Episode 21: Part 2
A fierce melee erupted on the streets of Santa Barbara as the Rangers clashed with the Cambion attackers. While the other Rangers fended off the Magogs around them, Carter plowed his way through, hacking the foot soldiers with his baton and deftly avoiding blows with a veteran's experience.
As he tumbled past a few more attacks and kicked aside another Magog, the Red Lightspeed Ranger twirled his baton in his hand and converted it into blaster mode. Without breaking stride, Carter opened fire and easily gunned down a handful of minions closest to him, but saw several more take their place and surround him again.
Before he could fire again, he glanced upward to see the Red Vanguard Ranger strike from above like a bird of prey covering the veteran. In an impressive display, the younger Ranger somersaulted through the enemies and cut through the squad of Magogs with his saber before sweeping the rest away with a ferocious flaming strike. As the fireblast subsided, both Red Rangers could see a path had been cleared to take on the demon Skaard.
"Nice moves there kiddo," Carter grinned giving his counterpart a quick clap on the shoulder, "Now, let's take out their leader."
Both Rangers charged forward together with Joe taking the lead and Carter readying his blaster right behind him.
"I'll need a clear shot!" Carter called.
"I'm on it," Joe answered bringing his blade around and clashing first with Skaard. The volcanic monster growled and began fending off the younger Ranger's agile blows. Once he was in position, Joe tumbled aside as Carter switched his blaster mode and let loose a powerful fire extinguishing burst from the nozzle of his pistol.
Skaard roared again and dropped his guard, momentarily weakened by the flame retardant as Joe followed up and landed a series of punishing sword blows on the monster. As Skaard was sent reeling backward from the last blow, both he and the Vanguard Ranger saw that the monster had dropped the artifact he had stolen on the ground.
Before the Red Ranger could react, Skaard flared up again and unleashed a powerful jet of flames from his magma encrusted hands.
Joe gasped and instantly called his Whitesteel armor to protect him as the attack struck his shield. As the demon fire was deflected away, it struck the nearby pavement causing more fires to erupt in the city streets. Despite the armor protecting him from any serious burns or damage, Joe was still violently thrown backward and stunned from the intense force of the close quarters blast.
As he scrambled to his knees and tried to regain his senses, the young Ranger scanned the battlefield and saw Carter had jumped in to cover him, busily doing battle with the monster. The Lightspeed Ranger had called his red V-lancer and pummeled the demon with a series of whirling counter attacks. Nearby, Joe spotted two Magog stragglers hurrying over to pick up the fallen artifact disc that Skaard had dropped.
"Retreat and get the key to safety!" Skaard shouted to the minions as Carter used his V-lancer as a grappling weapon and and restrained the monster in a momentary arm lock.
Recovering to his feet, Joe prepared to give chase when Carter spotted him and glanced around the battlefield for a moment. Gesturing over towards a nearby cargo truck that had overturned by an apartment building, the Red Lightspeed Ranger shouted, "Joe! Forget about the soldiers. Control those fires around the truck over there!"
The younger Ranger looked in confusion and didn't see anything unusual about the truck or the fires around it. Everyone on the streets had already evacuated and the vehicles left were empty. "But they're getting away with the artifact!" Joe protested.
"There's no time!" Carter called back forcefully, "Don't argue with me. Just do it!"
Joe growled and rushed over toward the truck with his Keyrune. Calling on its power, he caused the roaring fires to calm down and be held in check for a moment. Seeing the Blue and White Rangers finish off the enemies around them, he called out, "Danny? Claire? Can I get a little help over here?"
The two other Rangers stepped beside him and called on their own elements to extinguish the fires in the area with gentle magical waves of water and ice.
"This isn't over Ranger," Skaard growled breaking free of Carter's grip and retreating from the battlefield in a cloud of dark smoke.
Carter growled and shook his head toward the retreating demon before turning back to the regrouped Vanguard Rangers. By now, the remaining small fires on the streets were dying away.
"Carter, what happened back there?" Joe asked indignantly, "We let those demons get away with that artifact again!"
"Priorities," Carter replied calmly as he hefted his lance and pointed over toward the overturned truck. The others looked over to the open cargo hold of the truck where they could now see many large propane gas tanks that were being transported.
"Oh God," Izzy gasped in both shock and relief, "If you guys didn't put out the fires first, those tanks would have blown up the entire block."
"Or possibly kill a bunch of people in the nearby buildings," Nick added grimly.
Carter nodded in agreement, "It's always important to have situational awareness, especially when you're a Ranger."
While the others congratulated and praised Carter for his good save, Joe stood off to the side in embarrassment. He had been so sure of himself before but he read this situation completely wrong. If Carter hadn't been there to correct his mistake, who knows what damage and death would have resulted. He couldn't be sure if he was feeling more angry at himself, or embarrassed at his own failure in this battle.
The Red Lightspeed Ranger looked over toward the damaged city streets and turned back to the Rangers. "I think the rest of you should go on ahead and get back to Professor Bishop. I'll be along shortly."
As the citizens of the town began emerging from their hiding places, the Vanguard Rangers took off into the skies as Carter stayed behind for a few moments, surveying the remains of the fires and wondering what exactly those demons had been up to.
Later that evening, the Rangers regrouped back at the hotel Professor Bishop was staying at across town. As the dinner crowd thinned out, Carter and the teens entered the hotel dining room and took seats at a large table with the professor. He had laid out a large binder with his notes while he finished dinner.
"I heard about the battle earlier today, and I'm glad you're all ok," Bishop began, "I also think I made some progress on these tablet prints that Carter gave us. The writing was related to the Empyrian texts, but it was a strange variation, making translations a little spotty."
He pushed forward his notes so everyone could look, "It seems that the artifact that was stolen from Mariner Bay was part of some device or structure called the Cistern Diabolous, or The Devil's Cistern."
Carter nodded grimly, "During the battle, we heard the demon commander refer to the artifact as a key and that this was all somehow related to the demon Queen Bansheera."
"But Bansheera was supposed to be destroyed," Claire frowned in confusion toward Carter, "You and the Lightspeed Rangers saw to that a long time ago."
"She may be gone, but this part of her legacy survived," Bishop answered grimly, "It sounds like the Cistern was a device used to somehow collect dark energy of the dead."
"Sounds like a ticking time bomb full of evil mojo to me," Danny chimed in thoughtfully, "That must be what the demons are after. The question is, do we have any idea where this thing was hidden?"
Bishop furrowed his brow, "Not exactly. We know Bansheera kept it nearby, and that her home base was located in Mariner Bay. The writing makes mention of Yawning Stones so I'm guessing we should start looking for a landform around here that might match the description. Perhaps in the nearby Santa Ynez Mountains?"
After a long pause, Joe spoke, "The thing I'd like to know is if there's any direct connection between Bansheera and the rest of the Cambion Legions. Was she a part of them? Maybe an ally?"
"Bansheera and her own demons were a separate faction. They existed before the Cambion fell from grace, and were once allied to them before the great war," Kara said abruptly answering his question.
The Red Ranger turned to her in surprise, "You already knew something about Bansheera's history? Kara, why didn't you say something before?"
"No one asked," the Gold Ranger replied bluntly with a shrug.
Joe pinched the bridge of his nose in mild exasperation before giving a sigh, "All right. We'll have to assume then that this demon that stole the Cistern key must have been some ally or servant of Bansheera."
Danny nodded and scratched his chin, "Of course, there is one thing you haven't considered yet..."
Joe turned and gave a pointed look toward the team's second in command. The Red Ranger was still in a bit of a bad mood from earlier in the day and having another oversight being openly pointed out wasn't helping things either.
Danny cleared his throat hesitantly, "What do we do when we find the Cistern? I mean, it's probably like a big jar full of demon energy so we can't just smash it apart either, right?"
"That is in fact true," Kara cut in interrupting Joe, "But now that the five of you hold the Greater Powers, I believe a controlled effort of using Empyrian magic should be enough to neutralize the demonic energies."
"Thank you Kara," the Red Ranger said patiently while Claire tapped him on the shoulder.
"Remember, we've also got Carter here with us. I'll bet he'll know a lot more about dealing with Bansheera's dark magic too."
"Dually noted Claire," Joe said quietly clenching a fist in growing agitation, "For now, let's just focus on finding that rock formation right away before the other demons do."
Nick smiled in playful sarcasm toward his roommate, "Uh, take a look outside smart guy. It's too dark out to go searching. You wanna wait till the morning?"
To everyone's surprise, Joe abruptly rose from the table, his anger bubbling over, "Yes Nick, thank you for pointing that out to me! I didn't realize how obvious that was until now! Why don't you go lead the others off on that search then since I can't seem to do anything right today or realize things that are right in front of my face! Hell, I'd probably wind up walking right into that demon well anyway!"
While the other Rangers save for Kara sat with startled looks, the White Ranger reached out to stop him, but Joe brushed her hand away and furiously stormed away from the table. Izzy turned and gave Nick a reproachful frown but the Green Ranger raised his hands innocently, "Oh come on! I was just joking around. Seriously, what the heck has gotten into him?"
From his place at the table, Carter replayed the conversation over in his mind and thought back to earlier in the day. He slowly rose from the table and looked to the others, "Let me go to talk to him. I think I understand what this is about."
Bishop gave a curious look, "It's not anything serious, is it?"
Carter shook his head gently and began walking from the table to find the younger Ranger, "No, but I think this is the sort of thing that only a fellow Red Ranger would be able to understand."
The others exchanged confused looks and shrugged as Carter left, hoping the Lightspeed Ranger would be able to talk down his younger counterpart.
Meanwhile, Skaard regrouped with some of the surviving Magog troops from earlier. They met in the darkness of the foothills just outside Santa Barbara nearby a small stream. As two of the minions approached, Skaard growled, "You have it?"
One of the soldiers removed the disc key it had recovered from the battle and Skaard quickly swiped the artifact back. "Good. At least you two aren't completely worthless. Are the others ready?"
The second Magog nodded and pointed up toward some of the distant formations of the Santa Ynez mountains nearby. Skaard nodded again in satisfaction. "Good. We can begin working right away. I suppose we should consider it a small blessing that we can still see in the darkness and the humans can't."
The two soldiers shrugged as Skaard simply sighed and motioned them on irritably, "Come on then. We've wasted enough time here."
As he walked with the other Cambion troops through the dark forests toward the mountains, Skaard smirked to himself. The sooner he found the Cistern, the sooner he would be able to use it to restore some of the fighting strength of Bansheera's warriors and turn it against the Cambion Lord who had originally overthrown his beloved queen.
A/N:
It seems there's been a slight oversight. I forgot to thank Kuro no Okami in the prior chapter for suggesting that some Legendary Rangers (like Carter) show up to help our heroes in this series. Apologies buddy, and thanks again!