Mission 4: Part 2

While panic and tension began to sweep the city of Manilla, Bharata sat patiently listening as General Caldwell relayed instructions to him and the rest of Nova Squad from the command tower of Atlantis Base. "Lt. Timothy, Dr. Beckett is going to provide you and the rest of the team with data on the building layout. We've patched into the building's security cameras and see that the Xenos are planting bombs in the sub basement. Your first task is to get there and disable the explosives. Only then will I be able to order the rest of the squad in to help raid the building. It's up to you to find a way to get there, son. Good luck."

The Green Ranger nodded as he got an idea and grabbed a broom and a janitor's uniform from a corner of the storage closet, "I'm on it General. I won't let you guys down."

After disguising himself as a janitor, Bharata exited the closet and quietly followed his scanner down the hallways toward the lower levels of the building where the bombs were apparently being placed. Along the way, he came across an Eidolon foot soldier who was patrolling the hallway and the Ranger stopped to pretend to be cleaning.

The Xeno soldier halted and shouted something in its alien language which Bharata didn't understand. The Green Ranger kept pushing the broom and looked at the ground pretending to be dim witted and ignorant to the whole situation going on around him. It was a risky move, but he had to draw the enemy in closer. The enemy trooper shouted again and approached to take him prisoner but as he drew near, Bharata surprised him by swinging the push broom upward like a polearm.

Using his martial arts skill and agility, the Green Ranger deflected the trooper's weapon aside and smashed the side of the Eidolon's helmet with the broom before kicking out the Xeno's legs from behind the knees. Before the soldier even knew what hit him, Bharata slipped around the enemy and drew a combat knife from the alien's own belt. In one swift motion, Bharata grabbed the Xeno's masked helmet from behind and lifted it just enough to drive the blade clean into the enemy's neck.

After a moment of quiet scuffling, the thrashing Xeno gurgled and went limp before Bharata dragged the body of his enemy into a side room to hide it. As long as there were guards walking around the corridors, he'd have to stay quiet and remain discreet. Unfortunately, that meant no firearms. As he glanced at the knife in his hand and the bloodstained helmet of the dead enemy, Bharata smiled as he drew up another plan to take down the bombers when he reached his destination.

In the lower levels of the building, two more Eidolons finished setting fuses and explosive charges before heading back toward the elevators. When they turned a corner into a wide hallway, they stopped when they spotted the masked conical helmet of a fellow soldier sitting on the ground. The two soldiers exchanged a look and tentatively went to examine it. They saw the helmet was empty but the bottom edge near the neck still had some blood spatters. Before the two Xenos could speculate further, they were ambushed as Bharata dropped from an open ceiling panel and took one down with a flying kick, while grabbing the other and tossing it into a wall with a brutal arm throw. The trooper landed awkwardly on its head and then lay motionless on the ground.

Seeing the two enemies down, Bharata glanced over toward the bombs which had been set up further into the basement. He immediately morphed and got on his comm, "Atlantis Base! I've located the bombs!"

"Well done Lieutenant," Caldwell's voice answered, "Stand by. I'm going to have Lucy and Julian help walk you through disarming them."

"Understood General. I'm going to need some tools transported here and if you can spare any... a little bit of luck too."

Outside, the streets bustled as curious civilians crowded near the barricades to watch the scene while metro police cars and squads of UNAF soldiers kept the area secure. As they stood from a safe distance away, the Nova Rangers continued to watch the building and wait for word about their trapped comrade. While several local news crews began to set up nearby and report on the situation, a helicopter hovered overhead taking footage for the Philippine national news station.

Amid the clamor, Martin crossed his arms and waited patiently while wearing a stony expression. He hated feeling powerless to act and even more powerless to help his younger teammate who remained trapped inside. As he kept his eyes focused on the top of the building, he didn't notice Erik approach and clear his throat gently, "I know you're worried about him sir. The rest of us are too."

After a pause Erik mused grimly, "Hard to imagine this sort of thing happening again, huh? I thought terrorism and bomb attacks on populated cities had been eliminated a hundred years ago."

"Except those old wars were rooted in religion," Martin observed, "Remember, the Muslim extremists of the past never had a monopoly on this tactic either. The West finally subduing the Middle East by force was one thing, but this conflict against the aliens now? It's something else entirely."

Erik nodded somberly before Martin broke the silence, "Any other updates?"

The Blue Ranger shook his head, "No Captain. We're still waiting. All I know is that Lucy and Julian are still trying to talk Bara through the steps of diffusing the bombs. He's going to need some time."

"As long as there haven't been any explosions, I'll take that as a good sign," Martin sighed, "Keep me posted?"

The Blue Nova Ranger gave a tired smile and put a reassuring hand on his captain's shoulder before heading back to help with the crowd control.

Meanwhile, the Green Ranger remained morphed and continued to gingerly navigate through the console of the Xeno Machina explosive device. As he cut another wire and deactivated another batch of the bombs, he took a breath when he heard the voice of Lucy's lab assistant Julian on the other end of the comm, "All right. Great work Lieutenant. You're almost through. Now this last part is going to be a little tricky and you're going to need to be extra careful."

"Believe me sergeant, I wouldn't dream of sluffing off now," Bharata muttered while examining the last of the wiring.

"Bharata, the last wiring configuration is set up a little differently," Lucy cut in, "If you don't disrupt the electronics in the right way, it could cause a chain reaction with the remaining bombs. I'll try to guide you through it."

"Okay… no pressure," Bharata thought grimly as he continued to follow her instructions. A few more agonizing minutes later, the Green Ranger lay back in relief as he saw the arming light on the last bomb shut off. "Atlantis Base, the bombs have been disabled. I repeat, the bombs are disabled. Thanks for the assist, lab."

"Great work Lieutenant!" Caldwell replied over his radio, "Now that the explosives are disabled we can tighten the noose. Get back to the first floor lobby. I'm ordering the other Rangers to move in!"

Upon receiving their new orders, the other Nova Rangers morphed and rushed forward to overpower the Xeno sentries still standing guard out front. When they burst into the building's main lobby, they were surprised as Bharata rejoined them just in time.

"Oh man, am I glad to see you guys!" he exclaimed as he was swarmed by his teammates. "What do we do now? There are going to be more enemy troops coming from upstairs and that Xeno has a bunch of hostages on the upper levels."

Ella hurried over toward the security desk and began fiddling with the console. "I'm patching into the building's electric systems to try and slow down the Xenos. I'll leave Elevator Bank Four powered on for us to use."

Martin turned to the others, "Erik and Erin, hold this position and keep the soldiers occupied until we get the hostages. Bharata, take the elevator up and make a run on the civvies."

To everyone's surprise, the Red Ranger turned and began to hurry back outside. Ella tilted her head in confusion, "Captain? Where are you going?"

"Arranging for a ride. I've got a plan to back Bara up when he gets upstairs. Now go!"

Bharata dashed into the open elevator bank and punched in the top floor. He waited restlessly for several long moments as the elevator ascended until it finally reached its destination. Once the doors opened, the Ranger followed the building layout data that had been uploaded into his helmet's HUD. As he came sprinting down the hall, he came across the last two Xeno troopers standing in the way.

Without breaking stride, the Ranger rushed the two startled soldiers and tumbled by their opening attack. He recovered from his roll and smashed the first foe into the wall with a roundhouse kick. As the other tried to strike with his blaster staff, Bharata used a swift grapple maneuver to fluidly twist the weapon away and shove the second Eidolon into his comrade before blasting them both in the torso. As they slumped over dead, Bharata tossed aside the staff and burst into the large penthouse conference room at the end of the hall.

He stopped when he saw the masked Xeno commander waiting for him along with the group of terrified Filipino school girls cowering in the corner of the room. The commander turned and gave an amused laugh, "Well... this is a surprise. A Ranger who actually made it up here to face me. I don't know if I should be glad, or insulted that only of you came."

"I don't care about your feelings. How about you release these poor girls," Bharata replied levelly, "Your fight is with us Rangers."

The masked Xeno stepped near the large glass windows surrounding the room and pulled out a remote control device, "Maybe so, but that doesn't mean I can't take a few hundred civilians with us in the process."

He pressed the button and waited but nothing happened. Bharata watched as the girls continued to cower and the alien chuckled again before tossing aside the remote, "You disabled the explosives in the building too? Impressive. It seems I'll have to..."

He was cut off as the buzzing sounds of spinning rotors drowned him out. To the alien's surprise, a local news helicopter ascended right outside and the Red Nova Ranger threw open the door. He drew his blaster pistol and fired several shots to blow open the windows while spraying the Xeno with a cloud of glass shards.

"Martin!" Bharata cheered in relief as he saw the chopper close with the opening in the building.

While the pilot kept the aircraft steady, the Red Ranger extended a hand acting as a bridge to the chopper and waved the hostages over, "No time Bara! Get the girls over here now! Hurry!"

Bharata scrambled and herded the frightened girls toward the window where Martin helped them escape one by one into the helicopter. Just as the Green Ranger was about to make his escape, an energy blade thrown by the Xeno commander struck the side of craft near the rotor causing significant damage.

"No!" Martin shouted in futility as he kept trying to reach for his comrade. Instead, the chopper pilot pulled out quickly and made an evasive maneuver to land the smoking helicopter without any more damage.

Having been stranded in the tower, Bharata turned to the alien who now approached with a laugh, "Now it's just you and me Ranger. No more surprises."

Before he could draw a weapon, the Xeno charged him and engaged him in unarmed hand to hand combat. While Bharata landed several fierce punches and kicks on his enemy, the armored cyborg grabbed the Ranger's arms and hurled him over the conference room table causing Bharata to slide and land hard in a stunned heap. The masked Xeno leapt over the table and pinned the Ranger down in a choke hold.

"Your unarmed combat skill is impressive," the Xeno sneered as it tightened its grip, "But you forgot that your fists still can't penetrate my armor."

"And you forgot that I still have a gun," The Green Ranger smirked as he swiftly pulled his Nova Blaster from his holster and fired point blank into the monster.

The Xeno shrieked and toppled backwards from the force as Bharata stood and fixed his pistol on the alien. "Stand down! It's over!"

"For the both of us," the alien laughed while rising to its feet. Its ruined mask was scorched and a cloud of sparks erupted as the Xeno tore off two of its burnt chest plates to reveal another explosive device which had been implanted within its chest cavity.

Bharata froze in shock and kept his aim fixed on the Xeno. "Hold it right there! Don't come any closer!"

"I didn't expect you to disrupt our bomb attack Green Ranger," the alien said calmly while he edged closer without fear, "But now it's my turn to surprise you."

"Why are you doing this?" Bharata asked while desperately trying to keep his enemy talking. He hoped it would give him enough time to think of a new plan, "Why do you want to blow up this building so badly? There's no strategic significance to this place."

"You think this is the real objective?" the alien sneered, "You think our kind is really that short sighted? Even if I die here, the mission will already have been a success."

"Why don't you surrender and tell me all about it?" the Green Ranger offered but the Xeno only laughed scornfully in reply while holding up a second detonating device.

"Goodbye Green Ranger. You certainly made things fun for us today."

Bharata frantically looked about the room and then to the shattered glass window where the hostages had escaped. Despite his calm mind, he could only come up with one solution and it was a risky one. He reached for his morpher and activated the new force shield mode while radioing the base, "Dr. Beckett! Requesting emergency beam out! Hurry!"

No sooner did he raise his energy shield, the masked Xeno hit the trigger and detonated the bomb in his chest. A powerful fiery explosion rocked the top floor of the office building as the force of the suicide bomber's blast struck the Green Ranger's shield. Bharata gave a terrified cry as the shield buckled and he was swept out of the broken windows into the air. For several terrifying seconds, the Ranger tumbled wildly in a midair freefall before he was blinded by a flash of light.

Down below, spectators gasped and shouted as the top of the glass office building exploded and a Power Ranger fell off the side. In the middle of his plummet, the Orbital Relays locked on to Bharata's morpher and teleported him to safety. That wound up being back on the street where the other Rangers waited with baited breath.

As the light faded and Bharata flailed on the ground for a moment, he stopped and realized that he had in fact been saved from his otherwise fatal fall. A loud cheer erupted from the crowd followed by the applause of the civilians as Bharata was hauled to his feet by his relieved teammates and gangpiled.

Ella laughed loudly and gave her comrade a big hug before Eric and Erin happily joined in to jostle them as well.

As the damaged helicopter carrying the Red Ranger and the hostages touched down safely on a nearby building's rooftop, they witnessed the heart stopping events and Martin held his breath until he heard Lucy's voice on the comm, "We've got him! Everyone is safe."

"I'm glad to hear it," the Red Ranger nodded in relief as he peeked over the side of the building to the rescue celebration breaking out down below. With a calm smile, he radioed Bharata, "Great work today Bara. That was a pretty remarkable save."

Down below, the Green Ranger looked up on the roof to see all the schoolgirls that had been rescued waving their hands excitedly and blowing him kisses. Behind them, Martin stood quietly and kept a vigilant watch over the scene. Bharata returned the wave to the girls and then turned it into a thumbs-up toward his commander, "Thank you sir. I'm just glad no one else got hurt today. The street festival may have been ruined here but there's still a lot to celebrate today."

"Enjoy it Lieutenant. You earned this one," Martin nodded gently as he ended the call and looked out over the sparkling sunlit waters of Manilla Bay. Whatever the Xenos motives were, it was a disturbing change of tactics. Until now, all the other targets were strategically significant to Earth's defense forces. If civilian centers were going to be targeted in terrorist style attacks, there was no telling what else lay in store for future assaults. At least for now, a victory was a victory.

A few days passed and the comfortable feelings of peace and routine began to return for the Nova Rangers after their ordeal in the Philippines. They had returned to Atlantis Base for rest, debriefings, and the filing of mission reports. On that particular afternoon, the team had gathered in a conference room of the command tower to discuss the last engagement with General Caldwell.

As he set aside a folder of documents, Bharata paused and looked to everyone when it was his turn to speak, "General, there's still something that bothers me… something that the bomber said. The Xeno said that even if he died, the mission was a success. He mentioned another objective and I can't help but wonder if this was all planned."

"That the bomb attack in Manilla was all just a distraction?" Erin concluded as she scratched her chin.

"It's quite possible," Caldwell finally said as he rose from his chair at the head of the table and paced idly, "The question becomes what the enemy's objective is. What is their next target and how can we defend ourselves from it?"

"Is it possible for us to take the fight to the Xenos instead?" Ella asked hopefully, "We did recover a lot of information recently from that mission to Mexico."

Caldwell gave a rueful smile and shook his head, "I'm afraid we're going to have to play defense for a while Miss Catalano. It's going to take time to rebuild our space fleet and to upgrade our technology further."

"Then that's what we'll do," Martin said while closing his own binder and giving a small nod toward Bharata, "The last thing we should do is underestimate our enemy's capabilities. That's going to require using our heads and gathering good intelligence. Right Lieutenant?"

"Yes Captain," Bharata grinned in response.

Caldwell headed back to his chair and produced one more folder with an amused smile, "Oh… Rangers, before you go there was one other thing. I've recently received some sensitive intelligence myself… or rather some fan mail that Mr. Timothy might be interested to see."

He slid the folder over to the Green Ranger and Bharata opened it to see several long handwritten letters and photos from all the high school girls he had saved. As the other Rangers gathered around curiously, he breezed through the materials seeing pictures of the girls posing glamorously while wearing all sorts of stylish green colored clothes to show their support. Along with the senders' photos were letters thanking him and professing their love, telling him how they all had huge crushes on him now.

"Hey! Way to go bud! Looks like you've got a whole crowd of underage fangirls losing their minds over you," Erik teased while throwing an arm over his younger friend.

Bharata flushed and tucked the folder away while the other Rangers shared a laugh before being dismissed by the General. As the Rangers left the table, they began to file out and head for the turbolifts. While they all walked together, Erin clapped Bharata on the shoulder, "So, we've still got the rest of the day off. Did you want to go do something fun to relax?"

The Green Ranger thought for a moment, "Well, I was actually thinking I'd do a little more martial arts practice... just to clear my mind after all this insanity."

"You know, I think that's a good activity for all of us to participate in," Martin said thoughtfully, "If you'd be willing to teach us, of course."

Bharata beamed proudly and led the way while the others nodded in agreement, "Of course! I can start by showing you guys some movements that are good for meditation and…"

"Forget that boring stuff," Ella cheerfully said while waving it off, "I wanna learn how to do all that crazy ninja assassin stuff you pulled in the building."

"I... think not," the Green Ranger said hesitantly amid more laughter.

"Okay, are there any Touch of Death moves in silat?"

"No. No. And No."

"Fine. Will you at least teach me to use a machete or something?"

"Ella!"

A/N:
On that note, coming up next is a focus on our lovable Pink Ranger Ella. Stay tuned, we've got more chapters coming very soon.