Volume I - Genesis
Chapter 4—Cybernetics 101, Part IV—Course Objective
Matt
Pure, untainted power coursed through my clenched fists and swept through every single one of my limbs as my vision became clearer. It didn't feel like I was seeing through a helmet, it felt like I was seeing for the first time. I didn't feel like Matt Jamison, a 17 year-old boy; I felt like a completely new entity capable of any and everything. I felt untouchable.
I looked down at my hands, gloved in black with blue finger tips at the end. Around my forearms were these curvy black and blue bracers, the same upside down arrowhead lasered onto a crystal casing that seemed like it was wired into the back of my hands and knuckles. My elbows were covered in white armor with triangular gems bearing the mark of the Greek letter Kappa. And, most obviously, some odd blue material slightly darker than the blue of the sky ran over my entire body; except the dark blue, more durable material that covered my pecs all the way down my abdomen to my groin, around to my glutes, up my back, and to my shoulder blades. Even my delts were padded up. And down my arms, legs, and sides were stripes of glowing turquoise lines of neon energy with random lines of code constantly running up and down them.
"Lookin good, Matt!" Amy complimented me. "I'm a fan of the blue."
"Not bad yourself, pinky."
It was true. I turned to look at her, all decked in pink. From the symbol in her chest was a pale blue collar that ran up to her neck, where her suit became white until it met with her helmet. Her secondary color must have been this light blue color or something, because it was everywhere on her suit—especially the harder material that protected our major muscle groups. That was when I noticed her boots, while I hadn't even paid attention to mine. They were silver, mostly, with white accents and blue crystals with pink detailing. At the toes, plates of armor seemed to protect every little detail, offering even more maneuverability in battle. At least, that's what my visor was telling me now.
Oh yeah, and the visors? All white. Not black, like usual, but pure, opaque white. And on the inside, there was always some stream of info being updated by the minute. Like when I looked at Amy, not only did it show me her average health vitals, but it gave me the rundown on her Morphing energy level and a tactical summary. It was incredible! I just needed to learn how to fully use it…
"You don't have time to check yourselves out," our principal snapped. "Mira and Rheas are demolishing this SPD facility, and if you don't hurry, innocent people are going to die! They've already hacked into the central mainframe! It's only a matter of time before they breech the security."
"Right, we're on it!" Aaron acknowledged as he turned to leave The Basement. He paused awkwardly and looked back at Doctor Oliver, his bright blue visor glistening under the lights in the room. "Uh…where's your teleporter?"
"Your belts," he said humorlessly, "use your belts."
"Will it just know where to go?" Jay asked.
Doc was fighting not to roll his eyes, I could see it in his face. Especially through this cool new visor.
"I already put the coordinates in the computer. What do you think I was doing while you guys were morphing, watching in awe?"
Grace laughed. It was that laugh she used to do all the time when she still hung out with the other cheerleaders. That bitchy demeaning laugh. I gotta admit, I kinda felt bad for Jay for a second. I knew what it felt like to feel like you were always one step behind all the "geniuses" in the room.
"This isn't my first rodeo guys, just do as I tell you and we'll get this taken care of in time for dinner."
"God, I'm hungry," Aaron mumbled.
I don't think he realized we all heard him until the room was quiet.
"Uh…okay everyone, let's go."
Wow. He was really awkward. And really bad at this leader thing. Even with his special ranger suit and the fancy golden armor, he was just as clueless as ever.
"We're all gonna die," I muttered barely above my breath.
"Shut up, Matt."
But it wasn't just one of them. They literally all said the same thing. Well, all of the Rangers.
I really hoped that wasn't gonna become a thing. This whole "saying everything together" crap could not be a real side effect of the Morphers. Could it?
"Alright, guys; everyone ready?" Aaron asked us.
"Ready as we'll ever be," I answered.
"Wish us luck," Jay said to Sanders and Kevin, who stood dumbfounded at the sight of us.
Never breaking our V-formation, we each touched the top of our belt buckles and were sucked up into a beam of our energies. I thought I heard Patrick mutter 'good luck' before we left, but he was drown out by the sound of our teleportation.
For the record, teleportation did not feel at all like I thought it would. I mean, it still looked just as cool as it did in the movies, but no one ever looked like they were in pain when Scotty would beam them up. This was like someone had vacuumed my head into a blender, then hurtled me feet-first back to the ground like a spitball meteor. Yeah, painful.
It took me a few seconds to shake off the dizziness, but my helmet was beeping at me as the internal HUD and auto-targeting systems locked onto Mira and Rheas, identifying them as potential hostiles. It then locked onto the SPD operatives trying to flee and rendered them harmless.
"Dude, this is just like a video game." I couldn't help it, okay? The minute SPD recruits were outline with a green icon, I felt like I was playing a first-person shooter instead of saving peoples' lives.
"Yeah, an insanely realistic, life-threatening video game," Grace quipped sarcastically. "Doc, what's the plan?"
Silence.
"Aw, you've gotta be kidding me! I thought he said he was gonna help us? So much for 'every step of the way." Jay snarled. "Typical."
"C'mon guys, we've seen enough TV shows to know what we do here," I said, "we get their attention and then save the day. Watch!"
I heard Grace call my name, but I wasn't paying attention. I sprang into the air into the biggest flip I'd ever done in my entire life, and landed perfectly just behind Mira and Rheas.
"Excuse me, you two; but I don't believe there were any renovations scheduled for today."
Slowly, Rheas turned around, staring at me from a huge grimace that matched the color of my suit. His lip curled as he sneered, his eyes going hard and his fists balling.
"You've got to be kidding me," he groaned eventually, letting out a bark of a laugh.
That got Mira's attention. The White Shadow Ninja stopped firing lasers from her katana and turned to face me now too, her long ponytail riding on the wind from her last blast.
"Power Rangers?" she asked in a sing-song fashion. "Wherever did they scrounge up a Power Ranger?"
"Not just one, lady!" Grace shouted from behind me.
All of them were still standing back there, like they just weren't gonna back me up. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to get so close to these two psychos.
And then there was a loud beeping in my helmet before Rheas' massive fist and forearm collided with where my mouth would have been. Everything was beeping now as I spiraled through the air like a raggedy football and landed in a clump of debris from the SPD building.
Definitely not a good idea.
"If you're through rushing in without a plan," Doc was saying through my commlink, "why don't you sit back and exercise a little patience?"
"Oh, sure…now you're here every step of the way," I whispered angrily as Grace helped me up.
"I'm gonna have to take points off for that landing," she said. "You okay?"
"I think so," I responded, checking my helmet readouts, "Doesn't look like he did any real damage."
"Lucky for you," Amy chimed in as she and the rest of the team made their way over.
"A whole team of Rangers?" Mira was saying to Rheas. "But how? SPD doesn't have any more Rangers!"
"We're not SPD," Grace fired back loudly, "We're the Cyber Squad!"
Even though I couldn't really make them out, I could tell Mira's eyebrow was twitching as she connected the dots.
"The Cyber Squad? Thomas used the Cyber Morphers?!"
"You got that right, Ninja Bitch," Jay said, "and I think it's time for some payback!"
"It's those kids from the school," Rheas growled lowly, menacingly.
"We look like kids to you now, Steroid Smurf?"
Again with the Steroid Smurf? Really?
"You need to power up, first," Doc advised us, interrupting Jay's banter. "You're still new to your powers. Standing together and announcing yourselves will give you a direct line to the Morphing Grid and give you a temporary boost—almost like a voice activation code. You should have enough to download your combat profiles, but do it quickly. Without a Red Ranger, your link will only last so long."
"Wait, you mean power up like do a role call? Like cheerleaders?" Jay spat.
"Didn't I tell you guys you get to look like cheerleaders?" Amy cracked a joke. "Did you think I was kidding?"
"Well," Grace said, stepping forward, "if we're cheerleading, I think it only makes sense that I start us off! Cyber Psi—Black Shadow Ranger!"
So, I figured the posing part of being a Ranger was just something TV producers threw in to fill the 20 minute quota per episode. Turns out, striking a pose and introducing yourself really created an explosive aura of black shadows. At least, that's what happened to Grace.
Her whole body seemed to be covered in dancing black fire, but it wasn't fire. It actually kinda looked like water. But it was black. And by black, I mean it was so deep that I couldn't find any gaps—any color. And then, just when I thought Grace had turned into a black hole, purple sparks of energy burst out of the front of her chest, right where that little arrowhead symbol was. To be honest, it looked like Grace was dancing in stardust, like she was a ballerina dressed in a Ranger suit.
Amy must've been impressed. Impressed enough to try it out for herself, at least, because she jumped up into the air and landed with a bang, a small crater forming underneath her feet.
"Cyber Sigma—Pink Force Ranger!"
Amy had literally just touched the ground when she completed her pose, but then a bubble of pink energy wrapped around her as she floated just a few feet off the ground. Electric energy crackled inside her orb until it snaked up her arms and legs, focusing on the arrow in the middle of her chest in a bright blue ray of light.
I had to get in on this!
So I did! I put my best foot forward and my scanners locked onto Amy and Grace, running diagnostics on their power level readings. It was like my visor knew what was happening and was telling me how to copy them. It started out pretty simple. All I had to do was say:
"Cyber Kappa—Blue Vortex Ranger!"
And then it got un-simple. All these winds came rushing at me from nowhere, swirling around me like I was in the middle of a tornado. I couldn't control my body, I just felt my arms moving on their own as they seemed to control the windstorm around me. Suddenly I was airborne, like I was just using a freaking cyclone to hover over my teammates for a couple seconds. I'll admit, it was pretty awesome. Until I dropped to the ground. My reflexes kicked in and I landed in a kneeling position, my fist slammed into the ground like I was Iron Man or something.
Then I realized I kind of was, and that made me smile just a little.
My smile disappeared, though, when a trail of fire consumed my line of sight. A trail of golden-yellow flames that ran their way to Jay before encircling him like he was in a ring of fire. He flexed his muscles—a lot more muscle than Jay ever had—and took in a deep breath before he roared:
"Cyber Upsilon—Yellow Pyro Ranger!"
And the ring of fire became a small dome that looked more like a miniature sun than anything, before it exploded in yellow light and swirling cinders.
"Cyber Delta—White Light Ranger!"
Just like in the basement, Aaron let out a blinding wave of pure light energy. Only this time, with my visor on, I could see all of the magic happening around me. I could see the brilliant light blue flecks of whatever mixing with the golden sparkles of light. It was like I was seeing into an actual wave of light—like somehow, all the molecules slowed down just enough for my visor to detect them and register them in my memory banks.
And then, something weird happened. I mean, weirder than striking a pose and erupting in energy, or weirder than everything else that happened that day. Because, for the third time that day, I felt something else take over my body. Something else moved my limbs and opened my mouth, along with everyone else's. And we all cried out the exact same thing.
"Power Rangers: Cyber Squad!"
It was amazing. I mean, it's not that I doubted Doc—actually, yes, I did. That's exactly why. I doubted any of this crap was gonna work. Morphers, teleporting, posing—it was all made up, right? I mean, there was no way doing all that could release energy, right? Wrong.
There was a huge explosion that let out from behind us, like someone had just detonated a brick of C4 just because we said the name of our team. But it wasn't the appearance that got me. No, it was the feeling. I couldn't explain it…it was just this unmistakable rush of sheer power and determination—I felt like I was invincible! Like I was Superman himself, or something.
"You guys ready?!" Aaron called out to us, full of pride and power like I'm sure we all were. I'm sure he felt mighty powerful in his special armor, though.
"READY!"
Again with the synchronized shouting.
"Use your visors to keep up with the battle, and use your Gauntlet Guards to close the distance between you and them," Doc commanded.
Without missing a beat, our helmets buzzed to life with information on how our forearm protectors were a two-in-one. A protector, yes, but a blaster. Even better.
We all stepped forward just once, our right feet pointed directly toward our targets. From our invincible line formation, we raised our right arms and let our gauntlets do the rest. It was like all I had to do was will it into a blaster and…presto!
"Gauntlet Guards!" we yelled together.
Except for Aaron. He was just standing there in the middle of us, like he was waiting for something. And then, that something must've come. Maybe Doc was talking privately to him, because Aaron reached for his belt, where a small blade hung on his right hip. But I guess Aaron was left handed or something, because he took the blade out and held it by its crossguard. Maybe no one had ever shown him how to use a sword, or something, because…well…he was definitely holding it the wrong way. He was holding it like a gun.
And then the blade lit up as it transformed, half of its actual blade sliding away to reveal a barrel.
"FIRE!" the White Ranger ordered, like he was suddenly a military commander.
Sure as hell worked, though.
From our gauntlets, rounds of elemental energy shot out like machine gun bursts. A shroud of smoke quickly replaced our enemies as we no doubt decimated them without even breaking a sweat.
"Well, that was easy," I sighed, looking at the others.
"Who needs a Red Ranger?" Jay boasted proudly, sticking out his crimson-covered chest. "I've got plenty enough Red on my suit to replace him."
And then, another eruption. This time, though, it was applause. The survivors of the SPD raid were coming out in droves now, cheering, clapping, and celebrating our victory.
"Oh, I could get used to this hero treatment."
"Focus, Matt!" Doc snapped. "Those two are far from done. All you did was get them to move away from the building."
"But…where are they?" Jay wondered.
"Use your scanners! Your HUD should have locked onto their signatures by now, unless Mira's cloaking herself with her smoke bombs."
"Now you tell us she has smoke bombs?" Aaron demanded. "That would've been nice to know when they disappeared in smoke."
"If you paid attention to your HUD, you would see you have a full analysis of Mira and Rheas' abilities. Did I, or did I not specifically tell you to use your visors?"
"Okay, okay, dude, chill. We got it," Jay said. "Jeez. No need for the lecture."
"They're underground," Amy said, changing the topic and cutting Doc off from continuing his argument with Jay. "And moving fast. Rheas must be tunneling."
"Awesome. How do we stop him?" I asked.
"You," Grace responded. "You're the power of wind—blow a breeze down there and push them out the other side."
"No, no, no, that'll never work," Aaron interrupted. "Grace, the Shadow Morpher has phasing abilities—you can literally pass through solid matter. Go down there and teleport them back up."
"Uh…teleport them back? With my belt?"
"No, your Shadow Powers," he said.
"If it wasn't in her download, Aaron, then she's not ready for that yet," Doc said tersely.
"How did you even know about my Shadow Powers?" Grace asked the White Ranger.
And then I saw through the smoke covering Rheas and Mira's exit.
"Um…guys…"
"Not now, Matt," Doc shushed me. "The only way we're getting underground is with the Alpha Stone Morpher. Without it, we're back at square one."
"No, seriously."
"I want you to report back to the Basement, we'll track Mira and Rheas from here."
"You might want to stop worrying about Mira and Rheas, and maybe worry about the invasion of the Borg."
That got their attention.
"What the hell are you talking about, man?" Jay asked, turning around from their little huddle.
Mira and Rheas had definitely tunneled underground, but they left us a parting gift. A swarm of silver, robotic soldiers without faces—just face plates with a pair of glowing holographic eyes. And they were ripped, too. I mean, as built as robots could be. They were at least six feet tall with armored plates designed to look like muscles wrapped around the skeleton frames. And they were so glowy, too. Like, Tron glowy, you know? Like they would look really cool at a blacklight party or something.
Well, they would if they weren't killer soldier Droids.
"I don't see anything, just smoke," Amy said. "I'm not detecting anything, either."
"No, I see them," I said, "through the smoke."
And then I noticed that even my visor wasn't pointing them out. It was like my vision was just…intense!
"Matt, what do you see?" Doc asked me, finally listening to me. "Is it the Morpher? Is it enhancing your vision?"
"Little bit," I muttered, "little bit. Which is awesome and everything, except for the fact that I'm staring at a bunch of heartless death robots right now who look like they each bench press a whole skyscraper."
"Gigadroids." The way Doc said their names made it sound like a swear word. "I was afraid of this. Your scanners haven't had time to register them as hostile energy signatures yet, that's why they're not showing up."
"What's a Gigadroid?" Amy asked.
"What, foot soldiers? These guys are like Putties, right? How hard could it be?"
"Jay, wait!"
But my orders weren't orders to Jay. They were probably just suggestions that he'd file away for later in case he ever decided to use them. Or, he probably just let them go right through his head. Yeah, that was probably it.
So the Yellow Ranger took off running, but he was a hell of a lot faster now. Faster than all of us. He was a yellow and crimson blur, with little black spots that I could barely make out. And he made sparks when he ran. Like he was a buzz saw or something.
And then he wasn't. Then he was a pile of overly muscled limbs and sparks that came back toward us just as quickly as he'd left. Only not on his feet.
"They…they shot him!" Amy gasped. "I didn't even see it happen!"
"The Gigadroids are not Putties, Jay," Doc said, no doubt checking the status of his power levels. "They were designed as replacements to SPD Rangers, proposed by the Aleph Beyt before the separation. Each one of them has the strength of 5 men, but because of that, they were never approved because they couldn't be trusted to make ethical decisions. But trust me when I say, they're a hell of a lot stronger than your run of the mill grunt."
"Again with the information I could've used 20 seconds ago?" Jay whined as Aaron helped him out of the rubble. "Dude, you're worse than an old computer."
"We need to protect those civilians," Aaron said now, less worried about Jay's complaining and more worried about the fight were faced with. "Doc, do you think we're ready for this?"
"The Morphers wouldn't have picked you if you weren't," he replied. "I'm sending you another ink—last one for the day. Standby."
My visor lit up again, new data pouring in like an entire computer was just dumped into my brain. This file, though, was different. It wasn't like the Gauntlet Guards File—which was just basic use of our suits. No, this was the file on our Cyber Weapons and Elemental Powers.
"I can control wind? Like, for real control it?" I asked aloud, though mostly to Doc.
"Eventually, yes. For now, you're limited to subtle manipulations or using your Cyber Weapon to do so. When the Morphers fully bond with you, you'll come to understand your powers and their limits in ways you never thought possible."
"Let's get this party started, then!" I shouted.
"Let's do it, guys!"
Even though I didn't like the guy—at all—I found myself just waiting for Aaron's command to leap into action. And I found myself wondering, even as I called my Cyber Weapon—the Kappa Spear—if our Morphers were programmed to respond to his since he was our "leader."
I was distracted just enough to hear Grace call out her "Psi Lancer," and Amy to follow her up with the "Sigma Chain." It didn't take Jay and Aaron long to use their new data. I was pretty sure Jay's was the "Upsilon Shield," and Aaron had something fancy, of course. Remember that little blaster sword he had? Well, now it was called the "Delta Magna Edge." And it looked like Excalibur had a baby with a transforming laser sword. Kinda made my spear look dumb at first glance.
"Matt, can you clear the smoke out?" he asked me. I think he noticed me comparing our weapons.
"Uh, yeah, got it. One whirlwind coming up!"
There it was again! That presence! That thing that kept taking over my body. But this time, it was more like…I dunno…it was helping me, not forcing me. It guided my arms into a complex hand gesture, before I lunged forward with my arms stretched in front of me. A small puff of air popped out of my palms, but nothing really happened to the smoke.
"I'd say your whirlwind needs some work," Jay belittled me. "More like a fan than a tornado."
"Don't listen to him Matt," Doc said, "don't be afraid to use a little power."
So I did it again, but this time—this time I didn't need any help from that ghost thing. This time, it was all me. And holy hell, I made what my visor called a "torrent" of wind and the smoke billowed away like loose breath on a cold night.
The Gigadroids were barely affected, though. But their eyes went from a neutral blue to a menacing bright green as one stepped forward and droned out, "Destroy."
"Get ready!" Aaron yelled, twirling his sword as he slid into a fighting position.
Time seemed to slow down those few minutes before our first real brawl, the Gigadroids tearing across the pavement in robotic sprints. I remembered looking over at Jay, who straightened his diamond shield on his forearm and examined the jagged edges near the bottom like he was wondering if he could stab one of them. If I could see his face, I could imagine him frowning before deciding to just bash the shit out of them with the front of the shield. He crouched like he was back out on the school football field and waited for Aaron's call.
Next to Jay and dwarfed by his behemoth self, Amy looked ready to scrap, her Sigma Chain hanging heavily on the concrete, serrated edges caught in the sunlight. Her helmeted head turned toward me and she looked at me through her visor, nodding to me as she refocused and cracked her chain like a whip and began to twirl it at her side. Immediately, the gaps in the chain lit up with that same laser energy that surrounded Aaron's sword, officially making her weapon more badass than anyone's.
"You ready for this?" Grace asked me, tilting her head as she spun her weapons around.
The Psi Lancer was Grace's set of weaponry—two Sai with blades the length of her forearm cloaked in dark mist over some alien metal my visor called Sladen dex Zordian. I was guessing that was some form of Eltarian, so I didn't ask what it meant.
"As I'll ever be," I responded as the battle came rushing back to me in the form of a stampeding herd of Gigadroids.
"We hold the line here until we can make a way to the civilians," Aaron was saying now.
My visor said the Gigadroids were only 3 meters away and closing.
I could smell the steel and wires like the stench of machinery in the air, could feel the light breeze blowing east-by-southeast, and could taste the tension in the air like a cold twinge in the warm Californian air.
Just as the Gigadroids were leaping for us, I spun my spear around and was amazed as it came to life with humming blue energy and gusts of wind. The first spin stopped my Gigadroid cold in its tracks, three more stopping just behind him. Now my download was coming in handy! All these different martial arts moves I could use with my spear sprang into my mind like images from a movie, and it was only when I really started paying attention that I noticed I was mirroring them seamlessly.
I was midway through a combo when I realized I'd shredded two Gigadroids with my spear, so I vaulted over the other two and landed behind them. Their agile bodies dodged to the left, fanning out as their chest plates rearranged into a cannon. Twin blasts shot from each of them, but a quick spin of my spear sent them right back to their owners. Only, in their heads.
"Dude, is it just me, or are we freaking awesome right now?!" I shouted happily, rolling out of the way of another blast before returning fire with my Gauntlet Guard. "I've already taken down 5!"
"That's it?" Grace bantered back over the commlink, though I could hear her just a few feet away. "I'm already on 8."
"Well great, since you guys are doing so well, why don't you go help SPD?" Aaron suggested as he tossed a Gigadroid by its neck and sliced it in half with his sword. "We'll handle these tin cans."
Grace whistled, impressed.
"What? I could've done that," I reminded her. "It's just easier for him cuz he has a sword."
If it weren't for her visor, I knew I'd see her rolling her eyes. "C'mon airhead, let's go play hero."
I cut down two more Gigadroids with my spear, and then looked over at the SPD facility. It was in pretty bad shape. Mira and Rheas had taken out the lower four floors, leaving only five and six intact—just barely. And a lot of people we still trapped inside, posted up against their windows in fear.
"That's…a lot of people," I noticed, suddenly.
The group we'd seen outside was only about a hundred workers, but this building was massive—it must've held at least 600 employees.
"Don't worry," Doc said over my commlink, "SPD's Crisis Division is en route, they should be there in 5 to 10 minutes. Your mission is to get inside and get those people out before the building comes down."
"How are we supposed to get that many people down?"
"Use your powers," Grace said. And then she disappeared, like she turned into a black haze or something.
"Where'd she…"
And then she was back, only carrying three office workers with her.
"Those teleport powers we were talking about earlier were in my download," she said smugly. "Try and keep up."
Doc was in my ear again. "She's right, use your wind powers to fly up there and bring people down with you."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa; fly?"
"You wouldn't be much of a wind ranger if you couldn't fly, would you?"
"I…I guess not…"
"Rescan your download, Matt, it's in there. Just focus the particles around your body until you can manipulate it into flight. It'll take about 7 percent rate of your power supply."
"If you say so…" I said, mostly to myself.
So, I tried to focus. You know, closed my eyes, and took a deep breath— that sorta thing. Then I opened my eyes, because nothing was happening. And I realized my HUD was all lit up with an approach plan. It was literally mapping out my flight course. And all the sudden, I heard a low humming, like engines starting up. When I looked down at my feet, I could see what was making the sound. My boots. There were little vents in my boots that looked like they were shooting out air. Oh, they were shooting out air.
Before I knew it, those particles Doc was talking about were working, and I was slowly levitating off the ground. Just a couple inches at first, but then my HUD was telling me to accelerate using my toes. For real, my toes? So I pointed them, and I took off toward the sky another 10 meters before I came to an abrupt halt.
"Oh my good GOD DUDE, I'M FLYING!"
I couldn't help but laugh as Grace and the people she rescued cheered me on, laughing right along with me.
"That's awesome, Matt, I knew you could do it."
Wow. A compliment. It was…kinda weird. "Thanks, Doc!"
"In order to get everyone out as quickly as possible, you're going to have to work together, team."
"No sweat," Aaron was saying over the commlink. I could still hear the sound of battle around him as I flew over to the rooftop. "What's the plan, Doc?"
"You tell me, Aaron."
I think there was this unspoken moment we all shared when we realized Aaron was supposed to be our leader. Now, forget the fact that this guy was a Grade-A douche rocket, but the guy wasn't exactly a genius. He was good at sports, but this wasn't football.
"I've got a plan," he said eventually. He hesitated, the cold drumming of the Gigadroid energy core's so loud through Aaron's microphone.
"Thanks, but no thanks," Grace said, reappearing with another six people. She was getting better at this. Fast. "If you guys want to wait for him to come up with a plan, that's on you."
Then she was gone again, back in the building.
By now, there were a good 40 people on the rooftop, but I could only carry two or three down with me. We needed a plan, and quick.
"Enough of this testing bullshit, Doc, we gotta go!" Amy cried.
Then I saw why.
The Gigadroids were overwhelming them, now. They were learning what little battle tactics we had and were adapting faster than we were. "Tell us what to do!"
"If Aaron says he has a plan, then he has a damn plan!" Jay finally shouted. "You guys can think whatever the hell you want about us, but just cuz we're not A-plus students doesn't mean he can make up a good plan. The man's an athlete. He can play ball."
"Thank you," Aaron sighed, punching through a Gigadroid and slashing four more with an energy wave from his Magna Edge. "Jay, you're on flame control—keep all the fire down low. Nothing gets past you, got it?"
"On it."
The Yellow Ranger spun his shield, slicing down a Gigadroid before grabbing his shield and ramming through another two. Well, I guess he rammed them. He kinda melted them when he rammed them. So maybe he just melted through them? I dunno.
"Amy, leave the Gigadroids to me."
"You sure?" she asked him.
"You're the power of Force, right? Like, energy. You can create things with energy, right?"
"Well, yeah, kinda." She paused, pirouetted, and formed a sword with the laser energy around her Force Chain. All that loose energy bent to create what she told it to. And it made toasters out of four different Gigadroids. "What'd you have in mind?"
I didn't need to be able to see Aaron to know he was blinking speechlessly. "Nothing half as fancy as that," he finally said with a small laugh, "I need you to create support beams for the lower floors while Jay contains the heat. We have to hold that roof up until SPD gets here. Grace and Matt," he stopped momentarily, and judging by the grunting I heard on the comm, he was kicking some Gigadroid ass. "Hah! Two-in-one!"
I looked at Grace, shaking my helmeted head before I let another four people grab onto me. I wasn't comfortable with the whole 'create a whirlwind slide' thing my helmet was suggesting. All I could picture was people getting sucked into a vortex and splattered onto the ground.
"Anyway, you guys keep doing what you're doing. There's only another…" He stopped, sighed, and just judging by his breathing, seemed to be getting tired. "Whew. Just about 20. Okay, home stretch team, we got this!"
"So what, I'm just a people taxi?" I griped, surveying the battlefield as I flew my next group down. "I'm still only at 10 kills."
"You're kind of saving our lives…" a girl my age said to me from my shoulders. Oh yeah…I forgot they couldn't hear what was going on in my commlink. "So…yeah…"
"Joking," I said, trying to recover with humor, "I was…just joking. Oh, look, here we are, here's your stop." And I dropped them off and promptly flew off.
"Smooth," Grace whispered over the commlink.
And we held out for another three minutes that way. But I was definitely slowing down. Instead of four people per trip, I was reduced to 2, and I could barely keep us afloat.
"Your energy reserves are getting low guys, just maintain," Doc warned us.
"Last two," Aaron was mumbling heavily between breaths. "Last two."
His Magna Edge was on the ground, now and he'd taken a lot more damage than I think he realized. He was trying to prove something, and it was getting him killed. These last two Gigadroids were strong—they had analyzed the majority of his tactics by now and were just whittling him down. They weren't even trying at this point.
"Somebody's gotta get in there and help him," I said, staring from the rooftops with the head of security from the Department of Technology. "Can you take over from here?"
"Yes sir, Mr. Ranger Sir."
I turned my head slightly at that but nodded nonetheless before I plummeted down to the ground.
"Let me help you out, man," I offered.
"Matt, your energy reserves are extremely depleted, do not engage enemy. Repeat, do not engage."
"Doc, c'mon," I huffed, "remember, you said it only used 7 percent of my power."
"Yes. Seven percent with every drastic take off and every slow, overweight descent. Not just 7 percent total! That's what a rate is."
"Oh."
"Destroy."
The Gigadroids no doubt smelled the weakness on me, because they wanted payback. One jumped off the other's shoulders, his armored, metallic foot slamming into my stomach. I heard the material, that dark blue body armor stuff, whine from the impact. I crumpled.
Now the other Gigadroid was bounding in, his fist raised and glowing bright blue with more of that laser energy everyone seemed to love these days.
A puff of black smoke later and I was saved.
"Seriously Matt, don't you pay attention?" Grace nagged. "The HUD in your visor literally tells you everything you need to know about your immediate environment, immediate health, immediate energy readings—everything. How could you possibly think 7 percent meant overall energy?"
"Cuz I was just flying!" I snapped. "Jeez…" I pouted for a second and looked around. We were in an office on the sixth floor. It was empty. "Thanks for…saving me."
"No problem," she said lowly. "By the way…you were flying."
That got me to laugh. "I was, huh?"
"Yeah, dude, that's why it took so much energy. Flying's not easy, otherwise everyone would do it." Suddenly she was a wise sage. "Now stay here, I gotta go bail out our fearless leader before he gets us all killed."
Then she was gone.
I stood up and checked my HUD. Eleven percent power remaining and not enough to use my Gauntlet Guard. I figured if there was anything I could do, it was to make sure the people were safe. After all, that's what this was really about right?
But when I got to the roof, I could see SPD was almost here, their chopper the first sound I heard. Down below, I saw Grace and Aaron double teaming the last Gigadroid. He was all over Aaron, because he knew his moves, but Grace's skills were fresh. Aaron baited him just long enough for Grace to phase through the White Ranger like a ghost and sink her Psi Lancer into the Gigadroid's abdomen, shorting out his power core.
Aaron wrapped his arm over her shoulder, either in exhaustion or something else. And then the two stood like legendary statues in the midst of rubble as the citizens of Angel Grove thanked them with their cheers. I couldn't tell what was more deafening between the crowds and SPD's chopper, and I wished more than anything to be down on the battlefield instead of up in the rafters.