A LITTLE GAME, PART 1.

Unknown location. 4:00

"All the horses and all the King's men," he said, placing a figure of a lead soldier in a uniform and high red hat on a horse on his table. The top of the table was green, its design similar to that of a board game in which one could place armies of toy soldiers of different colors, each one in a certain area. This was only going to be the first hit.

XXX

Park Row. 19:00.

For the citizens of Gotham City, peaceful days without anomalies were just the calm before the storm, and this day was no exception. After the great fight of the Power Rangers of Zone C against Ra's Al Ghul, Lady Shiva and her army of ninjas, the citizens were quite nervous, or more than necessary.

They were worried that someone would enter their houses, or be taken as hostages at work. Even with all of this uncertainty, they continued to walk the streets, especially due to the increase in criminal sensors.

Unfortunately, on a street in this area, someone left something very strange on the sidewalk. It was a giant game piece, a lead soldier in a uniform with a tall colored hat on a brown horse. It was if it were part of one a giant chess set, belonging to a giant table that was recreated in different meetings of people of the upper class.

Everything seemed to be going normal when an unfortunate couple passed by that street and saw the soldier. Like lambs to the slaughterhouse, they approached without thinking that something bad was going to happen.

"I don't understand why this is here. There are no games stores nearby," the wife said.

From one second to the next, the soldier moved a hand which had a pistol in it. It began to shoot at them, wounding the husband who protected his wife using his body as a shield. It was something that was very heroic. Fortunately, he wasn't killed although both legs and his shoulder were wounded.

Security guards from the Park Row locations heard the shots. They went to the source of the noise, finding an injured man with a woman assessing the damage. She was obviously quite scared. The guards drew their weapons and shot the lead soldier.

Each shot hurt the soldier, but he kept firing until he was shot in the face, causing the figure to tremble with a blue electric current and then lower his gun. The two guards were ready to call an ambulance when a cry for help coming from within the lead soldier interrupted them.

"Better call an ambulance first, and the Justice League later," said one of the guards to the other.

XXX

19:10

All five Rangers had gone to Park Row, each man on his motorcycle and the women on patrol. It was quite strange that they said that a giant toy soldier had attacked a couple. This was nothing like what previous criminals had done. Not even Ra's Al Ghul was fit to do such a thing.

The Rangers approached where the lead soldier was being guarded by the two security guards.

"Power Rangers from Zone C," Kal said.

"Officers Grant and Schultz. It is good that you have come," said one of the guards waving Kal by the hand.

"What happened here?" John asked.

"It's the strangest thing," said the other guard. "A couple was walking quietly down this Street when they came across this soldier. It then attacked them, shooting the husband who was injured. We arrived on the scene and deactivated him, but there's someone inside that thing."

"Do you think we should get it out?" Barry asked.

"I think it is better to inspect if there are any weak points," Shayera said.

"Good idea. Let's inspect the soldier and ask the man inside if he's okay," Kal said.

The five of them inspected the armor, but did not see a single opening. Even Kal and John used super vision and X-ray glasses, but there were no results. Then Kal walked over to where the opening in the face was located.

"Sir, are you okay?" Kal asked.

"Yes, but I would rather you took me out of here," the man replied quite nervous.

"How did you end up there?" Kal asked again.

"I do not know. I remember leaving a bar at night and then I lost consciousness. Now get me out of here," he said.

"Well, let's get him out," Kal said.

Before he gave an order, the Morpho sounded.

"Cadet, don't take him out of there," Commander Wayne said, as always in a firm and authoritative tone.

"So what do we do? I don't see that he represents a threat. He's scared and wants to get out," Kal said. Again, he was annoyed that he interrupted the mission.

"Point your Morpho's screen at the Lead Soldier. J'onn will analyze the structure quickly," he ordered, but this time in a calm voice.

Kal did as the commander ordered and put the Morpho in front of the lead soldier. Two minutes passed until he heard that the Morpho had finished analyzing.

"Don't ever take it out, cadet. The suit is an explosive shell. Take it out and you'll blow up the whole block," said the commande.

"Don't take it out. If we do, the whole thing will explode," Kal said to all the other Rangers. Still he heard the commander's voice coming from the Morpho.

"Don't worry cadet. I already sent a truck to take the soldier to safety," he said, anticipating what everyone would do.

XXX

19:30

In the conference room, Commander Wayne, J'onn, and the Rangers were waiting for the diagnosis. It had been a complete surprise that the suit was an explosive Shell. They had to be delicate when transporting it to the underground floors of the base.

"Rangers, I've already identified the man inside the Shell. His name is Joseph Crimdall, AKA Ice Pick Joe," J'onn said, but this time without looking at their faces.

Before the Rangers had returned to the base, the commander had ordered his scientists to find a way to deactivate the explosive casing. as quickly as possible.

"And what does it mean?" Diana asked.

"At the momento, we don't know, Cadet Prince. He was one of the main killers of the gangster Carmine Falcone. He was in jail, but was later paroled when Falcone was sentenced to life in prison when I was the Red Ranger. The reason they wanted to go after him is unknown," Commander Wayne replied, remembering the time when he was practically alone in the fight against crime.

"So what do we do?" Shayera asked.

"For now, J'onn will be in charge of finding a way to deactivate the explosive casing to get Joseph out of there. In the meantime, I'll investigate what this might mean while you all can relax," he said, going back to his chair.

"Don't you want help?" Diana asked.

"Unless J'onn asks for your help. Otherwise, I can do it alone," he replied before turning around.

Noticing that they couldn't help at least not for now, the Rangers left the two geniuses to work. Although, as they were leaving, Commander Wayne had already found a possible suspect, but he decided to wait to see if he was wrong.

XXX

Al día siguiente.

Unknown location

"If the cannon on the Santa María Wall is, without a doubt, one of them that has to fail. And sixty men and sixty more the cannon they put where it used to be," he said, placing two small lead soldiers, one red and the other blue, each on one side of the table.

Although, on this occasion, the soldiers were not on a horse, but were standing. They had no weapons, but had a flintlock in addition to the fact that in front of each there was a cannon. After doing this, he gave a small maniacal laugh. This was going to be fun.

XXX

Coventry. 18:30.

Two lead soldiers, one red and the other blue, just as gigantic as the soldier who had shot an innocent couple the day before, stood in the middle of a street. They both had a flintlock, and they had a loaded barrel.

At that time, a taxi driver from the city was passing by the street where those soldiers were. He stopped when he saw them. He could hear cries for help coming from both soldiers. Unfortunately, the flintlocks each had ignited and began to slowly descend.

"Help!" said a male voice that came from the red soldier.

"Get me out of here!" A female voice yelled, coming from the blue soldier.

In those moments, the Power Rangers from Zone C had arrived. The cameras had seen that the soldiers were there, so the commander alerted them immediately.

"Rangers, I think there are people trapped inside those soldiers!" The taxi driver yelled. His face was pale, his white mustache and hair showing that he was close to him or had already passed sixty years.

"What do we do now?" Barry asked.

Kal surveyed the situation and saw that they had no time, so it was best to act fast. "Diana, stop one while I'll stop the other," Kal ordered, taking the Morpho out to transform, placing himself in front of the red soldier. Diana obeyed and stood in front of the blue soldier and transformed as well.

"Can't I do something?" John asked.

"Not yet! It may break!" Kal said, standing up to grab the bullet. He said that not because he was mean, but because the cannonballs could destroy the wall and take down the two hostages. Unfortunately, John did get upset.

The flintlock ignited the cannons. Two seconds later, the bullets fired, and Kal and Diana caught the bullets. They came out so hard that a collision between them was inevitable. John created a giant upright cushion which muffled the collision, but they both fell to the ground. Catching those two bullets had been a great effort.

"Well done, Rangers," said the smiling taxi driver.

Kal shook the bullet off him, as did Diana, but they were both sprawled on the ground.

"Someone call the base to bring these two people to the base," Kal ordered.

Shayera was the one who jumped into action.

"And thank you, John. I never thought that the force with which they would shoot out would be so strong," Kal said.

"Yes, thank you, John," thanked Diana. John thought about complaining, but he thought it best not to speak. Kal had admitted his mistake and Diana had also thanked him.

"You're welcome, newbies," John said smiling.

XXX

19:20

As usual, the Rangers were in the conference room around the table. This time, Commander Wayne was going to share important information.

"Rangers, good job stopping the cannonballs. The two hostages are already in the underground level and J'onn is still investigating a way to deactivate the explosive casing. Fortunately, with these three victims, I have found the one responsible for this," Commander Wayne said before placing his hand in the center of the table to reveal the holograms. "One of the hostages is Carmine Falcone's former financial advisor, Donovan Baker. tThe woman trapped is the district attorney, Marion Grange, and we have Ice Pick Joe. The only possible connection is the Dumbler case."

He said all this showing the holograms of the three people trapped inside the soldiers.

"The Dumbler Affair?" Shayera asked.

"Yes, it was after the battles against Ra's and Bane. My back had healed by then. A trial was held against Falcone all because the financial advisor, Humphrey Dumbler, AKA Humpty Dumpty, was willing to testify against him.

"However, before he could testify, we were greeted with a bazooka shot from which we barely made it out alive. Regardless, Dumbler testified and Falcone was locked up. Although, to his misfortune, Dumbler went insane after that attack. After that trial, he remained on probation for years, but disappeared and nothing was heard from him again until now," the commander said, showing some guilt when he said that Humphrey went mad because of him. After all this, it was easy to tell that he had been wrong more than once as a Ranger.

"So he's going to come for you?" John asked.

"He is going to lure you into a trap somewhere in the city, so it is better that I go," the commander said returning to his usual serious and neutral tone.

"Commander, I think it's best that we go arrest him while you put yourself in a safe position. It would be better for you and for us if you stay at the base when that attack occurs to avoid another situation similar to what happened with Ra's a few weeks ago," Shayera said, reminding everyone of the bad time they'd had at the hands of that relentless terrorist.

"You don't give the orders here, Cadet Hol. It's also not good that you continue to underestimate criminals. Humphrey can cause more damage than we can foresee. If I don't go, he could take you hostage. I'm not going to risk that. I'll go with you when that attack happens, period. Now, you can go," said the commander.

This time, he had used the furious tone, since it was not at all pleasant that his pink Ranger reminded him of that terrible moment where he believed that he would become a murderer.

The Rangers, seeing that the situation again could not be discussed, decided to go to the entertainment room. Once there, the five of them sat down, but none of them knew what to say, leading to an awkward silence for a few minutes.

"Why do all the enemies we fight want revenge on Wayne?" Barry asked in a somewhat amused tone to defuse the situation.

"It seems so, Barry," John said quite annoyed. "It's no reason to laugh at it though."

"That's true, Barry. I could see how he felt quite guilty when he mentioned that Humpty Dumpty had gone crazy," Diana agreed with a somewhat annoyed tone.

Again, she felt some empathy for the commander. He was far from perfect. But, at the same time, she felt somewhat angry with him. It was not fair that he punished them for a small mistake when he had made many.

"Okay, okay, sorry," Barry apologized, but found another way to lighten the talk. "Although, I find it strange that criminals are relying on characters from fantasy tales like the Mad Hatter and the latter."

"Barry is right about that," Shayera agreed. "I don't understand why they like to look like pretty ridiculous characters."

"Still, we must listen to the commander. He is right that we cannot underestimate Humpty Dumpty. Something similar to Ra's could happen again," John said, this time with a calm tone. "I think he's going to try to get Wayne away from us when he does the attack, so we'll have to be prepared for that."

"Good guess, John. If we can stick together, then we can get Dumpty to come so we can arrest him," she finished. She was secretly eager to vent her frustration with something after the tough battle against Ra's.

"Well done, John. In Themyscira we had to do the same in the training exercises," Diana agreed, as she remembered some of her time in Themyscira.

"Then let's do it," Barry said enthusiastically.

Right at that moment, the alarm sounded, so they went to the conference room where Commander Wayne greeted them, but he was ready to leave.

"Attack on The Bowery. Time to get going," said the commander.

"Yes, sir," the five Rangers said at the same time before heading towards the hangar.

Once there, they each got into his vehicle, including the commander into his dark car and headed for The Bowery.

XXX

20:00

Who would have expected that an attack at eight o'clock in the evening would occur on The Bowery, and especially one commanded by lead soldiers? This was what happened to some innocent citizens in that area of Gotham City.

The night passed quietly, and clerks from a building came out, eager to get home. At the same time they were stretching their backs to prevent them from curving and ending up hunched over. Curiously, the attack of the giant soldiers served to make them flee in a hurry. They did a good job of it, but not al lof them since some were wounded in the flight. Most were fine, though.

Fortunately, the Zone Rangers arrived, and they were ready to destroy everyone, but the Dark Ranger prevented them. "Focus on disarming them, cadets. We don't know if there are more people trapped inside the soldiers," he warned.

"Understood, sir. Then attack the arms and weapons to disable them," Kal ordered, thinking logically.

"Understood," The other four Rangers said in unison.

Thus began another battle with everyone fighting twenty red soldiers, each focusing on shooting or taking away their weapons with their swords or laser vision. It was no problem for the six Rangers who did it with ease. However, the soldiers kept moving. They were joined by another fifty armed soldiers who fired faster without caring about the other soldiers, causing some to explode.

Fortunately, the Dark Ranger saw that there was no human trace of those remains so there was no problem if they destroyed them. "Cadets, the carcasses are empty and they are not bombs, so attack them with whatever you have," ordered the Dark Ranger.

This phrase was for the Rangers like a teacher telling them that there was no homework for today as they dedicated themselves to destroying everyone with all the strength they had without restrictions. However, when they had half the soldiers destroyed, another thirty appeared, but they surrounded the commander, John, and Barry.

Barry began beating all the soldiers while the Dark Ranger threw bombs at them, destroying several, while John created a machine gun. Surprisingly, three soldiers who were far behind the army had special weapons with which they shot electric charges at the Dark Ranger who was busy with three soldiers and managed to shoot him down.

"Commander!" Shouted John who went to him, protected by a shield that he had created.

The shield managed to resist many bullets and electric charges, but, again, there was another surprise. A soldier walked towards them and exploded. In a single word, he self-destructived, sending John and the Dark Ranger crashing into the wall, losing their suits as they fell to the ground.

"John, commander!" Shouted Kal, Diana, and Shayera, but the soldiers were too much for them right now.

Barry thought about going to protect his companions, but when he saw the other soldiers approaching, he decided to continue destroying them by running with a sword in hand. He also drew a pistol to be able to harm them. He continued like this until he reached the final soldiers who exploded when he launched the first attack, knocking him out of action.

Kal, Diana, and Shayera wanted to go, but ten more soldiers arrived, preventing them from rescuing their comrades and the commander. At that time, a tall man about eight feet tal appeared. He had a large torso with the shape of an egg, a large egg head. He had broad, long arms with equally wide fingers, and small legs. He was wearing a blue suit with a red bow, blue shoes and brown pants. He approached the three Rangers, letting out a maniacal laugh, revealing his evil smile and sky blue eyes.

The three remaining Rangers were finally able to destroy all the giant soldiers and ran to see if the one who was probably Humpty Dumpty was still there, but to no avail. There was no sign of him. All they could find were the Morphos of the three Rangers and Commander Wayne's belt. The three of them took the Morphos and opened them to see if there were any clues or anything useful, but there was nothing either.

"How can a man his size be so stealthy?" Shayera asked.

She was angry, and very nervous. For the first time, Barry had been abducted, as had John and Commander Wayne. And to make matters worse, they did not know where they had gone. This was indeed a problem.

"So, what can we do now?" Diana asked.

She was also furious at the kidnapping of her three companions, and there was nothing they could do, at least not at the moment. "I can't believe this has happened again," she said, remembering again how those cruel men took Minerva and turned her into a cheetah who later tried to kill her.

"I dont know. I never expected such a coordinated attack," Kal said nervously.

For the first time, they didn't have the commander to guide them through a difficult time, and without John and Barry, it didn't look a through they could stop Humpty Dumpty. His nerves were so great that he started using his super vision to scan the whole place to see if he could find Humpty or the others.

He didn't find anyone until he looked at the ground where there were pieces of soldiers along with a piece of paper. Kal ran to it. Diana and Shayera saw him and followed him. Kal took the piece of paper and unfolded it.

"I still don't know what we can do," Kal said.

Diana, seeing his reaction, snatched the paper from him and, together with Shayera, they read it.

FIND ME TO PLAY A LITTLE GAME. IF YOU DON'T WANT YOUR COMPANIONS TO FLY THROUGH THE AIR.

That was what was written on the note. It didn't look good at all. At that moment, his Morphos sounded. It was J'onn.

"Rangers, what happened?" He asked.

"We stopped the attack," Kal said.

"But, the commander, Barry and John are in Humpty Dumpty's hands," Diana said, trying to regain her composure.

"And if we don't find them in time, they'll blow up," Shayera continued, just as nervous as Kal.

"You better get back to base," J'onn said.

NEXT: A LITTLE GAME, PART 2.