Mallory let out a scoff.

"My prodigy, you may be. But a colossal pain in my ass? Even before you were assigned to these Rangers? Now that, I know for a fact."

"You taught me everything you know. So that one's on you," E responded, one hand slipping into his coat pocket. He looked around, and gestured with his free hand, to the suits standing quietly behind Mallory. "There a particular reason you brought every Secret Service agent you could get your hands on?"

The elder Mallory let out a low sigh, before looking over his shoulder and caught the eye of one of the agents. Silently, he jerked his head down the corridor; they immediately filed down the corridor around E and Mallory.

"Five. Billion. Dollars. Five billion, and nine months,E," Mallory pressed, even as E turned to watch the suits practically mark down the corridor. "How do you use up that much tax payers' time and money, and still haven't come through with any results?"

"We got one of the Morphers, and three of the Zords," E retorted hotly, finger pointed accusingly at his elder. "And that's more than any other government organization has done in the same amount of time."

"E, come now," Mallory sighed, shaking his head as both hands come to rest on the head of his cane. "You know as well I as do, that that's simply not true. You've encounter them your-"

"I'm not talking about those Hunters down in Texas, or whatever other bullshit that G.I. division was cooking up back then," E interrupted, hand gesturing to the wall but clearly still linked with his words. "They made those powers, they knew exactly how to harness them. We pretty much had to start from scratch! That takes time."

"And that's exactly what we don't have anymore," Mallory tried to reason, but E simply blow him off and looked ready to walk back down the corridor. But before he could, one of the suits returned in a rush, eyeing a dirty look in E's direction before stopping by Mallory.

"Sir, a convoy just left the hanger as we were getting there. They appeared to be heading towards the city."

A heavy sigh came from Mallory, as he turned his disapproving glare to the head of D-13 standing a little way down the corridor. "E…"

"All I need is this one chance," E turned around to face Mallory, his expression unreadable. Yet the forceful way he had removed his hands from his pockets gave an indication to his mood. "That's all I need."

"And what makes this time so different to your previous, failed attempts?" Mallory demanded, his voice growing rougher. He wordlessly dismissed the agent, leaving just E and himself down the entire length of the corridor. The two held a silent glare for what seemed the longest time; only the occasional noise from down the corridors kept some degree of noise.

"It will."

With those final words, E turned and walked down the corridor again. But he barely reached the doors when Mallory spoke up again; his words enough to make E pause, hand just about raised to push the doors open.

"If you think you'll find peace of mind for what happened in Angel Grove after this is over…You'll be sorely disappointed."

E remained still for a few seconds following this; for a brief moment, Mallory thought, in some tiny sliver of hope that Elijah would for once listen to him. But that hope was swiftly struck down when E moved through the door entirely.

"It's not going to change what happened!" Mallory shouted, just as E slammed the door shut behind him; enough force to have the door bounce off the frame a few times before finally coming to a rest. Leaving Mallory in the corridor by himself. The Director gave another sigh, both hands coming to rest on the head of his cane.

"It's not going to bring her back…"

\/\/\/

"Where is everyone?"

MUTT's mechanical fingers lifted from the keyboard, turning to look at Savage as he stepped into the main chamber. Smoothing out the wrinkles in his trench coat, Savage took a slow, sweeping look around the room as he entered; his ears rotating to try and catch even the quietest out of place noise.

"You must have been in a very long meditative state, Savage; I did not pick up any sound coming from your chambers," MUTT commented, reaching to the keyboard beside him, tapping a few keys to bring up another program onto the screen. He went to tap the keyboard again, but his hand curled back into itself when a second tab flashed into the screen. "Nor have I picked up…any significant movement from your chambers."

"What have I told you about keeping tabs on me?" Savage snapped, briskly walking around the chamber and came to a stop beside one of the other doors; poking his head through upon it opening up for him, letting out a huff when his search yielded no result. "Besides," he eventually added, pulling his head back and looked across at MUTT. "Aren't I allowed to sleep in as I choose?"

"But it is very unlike you, Savage," MUTT countered, slowly stepping down from the controls and began an approach to the Wolf; but he quickly side-stepped to avoid being shoved aside as Savage marched across the room. "You are a creature of habit, if ever there was one," he continued to press as Savage opened up, and looked through, another door; getting the same reaction as the first door.

"I understand the events of last week took their toll on you, but-"

"Don't!" Savage snapped, turning on MUTT and pointed a clawed finger at the cybernetic companion accusingly. His eyes hardened into a fiery glare, with fangs on partial display in a low growl. Before he let it spiral into a full-blown snarl, Savage managed to catch himself; a slow inhale partially-reclaimed his composure, though the glare remained.

"Just…don't."

He left the claw of his pointing finger barely touching MUTT's chassis linger a moment longer, before withdrawing as he turned and walked away; leaving MUTT where he stood, head drooping slightly.

"Now, where are they?"

MUTT looked up again when Savage spoke, finding he had come to a stop in the centre of the chamber and looking in MUTT's direction. Though he took a second to react, MUTT silently returned to his control point and activated one of the monitors.

"I sent them out on their patrols of the city earlier than usual; some of the cameras I've managed to get into have started to act up, and need them to investigate if they've been tampered with."

Savage approached the control point as MUTT explained, and eventually got to look at the monitor when MUTT turned it around. The screen showed a barebones map of Pax Valley, with three blips flashing at different locations; the blue and white to one corner, the black and yellow to the bottom, and Isaac's lone red flashing light in the centre of the map.

"How many of them?" Savage questioned.

"No more than half a dozen."

Savage's eyes flicked back to the map again, but a sudden alert flashed on one of the monitors behind MUTT. He looked around his robotic companion, who turned around and approached the flashing screen. "It's Isaac," he informed, tapping the keyboard to silence the alert.

"MUTT speaking."

"Hey MUTT; looks like you were right," came Isaac's modified voice over the comms.

"Is the camera damaged in anyway?" MUTT questioned.

\/\/\/

Isaac let out a breathy chuckle, looking back to the camera location he had been sent to; or at least, what was left of it. "Yeah, I'd say it's damaged," he replied, kicking a scrap of metal that may have once held the camera to the wall. "But something doesn't seem right."

"What do you mean?" Savage's voice suddenly came into focus, as if shoving MUTT aside to take the microphone for himself.

"Oh...Savage. So glad you could join the land of the living, at long last," Isaac initially responded, his tone quickly shifting to one much drier. Before Savage could get a response in, Isaac continued, "I don't know; something just seems…off. I mean, look at this," as he bent down to grab the least damaged part of the camera; which, again, wasn't saying much, considering how it had been folded over onto itself.

"That looking a bit excessive to you?"

The commlinks were quiet for a few seconds, before MUTT's voice finally came back into range, "It would appear the damage is rather…overdone for Demons to be behind this."

"Seems the humans are trying to throw us off something," Savage's voice piped in.

"But appearances can be deceiving," MUTT interjected, as Isaac tossed the camera back down to the ground. "I shall see if the others have encountered similar discoveries and see if any of the other cameras have caught anything."

"Alright, I'll have a look around; see if they left any other clues," Isaac replied, giving a confirming nod despite knowing there was no way for MUTT and Savage to see it.

"We'll keep you updated as well. MUTT out," came the last words before the comms were cut off.

Isaac's hand fell back down to his side, giving the camera remains one last look over before walking off; effortlessly stepping off the edge of the building and plummeted to the ground. Though instead of leaving a massive crater to mark his landing, only a faint crack formed as he crashed into the ground. Rising again with a quiet breath, he took a few seconds to look around the dead silent city.

Even now, this far after the city was evacuated, the silence still seemed…unsettling. He almost had to laugh at how that was the thing he found unsettling.

"All the Demon shit we've been through, and you're spooked by a ghost town…" Isaac uttered under his breath, finally ending in a hollow chuckle. "Fuck sake, Isaac…grow a pair."

But as he said that, the wind seemed to shift; hitting him with a number of scents he had grown accustomed to within Pax Valley. One stood out as particularly hard-hitting, to the point he nearly had to step back when it came up on his sensors.

He turned sharply to the direction of the source, finding the faint trail leading away from the city centre; he couldn't place where exactly the scent was so familiar, but it just….did.

"Whose there?" he called, somehow almost expecting it to be some kind of intruder. But after a few minutes and no reply, he dared a step forward. Then another, followed by another. And before he even realized it, he was jogging down the street and rounded the corner.

He caught the faintest of movement vanish around the edge of a building.

"Hey! Stop!" Isaac shouted, rapidly closing the short distance between him and the unknown movement, coming to a stop just as he rounded the corner. But he saw no trace of anyone; no alley for someone to dive into, too great a distance to cover in the time.

"What the hell's going on…?" he asked under his breath, cautiously walking alongside the wall as he looked around. Trying to pick out anything that would confirm that he did, in fact, see something; and wasn't starting to see figments of his imagination.

After crossing the street and walking a short distance more, Isaac rounded another corner, muttering to himself, "Bet it's some damn stray wondering aroun-"

A slash swung at him out of nowhere, striking him in the shoulder. Isaac shouted in pain and staggered backwards, falling over onto his back in his haste to escape. His hand quickly went to clasp the fresh wound, finding, much to his alarm, that it had cut right through the suit and dug deep into the skin; he was sure he could feel it right to the bone, but he'd have to check later.

Right now, a much more immediate problem loomed over him.

Still firmly clawed into the wall, the Wolkeins' stick-like frame and ungodly hissing only added to the nighmare-like posture it had from hanging from the wall. It finally let go and landed on the ground where Isaac had been struck, slowly rising to its full height. The wide tear across the width of its jawline gave way to its gnashing fangs, white froth becoming more and more noticeable with every 'breath' the Wolkein took.

"What the-What the Hell?!" Isaac exclaimed, shuffling back to put more distance between him and his attacker. "How the fuck are you here!? Wait; how are you even fucking alive?!"

But the Uber-Wolkein couldn't give a comprehensive answer; only lashing out with a swing of its massive clawed hand.

Isaac barely rolled out of the way in time, the Uber-Wolkeins' claws digging into the stone his head had been moments earlier. Landing in a kneeling position, Isaac side-glanced to his wound and grit his teeth, as he rose onto his feet. As he gingerly began shifting into a defensive stance, he went to bring his Howler up to his mouth piece; perhaps he could get away with a subtle call to MUTT, if he was quiet enough. He went to speak into it, starting, "MUTT, there's a-"

Clearly, he wasn't quiet enough.

Isaac shouted out and ducked to the side as the Uber-Wolkein lunged forward, dodging another strike to the head by mere inches. What he couldn't dodge, though, was the kick straight to the chest. It sent him flying backwards, coming to an abrupt stop when he smashed into the side of a car; with enough force to nearly flip the car over.

After all the wheels crashed back to the ground, and he had removed himself from the newly-warped door, Isaac staggered back to his feet. He gave a rough couple of coughs, but quickly straightened up as the Uber-Wolkein staggered closer.

"Fine then," he grunted, rising his fists. "Wanna do things that way? Fucking bring it."

\/\/\/

"Jeez," Kyle muttered, probing what little scraps remained of the utterly destroyed camera. He could hear the glass that once was the lens crunching under Tanya's steps as she neared. "Someone really didn't want themselves on film."

"Probably some punk thinking he's tough," Tanya commented, kneeling down opposite Kyle and looked over the camera's remains; brushing aside the smaller glass and metal shrapnel to pick up one of the nearly intact camera components; one of outer-casing's sides, if she had to guess. "Or some lost Wolkein decided it didn't like something getting its fugly face."

"Some punk, ugly-ass Wolkein…" Kyle flicked aside the scrap remains. "Ain't there a point where those two cross?"

He smirked under the safety of his helmet when he overheard the quiet chuckle from Tanya; a quick glance up showed her giving a shake of her head. And though he couldn't be entirely sure, he had a feeling there was grin hidden beneath the cover of her helmet.

"I'll have a look 'round, see if we can't narrow the options down," Tanya eventually said, standing up again and gave the area another brief look around. "See if anything stands out on the camera…well, what's left of it anyway; I doubt Savage would be happy if we don't have an answer for him."

"Yeah, he'd care…if he was actually awake by this point," Kyle remarked dryly as Tanya walked off, leaving him with the warped shrapnel to poke through. "Seriously, he gets on our asses all the time we want even the slightest lie in, and what's he now? Dead to the fucking wor-"

A sudden growl interrupted Kyle, and both sets of eyes zeroed in on the now-lit up Howler on his wrist; the growls in sync with the flashing of its eye. He glanced up again, uttering, "Shit…"

Tanya let out another laugh, shaking her head as she headed off, waving behind her as she called, "Speak of the Devil and he'll appear."

"Rather face a bunch of Demons than a really pissed Savage," Kyle muttered, eyeing the Howler wearily; almost hesitating to answer the Howler even as the growls started growing louder.

"Be careful what you wish for!" Tanya called back as she vanished beyond the surrounding buildings, leaving Kyle to deal with the incoming comms.

With another sigh, Kyle looked down at his Howler once again and, after taking a moment to figure out what his responses to most of Savage's potential remarks, answered. "Hey, uhh…Kyle here," he answered, clearing his throat after.

"MUTT here," came the quick response.

"MUTT? Thank God," Kyle sighed in relief, pushing off the ground to stand. "Thought it was Savage for a second there."

"And why would that be a concern of yours?" Savages' growls came through the comms all of a sudden.

Kyle froze mid-step, eyes stuck to his Howler as his mind desperately tried to think of a response that wouldn't escalate the situation; only to find every single response he had thought up had vanished. Leaving on silence as his reply for a few seconds.

Though a response did eventually come out.

"…Shit," came out of his mouth before he had a chance to stop it.

And while it did sound like Savage's growls were gearing up for a retort-or static over the comms, Kyle couldn't tell-it was MUTT who, thankfully, spoke next. "I was just checking in, seeing if you've found anything wrong with the camera."

Thankful for the shift in topic, Kyle turned around to look at the shredded camera casing and raised the Howler up to his helmet. "Yep, there's something wrong with it alright…"

"Hm, strange; Isaac reported in something similar," MUTT commented, the quiet tapping of keys keeping the comms from falling into complete silence. "This is beginning to look more like a coordinated pre-emptive attack than simple mechanical failure. I shall check in with you after I contact Tyler and Natalie."

"We'll have a look around, see what we can find."

"MUTT out."

Kyle lowered his hand back down, and looked back around. "Yo, T! MUTT thinks we're more in the shit than before, says we need to have a look…around…"

He trailed off when he rounded the corner, and found Tanya wasn't present; he hadn't expected her to wander that far. "Tanya?" Kyle's call gained no response, prompting him to increase his pace to a light jog as he crossed the street; first checking down one of the alleys, but found nothing, and quickly back peddled back down the opposite direction.

"Tanya! Ta-!"

Kyle was stopped dead in his tracks, his voice dying in his throat as he saw the sight before him.

While it was one of the few buildings to still be standing after all this time, Zander's gym wasn't in the best state; all the months of fighting going on throughout the city had taken its toll on many of the buildings, but Kyle knew the gym could have been in a much worse state.

He slowly approached, his eyes shifting around to take in the entirety of the building; taking particular note of the shattered one-way windows that used to be line the main weights room. He recalled the few times he had been in that very room; though actually lifting the weights only accounted for a small fraction of these times. He mainly remembered times of hanging around while Tanya did most of the workouts.

Tanya.

Kyle spotted a flash of yellow through one of the partially-cracked windows, and he immediately turned and jogged to next empty frame. He stuck his head through, knocking a few shards of loose glass out of the next window frame, calling, "Tanya!"

He found her standing in the centre of the gym, back to the windows and staring at the now-damaged wall. When she didn't respond, Kyle carefully moved through the frame entirely; another shard of glass shattering on the ground. But that only broke the silence momentarily, as it quickly grew again between the pair of Warriors.

Kyle eventually couldn't stand it silence any longer, and repeated, "Tanya?" as he cautiously approached.

"Do you think he'd ever forgive us?"

She didn't turn to him when she put this question forward, so Kyle had to rotate around to get her visor into view; only then, did Tanya turn her head even slightly. "Zander," she clarified, her tone much lower than previous; her helmet noticeably ducking down. "No secret who we are at this point…especially after that copycat shit storm. Just…"

Kyle looked over Tanya slowly, before his gaze shifted over to the desk situated at the other side of the room; seemed almost strange to see it unmanned, without Zander or anyone in the middle of their routines. The silence seemed that much more present without them.

"Maybe," he started, approaching the desk. His steps echoed obnoxiously around the deserted building, but he ignored this as his hand was raised to trace the edge of the desk. "But I didn't know him as well as you do; do you think he'd forgive us?" he moved around the other side of the desk, hands resting on the dust-covered surface, looking up to Tanya.

Tanya let out a sigh, looking off to the side for a short while. Her hands eventually came up to either side of her helmet, and was slowly removed with a quiet hiss of air releasing. Her hair flowing loose again, she approached the desk and set the helmet down between herself and Kyle.

"I'd like to think he would…but…"

"But?"

"There's only so much forgiveness a single person can give, and I think we've gone way beyond what most people would even consider…Christ sake, we basically kicked all of them out."

"If they hadn't of been evacuated, who knows what would have happened?" Kyle reasoned, the chin of his helmet coming to rest atop his fist as he leant against the desk. "All the shit this place has seen since we started Ranger-ing; Demons, Government, the Silver asshole…something was going to suffer because of it. Let's just be thankful it was the city, not the people."

"Yeah…I guess I just wish things worked out less…fatally."

"Yeah…" Kyle agreed with a slight nod, letting out a sigh that came out like a growl through the comm filters. Realizing the silence would quickly return if something didn't happen to stop it, and Kyle really didn't like for it to continue the sombre route it was heading down, his hands performed a three-step rhythmic tap on the desk as he took a step back to look underneath.

"Where'd Zander keep those protein bars?" he asked absentmindedly, crouching down to rummage through the draws. "I've got a hankering for one of those peanut cobble ones…"

Tanya let a small smirk across her face as Kyle searched to satisfy the sudden pang of hunger; she knew the real reason for the diversion, and she appreciated the switch to the lighter tone. She leaned over the desk, crossed arms propping her up.

"You really gonna risk one of those bars after all this time?"

"Hey, if Twinkies can survive the apocalypse, I think peanut cobbler bars can manage a few months unattended."

"Now's definitely a good chance to see if these Howlers did anything to toughen your gut."