"Not much time left."
Misty took in a big breath, steadying her shaky body as she spoke. It went totally stiff in the next second.
"Welcome home, my dear," Dredwing said.
Yellow Ranger instantly directed her focus into Life's End instead of the 4:00 p.m. timestamp on her HUD. Crunchy footfalls signaled his approach, and the beast emerged from the darkness of the cave and into the open air. But the Yellow Ranger said nothing, instead reaching her hands out for a few seconds and donning her Dino Crystal.
"Come on inside, Misty," the vampiric creature urged, curling a bony finger in a beckoning motion. He flicked his tongue out of his tall, oblong mouth, rolling it over his large fangs. "I can see that you're tired."
The heroine let the crystal's energy wash over her, temporarily dulling more of the poisonous pain in her body, and opened both hands to summon her Tiger Daggers. She eyed the monster from head to toe, finding no trace of any eyes on his body.
Dredwing chuckled, the chill in the air eliciting a sigh of comfort from him. "Well, I can't physically see," he continued. "But I certainly can feel you. Smell you. Taste you."
"Keep talking. Just go on…" Misty replied, stepping forward slowly. She had one dagger reared back and the other crossed in front of her chest. With each step she took, Dredwing matched it, their feet and their breathing being the only sounds in the grassy plain under the darkened sky.
With just seven feet between them, Yellow Ranger made the first move, using her right hand to fling a dagger straight at Dredwing's heart. The towering foe turned to the side and batted the weapon to the ground, giving the Yellow Ranger time to slide in and stab at him. However, his movement caused the dagger to tear into his side, releasing a splash of nearly pitch black blood.
Dredwing then let out a guttural and clamped his hairy arms around Misty, making her release her other Tiger Dagger and pressing her helmeted face, silver fang design first, into his chest.
"Fine, we'll do it the fun way," he commented.
He opened his maw and drug his huge bottom fang over her protected neck, setting off a shower of sparks and screams from Misty.
The plaintive screaming only lasted a second, though, as Misty scrunched her face up and bellowed, putting her palm to Dredwing's chest. In the following second, a mass of vines flew from her hand and arched over Dredwing, arching over his limbs, wings, and through his rows of sharp teeth. Employing the Jungle Barrier allowed the Yellow Ranger to escape and roll backward as the greenery flashed red and weighed the monstrosity down.
Adrenaline and venom compelled the Yellow Ranger to dart to and leap on the bundle of vines, hurriedly diving her blades into them over and over.
"Having fun yet?" she shrieked, continuing to stab, retract, and repeat. Tufts of batlike hair, patches of foliage, and strings of blood flew from the Jungle Barrier as she made her way from the head to the heart.
"ARE YOU?!"
Misty drew her right arm back to deal what could've been the fatal blow when her arm grew as heavy as iron. She gradually dropped it and tried to raise up the left, but she couldn't move her Tiger Dagger. She let it go and was free to move, but Dredwing's hand burst through a part of the barrier and clawed the Yellow Ranger across her neck, sending her to the ground.
"Stupid venom. No wonder I can't use my daggers."
This thought snuck its way into Misty's mind while she writhed in pain, holding her neck. Meanwhile, Dredwing clawed his way out of the Jungle Barrier and stood tall.
"Look what you've done," Dredwing noted as Yellow Ranger regained some composure. He gestured wide, showing deep cuts along his side, arms, and back. "Even your addled friends keep their mission in sight. You just gave in and lost the use of your weapons, not that you'll need them. And speaking of friends…"
The bloodsucker fanned out his wings and rose to the air, opening his palms and straightening his legs. The contusions and gouges that Misty left in his body grew, revealing tiny, weird-shaped heads and hungry eyes. Within minutes, several small organisms sprung from Dredwing's body and took to the sky with wings. Misty counted at least fifteen while she fired bolt upon bolt from her Blade Blaster, but the rays only made them shudder as they grew taller and wider and flying faster.
Yellow Ranger looked on in horror as the vampires flew toward Riko, her face awash with perspiration when a demonic squeal made her turn back toward the cave. One of the monsters, looking much like Dredwing but with two pointed ears, glided to the Ranger with jaws and arms outstretched only to be impaled by a swift flick of the Blade Blaster. A string of black goop pulsed from the wound, and the creature dissipated in a plume of violet flames. She then whipped the sidearm in front of her, rooting down in a defensive position while Dredwing watched and chuckled.
"Saber-Toothed Tiger, you know what to do!" she shouted into her Communicator. Misty then shot a few lasers at two more shapes emerging from their master's back before switching signals."Red, this is Yellow! You need to call all the Dinozords now! They're coming!"
She heard Ash reply, but the words escaped her when the two batlike beings sprung from Dredwing and charged her in midair. Yellow Ranger rebuffed them with a leaping split kick and went to go after Dredwing again when her HUD detected an oncoming threat. She swiftly whirled around and thrust her palm into a third vampire's concave nose, halting its flight. But before she could resume targeting the main enemy, the duo she had just attacked tackled her, locking her arms out straight. Misty gritted her teeth and managed to wrench her left elbow free to strike the one menace and say another message to the Red Ranger.
"Dredwing has more...they're all monsters! Yah!"
Her yell punctuated a spinning hook kick that Dredwing ducked, giving him time to claw her in the chest and levy a spinning kick of his own to the side of her head. Misty crumpled to the ground only for the three flunkies to pick her up while the ancient evil one wrenched her helmet off and tossed it aside.
The Yellow Ranger stood nearly limp in her captors' grasp, her mouth agape in exhaustion. It opened to its stretching point as she let out another scream because one of Dredwing's offspring scraped its fangs across the side of her neck. Yet, the vampire didn't get to enjoy the taste of Misty's blood since Dredwing wrenched it away from her by the throat. Thankfully, in the agony of another bite, Misty had her eyes closed and was unable to see what was happening. By the time she opened them again, purple embers had consumed the two halves of the creature and disappeared.
"Nobody touches her except me!" Dredwing hissed, snapping his fingers; the two servants tightened their grip on Misty and followed Dredwing out of the relative shade of the outside world and into the total darkness of the Life's End caverns. "You will eat when the sun sets or you will burn like the other one!"
"That'll be you…"
Dredwing ignored Misty's comment, continuing his own speech.
"Keese are such simple organisms. I'm of the last breed of Vires, so I can spawn those that are a little more capable, but they're still bothersome unless you control them."
Misty snorted. "My friends told me a little about you freaks," she managed to say; her powered suit was now doing little to alleviate her pain. "Cut you up, but more of you come out. But your monsters won't be harming anyone else. You underestimate me."
"What, the tiger?" Dredwing countered. "You'd risk those clumsy machines shooting or crashing into buildings just to stop them? You overestimate your own capabilities. But we shouldn't fight, my sweet."
"SHUT UP!"
"Just take a look outside!" Dredwing forced Misty to look out the cave entrance. "You will be leading my servants in taking this world for Rita, and I want you to see the last bit of natural light you will ever lay your eyes on before doing so!"
"I'd rather die!" Misty shot back. "You're so weak you can't even do it yourself!"
Dredwing sighed, curling his pointed toes in the dirt and pebbles of the cave. He took one of his fingers and twirled a strand of Misty's red hair.
"I'm merely keeping my promise," he said in a calm voice, stroking her face. "Rita woke me from my slumber after thousands of years and told me I could end the human scourge that slain my kind for centuries by making them serve her to also end the group known as the Power Rangers. In return, I could keep one for myself."
Yellow Ranger shuddered at Dredwing's touch, but she actually let a grin curl her dry, cracked lips.
"She killed that warlord that ruled when you Vires were all over the place," she challenged. "You'll be next if you succeed. That witch doesn't care."
Dredwing yanked Misty's head back by her hair, flashing his teeth at her. He turned toward Life's End's opening and took in the coolness he could feel.
"With age comes wisdom, Ms. Williams. I know that, and every night I've been out acquiring and taste-testing soldiers, I've actually gotten the chance to feel the smallest rays of the sun, and the warmth is just intoxicating. I've only ever known the cold, so I would rather die in what I've heard is a golden light than of anything else. Those clouds will part when the sun sets, and that is when I will take my leave. You and all of my victims will take over in my stead.
Suddenly, a sizzling white light appeared in Misty's right hand, materializing into a metal water bottle. Tapping into a newfound surge of energy, the fighting female twisted the nozzle open with her fingers and thrust it up at the Keese on the right. Water collected from the church cistern scalded its face and made the Keese loosen its grip. Misty did the same to the other lackey, and it too fell to the ground, screeching as the liquid dripped into its mouth.
The Yellow Ranger flung her arm diagonally with all her might, also drenching Dredwing. Though the beast cried out, he retaliated by palming Misty's entire face and shoving her against the cave wall. She could barely see through his rough fingers, but bloody patches of torn, hairy skin broke out on Dredwing's face.
"Your fortitude is unlike anyone's I've ever encountered," he spoke. "That's why I love you, and that's why you'll do so well when you totally cross over."
For the second time, Dredwing snaked his tongue over his bottom fang in front of Misty, only this time he tore a bigger cut into the flesh instead of pricking it open. With his troops holding the struggling Yellow Ranger back again, Dredwing flicked his tongue out, viscous black drops flowing past his hostage's clenched teeth.