Author's notes - ChibiDawn, yeah, I saw that once on a motivational poster, and I thought, yep, that's a pretty apt philosophy for superheroes in general :). Anyway, enjoy chapter seven, where our oddly-familiar villainous mastermind is revealed ...
Chapter Seven
The three of us scattered. Kim vaulted up to the higher platform while Brendan ran towards the back of the cave. I raced up to the closest eggs and used my blade blaster to destroy the nearby junction box. It sparked and shook, and the mist quickly started to dissipate. As I watched, the geometric tiles fell away, while the people within began to stir.
The woman in the nearest pod was wearing a silver uniform. I couldn't read the title and insignia on her name badge, but I knew enough to realise she was probably someone pretty important. Her eyes fluttered open and she collapsed forward. I put her arm around my shoulder to steady her, and hit the universal language translator on my belt.
"Where am I?" she asked in a shaky voice, as I helped her out of the remains of the egg. "Who are you?"
"I'm a Power Ranger from Earth," I replied. "I'm here to help. I know this sounds crazy, but the whole city was kidnapped by a race of cybernetic insect creatures. We're currently in a cave underneath Lumelian. How do you feel?"
I stood back. The woman was woozy for a second, but found her balance soon enough.
"My head hurts, but apart from that, I'm not too bad," she replied, massaging her scalp. She took a second to gaze around in disbelief at the pods all around her. "My name's Shanna. We're actually in a cave under Lumelian, you say?"
I nodded. All around, I could see the other citizens stumbling out of the eggs, disoriented and confused. "We're all still in danger," I said quickly, "and there's a lot of people I need to help. Will you be okay?"
Shanna nodded, understanding the severity of the situation. "Go," she said. "Go! I'll help as best I can."
In the shadowy corner of the cavern, Kim reached the last egg along the row of raised scaffolding. It looked as if the egg's occupant had already climbed to safety, but she couldn't see anybody nearby. Reaching the pod, she peered in and her face fell. The egg's occupant was a young girl, her dark hair matted against her head. She couldn't have been more than six or seven, and she was curled up in fear at the bottom of the silvery prison, trying to make herself as small as possible. The Pink Ranger recalled Zordon's words that some of the city's residents were indeed young children, and her heart went out to the girl.
"Hey," she said softly. "Hey, are you okay? I'm the Pink Ranger. What's your name?"
The girl lowered her arms and turned to face the person addressing her, her eyes going wide at the sight of the Pink Ranger. "Alesia," she replied with a sniffle. She wiped her face with the back of her hand.
"That's a pretty name," Kim said. "Listen, I need like one second, and I'm gonna get you out of here, okay? Just hang on."
She began breaking through the egg, but the panels fell apart in her hands with little resistance. Kim had soon torn a large enough gap in the side of the pod, and she reached in and offered the young girl her hand.
"C'mon," Kim said. "Let's get out of here."
Alesia hesitated a second longer, then reached out and took Kim's hand. Standing up, she quickly climbed out of the pod. But standing on the platform, Kim could see the girl shivering, and the Pink Ranger knelt down and wrapped her arms around her.
"It's gonna be okay," she said. "Are you cold?"
Alesia sniffled. "No," she squeaked. "It's so dark here and … I'm scared."
"Well it's okay to be afraid of the dark," Kim began. "You see this little golden coin here?" and she tapped the morpher on her belt. Alesia nodded, and Kim continued. "That means the dark's afraid of us." Alesia smiled. Pleased that she looked better, Kim stood up. "C'mon, let's go find your parents. They'll be around here somewhere."
Between the three Rangers and the increasing number of rescued civilians, it was only a short time later before a crowd of people had gathered in the middle of the cave. Brendan, Kim and I reunited in front of the crowd and swept our gazes over the eggs, but every single one of them was empty. One problem down. Twenty to go.
"Okay," began Kimberly, raising her voice. "Lumelian isn't too far away. We need to get you out of here and back up to the city, as fast as we can."
"I wouldn't do that if I waszzz you," came a voice.
We spun around on the spot. Brendan summoned his Power Sai with a thought. It was the same voice we'd heard back in the city, an insect-like buzzing that made my ears hurt. Emerging from the shadows was a dark figure. My first thought was that it was another drone, but this one was a lot taller than the rest and he seemed to be shaped differently. His body was covered in a mix of spiked silver armour and thick bony plates. His boots and gloves all ended in sharp, silver claws, while I could see four angular wings jutting out from his back. Two bulging eyes peered out from under the creature's twitching antenna, while a pair of fearsome silver claws protected the proboscis jutting down from his chin.
"Welcome to my hive," the creature finished.
"This is because of you?" Kim asked, her Power Bow aimed for the beast's head. "Who are you?"
The beast stopped a few metres away and stood to his full height, towering over the three of us. "I am a warrior drone of the queen'szzz most honoured regiment," he replied. "My full name iszzz unpronounceable in your limited human tongue, and it would be insulting to even try. But I will permit you to call me the Inszzzectoid."
"Whoever you are, we're not letting you hurt anybody," Brendan said, nodding back to the crowd behind us as they watched on in silent terror.
But the Insectoid didn't listen, and his gaze drifted over our suits. "I had expected reszzzcue," he buzzed softly, "but I had not expected thiszzz. Something about your szzzuits is hard to szzzee, and those golden trinketszzz on your belts, they are not … I do not understand thiszzz at all."
"Where are you from anyway?" asked Kim.
"He's from the planet below," I said, realisation dawning. "Aren't you?"
The Insectoid turned to me. "You are szzzmarter than you appear," the creature sneered. "Yeszzz, you're correct. Unlike our insect brethren throughout the galaxy, my brotherszzz and siszzzters grew strong enough to rule that world! Millionszzz of us, and the planet was ours for centurieszzz! When it could no longer support uszzz, we retreated here. Our queen did not survive, but I was taszzzked to protect the hatchery, and that I did."
"So you dug out these caves and set up shop underground," I said. I was glad to keep the Insectoid talking. Out of the corner of my visor, I could see the rescued citizens shaking their heads to clear the fog. All bad guys love to hear themselves talk. Zordon says it's an ego thing. But the longer we kept this guy talking, the more time we bought for everyone to recover.
"I waited for so long, watching the eggszzz," the Insectoid continued, "and then the humanszzz arrived, building their city in a place with no air or light. The arrogance of them! But I discovered a curiouszzz thing. They wasted szzzo much. So much metal, so much scrap. We are not the insignificant pests you're used to, humanszzz. Here in secret, I studied their technology and built myself a suit of armour with unmatched power! And once I learned how to adapt organic metal, I could make my drones unstoppable!"
"And the people of the city?" Kim asked.
"Every army needs to eat, does it not?" the Insectoid responded. "Kept in cellszzz, we could drain their life energy as it waszzz needed."
"Like ticks or mosquitos," I said. "It's why you went to so much trouble to keep them alive."
"I knew reszzzcue would come," the insect droned. "But with my army of droneszzz ready to hatch, it mattered little! Using this city as our base, we will spread out through the galaxy, planet to planet. Once humanity is gone, insectszzz will finally take their place as the rulerszzz of the galaxy!"
Kim stepped forward. "How about no?" she said, and sent a volley of arrows whistling across the cavern.
The cave erupted with sparks and smoke. The Insectoid raised his arms to protect himself, then charged through the blaze, unharmed.
"Infidelszzz!" he cried, and shot a barrage of stinging blasts towards us.
The cavern exploded as the crowd behind us screamed in fear. Brendan and I dived over the blast, rolling to our feet and aiming side-by-side high kicks. The cybernetic beast was faster than we thought, striking away Brendan with one hand and forcing me back with the other. Finding his footing, Brendan aimed high, but the Insectoid ducked the blow and lashed out, throwing the Aqua Ranger away. I aimed a low kick and the Insectoid stepped around the move, raking his claws for my chest in a shower of sparks. Even as I fell, Kim dropped down in front of our foe, slicing her bow for his head. He easily dodged the move, and when Kim aimed a point-blank shot for his chest, he struck the bow aside and the shot went wide. Before Kim could fire again, the Insectoid sent her crashing with a glancing blow to the shoulder. While he was distracted, Brendan rolled to his feet in front of the creature and slashed his sai across the Insectoid's chest. The beast hissed in annoyance, unfazed, and threw Brendan to the ground.
The three of us regrouped as the Insectoid closed in. This guy was tough. Damn.
I charged forward, swinging high, but the Insectoid blocked the blow and struck back. I dodged the move and Brendan launched one of his sai for the Insectoid's head. The creature stepped aside and the blade flashed past with millimetres to spare. Before he could recover, Kim leaped forward with a flurry of kicks, landing a blow to his shoulder. The Insectoid buzzed angrily and sent a blast whistling towards her, but Kimberly somersaulted back out of danger. Pressing forward, Brendan and I attacked again, Brendan aiming high while I kicked low. He spun to the side to avoid the blows when Kim leaped in from the other side, aiming a powerful strike for the beast's chest. He struck away her arm, catching a punch from Brendan and batting away my foot, trading blows with the three of us at once. Kim kicked high and the Insectoid spun around the move, sending Kim crashing with a high kick. Blocking his spiked gauntlet, I aimed a rapid blow for his shoulder, but he caught my arm and spun me off my feet. I crashed into Brendan and we hit the ground in a painful tangle of limbs.
The three of us picked ourselves up as the Insectoid laughed.
"You are the beszzzt that humanszzz have to offer?" he chortled.
"I hate to say it, but this is getting us nowhere," Kim breathed.
I glanced to the pods across the cave and noticed the drones squirming around far more actively than they'd been before. "We're out of time," I said. "Those drones are about to hatch! We need to get these people out of here!"
Brendan nodded to one of the platforms of hatching eggs a few metres behind our foe. "If we can't beat him," he began, "let's stall him. Kim?"
My first thought was that it would be hopeless, but we were running out of options. I held silent as Kim raised her Power Bow.
"Trying that again?" the cybernetic insect asked. It was hard not to hear the contempt in his voice.
"Not quite," Kim replied, and aimed a glowing arrow at the Insectoid's feet.
"Wait," the creature began. "What are you…?"
The arrow slammed into the ground, throwing up a cloud of dust. The Insectoid grunted and waved his arms to clear the smoke, when Brendan flew through the cloud and slammed his boots into the beast's chest, launching the Insectoid into the scaffolding holding up the platform. Taking out one of the support struts, the Insectoid slammed into the rocky wall and crashed to the ground. The scaffolding groaned, and Kim sent a dozen more arrows across the cave, smashing into the metal platform. With a roar, the structure collapsed, burying the cybernetic insect in a pile of rock and twisted metal. Cracks splintered up the cave wall and into the ceiling, as showers of chipped stone rained down over us.
The six drones I'd fought earlier charged over to the Insectoid, immediately trying to dig him out.
"Good plan," said Kim.
"Thanks," Brendan replied.
"That'll buy us some time," I said, "but not much. We gotta move," and I turned to the crowd of civilians, watching the battle with breathless terror. "The tunnel behind you, follow that back to the city."
"It's not far," Brendan urged. "It'll take you to one of the spaceship hangars."
"If you can walk, help somebody who can't," Kimberly called. "But you need to move."
As people began evacuating the cave, the woman I spoke to earlier ran past me. "You're one of Zordon's, right?" Shanna asked. I nodded, and she smiled. "Tell Zordon he picks them well." Leading a crowd of people, Shanna disappeared into the tunnel.
Across the cavern, the Insectoid blasted his way free of the rocks trapping him, sending debris flying into the air. The six drones cowered behind him as he stormed out of the rubble. Sweeping his gaze over the crowd of civilians, the creature slammed his fist into the wall.
"How dare you?" he screeched, the whine in his voice shaking the pods around him. "Thoszzze people belong to me!"
With Kim and Brendan ushering them to safety, the last of the kidnapped people escaped the cave.
"That's what you get for underestimating humans," I said.
The Insectoid trembled with rage. "Fine," he buzzed, and raised his wrist. Too late, I saw the blinking control panel on his gauntlet. "If my army cannot feed, then we will start our conqueszzzt of the galaxy early! Awaken, my creatures!" And he tapped a button on the wristpad. "Awaken and destroy!"
Sharp cracks filled the air. Without even looking, we knew what was happening. "He's waking up the drones," Kim said.
The ground shook beneath us, a steady rhythm causing showers of stone to rain down on us. Not large vibrations like an approaching zord, but lots of footsteps, all moving together. There was the sound of another explosion, muffled through layers of rock, and a great rush of air, like a hurricane out of a bottle. The cracks in the walls grew even more pronounced, and I wondered just how much more damage the cave could take.
"What was that?" asked Brendan.
"The larger bugs in the other cave," I realised. "They've blasted their way to the surface and they're heading for the city! Brendan, you've got to beat 'em there!"
"On it!" the Aqua Ranger cried and dashed off. In a second, he'd disappeared from view.
"Kim…"
"I'll get everyone to safety," she said, and nodded to the tunnel. "And Brendan might need my help."
I looked back to the Insectoid as dozens of drones began climbing free of their pods and gathering around their leader. "I'll stay here and hold off the drones. That'll give everyone a chance to get to safety," I said. "Make sure everyone makes it back, then shut the airlocks behind you."
More and more drones were assembling around the Insectoid. Kim frowned. "There's hundreds of them, and there's a lot more that haven't woken up yet," she said quickly. "Are you sure?"
I nodded. "Let me do this."
Kim rested a hand on my shoulder. "Kick their butts Scott," she said, and she raced back into the tunnel.
To be continued.