Curse of the Power Rangers (III)
Isaac grunted as he came to a rest, brick dust covering him from head to toe. He thought he had the upper hand against the Uber Wolkein, up until he was sent hurtling through the air and smashing through the wall.
The entire room now had a thin layer of rubble atop the already present dust build up after months on abandonment.
Pushing himself free of the rumble piled on top of him, Isaac managed to raise himself to one knee just as the clawed hand of the Wolkein latched onto the inner wall of the newly formed hole. The unholy chatter grew far more present as it stepped in, toxic saliva dripping from the fangs and onto the kitchen floor.
A growl-like sigh came through his voice modulator.
"What's it gotta take to put one of you fucks down for good?" Isaac spat, brushing himself free of dust as best he could before quickly shifting into a fighting stance.
The Wolkein's only response was a series of unfathomable noises, capping it off with a sinister, hiss-like sound that escaped its fangs. Its lips-or what Isaac hoped was its lips-curled back, further exposing its mismatched fangs and dripping more saliva.
"Not the answer I was hoping for…" Isaac muttered, fists clenching up; giving a single roll of his head to either shoulder, electing a faint crack from his bones. He eyed up the knife block on the table between him and the creature, knocked over-presumably from when he came flying into the room-and knifes spilled across the table.
He rushed forward suddenly, hoping to catch the creature off guard. Isaac grabbed the knife block-the smallest knife the last to come loose-and charged the Wolkein with a shout.
But when he leapt forward, knife block raised to bring it down, the Uber Wolkein reacted; lunging forward and swung wildly. One lucky strike caught the side of Isaac's helmet, sending him flying back and slamming into the metal sink; though in doing so, he released the knife block and brought it down on the Wolkeins' shoulder.
Isaac was vaguely aware of a pained screech from across the room, as he pulled himself from the newly-warped skin and splintered cupboard. But he didn't get the chance to shake the ringing in his ears before the Wolkein got its second wind; its clawed fingers latching around his helmet, his visor completely obscured by the torn, dirty flesh palm.
He tried to pry the hand off, but not quick enough. The Uber Wolkein lifted him up, and slammed Isaac back down onto the sink; actually taking the entire instalment out of the counter, breaking the water pipes and quickly showering the pair in freezing water.
It was the addition of water that let Isaac slip free as he was raised up for a second pummelling. As he fell to the ground, he kicked as hard as he could. The blow struck the Wolkein square in the chest; throwing it up with enough force to slam it into, and through, the ceiling.
But even as Isaac took a second to recover, dowsed in torrents of tap water and now a fresh sprinkle of plaster dust, he could hear the screeches coming from the floor up; and it did not sound at all happy.
Pushing onto his feet again, Isaac almost jumped up into the hole to follow the Wolkein directly. But he stopped at the last second. For all he knew, the creature was already recovered and waiting for him to jump up, catch him unawares.
Instead, he looked around the now ruined kitchen. He spotted a couple of doors, either side of the kitchen, almost hidden by the rubble and upturned table. Quickly deciding on which door, Isaac jumped the wreckage and barged through; splitting the door clear in two and completely taking it off its hinges. Not giving this much thought, Isaac rushed down the hall and swung round the bottom banister of the stairs-almost taking the wooden beam out in the process-and took the stairs three at a time.
He reached the top and was about to start kicking doors down to continue the fight; three doors in the hallway, and just a matter of common sense and listening carefully to figure out which room. Just…
Something caught his eye, in his rush up the stairs.
Slowly turning on the spot, still breathing heavily from the previous short fight in the kitchen and ascending the stairs at the pace he did. He took a few steps to the wall, uttering a quiet, "What?" that was almost lost in the filter.
Even with the layers dust built up over the frame and a crack running through the glass, he could still vaguely make out the people's faces. Only a pair of figures were in frame; a mother and child. Not a father figure in sight. He raised his hand to wipe the dust from their faces, but hesitated before he touched the glass.
He could have sworn he recognised the pair…but...where from? His memories were foggy; must have been the heavier doses of Instinct he and the others were needing more often. But this seemed to have the unfortunate side effect of more frequent, splitting headaches.
The sound of the Wolkeins' screeching brought him out of his thoughts, and he stepped away from the frame. Whether he was thankful for the interruption or not, however, was another matter entirely.
With a final shake to clear his mind, Isaac marched towards the doors; quickly narrowing down the right room, and kicking down the door.
It flew to the opposite side of the room and split apart upon impact, light spewing into the dimly lit room; the only other source of light coming from the recently created hole. The streams caught the disturbed dust floating through the air, fading in and out of sight through the wide-spread light streams.
Wide-spread enough so he didn't see the Wolkein lunge at him.
Isaac shouted out as the clawed hand wrapped around his throat, its body looming tall over his eve despite the slight hunch. It effortlessly lifted him off the floor by a clear two feet; bringing Isaac in close, giving him a good, long look at its crooked fangs and torn flesh.
Thinking quickly, Isaac kicked out wildly, hoping to distract the Wolkein long enough to free himself. But the only thing this achieve was agitating the Wolkein even more. Another hellish growl escaped its fangs, bringing its other hand up to wrap around his helmet. The claws dug in, scraping the red layer to leave ragged silver grooves in their place, as the opposite hand released his neck-subsequently releasing a gasp of breath from Isaac-and replaced it over his helmet. The gangly fingers interlocked across the top of the helmet, leaving Isaac to desperately grab onto the bony forearms for support.
That was when he heard his helmet starting to groan and his HUD started to flicker; only when a large crack suddenly appeared down the glass, did he realize what it was doing. Eyes widened as the helmet start to give under the pressure, he knew his time was rapidly running out.
In a split second decision, one of his hands let go of the Wolkeins' forearm and managed to snake his way through the bony fingers to reach the side of his helmet.
With a tell-tale hiss, Isaac slipped free of his helmet and he fell to the ground with a heavy thud, surely causing further damage to the already weakened floor. But that seemed insignificant in comparison, as he watched the Wolkein effortlessly crush his now-empty helmet; a small shower of glass that once made up the visor sprinkling over him.
Tossing the now unusable helmet aside, the Wolkein turned back to the Red Alpha, sans helmet, but was met with a punch instead. Isaac struck it square in the jaw, sending it lurching back to recover. It backed up, forcing Isaac to advance.
"Come on!" Isaac shouted, bringing his fist back and aiming to throw another punch.
A wild punch caught him entirely off guard; the solid blow struck him square in the torso, sending him flying backwards through the door frame. Nearly taking off one side of the frame in an attempt to slow his flight, Isaac finally came to a stop when he slammed into the wall at the top of the stairs. He slid down to the floor, a large amount of the wall coming with him as a result of the impact.
A heavier object-a larger chunk of the wall, presumably-landed on him last, earning a low groan from Isaac. He could taste a coppery liquid on his lip, giving his chin a quick brush to confirm it to be blood; similarly, he could feel a warm liquid trickling down his temple. He gently eased his head against the wall, releasing a pained breath. His eyes closed, face scrunching up in pain.
Something had pierced something else, he could tell that much.
When he opened his eyes again, however, another matter forced itself front and centre.
"Fuck sake…."
The Wolkeins' clawed fingers slowly wrapped around the doorframe, as the rest of its body lumbered through. It zeroed in on Isaac, fangs dribbling with saliva as a menacing hiss made the very air quiver. As it drew closer, the floorboards creaking ominously beneath the creature's weight, Isaac tried picking himself up.
Chunks of wall fell from him, but the moment he tried to lift himself up, a shot of pain rocked his system. He quickly found the source to be his right shoulder. The fact that he couldn't feel the entire appendage being a clear sign, among other symptoms. But before he had a chance to force his arm back into place, he was suddenly very aware of the Wolkeins' presence over him.
Fearing this might be it, and unable to get his Howler up without the potential of setting the Wolkein off, Isaac's mind slowed as the realization dawned on him; his breath grew shallow and uneven, daring not to look up into the face of his killer.
He closed his eyes, and waited.
\/\/\/
Tanya's Howler suddenly lit up, growling up a storm. It almost made the Yellow Gamma Warrior drop the energy bar currently in hand, and succeeded in doing so with Kyle and his protein bar.
"Dammit!" he exclaimed, almost bending down to try and save it; he reappeared from behind the counter a few seconds later, his expression much fowler. "What's he want now?"
"Let's have a look, shall we?" Tanya asked rhetorically, scrunching up the empty wrapper and throwing it aside as she raised her Howler up. A quick tap later, she answered, "Tanya here."
The only response she got static; the glowing eye of the Howler flicking rapidly between bright and dim, a faint electrical crackling coming from the device.
"What the hell…?" Tanya muttered, pulling herself back from her Howler, glancing to see if Kyle was seeing what she was. And while he wasn't looking at her Howler, she saw him examining his own Howler. And judging by the way he reeled back from his wrist, his was reacting the same as hers.
"Fucking hell…" Kyle glanced across at Tanya; the thought of dropping his energy bar long since sinking to the back of his mind. "This can't be good."
"Thanks for stating the obvious," Tanya remarked, cutting the static and reaching for her helmet. "MUTT wouldn't have let this happen; something's up, and we need to figure out what before Savage has a meltdown."
"Pretty sure he can't help being territorial," Kyle interjected, hands instinctively raising to catch his helmet suddenly being thrown his way. He caught it with eyes, shooting Tanya a raised eyebrow look before slipping the helmet on. "Kinda comes with being a wolf."
With a roll of her eyes and a flick of her hair, Tanya slipped the helmet on and locked it in with a hiss.
"C'mon, let's have a look around."
Tanya didn't give him a chance to respond; before Kyle knew it, Tanya was already leaving through the same window frame he'd entered looking for her.
"Hey!" he shouted, quickly following through the very same window frame. Though strangely, he found Tanya had come to a stop not too far from the gym, and next thing he knew, he was standing alongside her again.
"A bit of warning next-"
"FREEZE!"
Kyle stopped mid-sentence, cautiously looking from Tanya to their surroundings.
All around them, guns were pointed at them. Behind each, a D-13 soldier had a finger on the trigger and the Warriors in their sights. The majority were standing on the same grounds as the Yellow and Black Warriors, though from the safe distance-supposedly-across the street. Some had taken up vantage points in the buildings above, and Kyle noticed the number of red dots swarming over his chest and flashing past his visor.
"…time."
From the row of rifle-armed soldiers, one stepped forward. Wearing a protective vest, he lifted the visor of his riot helmet and raised a megaphone.
"This is Corporal Baski of the United States' Division 13. We have you surrounded; any movement outside of the orders I give you will be met with force. Failure to comply will also be met with reasonable force."
"Reasonable force my ass!" Tanya retorted, daring to take a step forward.
But Kyle grabbed her arm before she could land the step, pulling her back in line with him; at the same time, several of the soldiers primed their rifles. They would have taken a step forward, if Baski hadn't raised his free hand to keep them back.
"This is your final warning! You will demorph now and come quietly, and we won't resort to incapacitation."
Yanking her arm from Kyle's grip, Tanya gave a slow once-over to the soldiers again.
"I'm getting at least thirty soldiers," Kyle whispered, mindful not to move too much to draw attention to the eyes very keenly trained on them.
"Thirty two; snipers up top."
Kyle dared to glance up, barely catching the two soldiers positioned at the very top of the building before the soldiers reminded him that their guns were very much honed in on them.
"Right…thirty two."
He stole a glance across to Tanya. "Reckon we can take 'em?"
Tanya twisted her head just enough to catch Kyle in her peripherals. "Don't we always?"
Kyle gave a brief chuckle, though quickly fell silent when the soldiers, again, reminded them of their presence. With a silent sigh, he cautiously flexed his hands into fists as he uttered, "Your call."
"This is your last chance!" Baski's voice boomed, yet it earned a simple eyeroll from under the protection of the Warriors' visors.
One second, the Yellow and Black Rangers were standing across the street from him and the soldiers currently under his command. The next-a mere blink later-they were streaks of light, tearing across the ground like it was nothing and had already reached his outermost soldiers. "Shit!" he exclaimed, but managed to gather himself enough to step back, raise the megaphone again and barked out, "Fire! Fire!"
Bullets suddenly started flying in all directions, forcing Baski and several of his men to take cover from their fellow soldiers' rounds. Attempts were made to keep them aimed squarely on the two Rangers, but they moved at such a pace that it made it nearly impossible; not to mention their systematic takedown of his men.
The yellow streak tore around one soldier, drawing his aim in a full circle-managing to land a shot on an unfortunate soldier-before he was met with a sudden fist right to the jaw, knocking him clean out. The streak barely gave him a second look before moving onto the next.
The black streak's latest victim found a pair of hands suddenly grabbing them from behind, and flung them into the air and straight into the side of the nearest building; actually leaving a faint imprint of the poor soldiers' body left as it peeled away and fell to the ground with a sickening crunch.
"Bring in the truck!" Baski hissed into his radio, diving behind an abandoned car and spying over the bonnet; ducking instinctively to avoid his head being taken off by a flying body that once belonged to one of his men. "Quickly!"
Tanya ran around the next soldier, a stream of bullets trying to keep up with her but she was just fast enough; a line of bullets embedding themselves in the building she blazed past. The gun was wrenched from his hands, and when he looked up, he was greeted with the Yellow Rangers' helmet smacking him in the face. He let out a shout as he fell, hands clutching his face while blood streamed down his body armour. Though he managed to open his eyes again, they were immediately closed again when a boot was heading his way.
Now he was out cold, Tanya turned her gaze to the next target.
Only to be immediately be met with a deafening shockwave that sent her flying.
Her shout was cut short when she slammed into the building, nearly collapsing under the impact, and fell face-first into the ground.
Her ears were filled with a continuous, hollow ring, and even as she tried to push herself back up she could feel something wasn't entirely right. And when she tried to look up to what had done this, she couldn't see straight; everything was going in and out of focus, edges were blurred and everything looked like it was tripled.
Or maybe that really was three soldiers rushing her while she was down.
"Tanya!" Kyle shouted, slamming the latest soldiers' head against the wall; a bloody imprint being left behind as the body fell, motionless.
He had seen her body go flying across the street from some unknown force; but, when he looked around, he quickly realized where, at least, it had come from. A truck had reversed up with the soldiers, the back doors had been opened to reveal…what he could only describe as a massive speaker in the covered back. While the speaker wasn't pointed in his direction, the ear-splitting noise was powerful enough to force him to one knee, hands involuntarily flying to the sides of his helmet in an attempt to block out the noise. Even his Howler reacted to the sound; a high-pitch snarl rocking throughout the suit.
By the time he could stand again, he realized, too late, that the soldiers had picked up on him again; those who weren't dealing with Tanya trained their guns on him, laser sights quickly focusing in on him.
He looked around rapidly, seeing the enclosing circle of soldiers barking "Stand down, stand down!" at him. He had to make an escape, and had to get Tanya up and away from the-
A shot rang out through the air, and Kyle went down; his hand going to his thigh, blood seeping through his fingers as he fell. The sniper shot had torn right through his suit like it was nothing; his thigh stood no chance, the bullet ricocheting off the inner suit face and around his leg. All of this resulted in a blaze of agony burning in Kyle, teeth grit together.
He barely registered the soldiers dog-piling him and throwing him onto his front, arms pinned behind his back. The next thing he recognised was when his suit vanished from around him, leaving him in his civilian clothes and his face right up against the tarmac. A grunt of discomfort managed to get out as one soldier drove their knee against the back of his head, his nose getting roughed up.
With a definite click around each of his wrists, one soldier grabbed him by the neck of his shirt and shoved him against the nearest wall. He shrugged off one of the soldiers' hands, but this only got him a rifle butt to the face. Now with a bloodied nose, Kyle breathed deeply, only able to watch as the soldiers handcuffed Tanya; making note of a device completely enclosing one hand, the one her Howler was on, and could only guess there was something similar on him.
"Baski reporting in. Black and Yellow are secured; gonna need transport. Now…just need the others."
\/\/\/
"MUTT? Savage?"
Tyler slapped his Howler a few times, only stopping when his prodding elected a growl from the device. "Isaac? Kyle? Tanya? Hello…Anyone?"
Even after listing off every name associated with their little group, the only response he got was continuous static. He eventually gave up, arms falling to his sides as he approached the edge of the building he and Natalie had decided to rest atop.
"Still nothing," he claimed in frustration, looking out over the edge in some baseless hope that the solution to all their problems would magically appear before him. "Whatever kind of thing they got blocking the Howlers, gotta be some serious shit."
He glanced across at Natalie, asking, "Find anything for those noises?"
Positioning herself atop an AC unit, Natalie was looking across the city; her helmet hiding her rapidly moving eyes, looking over all that lay before her for any sign of the noises' origins.
"Nothing," she answered, jumping down from the unit to approach Tyler. Whether it was their current height or the source being cut, she couldn't be sure of the details. "But keep your guard up; this could be anything. Something we might not be prepared for."
He wanted to make a joke in response; to respond with, how trying to prepare yourself for something you're not prepare for would, technically, make you prepared. And throw in a comment about how badly she contradicted herself.
But Tyler held his tongue; settling on a single, simple nod of the head, as he couldn't quiet trust his tongue.
Natalie seemed satisfied with the nod, and returned her gaze to the city before them. The silence had consumed the derelict buildings once more. Only now, Natalie wasn't sure how long this was going to last.
"I'll give the Howler a try," she announced, bringing her wrist up to emphasis her plans. "Maybe we'll eventually catch a gap in the scrambler and get through."
With another nod from Tyler, Natalie walked along the edge of the building, tapping the few buttons across the Howler and began listing off names. Tyler turned back to look out at the city again, slowly tuning out Natalie's voice to focus better. Slowly closing his eyes, he took a deep inhale and opened his eyes in time with his exhale.
A flock of birds were flying overhead, the sound of flapping wings overlapping, creating a near constant noise.
In the streets below, he could hear echoes of barks; two distinctly different, one deeper while the other resembled aggressive yapping more than barking. Sounded like two strays fighting over some scrap of food in one of Pax Valley's back alleys.
Then, all at once, these noises from both sky and ground were silenced by explosions. Tyler reeled back from the edge at the suddenness of the shift; in doing so, bringing him out of focusing on the minute noises.
His heart racing, Tyler quickly returned to the edge of the roof-almost throwing himself off in the process-and tried finding the source of the explos-no, wait. He leaned over the edge of the building, the pounding shockwaves were much more subdued. They weren't explosions…
Those were shots. Gunshots.
"Nat!" he called back, looking over his shoulder to the White Warrior across the rooftop from him. "There's something over he-"
A louder, much greater noise broke across the city, drawing Tyler's eyes back over the edge of the building.
And was immediately thrown back by an invisible force, sent flying across the rooftop.
Natalie turned around just in time, asking, "What is-?" before she was thrown back by Tyler's body, the two tumbling until they were stopped by the opposite side of the rooftop. Tyler landed on his back, with Natalie ending up sprawled across him; their helmets bumping against each other, knocking their heads about inside and earning a pair of groans from within each.
Pushing herself up, Natalie noticed the…compromising position the pair of them had landed in, briefly froze and she remained in place. But only for a moment, as her senses returned to her and she gave a quick shake of her head. She practically jumped to her feet, brushing off the dust-and hopefully, any lingering awkwardness-and looked towards the other side of the building.
"What the hell was that?" she questioned, glancing across as Tyler jumped back to his feet and came up beside her; his helmet concealing any sort of embarrassment on his end.
"I don't know," Tyler answered, but quickly approached the buildings' edge. "But let's find out."
"Tyler wait!"
But Natalie's protests went unheard, as Tyler-without hesitation-threw himself over the edge and sent himself hurtling to the ground.
"Dammit," Natalie uttered, rushing to the side and leaning over the edge just in time to see the point of impact; the faintest tremble rocking the buildings' base, something she could feel at the very top. But even with the minute swaying, she easily picked out a trail of blue charging free of the dustcloud and zipping along the street.
So, with a final sigh, Natalie's grip on the buildings' edge tightened. "Hope they're alright," she uttered, before throwing herself down after the overenthusiastic Tyler. She vanished into the still lingering dust cloud, appearing once again as she tore across the ground after the blue trail.
\/\/\/
He waited, and waited, and waited…but death never came for him.
How was he still alive?
Unsure if it was actually safe for him to do so or not, Isaac dared to crack one of his eyes open. The room was still dark, with only a few streams still reaching across to the opposite wall. He could still hear the faintest wind cutting through the new holes in the abandoned house; like the howls of a wolf, calling for its lost cub.
But the Wolkein was still there.
It stood like a statue, casting its malevolent shadow over him. Its fangs stood out against the shadows cast over its face. Its jaw one of the only spots on the creature that was highlighted by a spot of sunlight. He could even see a dribble of saliva hanging from one of its ill-fitted…canine teeth? It was hard to tell, the way they looked crammed in together.
Though that didn't explain why it hadn't killed him.
Not that Isaac was opposed to it taking its time.
But he wanted to know why.
As he attempted to shift, the collapsed wall groaned and the chunks slipped. A brief grunt of pain escaped before he could stop it, and he immediately froze. All of the noises combined resulted in the Wolkein shuddering, seemingly breaking out of the trance. But instead of launching itself at Isaac in a fit of rage, it reeled backwards; sinking into the chill of the shadows. It's lower jaw quivered, and that same unholy noise came from it again. Only…
Isaac gave a slight shake of his head. He must have knocked it harder than he thought. He could have sworn he thought the Wolkein sounded…
Distressed.
As he looked at the Wolkein, however, his thoughts quickly shifted as the creature tucked itself down, no longer being the looming presence. It took on a much more hunched stance, cowering as it backed up from Isaac.
"What the fuck…?" he groaned, trying to sit up. The plaster and chunks of wall shifted beneath his movement, but refused to let him up. He brought a hand up to brush the larger chunks aside. Though as he felt around the larger panels, his fingers felt one panel that didn't feel right; the others had this grainy feel and jagged edges, this one was smooth and evenly squared off. There was a slight dip in the centre of the raised outer edge.
Carefully, he felt around to find another edge and slipped his hand beneath. He slowly lifted it up, quickly realizing it was a picture frame: it must have come off with the rest of the wall when he smashed into it. His eyes shifted between what he could see of the frame, and the cowering Wolkein; this couldn't have been the reason…could it?
Shifting himself into a better sitting position, mindful that the Wolkeins' temperament could shift at any given moment, Isaac kept one eye on the shadows it had sunk into while he lifted the photo frame up into view. Though a stream of light briefly obstructed his view of any picture inside, he picked up on a crack that ran down the face, splitting the picture almost cleanly in two. But as he tilted the frame out of the glare of sunlight, and he got a good look at the contents of the picture, several things happened all at once.
Something clicked in his head. His eyes widened, he took a sharp breath and his grip suddenly tightened on the picture frame-almost to the point of breaking the frame further. All the things he didn't pay much attention to during the fight with the Wolkein; how he knew which door to go through, when he didn't even think about how he swung up the stairs. Even knowing which door to barge into just from throwing the uber-Wolkein through the ceiling.
The Wolkein.
His eyes slowly shifted over to the shadowy outline he could just barely make out. It was still there, cowering in the darkness but even partially obscured it looked so…inhuman.
It couldn't be true…it can't…it can't…
But as his eyes shifted between the Wolkein and the picture, his shoulders sunk and his hand fell back, dropping the frame down the stairs as the sensation of dread washed over him. The frame bounced down the stairs, eventually coming to rest at the bottom of the staircase, the remaining glass shattering and the picture within slipping free.
The picture folding out flat on the floor, showing a mother and young boy. Both wore smiles, the boy caught mid-laugh at the still-frame bubbles being made by-
"M…Mum?"
TO BE CONTINUED...