AN: Review?

Once a Ranger
Chapter 12: Fight and Flight
By Daylight

As the last of Triforia's three suns began disappearing beneath the horizon, the eight tired rangers reassembled in the throne room to pool the information they had gathered.

"From what I've been able to determine, these creatures have been moving across the Outer Regions destroying planets closer and closer to Union Space," reported Trey. He sat in the throne mainly out of habit as the others stood haphazardly around the dais.

"Has there been any survivors?" asked Tommy.

The gold ranger shook his head. "So far we are the only ones to see the enemy and live. They've mainly targeted primitive planets who aren't even able to call for help making it difficult to determine how many have been lost."

Zhane frowned. "It also doesn't give us much to go on. Was there anything in the archives?"

"Nothing useful," Tanya spoke for the Earth rangers. "There are various myths involving creatures similar to the ones we faced, but none of them had anything about how to find them or defeat them."

"There was something else that might be connected," Adam added from his position beside his girlfriend. "An ancient civilisation called the Shadorians?"

Both Zhane and Andros shivered.

The green ranger glanced at the two of Kerovians. "You've heard of them?"

"We've had dealings with one of their leftover relics," explained Zhane with a humourless smile.

"Well, apparently, they were believed to have harnessed pure evil. There is also a story of them giving life to the darkness."

The silver ranger nodded. "That sounds about right, but it still doesn't tell us how to fight them or track them."

"It's a start." Andros turned to the others. "We know the Shadorians originated in the Wastelands. We'll search the Outer Regions near that area."

"With nothing to stop them sneaking up and attacking us?" Frowning, Tommy shook his head. "We should look for a way to detect them first."

"We don't have time. More lives, my friends could be lost while we're busy trying to solve the impossible. We'll use our eyes if we have to."

Tommy walked over to stand face to face with Andros. "And how do you propose we fight their fleet when we find them. We know energy weapons don't work."

"We'll use the Megazord."

"One Megazord against an army that can destroy planets?"

"I remember when we had four Megazords those were the days," Zhane quipped wistfully in an effort to break the tension., neither red ranger paid attention.

"We still have to find them and it's a big universe."

"I know my way around, trust me."

"That didn't help you find Zordon." Tommy bit his lip instantly regretting what he said, but it was too late to take it back.

Andros' face remained hard but unreadable. He clenched his fists. "Listen, if you don't want to help, maybe you should just go back to Earth."

"Fine, we'll follow your lead." The Red Zeo Ranger stomped out leaving behind a room in shock.

His face still blank, Andros lifted his morpher. "I'll meet you guys back on the ship." He disappeared in a flash of red.

With the arguers gone, the remaining rangers glanced at each other. "Anyone know what's going on with those two?" questioned Tanya.

Zhane crossed his arms over his chest. "Well, I don't know about Tommy, but Andros is tired, hurt and worried about his friends. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to make sure he's taking it easy." He followed the Red Astro Ranger back to the MegaWinger.

"Well, isn't this going to be a pleasant trip," observed the blue ranger letting out a sigh.

ooooo

Rocky Desantos may have been on another exciting adventure across the universe, but frankly he was bored. Yawning, he rubbed his well-worn eyes as he stared at the screen. Stars, stars and even more stars. Somewhere along the line, space travel had lost its charm.

Tanya glanced over at him. "Why do I get the feeling you're not exactly happy to be here?"

"Besides the fact that after four days of pointless searching through virtually empty space, two days of sitting next to what we hope the enemy will think of a nice juicy planet in the hopes that they might attack, busily staring at a screen for vanishing stars because that's the only way we'll know they're here before they decide to attack us, I am completely bored out of my skull?"

She nodded.

"You know I loved being a ranger, but…" He searched for a way to explain. "I've done my part, saved the world a few hundred times and it was fun, but I just finished getting my life perfect."

Raising an eyebrow, Tanya gave him a sidelong glance. "Perfect? The roof on the dojo still leaking?"

"It's not like it rains much in Angel Grove."

"Fixed the water heater yet?"

"What's wrong with a cold shower now and again?"

"Got a girlfriend?"

"Hey!" Rocky glared at her, affronted. "Now you're sounding like my mother. The point is I'm doing my dream."

Tanya sighed. "And my dream seems to have hit a slight slump."

"I'm sorry that producer turned out to be such a jerk."

"Yeah well, apparently most of them are. I just need to find the right one for me."

"Exactly. And you still have Adam."

"Right," she muttered. "It's just sometimes I worry we'll end up like Tommy and…"

"Oh, Hey Tommy!" Rocky called out to the red ranger who had just entered.

"Hey," he replied distractedly as he sat down at a console and started a diagnostic. The pair glanced at each other, but it didn't seem that he had overheard Tanya.

Not more than a moment later, the other red ranger on the ship entered. Andros came up to Rocky and Tanya glancing over their shoulders at the scanner screens. "Seen anything?"

Tanya shook her head.

"Everything's been quiet, as usual," replied Rocky.

Looking over from his workstation, Tommy called out. "You don't need to check up on them. They know what they're doing."

"I'm sure they do. I just..."

"Had to see for yourself. You don't trust us."

"Do I have a reason to? I was worried. The enemy isn't exactly easy to spot."

"Well, maybe if we'd bothered trying to find a way to track them before we came out here."

"By the great stars of Kerova, not again."

The pair of red rangers glanced up to see Zhane in the doorway. He gave an accusing glare at Andros. "I thought you were supposed to be sleeping."

"Aren't you supposed to be doing maintenance on the engine?" he shot back.

With a sheepish look, Zhane scratched his head. "I just… felt the need to check something?"

Tommy frowned, but any comment he would have made was interrupted by another arrival.

"What's going on?" Yawning, Adam ran a hand through his mussed up curls. "Why is everyone on the bridge?"

Several deep breaths were being taken as various people prepared to speak at once, when Rocky's sudden words stopped all thoughts of another argument.

"Oh, no."

Andros and Tommy rushed over to the blue ranger's side as he gazed intently at the screen. "What is it?" asked the Red Astro Ranger.

"You know that neat little cluster of stars shaped just like Pikachu in quadrant 185?" He looked up. "I can't see it anymore."

Tanya's hands tapped over the console. "I'm not detecting anything on any frequency."

"It them." Andros' tone left no room for doubt.

"Man battle stations," commanded Tommy.

The rangers were already dashing to their various positions.

"Initiate Megazord transformation," called Andros from the helm.

The clanking of metal and hiss of hydraulics echoed though the former corridors of the MegaWinger as it unveiled its robot form. The Megazord turned to face the approaching darkness standing between it and the planet below.

"Thank the Power they decided to add a sword during the upgrade," muttered Zhane as his hands played over the weapons console. "Winger Saber online."

"The scanners still aren't registering anything," cursed Rocky.

Tommy looked pointedly at Andros. "It'll be hard to hit anything if we don't know where to hit."

The Kerovian ranger ignored his earth counterpart. "Rocky, use the visuals to triangulate their location."

"Got it." The blue ranger shook his head. "I'll do my best," he whispered.

The shadow fleet's approach, only visible from the continued disappearance of stars, was slow. They were seemingly in no hurry to bring about the destruction of the planet or the rangers.

Andros narrowed his eyes. "Ready? Let's kick them back to the Wastelands." Powering up the thrusters, he brought the Megazord charging into the fleet.

As Rocky fed coordinates as fast as he could into the targeting computer, Zhane and Tommy took control of the attack. Swinging the Saber in the MegaWinger's right hand, Zhane slashed out at what he hoped was a ship and was rewarded by a burst of light.

"Got ya. It seems these ships are like those shadow creatures. They don't like being sliced in half."

The Red Zeo Ranger meanwhile used the left hand to reach out at another target. Wrapping the fingers around it, he poured in the power and squeezed. There was another burst of light. He shared a grin with the silver ranger. "Seems they don't like being crushed either."

Andros frowned. "These are only scout ships. Where's the flagship?" he questioned driving the MegaWinger into a better position.

"As near as I can figure, there's a really big ship hanging back behind the little ones," Rocky declared.

"That's would be it," commented Adam.

"And that's where our friends will be."

The Kerovian pushed the Megazord forward towards the mothership. They crushed and sliced at the ships in their path, but they were still fighting half blind and many attacks only reached empty space. The ships continued surrounding them until Rocky was left swearing.

"It's no good. I can't triangulate when there's nothing to triangulate against. There's nothing but blackness out there."

"At least were not lacking in targets," remarked Zhane sarcastically as one of his wild slashes managed to penetrate the hull of another ship.

A sudden shudder was felt throughout the MegaWinger.

"What was that?" asked Tommy.

Running a diagnostic on all systems, Adam frowned. "I'm detecting some sort of contact with the hull on the back of the left leg." There was another shudder. "And on the upper back."

"I'm getting an energy drain," Tanya called out. "It's got to be the ships."

"Hang on. I'll try to shake them off." Pushing energy into the manoeuvring thrusters, Andros led the MegaWinger through a series of fast twists and flips leaving the crew dizzy as the stabilizers tired to compensate.

"It's no good. I'm still reading an energy drain and it's getting stronger," exclaimed Tanya.

"There are already several more ships attached to the hull." Adam turned from the engineering console to face the others. "But I have an idea. If we transform back into ship mode and put all remaining power into the engines, we might be able to blast out of here and leave the ships behind."

Andros let his eyes close for a moment realizing full well this plan would mean leaving his friends behind once more. "Alright. Let's do it. Begin transfor…"

"Wait," interrupted Tommy.

"What…?"

"If we blast out of here, there's nothing to stop those ships destroying that planet like all the others. But if we slowly lead them away…"

"Giving them time to completely drain us of energy," Rocky pointed out. "How do we blast them off then?"

"Tommy's right," Andros agreed, surprising the others. "We can't abandon those people."

Zhane frowned. "Even if we lead them away, what's to stop them from returning."

Sighing, Tommy rubbed his forehead. "I don't know."

"Unless…" Tanya was thoughtful. "… we lead them into a trap." She turned to her console. "There's a black hole a few parsecs from here. If we slingshot around the event horizon, we'll gain some extra speed and it's likely the knocked off scout ships would be sucked in before they can reorient themselves. It wouldn't get them all…"

"But it would cripple their fleet enough that they wouldn't be attacking any more planets for awhile," Adam finished for her.

Andros nodded. "Let's do it."

Stowing the MegaWinger's Saber in its subspace pocket, the Megazord, covered in black ships like a disease, began its journey to the black hole the remaining ships following behind. Tension pervaded the ship. All eyes were on the distance as the light years slowly passed and the energy gage as the power was quickly consumed. Finally, they reached the black hole visible only by the steady spiral of energy disappearing into it.

"Are they still following?" asked Tommy.

Rocky glanced at his console. "Looks like."

"Almost in position," reported Andros. "Transform right before. That should knock some off. Hopefully, the sudden burst of speed should take care of the rest."

Adam nodded. "Right."

"Andros, the energy levels don't look good," commented Tanya biting her lip. "I don't think we'll have enough."

"Put all energy into the engines even life support. We'll worry about the repercussions later. Ready." The black hole steadily grew in the viewport as only Andros' careful manoeuvring prevented them from being pulled in. "Now!"

Metal crashed against metal as the arms and legs of the Megazord swung back into position throwing off some of the leeching ships sending them spiralling into the black hole. Fire flared from the engines as the power surged into them. On the bridge a collective breath was held as for a moment as it seemed the hole would pull them in too, then they shot forward, leaving blackness to swallow the darkness.

Next:
Chapter 13: Lost Among Shadows II
Another glance into the heart of darkness.