Three creatures of diminutive size emerged out of their green hiding place, now floating high with smug pride above the trees and the group down below. Their large craniums held extensive intelligence, but their small bodies held little compassion for all life. The suits all three of the aliens wore seemed advanced, with long and mechanical claw-like appendages sprouting from their round shoulders.
They possessed similar features, such as large eyebrows, biomechnical implants attached to their blue filaments on their heads, yellow scleras and spectrum of colorful exoskins. But two of the aliens appeared youthful and spry, while the third was the eldest as evidenced by blue bags underneath his teal eyes, his craggy aqua skin and lilac-colored body. Next to him was a young but sleepy-eyed comrade who also had an eccentric air about him. His cornflower skin starkly contrasted with his magenta and pink suit. But the final alien of the trio, the most lively and keen-eyed one of the bunch, possessed a mint-colored body that blended well with his cyan skin and lime green eyes.
He flew forwards a bit in front of his companions and near the protective snake-like weapon, which went into hibernation until further usage. In a unlikely boyish voice, he chided, "You know, you lesser beings need to learn to control your tempers. It'll only cause more harm to ourselves and you."
"WOULD YOU STOP CALLING US THAT?! WE'RE. NOT. LESSER. BEINGS!" Mira's laser blasts matched her hot fury at the degrading term.
The unknown aliens, fearing for their safety from her anger and accurate aiming, dived out of the way and back into their hiding spot. Like a regular machine gun, Mira would not cease fire and continued to shoot. The others swiftly avoided her wrath by ducking down.
Buzz acted fast. "Mira, stop! Stop!" Buzz grabbed her arm and held it tight as Mira fought back against his grip, ceasing fire in the process.
"Buzz, you know what those jerks did to us! I want to get even with them for what they did!"
"Of course I know what they did! But trying to atomize them won't solve our problems! Don't forget what we're doin' here and where we are!" Buzz and Mira glared at one another, intensely focusing on each other.
Everyone slowly stood up now, secretly glad that Mira was not shooting like a homicidal lunatic anymore. Pix, the first one to stand up, kept her eye on the creeps but did snap at the two Rangers, "Hey, I don't wanna interrupt anythin', but you two-leggeds know these flyin' metal scraps?!"
Ozma demanded, "Yes, Lightyear. Please inform us. What do you know about them?" She was NOT taking too kindly to these strange intruders.
Ty himself had no knowledge of these aliens, but he was in confused agreement with Ozma and Pix. "Who are they? I've never met them before."
It was through Ty's intervention that Buzz and Mira started to pull back on their reptilian bites. Buzz explained, "They're called the Chlorm. They believe everyone is inferior to them because they are superior to everyone with their intellect. Too bad they use that intellect by capturing and experimenting on anyone they can find like animals."
Ozma frowned at Buzz's poisonous contempt. She never heard Buzz hold so much venomous repulsion for any sentient being before...well, outside of the Evil Emperor Zurg, the most dangerous criminal in the entire galaxy. Nonetheless, it made any past unfriendly interactions he had with animals here on Karn, and her, seem like a pleasant spot of tea by comparison. "You sound like you've had a bad experience with them before."
"We all did. We ended up on tables ready to be dissected."
"Or forced to do manual labor and getting zappity-zapped if you disobeyed! And not getting paid; that was the worst part." XR pouted sourly as he crossed his at the memory.
Booster asked, "But what are they doing here, Buzz? You don't think they're here to try and capture us again, do you?"
"Of course not, Jo-Adian. We came for something else entirely."
The group, upon hearing the boyish Chlorm float above them once more, turned on their heels and braced themselves for whatever tricks the alien had up his silver sleeve. But he simply placed his arms on the sides of his tiny body as he regarded the group.
"We came to talk to the one they call Ozma Furbanna."
Ozma never let down her guard as she icily hissed, "I'm her. What do you want? If it's me, forget it, pal."
"Oh we don't want you! According to our superiors, we are in need of a new kind of animal to show our people. We have started a television show on our Zarf Network, When Lesser Beings Attack! All based on our interactions with Subjects Buzz, Mira, Booster and XR. Ratings are low and we need new stars to boost our ratings or else our show will be cancelled."
Team Lightyear all shared disgusted scowls. These tiny pinheads made a television show BASED on their interactions?! Each of them now bore looks resembling unforgiving hurricanes. It was as if they all held the same objective in mind: waste these monsters at all costs. If only that was a wish that could come true in this lifetime for the Rangers.
Although Ty himself have never met these creeps before, he couldn't help but feel a mixture of empathy towards Buzz and his team and revulsion towards their antagonists. Empathetic because he perfectly understood what it was like to be treated, not to mention tortured, like a helpless creature, and sickened that these guys would stoop so low to conduct experiments on other life forms. And all in the name of what? Science? That was hardly a commendable goal that Ty could get behind. He was going to ask Buzz more on the details later.
For now, his main focus was protecting his fellow Rangers, Ozma and Pix.
A brisk breeze whipped through Ozma's hair as she stared up and coldly at them. "So what's this got to do with me?"
The eldest one was losing his patience with this whole exchange and having enough, he blurted out, "We want to borrow your canine assistant for our show!" He struck out a claw to point at a wary Pix.
This threw everyone for a loop, as everyone either gaped or widened their eyes. Some of them turned to Pix to see what her reaction would be.
Hers, however, ranged from a slap in the face to frosty defiance. She growled, her sharp fangs bared as she clawed and stamped the ground like a barleyhorn ready to charge. She snorted as she demanded to know, "Oh yeah? Why me?"
"Why it's simple," the old Chlorm elaborated, "You're fast, you're agile and most importantly... you're spirited! You'd be the perfect candidate for our show. We have been using our Silver Fang device here," he pointed to the snake-like gun, "to test out your skills. You're indeed the agile specimen we have learned about."
"You forgot one other thing: I'm stubborn too. And I ain't gonna be your monkey, ya empty-headed buckets of bolts!"
A tense hush fell over the Chlorm. The eldest one snarled, "What did you say?!"
Seeing she hit a weak spot, Pix took the opportunity to...grin? In an almost playful manner, she quipped, "Oh, sorry 'bout that. I meant to say, 'simple-minded lesser beings'!"
"Why, you-!" The eldest one turned to the boyish one and demanded, "Eon, we must capture her now! Before she sasses us anymore."
"Oh, oh, wait, wait, I got one more: you're all a bunch of dissemblin', eel-skinned, bird-brained, rusty, old cuckoo heads! I bet your show would do better if you all starred in it and sat in a bird's nest with your egg shells cracked!"
Ha, ha! Success.
All three Chlorm were busy clutching their claws and gritting their teeth at her unconventional insults. How... how DARE a mangy mutt like her speak to them like that?! That was such a low insult to their intelligence!
Pix smugly stuck her nose in the air while Ozma smiled with pride over her dog's handle on the situation. All the more reason why she was very glad to have a partner like Pix.
On the other hand, Team Lightyear had not expected to hear such sassiness from Pix. In the times that they talked back to the Chlorm, only a few of their insults seemed to have any effect on the Chlorm, with them reacting minimally. But here, every insult worked the Chlorm up into shaking rage. Not to mention that she didn't seem afraid of them at all. They wouldn't be surprised if she kept on insulting them until the moozles came home. They didn't know whether to be appalled or impressed. But one thing was clear to everyone: Pix was gutsy. Uncouth, but gutsy.
Even Ty, who had never any contact with these creatures in the past, was marveling over Pix's ability to handle herself in a situation like this. But then again, dogs were full of surprises. He ought to know.
Having lost all amiability, Eon had to agree with his elder. "I concur, Era. Epoch!" The purple eccentric Chlorm listened intently as his name was called.
"Fire our blaster at will and target that beast NOW!"
Epoch brought out a small handheld set of controls that looked like it could control a small race car than a large snake blaster.
Pix shooed away her inner clown and crouched down, her defiance returning. She barked, "Bring it on, birdbrains!"
And then all hell broke loose.
The Chlorms' serpent gun hissed and unleashed a series of shots towards the group. Once again, everyone split off into their own small groupings: Ty fell into line with Mira and XR as they took cover behind their tree while Ozma, Buzz, Booster and Pix hid behind the bush again. The Chlorm, however, did not hide in their spot like last time. No, now that they were set ablaze with anger and indignation from Pix's insults, wanted her in their grasp - here and NOW. But neither party would go down without a good, hard and long fight.
Ty's team exchanged turns with Buzz's team over who would shoot. When one rank would fire, the other would lay in waiting and then act as the second wave of attacks against their enemies while the first team reloaded and recovered. Pix herself would bark and growl at the dreaded weapon. As tempted as she was to go after the gun herself, with that temptation gnawing on her instincts and growing stronger, her owner would need protection from these creeps if they tried to attack her and the others. So her duty was, above all else, to stay with Ozma.
By contrast, the Chlorm's weapon moved and behaved as its snake shape dictated: it weaved and waved its body back and forth to avoid potential hits to the 'face'. A few shots from the Rangers and Ozma did succeed in denting and damaging some parts of its long and sleek form, but the weapon was far from taken out and destroyed.
Instead, a few of the bushes and a tree were the ones in harm's way. Singed and on the verge of catching fire, gradually building in the way a fire starts when it was constructed: young and hungry for life.
Pix was the first to notice this disaster and quickly alerted Ozma with a few barks.
Seeing this fiery and potential threat to Karn's flora, Pix, and the Rangers, Ozma yelled over the noise, "Buzz, we have to find another way to destroy that blaster!"
Buzz yelled back, "How?! We move away from here?!"
"That wouldn't be such a bad idea! Look!"
Following Ozma's pointed arm, his eyes locked onto the flora. His eyes grew in horror as he realized the truth behind Ozma's warning. The more plants there were, the more the fire could eat and the more likely nobody would get out of danger.
"Ah, craters!" Thinking quickly, he asked Ozma, "Is there any chance the Bio-Sphere can protect us?"
"Yes and no. We'll be safe from their laser, but not from the smoke. And I don't know about you, but I don't think I'm up for being cooked alive while trapped inside the Bio-Sphere." She eyeballed Buzz with a sideways glance and one slick eyebrow raised.
And neither was Buzz. So he would think of another plan to deal with the Chlorms AND the fire from spinning out of control. But even as he was formulating a plan of sorts, a wrench would be thrown into the works.
A windy wrench at that.
The breeze that was felt earlier that day suddenly picked up in strength and speed. The wind seethed as it blew over the ocean of trees. And with it came the fire.
"Sweet Mother of Venus! Buzz, the wind!" Mira held down her hair in place as the wind flew through it. With great alarm, she and the rest of her fellow Rangers maneuvered out of the fire's path and out of their respective hiding places. Just in time too; the fire quickly began to devour and feed upon the leaves and blades of grass, building and growing into a large inferno.
A/N: I confess I'm not entirely sure if the network owned by the Chlorms is called 'Zarf', seeing as the word itself is a name for a holder for a coffee cup without a handle, but that is what I heard when I watched that part and I'm sticking to it. It sounds spacey anyway LOL.
As to why the story title has changed, the answer is simple: I want the title to reflect the themes which will be present here and in other stories, all part of a grand series I'm working on. That and for some time, I felt discontent with the story title. It's kind of a jerky move I know, but hey, for a story that will be part of a series of stories that are of epic proportions, the title is that important enough to matter. Now I'm happy with it, and I hope y'all like it too. So enjoy and have happy days!