Deafeningly loud sirens blared throughout the district, signalling everyone to evacuate immediately. People fled in blind panic, as the colossal reincarnation of Drill Org began its destructive rampage under the evening sky.
After narrowly avoiding being stepped on, Louise regrouped with her three fellow Wild Force Rangers. The two SPD Rangers were nowhere to be seen, presumably having been separated from them during the chaos, but they would have to worry about that later, Louise thought.
With no discussion needed, they each drew their Crystal Saber with animal crystal embedded within, thrust them into the air and called out in unison "Wild Zords, descend!"
An eerie melody echoed all around them. Louise felt herself shudder involuntarily for a brief moment - no matter how many times she had done this, for some reason it always put her on edge. Perhaps it was the thought of using some ancient magic that she did not understand, and most likely never would. Even though the morphing, weapons, abilities, floating island, ancient princess, and of course the Wild Zords themselves were all part of this same mystery, for some reason it was this summoning ritual that really made her uncomfortable.
The feeling passed, and Louise waited the short few seconds as the signal made its way up to the Animarium. She felt their presence before she saw them appear. A bridge of seemingly solid light, if that was even possible, spiralled its way down from the sky far above. A confidence swelled within her, as the four mighty beasts made their way into view, their forms becoming bigger and bigger as they raced down the bridge towards them.
Leading the pack was the Green Gorilla, barrelling its way using its powerful arms and to help propel itself forward. It was flanked on either side by the Gold Bear and Silver Bear, largely identical aside from their distinctive colourings. Finally, bringing up the rear, was her own Pink Armadillo. Despite its comparatively diminutive size when viewed together with the three larger zords, it was easily keeping pace with the others.
The end of the bridge made contact with the ground, followed shortly by the Wild Zords themselves. As soon as all four were off the bridge, it faded from existence as quickly as it had appeared. The Gorilla gave a mighty roar and beat its chest, ready for battle.
The rangers nodded to each other, before heading over to their respective zords. Louise leapt atop the head of the Armadillo Zord. She knelt down and gave it an affectionate pat.
"Hey you!" she said fondly. "Seems like your leg is all healed from last time, that's so great isn't it! Oh, I'm so sorry that I got your shield all messed up - we'll get it fixed soon, I promise! Anyway," she paused, as Drill Org had turned to face the new arrivals. "I guess we'd better deal with this walking scrapheap."
~.~.~.~.~
"This way, hurry!" Z called as she ushered a frightened family towards the entrance to a protective underground shelter, which had come to be referred to as 'Org Bunkers'. The ground trembled, a shower of dust and debris rained down all around. It bounced harmlessly off Z's ranger suit, but some of the fleeing people weren't so lucky.
"Damn it!" Z exclaimed, beckoning Bridge over to help with the injured. As Bridge dealt with things as best he could, Z opened a comms channel back to Delta Base. "Z here. What's the ETA on the backup?" she asked hurriedly. She had requested immediate dispatch of the remainder of B-Squad, along with the Megazord. It was vital that Drill Org was dealt with as quickly as possible, to prevent casualties from escalating out of control.
Z waited for a few seconds with annoyance, as she heard some muffled discussions away from the operations co-ordinator's headset, before a response came. "Dispatch request has been denied. New orders are for both of you to return to Delta Base immediately."
This stunned Z momentarily, before rage burst forth from her. "You CANNOT be serious! The situation here is critical! We NEED to clear the area and get that Org put down FAST! If not, there's no telling how many casualties there'll be!"
Ignoring her completely, the co-ordinator spoke again. "You are to cease operations and return to Delta Base immediately. This is a direct order from Commander Cruger. Delta Base out."
The link severed. Z stood in disbelief. She turned to Bridge, who was looking back at her. "Are the others nearly here?" Bridge called out, after sending a patched up woman on her way.
"No. They aren't coming," replied Z through gritted teeth. "Orders from Cruger, we've been recalled to base."
"But... that's crazy!" Bridge stood and ran over to her. "We gotta make them understand!"
"I tried..." Z said, seething. "But they wouldn't listen." She looked around, surveying the hysteria and carnage.
Bridge put a hand on her shoulder. "Z... if the Megazord isn't coming, there's only so much we could do now if we stayed. We'd better follow orders, and leave it to the local safety teams to handle the evacuation."
Z's tension loosened slightly, as Bridge's assessment made sense. After a short pause, she nodded, and the two went on their way. Z resolved to save her anger for their 'debriefing' with Commander Cruger.
In the patrol car, in the passenger seat, watching the receding scene of the giant Org locked in combat with the Wild Force rangers' zords in the rear view mirror, the thought at the forefront of Z's mind was 'What would Jack have done in my situation?'
~.~.~.~.~
A blinding flash of light and wave of searing heat erupted as Drill Org's eye laser and the Gold Bear's flame breath collided. The force of the two attacks seemed equal at first, but before long the flame breath was repelled, and the laser sent the Gold Bear tumbling backward. As Drill Org lumbered forward, seeking to press its advantage, the Gorilla ploughed into it from the side, sending the Org crashing to the ground, destroying several small buildings as it fell. The Gorilla leapt atop the fallen Org and began to pummel it relentlessly with its powerful arms. Sparks flew from the Org as its armor chipped away, before it managed to get hold of the Gorilla with its clawed hand. The sound of groaning metal screeched forth as the claw began to dig into the chest plating on the Gorilla, which bellowed in pain.
Now on the defensive, the Gorilla clambered to get free of the Org's grip, to no avail. The Org rose to its feet, still grasping the Gorilla, and prepared to impale it with its drill arm. Just as the drill was about to strike, the Armadillo Zord, now curled up into a ball, slammed into the Org's claw, causing it to lose its grip in time for the Gorilla to narrowly avoid the drill.
Louise, watching from the relative safety of a nearby rooftop, gave a cheer for the Armadillo. She had left the Armadillo's head as the fighting began in earnest, as its spinning attacks made it exceedingly difficult on her as a passenger, as she had found out once before. That was a mistake she certainly wouldn't be repeating. She could just about make out the forms of the other rangers dotted around the area, also now separated from their zords for similar reasons. She felt a pang of jealousy that the 'daytime rangers' as they had come to be referred to, could form their five Wild Zords into a singular Megazord, and pilot from a cockpit within, while she and her team had to stand apart from their Wild Zords and direct the battle from the sidelines, relying on their telepathic connection to the zords and their co-ordination with each other.
Returning her focus to the battle, Louise directed the Armadillo to pull back and prepare to strike at another opening once one presented itself. Not having the physical strength of the Gorilla, nor the ranged offensive abilities of the 'Bear Brothers' as they were affectionately known, the Armadillo was best suited to this kind of tactic. Its small size allowed it to lurk largely unnoticed on the outskirts of the fight, while the other zords did the heavy lifting.
Drill Org stumbled as its legs were struck with a powerful blast of ice from the Silver Bear. Louise winced as the org's flailing drill arm struck a high-rise apartment block, which went catastrophically tumbling to the ground. 'Hope nobody was home...' she thought. With the Org off balance, she directed the Armadillo to strike. The zord launched itself at the Org's head, but by sheer luck, by trying to steady itself the Org's drill arm came up at precisely that moment, and impacted the Armadillo, sending it crashing through a swathe of shops and offices. "NO!" Louise cried, before reaching out telepathically to check on the fallen zord. She gave a sigh of relief, as the zord responded, shaken but undamaged.
Having been distracted by the Armadillo, the Gorilla had now recovered from its ordeal. This distraction was all it needed. The Gorilla leapt up into the air, clasped its hands together, and smashed them down onto the Org's drill arm with incredible ferocity. Mimicking the hammer strike of the Green Ranger himself in the first battle, the Gorilla's attack caused the drill to become lodged firmly into the ground. Now effectively immobilised and with its drill arm disabled, Drill Org had no easy way of defending against the furious fire and ice breaths from the Bear Brothers, whose ranged onslaught wrought immense damage.
Louise heard the Green Ranger's voice come over her comm link. "Let's wrap this up, shall we?"
"Definitely." At her directive, the Armadillo leapt into the air, curled into a ball, and began to spin. Faster, faster, and faster still, crackling with pink energy. At Jez's command, the Gorilla positioned itself behind the Armadillo. The Gold Bear and Silver Bear joined the ensemble, standing either side of the Gorilla. The Gorilla drew back its arms, before striking the Armadillo with an almighty two-handed punch, sending it hurtling towards Drill Org. The Bears then sent forth streams of fire and ice, which enveloped the Armadillo in a radiant glow. Drill Org, preoccupied in trying to free its arm, looked up just inside to see the spinning ball of doom collide directly with its face.
Drill Org exploded in a mountain of fire and debris. The Armadillo triumphantly landed nearby. The four rangers regrouped on a rooftop and surveyed the area. The noise of battle was now gone, and what remained was the blaring of sirens, the crackling of flames, and the screams and shouts of people below. Numerous collapsed buildings and impact craters littered the area.
It was utter carnage.
The rangers stood for a few long moments, before Seb's deep voice spoke.
"Could have been worse, right?"
~.~.~.~.~
After casting her magic to grow Drill Org to giant size, Toxica had left things to run their course. She did not think it likely that the Org would defeat the Wild Zords - at best, maybe it could take one or two out of commission for a while.
However, the giant-sized combat and ensuing chaos was a perfect distraction to allow her to pursue a more... promising... avenue.
Toxica's mouth curved into a wicked smirk beneath her veiled mask, as from her position in the shadows she watched a young man with a bandaged head running away from the area as fast as he could manage, despite his injuries. She murmured an incantation, her staff glowing with dark energy. Her spell complete, the end of her staff opened up, and a small crimson barb dropped lightly from it into her outstretched hand. She took careful aim, before flinging the barb with practised precision.
The barb tore through the evening air, and embedded itself in the back of the young man's neck. He stumbled briefly, rubbed the back of his neck in confusion, before continuing on his way.
"Yes... the Seed of Evil has been planted."