Curse of the Power Rangers (II)
The roar of engines echoed across the flat plains, multiple vehicles tearing across the horizon. Dust was quick to be thrown about; the factors of the road being severely underused since the evacuation and the large number of trucks suddenly pounding the tarmac both playing into the dust cloud's size. And while it did act as an indicator of the impending force, the dust acted as a cover for the convoy; obscuring just how many were present.
In the truck at the head of the convoy, leading both the charge and the dust cloud, Clint sat in the front passenger seat of the armoured Jeep; switching between the open plains before them, with the rapidly-approaching city of Pax Valley coming into view, and the tablet resting in his lap.
A number of blips flashed across the screen, all contained within a highlighted outline of Pax Valley's borders. His hand moved back to the screen and zoomed out; enough to show a number of other blips far beyond the borders' line, most clustered together but slowly spreading out.
The same hand reached up to the side of Clint's face, tapping the earpiece to activate the device.
"E, we're approaching the Pax Valley border," he called in, other hand flicking the screen of the tablet to switch which program was currently open. "I've started sending the squads out to their pre-designated positions. Should be another fifteen minutes before we can being the Operation."
"You've got ten; we need to keep this tight to keep things under the Rangers' radar, until the last possible moment."
Clint ground his teeth together, biting back a response that he knew could have had severe fallout. Instead settling on a simple response, "Fine…ten minutes it is. I'll call in when we're in position."
"Copy."
"Over and out," Clint ended the call, giving a slight roll of the eyes and accompanying shake of the head. But this was short lived, as he switched the earpieces' frequency.
"Alright men, keep it tight; E's cut our rendezvous time down to ten, so we gotta make ever second count."
Various groans and a range of complaints came over the comms immediately after Clint's update; he gave it them a few seconds to let it cool down, anticipating this reaction from the already strained-men. "What crawled up his ass to put him in a bad mood this time?" one of the men asked after the rest had died down.
"Probably something to do with Mallory showing up out of nowhere," Clint responded, starting to give out directions on the tablet for different vehicles; a quick glance in the passengers' mirror showed three trucks pulling out of the dust cloud and to the right.
"Mallory? Shit…"
"Like, Director Mallory?"
"The very same," Clint responded, looking up again to find the city of Pax Valley far closer than before. "So this is our last chance to get these Ranger bastards under control, or we'll be forced to hand this operation over to far less capable hands."
"And we'll still get the short end of the shit for not getting this done," one soldier said over the comms.
"Exactly. So move out, and get those damn Rangers," Clint ordered, getting a number of 'yes sir's in response before he ended the comms. In the door-side mirror, a number of other vehicles peeled off from the pack, more emerging from the dust ever second as they neared. Clint continued to draw out routes for each squad, keeping careful watch on the city ahead.
"We've only got one last shot at this."
\/\/\/
"Not that I am trying to promote the use of excessive force in a public…well, formerly public area, but I thought you'd be out there with them."
E glanced across at Mallory, breaking his stare to the numerous live feed screens stationed in front of them; beyond them, the techies working tirelessly at their computers. The last thing E needed was to have something minute fail at the very last second. While behind them, Fairweather and a number of other scientists were busy, the opened Silver Ranger suit laid in the middle.
"Fairweather and her team need to see to some mechanical gremlins present in the Suit," E answered stiffly, earning a side-glance from Fairweather at the mention of her name. Only when Mallory turned to look over her in return, did she return her eyes to the notepad in her hands.
"Remind me to run a diagnosis on these readings when we get a chance," she quietly asked one of her assistance, gesturing to the data reading device plugged into the inner panels of the Suit. "Not sure we'll have time to before…this."
"Besides," E's voice cut through again, clearer than the last time, as he turned to approach Fairweather and the Silver Suit. "We need to catch the Rangers off-guard as best as we can; they've got some kind of early warning system, and they seem to pick up on anything close to their Ranger suits near the city. When the time comes, I'll join the operation."
The rhythmic tap of Mallory's cane against the polished floor, steadily growing louder as he too neared. "So this is where the majority of the funding for the program has been put into, I assume?" he asked, gesturing to the open-faced Suit.
"It takes a lot of money to make a suitable Ranger suit from scratch," E remarked, unaware of the eye roll Fairweather sneaked behind her glasses.
"Would have cost significantly less if you used an established suit as a base; you have a creator of the Lightspeed suits working for you," Mallory pointed out, gesturing to Fairweather.
"With him," Fairweather correctly sharply, flicking her pencil around to rub out a sudden jolt of lead against paper; an involuntary reaction after Mallory's words. She gave the pair a look. "Though it doesn't feel like an equal partnership at times."
"It's a…complicated partnership, shall we say," E answered stiffly, trying to give a smile but it didn't seem to reach his eyes. They were too occupied trying to burn a hole through Fairweather's glasses.
"Even still, not like you didn't have other options to build off of. The Zephyr Hunters, the attempts made by the Silver Guardians, I'm sure we even had some early prototype blueprints from that Covert Operation."
"None of them were up to the task," Fairweather finally spoke up after the longest pause, gesturing to the faint glow hidden behind the layers of panels in the guts of the Suit. "This crystal is beyond anything I've encountered before; we're still learning more about it."
"Let's just hope nothing fatal comes of it," Mallory commented wearily, glancing up from the suit to give a side-glance across to E; who didn't seem to pick up on the look, but walked away from the suit shortly afterwards.
"We're on the clock now, Fairweather. I need you to finish up as soon as possible."
\/\/\/
"Nat here."
"Natalie, MUTT checking in."
"MUTT, we've found the camera you sent us out to find; or what's left of it, anyway," Natalie answered, already turning on the spot and walked back out into the sunlight. "Tyler's checking if there's anything worth salvaging from it that might help us."
At his name being mentioned, Tyler glanced up from what they could pick up from the, mostly, destroyed camera. Both his helmet and Nat's were resting a short distance away on the sidewalk, still rocking side-to-side minutely as they tried to become level.
"Tell him the only thing he's gonna get out of this is a hell of a jigsaw puzzle," he called over, gesturing to the scrap metal before him. "Ain't much else worth tinkering with."
"You get that MUTT?" Natalie questioned, looking back at her Howler.
"I did," came the short response, before the typing of keys filled the silence between MUTT's voice. "Isaac, Tanya and Kyle have reported similar circumstances with the cameras they've come across. I fear this may be someone preparing an attack on the city. Keep your wits about you."
"Got it," Natalie replied, ending the comms with a press of the Howler's button.
"Shit about to go down?" Tyler asked, grabbing his and Natalie's before getting to his feet, offering hers to take.
"Maybe; MUTT's working on it," Natalie replied, gratefully taking her helmet and holding it under her arm. "The others are finding cameras like this, so something's definitely up."
"MUTT's gonna need to recalibrate his sensors if someone can just waltz in here and smash the shit out of these cameras," Tyler commented, as he and Natalie walked down the street. The camera wasn't of any use, and MUTT had been updated. All that was left to do now was a few of their usual stops around the city, and the rest of the day was theirs.
"I'm sure you and him are gonna love doing that," Natalie remarked, a slight smirk tugging at one corner of her lips to accompany the friendly shoulder nudge.
While it didn't get a full blown laugh out of him, Tyler did give a little smirk as he glanced across. "MUTT needs to have someone that understands him; honestly, I'm surprised he hasn't had a full-blown meltdown with Kyle around."
Natalie bit her lip to keep the laughter from coming out, though a faint snort managed to escape. "Oh come on. He's not that bad."
"OK…now try saying that with a straight face."
Just the way the comment came out, along with the momentary glance her way from Tyler, was the part that tickled Natalie the most. She had to bring her hand over her mouth in a vague attempt to conceal the laughter; though she couldn't conceal them all, and that, combined with the shaking of her shoulders with her laughing, only brought out Tyler's smirk all the more.
"Alright, alright! You've made your point," Natalie finally got out, giving a shake of her head as she tried to get her grin under control. But when she looked back at Tyler, and that raised eyebrow look, the laughing started anew. "Don't give me that look!"
Tyler's smirk only grew at her laughs, as they continued down the street. He'd lost track of where exactly they were heading down, the quiet streets long since blending together to him at least. At least back before all this, Tyler could tell the streets apart from the people who lived on them.
Back before…
The smile slowly faded from his face, and he only found he had come to a dead stop when he saw Natalie walking ahead of him.
When she noticed this, Natalie stopped and turned around; her own smile having faded. "Tyler?" she asked, slowly retracing her steps.
"Does the silence ever get to you?"
She didn't need to ask what he meant; instead, Natalie came to a stop beside Tyler again and turned to look down the streets before them. Barren roads, the silent sidewalks, cars that were left behind in the rush to evacuate gathering dust. Only the faint sound of wind blowing through the cracks of buildings and the distant yowls and barks of stray animals broke the monotony of it all.
They were in a proper ghost town.
"…I try not to let it, but…" she found herself struggling to find the right words.
"Just too much sometimes."
He looked across to Natalie, taking note of her finger drawing a back-and-forth pattern against the base of her helmet. Like she was trying to rub the colour off the armour piece.
"Though I guess we've gotta get used to it…" He glanced down to his helmet, and held it out in front of him. Seeing his own warped reflection in the eyes, even with the hairline cracks running over the eye holes. "Not like there's a normal life after this…assuming we even live to see any sort of life after this."
When Nat didn't response, he tried pressing the matter more. "Do you think there's actually a life for us after-?"
"Shh!"
The sharpness of Natalie's interruption quickly silenced Tyler, almost reeling back at the sudden switch. He glanced around, half-expecting to see a sudden demonic presence surrounding them or an ambush closing in on them. But no, they were still very much alone, in the middle of a very much abandoned part of the city.
"What is it?" he dared to whisper, carefully circling around Natalie to get a better look at her face; hopefully, using that to get a handle on the seriousness of the situation.
The smile had completely dropped from her face; looking forward, but didn't seem to be focused on what was in front of them. She was still paying attention-Tyler knew that well enough-but she wasn't looking for someth-
"Move, quickly."
"What is it?" Tyler pressed, even as Natalie slipped her helmet over her head and locked it into place.
"Move!" she exclaimed, effortlessly leaping onto the rooftop of the building beside them.
Hastily locking his own helmet back over his head, Tyler tried to keep pace; the ground cracked beneath him, with the amount of force he put into his jump. Landing on the rooftop, stumbling a little in the process, he expected to find Natalie waiting for him. But, by the time he righted himself and looked around, Natalie was already landing on the next rooftop over.
"Hey, wait up!" he shouted, almost staggering in his attempt to make it to the edge of the roof.
It was only after the next few rooftops that Natalie finally came a stop; Tyler's frustration only growing with every vacant rooftop.
"W…What was that…a…all about?" he gasped, gasping for breath as he brought his hands down to his knees to keep from falling over as he came to a stop.
"Do you hear that?" The question completely avoided Tyler's, with Natalie approaching the edge of the rooftop again.
"Not fucking again…" Tyler uttered, forcing himself to stand straight, despite evidently still trying to recover his breath. But when he noticed Natalie was still standing there, his shoulders slackened and he cautiously approached the White Omega. He looked out to the city, standing in line. "Hear what?"
"Listen…Like, really listen," Natalie insisted, shaking her hand in front of Tyler, as if saying 'stop talking.'
Giving her a strange look from under the safety of his helmet, Tyler looked back out to the city stretching out before them. After letting out a slow exhale, he slide his eyes closed, and listened.
For the longest time, nothing was there but silence; endless, yet almost deafening. Even the faintest sound of wind passing around the building they stood upon grew quiet as he tried to listen harder. But he was quickly growing frustrated with the empty void before him, and was almost ready to question if Natalie was actually hearing things.
But that was when he heard something.
Relief, however, quickly morphed into question, and then alarm, as he started to focus in on the sound and it became much clearer. He could have sworn it was a low rumble…but multiple, one on top of the other, and sounded like it was growing closer.
Almost sounded like…
"Engines."
"A lot of them as well," Natalie confirmed, walking away from the edge; Tyler quickly following, after opening his eyes and a brief back-and-forth look between Natalie and beyond the city. She brought her Howler up and pressed the comms button.
"MUTT, this is Nat," she said, pausing to confirm that MUTT had picked up.
What she didn't expect to get, was static.
"MUTT?" she pressed the comms button again, then repeatedly after the static failed to leave. "MUTT? It's Nat, respond!"
"Mine isn't working either," Tyler informed, tapping his own Howler multiple times in attempts to get it working. But every time, he got static over his comms.
"Something's not right; really not right," Natalie commented, hand falling to her side again as she looked around. The rumbling was growing closer, almost audible to the average human by this stage. She turned to Tyler. "We need to find the others, and quick."
Tyler nodded. "C'mon!" he called, as the pair quickly broke into a run, leaping off the opposite side of the building. Quickly fading into streaks of blue and white, hopping rooftops and tearing across the city.
\/\/\/
"Scramblers have been activated, sir," a technician informed, eyes remaining glued to the screen. Fingers effortlessly swept across the keys, giving a final tap of the 'ENTER' key. "All communication frequencies used by the Rangers have been severed."
"Clint, you in position?" E turned back to the monitors; each showing a different viewpoint from the trucks, but E was solely focused on the central screen. Pax Valley, with its perimeter almost entirely surrounded by a secondary border of red dots. His eyes zeroed in on the single remaining dot, still out of line but slowly moving into position.
Only when the dot fell into line with the others, did the radio jump to life with Clint's voice. "All in position here, E. Waiting on your call."
"Then Operation Spectre is go; Clint, you and your men start entering the city. Make sure the sound cannons are warmed up and you go precisely where you are positioned," E jabbed a finger towards the screen as he walked off; knowing full well that the only communications he had with Clint was audible, not visual, but he needed to emphasis the significance to the scientists in the room.
"Fairweather, time's up. I need the suit," he continued, gesturing towards the former head of Lightspeed research and development.
His pointing earned him a glare from behind Fairweather's glasses, but a flick of her notepad later, she complied.
"Clear the table," she quietly asked her assistants, helping take a few of the tools off and set them to one side. With a flick of a switch, the table started folding upward; the suit locked in place, front panels opened up and ready for its pilot.
"Fascinating…" Mallory commented as he followed after E, looking over the intricately designed inner workings of the suit. He only pulled his eyes away when the table had rotated up a complete 90 degrees, giving the illusion of the suit itself standing. As E stepped up to the suit, removing his jacket and rolling up his shirt sleeves, Mallory turned his keen eye to Fairweather.
"But what makes you think a scrambler and a small army are going to be the factors that finally allow you to achieve what you failed to do so many times previously?"
"I see your hearing isn't what it used to be," E answered before Fairweather had a chance, turning on the spot to face Mallory. A smirk twitched the corner of his lip, not quiet reaching his eyes; but what it did do, was briefly show a look Mallory could only describe as 'cocky'.
"Sound cannons," E clarified, arms outstretched as he stepped back. Immediately the suit's open panels enveloped him; panels closing around his arms and legs, locking into place. "Something we developed with a little help from one of the…captured assets."
"Really?" Mallory's hand folded neatly behind his back, cocking an eyebrow as he tried to maintain focus on E's face as the rest of him disappeared behind the suits' protective panels. "And what were the results of these tests? What of the asset?"
"Well…" E paused as the last of the chest panels closed in, locking in with a noticeable hiss. Knowing the next, and final, step, he closed his eyes as the face panel folded down. Landing into place with a clunk, the eye ports quickly lit up. "We've made some adjustments, but it's still a 100% mortality rate."
"What?" Fairweather asked sharply, her expression one of disbelief as she glared at E. "I'm sorry, but when did this happen?!"
"Priorities, Fairweather," E replied flatly, clenching his hands into fists as he pried the suit free from the table. "The here and now, that's where I need you to be."
"No! What about the othe-"
"Here and now!"
E towered over Fairweather normally, but the addition of the Silver Ranger suit only added to his height. The glow of the helmets' eyes were reflected in Fairweather's glasses, yet she refused to be the first to back down.
The entire control room ground to a haul, everyone present trying to conspicuously spy on the sudden standoff. You could almost cut the tension with a knife; the unspoken build up over a number of months, no-one saying anything outright. The D-13 head against the veteran Lightspeed Rescue head scientist.
But with a sharp cough, the technicians hastily resumed their work, and E shot Fairweather one last glare before stomping past her. "Activate the teleport," he snapped at an unlucky technician he passed, shoving past another unfortunate scientist in the process.
As he stepped out of many of the workers' lines of sight, a few dared to murmur among themselves, working slowing down a fraction.
"Uhhh…"
"Phil? You OK?" one technician asked, looking across at the techie next to him; the groan already raising concern, but when he saw the man beside him pinching the bridge of his nose and eyes scrunched up raised those worries. "Phil?"
"Damn headache…" he muttered, hand moving around to rub his left temple, his glasses falling back into place. "Can you keep an eye on my screen while I grab something?"
"Yeah sure," the technician replied with a nod.
Phil slowly stood up, uttering a pained "thanks…" under his breath as he walked towards the exit. The other technician watched him leave, before returning his attention to the monitor in front of him.
\/\/\/
"None of this is adding up to anything."
MUTT tapped a key and stepped out from behind the consoles, a projection of Pax Valley's border from a birds eye view forming. Savage approached from the opposite side, arms folded across his chest, as he watched MUTT work.
"The position Isaac found the broken camera," MUTT gestured to a point on the map, a blip appearing.
"Then Tanya and Kyle." Another blip appeared, across the city.
"And now, Natalie and Tyler have reported similar destruction in their area." A third blip appeared, appearing much further down the city than the others.
"And all of them are showing signs they were destroyed by Demons?" Savage questioned, flicking his gaze over to MUTT before looking between the blips again.
"We cannot confirm this, but from the images, it would appear so," MUTT replied. "But the sensors have not picked up any sort of demon trace. More to the point, what advantage would the destruction of human surveillance bring them?"
"The Demons aren't aware we're using them," Savage commented, slowly beginning to circle the projection; forcing MUTT to move as well. The pair circled the projection of Pax Valley, trying to piece this puzzle together.
Until MUTT paused, turning his 'eyes' back to the projection again. "Hmm…I wonder…"
\/\/\/
Phil closed the door to the control room behind him, looking forward to find the corridor before him empty. No patrols stationed or passing through, no lone scientists wandering about.
'Perfect.'
The pained grimace dissolved, resting on an indifferent scowl as his hand fell down to his side. He let out a sigh, rolling his head around his shoulders as he started walking down the corridor. His steps were silent against the polished floor, not a sound of his echoing down the hall.
He rounded a corner, taking note of the continued absence of humans. But this wasn't to last forever; he needed to make this quick.
\/\/\/
"These cameras were attacked for a reason," MUTT explained, returning to the keyboard and was typing again. "Perhaps I have found that reason."
The three blips were highlighted further, now being accompanied by a white cone reaching from the points. "And these are the views we get with these cameras."
"Pointing towards the outermost points of the territory…" Savage observed, coming up closer to the projection; perhaps there was something he missed the first time around.
"The only cameras we have in those areas; and now, they're out of action."
Savage's eyes slowly widened, realization dawning. "That means we're blind to those border points…we're sitting ducks!"
"I'm getting my armour on," he announced, speed walking towards his personal chambers as he gestured back to MUTT.
"But, Savage-"
"Alert the Warriors; an attack could come at any moment!"
"Savage-"
"I'm NOT letting the humans have my home, MUTT. Not aga-"
"SAVAGE!"
The cybernetic shout stopped Savage in his path, looking over his shoulder to MUTT.
He had walked around the map of Pax, standing between it and Savage now. "The comms are down."
"What?" Savage uttered, turning the rest of his body to face MUTT now.
"I may be able to get them back up, but not for a while; something is scrambling them somehow. For the moment, we are both blind and mute," MUTT explained, one hand raised to partially point to emphasis his points to Savage. "If something were to come, and you and the Rangers were out of the Den, I'd be out of contact with all of you."
"But how is it being scrambled?" Savage demanded.
\/\/\/
He ducked into the nearest vacant room to the corridor, finding himself in some board meeting room.
Feeling for the frame of the glasses, Phil carefully removed them; immediately, the hazel-brown shade faded into a sickly green glow that reached beyond the iris. Even going so far as to spill demonic black cracks around his eyes.
\/\/\/
"Demons sneaking in to damage surveillance cameras…some kind of scrambler keeping us from contacting the Warriors…this is no coincidence."
"You don't think…it can't be…" Savage shook his head, as if trying to shake the very idea from his head. It couldn't be the case, surely…could it?
\/\/\/
The glasses, now resting in his open palm, warped and remoulded themselves with a wisp of green magic circling. Catching the reflection of the eyewear, a viewing portal opened up before 'Phil.'
"My Master…"
\/\/\/
"Humans and Demons…working together…against us."
\/\/\/
"…The Siege has begun," Fear announced.
To be Continued...