Chapter 9 – Catching You If You Fall
The Animarium
The floating paradise island known at the Animarium had not experienced tension like today in a long time. Even through all of the battles three thousand years ago and the more recent scraps with the Orgs, something felt a little different. The knowledge that there was a huge zord with the ability to wipe out the planet heading their way made the Wild Force Rangers extremely nervous. The usually cheerful Princess Shayla sat on the edge of the fountain with a pensive look on her face. She was flanked by her personal protector, the Lunar Wolf Ranger Merrick, who was trying his best to reassure the Princess.
The tension was even getting to Max and Danny who were staring intensely at the viewing screen provided by Jen of the Time Force Rangers. The pink ranger was still in residence on the Animarium and had been joined by the four remaining Space Rangers. This wasn't a new experience for the quintet but this time it was different, they weren't able to help the members of their respective teams.
The worst one of the group was Alyssa, she was barely able to sit still for more than a few minutes before nervously standing up and trying to look busy. This time she made her way over to the kitchen area and starting making a coffee for herself, "He'll be fine you know", she heard Taylor say from the shadows.
"Geez Taylor, are you trying to give me a heart attack", the white ranger grabbed her chest, "I'm nervous enough already without you sneaking up on me".
"You making a drink", Carlos approached the two women, "I'd love a coffee right now".
Alyssa looked at the Black Space Ranger with a hint of confusion, "You seem awfully calm about this?"
Carlos gave a small shrug, "This isn't the first time I've been in this position", he looked at the smaller woman and gave her a smile, "Cole's in good hands, my boys will make sure that nothing happens to him".
"I'm not overly concerned about Cole", Alyssa quickly turned away and continue to make their drink, "no more than the rest of the team are".
Taylor and Carlos looked at each other and the yellow ranger snorted loudly. Carlos chuckled loudly and replied, "Please I had to put up with Andros and Ash making gooey eyes at each other for months, I know when someone's got a crush". Alyssa didn't turn around but she her cheeks were flushing a bright shade of red.
"Guys", Karone called out, "we've got a call from TJ and Wes".
Quickly forgetting about the coffee and their conversation, the trio hurried over the central table where the other rangers had gathered, "So what's the news?" Taylor asked, "is that jarhead of mine in one piece?"
"Eric's fine", Wes laughed, "we've got some good news and bad news".
"It's Cole isn't it", Alyssa nervously fiddled with her hair, "something's happened to him".
"He's fine", TJ began, "well he was the last time we saw him".
"Stop with the riddles and tell us", Merrick snapped from the back of the group.
"We've taken care of four of the generals and the Cogs have all been eliminated", Wes stated, "but Venjix got away in Serpenterra".
"Andros grabbed Cole and Jason and flew them into the zord", TJ continued, "Serpenterra's heading for Earth with the three of them trapped inside".
The group of rangers looked nervously amongst themselves, the fact that Serpenterra was heading their way wasn't good news at all. Plus three of their own were stuck onboard, "So what's the plan", Jen asked, "is there a rescue strategy to get them out".
"DECA can't teleport them", Wes answered, "the Megaship can't breach the hull so the only option is using the Galaxy Gliders to get them out".
"The problem is that they'll only work for us", TJ added, meaning himself and the other Space Rangers, "I need two of our team to help me rescue them".
Immediately Karone and Ashley were on their feet, Andros was in trouble and both of them weren't going to let him die onboard Serpenterra. To their surprise Alyssa too stood up, "I'm going with you", she decided.
"Alyssa you can't", Karone replied, "the Glider's won't work for you, you're better off staying here".
"I'm not going to sit around and wait for them to come back", the white ranger said defiantly, glaring into the blue eyes of the Silver Space Ranger.
Carlos thought for a moment and came up with an idea, "Alyssa can I borrow you morpher", the white ranger looked confused by decided to comply with the request. The Black Space Ranger opened it and pressed a couple of button on the Growl Phone before tapping something into his own morpher, "Use the code number 635 when the time's right, TJ will explain the rest to you when you get there".
As she took her morpher back from Carlos, Alyssa asked, "So I can go?"
Taylor nodded slowly, "Bring Cole back to us, it wouldn't be the same without jungle boy around". Alyssa smiled in appreciation and the three women ran away from the living area on the Animarium as quickly as they could.
"Aww does Taylor have a soft spot for Cole after all", Max taunted the Yellow Wild Force Ranger.
Living up to her spirit animal, Taylor whipped her head around and fixed Max with an eagle stare. She poked a finger in his chest, "Not a word to him, kid", she hissed and stomped away, leaving an indignant Max behind.
Serpenterra
Inside the belly of the beast, Andros checked over the remains of his Galaxy Glider. It had clipped the edge of the door on the way through and this had caused it to crash heavily into the ground, "How's it looking?" Cole asked.
"Not great", Andros replied, "it's going to need some serious repairs".
"Will it fly out of here?" Jason asked to which the Red Space Ranger shook his head, "great so how do we get out?"
Andros thought for a moment and tried his communicator but he wasn't getting a signal, "The hull's too thick to get a call out", he stated, "how about you guys?" Jason and Cole tried but like Andros, they couldn't get through, "So this is how it ends", Andros sighed, "at least we get to save the world one last time". The other two rangers bowed their heads, unless they got extremely lucky it was quite likely they would go down with Serpenterra when they destroyed.
"Come on, let's get this over with", Jason added sadly and the trio began their long walk through the corridor.
After a few minutes in silence, Cole stated, "Can we not do this walk in silence, its already unnerving as it is".
Jason sighed, "Alright what do you wanna talk about"
"Anything", Cole began, "how about tell me how you got your powers, I don't think I've heard that story".
There was a few moments of silence before Jason began, "I was a High School freshman when Zordon recruited me for his first team on Earth". Andros looked in his direction, he knew that Jason was young when he first became a ranger but he didn't realise how young he had been. "Rita Repulsa was our primary villain and then Lord Zedd, I had to give up my powers when I suffered a serious injury at Zedd's hand".
"But then you got your Zeo powers didn't you?" Andros asked.
"Yeah but that was a couple of years later", Jason replied, "shame those power's put a lot of strain on my lifeforce so I probably can't use them again".
"We've had a ranger team on KO-35 for nearly two hundred years", Andros began, "there was a strong alliance between the Karovian people and Eltar. The power was usually passed down the family line, unless circumstances dictated that it couldn't happen".
"So they're not bound exclusively to you then?" Cole asked.
"Yes and no", Andros answered, "the red morpher doesn't just work for me, in theory anyone could use it but it was traditional to pass it onto one of your children. My Dad was the previous red ranger and in fact my Mom was the yellow ranger", he paused for a moment before adding, "Karone was always meant to be the next yellow ranger but I guess it didn't work out like that". This was news to Jason, he never knew that Karone was destined to be a ranger, maybe he had been too harsh to judge her.
"But now she's the silver ranger right?" Cole stated, "how did that come about?"
"That's probably a story for another time", Jason jumped in. Andros gave the original red ranger a nod of thanks, he didn't want to dig up that story again, "Looks like we're here".
The door in front of them was the same as the one from their simulation, only this one was slightly ajar, "I can't see any extra sensors and my morpher isn't picking up any defences", Andros stated.
"Our lucky day then", Jason said darkly. He called on his Power Sword and the other two red rangers summoned their weapons. With a mighty heave the door's opened and the trio burst through, "There's no one here", Jason gasped.
"We'd better make this quick then", Andros turned to Cole, "we'll disable the Neo Plutonium reactor as per the instructions from the Karovia Science Department, Jason you watch our backs". Moving to the control rods, Andros and Cole took it in turns to push them into the reactor. Minutes passed but still there was no sign of Venjix or any further Cogs, "Just the last rod and then we can extract the core", Andros called out.
The sound of heavy footsteps caught their attention and they all turned towards the door, "Keep going, I'll keep them busy", Jason grunted and tightened his grip on his sword. He waited for a hoard of Cogs to charge in but to his surprise, only a battle damaged Venjix appeared, "I don't think much of the welcoming committee", he said to the robot.
"Red rangers", Venjix hissed, "you'll regret stepping foot on Serpenterra", he pulled out his sword and charged towards Jason. The original red ranger parried the first blow and countered with a strike of his own that caught Venjix on the shoulder.
Whilst this was going on, Andros and Cole continued to work on the core, "That's the last rod", Cole said, "now we just need to take out the core". Andros nodded and located the storage device that had been rather helpfully left by the core.
"Guys, watch out", Jason shouted. The pair turned their heads and saw a blast of laser fire heading their way. They dropped to the floor and the bolts slammed into the machinery behind them. Alarms began sounding throughout the zord and steam was pouring out of the nearby pipes.
"Did he hit the reactor?" Cole shouted over the sound of the alarm.
"Not the Neo Plutonium one", Andros replied, "but the primary reactor is overloading".
Venjix pushed Jason out the way and began to advance on the other two red rangers, "If I'm not getting out of here then neither are you". He was about to fire again but he had forgotten about the original red ranger. Jason swung his Power Sword upwards and sliced Venjix's arm off at his elbow joint. The self appointed leader of the Machine Empire barely had time to inspect the damage before Jason pushed him towards one of the coolant pipes. When Venjix's cool skin hit the scolding hot pipe a large amount of steam shot into the air.
"Don't move", Jason grabbed Venjix's fallen sword and rammed it through his abdomen. Venjix was pinned to the wall and he struggled to get himself free, "How's it going?"
Cole carefully placed the Neo Plutonium core into its lead lined safety container, "The core's safe but this place is going to blow".
As the three red rangers began to run out of the room, Venjix bellowed, "You'll never get out of here alive".
"Neither will you and that's what counts", Jason shouted back. Venjix struggled to free himself but the heat in the pipes was so intense that his body had now been fused to the metal structure. The robot roared in frustration as the trio of red rangers left him behind.
Running back down the corridors, the rangers could hear the walls creaking under the strain of the failing reactor. Occasionally a computer terminal would explode, showering the three men with sparks. Arriving back at the door, they could hear a rumbling from the engine room that signified an imminent failure, "End of the line", Cole sighed.
"We'll have to take our chances outside", Andros pulled out his Astro Blaster.
"In space", Cole exclaimed, "are you crazy".
"Better than staying here with an exploding reactor", the Red Space Ranger shrugged.
Pulling out his Blade Blaster, Jason asked, "Will our suits protect us for long?" Andros glanced back briefly before turning back to the door. That was all the response that Jason needed that this was a nearly hopeless situation. The three blasted in the door in unison and they were sucked out into the vacuum of space. The helmets would give them oxygen for an infinite amount of time but their suits wouldn't keep the cold out forever. The Galaxy Gliders usually formed a protective bubble so that provided heat for as long as the Space Rangers needed.
Moments after the rangers were sucked clear, Serpenterra exploded sending debris out into the far reaches of space. It was a miracle that none of them were hit by anything but the force of the blast threw them even further into space.
Cole could see Earth in the distance but it was quickly getting further away. He was beginning to resign himself to his fate when something grabbed him by the arm. He landed on a black object that looked like Andros's broken Galaxy Glider, only it wasn't piloted by Carlos, "Alyssa, what are you doing out here?" he gasped.
"What does it look like I'm doing", the white ranger replied, "saving your life you idiot". The pair looked over and Ashley had saved Andros and he was slung over the back of her Glider, "Thanks for the crash course in flying this thing".
"No problem", Ashley replied, "do you think that you can get it back to the Megaship?" Alyssa nodded slowly but was struggling to get the Glider moving. Ashley chuckled and used her board to give the borrowed Glider a nudge. A few moments later, Alyssa got the Glider moving at she shot off into the distance.
A little further away, Jason sat with his legs dangling over the edge of Karone's Glider, "Thanks for the save", he stated.
"Don't mention it", Karone said without looking around.
There were a few moments of silence before Jason began, "Look I just wanted to say..."
"Forget it", Karone replied, "apology accepted".
Jason was confused but then realised that Karone probably read his surface thoughts, "I thought you'd make me work harder for it", he stated.
"I try not to dwell on the past too much anymore", the silver ranger began, "now let's get back to Earth, I reckon they'll be one hell of a party". Jason chuckled as the board rocketed back to the Megaship.
A/N – I apologise for this but I need to have a little bit of a rant. It came to my attention that someone has plagiarised one of my stories, my Dino Charge story "Heroes Of Their Time". There were two stories that were blatantly cut and paste from my own work. The only difference was that some of the names were changed. It wasn't even a good cut and paste job as the original names of my characters were still present in places. Also one of the characters was gender flipped but the wrong (correct in my story) gender prefixes were kept in.
Weirdly (or conveniently) after I posted a review calling the "writer" out on this, the story in question disappeared but there's still the other on left. Now I'm only going to say this once, plagiarism is not on and is something that I won't tolerate. I worked very hard on "Heroes" and all my other stories and I think they deserved better than being butchered in a half arsed cut and paste job. If people would like to use one of my characters or maybe a particular concept then please ask my permission first. Consider yourselves warned.
I don't want to end on a moan so I would like to thank everyone who enjoys my work, I appreciate all your feedback and comments and I hope to continue to write for as long as I have ideas to share.