Chapter 38—War of Angels, Part III: The Power of Rage
Patrick
I groaned in pain as I wriggled on the medical bed, the surgeon apologizing mildly each time he stitched my wound with his laser-scalpel.
"You took a pretty bad hit," he said as he examined the laceration more closely. "Neutrino radiation seeped into your blood stream, so you're going to have to take a few days off."
"Sorry, doc," I moaned as I sat up, "but you know just as well as I do that there's no way that's gonna happen. I'm a full-time ranger, not to mention I owe it to SPD to entertain…it's my job."
He stared and expressed his disappointment. "If you reopen this wound, there's no telling how much blood you'll lose or if the Neutrino Block will hold. You need to rest. Especially with all of your other surgeries still having an effect on you."
I looked up as the doors of the infirmary slid open, Aaron slowly stepping inside.
"Hey," I said quickly, trying to cover up the pain in my voice. "What's up?"
"Nothing," he said suspiciously, "how's your stomach?"
The surgeon began to speak, but I cut him off. "Fine. Just a scratch. How'd things go with your Dad and Doc Ol?"
Aaron cracked a small smile, and the small part of me still dying to be with him grew just a little bit.
"It was teary, but otherwise good. Eltar finally passed the Temporal Restoration Act in cooperation with Earth," he said as he sat down in one of the guest chairs.
"What exactly is this act you guys keep talking about? It was all over the news on Eltar, but I never really had time to listen."
He sighed and I could see the wear and tear in his body—he was exhausted. "After the Fury Rangers defeated Cronus, Earth's governments made a decision to erase the Titanomachy II from history. Earth wasn't ready to accept alien life forms, and sure as hell wasn't ready to admit that it couldn't defend against them.By the later portion of 2012, they had completely covered up the entire battle with Cronus and kept it private. Until now."
"So you mean to tell me that's why the Fury Rangers were an urban legend at first?" I asked as I buttoned up my shirt, the doctor finally done bandaging up my injury.
"Pretty much. The Fury Rangers were allowed to keep their powers so long as they didn't use them on Earth and never attempted to argue the validity of the Titanomachy II. It got really sticky for a while, and it fucked up a lot of people's lives, but…Earth is finally ready to admit that it happened," Aaron finished up with a breath of hopeful air. "Maybe this will tip things in our favor?"
I stood up as the doctor left, nodding in agreement with Aaron. "Maybe."
"Things just don't seem to add up, though," Aaron added after a while. "I mean, I was talking with my dad and he said SPD has known the identity of the Mecha Union Z for a while—why haven't you guys arrested them yet?"
I bristled slightly at the insult to SPD. "Have you ever tried arresting 7 angry evil rangers?"
"Well…"
"It's not easy, dude. And SPD is trying to keep this hush-hush so innocent people don't have to die just so we can settle our score with Mesomorph and Gabriel."
"I just think a more public approach could help. Everyone's already informed on the war with Mesomorph, thanks to the little campaign SPD went on in my absence."
I scoffed. "Really, Aaron? You're going to pick now, of all times, to complain about SPD's protocol? We've been doing the best we could while you napped for 17 months, sleeping beauty."
"Would you stop getting so hostile?" he finally snapped, standing angrily. "Jesus, I'm just trying to make conversation with you."
"I get that, Aaron," I said shortly, my defenses taking over, "but don't rag on how little we've gotten done when you don't know what everyone's been going through."
With that, I brushed past him and made my way to the exit. The doors slid open with a slight gust of air, and I turned on my heel to make my way to my quarters.
—38—
"You wanted to see me, sir?" I asked obediently as I stood at attention in Commander Scott's office.
"Supreme Commander Tate wants you present in a private meeting," the former Mighty Morphin Red Ranger said, never looking up from his computer screen. "Everything in that room will be classified above Top Secret…even to your teammates. Understood?"
"Sir, yes sir," I responded, though the conviction in my voice was lost somewhere in the confusion I felt inside. How was I supposed to keep information from my team?
As I entered the room, I felt the air go silent with tension. There was an assortment of people there, most of whom I'd heard of or read dossiers on, but never actually met. Then it clicked. The entire Fury Team was present. Supreme Commander Tate sat at the left of Hunter, who sat at the head. To Hunter's right was Dustin, and next to him were Nike and Andrea respectively. Justin, Wes, Leo, Ryan, Carter, Bridge, Zhane, Skylar, and Natasha were all positioned randomly around the table with their faces set in a similar look of sobriety.
"Team, this is Ranger Patrick Adams, Field Commander of the Cyber Squad Ranger Team," Supreme Commander Tate introduced me. "Patrick, I trust you are familiar with all present company?"
"Sir, yes sir," I answered him dutifully. I turned toward the Fury Team and saluted, "Fury Ranger Team."
"At ease, Patrick," Supreme Commander Tate said softly with a faint chuckle. "This isn't an SPD meeting."
I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion, but obeyed my SC nonetheless.
"Have a seat, Patrick," Hunter offered.
I noticed an empty seat next to Dustin and took it. Across from me were the beautiful Zeta sisters, Andrea and Nike. I almost wondered why they weren't at the head of the table, when I realized the head of the table was for the leader—indisputably, Hunter. I was so used to Hunter just being known as Dyr Ban Eltar that I forgot he was also the leader of his own team of rangers.
"The point of this meeting, as you all know, is to discuss the recent passing of the Temporal Restoration Act," the shorthaired Eltarian King said.
"Took them long enough," scoffed a man in a white trimmed-uniform.
According to my research, his name was Leo Corbett, the White Tidal Fury Ranger. Originally, he was the Red Galaxy Ranger and had led Terra Venture—one of the very first Earth Colonies—to safety on a planet called Miranoi, where he resided for a while. When the Chrominites attacked, he and Zhane Helix, the Blue Inferno Fury Ranger, escaped Miranoi and fled to Earth. Zhane, a Kerovan from KO-35, had originally been the Silver Ranger of the Space Ranger team.
"Earth's governments are extremely sensitive, though," argued Carter Grayson, the team's Grey Polar Ranger. "I was present at a few of the meetings when the Temporal Protection Act was passed."
I interrupted the Grey Ranger, who had formerly been the Red Ranger of Project Lightspeed—Earth's first attempt at using Rangers as a government weapon. "What is the Temporal Protection Act?"
The Orange Temporal Fury Ranger, Natasha, answered me. "The TPA was what started all this mess. It was Earth's attempt at keeping the Titanomachy II a secret by blaming all of the disasters on the Mayan Calendar's prediction of the end of the world in 2012. Obviously, the explanation stuck, since the Mayan prediction was well-known." She paused and moved her hair out of her face, "Of course, the TPA was pretty much a failure, since the entire world was affected by Cronus's reign, and conspiracy theories exploded exponentially throughout the world. Very few were true, but there is ample amount of information on the Titanomachy II available online."
Natasha had my utmost respect, since she was a half-Chrominite. She was the only Chrominite in existence to have a long-standing alliance with the Eltarians, and had even been awarded a position on the Eltarian Council.
"With the TPA out of the way, and the TRA in effect, we should be able to assist you in battle," SC Tate explained.
"Except SPD is motioning to block us from engaging the Mecha Squad," Andrea chimed in.
Andrea Zeta, the Grand Duchess of Eltar, was Hunter's youngest sister. She was a fiery redhead with bright green eyes and a brain that should have been a computer. She was the Green Astral Fury Ranger, as indicated on her uniform, and was also one of the developers of the Elemorphers used by the Fury Rangers.
"I find that somewhat odd," Nike, Andrea's older sister, added. "Why would SPD stop us from getting involved when all we want to do is help?"
Like her younger sister, Nike was incredibly intelligent, and had developed the Elemorphers almost single handedly. With the help of the team's Yellow Ranger, Bridge Carson, she was able to reformat her Elemorpher to work in tandem with her Eltarian psychic abilities and restore her sanity; thus, she, Andrea, and Hunter were able to join the team—her designation being the Purple Lunar Fury Ranger. As the High Princess of Eltar, she had incredible legal power and had been one of the main advocates of the TRA. Pity it took her 20 years to see it passed.
"I agree," said Bridge, Yellow Solar Fury Ranger. "SPD's been keeping a lot of our activity in check, and it's getting frustrating. They've even been keeping tabs on how frequent we make trips to Eltar."
Of the rangers I knew best, Bridge was one of them. He and Supreme Commander Tate, also known as Sky, were some of the only escapees of the Chrominite attack on SPD, though their timeline had been altered. At the time, 2028 A (A as in Altered, not the alphabet), Sky had just been promoted to Commander and Bridge had been promoted to Red SPD Ranger. Unfortunately, the vortexes opened up by the Chrominites in 2008 had somehow superseded the laws of time, and had even wiped out the 2028 A-SPD. Sky and Bridge were able to use an old time machine and ended up in 2008, where Nike had just finished the Elemorphers. The two SPD rangers became Fury Rangers—Sky was the Red Energy Fury Ranger, and Bridge was the Yellow Solar Fury Ranger. At the end of the battle, Sky and Bridge were returned to their future of 2028 A and were given special Temporal Agent privileges to travel back and forth between times. Once the 2008-Chrominite timeline hit the year 2028 P (P as in Present), though, Future Bridge and Future Sky ceased Time Travel and rectified the timeline by merging with their present 2028 P selves. Confusing? Very.
"In all honesty, I'm somewhat worried about SPD," SC Tate finally spoke.
I looked at him in surprise.
"I don't think I'll be Supreme Commander much longer. Someone else is calling the shots, now, I think."
"Sir, with all due respect…" I began to say.
The entire table turned to look at me, and suddenly I felt uneasy. Nonetheless, I stood my ground.
"SPD has never given me reason to doubt its motives," I finally said. "Why would they be working against the greater good?"
"The greater good is all perspective, Patrick," he said. "And please…for the time being…call me Sky."
I raised an eyebrow, but said nothing otherwise.
As if on cue, the entire room went red as the alarms began blaring. Red alert.
"Gabriel and Messiah have been spotted in rapid transit toward…" Sky fell short as he looked at the device in his hand that served as a visual pager. "They're heading toward Mount Imperious."
The Fury Rangers were standing in seconds, some of them throwing on their jackets, all of them talking quickly. I could barely stand fast enough as I jogged out of the room to catch up to them.
"Sir!" I called out to Sky. "Should I gather the Rangers?"
"We're already on it," Hunter said back to me as he and the other Fury Rangers continued to run.
—38—
I bit my nails anxiously as I kept my eyes glued to the view screen. First of all, the Fury Rangers—even unmorphed—were amazing. Their display of their nature powers was simply incredible. As they hurtled over the vast ocean gracefully, I could see their form of transport was nearly as fast as teleport.
Hunter, first of all, was way ahead—a long black trail of static electricity shooting from his feet. I wondered if that's what I looked like when I flew.
Almost keeping up with him was Dustin, the wind dividing itself around his body as he catapulted forward. To Dustin's right, the Golden Nimbus Fury Ranger, Justin, was bombarding the air with his manipulation of sound particles to fly past any mach known to most average humans.
Unbelievably, Zhane had learned to fly with his manipulation of fire. He superheated the particles around him to control hot air currents and left himself above the water by at least 20 feet. A path of blue fire was ignited behind him that, of course, created a steam cloud that surrounded all of them.
Sky and Bridge were also zooming through the skies in different manners—Sky was pulsing through the air like a laser beam, highlighted by bright red energy that engulfed his entire form. Bridge looked like a miniature sun at first glance, the yellow energy pouring out of him to surround him in a sphere of plasmatic and fiery energy.
Though she could control time, Natasha could not fly, so she used her super-speed to propel herself along the water, as if she were literally sprinting on the ocean's surface. Next to her was Ryan, the team's Brown Terrestrial Fury Ranger, who had used his control of anything earthy to magnetize himself to Mount Imperious—thus, he was literally being pulled to the landmass that was the crashed form of a once great mountain-like spaceship: Mount Imperious.
Skylar, the Pink Dimensional Fury Ranger, had also been an SPD Agent from the same timeline as Future Sky and Future Bridge. Instead of merging with her alternate-time self, she chose to simply travel back and forth between times whenever needed. Not much was known about how the timeline was corrected by her constant time traveling, but I didn't ask questions. Time and space were just…wiggly-wobbly-timey-wimey paths of dimensions and eras that somehow coexisted.
Presently, she was passing through something much like a warp conduit that seemed to be a tube of pure energy that ceased just inches behind her outstretched toes, and just in front of her extended fingertips. She just looked…stationary, but I knew she was traveling at speeds close to a space shuttle.
Andrea appeared as a shining, spiky, green ball of energy that flew a little slower than the others, but kept up nonetheless. Every so often, her energy sphere would sparkle brighter than any star I knew, but the glow would reside after two or three minutes; I made a note to ask her what that was all about.
Underneath all of them, Leo mimicked a torpedo as he shot through the water like a bullet. Every once in a while, he would jump out of the water like some Olympic diver, before he'd crash back into the ocean without so much as a splash.
Nike and Wes had opted to teleport to Mount Imperious ahead of the others, using their own ranger powers to disperse their atoms and rearrange them on the island.
As they arrived, I felt the anxiety in my stomach bubble over. I couldn't just sit here and watch them fight Gabriel. Not without their powers.
"Doc Ol," I whispered to him.
He glanced at me, the worry evident in his face. "What's goin through that head of yours, Patrick?"
"We can't let them fight Gabriel without their powers," I said. "He'll destroy them."
"SPD will destroy you if you go against them."
"I'd like to see them try."
"Patrick…it's too dangerous for you to go out there. You're still injured anyway," he said, motioning at my stomach. "It's best if you just stay here."
"But I'm a ranger," I argued. "I can't just sit here while they fight my battle and lose!"
"The Fury Rangers are a lot stronger than you think," he defended.
"But they're not even Rangers anymore," I said, "not without their…"
At the same time, we looked at each other.
"It's too dangerous," he said.
"Since when did danger mean anything to either one of us?" I said with a chuckle. "Maybe you've forgotten what it means to be green, but you know as well as I do that even if it destroys us, we'll fight to the very end."
He smirked somewhat nostalgically as he looked at me. "You'll need the other rangers if this is gonna work."
—38—
I tore through the skies like a long bolt of green lightning; Aaron's shining form just next to me as photons of light lifted him effortlessly and granted him their accelerated speed. Behind us, Grace was Shadow Gliding with the best of them, while Beth had long since turned a large chunk of Earth into a surfboard, and Jay was running behind her at super-speed, propelling them through the water flawlessly. Matt was flying with his wind powers and was somehow a few feet ahead of me; a few feet behind me, Amy and her pink force-field-covered-body were flying smoothly. In that moment, I felt so close to my teammates.
We had reached a level I never thought we would. We had been fighting for four long years, and I considered them all my best friends—even Jay and Beth. It was so…funny, I guess. I knew of no other words to describe how I felt about the situation. We were rebelling against SPD orders, flying across the world, and going to assist a team of rangers that was never supposed to have existed.
When Mount Imperious came into view, I nodded to Jay, who gave a final push to Beth and launched himself into the air. I grabbed hold of him, threw him higher into the air, and commanded a cloud of rain to explode around his flame-covered-body. Instantly, we were shrouded in fog. Nice and stealthy.
We landed softly enough, and the area surrounding us was suspiciously quiet. As I demorphed with the others, we skeptically surveyed the area and walked carefully to the stronghold of the island.
"As soon as we find the Fury Rangers, we get them to safety and take out Gabriel," I instructed them quietly. "With any luck, they'll all be okay."
Without warning, the ground beneath us wrapped our feet in binds, and I quickly caught myself from falling with my hands.
"Beth!" I called to her.
"I can't—" she grunted, "move!"
"What the hell's going on?" Amy asked as she blasted the earth with a sphere of force energy.
A man of rocks began to materialize from the wall near us, and I quickly conjured up lightning in my fingertips as I readied to fire at him. Lucky for him, he revealed his face in time.
"Ryan?" I wondered, bewildered. "What are you doing here?"
"I thought you were Gabriel at first," he said, "I couldn't really hear you through these rocks, and I couldn't really see you because you were cloaked in shadow."
He glared at Grace.
"Everyone, stand down," I said. "This is Ryan Mitchell, Brown Terrestrial Fury Ranger."
He released our feet and we all mollified somewhat. Ryan had started off at Lightspeed Rescue with Carter, but not before stealing the then-experimental Titanium Morpher from them and trying to attack the other Lightspeed Rescue Rangers while he was still under the impression that he should hate his father—Captain Mitchell, who was in charge of Lightspeed Rescue. Ryan realized the truth and joined up with the others as the Titanium Ranger, but when the base of operations for Lightspeed—The Aqua Base, Mark II—was absorbed by the Chrominite Vortexes in 2008, he became the Brown Terrestrial Fury Ranger.
"Where are my parents and the others?" Aaron asked concernedly.
"We can't find Gabriel and Messiah," Ryan answered apologetically. "You wouldn't think it'd be that hard, but they've got to be hiding somewhere."
"Wait," I said slowly, "Gabriel is on a ship built by Cronus and he doesn't know where he's going? He's got to have some sort of plan."
"Did anyone check the Throne Room?" wondered Aaron.
"That was the first place Nike and Wes looked," said Ryan.
"Well, we'll go and camp out there to cut him off," Beth piped up. "That way, if he shows up there, we can hold him off until you guys can come back us up."
We all heard whooshing as the other Fury Rangers descended upon us stealthily.
"What are you doing here?" demanded Supreme Commander Tate.
I stepped forward. "I took it upon myself to disobey orders and…help you…sir."
He stepped toward me out of the group of rangers and they all looked uneasy. You should have seen my face. I was scared shitless. Nonetheless, like usual, I stood my ground.
"You disobeyed a direct order from SPD High Command just so you could disobey my orders?"
"Yes, sir."
He was now inches from my face.
"Patrick, my boy, this is why I appointed you leader."
I was taken aback, suddenly. "Sir?"
"To lead, you need to know when to take action, and I'm glad you did," he said proudly, patting my back.
"As am I."
We all spun around to look in the direction of the speaker, who was unmistakably Gabriel. He was above us, on a large plateau area of the mountain, looking down upon us with pure malice in his eyes.
"There you are," Andrea said, stepping forward to get a better look at him. "I was wondering if you were gonna come out to play sooner or later."
"We really do hate playing hide 'n' seek," added Beth.
I could see the two redhead rangers getting along swimmingly.
"Well we really hate to disappoint," said Messiah, who seemed to appear out of thin air.
Several moments of silence ensued, the tension before battle tingling in all of us. I could tell that my body had become used to the excess amount of adrenaline my everyday life required. It coursed through my veins and mixed with my ranger powers so that every particle in my body felt like it was electric. In a split second, I was ready.
I jumped forward, slammed my right fist into the ground, and then redirected it towards the gruesome twosome with my index and forefingers extended. From them, green lightning burst forth and struck where they had been standing.
Each of them took to the skies, and I quickly yelled, "SCATTER!"
Above us, Gabriel was building up an attack of Solar Flare volleys that I'd seen numerous times. By now, I knew what to expect from him.
We rolled out of the way just as comet after comet of solar energy crashed into the ground. I looked up and saw Beth pull a barrier of solid rock up around herself, and saw Amy and Aaron go on the offensive with energy blasts.
Matt was helping Grace up, who had fallen in an attempt to get away from three solar flares that seemed to be targeted at her; and Jay was heading over to me make sure I was okay. Then I noticed the blood on my shirt.
"Dude, you're bleeding," he said to me, placing a hand on my shoulder as I stood. "Are you sure you're up for this?"
"It's not like I have a choice," I responded as I glared up at Messiah, who had simply floated to another safe area.
The Fury Team was mobilizing, though, and I saw Hunter command them to attack. He thrust himself into the air and slammed into Messiah, who had pulled his arms up across his chest in an attempt to block Hunter from ripping through him. Then, the demonic villain brought his knee up and slammed it into Hunter's gut. He angrily tossed the Eltarian king's body down at Dustin, who dodged Hunter's body and went on the assault with a high-axe ninja kick. Again, Messiah blocked and countered, but Dustin spun away from the swipe and forced a megaton of compact air into a ball and hurled it at Messiah.
I saw him fly to the ground, and watched as Ryan slammed several large boulders loose from the mountain and prepared to smash them onto Messiah. Just as the boulders flew downward, Messiah let out an angry screech that blew the boulders into harmless pebbles.
There was no time to think, and each of the 14 Fury Rangers seemed to be a blur to me as they tried to take on Messiah and Gabriel separately.
"Cyber Squad, Ready?" I called out loudly, hoping my team would be ready to morph.
Of course, they were.
"READY!" they called back in unison.
"CYBER DIGITIZE—ENERGIZE!"
The small moment of reprieve I got was while I morphed and felt the power embrace me wholly. My green Elesferi graced my entire light-covered body, and then the black, hardened Elesferi spread over my neck, deltoids, and chest, and met at a "v" near my diaphragm. The Green Cyber Squad Symbol burned on my upper chest just under my collarbone as my arm braces snapped on—followed by technologically advanced gauntlets and knuckle pads—before my thigh braces strapped on. Two black stripes ran along my inner and outer thigh, meeting at two pads on my hips that ended just under my first belt, which snapped shut at the 6-point-star-like belt buckle. The Z, representing Zeta, shone brilliantly as my heptagonal chest guard appeared. Two black straps with silver decals wrapped around my ribcage as two large, back-pointing shoulder pads shot back behind my head like wings, and then clicked shut on my back. At the joint of each one, two bright blue heptagons appeared before my helmet began to materialize. First, the base of my helmet frame was outlined in a grid before molding to my face. Then, the exterior developed in a green alloy of sorts, two jaw pieces clinking onto either side of my face. My ears were covered by two symbols that resembled a symmetrical lightning bolt, both of which doubled as my earpieces, while the left one was also a receiver for my commlink. On the top of my head, a silver horn shot up, flanked by two jagged pieces of my helmet that held two smaller, black horns. A panel extended from the root of my horn to the upper medial portion of my skull, where another one began and extended to the occipital region. Finally, I felt my bright blue visor seal right before my mouth guard began to materialize—the three upward-facing arrows pulling in air to my mouth.
I posed, a vicious storm brewing around me in my morphing dimension as I called out "Zeta Green, Power of Weather!"
I stood from my morph and glanced at my teammates, who were all suited up in their ranger gear, and then looked up at Gabriel. He was gloating about something, when I realized Messiah had single-handedly disposed of the Fury Team for the most part. Judging by the charred ground around them, I assumed he'd blasted them with some high-powered energy beam that they'd been able to only minimally protect themselves from.
"Guys, we've got to give up our trump card if we stand any chance of going up against Gabriel and Messiah at the same time," Aaron said, taking the reins of command.
Normally, I would have complained, but Aaron knew more about Mount Imperious and the Chrominites than I did. Not to mention, his parents were directly involved in this. For a second, I felt alone in the world again. But I said nothing about missing my family. They were long since gone.
"We're ready," Beth answered, rubbing her wrist absently.
"I'll hold them off, you guys try to get the Fury team on their feet," I said, as I prepared to take off.
"Like hell you are," Aaron snapped. "You're in no condition to fight Gabriel, let alone Messiah. I'll handle them, you help the Fury Team."
Behind my visor, I furrowed my eyebrows.
"You can order them around," I said calmly, "but I don't take orders from you. Not anymore."
"As much as I enjoy a good lover's quarrel, I hate both of you. So if you could wrap it up, I'd love to kill you, now," Gabriel said as he floated down to us, now suited up in his Mecha Squad Ranger gear.
Gabriel's crimson visor glinted in the sunlight for a few seconds before Aaron and I both took off at him, fists flying. Messiah was on me in seconds, slamming me deep into the ground until it cracked under my weight and the force of his blow. I coughed as I felt his foot stomp on my back, the air fleeing my lungs as I tried in vain to roll from under his feet. I dug my hands into the ground and grunted as I expelled what static electricity I had in my suit, feeling it wrap up around his legs until he stumbled off me in pain.
I jumped up, spinning horizontally in the air to slam my foot into his chest. I used the momentum in my body as I landed to 360 and elbow him in the face. As he bent over in pain, I grabbed his neck between my shoulder and forearm and flipped him over my shoulder and into the ground. I slammed my forearms together with my hands cupped and unleashed upon him with a burst of meteorological energy. When I looked up, I could see Beth explaining our plan to Hunter, who looked worried but compliant. Slowly, the Fury Team began to line up with each of the five Cyber Rangers, a few of them left out.
I glanced at Aaron and Gabriel's fight and noted Aaron was faring much better this time than he had last time. Either he was back to reality and had gotten over his coma dilemma, or Gabriel was off today. I guessed it was the former when Gabriel backhanded the shit out of Aaron's helmeted head, and then pivoted to kick Aaron square in the ribs. I heard him grunt as he stumbled backward before Gabriel jumped into a series of complex kicks and then palm-thrust him into the side of the mountain. The rumble of the impact and the gasp of pain that escaped Aaron's mouth-guarded lips told me he was pretty much done for.
"Thunder Typhoon!" I shouted, blasting Gabriel with a cloud of green weather energy. I ran to Aaron's side and helped him out of the miniature indentation he'd made in the mountain. "Go help the others. I can hold them both."
Behind his visor, I knew his eyes were burning with worry. But he had to understand that I'd been fighting for almost two years without him. I was no longer his Patrick. Not anymore. I was angry. I was so angry at everything. I was angry at SPD, I was angry at Gabriel, I was angry at Messiah; I was angry at Aaron and at Eltar, at Earth and at its governments. But mostly, I was angry at myself.
"GO!" I screamed.
He didn't respond, but he jogged over to the Fury Team and I heard him begin lining up other rangers.
"Where were we?" I spat as Mesomorph recovered from my onslaught.
I crumpled to the ground as my back was lit ablaze by Gabriel's Solar Wind attack. The display in my helmet lit up with a warning—my suit's defensive power was damaged and I was going to undergo a demorphing in about 12 minutes. Plenty of time.
I retaliated by kick-upped from the ground, crouched, and maxed the pressure into my legs to spiral in the air. When I reached the apex of my jump, I did a summersault and began to speed toward the ground like a haywire corkscrew, sparks dancing around my body as ice crystals in the air melted to bullet-like raindrops. The wind pressurized near my outstretched fingertips, and about 8 feet from impacting with the ground, I flipped again, creating an orb of dense air around me as I slammed my feet into the ground and let out a giant "HUAH!"
Two electric tornadoes spun out from my outstretched hands, catching both Mesomorph and Gabriel off guard and ripping at them violently. The dome of weather energy around me sparked with intensity as I continued to scream, unleashing all the power in my suit. This was it. I could feel it. Four years of battle had led me to this moment where I was just letting it all out. And for at least 15 seconds, I let the pure fury and rage of my ranger powers batter Gabriel and Messiah. 4 long years of pent up pain was dealt to them in less than half-a-minute.
And I held them for as long as I could, but I felt the strain on my body hit critical and slumped to a knee. Nonetheless, I stood my ground, pushing and pushing until my body couldn't. And then I pushed some more.
I heard my warnings going off in my helmet and saw my visor turn red on the interior. Demorph in 12 seconds. My energy reserves were wearing down, but I couldn't stop until I literally had to.
"Patrick!" Matt was crying at me.
I kept going.
"Patrick, stop!" Hunter shouted at me over the force of my attack.
But I kept going.
Until finally, I heard a crack like lightning, and I knew I had initiated my demorphing sequence. In a head-to-toe flash of light, my ranger armor began to fade, and I felt the real world come tumbling back into my sight as I fell forward.
In my hand, though, was the one thing I knew I needed to have before demorphing. As I gathered the strength to stand, I saw Hunter and Justin standing over me. They were the only two Fury Rangers I needed at that point. I held up my hand and laid it in Hunter's as he helped me up, and he glanced at his open palm thankfully.
"You risked your life to save us," Justin said, looking at me as if I was crazy. I was.
"All in a day's work," I sighed, trying to catch my breath.
With my head hanging down, I could see the spot of blood on my shirt had only gotten larger. If my wound was bleeding through my shirt, that meant I'd torn stitches to where it had bled through double bandaging as well.
"Patrick, what the hell were you doing?" Aaron demanded of me as I stepped over to the circle of rangers.
"Not now," I quieted him, turning around to look for Gabriel and Messiah.
Gabriel was the first to stand, his ranger armor tinted black from the scorches the lightning had inflicted on him; and in the tears in his Elesferi, I could see the thin plating of interior steel. I had banged him up pretty bad, but I was far from stopping him.
"Alright, guys," Hunter was saying, "let's bring the pain. Fury style."
They all opened their hands, colored jewels shining in each of them. We had sacrificed our biggest advantage—the Digital Orymeka Mode—to give the Fury Rangers back their Cronus Stone Jewels. Since the Super Stones were comprised of two similarly powered Cronus Stone Jewels, we snapped the Super Stones in half and hoped they'd restore the powers of the Nature's Fury Rangers.
Grace had sacrificed her Cosmic Cyon Orymeka mode to give Andrea her Astral Jewel and Nike her Lunar Jewel. Meanwhile, Amy gave up the Soul Sygmatoz Orymeka so that Sky could be the Red Energy Ranger again, and Wes could morph into the once evil Metal Atomic Ranger. Then, Matt had given his Whirlwind Kavvys Orymeka form to the holder of the Cyclone Jewel—Dustin—and the holder of the Polar Jewel—Carter.
Jay obviously handed over his Wildfire Umykron Orymeka to Zhane—Blue Inferno Fury Ranger—and Bridge—Yellow Solar Fury Ranger. Beth gave Ryan his Terrestrial Jewel and Leo his Tidal Jewel, but had to say goodbye to her Chthonic Alfur Orymeka mode—the perfect combination of Earth and Water. Aaron broke apart his Super Stone and returned Natasha's Temporal Jewel and Skylar's Dimensional Jewel, but also let go of his Divine Deltosyn Orymeka power. I could feel my body already missing the power of my Elemental Zetasyn Orymeka, but I ignored the pain. I was always ignoring pain, it felt like.
"NATURE'S FURY, RELEASE WITHIN ME!" the 14 rangers chorused, as light brighter than anything I'd ever seen before covered the battlefield. When it cleared, the 10 humans, 3 Eltarians, and 1 Kerovan were replaced by one team of Power Rangers: Nature's Fury.
"I hope you don't mind that I invited some friends," Gabriel said with a shrug, ignoring the fact that the Nature's Fury rangers were indeed back to full power.
No sooner than the words left his mouth, the Mecha Squad was arriving on the scene in all sorts of means of transportation. Also, two faces I hadn't seen in a while—Mira and Rheas—appeared in a puff of Ninja Smoke. Somehow, though, Mira looked somewhat…familiar. I ignored the feeling and returned the cold stare coming from both her and Rheas.
"Attack," Messiah said simply.
A large chorus of "hyah!" and "yah!" and various other war cries filled the air as the two opposing sides met in a cataclysmic blow.
"Patrick, we've got to get you back to SPD," Aaron said.
I didn't notice I was swaying until I about fell into him.
"I'm so tired," I finally said as he carried me and began to float, photons surrounding him.
I could hear the other 5 Cyber Rangers following me, our part of the battle all but done. What could we do? We knew we were no match for the Mecha Squad without the Super Stones. There was no sense in us being there. They knew my train of thought so well that they didn't even need to consult me for a tactical retreat. Or had Aaron said something?
In my last few moments of consciousness, I laid my head against Aaron's chest and listened to his heartbeats, which seemed to coalesce into one long heartbeat. What would our future be like if the Fury Rangers ended this today? What our lives be like if the Fury Rangers took over for us? After four years of constant battling, I was beginning to wonder what my life would be like without it. Was there really life after being a ranger?
The only thing I knew is that, suddenly, all the anger I felt…was gone. It was just…not there anymore. I felt for it, but I just felt sad. I was running so low on morale, that I just couldn't find the will to keep fighting. My anger had tided me over for so long that when it slipped away…I was just sad and empty. And suddenly, I missed the power of rage.