"YAH!"
The crunch of gritty space clay against enchanted metal caused the Black Ranger to flinch as he let out his battle cry and drove his Mammoth Axe into the shoulder of one of the four giant Putties surrounding him and the Red Ranger; otherwise, the athletic field they were all centered in was all but abandoned.
Brock then hopped to the side, ducking a fist from another foot soldier that could've knocked him out cold. The eldest Ranger then dove in, launching punch after punch at the Putty Patroller's middle. Pain wracked his fists, and the being was stunned, leaving Black Ranger time to wheel around its side and wrap his arms as much as he could around its stomach. He then dug his heels into the ground, pushing up grass and dirt as he moved to the side and heaved the toady all the way down.
"Not bad, big guy," Red Ranger remarked. "Now let me punctuate things!" Wielding both his Blade Blaster and Tyranno Sword, Ash ran headlong to the goon right in front of him, drawing his sidearm back like a knife. The Putty strode forward, quickly lifting its leg to cut its target off with a blow to the head, but the Red Ranger slid right under him. He swiftly brought himself back up and, squeezing the trigger, flung three razor-thin lasers at the crumbling creep that went to menace Brock, rattling it. The brawny Putty in front of Ash then turned its rocky form around to attack, and the next thing it saw was the point of Ash's Power Weapon piercing it right between the eyes and sending chunks of clay spewing in the air.
"Whoa, man!" Black Ranger yelled as he grappled with the fourth enemy, nearly pressing the trunk of his mastodon helmet design with its face. "That was brutal!"
"And that's not my last trick. You'll see how it's really done!" his partner quipped. As the impaled Putty Patroller struggled to pull the sword from its face, Ash sprung forth and leapt into the air, somersaulting overhead and prying his blade free. In just a few seconds, he would cleave the baddie's cohort in two. That was his ultimate goal, one that faded as the hulking figure powerbombed him into the earth.
"Ash!" Brock called out. The momentary break in the fight allowed the heavy trooper he was wrestling to trip him to the ground, and it and its teammate began kicking the Ranger while he was down.
"I should've seen that one coming…" Ash thought as pain blasted through his body, reaching from his limbs and back, meeting, and pulsing. "If I wasn't jawing with that moron Brock, I could've concentrated…"
His concentration rushed to him just like the agony he felt, though, because the only other fully intact Putty dropped its fist to smash him. Red Ranger braced his Tyranno Sword horizontally in front of him, straining to push the opposition back. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see dark clouds coming in from the south and the other two Putties assaulting the Black Ranger. The heated annoyance he had for him, for only a second or two, broke with a gasp he let out. He locked eyes with the Putty, pushing his sword further and further upward, but then the sound of feet against grass triggered a need to turn his head. Ash grunted and gave a final shove, letting go of his weapon and forcing himself to roll to the left while the faceless Putty hurled a wild kick and hit the other claybrain instead of Ash.
Beep beep, beep beep, beep beep!
Groaning as he pushed himself to his feet, Ash answered his Communicator's call, picking up his fallen Blade Blaster too.
"Red Ranger, here. What is it?"
"Red Ranger, this is Blue!" Tracey exclaimed; his mile-a-minute transmission crackled with fiendish squeals and screams. "We need some help over here at Kau Cove Hospital! The victims are…the victims are awake! The doctor's been bitten and Pink Ranger is way off…"
"They're biting people now?!" Ash replied, the pain he felt dropping to an ill chill.
"We can't do this on our own! You've got to snap out of this and help us!"
No…guys…Misty…
"We're kind of tied up here, Zordon! These clods don't care about how much you tear into them!"
At the same time the Red Ranger was answering a call, Black Ranger somehow found a way to at least hunch over and respond to an update from his mentor. The two assailants that had been kicking him in the ribs were now twitching and garbling fast after Brock had used the barrel of his Mammoth Axe to coat them in entangling electric charges.
"I understand the situation is dire, Black Ranger," Zordon said. "But you and Ash must find a way to halt the elite Putty Patrol guard now and help Lia and Tracey. Hayashi is holding off Goldar in another section of the city, and Misty is still trying to locate Dredwing before the sun sets."
"Of course… Ah!" The Black Ranger was trying to get up and join his companion, but the kicks to the ribs he suffered ensured he went right back down, but not before he looked upon the . "Of course he's hiding. I guess she can't take a rain check with him."
"No, Brock," the wizard continued as Brock coughed and gripped his midsection. "But quarantining the infected citizens and securing all potential victims is the most important goal. Alpha and I will monitor the readings from here in the protective chamber as well as the other parts of the island, but you must get to the hospital. You can do it."
The transmission stopped, and that's when the two Putties, trudging along despite the crackle of static bounding around their frames, came within six feet of the Black Ranger. His breath hitched, sweat clung to his body under the tightness of his uniform, and he totally tensed up as the two brutes swung their arms forward only to strike the Red Ranger instead; not even sliding in and executing his best X-block could stop them from bashing him into his fellow hero. Both of the Power Rangers gathered the strength to get up, weapons at the ready.
"Thanks, bud," Brock said, clapping his friend's shoulder. "I owe you big time."
Ash didn't reject the elder boy's gesture; though his touch irked him a little, he was mostly too tired to care. "Yeah, yeah," he said back. "I just got a call from Tracey. We gotta get going."
"Same from Zordon," came his friend's reply. The duo backed up together, ignoring the aches and pangs that bombarded them; the four predators fanned out in front of them, closing in fast. "But even with my Hurricane Tackle, it'd take forever to chop these guys down!"
"Then let's both go all out!" Red Ranger proclaimed. He put his hands together and brought forth his Dino Crystal, the glittering red gem dissolving over him as he raised it up high.
"No better time to go crazy than this, I guess," Brock silently mused, doing the same. He kicked his leg in a crescent fashion and slung a spin kick in the air, coating the first two Putties' fronts with ice. He wheeled his body back, wielding his axe like a baseball bat, and he whirled and whirled at one of them, sawing its icy clay body with his Hurricane Tackle. Ash simply drew his fist back and crushed through the center of the other one's body with a Quake Defender-powered punch, pelting the other two Putties with Glacier Flash ice and lunar material, making them totter backward.
The Red and Black Rangers then regrouped together. Black Ranger pumped the bottom part of his Mammoth Axe to activate the cannon formation, and the weapon glowed with a bright white sheen as the essence of his Dino Crystal merged with it. One trigger squeeze later, an Arctic blast enclosed the third Putty in a block of ice, and another filled the hole in the fourth's head. Red Ranger nodded at Black Ranger, and the two broke loose in fevered runs. Ash yelled and propelled himself through the air, his crystal-enhanced double kick shattering the faceless grunt's rocky head. Brock went over to the completely frozen Putty and dug his hands into the frozen block. Channeling lifting strength from his legs upward, he hoisted it up and piledrove it into the ground, breaking the final enemy into hundreds of pieces.
The battle was over, and the Rangers allowed themselves a moment to collapse, catching their breath and finally taking time to feel the cooling feeling now flowing in their helmets. But not even half a minute passed before worry snapped them to attention, made them look at each other and nod again, and then teleport away from the field to help the others.