Chapter 5 - Rise Rangers
The shine of the mornings rising sun crept through the windows of Neil's home. The shine caused Hez to stir as he noticed something considerably heavy on his chest. As he opened his eyes he could see the back of someone head. Instantly he knew who it was as he inhaled through his nose, drawing in her scent. He wrapped his arms around Katrina, at peace for the moment. That moment was ended as Brian came crashing through the bathroom door. "Good morning my ninjas!" He yelled waking NC from his slumber on the single couch.
"Did you… did to sleep in the bathroom?" NC asked, whipping sleep from his eyes.
"That's not the issue at hand bro, it's a new day." Brian said in is usual ecstatic tone. Neil walked down the stairs, toothbrush in his mouth as he pointed to Brian.
"Oh you're finally out of the tub, thought I would have to turn on the water." Donna laughed as Brian showed no shame. Ren was holding his head as he woke up.
"Someone get the number of the truck that hit me last night?" He asked.
"Come on, let's go get coffee." Neil suggested.
"Coffee?" Aj and Katrina popped up in unison. Hez smiled and sat up at Katrina shot up, her face as bright as the sunlight.
"I could go for coffee, head is pounding." Aj said.
"Then let's take this wall my guys!" Neil shouted in excitement. Everyone prepared themselves to walk to three shot blocks down to the coffee house named Bucks N' Stars. The front of the group was Brian, Neil and Ren. Donna and Arianna made up the middle with Katrina just behind the two of them. NC, Aj and Hez brought of the rear of their formation. Hez padded NC'S back as he still held his head from his splitting hangover.
"Uhh guys, what's that?" Neil asked as the group stopped abruptly. They gazed upon the three gaping holes in the ground.
"I don't like any of this," Hez said as he and the others formed a single line. Their eyes widened as a grey hand slammed against the pavement at the edge of the hole. The hand looked as if it were stone. Their suspicions were confirmed as they saw the face of the creature the rangers had come to know as puttie.
"Shit," Aj yelled.
"Split up!" Ren called out as he and Arianna ran one direction into an alley. The rangers looked at each other and nodded as Brian, Donna and Neil darted around the corner. Aj, Nc and Katrina cut left through the abandoned building. Hez cut back and rounded the corner a block before. The stone creatures poured from the holes and scattered in the direction of everyone. Brian, Donna and Neil were the first to be caught.
"There's a lot of them, stay close to each other!" Neil shouted as be blocked a punch. Brian came from behind Neil's left side with a round kick to the puttie's head, decapitating it. Donna stood to Neil's right in their fighting stances.
"Let's show them Angel Grove won't fall that easily!" Brian yelled as they charged the small horde. Neil ducked a punch and came up with a left uppercut before slamming his right fist directly through the chest. As he spun on his heel to deliver a reverse side kick, his pants ripped at the thighs and quads. He felt a hard force grab his shoulder but without a fraction of a seconds reaction, he gripped the hand and dropped down to his hip, rolling the puttie over his shoulder.
As the puttie rolled Donna brought her leg straight up and slammed in directly down on its head, crushing it. She then shot her leg out left delivering a side kick to another puttie. She turned her hips to rotate her leg on a high arch, slamming the outer blade of her foot into the side of the puttie's head. A puttie grabbed at her but she slammed her fists into its forearms, causing them to break as she then reached her arm around the back of its neck, pressing her hip into its own and throwing it over her back as she leaned forward. Donna rolled to avoid stomps before she crunched her knees towards her chest and shot them up while she pressed off the ground to jump back to her feet.
Brian blocked attack after attack before shooting his right leg forward to front kick the puttie, sending its body flailing backwards. He raised his left knee a fake the next kick before jumping off his single leg and rotating his hips to deliver a jumping round kick to the head. He continued the rotation as he landed and chambered his leg into his stomach before rifling it out, using his quad to pull the kick all the way through as he bent his knee, slamming the head of his foot into and through the temple of the puttie. He readied himself as the next attempted to tackle him off the ground. He shot his legs backwards and leaned forward to sprawl the puttie before driving his knee into the face repeatedly.
"They just keep coming!" Donna yelled.
"Then keep fighting!" Brian replied.
Aj turned to drive his foot into the chest of a puttie, causing it to crash down the stairs. NC ran down the littered hall to the other stairwell, resting as he jumped into the air and extending his leg to slam his heel into the chest of a puttie. Katrina stayed in the middle realizing they were cornered off in the junky hallway.
"Any ideas?" Katrina asked.
"Just one," Aj replied.
"This is going to suck," NC got out before the puttie crashed through both doors. Aj grabbed one and pushed it up to the wall while he kicked another into the wall behind him, cracking the plaster and rotted wood. He slammed his elbow into the puttie he faced repeatedly before letting its body drop. NC let a puttie slip past him as he delivered a right hook to another. Katrina pressed her foot into the wall, using it to push off before rotating her hips to land a flying round kick to the puttie. She stood in a guard, constantly looking both ways in case puttie slipped past NC or Aj. Aj parried a punch and let it slide through the wall before using his elbow to destroy the arm. He then slammed the head into the wall, causing more cracks to form. He got a slight idea of how to escape this situation and grant more space. He clasped his hands behind the neck of the next puttie and whipped his hips around to assist the force of his throw. The puttie's body crashed through the rotting wall.
"Katrina, NC, through the hole!" Aj yelled as he rifled a side kick into the face of another puttie. Katrina was the first through the hole as NC hook kicked a puttie and turned to follow. Aj backed his way up to the hole and backfliped through it. The three stood ready for more but there was an hesitation. They could hear the puttie out in the hallway but nothing charged in mindlessly. In an instant, the wall behind them crumbled as a grotesque creature stood before them, snarling.
"What the entire fuck are you?" Aj asked as the dust cleared. Brian, Neil and Donna looked towards where they heard a loud crash and saw smoke.
"Shit we gotta move!" Brian yelled as he ran towards the building. Neil and Donna were close behind as they finished off the last of their puttie. They reached the building and became locked in combat with the puttie inside as they attempted to look for their partners.
"I am Wolves Bane," the beast snarled. It'd snout rink led as its teeth bore and drool ran from its jaws. The beast stood to be six feet and eight inches tall or so Aj. Guess. It's chest was broad and shoulders wide. It's arms almost reached the floor and it's legs were thin. It's body was covered in fur and it's yellow eyes narrowed and shifted between the three. It's tail floated about, shifting while the beast stood still. Katrina could hear the noise below, hoping it was help. Aj cracked his knuckles as he stepped closer to it.
"Never fought a dog before, square up and show me what you've got," He said with arrogance to arise a reaction. He was met with a hard swing of its left hand. He ducked it and landed an uppercut to its ribs but the beast only stared at him as if he hadn't even touched it.
"Is that all you've got?" The beast snarled out as it swung again, this time both fists in a downward motion. Aj rolled away from the attack and as the beast put its head down, Katrina brought her leg up and dropped her heel on the back of its head. Her attack was shrugged off as it grabbed her leg and flung her into the wall. She slapped the wall, cracking the plaster and wood as her body bounced from the wall to the ground with an sickening thud. NC and Aj both charged the beast, throwing kicks and punches. None of which Wolves Bane felt the need to dodge. The beast slapped NC and before his body could hit the wall the beast was behind him, driving his fist into NC's back. Aj watched as NC dropped and charged yet again but as he threw a punch, the beast was gone. He could feel the warmth from its breath behind him before feeling the pain in his back from being kicked through the hole in the wall and almost completely through the hallway wall.
Donna watched as Aj's body crashed into the wall in the hallway. As she reached him she looked to her left to see the hairy beast throwing punches that Katrina just barely dodged. Neil and Brian charged through the hole and both jumped in unison, driving their feet into its chest and causing it to stumble.
"The hell is this thing?!" Neil asked.
"I am Wolves Bane, I will be the one to escort you to the afterlife!" Wolves Bane bellowed as he stood to his feet. The team slowly came together and felt a warm pulse in their pockets. As they reached and pulled out their morphers it was almost as if they were washed over with new found knowledge. Brian took a step forward as the beast growled.
"This can not be. You were all killed by Lord Zed himself!"
"We're the new guys," Brian replied. "It's morphin time!" He yelled as a flash of light took them over them. Through the light the beast could hear them yelling.
"Mastodon"
"Pterodactyl"
"Triceratops"
"Saber Tooth Tiger"
"Tyrannosaurus"
"Dragon Zord"
As the light faded and the beasts vision returned he could see the horror he now faced. Brian stood in the middle in a green suit. The helmet had three horns that was slick backwards on the helmet. The mouth was silver and it had a wide black visor. Around the visor was decorated in teeth with. The eyes at the sides of the horns. His chest had a goat plate that covered shoulder to shoulder and leading down his chest in a diamond shape. His white gloves had one free elongated diamond running from the wrist to the end of the of the gauntlet. Same with his boots. The lines in his suit glowed with comic energy as it absorbed it within the suit. He noticed a dagger attached to his belt.
Aj stood to Brian's right in a red suit that exactly mimicked Brian's but where the gold plate covered on Brian's chest was a white diamond on Aj as well as the others. Aj's helmet was red without horns but the same wide visor decorated with teeth around it. His holster on his belt held the same gun the other five did. Neil was to Brian's left in a black suit completely identical to Aj's. Only difference was his helmet had tusks instead of teeth coming down the sides of his helmet. NC was to Neil's right in a blue suit but his helmet had three silver horns that almost looked like the head of a triceratops. Katrina was next to NC in a pink suit. Her helmet was a mixture of white and pink with a deep widow's peek part in her visor. Finally was Donna in a yellow suit. Her helmet mimicked a saber tooth tiger with silver fangs running down the sides of her visor.
"I will be known as Wolves Bane, slayer of rangers after this day!" The beast growled and charged. He felt his speed to be unmatched until he swung and Brian bent a little, slipping the attack and landing a right hook of his own to the beasts body. This time, Brian could feel bones break under his fist. The beast stumbled, coughing up a black sledge of its lifeforce. Neil rushed forward and slammed his fist into its snout. Right after, Donna side kicked it in the chest. NC came from the left and rifled off an uppercut. Katrina jumped into the air, shooting her leg out for a flying side kick that sent Wolves Bane through the wall, crashing to the ground below. Before he could recover, both of Aj's boots were drove into its chest as he landed a double foot stomp. The beast slowly stood to its feet, Brian held up his hand and a green energy flashed before a green dagger with golden flute parts formed in his hand. As it did, the horns on his helmet turned silver as well as the Green teeth around the visor. He lunged forward and with one cut, his dagger sliced through Wolves Bane's neck, his head slowly separating from the body as it fell to the ground followed by his body. The rangers turned their back to it as its body exploded.