Metal Alice was back at the site of the Ranger's first encounter with Malkor, waiting for the Rangers while some hostages cowered behind her. Some emergency crews had been called out to secure the wreckage until it could be properly cleared and people could come in to begin rebuilding the district properly. It meant that she had some leverage she could use to bring the Rangers to her. Before she even had to send the signal though, she saw a bright flash of light. She smiled as she saw the Rangers arriving.
"You're punctual, that saved me inviting you here." She greeted them insincerely as she prepared her sword. "I didn't even need to call."
"Metal Alice, we're done here!" Troy told her. "You're on your own now, give it up!"
"Oh, I'm not on my own, I actually have plenty of company." She assured them. Emma couldn't help glancing to the hostages. It wasn't like any of them could miss them.
"Let them go Alice, we both know what you want." Jordan told him. "If you want me, I'm right here. Just let them go..."
"Now, why would I want to do that? You seem to forget all about the rules of negotiation. You need to negotiate from a position of strength." She told him. "You're already here, so what else can you offer me? Their lives mean nothing to me now, so why wouldn't I just...?"
"Please don't!" Emma screamed out. "We know you're no robot, we know you aren't just following orders, the only reason for you to do this is because of your grudge with Robo Knight! These people aren't involved!"
"Please?" She mocked Emma, using a processor to answer in a facsimile of her own voice to mock her. "That's the thing about you humans. You're so weak, so frail. All of this, it's just fallen into place so perfectly for me."
She started to pace, looking straight at them.
"Malkor's destroyed most of your arsenal, and given you the run around most of the day." She taunted them. Looking to Jake, she saw his axe lowering, and his arm shaking slightly. "Those limbs are all becoming a little wobbly now aren't they? Oh, and hunger, I'll bet you're all hungry...no time to stop and gorge yourselves on turkey..."
"We're fine, thanks for your concern." Troy answered as they started to fan out. She saw him standing ready, like he was trying to show he was still strong, but even the smallest of shakes was visible to her sharp optical sensors.
"I'll bet your eyes are starting to mist up too." She continued to taunt them. "You're maybe becoming a little sleepy? And yet here I am, fully repaired and ready for action, how sad for you!"
"Let the hostages go and you can see how tired we are!" Jake snapped at her. "We're not going anywhere!"
"You're not getting any help either." She told them. "After Malkor's fall, I sent out a little interference. All communications signals leaving the city have been severed. The last thing the rest of the world saw was you destroying the 'Big Bad' Malkor."
She pointed to the hostages.
"Well, how about it? It's time to cheer and applaud isn't it?" She asked them. "The Rangers have won, the big bad is gone, and he's taken all his evil insects with him. All that's left is us mindless robots."
"The world doesn't know you're not a robot." Troy murmured as the thought sank in. "They'll think that you can't act without orders! They'll think..."
"They'll think I'll just sit in my base, gathering dust, waiting on orders that will never come." She told them. "Meanwhile, I get to finish you off for good, eliminating the last line of resistance to my total victory."
"There's just one problem with that plan." Jordan answered. "There are six of us, one of you!"
"Oh...oh that's right; curse my inability to perform basic arithmetic!" She laughed sarcastically. She waved to the shadows of a collapsed building. "You forget, I design robots. Let me introduce you to my latest project, it's my greatest creation yet."
The Rangers all strained to see into the darkness as they heard heavy footfalls.
"My 'master' was brilliant, but his one weakness was the same as yours, the weakness that has all of you struggling to stand before me right now, flesh." She stated, placing emphasis on the word 'master' to show her sarcastic disdain for Vrak's attempt to control her. "That is no longer a problem!"
As the new, Cyborg Vrak walked into view, the Rangers all recoiled in horror.
"This...this is unbelievable." Noah stammered.
"No Way!" Gia called out. "We destroyed him! He was on the Warstar ship!"
"He was, but I found him." She told them. "He was a little...worse for wear...frankly I was impressed he was alive at all, but it did afford me the opportunity to repay him in kind for his attempts to control me."
"She's insane!" Jake gasped. "I mean...completely, utterly out of her mind!"
"The difference between genius and insanity is measured purely by success." She shot back, gesturing to the hostages. "You...get out of here. Your presence is no longer required. Vrak...attack!"
Several openings opened up in Vrak's shoulder plates, and missiles came into view. A moment later, he fired off the whole salvo, which rocketed into the air, before twisting and coming back, slamming into the Rangers. They all tumbled to the ground, and lay there, struggling to move, while Jordan rolled back to his knees quickly. Having been absent for the entirety of the battle with Malkor, he wasn't beaten up the same way the Rangers were. He knew that he had to make up for earlier anyway, but it was obvious he would have to take on most of the strain.
"He's stronger than before." Troy announced, clutching his side.
"I built him to be as powerful as I am." Metal Alice told them proudly. "With some suitable...alterations...to his mind of course. You could say I have deleted his humanity!"
"What little there was of it." Jake grumbled.
"Now, he is even more cold-blooded than before, and completely loyal only to me."
"Destroy!" Vrak called forth as he rushed into battle, smashing into all of them as he went past. Jordan was preparing to attack him, when he felt a sharp pain in his leg. Looking down, he saw Metal Alice's sword in his leg, while she glared at him.
"Let's leave them to enjoy playing with my new toy." She told him. "We have our own score to settle!"
Before Jordan could do anything about it, she grabbed him and launched high into the air with him, taking him up to the top of a high-rise tower block, rolling away as they landed. Jordan got up, preparing his Robo Blade, but stopped as he saw a missile platform on the rooftop.
"Oh, that can't be good." He muttered.
"Not for you." She answered as their swords clashed, ringing out as they fell upon each other.
In the Harwood Police Department, the phones, which had been ringing non-stop all day had suddenly, fell silent. It had been a source of relief for the staff at first, but now that some of them were trying to call home to tell their families they were coming home and arrange when they were going to meet up, they found that their phones were also not connecting. Neither were the radios. Turning on the TV's, they found that they weren't broadcasting either. There was no internet...there was no form of communication of any kind!
"You don't think everything went down because of that ship that crashed do you?" The chief asked them.
As he asked this, they heard a massive explosion elsewhere in town.
"What the hell?" He asked. "I thought the Rangers won!" Before he could say anything else, Detective Barnes was rushing out the door, and leaping into the first squad car she could lay her hands on. They rushed to the door as she pulled away, and saw that several news vans were also on the way. While they wouldn't be able to broadcast, that didn't mean to say they wouldn't be able to record for future broadcast.
"Alright folks, I know we all want to go home, but right now the city needs us." The chief instructed his men. "Everyone out on patrol, the curfew is back in full effect. A lot of people are going to be very scared right now."
Back at the site of the battle, Troy avoided Vrak as he lashed out with wickedly curved blades, powering up into Ultra Mode as he turned to strike in response.
"You might be powerful Vrak, but you're slow!" Troy told him as Noah and Jake rushed in from behind him, bringing their Ultra Swords into the back of his knees, bringing him to his knees on the pavement. Gia and Emma came together.
"Now's as good a time as any to try that new combo we've been working on." Emma told her best friend. Gia was the first to go, putting a Power Card into her morpher.
"Gravel!" She called out, causing huge amounts of stone from the surrounding area to shatter, becoming tiny, sharp stone chips. Emma gathered up her Power Card.
"Twistornado!" She yelled, powering up the whirlwind. It picked up the sharp rocks, and swept them into a deadly tornado, sweeping them into Vrak. She concentrated all her power into the winds, speeding them up as fast as she dared, causing the stone chips to slice through the air dangerously. Vrak covered up as they collided with him, some of them lodging into him, others slicing into exposed joints and circuitry. If he wasn't made almost completely of armoured plating, he would likely have been sliced to ribbons in seconds. Emma staggered slightly as she couldn't maintain it any longer, and released him, showing Vrak to be damaged from the attack.
"Wow, people really shouldn't get on the bad side of the two of you!" Jake complimented them as Gia came to his side.
"Alright guys, let's bring them together!" Troy stated as they all formed up into formation. Vrak saw this coming, and prepared another salvo of his missiles.
Meanwhile, on the rooftop, Metal Alice and Jordan were locked in a deadly battle for supremacy. Jordan was bringing everything to the table, keeping his hatred from his mind as much as he could. He could only think over and over about what Gia had said to him any time he found it creeping into his mind. His own revenge didn't matter. Metal Alice's revenge didn't matter. None of it did. If he lost, then millions could die.
"You insolent little bastard!" Metal Alice screamed as he scored a huge slash across her abdomen, stripping most of her armour away. "How...how can you believe you can best me? An Eltarian..."
"You know what I've learned about Eltarians?" Jordan asked her. "I've learned I don't really like them much! Every Eltarian I've met has been arrogant, self-serving, or completely psychotic!"
"You DARE insult our kind?" She screamed at him, forcing him back to the edge of the rooftop, where they struggled as she tried to drive her blade into him. "Filthy, blasphemous abomination! You whose existence is an insult to our very being!"
They heard an explosion, and Metal Alice looked up in time to see Vrak and the Rangers flying apart as the Ultra Victory Charge and the missile salvo collided in the centre of the plaza. Jordan took the momentary distraction to form a new plan.
"You know what Wallacia?" He grunted. "You talk too much!"
He drove his heel backward, shattering the restraining wall, causing both of them to tumble from the top of the building. They both crashed to the ground far below, sending concrete flying in all directions. Metal Alice got up, and helped the badly damaged Vrak up, positioning herself under her arm.
"Don't get too comfortable Rangers." She warned them. She activated a handset, at which the missile fired, heading for an apartment block. Troy watched it go, and realised that with the curfew in effect, people were confined to their homes. The whole apartment block, potentially hundreds of people would all be inside. He looked to Jordan.
"Jordan!" He called out.
"On it!" He answered, changing into his flight mode. The others leapt onto him, hitching a ride and powering up their weapons, leaving Metal Alice and Vrak to flee. Detective Barnes and several news crews arrived just as they were teleporting out.
"Holy shit, did you see that?" One of the reporters shrieked. "The robots are acting alone!"
"That missile!" Someone else called out. They all stared up at the sky, watching the Rangers head on a collision course with the missile.
They all watched with baited breath as the Rangers raced for it, powering up their Ultimate Victory Charge. At point-blank range, they unleashed their attack, destroying the missile completely. They streaked back towards the ground, slamming into it and tumbling to a stop.
Completely spent, the Rangers' power finally failed, and their suits disappeared. Jordan's armour recalled into himself as they lay on the ground. Troy started to stir.
"OK, that was...not pleasant." He declared. "Everyone else OK?"
"I'll tell you when my head stops pounding." Gia answered. As they got up, they saw Noah staring at something. They all followed his gaze, turning to see the assembled press, and Detective Barnes staring at them. Numerous cameras were on them, all of them recording. Jake gulped.
"Oh, we are SO screwed." He announced. Jordan looked to Detective Barnes, who was just starting at him.
"I...I knew it." She told him. "I thought...I thought I was going crazy, but...I just..."
The Rangers, not knowing what to do, just fled the scene, hitting the teleport command to take them back to the Command Centre.
In the Underwater Base, Metal Alice had finished repairing herself, and was concentrating on repairing Vrak, when she heard something behind her. She turned to see something teleporting in behind her.
It was taller than her, covered in thick, white armour. It started to stride towards her.
"I believe you are The Messenger." She greeted it, bowing to it respectfully. She knew all about Vrak's schemes, and she knew that he was expecting a new arrival. She knew that the true invasion was only waiting for him to remove the resistance with the help of the Insectoids, before destroying them and clearing the way for his own true masters. The new arrival just nodded.
"I am The Messenger, Envoy to The Armada." He told her. "I must speak with Lord Vrak."
"Unfortunately that will need to wait a short while." She answered, gesturing to the corner. The Messenger looked to Vrak, and paused for a moment, before moving over and inspecting him more closely. He turned to Metal Alice.
"This is Vrak?" He asked her. "What have you done to him?"
"He was gravely wounded in his efforts to remove the Insectoids." Metal Alice informed him. "They proved to be more troublesome to defeat than expected. Lord Vrak bravely sacrificed himself for The Armada. It was good fortune that I was able to save him."
"It was indeed." The Messenger told her. "So, I take it that all resistance has been crushed?"
"The Rangers still live." Vrak told him. Metal Alice just smirked behind her mask. His modified mind would only remember what she wanted him to, and would never speak against her. He would never be able to tell The Messenger of her treachery. He would only find out too late who the real power on Earth was. "They are exhausted and losing more of their power with each encounter. It will only be a matter of time."
"My master instructed me to assist you in any way I can, and signal when it is time to begin the invasion." He told Vrak, before turning to Metal Alice. "How long until he is ready to go into battle once more?"
"It will not be long." She answered, getting back to work. Everything was falling into place. She now knew the Rangers couldn't call anyone for help. Their arsenal was dwindling, and with each battle, they were losing more and more of their remaining strength. Before long, it would be time for the End Game.