Author's notes - Thanks for reading everybody!

Chapter Six

I'm not sure how long I followed the shadowy tunnel. It was hard to even guess at any kind of distance down here. At any rate, it felt like I'd been walking for hours, so I could've been kilometres from the city. I didn't meet anybody, and the cave didn't fork at any point. But the further I went, I began to notice more and more light. Eventually, the tunnel started to widen and sound began to reach me, echoing back from somewhere ahead. It was the oddest noise, like metal scraping against stone, and I couldn't imagine what was making it. Far more cautiously now, I crept along the tunnel and suddenly picked up a second noise. A buzzing, like a swarm of bees or locusts, but with a weird electronic filter like before. Ahead of me, the tunnel was lit up. Keeping out of sight, I peeked around the corner.

Oh wow.

The tunnel opened out into a massive cavern. The rocky ceiling was about three or four storeys above my head, held up by thick metal girders. There were no lights, but the cave was lined with large pieces of a glowing amber-like substance that pulsed a sickly green, throwing eerie shadows throughout the space. More metal scaffolding braced the cave walls on all sides. Facing me across the cavern were rows and rows of green pods, with dark shapes visible within.

I took a step towards them when the ground suddenly shook, and a giant spider scuttled past. It was the size of a bus with legs as thick as tree trunks, and I dived back into the tunnel. But as I held my breath, my heart racing, I realised the creature hadn't seen me, and it continued past without stopping.

Whatever it was, the beast was a spider in name only. Its body was covered by fitted plates of thick metal armour that glinted in the low light. Eight red eyes glowed menacingly on top of its head above a pair of jagged metal pincers. Whether it was robotic or some part of it was alive under there, I couldn't tell. But whoever was behind all this had some serious muscle backing them up.

I watched as the cybernetic spider vanished into a large hole in the wall that must've led to a second cave. Checking there were no more spiders, I dashed after the creature, stopping by the cave entrance. The second cave was even larger, and also filled with the strange glowing rock. But as the spider disappeared from view, my breath caught in my throat. There wasn't just one spider but dozens, lined up against the wall with their legs tucked beneath them. Across from them were even larger animals, creatures that looked like nothing so much as giant praying mantises, with red eyes, green bodies and razor sharp talons. There were a dozen that I could see, possibly more behind. Hanging from the ceiling were wasps the size of fighter jets, with transparent green wings and spiked tails curving down under their bodies. None of them were moving beyond the occasional twitch, but the soft buzzing was producing a dull ache in the side of my head. From long experience with alien superweapons, I recognised blasters and missiles the second I saw them. Every single one of the creatures was bristling with weaponry.

I heard a mechanical clanking above my head, and I watched as two solid metal panels dropped to the floor, reaching the ground and sealing shut with a hiss. I frowned. That was an airlock. Whoever's in control of all those giant insects, they wanted to keep an atmosphere in this cave. Why?

Because the people from Lumelian were here somewhere. And for the moment, that meant they were safe.

Across from me were the green pods, hundreds of them pushed up against the rocky walls. A narrow pathway wound between the rows, disappearing into the shadows at the back of the cave. Moving as quietly as I could, I ducked across the cave towards them. They were oval-shaped, about four-feet tall and made of what looked like a brittle, organic material. Even as I approached them, I knew they were eggs, with thin tubes connecting them along the ground. I stepped closer and my foot slid out from under me, slipping on some kind of green slime that coated the ground. Catching my balance, I looked back to the eggs to confirm my suspicions, peering in as close as I could.

Yep. There was something inside each of them.

The creatures were human-sized and vaguely human-shaped, with two arms and two legs. But that's where the similarities stopped. Their faces were protected by plates of armoured bone. A few of them had some kind of metal plating on their chests and shoulders, with what looked like extendable metal talons on their wrists. Each of them had four dark eyes, two on either side of their heads. Their mouths were protected behind crunching mandibles with rows of jagged teeth. None of them looked friendly. I stepped back fearfully. All of these similar-looking creatures lined up in rows like this? They reminded me of putties. And I suddenly realised what I'd stumbled into.

These drones were being bred to conquer and destroy. This couldn't have been anything else. This was an army.

I had to warn the other Rangers. More importantly, I had to find the missing people.

Stepping away from the pods, I turned to the far side of the cavern when I caught sight of one of the nearest rows of eggs, hidden in shadow over to the left. I stepped back in shock.

Six of the pods had already hatched.

I struck Father Time's clock blades back and followed him across the street, swinging high. He batted my staff away and retaliated with a wide slash, but I stepped around the move and blocked a low swipe when he swung again. Forcing him back with a jump kick, I caught a blow from the right, parried an attack from the left and struck him across the face. He staggered back, swinging wildly. But he was stunned, and the moves were slow and clumsy. Keeping the blades at a distance, I landed a blow to his shoulder before driving the end of the staff into his stomach, sending him crashing across the road.

"Now so tough without your blaster, are you?" I asked.

The monster roared and slashed both blades towards me. I easily blocked them, knocking them aside and forcing him back with a low kick. While he was still off-balance, I charged after him. He lashed out with his right blade, but I held the blade in check with my staff and aimed a glancing blow for his wrist. He yelped and dropped the weapon, and I quickly kicked it away. He swung again with his left, but I stepped around the blade and slammed my staff into his wrist. The blade flew across the street where it passed in front the clock blaster and froze in mid-air.

Father Time retreated, clutching his wrists. I followed after him and landed a blow to the chest, striking his arms clear. With a clean shot, I spun my staff around me and rammed it through the monster's chest, instantly shattering the glowing pendulum.

The monster was slammed away from me in an explosion of sparks and fire. For a weird second, he hit the ground in slow motion, as if time was catching up to the rest of us, before a hundred people along the street flickered into being and collapsed to the ground. The monster's blade clattered harmlessly against a car door, while the flock of puzzled seagulls took to the air.

But I wasn't done yet. As my team-mates recovered, I glanced to the clock blaster, still lying on the street. Raising my staff, I took to the air, the one direction the clock wasn't facing. Falling towards the weapon, I slammed my staff into the blaster with all my might and finally smashed the weapon into a million pieces.

I jumped back in alarm, sweeping my gaze around the cave for any sign of the drones that had already hatched. Damn it. I'd been so eager to explore that I hadn't noticed them until I'd almost tripped over them. I was suddenly aware of just how enormous the cave really was. It stretched on for hundreds of metres in every direction, and the faint light from the pulsing green amber only made everything more eerie. But wherever the drones were, I couldn't see them. The only thing moving in the cave right now was me. It made sense. I doubt the giant cybernetic insects would've been able to steal more than five hundred people on their own. Besides, what galactic conqueror doesn't need a few grunt troops occasionally? Which really made more problems for us.

I suddenly realised I could hear a faint buzzing sound, from somewhere just out of sight.

Keeping an eye out for the six drones, I stepped away from the pods and hurried over to the back of the cave. There was another hole in the cave wall that disappeared into darkness, and I guessed this was the tunnel leading back to the city. It was easily wide enough for one of the spiders. Beside the tunnel was a lot more metal scaffolding, and as I approached, I noticed dark shapes in the gloom, perched on several layers of the metal platforms. At first I thought they were more pods stacked up in rows, but these were different. The eggs were only half-formed, the shells reaching to my waist. And they didn't have a solid green shells, but a mass of self-replicating metallic tiles. The figures in these eggs were slumped over in some kind of purple haze. I'd just climbed up to investigate when one of the figures closest to me groaned.

I gasped.

I'd found the missing people!

Every one of half-built pods had a person unconscious inside, men, women and children. I raced forward and reached out for the man inside the nearest pod, but caught myself with a second to spare. The purple mist was emerging from a silver junction box nearby. If it was keeping everybody unconscious, I really didn't want to get any on me. At least the people looked okay. Several of them were groaning as if in a deep sleep, and I could see their chests moving with every breath. I still didn't know why they'd been kidnapped, and it can't have been for anything good, but at least I found them. I just had to wake them up and get them out of here.

I heard a strange clicking noise behind me and knew instantly what it was. Metal claws on a rocky floor. I spun around, my hands raised defensively, instantly in Ranger mode.

The six drones stood facing me. I'd been found.

For a few seconds, nobody moved. The drones looked almost as surprised to see me. But even with my heart pounding in my chest, I realised the captured people were directly behind me and would be caught in any crossfire. Keeping calm, I carefully edged sideways, moving towards the middle of the cave. As a single unit, the drones followed after me.

"Why'd you attack the city?" I asked. "What do you want with all those people? You need to let them go, right now!"

They didn't respond. Grimly silent, one of the drones took a menacing step towards me.

I didn't back down. "Who are you working for?" I continued. "Who's your boss? What's the plan here? Where did you even come from?"

The drone raised his right arm. I saw the glistening barrel of a blaster attached to his gauntlet and spun into the air as the cave lit up around me. The blast smashed into the rock where I'd been standing a second ago, and I dropped to the ground and found my footing. Okay. Hostile it was.

"You guys aren't talkers then?" I asked. As they closed in, I reached for my back pocket. "Then I'll do the talking for us," and my fingers closed around my morpher. "It's morphin' time! Brontosaurus!"

The cave exploded in light and sound. The drones retreated at the storm of blue light, and once it faded, I was standing before them as the Blue Ranger. Hesitating for a second longer, the drones crept back towards me. The lead drone hissed a command to the other five, and the two closest to him took to the air, falling towards me with their shining talons. I stepped forward and caught their arms as they fell, halting their descent in mid-air.

"No," I said simply, and threw them away. The two beasts crashed to the cave floor about thirty feet away. The other four watched them go, then suddenly charged towards me.

I held my ground as the buzzing drones attacked. One of them lashed out at my helmet, and I blocked the creature's arm and struck him back with a rapid blow to his shoulder. Another attacked from the right, and I spun under his outstretched arm and threw him into the cave wall behind me. While I was off-balance, two more attacked side-by-side. I struck away a glancing blow from the left and batted away a low kick from the right, sending one stumbling with a powerful blow to the chest while forcing the other back with a low kick. The fifth drone raced towards me even as his comrades hit the ground, but I slammed the creature back with a high kick. I dropped to the ground as the lead drone aimed his wrist blaster for me again. By the time he fired, I'd already closed the distance between us. The cave lit up behind us as I tore the blaster off his armour with one hand and crunched it in my palm, before launching him off his feet with a powerful uppercut.

Beaten but hardly defeated, the drones shakily climbed to their feet. Regaining their senses, they turned to face me.

"C'mon boys, give up," I said. "There's still time to…"

Footsteps echoed out of the tunnel. Six glowing arrows whistled past me and thudded into the chest armour of each drone.

"Wait, no there's not," I said.

The arrows exploded, slamming the drones into the cave wall where they crumpled to the ground and moved no further. I turned to see the Pink and Aqua Rangers charging out of the tunnel, Kim with her Power Bow held high.

"Guys!" I grinned.

Barrelling towards me, Brendan let out a cry of joy and wrapped his arms around me, lifting me off the ground with a bear-hug. Behind us, Kim laughed and clapped me on the shoulder.

"Dude," Brendan cried. "You fell, and we thought we lost you!"

I laughed, and felt my arms groaning in protest. "Brendan, I'm gonna need those back at some point."

Brendan finally stepped back. "It's good to see you," he said.

"Trust me, I am very glad to see you too," I said, and I realised I meant every word. "The dream team back together, eh? I figured the tunnel led back to Lumelian, but how'd you find me?"

"Zordon and Alpha switched the city back on," Kim explained. "There was some negotiation involved," and I glanced between the two of them as Brendan laughed, "but we followed the evacuation route and found the tunnel in a basement under one of the spaceship hangars. Something had chewed through the foundations of the building. Once we saw that, we came running. It's only about a kilometre back to the city."

"The tunnel I followed was a lot longer," I said, and we turned to the pile of drones, twitching on the ground.

"So bugs are our bad guys?" Brendan asked.

I nodded. "The good news is I found the missing people," I said, and indicated the metallic pods behind me. "I think they're okay for the moment, but I didn't get the chance to free them. The bad news is those six drones are just the warm-up. There's like a thousand more of those guys in eggs on the other side of the cave, and I think they're close to waking up. The worse news…"

"There's worse news?" Brendan interrupted.

"… is that there's a second cave even bigger than this one," I continued, "filled with even larger bugs. Spiders and wasps and mantises the size of our zords. Whether they're purely robotic or actually alive, I'm not sure."

"Zac picked the right mission to sit out on," Kim said, and turned to the kidnapped people. "But we need to get these people out of here."

"I don't know how to wake them up," I said. "I'd say the purple haze is keeping them unconscious, and I think it's controlled by those silver junction boxes there."

"It doesn't look like there's an off switch," said Brendan.

"Then let's just break everything and see where that gets us," said Kim. "We don't have a lot of time boys. Go!"

To be continued.