Gaia Rangers: Operation W.A.S.P. (critique desired)

[Samuel Grant]

Chapter 14
Snow Day Afternoon

Samuel and the gang head to Austria for a snowboarding competition. Samuel was sponsoring a young contestant, who was on the rise; he was somewhat of an energetic young man in his mid-20’s. he had round chestnut eyes, silky, straight, brown hair is very short and is worn in a handsome style. He is Samuel’s height with a more muscular build like a track star. His skin is pale white. He has small hands. His wardrobe is sporty; a blue winter jacket with faux fur around the hood, red gloves, gray pants, and brown boots.
Samuel had only seen his picture, they’ve never met in person, but he hoped to see him after the competition.
Samuel and friends wander about the lodge they were staying at; looking at the various pictures of famous snowboarders and ski champions plastered on the walls as well as watch the video montage on the TV in the northwest corner of the ceiling.
“So Samuel’s sponsoring a snowboarder?”
“One of the newcomers, actually; all of the greats have their own sponsors already,” Alex explained to Caitlin.
The snowboarding channel that was on had just been interrupted. A hairy Russian man appears on screen in one of those wanted posters. He was in his late 30’s and he reminded you of a wild animal the way his dark hair reached down the back and side of his head and a couple inches down his back. There was a big, brown lump of a mole staring you in the face from his right cheek. His mug shot only showed him from the neck up in what looked to be a black shirt. On screen to the left of him were his name, Afanasi Pavlov, and the words “war criminal”. Apparently reports confirmed his body was not among the others found dead at the scene of a devastating plane crash of a flight that was intended to land in France several hours ago, which led officials to believe he had faked his own death.
There was a woman at the bar, who was interested in this news more than everyone else. She was a strawberry blonde, mid-20’s, flawless, white skin, brown eyes, and wearing a lip gloss, which really brought out their natural color. She was wearing a green, long sleeve shirt, light blue jeans and tennis shoes as she sat there with a glass of some alcoholic beverage in her right hand; taking a sip every few minutes while minding her own business.
Samuel immediately takes notice of her and casually strolls in her direction. By the time he sat down next to her, the news report was almost over. “Repulsive…” he summed up the guy in one word, before explaining to the woman what he meant, “Him, I mean. I didn’t think guys like that would be your type.”
She completely ignored him as she took another sip of her wine, beer, or whatever she was having.
Samuel was relentless in finding out her name, so he turned with his hand extended, and says his name.
“I know who you are, Mr. Grant.”
“It’s funny how you know me, but I don’t know you.”
“Olive Winters,” she said before stating her job, “Reporter for Transworld Snowboarding magazine.”
“Nice to meet you, Miss Winters.” He then turns to the bartender. “I’ll have what she’s having.”
She chuckled at his attempts to get to know her, “I think what I’m drinking may be a little too strong for you.”
“I’ve had worse.”
Caitlin, Alex, Willis, and Starla sit down on the couch in front of the warm, cozy fire in front of the 47in plasma screen TV, watching the montage of snowboarding clips as they listen to the hardcore rock music that followed.
“It’s a shame Max and Phoebe aren’t here to enjoy this.” Willis replied.
“And Bradshaw too,” Starla pointed out.
“Lil miss rodeo champion is afraid to learn a new sport unless it involves dirt and the hot Texas sun beating down on her.”
“Now that’s not very nice, Caitlin,” Alex replies.
“Well it’s sorta true; on days off, all you see her do is either helping out in the garden or lounging around reading a good book.”
“You let her live her life and we’ll let you live yours.”
Back at home, a completely bored-out-of-their-minds version of Phoebe and Max sit on the couch playing video games on the TV in the lounge.
“You didn’t have to stay back just cuz of lil old me,” Phoebe said to Max.
“I wanted to; besides, Willis and I go just about everywhere together. I felt like we needed some space or else people would think we’re joined at the hip.”
“I just don’t see the attraction sliding down a mountain of snow; I’d rather learn windsurfing.”
Bradshaw strolls in the front door with bags of groceries, “You two haven’t left that spot since I first went out.” Bradshaw said as he struggled to keep from dropping the bags.
“We can’t help it if we’re bored…”
“Well, how about you discuss your next adventure while helping me put these away?” He set the bags down next to them, “There’s more out in the car.” He said as he went back out. Several minutes after he came back in, “It’s a beautiful sunny day out and you’re both sitting around here, complaining of nothing to do?”
“That’s because there isn’t…”
“What about an arcade?”
“Wouldn’t that be a lil embarrassing? Two young adults with a bunch of money playing in a place designed for children?”
“Well actually, Max, loads of adults out there still do that sort of thing.”
“Yeh and most of them with no lives, Phoebe,” Max explained.
“Well how about tennis or the tons of other sports there are?”
“I’m getting a little tired of sports; well, tired of playing them actually.”
Bradshaw volunteered to drive them to a San Francisco 49’ers game; anything to get them out of the house.
Everyone in the bleachers stands for the National Anthem, which was being played by a famous pop singer with a lyrical voice. This laid-back lady has large eyes the color of black coffee. Her thick, straight, chocolate-colored hair is worn in a style that reminds you of a porcupine's quills. She is very short and has a graceful build. Her skin is tanned. She has full lips. Her wardrobe is elegant, and is mostly white and brown. After she removed herself from the field, the game began; the referee flipped a coin to see which team would kick off and who would receive. The away team got to choose and they the quarterback decided they would kick off. A single Konglaton came out of nowhere and followed him like a dog chasing a car until about 50 yards, where he leaps over him front flip turned into a cartwheel in midair and stomps in the grass in front of the player before he started beating his chest and roaring at him.
Phoebe and Max were more surprised than everyone else watching as the Konglatons circle him and push him around in a playful manner. Only when more Konglatons joined in did they act. A laser beam was fired, which created sparks as it hit the armor on one of the beasts.
“Everyone, please, for your own safety, stay in your seats!” Max shouted as he and Phoebe race down the steps towards the railing and leap over onto the field.
Max keeps firing as he races towards a Konglaton, who was about to smash him into the ground with both hands coupled together. As the beast bears down like a sledgehammer to a boulder, Max tries to keep his arms at bay using his super strength and then takes one hand down to deliver a strong punch to the abdomen, which sends him flying.
Phoebe slashes at a Konglaton with her mantis boomerang then quickly dashes to her left out of the way as the monster takes a swing at her. She then slashes it in the leg and lands a punch to the jaw once it kneeled.
While they were distracted with the enemy, Ling Khan slips onto the field unnoticed after he sets sights on the quarterback. He turns him into a manner of beast so foul, that he did not even think to give it a name. To him, what its power was was far more important. It was big, buff, and had the skin color of a football. Its outfit was the same, while still resembling that of a football player; its shoulder pads were green and had large spikes protruding from them like that of a porcupine, only thicker in circumference. Where its mouth was supposed to be, the white, lace-like thing on the football took its place. The beast’s helmet was black and furry like a Gorilla. While Phoebe and Max fought, it locked onto the innocent civilians in the stands. With a red laser beam in the shape of a football, it fired upon them, turning them all into footballs, which had the color of their clothes on each one.
Most of the sports fans were able to flee and caused the monster to switch targets.
He set sights on Phoebe and Max, who were then aware of his attempt to make them like the others. They dodged and allowed the Konglatons to take the shot meant for them. After it stopped firing, Phoebe and Max fired back; after and it fell, Ling Khan picked him up and they retreated.
Meanwhile, back in Austria; Samuel and Olive ride a ski lift to the highest point of the mountain. Samuel is blathering on and on, unaware of that Olive is paying no attention to him whatsoever as she scouts the location around her with a pair of binoculars.
Finally, Samuel notices she’s not even listening. Even though he was aware of this fact, he still felt the need to ask, “Hey, are you even listening?”
“Hanging on every word…” she answered sarcastically.
“Honestly, I don’t even know why I got up here…”
“Me neither,” she mumbled. She continued scouting as the weather began making everything less and less visible.
“Who are you looking for?”
“Just some friends of mine,” she answered vaguely.
“Friend? What, you lost them or something?”
“Perhaps not, they could just be waiting for me inside.”
“No actually… they lost me.” Through the layers and layers of fog, Olive finally casts eyes on the location she was looking for, a big old resort building out in the middle of what seems to be nowhere. She waits until she gets to level ground and jumps off the lift.
“Wait up, you just gonna leave me here?!” Samuel follows.
“Kinda the idea,” she mumbled to herself as she kept going.
“I can’t just let you go in by yourself, it could be dangerous.”
“I can handle myself, but thanks for your concern.”
“What exactly is this place?”
“It’s a resort. They aren’t quite finished with building it, but it’s still livable.”
“How so?”
“They have most of the rooms already made up; windows, four walls, the works.”
“And you and your friends are planning on staying here…?”
“When they’re done, this place will be your own lil slice of heaven, just you wait; and I’ll be the first one to get an interview with the owner.”
An hour later after getting settled in, Sam and Olive hit the Jacuzzi. Since there was no power, they had to heat it themselves. Samuel got a little creative as he built a fire, placed a couple of large stones down, and let them get hot enough before he dumped one of them in.
“I gotta hand it to ya, Samuel. The hot rock thing is pretty impressive…”
He still had to heat up more rocks to put in, but as the saying goes, “If you wanna make an omelet, you have to break a few eggs.”
“Ain’t exactly five stars yet, but I do know how to make the best of what I have in front of me,” Samuel said after he returned with a couple six packs of beer. “I couldn’t help but notice this place has a whole load of security; patrol men everywhere with guard dogs.”
“Oh really?”
“Yeah, they kinda give me this look, which makes me feel like we shouldn’t be here.”
“If they didn’t want us here, they would’ve said so.”
“Yeah, but still…” he paused as he tossed her a beer and then switched the rock already in the Jacuzzi for the one still on top of the fire.
“What happened to rebellious Samuel Grant I remember seeing on the news?”
“You saw that, huh?”
“Yeh I did.”
“Well, that was different. I was dealing with the Senate and General Daniel Creed; the General has always been jealous of me; he doesn’t just want my weapons turned over to the Government, he wants them all for himself. He loves being #1.”
“And that’s what you want?”
“It’s not about popularity status, Olive. It’s about sticking to a promise I made. That Zierian guy gave me a job; I may not be the one who’s out there looking for the jewels myself, but I’m still a part of all this.”
“You feel happy sending your sons and their friends out to risk their lives?”
“Max and Willis volunteered for this, same as the others. They knew what they signed up for. If you they wanted out, they would’ve left already.”
Meanwhile, back in California; Phoebe and Max take to the command center in hopes of finding the newly made monster of Ling Khan’s. So far, they found nothing on radar; not a single blip, but they kept searching.
“How are we meant to stop that thing once we’ve found it; you saw what it did to those people.” Phoebe asked.
“You could always use the nano-shield device Samuel has created; I’ve modified it with a code to make it impervious to the monster’s ray,” MEGAN explained.
“The nano-shield?”
“I thought dad took it with him,” Max asked.
“He has made more than one. There are a couple of utility belts housing the weapon down in the lab.”
“I’ll go get them,” Max volunteered.
“Target located,” MEGAN replied.
“s**t. He’s attacking a high school football team during tryouts.”
The location was somewhere north of them, so they get on the freeway and duck in between cars; this was easier for Max, since he was on a motorcycle, but they both managed to get there on time and dismount. Once on the field, they put themselves between the kids and the monster, who then summoned a bunch of Konglatons wearing red and white football uniforms instead of their usual attire.
Phoebe quickly takes to defending the kids, while Max confronts the monster. Max’s opponent blocks with his palm as he throws a right punch. As he attempts to twist Max’s arm, he laughs softly in an evil fashion and then throws a punch with his right; Max ducks and then pushes him away with a frontal kick, which then makes the beast fire a red beam; the same one he used to turn the crowd of people into footballs. Max immediately deflects this with the nano-shield. The nano-bots, which made up the transparent shield generated a blue light, which upon closer inspection, were tiny mirrors, which they conjured out of nowhere; they bounce the beam back at the monster’s feet and make him jump.
Seconds later, the monster conjures a football into his hand. As a blade grew out of one of the corners, Max summoned his pill bug armor to ready himself before his opponent attacked. Max attaches it to his left arm as he blocks his opponent’s blade and punches back with the other arm; then he switches the armor’s position to his right leg as he approaches and goes for a low kick and a mid-level kick; the monster blocks his second kick and delivers a slash across the chest, which makes Max spiral. His reaction time was quick as he sent the nano-bots to his backside and had them absorb the monster’s next attack while he delivered a back kick to the stomach, and then turned with his pistol in hand to drop the beast on his back with several shots to the chest; the monster managed to remain his feet as he charged at Max like an angry rhino. Max sends the armor to his right arm as he puts it up to defend as his opponent aims for the top of the head. Taking advantage of the situation, the monster then knees Max in the stomach and then in the chin as he kneels.
Max lies in wait as his opponent makes his next move; he attacks Max’s legs and causes max to spread them out; like scissors, Max then grips the sword before he rolls, twists the sword out of his hands as he lifts into the air and back on his. He then lifts his feet and performs a back flips; sticking the sword in the ground by the hand. He then grabs the blade, flips it and snatches it out of the air before using it on his opponent. A few well-placed strikes and Max was ready to use the WASP stinger to deliver the finishing blow; the football player Ling Khan had transformed into the creature Max had fought emerges from the smoke in nothing but his briefs and a tattered jersey.
Back in Austria; in one of the rooms at the resort, Samuel and Olive share a bed together. Samuel awakens to find her no longer at his side and wanders around the place looking for her.
Fifteen minutes later, he finds her across the catwalk, peeping through the window of some office trailer looking building at a man, whom she claims to be the Russian war criminal she and Samuel saw on the news.
Samuel sneaks over to her quietly and lightly taps her on the shoulder. As she turns around, he places his hand over her mouth and gestures with his index finger for her to keep quiet. He then whispers, “You know, for a magazine reporter, you sure have some pretty advanced hardware.”
“What are you doing here?”
“Watching your back; did you know there are about a dozen armed guards patrolling the area?”
“I noticed…” she whispered back. “Wait, how did you know that?”
“My phone; it has an x-ray vision app. Are you that dedicated to getting your story that you’re willing to get killed for it? Who are we watching anyway?” he snatches the cellphone from her hands, which annoys her. “He doesn’t seem like the snowboarding type to me. Wait, I think I know who that is.” Before he could say the name, he heard one of the guards shouting in Russian. He automatically assumed he was looking for them.
“Is anybody there?” the guard asked.
“C’mon, let’s go…” he slows down as he notices the blip on his radar getting closer. He then whispered to Olive, “No no, under the catwalk. We’ll never make out of his range in time…”
When they guy got there, Olive and Samuel had vanished. He looked all around him except for under the catwalk, where they were crouching and looking up at his feet.
Meanwhile, up in his floating fortress, Ling Khan stomps about furiously over the quick defeat of his monster; until learning about this book, an ancient book, which houses a creature stronger than anything he or the rangers have ever faced. A creature so fearsome, he was said to be not of this world.
Before he could possess this power, he had to find a key; a golden key that was sent back with the book itself to ensure the book was never opened. That key was last seen in Germany; somewhere in Austria.  

[Samuel Grant]

Chapter 15
Snow Day Afternoon: Rise of the Cobra

The next morning in Austria, Caitlin, Starla, Alex, and Willis have breakfast in the lounge of the hotel and wonder what happened to Samuel.
“It’s not like him to miss breakfast like this.”
“You obviously weren’t there in Vegas.” Alex said.
“You weren’t either, Alex. You guys didn’t join the team until after,” Starla explained. “He was down at the casino where I met him, playing craps. I don’t really know what happened after we…”
“He slept in,” Willis explained, cutting Starla off.
“Wonder where he is now?”
“He left with some woman last night,” the man, who answered Alex’s question, puts you in mind of a witty comedian. He has round eyes the color of turquoises. His thick, straight, lemon-yellow hair is worn in a style that reminds you of a rocky outcropping. He has a graceful build. His skin is china-white. He has a weak chin. His wardrobe is classy, and is mostly black.
“What woman?” Caitlin asked.
“Caucasian, strawberry blonde, looked as if she were ten years younger than he. They left the hotel just before you guys checked in.”
“How do you know this?”
“I was right behind you guys when it happened. He was sitting at the bar, chatting her up. At first, she wouldn’t even give him the time of day, but then they started talking and one thing led to another.”
“You didn’t happen to overhear where my brother was going, did you?” Caitlin asked.
“Nope sorry…”
“That’s alright.”
“By the way, you’re his sister? I’m such an idiot. I thought he was your boyfriend.”
“That would be me, dude,” Alex stated as he waved his hand in front of his face and put his other arm around her shoulder.
“Oh alright…”
As he walked away, Caitlin removes Alex’s arm from her shoulder, “You still have some making up to do for when you called me a skank.”
“You said we were forgiven.”
“We are, but you’re still in the doghouse.”
Meanwhile, at the unfinished resort with Samuel and Olive; Samuel drills her with question after question. He talks in a low tone of voice so only she can hear.
“I dunno what’s going on here, but clearly things aren’t what they seem.”
“I honestly have no clue what you’re getting at.”
“You’re stalking a war criminal. What, does your employer want an interview for the magazine?”
“That information is classified.”
“Classified, my a**. If you want me to help you, I need all the details.”
“And who said I want your help? I can do this myself.”
“Well, whatever is going on here, I’m sure a magazine reporter would need a little bit of help.”
“I don’t actually work for a magazine, alright.” She looks to her left and to her right and makes sure no one was listening before she divulges information to Samuel. “I’m CIA,” she whispered.
“I had a feeling something was going on there.”
“He killed my partner
“Revenge is not gonna bring him back. Believe me, I’ve tried.”
“This isn’t about revenge.”
“Well what else could it be besides that. I’ve seen it enough times in movies to know the signs. Partner gets killed; the main character goes looking for his or her own brand of justice in order to make themselves feel better inside.
“You weren’t there when happened, so you wouldn’t understand.”
“Well enlighten me, Olive.”
“And another thing, my name’s not really Olive. It’s Wendy Granger.”
“Well then enlighten me, miss Granger; oh god, I just don’t feel comfortable with that name.”
“Why not?”
“Because it reminds me too much of a character from my favorite books, that’s why.”
“Well anyway, it was a month ago; somewhere in the mountains of Northern Russia. My partner, Liam, was working undercover; trying to figure out what Afanasi’s next move was. He said he found something, something that could change the balance of power in the world.”
“What was it exactly?”
“He never got to tell me; Afanasi found out that he was a double agent and had him killed. But Liam did say it was something more powerful than any manmade weapon.”
“I’d be happy to help you look.”
“It’d probably be a wild goose chase. I don’t even know where to start.”
“I have a gut feeling it’s around here somewhere; Afanasi’s got his men looking for something around here. I noticed it last night when I went for a stroll. There are a concentrated amount of mercenaries in the northern sector, so I’m guessing whatever they’re looking for, they’ve found it already; they just don’t know how to get to it, I figure…”
Samuel and Wendy crouch behind a stack of boxes in a corridor leading to the Northern sector of the compound; a couple of guards patrol the area to make sure any unauthorized personnel enter the premises.
“What do we do?” Wendy whispered.
“I got an idea, but it’s crazy…”
“We could do with a bit of crazy at the moment.”
Samuel whispers in her ear for her to just walk up the path and create a distraction; meanwhile, Samuel comes in from the sides while Wendy flips her hair and looks sexy for the boys; they immediately lower their guns.
“I’m sorry, could you help me? I got lost looking for the bathroom.”
Samuel then takes out the guy on the right, while Wendy disarms the one on the left.
With their backs now up against the wall, they check their guns before entering. Samuel grips the doorknob and counts down from three; then he and Wendy burst through the door and step out onto the catwalk. Below them, the floor was filled with soldiers moving back and forth among the numerous stacks of boxes scattered throughout the room. They sneak down and take cover behind the boxes; peeking out to see if it was safe to move. One-by-one, they sneak past the mercenaries until they were all the way across the room where they saw a huge hole in the floor. It was too dark to see anything; before following the winding staircase to a manmade tunnel with the same lights you see lining a mine shaft, they take out a couple of the soldiers and don their disguises.
Meanwhile, Ling Khan and a bunch of Konglatons land on Afanasi’s doorstep; literally. Like a comet, they touchdown and alert every soldier in the building to their presence; including Wendy and Samuel.
“What the hell was that?”
“The cavalry I suppose.”
“Who else knows you’re here?”
Once they make it to the surface, they realize their big rescue was not what it seemed. The Konglatons and Russian mercenaries have an all-out brawl. One mercenary knocks off a drum of oil as he’s pushed back by his opponent. He drops his radio while on his back in the black goo; a Konglaton smashes it with both hands and sparks fly. Most of them land in the oil just as the soldier rolls out of the way and it catches fire.
“Am I seeing things or do you see the gorillas in samurai armor as well?”
“They’re Konglatons. This could only mean one thing.” Samuel contacts Alex, Starla, Caitlin, and Willis via communicator.
“Samuel, where have you been?” Caitlin asks as if she and the others didn’t know already.
“Never mind that; we’ve got trouble. Ling Khan’s here. I’ll send you my coordinates.” “Hang on. Where are you going, Wendy?”
“You know I have to do this.”
“No you don’t.”
“Samuel…”
“No, Wendy. We need to get these people to safety.”
“You do that…”
“You think taking the life of one man to avenge another is going to make things all better?”
“Yeah.”
“After you’ve done that, then what? You think your soul will be at peace?” he didn’t wait for her to answer back before he says, “You know what? Fine; do what you want. I just hope you can live with yourself.”
During the fight, the oil fire spread to a much larger area; soon enough, flames engulf the whole building. The smoke made it difficult to breathe.
Willis, Starla, Caitlin, and Alex arrive at a smoke-riddled ski resort to the sight of people coughing as they fight off the pack of Konglatons. They each call out Samuel’s name over the roar of the flames and he answered after they called upon him for the 6th time.
“Good, you guys are here. I need you to hold onto this. Also, we need to get these people out.” Samuel takes off in a hurry.
“Where are you going?!”
“Going to check on Wendy!”
“Who’s Wendy?” Starla asked.
“I dunno…” Alex answered.
Afanasi was heading towards the helipad with his half a dozen of his soldiers following directly behind; Wendy was not too far behind. She fought her way through dozens of armed assailants coming at her left and right and approached the helipad as Afanasi prepares to board.
She quickly takes aim at the back of his head. “Hold it right there!”
He slowly puts his hands up and turns around; then from out of nowhere, one of his men creeps up behind, disarms her and restrains her in a choke hold.
Ling Khan shows up just as Afanasi holds Wendy at gunpoint. He saves her life.
“Thank you, whoever you are.”
“I didn’t do it for you; where is it?”
“Where’s what…?”
“The key, I know you have it. hand it over.”
It was not until Ling Khan had Wendy a few inches off the ground with his hand around her throat that Samuel arrives to save her.
“I won’t ask again, darling. Where is the key?”
“Put her down, Ling Khan.” Samuel bellowed.
“Oh, you again. You know something, you know my name, but with as many encounters we’ve had, I don’t know ‘your’ name.”
“Samuel, please. Don’t worry about me, get Afanasi!”
“He’s not my concern, you are. Let her go, Ling Khan.”
“How much does she truly matter to you?”
“What is it that you want?”
“I want whatever you two picked up in there; I want that key.”
“It’s right here; so how about letting her go and I’ll give it to you?”
“Samuel, what are you doing…?”
“It’s alright, Wendy.” Samuel takes Wendy’s backpack off his shoulders along with the snowboards for him and Wendy. With a bit of hesitation, he finally throws it over to him.
Ling Khan puts her down as soon as he catches it by the strap. “You made the right decision, Samuel…”
“Wendy, cover your eyes!”
The backpack explodes right in Ling Khan’s hands, releasing a brilliant flash of light.
Wendy had covered her eyes just in time and then removes them to see Samuel and Ling Khan wrestling with each other; trying to force one another to the ground.
Afanasi took this opportunity to get away. He shoots the pilot, leaves him for dead and takes off; Wendy pecks the helicopter with gunfire, but only manages to puncture the fuel tank.
Samuel tries for a fan kick, but Ling Khan crouches then rises back up with several snake style Kung Fu strikes to the body; Samuel blocks the second half of the attack and leans forward for a right hook. Ling Khan leans back and pushes Samuel with a frontal kick. Samuel blocks at the joint of the foot and then spirals for an elbow strike, but Ling Khan blocks with his left arm and pushes back with his palm; then he leaps forward with Wire-Fu kick, which Samuel dodges only to be attacked with the other foot as he spins Ling Khan counter clockwise by the left leg.
Wendy tries to keep him off of Samuel until he gets up. She fires round after round into his back, but they bounce off and create sparks; once he turns to face her, Samuel gets up with a rope in his hands, which he lassos around Ling Khan’s neck like a leash to a dog and pulls him back.
While he lied on the ground with a makeshift lease on his neck, Wendy and Samuel get on their snowboards.
“You ready?” she asked.
“I always am…”
They both begin their descent; Samuel taking the lead for a short time as he performs various flips and tricks to show off. After passing him, Wendy makes a sharp left with Samuel not too far behind. They exchange positions as they make their descent.
To show off, Samuel approaches a flat rock covered with snow and uses it to get serious airtime as he pulls of insane tricks you’d only see in the X-games or a snowboarding video game. They come up on a tunnel and spiral through it until coming up on a snowy barrier at the end.
“Careful up ahead of you, Samuel; there’s a ledge!”
“I can see that, thank you!” Samuel drifts right as he comes to a 60ft drop and follows the path all the way down until it was safe to jump.
Wendy performs a 360 right into a trench; grinding along the walls on her way down while still dragging up the rear as she followed Samuel over a jump. They descend slowly and then come up on a 7ft rock face. Samuel goes right and Wendy moves left. Once they circle the giant rock, Wendy leaps over Samuel and takes the lead as she swerves left and right down the mountain, softening up the path for Samuel.
Off in the distance, clouds of black smoke could be seen rising from the burning remains of a black helicopter. A trail of flames led Wendy right to it. She slows to a stop and Samuel does the same seconds after he catches up.
“b*****d finally got what’s coming to him…”
“You don’t mean that.”
“Yes I do. I can never let go of what he did to my partner.”
“Listen, I thought the way you did when I lost my team years ago, but I learned to move on with life. You should too.”
“Obviously I can now; he’s dead.”
“Samuel? Samuel, come in. do you read?”
“I read you loud and clear, Caitlin, what’s going on?”
“We got everyone out; where are you?”
“Wendy and I are… about several hundred yards below.”
“Sit tight. We’re coming to get you.”
“No need. There’s a village just below us. We’ll manage. How goes things with that key?”
“Well, without any identifying marks, it’s kinda hard to determine what it goes to.”
“Best we could gather was that it’s in Peru,” Alex said.
“Peru? Didn’t they worship the snake?”
“We’ll find out when we get there; Willis out.”
“Oh right, I forgot you had your own specialized unit; and that it’s full of teenagers. What was it called again?”
“Operation W.A.S.P.; stands for weapons and special powers.”
“What’s the deal with that one girl, Caitlin?”
“Nothing; she’s my sister, that’s all.”
“Sister? I thought she was your girlfriend.”
“No way…”
Meanwhile somewhere in Peru, Willis, Starla, Caitlin, Phoebe, Max, and Alex split off into 3 teams; they each cut a path through the dense vegetation with a couple of machete as they wander aimlessly. The sun was beating down on them hammers to nails; making everyone except Starla sweat; she creating a type of shield to protect her from the sun’s rays.
“So… what’s the deal on Wendy and your father?”
“I’ve seen type of things in action movies; it’s the typical spy movie scenario. Girl meets guy or guy meets girl, person turns out to work the CIA, NSA, FBI, any branch of government. Any fantasies you wish to have fulfilled are nearly impossible, but I’m looking to make one work.”
“Ever watch anything outside of movies, Max?”
“Guys, I think we may have found something…” Willis takes off running, leaving Starla behind as approaches a clearing with loads of old, mossy buildings and pyramids.
“Whoa…”
“Yeah I know.”
“We’re looking for the same symbol that Willis saw on the box.”
At the back of the village, they find a pyramid matching their description; two statues of snakes with arms and legs and three inch nails protruding from the fingertips like claws stood at the entrance with red gems for eyes.
“We’re not actually gonna go in there, are we?”
“Oh c’mon, Alex, where’s your sense of adventure?” Phoebe gives him a light pat on the butt as she walks to the entrance.
Alex flinched a bit and turned to Caitlin with a confused expression before he turned back. “Why me?” he asked Phoebe.
“You’re the expert on this type of thing.”
“I usually infiltrate museums and rich mansions; maybe the occasional tombs, but I draw the line here; what if there are snakes?”
“A jewel thief afraid of snakes; c’mon, Alex…?”
“Fine, I’ll go.”
“You’ll need me as well; I’m a whiz at reading hieroglyphs.”
Willis, Phoebe, and Alex enter the temple.
Somewhere off in the distance, a pair of beady, blood-red eyes watches the two from the bushes silently.
The inside was dark, it smelled. Alex, Phoebe, and Willis turn on their flashlights so they can get a better look at things. The walls were cracked and had moss coming in. the further they went, the more they started to see hieroglyphs like Willis said.
They all stop and wait for Willis to finish examining the walls to know where they need to go.
“What do they say?”
“Well according to this, the villagers worshipped the book; thought of it as a gift from their god.”
“Do they say what’s inside of it?”
“They weren’t able to open it, no matter what. Even though the book remained closed, it sent signals into their brains.” the more of the wall Willis started to read, the more disturbing the story gets. “They soon went mad and…”
“And what, Willis?”
“What more did it say?”
“Well, I believe we now know the real reason the population died out.”
“Remind me again, why we’re looking for it?”
“We need to keep it out of Ling Khan’s hand; or anyone else’s hands for that matter.”
“C’mon, the chamber‘s just up ahead.” Willis led the way to a large, round room. Like all the other times, the artifact was in the center of the room on a pedestal. All over the floor were multicolored tiles. Each one would highlight at one time and emit a slight pinging noise.
“Alex, wait. We don’t know how these are supposed to work.”
“I do…” Willis interrupted. He steps out onto the green tile in front of him; a red tile two spaces forward and one space to the left lights up and he immediately jumps to it. the blue tile that was adjacent lights up and so does the yellow one one space back and one over to his right. Willis hop-skips to that and then another red tile in front of him lights up. He follows the pattern laid out for him until he makes it to the idle; a black book with a white skull that had red eyes, animal skin pages, a red serpent-like tongue made of the fabric used in ribbons was sticking out of the pages underneath the bronzed lock bolted to the tips of the front and back cover.
“Guys, we’ve found it.”
“That’s excellent, Willis.”
“Hey, you guys ever get the feeling like we’re being… watched?”
Max zeros in on the Konglatons approaching their location through the bushes with his thermal vision, “Multiple enemies coming in from all sides.”
Caitlin wipes out a couple of them with her laser vision, but neglects the ones coming at her from the right; which causes Starla come to her rescue. She levitates in between her and them, stoops down and throws a left punch; palm facing up. She then gets up, waving her arms around before punching to her right with a back fist. Caitlin stands on Starla’s left and lands a low kick; lowering her leg, she summons her fans and throws the right one. As the sparks fly upon impact, the Konglaton falls on his back and bounces the fan back at Caitlin, who quickly catches it.
Max punches the ground with his right and the ground opens up as a 4.1 magnitude tremor occurs. Several Konglatons became stuck up to their armpits; Sapphira surprises Max as she leaps at him from the front and knocks him to the ground with a left kick. Max summons his pill bug armor and holds up his left arm; as Sapphira makes contact with her blade, the two generate sparks. At the same time, Max kicks her in the right leg and rolls to his left. With Sapphira’s sword stuck in the dirt, Max shoots at her with his laser gun before he springs to his feet and kicks her in the arm. She releases her grips on her weapon and Max kicks with his other leg; with the pill bug armor attached, the attack hurt Sapphira’s arm more than it should have.
Max goes for a high kick and Sapphira ducks. As soon as he came back around from the other direction, she grabs his leg and sweeps his other one from under him.
Caitlin then intervenes; knocking Sapphira into a snake statue with a laser eye beam. Once she hit the ground, she conjures white crystals into her hand, which she throws at Caitlin, who melts them with her laser vision; all except for the last one, which grazes her underneath the right breast as she turns to evade.
Suddenly, the ground began to tremble as if an earthquake was coming.
Out of the entrance to the temple came Alex transformed into a bull. He targets the Konglatons one by one the same time Willis and Phoebe emerge and knocks most of them down like bowling pins before he turns into a mole and burrows underground out of the way once he was targeted by a Konglaton, who pounds the ground with its fist every time Alex pops up; it was like a game of Whack-a-mole. Each time Alex popped up, he scratched at the Konglaton’s legs with his long claws that were used for digging. Finally, Alex jumps out of the ground behind him, transforms into a tiger, lands on the beast’s back and starts clawing into his armor. It then grabs Alex by the tail and swings him into Willis and makes him drop the book. As it slides, Ling Khan was there to pick it up. With it in his left hand, he looks up and grabs Phoebe’s weapon as it flies towards him. With the boomerang in hand, he attacks Starla with it and she drops the key for him to pick up. Shortly after he puts the key into the lock and opens the book, a gust of wind turns several of the pages until it reached one with a picture of the being, which was a black, red, and gold entity with a cobra-like head, a pair of red, beady little eyes like a demon, a black diamond-like shape around its head, and long fingernails coming out of its hands like it went days without cutting them. In a soft, raspy voice, it says “yes” in a slow pace as he pulled the rest of him off the page and into the 3D world.
“Finally I am free of that wretched prison.” Serpitox finishes.
“Yes you are and you have me to thank for that.”
“Thank you for allowing me to feel the ground beneath my feet once more, but now… I must finish what I started many years ago.”
“Whoa whoa, where do you think you’re going?” Ling Khan stopped the beast in his tracks. “I freed you so you can serve me.”
“I, the mighty Serpitox, am no one’s servant.” He hissed at Ling Khan just before knocking him off his feet with a palm thrust to the solar plexus. “I truly am thankful for you freeing me, but don’t get in my way.” He literally put emphasis on the word “don’t”.
“You’re gonna regret ever tangoing with me, lizard lips.”
Serpitox strikes with his right, but Ling Khan sidesteps and with his arms stretched out at his sides, he smacks Serpitox in the side of the head; Serpitox throws a low punch to the gut to push him back, but Ling Khan leans back significantly to avoid the attack and then springs forward with a left karate chop, which Serpitox blocks before leaning forward and landing a double fist strike to the chest; Ling Khan quickly moves forward and grabs Serpitox by both arms and performs a front flip; landing behind him, Ling Khan strikes with a back kick; Serpitox spirals after being pushed and slashes Ling Khan across the chest, causing him to spiral, but as he did, Ling Khan responds with a spinning kick to the face; Serpitox ducks, rises up, and then slashes with his left; Ling Khan sidesteps, traps Serpitox’s palm, elbows him in the arm and then in the chest; Serpitox takes a couple steps back and Ling Khan approaches with a Wire-Fu kick three times before he hits the ground; lying on his side, Serpitox kicks upward and hits Ling Khan in the side of the knee before spiraling onto his feet and performing a fan-kick; Ling Khan falls on his back and waits for Serpitox to move in before he kicks off with both feet, drives him forward, rolls out of the way, and back on top of him for a rear neck choke. After rolling over, Serpitox breaks free, gets to his feet and repeatedly kicks Ling Khan in the head while he covered with his arms; Ling Khan finally hits him in the shin with a back-fist and springs onto his feet with a handful of dirt in his right hand. He throws it in Serpitox’s face and proceeds to bombard him with a fury of hits followed by a swift uppercut, which Serpitox evades as he lands one final swipe to Ling Khan’s body to silence temporarily.
“I’d love to stick around and play a bit longer, but I’ve got to get to work restoring myself to my former glory…”
“What have you done now, Ling Khan?!” Starla asked.
Ling Khan reflects on his actions silently as he lies there in the dirt with his daughter, Sapphira, by his side.  

[Samuel Grant]

Chapter 16
Snow Day Afternoon: who let the cat out of the bag?

Serpitox appears on the UC Berkeley campus as an elder man in his 50’s; Caucasian, gray hair, poufy hair like a mad scientist, blue business suit with red tie, charcoal black pupils, and small, half-moon reading glasses sitting atop the bridge of his nose. He walks along casually as to try and fit in with the mass of students that were either lying on the grass enjoying their free period or rushing to get to their next class.
It was obviously by his attire where he was heading; the Valley Life Science building section C3. He offers up a fake ID with the name Warner Monroe to get him past security. With the guard’s back turned, he creeps up behind and places a hand on his shoulder. Within a matter of seconds, Serpitox turns him into a living statue of a king cobra with adder snakes for hands and thick, sturdy legs with flat, lily-pads for feet. He called these beings Cobra drones.
“Follow me…” he said it slowly in a calm demeanor.
With all of the scientists transformed into Serpitox’s new army, he takes his true form and then turns to the book he was imprisoned in. a couple of pages after the one he was printed on, he sees his two top generals. Pachytar, who was a muscular African American male with light brown hair in silver body armor from his shoulders down to his waist; the rest of the way down he had on black pants with pinstripes and brown boots and gray kneepads. As for his face, he wore a tin elephant mask.
On the page after that was a woman, her name; Fahl-Kun. She was African American with a slim, model-like figure and falcon wings on her back; hence the name Fahl-Kun. She wore a gray, faux fur hat with a flat top, which made it hard to determine her hair color, a gray and black strapless top that shows her bare midriff and brown, Native American pants.
“Pachytar. Fahl-Kun. Arise from your slumber and serve me once again.” Serpitox said as he held his hand over the pages and emitting a yellow lightning, which brought his generals into the 3D world.
“Nice place, master…”
“It will suffice, Fahl-Kun, my dear.”
“Now that we’re back, what’s the plan?”
“We start again; take the world, in this timeline, by storm.”
“What about you-know-who?”
“He is no threat. When he comes along, he will perish along with everyone else on this pitiful planet.”
“But you’re from this planet, sir.”
“Due to my evolution, I consider myself no longer of ‘their’ kind, Pachytar.”
Serpitox brings his hands together and parts them as he creates a purple ball of energy within, which expanded inch by inch until it consumed the entire science lab. The amount of energy Serpitox put out then showed up on the scanners back at the command center. Seconds after it came up, it vanished in a blink of an eye.
“Sir, I’ve picked up a massive energy signature emanating from the downtown Berkeley area moments ago and then I lost it.”
“Uh-huh…”
“Sir, satellite images confirm it came from the University campus. It seems the science hall has just up and vanished.”
“Very peculiar indeed…”
“Thanks, MEGAN, we’ll check it out.”
Meanwhile out on a remote island in the Pacific, Serpitox plots his first scheme at world domination. He takes a piece of his armor and drops it in a beaker of orange liquid. The instant it’s submerged, it became to dissolve as if the liquid was acidic. The armor vanished in mere seconds and converts the liquid to a gel-like state to which he carries it over to a large, cylindrical tube seen in sci-fi as a means of cryogenically freezing a subject or submerging them in a green liquid goo where they’re be seen naked and unconscious. On the side of the machine, Serpitox places the beaker. A long tube sucks up the gelatin and sprays it into the larger tube. Within moments, Serpitox creates his first monster; its skin the color of charcoal with wavy, golden tattoos plastered all over. On its back was a golden yellow cape, and yellows poles in a formation representing the sun.
“Today, we shall rewrite future history. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you… Ecliptico.”
Around the same time at the university, Willis, Phoebe and Caitlin investigate the mysterious disappearance of the Valley Science building. Willis kept feeling as though he and the others were being watched; but every time he looked around, he saw the same white cat with purple stripes lying there under a tree looking at them.
“Willis!”
“Sorry. What’s going on?”
“I was asking you what you think did this.”
“Well, whoever it was, they had to have generated a massive amount of energy to pull this off; according to MEGAN. I’m guessing Serpitox did this.”
“Guys, we’ve got trouble at the reservoir,” Alex said over the communicator.
“We’re on our way.”
The cat follows them off campus as they head for the parking lot and mount their bikes.
When they get to the reservoir, they see Serpitox’s monster using his powers to evaporate the water supply. A giant cloud forms overhead and continues to grow larger from every drop of water rising into the air.
The rangers interrupt him midway through the evaporation process.
“Sorry, pal, but this planet already has a sun…”
“And we’re doing just fine with the one we got.”
“I don’t mean for things to get heated, but I’m gonna have to disagree.” Ecliptico then focuses his intense heat at the rangers; as the sparks fly, they fall on their back immediately.
‘Jeez, what a hothead…”
Willis gets to his feet first, and with his super speed, he literally races circles around him; creating a vortex to suck the air out, but Ecliptico just wouldn’t go down; he fought back with all his might and eventually takes Willis down.
Caitlin uses her laser vision, but Ecliptico generates an invisible force field and negates the attack before sending her attack back.
Max rushes in, pill bug armor attached, and strikes with his left leg, only to get blocked by Ecliptico’s elbow. He then allows heat to be absorbed by Max’s weapon, which makes things too hot to handle; Max pulls away and retracts his weapon. As he shakes his hand to cool it off, Ecliptico kicks him to the ground.
Phoebe then steps in; she throws her boomerang to get the monster’s attention while Starla and Alex attack from both sides.
Alex takes a slash with his Scorpion saber and Starla attacks seconds after with her Armadillo blades. The two alternate until Ecliptico goes back on the offensive.
Once the team regroups, they call upon the WASP stinger. Instead of falling like the others, Ecliptico generates another force field, which burns hotter and expands wider until bounces back their attack at twice its original power level.
“Nothing we do seems to have any affect this guy…”
“Give up yet?” Seconds after he taunts, he’s hit by a blue blur from out of nowhere, which then slows down long enough for him and the rangers to get a good look.
“Him again…?” Pachytar said as he, Fahl Kun, and Serpitox watched the monitor.
Standing between the rangers and Ecliptico was a half cat/half human hybrid with blue fur, purple, triangular stripes that went all across the top and sides of his head. He had huge, cat-like ears, paws covered in blue fur with ferocious claws, blueish-gray dress robes like he was a student at some secret Kung Fu academy, and dark blue slippers. This mysterious ally leaps at Eclpitico with a kick and bounces back as he creates a force field; like all cats, he lands on his feet.
“Meerlix must’ve gotten out the same time you did.” Fahl Kun stated.
“Lemme deal with him, Serpitox.”
“You’ll have your chance soon enough, Pachytar.”
They approach each other; Ecliptico strikes the ground with his right foot while Meerlix leaps into the air and performs a kick to the jaw. Ecliptico tackle Meerlix, who falls to the floor and slides a few yards. Ecliptico then picks up a coat rack and chucks it at Meerlix, who rolls to his left out of the way. As he approaches the lab table, he takes some of the beakers and test tubes and throws them. As they shatter on impact, Ecliptico just stood there and took it before stampeding towards Meerlix with incredible force. Meerlix slides under Ecliptico and proceeds to climb on his back where he bombarded him with a series of scratches. Each attack weakened the armor on his back, but Ecliptico managed to shake him off, then turned and swings with a back elbow; Meerlix ducks and performs an uppercut with an open paw, leaving a scratch mark on Ecliptico’s chest. Ecliptico immediately throws a left, which Meerlix blocked with his palm as he delivered a kick to the shin; Ecliptico kneels and Meerlix quickly swipes at his mask; Ecliptico throws a right, which Meerlix evaded with a high jump. As he leapt over Ecliptico’s head, Ecliptico swings around and quickly reaches back, grabs him by the leg and spins him towards the main entrance of the room. He marches towards Meerlix, combines both hands and drops them over him like a hammer, but Meerlix performs a backward roll just in time, leaps onto his feet, steps up on Ecliptico’s fists and lands a flying elbow to the head. At the same time, Ecliptico quickly holds his right out to the side and performs a clothesline; after falling on his behind, Meerlix quickly leaps to his feet and looks up at Ecliptico. At half the speed of sound, Meerlix gives a swift kick to Ecliptico’s knee. Kneeled down, Ecliptico takes a swing at Meerlix, who blocks with his paw and throws back a high kick to the ear.
“I will return!” Ecliptico makes a hasty retreat and the other rangers go to greet their mysterious savior.
“Nice moves.”
“Thanks.”
“But just one question; who are you?”
“Now’s not the place to explain.”
After returning to the mansion, Meerlix explains the origin of his nemesis, Serpitox, “My name is Meerlix. I come from a planet known as Savpharus. In distant the future, the man you now know by the name of Serpitox, along with his top generals, Fahl Kun and Pachytar, sought to destroy mankind. My team and I managed to stop them before Serpitox’s horrible will could come to pass. So we worked together to seal them inside of a mystical tome and cast it through a wormhole. By sheer happenstance, it had found its way back to this planet in this timeline.”
“And because of us, he is out.”
“How did you end up in there with him?”
“Serpitox, he made it… difficult to trap him. I saw no other way, but to sacrifice my freedom to make sure he could no longer continue his evil ways.”
“We must work together if we are to put him back inside again.”
“Back inside? So the next generation can open the book and deal with this problem the same way we are?”
“Isn’t there a way to destroy him permanently?”
“If we fight him, it will be a losing battle and countless more will die by his hand. It imperative we stick to the original plan…”
“Why does he hate humans so much?”
“Once he used one of his serums on himself, he began to evolve. He saw his mutation as a blessing and saw mankind’s form to be weak. He had first experimented with making your kind more like him, but soon gave up the idea when they resisted his idea for change. Now he seeks to wipe out all human life and give the planet back to lower class of animals; total rebirth.”
“No matter what time, there’s always at least one whack job like this.”
“MEGAN, what’s the status on our weapons?”
“Max’s pill bug armor, Starla’s Armadillo blades, and Caitlin’s peacock fan blades hav minimal damage done to them, but Alex, Phoebe, and Willis’ weapons, along with the WASP stinger need a bit of fine-tuning.”
“If I may interrupt, MEGAN; Samuel Grant has been working on a new prototype weapon.”
“If you’re referring to the WASP stinger Mark II, then it’s still in the testing phase.”
“MEGAN… it’s now or never. Serpitox isn’t going to wait for us to make repairs.”
“Max is right,” Starla replied.
“You realize it’s only a one-shot burst, which devastates a foe only when weakened, right? Ecliptico is still too strong.”
“We’ll need a quick-fix solution that’ll help cool him down.”
“Could always try paintball guns; we can take out the paint and replace it with N2O like they did in that one movie.”
“How much liquid nitrogen will it take?”
“I dunno…”
“We gather as much as we need.”
“Where do you get it from?”
“Dad has some at his warehouse. Caitlin, Alex, and Starla; you guys get the paintball guns. Willis, Phoebe and I will focus on the nitrogen.”
“What about me?”
“Keep an eye on the monitors for any sign of Ecliptico. If you locate him, see if you can stall him until we get there.”
Caitlin, Alex, and Starla had the easy task. All they had to do was go to a sporting goods store like “Big 5”. They browse all the aisles until finding them and purchasing seven.
Meanwhile, Max, Willis, and Phoebe took longer as they searched the whole warehouse top to bottom. There were a lot of crates for them to check and only one forklift between them. when they finally found the stuff, their friends had joined Meerlix at the dam to confront Ecliptico and a pack of Cobra drones.
Moments later, they arrive with the liquid nitrogen filled paintballs and the leftovers still inside the tanks. It wasn’t until MEGAN notified them that the W.A.S.P. stinger Mark II was completed that the rangers defeat the Cobra drones, use the nitrogen, call forth their new weapon, and deliver the final blow, so they could make it back to Austria to join Samuel and Wendy
On the day of the competition, Samuel and Wendy made their way swiftly back to the lodge to sit down and have a drink as they pushed through the doors of the lodge room they noticed that the room was full of people and other snowboarders drinking and laughing and having conversations. They eyed a small, private booth in the back of the lodge facing the large TV monitor and began to walk towards it cautiously looking around for any of the Russian guards they encountered just moments before. When they began to take their seats a waiter walks up to them and asks them what they wanted to order. Samuel orders 2 shots of southern comfort and a bud light as a beer chaser and Wendy orders a strawberry margarita. As the waiter leaves to get their drinks Wendy and Samuel sit in a quiet solitude watching the door periodically watching for any of the Russian guards that were looking for them. The waiter comes back with their drinks and leaves and Samuel downs the two shots of southern comfort and takes a long greedy drink from the beer chaser as Wendy sips on her margarita quietly. As Samuel finishes his beer and Wendy pauses from drinking her margarita the start of the snowboarding competition flashes on the screen and a young man with short black curly hair and young blonde headed women roughly the same age announces the first match of the day. One of the guys was the young man Samuel was sponsoring.
"Hey look, Wendy that’s the kid in sponsoring" Samuel bellowed
"Do you think he can win" Wendy asked
"Sure he can he’s young and has a lot of talent.
"Well lets watch and see if he can win" Wendy quipped.
The two young snowboarding announcers introduced Samuel’s boy as Jason and he was a rookie to the snowboarding world but showed promise. As Samuel and Wendy watched silently at the TV monitor, Jason slid up to the starting line and waited for the signal to begin the competition. One of the judges signals and gives the start command and Jason slides down the hill and gains speed swiftly as he comes up to the first jump and rockets into the air and pulls off a sweet back side 180 and lands on his board and bombs down to the second jump. Jason gets ready when he sees the second jump and pulls off a monster backside rodeo and the crowd cheers. As Jason pulls off his last trick he races to the railing and pulls off a wicked ten foot bomb off the half pipe and lands nicely on the finish line. The crowd begins to cheer so does Samuel and Samuel screams, "That’s my boy" Wendy could only snicker at Samuel’s excitement. Now was the time for the other competitor to start. As the announcers give the signal to start the competitor slides down the half pipe and slides to the other side and does an Anderlecht and wipes out. Samuel yells again assuming that Jason had this round in the bag and was going on to the next one; he then fell off his board and his opponent, who trailing behind him after falling off his board earlier, passes him by; winning this round.
When Samuel and Wendy meet the others down at the finish line, the winner stands next to Samuel Grant, who presents the trophy to him. The competitor shakes Samuel's hand after receiving the trophy. Samuel walks over to who he sponsored.
"Sorry, Mr. Grant sir, I…" Samuel interrupts him.
"You tried your best, Jason. The better man won today." He reached out to shake his hand. "You shouldn't feel sorry because of a single loss; you're a great snowboarder, you just need to keep training."
"Thank you, Mr. Grant."
"Please… call me Samuel. Now, how about I treat you to lunch with me and my team?"
"Sounds like a date."
Alan and Samuel rejoin the others as they take another Gondola back up to the lodge.  

[Samuel Grant]

Chapter 17
Chasing Shadows

We are our own worst enemy because there is a relationship between the best version of ourselves and the worst version of ourselves. There’s no escaping this truth and the rangers will soon realize it once they’ve faced their toughest challenge.
It all started with an attack an oil field. Celsior’s men were coming in from all sides. The workers didn’t have much choice but to flee. Those that managed to get away, were out of the area in seconds; the rest that weren’t so lucky, they were cowering in corners as the Glacieroids surrounded them, looking at them with their heads tilted like a confused dog.
By that time, the rangers showed up. Meerlix took the lead and scratched at any enemy he could sink his claws into, while the rangers call upon their weapons.
Serpitox sits back and waits for the right moment to step in. Once he saw the last Glacieroid fall by his enemies’ hands, he appears before them without Pachytar, without Fahl Kun, without Cobra drones.
Meerlix speaks his name like an old friend, who’s been waiting a long time to get his revenge, “Serpitox…”
“Been awhile, Meerlix. What you been up to?”
“Oh you know, spending every single one of my days training; getting stronger so I could destroy you.”
“Meerlix, be careful, he’s up to something.”
“Humans; such a weak, proud species; you’re no different, Meerlix. God made you in his image and you think just because someone or something doesn’t look like you, that it’s considered a freak. Has it ever occurred to you that you’re the freaks? That you’re god’s mistake and he’s just doesn’t have the stomach to tell you to your faces. Well, I’ll be the one to deliver this shocking news myself.”
“What are you gonna do?”
“Oh you’ll see…” holding out both of his arms, fingertips pointing down, a purple mist shoots from his hands and immediately slithers about the floor like snakes, which separate into seven lines as they move towards Alex, Caitlin, Phoebe, Max, Starla, and Willis, who then try to move. There feet were stuck to the ground as if they were caught in an electromagnetic field. The purple mist makes it up their backside and moves along their spine in a tingling sensation, which then turned into a mild electric shock that intensified the more they struggle. Their shadows start to come to life and peel away from the ground like a drawing in a cartoon coming off the page. As they take on the form of a dark silhouette version of the rangers, their form soon changed again, taking on what their weapons represented.
Phoebe’s was a brown being with a Mantis head and detachable spiked forlegs with a human half the rest of the way down.
Max’s became a red humanoid with the shell of a pill bug running down twice the length of his spine from his head down to his posterior region. Its face was flat like someone had pressed it with an iron skillet repeatedly.
Willis’ took on the form of Pachytar dressed in all green and carrying his Elephant axe.
Caitlin’s was orange and in the form of a bowling pin-like shape with a peacock head; its tail split down the middle and separated in a 45 degree angle. It had long, oranges legs and arms, which it used to reach around behind it and detach its tail to use as a weapon.
Alex’s was a black scorpion with human-like arms and legs. Its hands were replaced with pinchers and it had six, scrawny scorpion legs protruding from its back and curling around to its sides. Its scorpion tail ran the length of its spine and curved forward four inches from its head.
Starla’s transformed into a white armadillo with; its armor trailed up and down its backside as well as it arms and legs.
And for Meerlix, his shadow took on the form of a hawk with wings for arms. Its feathers were all blue; it had a beak on its forehead and the eyes and mouth of a human.
“You know the old saying ‘you are your own worst enemy’, correct? Enjoy your fun while it lasts, rangers.” Serpitox fades away as he teleports back to his lair and continues watching the rangers fight against their shadows, which took on the form of their weapons; Max’s pill bug armor, Alex’s scorpion saber, Phoebe’s mantis boomerang, Starla’s Armadillo blades, Caitlin’s peacock fan blades, Willis’ elephant axe, and Meerlix’s newest weapon, the Hawk crossbow.
It was as if the rangers were fighting against a mirror. The shadow rangers knew every move they made before they made it. Every time the rangers throw an attack at them, they get it back at twice the speed and power.
By the end of the battle, the rangers were worn out and had scars all over, which took time to heal, due to how many there were.
“Damn it, who were those guys?”
“They fight just like we do.”
Flying in from the south like a rocket, comes man in a purple with green patches on its wrists, shins, forehead and ears; he had a black visor over his face, so you couldn’t see the color of his eyes or his skin. As he flew through the air, he had white flames shooting from the palms of his hands and feet, which controlled his flight like a fighter jet. He veers left and goes in for a landing right in front of our heroes; separating them from these mysterious, animal-like foes. He slowly rises up and holds out his arms as he readies himself for a fight. “You fight well against a group of kids. Let’s see how you do against someone your own speed,” he said in a voice like Darth Vader’s.
All seven of his opponents rush up; he flattens his palm as he holds it up and fires a beam of light from each hand alternately. He hit all except for two of them; the peacock and the armadillo. The peacock strikes with its left fan and the purple guy ducks. After he gets up, he traps the monster’s palm, spirals him, and elbows him in the shoulder; the armadillo monster attacks him from behind and gets knocked back with a back kick; the hawk monster comes in and strikes with his right wing; as if he had eyes in the back of his head, the purple ranger releases his grip on the peacock monster and performs a back flip; the monster’s wing glides right under him. The purple guy lands behind him, delivers a kick to the shin and a hammer fist to the top of the head; once the hawk monster went down, the scorpion comes in restrains him in a full Nelson.
Not knowing whether he’ll get out of it, the rangers decide to step in once again; the purple ranger takes to the skies with his opponent still hanging on. after getting high enough, he finally lets go. The purple ranger then dive-bombs back onto the scene, saying to the super computer that was controlling the suit, “MEGAN, deploy flash-bangs!” the purple ranger pulls up a couple inches from the ground as his suit drops black canisters in between the enemy, which deploy as soon as he takes the skies again. He then banks right, makes a 180 and slides on his heels as he slows to a stop a couple feet away. “You guys okay?” he asked Caitlin and the others.
“We’re okay.”
“Man that was pretty impressive what you just did.”
“Happy to help,” he answered back.
“Just one question; who are you?”
“A friend…” he said vaguely before he took off.
“Hey, wait!”
As these new adversaries appear before Serpitox in their human form, it was like looking into a mirror; they had taken on the form of Caitlin, Max, Willis, Phoebe, Starla, Meerlix, and Alex; but with a more shaded, paler skin color; like if you put color clothes in the washing machine and accidentally put bleach into the cycle, they come out faded.
Serpitox chuckles evilly to himself as he passes by the row of shadow rangers in a similar fashion to a drill sergeant passing by a line up, “I may have very well succeeded where the other villains haven’t. I have found a way to defeat the rangers. Simply put, they are shadow rangers; stronger, smarter, faster, evil. They have only one directive; and that is to destroy the Gaia Rangers.”
“Why have them pull out of the fight when they had the rangers on the ropes, sir?”
“If they had kept up the fight, they would have made me grow weak; until I can figure out how to fix this problem, they will continue to drain me of my energy. From now on, they will fight the rangers separately. Is that understood?”
“Loud and clear, master Serpitox…” the shadow rangers said altogether.
“Do nothing until I return. Serpitox did not tell anyone where he was going; he just left.
Back at home, Phoebe, Alex, and Starla plop down on the couch and watch some TV while they recuperate; Phoebe, who had an icepack on her shoulder, was continuously massaging the sore area to help it get better. As for Max, Willis, Caitlin, and Meerlix, they were down in the command center going over security camera footage to see just exactly where their mysterious opponents came from. They saw where the shadows on the ground just popped up after Serpitox did his little magic trick, take on the form of the weapons they wielded, and stood before them cowboys in an old western preparing to duel.
“Serpitox is a lot of things, but predictable isn’t one of them. Even I was shocked by this,” Meerlix explained.
“We’re just lucky that one guy came along when he did; we’d be toast for sure without his help.”
“What was Serpitox like in your time?”
“If he had his equipment from the future in this time period He’d have the resources to decimate earth and give it back to the animals; preferably reptiles, since he’s fonder of them than he is humans.”
“Why reptiles?”
“Reptiles represent some of the oldest living species on the planet; strongest too. They are vicious, cold-blood creatures.”
Meanwhile, down in the lab; Samuel spent hours on his newest project. Once again, he did not trust his rangers with information on his newest endeavor. He had asked Bradshaw and MEGAN to keep quiet about the ranger suits he was working on. The purple suit was just one of nine identical models. In front of him, you could see them all displayed in the nine colors; red, green, blue, orange, brown, black, purple, white, and gold.
Zierian took his place next to the gold suit as he admired its design.
“Any luck with the shield’s energy signature?” Samuel asked.
“Not yet; it seems to be blocked by something. I can’t pinpoint its location.”
“Are you sure they’ll be able to power the suits?”
“If you’ve modified them the Zierian’s specifications, yes,” MEGAN replies.
“This will be my toughest task to date; mixing science and magic together. There are theories that they’re both one in the same, but so far, the two are worlds apart. Even if I were to miraculously figure out how to make this work, I’d still need to find a suitable element that can successfully link the two.”
“I have faith, Samuel…”
“Well right now, it’s gonna take a lot more than faith to defeat our enemies.”
Back in Serpitox’s base; six of the seven shadow rangers stand around doing nothing while the red ranger paces back and forth in front of them like an impatient kid waiting on a package to arrive in the mail. He soon stands in formation with the others when Serpitox comes back into the room. He passes each of them by, not saying a word as he moves towards Pachytar.
“Pachytar…”
“What is your request, master?”
“This new adversary is becoming a thorn in my side… Pachytar; I wish you would do something about him.”
“It shall be done…”
Pachytar waits for Samuel at the farthest location away from the others. Accepting Pachytar’s challenge, Samuel then leaves the mansion several minutes after the rangers before he dons his ranger form once again. He dive-bombs in, quickly rotates and lands feet first as he places his hands on the ground. He gets up and looks into the face of his attacker as he gets a left hook to the face, which sends him tumbling back like a tumbleweed and drops on his belly; he then gets up, shakes it off and stands in wait with his fists up.
“MEGAN, give me an analysis; find out his weaknesses.”
“5’10, muscular; looks to be the type that relies on brawn more than brain.”
“Then he’s easily frustrated.” he flies at him full speed, prepared for a head-on collision, lifts up his right leg and performs a frontal kick; Pachytar slides back on his heels. After he comes to a full stop, Samuel bombards him with flash grenade after flash grenade until he starts blindly taking a swing at Samuel, who ducks and spirals around as he fires back energy blasts from his palms.
Out of nowhere, Pachytar summons a beige-white shark-tooth blade with a brown line going up the center and a blue stone in between the handle and the blade. He uses it to knock Samuel back; he slides on his heels a few inches and then holds his arms down with his palms facing backwards to slow down; then he thrusts into the air and performs a somersault over Pachytar’s head. Pachytar then swings right, which causes Samuel to hold up his palms to block. He applies a greater force than his opponent in order to draw back one hand; with his left hand down lower than the blade, a miniature rocket pockets out of his wrist, which he shoots into Pachytar’s armor before backing away; a mild explosion rocks Pachytar and knocks him off his feet.
A while later, Max and the other rangers show up to assist Samuel; Phoebe’s Mantis boomerang grazes Pachytar’s shoulder and, as it makes another pass, it hits him in the back of the head just as Max leaps at him; pill bug armor attached to his left arm, and lands a punch to the jaw. As Pachytar fights back, Max crosses both arms above his head; trapping his arm, so that Willis could attack with his elephant axe; Max then jumps back and allows Starla and Alex to attack with their weapons. Alex was on Pachytar’s right; Starla on his left. Pachytar takes a swing at them both and Caitlin knocks the blade from his hand with her laser vision, which makes him mad and sends him rushing towards her like a rampaging rhino.
Samuel holds his palms back and uses his propulsion system to slide forward for a sweep kick; Pachytar falls forward as Samuel passes him by; seconds later, Samuel turns with his left arm at chest level as he watches Pachytar go up in smoke.
“I hate to interrupt, sir, but power levels are rapidly decreasing. If you wish to keep your identity a secret, I suggest you ‘make tracks’…”
“Thanks, MEGAN.” Samuel takes to the skies and races off in a mad dash towards the mansion; leaving the rangers to watch Pachytar rise from the flames.
“If it weren’t for that purple ranger, you’d be dust beneath my feet; so celebrate your victory while I still allow it.” Pachytar walks off and soon disappears through a ruby red portal, which took him back to the base.
Back at the mansion
“Sir, I’ve looked into the article you request; you may want to take a look.”
Samuel looks up to the screen to the sight of a black glove-like thing with tiny gold dots and a golden circle with a light blue gem in the middle; an item known as the Spirit Falcon. “Do you have a fix on its location?”
“I’m still searching, sir.”  

[Samuel Grant]

Chapter 18
Double Double Cross

There are stories of a legendary item known as the Falcon Spirit; a mystical glove, which holds the spirit of a mighty falcon, which will share a great treasure with anyone, who can set it free.
Samuel read about it in one of his books and searched this artifact until he came across one in a small village in New Mexico. He sends all of the rangers to go and retrieve it.
The weather outside was warm and sunny as the rangers split up and could cover more ground. they speak to everyone they pass by until one man speaks of a shop at the end of town where the artifact was kept.
When they arrive, they find the door had been broken, the entire shop completely ransacked.
“Looks like someone got here before us,” Alex stated.
With the mission ending in failure, they return home. Alex was called into Samuel’s office and has been there for hours. The others went about the usual routine until realizing how long it has been since they’ve seen Alex.
“Is he still up in dad’s office?” Max asked.
“Not just him; Bradshaw was there as well. I could tell by his voice.”
“Were you able to hear what they were saying, Meerlix?”
“I may have cat-like ears, but I still couldn’t hear anything except for them murmuring.”
“Maybe Bradshaw is up for a raise and Alex is getting some new weapon or something.”
“How come we haven’t gotten new weapons?”
“It’s okay, Caitlin. I was going to explain when the time was right, but seeing as it’s out in the open already… the reason why I called Bradshaw and Alex into my office was because I… let them go.”
“You what?” Caitlin said in shock and awe.
“Why?”
“Bradshaw’s been your longtime friend, Dad. How could you?”
“I have my reasons, Max, and that’s that; I asked Alex to leave his communicator and weapons behind, but he didn’t. Also, on another subject, Bradshaw has taken with him an experimental serum that causes mutation. With it, he will be an even match if you were to fight him.”
Meanwhile, somewhere in the park, Alex and Bradshaw come across Cameron and Christi as they were training. The two sat at a picnic table for a while and watched as they girls performed all sorts of acrobatic martial arts and skilled swordplay, unaware of their presence. Their movement was fluid, almost like water with how one dodges the other’s moves and counters with speed and power.
Alex was the first to get up and congratulate them with applause to break their focus.
“You lost, lil black ranger? This is a private training session.”
“Oh, is that what this is? I thought you were practicing ballet.”
“You think you got better moves than us?”
“Prove it.”
“Alright then…” he signals Bradshaw to come over.
Before he got up; using the serum he pilfered from Samuel’s stash, Bradshaw transforms into Minotaur with brown fur that had gold decoration around its wrists, neck, and feet; yellow triangles in the shape of a circle on its forehead, which represented the sun.
Cameron throws a left punch and Alex grabs her by the wrist; he shoves her arm aside and attempts to strike her in the ears; she blocks his attack and replies with a knee to the stomach, which Alex blocks as he’s pushed back. As he stops, he moves forward again for a right cross, which Cameron ducks before she strikes back with a low punch to the chest and an uppercut; Alex quickly responds with a high left kick, which Cameron blocks as she sweeps his other leg from under him; before she could mount him and bombard him with punch after punch, he rolls over, throws a left kick to her shin and quickly gets on his feet; Cameron quickly comes at him with flying front kick and Alex blocks with both hands; she then tries for the other leg and Alex blocks again before he strikes with an open hand from the right and gets blocked at the wrist. Cameron twists his arm counter-clockwise and Alex attacks with a frontal kick. Cameron blocks with a fist, twists Alex’s arm back the other way, pulls him close and lands a punch to the chest, which Alex blocks with an arm grab.
Christi attacks Bradshaw several mid-air kicks, which he blocks with the lower arm before he throws back a high right kick, which Christi also blocks before going in for an uppercut; Bradshaw leans left and elbows her in the jaw; she spirals with a backhand and hits him in the chest, then spirals the other way and throws a frontal kick, which Bradshaw catches with one hand as he throws back a fireball with his other hand; Christi back flips, kneels on one knee and throws back several Shuriken, which spark as they pass Bradshaw’s rough hide as he races up to do a flying knee to the stomach. Christi slides back by her heels while Bradshaw keeps moving forward for an elbow shot; Christi ducks and goes for a sweep before she mounts and lands punch after punch to his face; turning to flames, Bradshaw slides out of her clutches and then comes up behind her. Grabbing her by her waist, he then swings her towards the tree, where her back hits up against it and she immediately lands face first on the grass. After she gets up, she crouches with her back against the tree to take a rest, but then quickly rolls to her right just seconds before Bradshaw takes a swipe at her; literally leaving a mark on the tree with his ferociously sharp nails. Facing him, Christi them pulls her sword; she and Bradshaw circle each other, trying to figure out what the other’s move was going to be. Bradshaw swings with his right and Christi quickly reacts with a slash to the arm and immediately goes for the belly; Bradshaw grasps the blade in his other hand and strikes with an elbow to the forehead. Christi stumbles back.
At the same time, Alex hits Cameron with a crippling blow to make her stumble back; then he and Bradshaw both rush at them with a flying kick and knock them on their backs.
Instead of attacking while they’re down, they offer to help them up.
“Okay, what’s going on here?”
“Yeah, you had us. Why’d you stop?”
“Because we’re not here to fight,” Bradshaw explained while reverting to human form.
“We have a business proposition to run by you instead…” Alex finished.
“Well go ahead; what’s your proposition?”
“The four us team up to find the Jewels of the Karma Lunari.”
“Us work with you? What’s the catch?”
“No catch; we’ve been fired from Operation W.A.S.P. and we’re looking to switch sides.”
“They… fired you two? This has to be some sort of trick.”
Cameron was unsure whether to believe them. “Yeah, fired for what?”
“Selling blueprints of Mr. Grant’s designs to a rival; that’s the reason I was let go,” Alex explained.
“And my reason is that I resigned due to lack of appreciation.”
“But why choose us?”
“You are women out for your own gain, nothing more nothing less. In light of our recent unemployment, it seems that the four of us now have similar interests.”
“Look, it’s too hot for us to be out here having this discussion; do we have a deal or not?” Alex asked, sounding impatient.
Cameron takes her time in answering back as she circles Bradshaw and Alex separately.
Meanwhile, back at the command center; Max, Willis, Caitlin, Starla, and Meerlix stand around as Phoebe scans for any energy signatures from Alex’s tracker.
“It just doesn’t make any sense, last time Alex was fired, we didn’t hear anything from him for day; and this time when he was fired, he teams up with your exes?”
“Also, Bradshaw’s with him; what would make him turn on us like this? He’s been nothing but loyal to Samuel and to us.”
“Having your employment terminated does things to a lot of people.”
“There’s something Samuel’s not telling us, I just know it…”
Nothing showed up while Phoebe used the short range scanners, because Alex, Bradshaw, Christi, and Cameron weren’t teleporting to where they needed to go; they were on a cargo ship heading for Great Britain. A cargo ship they had commandeered from an Irish crew; their captain had been thrown overboard they themselves put under a spell so they’d work for them with no hassle.
They had the ship on autopilot, navigating the open water as they come up with a plan of action.
“My contact says the device you’re looking for is locked away in a large deposit box in his penthouse at a hotel somewhere in Spain. The best time for us to act would be around 3pm when Darin Hartman is having lunch with one of his associates at the Lobster place a couple blocks away. I’m gonna need you guys to take over the security station and be on overwatch while I infiltrate the structure.”
“Sure thing,” Cameron answers Alex.
“And try not to attract any attention; this needs to be stealth.”
“You say that like we don’t know the meaning of the word…” Cameron asked.
“Got it…”
Night time in Great Britain; Alex, Christi, Cameron, and Bradshaw reroute themselves to the hotel in Italy where the target was holed up. Cameron, Bradshaw, and Christi strolled into the building; reaching the security floor, Christi distracted the guard at the desk while her sister makes her way into the security room. She throws a knockout dart like a ninja star and renders one guard unconscious; the other immediately gets up from his seat and Cameron flies at him with a front flip kick to the top of the head and knocks him out as well before assuming his position at the console.
Christi dons the unconscious security guard’s uniform and sits at the desk after dragging his body out of sight.
Alex comes in disguised as a repair guy at the same time that she disposes of the body; Christi looks up, almost forgetting who the guy was, and nods at him.
Around the first corner, Alex takes the elevator as high as it can go and then removes the trapdoor on the ceiling.
To the right, above him, he locates a small shaft, which leads him to Daren’s penthouse apartment. It was a large, very cozy place with a big, hardwood floor living room, leather couches, glass tables, lamps and a foyer, and a balcony with a beautiful view of the ocean. There was a stainless kitchen with ovens and a microwave on the wall, a bathroom with a hot tub, and a winding staircase leading up to a bedroom with wall-to-wall carpeting, a bed with silk sheets and a red velvet quilt, a walk-in closet with a safe all the way in the back.
Alex drops down into the dark foyer and puts on his night vision goggles. “Now where is it?” he whispers to himself; hoping to remain stealthy.
He searches the entire room and then follows the staircase up to the bedroom. He stubs his toe on something as he was looking ahead of him and then immediately ducks behind the foot of the bed. The guy was still asleep, didn’t hear a thing; Alex wanted to keep it that way as he tiptoed carefully to the closet. “Okay, I almost have it; cover your rears and meet me on the west side of the building. I’m on my way out,” he whispers as he types in the combination to the safe. What he found once he opened it was a bronze coin with winged shoes on both sides; nothing more, nothing less. He takes it out, puts it in his pocket and proceeds to the balcony. Once perched on the railing, he leaps over and transforms into an eagle as he quickly makes his descent to the others. “A coin? This is what I risked my life for?”
“Not just any coin; it’s one of thousands, which belonged the messenger god, Hermes. It’s not mentioned in any mythological books, but Hermes had Hephaestus make these to go along with his winged shoes, so he could travel through space and get to his destinations quicker; Ares asked Hephaestus to design his sword specifically to use these coins for his own gain.” Christi holds out the sword and an indentation appears at the middle between the blade and handle especially for the coin Alex had in his possession.
“If it’s not in the books, how do you know of it?”
“Oh, we have our ways…”
“What do you need it for?” Alex asked.
“Let’s just we’re rolling out the red carpet for somebody.” Cameron takes the coin and places it on the sword her sister carries. A red beam shoots into space, where it creates a massive wormhole just beyond the earth’s atmosphere; one large enough to fit a spaceship, several hundred yards long and half that size in width, through it.
The spaceship was a silver and maroon color with a large, cylindrical front, a flat center, and a flat, much wider tail end with a shark fin type structure on top.
“Park us in orbit around the planet and prepare the teleportation platform,” said a blue-eyed woman with her silky, wavy, brown hair is worn in a style that reminds you of the color of summer leaves. Her outfit was trashy; like a female pirate. She wore a lot of red and yellow. Her shorts stopped just halfway up her thighs, her green boots were up to her knees. “Auntie’s S has arrived.”
Just before she set foot on the planet, Alex grips the arm of Cameron as she and her sister were about to walk off.
“I’m happy that you’re happy that you’ve accomplished… whatever it is you set out to do in the first place, but what about us; Bradshaw and I. what about our deal?”
Within seconds, Alex and Bradshaw’s friends show up out of the blue.
“Good work, Alex,” Caitlin said.
“You hear that, Cameron? I’m already getting praise for a job well done.”
“He ‘does’ do good work, doesn’t he, Cameron?” Bradshaw replied.
“Am I missing something here?” Starla asked, all confused.
“You’re missing quite a lot, actually…” Christi said.
“Let’s get’em…”
A skull and crossbones display upon Seductra’s entrance as she stands by her nieces, Cameron and Christi.
“Auntie Seductra…”
“You two took your sweet time getting me here.”
“Sorry. We ran into a bit of a snag.”
“No matter; let’s just deal with this little problem and the rest of the Jewels are ours for the taking.”
It was five against six; Christi takes Caitlin, Bradshaw stands before Starla and Max, Alex takes on Willis, Cameron fights Phoebe, and Seductra confronts Meerlix after donning a silver knight’s armor from her neck down. While the others started off fighting hand-to-hand, Meerlix and Seductra draw their weapons. Meerlix holds his Hawk crossbow in its sword form like a samurai while Seductra held her sword like a pirate. Seductra strikes several times at Meerlix’s waist, causing him to block; when he saw an opportunity, Meerlix brings his sword up and takes a swipe at his enemy’s head; it passes a couple inches in front of Seductra’s neck as he leans back. She then spirals and attacks him at the legs, but Meerlix lifts his left leg, and as the blade passes under, he attacks swiftly at Seductra’s belly; she quickly blocks and attacks Meerlix’s neck; the two motion back and forth until Seductra knocks the blade from his hands and high into the air and Meerlix rushes in, scratches at her with his right; sinking deep into her armor with his sharp claws, and then ducking as she takes a swipe at him.
By that time, his blade came back down and he makes a grab for it. he makes a slash upward while Seductra counters with a slash downward from the opposite direction and then kicks him down and runs away; Meerlix quickly gets to his feet and follows her over to a lamppost were he blocks as soon as Seductra swings by the pole and takes a swipe at him.
“You know, I’ve never an animal quite like you with the kind of paws you have.”
“You stick around long enough, you’ll see a lot more of me…”
Meerlix strikes from his right; Seductra leans back and blocks as she performs a frontal kick and lands Meerlix on his back. As Meerlix crawls backwards, Seductra attacks him; she creates sparks as her blade hits the cold, hard concrete.
Just when Meerlix thought it was over, Max comes leaping to his rescue.
Max leaps forward, pill bug armor on his right leg, and gets stopped by Seductra, who immediately slashes at her neck after he lands on his feet in front of her; Max quickly jumps back and the the tip of her sword passes a couple inches away.
Max lunges forward and takes a slash at Seductra, who blocks and responds with the same move. They move back and forth until Max throws a right hook, which Seductra blocks with her palm as she applies pressure to his wrist and makes him kneel. Down on one knee, Max attempts to break free of Seductra’s grip, which was difficult as she gripped tighter and tighter.
Max takes his pill bug armor and aims for Seductra’s abdominal area, making a dent in her armor; Seductra released her grip, Max approached, slashing from the left; Seductra kicks him back and in between into a parked car.
Thinking she had won, Seductra turns her back and walks away only to have Max rush at her from behind. Seductra quickly turns and takes a swing at Max; driving him to the ground.
Meerlix then steps in on Max’s left just moments before he stands back up. Meerlix takes his sword and strikes first up high and Seductra blocks; Max throws a punch while his pill bug armor was attacked to his right and Seductra grabs him by the wrist before she strike Meerlix in the chest. Then she focuses attention back on Max and kicks him in the crotch and knees him in the chin. As soon as Max went down, she attacks Meerlix, who blocks. She pushes up while Meerlix pushed down. he finally gave in and left himself wide open to Seductra’s attack.
Moments later, Bradshaw, Alex, Cameron, and Christi finish off the rangers; all, except Bradshaw and Alex, then retreat.
“Hey wait. What about them?”
“They’re no longer a threat,” Seductra answers. “Leave’em…”
“Guess there’s no denying it any longer; they’ve turned on us.”
“I don’t believe this; how can they just hook up with our exes?”
“Yeh, that’s just low…”
“Can you two let that go?”
“Bradshaw’s gotta be like twice their age. He has no business with them.”
“Seriously, boys, stop it.”
“I just refuse to believe it. Alex would never do something like this, neither would Bradshaw.”
“I agree with Phoebe, there must be something else at work here. Plus, I know Alex very well,” Caitlin said.
“Yeah, but what…”
Later on that night, Cameron and Christi head back to the cargo ship with Bradshaw, Alex, and their aunt, Seductra.
“So what’s the story with lil miss ‘Cut-throat Island’ over here?”
“Miss who…?”
“It’s a movie, Christi; really old one.”
“Oh…”
“My deal is… these two were meant to get me to this planet ages ago…”
“We pillaged this planet in another cluster of the galaxy. Things were going great, people were fleeing for their lives; and then, we received this massive energy reading coming from your solar system.”
“We found this wormhole and found that could take us here directly, but it wasn’t big enough to fit her ship through. So we went through by ourselves. We weren’t sure how to make it possible for her to travel until we came across this rare coin…”
“The Hermes coin we had you steal…”
“By the way, thank you for getting it.”
“You’re welcome.”
“Shouldn’t it be us asking you this question? Just what exactly made you two abandon your friends and join my nieces, hmm?”
“You saw how they had no problems with fighting their allies, Auntie S, surely that…”
“Hush, Cameron. I still don’t trust these two. Your time will come to prove your loyalty, but for now, we must remedy my nieces’ screw-ups.”
“Our screw-ups?”
“Yes. You’ve been on earth for quite some time and all you’ve managed to do was find ONE jewel; and you let it fall into the hands of their former friends. They have a jewel, and all you have is a sword and some… eagle.”
“The sword holds legendary power; it belongs to Ares, the god of war.”
“That’s great, the power of the gods in your hands and yet you can’t seem to use it in your quest to find the ultimate prize.”
“I say, madam, you need to have more faith in your nieces than that.”
“Take a seat and be quiet, old man.”
“Hey, don’t talk to Bradshaw like that.”
“As long as he keeps his nose out of family affairs, I won’t need to; Christi, fetch me the Spirit Falcon.”
Christi heads to the Captain’s quarters, where they kept the relic known as the Spirit Falcon inside of a small safe. As she came back into the room and presents it to her aunt, she holds it up to the light and looks at it all over.
“If anyone needs me, I’ll be at the bow of the ship,” Alex said before getting up.
“Don’t be long, boy,” Seductra ordered. “Cameron, Christi. Come here.”
“Yes, auntie S?”
She hands the both of them a bag of swirly pink and white rocks; about 2 dozen of them.
“You’re just now giving us these?”
“What’s the problem?”
“We could’ve done with these a long time ago.”
“Well the last time, I thought you two would be able to handle yourselves without them.”
The sun rises from the far end of the ship as Cameron catches up with Alex topside as he wanders through the large containers that are stacked several inches high like building blocks.
“Hey.”
“Hi.”
“Listen, don’t worry about Seductra, she just has trust issues.”
“What happened with her?”
“She trusted this one guy and he metaphorically stabbed her in the back. She loved this guy so much and he ended up almost betraying her.”
“How’d he betray her?”
“He was meant to get close to her; learn some of her habits, so he could figure out the best way to execute her, but he fell in love with her and couldn’t go through with it. He made the mistake of telling her his true intentions and she nearly killed him.”
“So she let him go?”
“She didn’t have a choice. He was an even match for her.”
Back at the command center, Max and the others try to look for Alex and Bradshaw’s signal, but start off coming up with nothing.
“He’s a smart kid, maybe he turned it off.”
“Shouldn’t you guys be sleeping?”
“We’ll sleep once we catch Bradshaw and Alex.”
“You’ll be no condition to fight if you don’t get rest.”
“Wait, Willis, go back. What’s that?”
“Willis, that’s an awfully weak signal.”
“May be, but it’s a place to start looking,” Meerlix answered.
They arrive to the location of Alex and Bradshaw, which was in a forest just outside a small village in Ireland, awhile later. The two step out from behind the trees as their friends show up.
Bradshaw appears in his human form for a short time as Alex pulls tighter on his right glove.
“How predictable; the first sign of my whereabouts and you coming running like wolves to fresh meat that just walked into their den.”
“We’re gonna have to bring you guys in.”
“One way or another, right Max?” Alex answered.
“Right.”
“Well, I hate to disappoint you, but seeing as you didn’t find me; things are going to go down a bit differently.”
“What are you talking about?”
“We let you find our signal.”
“It’s a trap, guy. Stay alert.”
“If it were a trap, we wouldn’t be standing around talking, now would we?”
“Enough of this; let’s get’em.”
They split off into teams of three to take on Alex and Bradshaw. Phoebe, Willis, and Meerlix took Alex; Max, Caitlin, and Starla took Bradshaw.
Max takes the first swing, which Bradshaw blocks as he slashes him across the chest. As he spirals out of the way, Caitlin passes by and lands a frontal kick, which Bradshaw stops with both hands before throwing back a left hook, which Caitlin evades.
Starla takes over as she slashes at Bradshaw with her weapons; he ducks left, right, and under all of her attack and then grabs her by the wrist as he uses her as a human shield against Caitlin, who summons her weapons. Starla then breaks free of his grip and pushes him towards Max, who, with his pill bug armor on his right leg, performs a sweep; but instead of Bradshaw falling on his face, he performs a forward roll and stands back up. After facing Max, Caitlin, and Starla, he quickly shoots out his palm and bombards the trio with fireballs. After falling on their backs, they quickly get up.
Caitlin was the first to rush Bradshaw. She aims for the throat and her fan passes several centimeters from his Adam’s apple. She makes another pass and this time, Bradshaw takes a swipe at her wrist and makes her drop the weapon seconds before she strikes with the other one and gets a hit in.
Bradshaw then backhands her in the cheek and lets his guard down as Max flies in with a knee kick; his pill bug armor now moved from its previous position deals twice the damage as Bradshaw slides back a couple yards.
Max then rushes towards him; his weapon now crawls up his body to his left arm as he throws a punch, which Bradshaw stopped as he threw back an elbow strike that Max also blocked as he threw a kick to the shin; Bradshaw grips Max’s midsection and performs a body slam, then proceeds to mount and bombard him with one punch after another; Max bobs his head from left to right until Caitlin stepped in and knocked him off with her laser vision.
Starla then steps in, hitting him with several balls of light; one at a time, which she conjured in the palm of her hands.
Bradshaw flinches at each one until he counters them with fireballs.
“The old man is quite skilled; Alex isn’t bad either.”
“It’s not all about skill, my dears,” Seductra added.
Willis, Phoebe and Meerlix step back as Alex transforms into a panther and slashes wildly at them. Willis takes his weapon and attacks while still remaining cautious of Alex’s actions.
Meerlix comes in from the side. He performs a sideways roll and scratches Alex in the neck; making him change back.
Phoebe then rushes up to attack, but Alex grabs her by the wrists, throws her arms to the side and pushes her back with both hands.
Willis takes a slash at Alex and makes him spiral; at the same time, Meerlix converts his weapon to crossbow mode and takes a shot; a single laser beam makes it way from the open beak of his weapon and hits Alex in the chest.
As a last resort, Alex and Bradshaw reach for their guns. They fire at the ranger’s feet with a green laser instead of the usual light blue beam, which creates a circle all around them; lightning emits, which makes them writhe and twitch, and then finally disappear in a cloud of vapor.
“Hmm, not bad,” Seductra comments.
“I aim to please, gorgeous…”
“Flattery will get you everywhere, but… you’re too young for me; save your charm for my nieces, seeing as they like so much.”
“So… where do we go from here?” Bradshaw asked.
“Perhaps we should let the Spirit Falcon be our guide.” Cameron slipped the item on her fist like a glove; the Spirit falcon emitted a light blue aura in the shape of a falcon’s head, which screeched before showing the location they must go to. “We need to head north.”
“We gotta keep walking?”
“My feet are tired.”
“Oh, quit your bellyaching…” Seductra added before she took out a small handheld device, presses some buttons and she and the others were whisked away to the coordinates specified by the spirit falcon, which was a large quarry filled with gravel and rocks all around them. In every direction, the walls were several yards high. To the west of them, there was a large cave mouth.
“That’s where we need to go,” Seductra explained.
“Gimme a second, will you?” Alex whispered to Bradshaw. He took off somewhere where no one could see him and types in some type of Morse code on his communicator. Just when he finished up, Cameron came in and scared him.
“What are you up to?”
“Oh nothing; just had to use the restroom and once I finished, I got bored and started tapping this rhythm that was stuck in my head.”
Cameron looked at him all confused.
“C’mon, you’ve never done that before?”
“We’re getting ready to move on and I don’t want you getting left behind.”
“Why would you care? You got what you wanted. You could just leave us behind and take the treasure for yourself.”
“I couldn’t do that; I like you too much.”
Minutes later, after passing through the cave, they come to a grassy field surrounded by more walls, which were much shorter than where they once were; off in the distance was stone building next to a river; a watermill thing.
“I don’t get why that thing doesn’t just show us where it is instead of doing all this…”
“According to legend, the Spirit falcon only shows you parts of the journey and once you reach a certain location, the spirit will guide you personally.”
“Personally? Just what do you mean by…” but just before Cameron completed her sentence, the glove flew off her hand and changed into a light blue falcon spirit before taking off in a certain direction.
Just as it did, several shadows hovered overhead. As they hit the ground, it was revealed to be Alex and Bradshaw’s friends back from the dead.
“What is this? You didn’t destroy them?” Seductra yelled.
“You tricked us…”
“Now you know how it feels…”
The blue aura of the eagle takes the shape and color of an eagle as the glove around Seductra’s hand disintegrates before her eyes and takes off in the direction they were all going.
“Don’t lose that bird.”
Cameron and Christi take off running.
“You guys go; I’ll take care of her.”
“Are you sure, Alex?”
“They’re getting away. Just go.”
Bradshaw leaves with the others.
Alex stands with his sword at the ready as he and Seductra have a stare down and wait for the other to make the first move.
“You think this wise, boy? I feel as though you should’ve left with your friends.”
“Quit calling me boy. My name is Alex. Alex McLaren.”
“Alright then. At least I’ll know what to put on your tombstone, McLaren…”
Seductra aims for Alex’s head from the right, but he blocks and comes back at her from his left; she also blocks. They go back and forth like this for several seconds until Alex takes another swing and then Seductra duck and elbows him in the chest. Impressed by her skill, Alex looks at her; smiling as he pivots a couple feet to Seductra’s right and strikes again. He drives her backwards with an onslaught of slashes from the left and right, up and down; but she didn’t let that stop Seductra; as she approaches a cliff, she begins to put Alex on the defensive before she takes off running towards the old mossy building in the distance with Alex not too far behind. She jumps up on one of the walls and Alex does the same. Alex attacks high, Seductra blocks and also attacks high, Alex blocks and attacks her feet, but Seductra jumps over the blade. Once she lands, she wobbles left and right, trying to keep her balance. At the same time, Alex points the tip of his blade at her neck. Seductra swats it away with her blade and Alex swiftly swings back around at her; she ducks and dodges while spiraling backwards across the top of the wall until she finally gets a hold on herself and gets back on the offensive.
Alex suddenly loses his balance and falls through the wooden roof into a dark room now brightened up by the newly made skylight; Seductra drops in next to him.
Alex pushes himself up by his hands cracks his neck and his back to loosen his stiff joints, picks up his sword and continues on.
Seductra gestures him to make the next move and he does; instead of attacking head-on, he takes cover behind a pillar and lets Seductra come to him. They stand back to back and alternate between the left and right as they break cover and take a shot each other. On the next strike, Seductra blocks and pushes Alex back with a frontal kick, then turns to the door on her right, cuts the lock and barges through. In this room, Alex manages to set the entire lower level on fire as he accidentally knocks over an old lantern when he was reaching for Seductra with his sword converted to its secondary mode; sparks flew from it as it broke upon impact and set the oil that was inside ablaze. Despite this, they still fought until the smoke filled the place from top to bottom and then went bursting out of one of the windows at the top. Alex went first and landed on his feet; Seductra was the next to jump and she landed in Alex’s arms.
“Not even gonna thank me?” Alex asked.
Seductra showed her appreciation in the form of a punch to the face. Alex immediately drops her and she rolls away from him. He takes in his hand four ninja stars and proceeds to throw them; Seductra rolls away from them and back towards the wall. With her back pressed against it, she looks at Alex, wondering what he’ll do next; he throws the fourth one a little higher and knocks down a huge wooden sign from above; Seductra leaps to safety, picks up her sword and gets to her feet.
Meanwhile, Max and the others follow closely behind Cameron and Christi, who were following the Spirit falcon that flew high above them as they raced across the field.
“Cameron…” Christi said, tapping her sister’s shoulder and pointing to the rangers behind them.
“Persistent lil cockroaches they are; you follow the bird, I’ll try and slow them down.”
After she took off, Cameron stands before the rangers, holding the brown bag Seductra had given her. She takes a handful of the pink and white rocks and tosses them into the air. as they hit the ground, they take a pink and white humanoid form with a triangular shaped dome, which looked like an upside-down “W”; some of them had Bo staffs in their hands while others had swords.
“What are these things?” Starla asked.
“They’re called Putras. They only know one thing; and that is to fight. Destroy them!”
Several minutes later, after the rangers dispose of the Putras, the Falcon Spirit returns with a piece of parchment and drops it to the ground in between the two factions.
Everyone stopped and stared for a moment before they scrambled towards it. In the end, Cameron and Christi are victorious as they now hold the parchment, “Snooze you lose, rangers.” Cameron said with an evil laugh while Christi blew a kiss at Willis. Once she was done, Cameron elbows her sister, throws down a smoke pellet and they make their escape before it clears.
Miles away from our heroes, Cameron and Christi rest at a large rock and examine the parchment they got.
“What do you make of it, Cameron?”
“Dear sister, I’m just as stumped as you are. But I can tell you one thing: when we decipher it, the treasure will be worth it in the end…”
Meanwhile, Alex and Seductra continue their fight; Alex, with weapon still in the secondary mode, attacks high and then low; Seductra ducks and rolls towards Alex, who by then changes it weapon back to sword mode, and blocks as Seductra takes a swing at him from the right. he then pushes her back and deals a couple slashes to the chest; as she falls to her knees, she strikes back at Alex’s shins; he quickly leaps over her sword with a back flip, reaches for his gun and delivers the final strike before he lands, turns around, and puts his weapon back in its holster.
Back at the mansion, Max and the others stand around the command center, listening to Samuel, Bradshaw, and Alex as they explain the situation.
“So Alex and Bradshaw never really went rogue…”
“No, they came to me and set all this up; that experimental drug that causes Bradshaw to mutate could be reversed with a specialized antidote my team of scientists came up with along with that said drug.”
“Okay, I understand Alex wanting to be a part of this, but why Bradshaw as well?”
“In case of an event in which Alex would’ve been compromised before you guys could assist, Bradshaw would be there as backup.”
“In my day, I was a champion Muay Thai fighter in the MMA,” Bradshaw explained. “I retired at a young age before I could even be defeated.”
“Wow, that’s something I never knew about you.”
“Because you’ve never asked, Miss Dallas,” Bradshaw replied.
“One thing I don’t get is how did you know it was Cameron and Christi, who stole falcon spirit?”
“Well, if it were anyone else, you’d surely see a monster walking the streets.”
“Brilliant deduction, Dad.”
“Thank you, Willis.”  

[Samuel Grant]

Chapter 19
Lover’s quarrel

It was a sunny day in March; it had just stopped raining, the clouds had vanished, and the wind had stopped; giving the sun the opportunity to warm things up, dry up the rain.
Caitlin was coming in from the backyard moments later, completely ignoring the fact that Phoebe was present with a mop and bucket as she swabbed the linoleum floors in the kitchen.
“You.” Phoebe’s voice dripped with hatred, as she looked Caitlin in the eyes with a stabbing glare. She merely raised an eyebrow as she stopped dead in her tracks, and gave a confused grin, like she had just borrowed something from her without asking permission.
“What’d I do?” she asked.
“Do you know how long it took me to mop this floor? And now you’re tracking in mud.”
“I’m sorry. I’ll clean it up.”
“Seriously; now you’re willing to clean up after yourself after I confront you like this?”
“What is your problem?”
“My problem is Max and I have been cleaning up after you for the past several weeks without even so much as a thank you or an offer to give us a hand.”
“Can we not do this right now?”
Out of nowhere, Phoebe presses her hand around against her chest in a move that was meant to show how serious she was, “You need to start contributing.”
The two begin to fight with the mop; pushing it back at each other until Phoebe finally won.
“You wanna talk about contributing? How about you stop hogging all the hot water in the shower like you do every morning! What, are you part mermaid or something?”
“Well, at least I don’t drink all the milk and expect someone else to go out and buy more.”
“Okay, ladies, what is going on? we can hear all the way in the other room.”
“Ask your girlfriend, she’s the one all up in my face.”
“It’s because she’s a slob with no respect or consideration for other people and how hard they work to clean up behind them.”
“She does have a point, Caitlin. You could’ve at least helped out instead of sitting on the couch or lounging out in the pool or hot tub all the time.”
“I agree with Max,” Alex replied.
“I can’t believe this; everybody just gang up on Caitlin, shall we?” she said with sarcasm before leaving.
“You know what, I’m not in the mood anymore. You take care of this.” Phoebe places the mop in Max’s hands and goes the opposite direction of Caitlin.
Meanwhile, at the UC Berkeley campus; Serpitox continues to use his status as a science teacher to gain the materials he needs. He assumes his human form once again as he teaches a class in the temporary facilities being used until the lab is rebuilt; completely unaware of things going on back at his lair.
Pachytar and Fahl Kun continue to rest as they await further instructions from Serpitox him while the shadow rangers, in human form, stand around in the other room, watching a couple of their own pace back and forth impatiently.
“You’re working on my nerves,” the brown shadow ranger said to the orange one.
“I just don’t understand what the master is waiting for? If we destroy the rangers now, we’ll…”
“If he were here to listen to you question his orders, he’d probably destroy you instead,” the black shadow ranger answered.
“He’s right. We should wait.”
“I am SICK of all this waiting!” the orange shadow ranger shouts before she storms off.
“Wait!” the brown ranger takes off after her.
“What do you want?”
“I may have a plan to destroy the rangers, but this must keep between you and me. No one else can know.”
“You seemed so hell-bent on following Serpitox’s orders. What’s changed?”
“Never mind what’s change; do you want in on this or not?”
“Sure whatever…”
Back at the mansion, tensions remain high between Caitlin and Phoebe; but Willis steps in with a brilliant idea. He waits for everyone, which includes Phoebe and Caitlin, in the living room as he stands next to a drawing board with what seemed to be a blank slate at first, but as soon as Caitlin sits down next to Starla, Willis begins.
“A roster? That’s your plan?”
“Yeah. There’s seven of us, seven days of the week. This could work. I’ll get Mondays, Alex gets Tuesdays, Phoebe gets Wednesdays, Meerlix Thursdays, Caitlin Fridays, Max Saturdays, and Starla gets Sundays.”
“What should happen if one of misses doing chores on that day and doesn’t have an excuse?”
“You know, Friday’s aren’t good for me.”
“Me neither. Can we switch?”
“Well then, Caitlin gets Mondays, Phoebe gets Tuesdays, Alex gets Wednesdays, and I’ll do Fridays”
“Why do I get Tuesday? Today’s a Tuesday! That’s not fair.”
“Alright then, Caitlin does the work for today and next week, we can discuss rosters.”
“Me?”
“Yes you; Phoebe’s right, Caitlin, you seriously need to pull your weight.”
“Lately, you’ve been acting like you’re a princess and this is your castle.”
“Damnit, Alex, since when is this all about me? You’re my boyfriend. You should be on my side.”
“Not when everyone else is right.”
“Sorry to interrupt, but this is urgent.”
“What is it, Bradshaw?”
“The Brown shadow ranger has been spotted in the city.”
“We’ll continue this later,” Willis explained to Caitlin and Phoebe.
When arriving in the city, the brown shadow ranger attacks before the rangers could even get off their motorcycles. She then stands before them with a dozen and half Cobra Drones behind her, ready to fight.
Phoebe took the lead and her friends soon followed. She fought her way through the crowd and over her counterpart, weapon in hand.
Max and the other stayed back and dealt with the cobra drones; Max blocks with his left and lands a couple kicks to the hip and gets pushed back with a left punch to the chest. Max attacks the Cobra with a frontal kick, but it grabs him by the leg and causes him to land a high kick to the jaw with the other leg. As it releases, Max falls on his back; pistol in hand, he shoots down the opponent in front of him, looks to his right about 45 degrees and shoots again.
Caitlin repeatedly punches her opponent in the stomach and then performs an uppercut. Seconds after, another cobra drone decks her in the jaw; she pulls a 360 and hits him with her laser vision; pushing the creature into a few of its own.
Starla grabs her enemy by the wrist, twists his arm until he bends forward, and then elbows him in the forearm, knees him in the chest, releases her grip and lands a spinning heel kick that flips him three times before he fell on his face. After he goes down, Starla is confronted by another cobra drone seconds later. He throws a right and Starla ducks. He throws a left and Starla blocks, kicks him in the shin and then in the chin, turns into light and shoots towards another enemy before the last one could even fall to the ground. Her next opponent comes at her with a right and she ducks, spirals and hits him with an elbow to the back of the neck.
Phoebe and her counterpart draw their weapons; her opponent had two while she still had her one mantis boomerang. The shadow ranger strikes from the right and Phoebe blocks; her opponent attacks with her left and she ducks, slashes her across the stomach and reaches for her gun as she rises up, but before she could fire, her opponent knocks it from her hand and pushes her back with a kick.
“I feel as though you’re holding back…”
“Oh, you’d know if I was holding back or not,” Phoebe answered before throwing her boomerang, which her counterpart blocked with both weapons before throwing both of hers in retaliation. The one on the left grazes her first; when the right one hits, it tears off a part of her shirt in the front.
The fight kept going on as the orange shadow ranger appears and watches from a distance; waiting for the right time to step in. The original plan was to capture Phoebe Dallas, but the Orange shadow ranger had other plans. More than anyone else, she watches her counterpart, Caitlin Rose; her moves, her speed, the way that once she brought out her weapon, the Peacock fan-blades, how she handled them with the gracefulness and skill of a master of Crane style.
Several minutes have passed and it was just the brown shadow ranger and the rangers. Meerlix fires an energy beam from his crossbow; the shadow ranger rolls out of the way. Once she gets on her feet, she strikes the ground with her left boomerang; sending a shockwave through the concrete and over to the rangers. It hits Starla first, then Alex, Willis, and finally Phoebe.
Max, who manages to evade it, races at the enemy with his right arm drawn back. After he approaches, the shadow ranger grabs his right arm with her right and slashes him repeatedly to the abdomen until he falls to the ground.
“Are you alright, Phoebe?”
“Get away from me,” she said, jerking her arm away from Caitlin as she angrily approaches her counterpart.
“Phoebe, wait!”
She strikes Phoebe down and then focuses on Caitlin as she comes running. Caitlin grips the shadow ranger’s shoulders as she pushes her back. After being pushed a few feet, she knees Caitlin in the stomach and throws her to the ground.
Meerlix shoots her with his crossbow to get her attention, then converts his weapon to its secondary mode and swipes at her from all directions.
Waiting long enough, the orange shadow ranger interferes. She goes for Caitlin as she points a finger at her and shoots a white light at her wrists, which wraps around and quickly turns into handcuffs.
“What are you doing? We agreed it would be her; the brown ranger.”
“That was always your plan; my plan was always to secure orange.” The orange shadow ranger grasps Caitlin’s shoulder and they both sink into the ground as if it turned to quicksand.
Phoebe dives straight for her as she had her hands above her head and tries to grab her, but it was too late.
“You’re mine…”
“I beg to differ!” Alex says just before he transforms into a Bear, gets up in the shadow ranger’s face and smacks her to the ground with a swipe from his left paw.
After she gets up, she is then confronted by Starla, who hits her with a ball of light, which explodes like a grenade once it hits her armor, “This isn’t over. I will be back for her!”
“Is everyone okay?”
“I’m fine,” Meerlix answered.
“Nothing broken,” Starla said.
“What about Phoebe?”
Max rushes to Phoebe’s side, “You had no idea this would happen. Don’t blame yourself. C’mon, let’s get back to the command center.”
“What about Caitlin?”
“There’s nothing more we can do for her here.”
Both the orange and brown shadow ranger escorts Caitlin to an abandoned basement of some giant office building where they keep her prisoner. The orange shadow ranger slams her into a wall just as the brown shadow ranger comes in.
“What’s the big idea…”
“Like I said, it was my plan; I get to decide which ranger we take first.”
“I’m not mad about that. I’m upset over the fact that you’re out to steal their powers for yourself. We’re in this together, don’t get selfish.”
“Hey, it’s every shadow ranger for his or herself. You want a ranger? Go out and get one yourself.”
“You backstabbing, two-timing little…”
Orange Shadow ranger gasped, not out of the immediate pain, but in surprise as her former ally strikes her in the back. She turned on the Brown shadow ranger, one of her fans in hand and in a flash it was kicked her hand. Orange Shadow ranger flinched as she dramatically moved her hand to strike her former comrade with a karate chop. But yet again with perfect precision, the Brown shadow ranger stopped her.
In all of the chaos, Caitlin manages to escape with her life.
“She’s getting away!” the orange and brown shadow ranger wrestle with each other as they try to follow Caitlin up the stair and out of the room. After they emerge from the basement to an empty lobby, they split up and look around for any sign of Caitlin.
Caitlin did her best to hide from them. Whenever they got close to her position or were about you, she’d jump to the next hiding spot while their backs were turned. While hiding, she tries to break her shackles, but her laser vision had no effect; each time she tried to burn it off, the beams would absorb into the blinking yellow area in the center; same went for her laser weapon.
The brown shadow ranger finally uncovers her hiding spot, “You have nowhere left to run, your friends cannot find you, and with those shackles on, you have no hope of defeating us; so quit your running.”
“Not so fast!”
With the sound of the orange shadow ranger’s voice, the brown ranger then picks Caitlin up and grips her neck from behind as she presented her like a human shield. “She’ll be no use to either of us dead; let’s renegotiate our deal.”
“Never going to happen.” With the firing of a yellow jolt of lightning from her fingertips, she accidentally breaks the shackles binding Caitlin and gives her a fighting chance.
“Thanks for that…” Caitlin grips the brown shadow ranger’s neck and flips her before kicking her over to her ally. “If it’s all the same to you, I think I’ll keep my powers for now.”
“Go ahead and resist; will my make victory all the more sweeter.”
“She’s mine, you know.”
“I told you to go get your own.”
The brown shadow ranger lunges at the orange one with her twin boomerangs. The shock of the parry made the orange shadow ranger pause momentarily, which was enough time for her to initiate the next strike. The Orange shadow ranger gasped with the pain, but reprimanded herself and puller her enemy’s weapon away. Over and over she attacked the brown ranger with the same punch and kick combo before she finished off with a slash from her fans to her enemy’s chest. She could tell she was losing energy, but of course the brown ranger, who seemed godlike in strength, never seemed to get tired. Only once did she make a mistake, only once did she miss a moment of perfection. The orange ranger saw the chance, and lunged at her heart while she was off balance. It should have been the final blow, it should have killed her. Yet, in a blindingly fast flash, the brown ranger ducked to the side sending the orange ranger stumbling with her own force. She grabbed the orange ranger’s hand, catching her off guard, and in one swift deadly movement, strikes hard and fast to the heart, knocking her out of the window of the lobby and into the street.
“That takes care of her; now for you, my dear…” within an instant after turning around, the brown ranger was bombarded with a laser blast and gets knocked out of the window as well.
By that time, Max and the others showed up. This gave the orange shadow ranger incentive to retreat.
“Caitlin, are you alright?”
“I am now that you’re here.”
“Look, I’m sorry about before. Can we be friends again?”
“Ladies, can we discuss this later please?”
“Alex is right…”
“Let’s finish this together, Phoebe.”
“Alright.”
Brown Shadow Ranger races up and Caitlin uses her laser vision to cut him down; Brown Shadow Ranger slides right under the beam and trips her with his right arm; Caitlin catches herself and rolls forward; she turns around moments later as Brown Shadow Ranger flies towards her, right out straight out as she delivers a punch to her jaw. Caitlin rolls over onto her back and as Brown Shadow Ranger strikes her again, she performs a backward roll and gets onto her feet; Brown Shadow Ranger then throws a frontal kick, which Caitlin blocks with her hands. As Brown Shadow Ranger lowers her leg, Caitlin lunges forward with a right hook and makes Brown Shadow Ranger stumble back. She then leaps at her with a flying knee; Brown Shadow Ranger falls on his butt and slides a few feet before he performs a Kip-up.
Phoebe rushes up and throws an uppercut from her left; Brown Shadow Ranger dodges and takes a right swing; Phoebe ducks and goes for an inside leg kick; Brown Shadow Ranger flinches and Caitlin hits her with a hard right to the jaw and a frontal kick to the stomach; Brown Shadow Ranger grabs her by the leg, spins her and kicks her in the back of the knee, causing her to kneel. Once she was all the way down on one knee, she wraps his arms around her neck; Caitlin grabs her wrist, pulls her forward, flips her over, and then gives a swift kick to ribs and sends her sliding towards the middle of the road.
She gets back to her feet as Phoebe approaches from out of nowhere and blocks her attack
Caitlin takes her place at Phoebe’s side and swats the brown shadow ranger’s arm away; giving Phoebe an open opportunity to attack. Brown Shadow Ranger proceeds to grab Phoebe with her other hand and Caitlin grabs her wrist and clenches tightly; stopping her hand just inches from her neck. Several seconds later, she lets go, pushes her back and Phoebe proceeds to do a jump kick to face; electric sparks emit from the shadow ranger’s face after the kick, showing Phoebe and Caitlin that they were weakening her.
“Care to do the honors?” Phoebe asked.
“No no. you do it.”
“No, I insist.”
After Caitlin calls the WASP stinger Mark II, she gets into the cockpit and she locks onto target. Both barrels light up with a light blue energy as the machine charges up to 100%. Both barrels simultaneously fire their energy beams. Once they ceased, the brown shadow ranger fell swiftly; out of the cloud of smoke and flames she left behind, a purple aura rises and slowly fades in midair.
Once back at the lair, Serpitox was furious to have heard his shadow rangers disobeyed his orders and struck out on their own.
“I hope this most recent failure by your fellow teammate will teach you why it is important to stick by more instructions to the letter.”
“I’m sorry, master, it’s just that…”
“Silence, Shadow ranger orange!”
“Sorry…”
“You will do wise to remember who’s in charge here; because the next time any of you get the inkling to disobey me, you needn’t concern yourselves with what the rangers will do. Because I will destroy you myself and take back the life force I gave you. Is that clear?”
“Yes sir!”
“Now get out of my sight.”
As for the rangers; the moment they returned home, Caitlin gets straight to the household chores. She starts with the dining room; dusting the tables, polishing the chairs, and then moves onto the kitchen. Halfway through, Phoebe passes by with an empty glass she had drunk milk from. “Need a hand?” she asked. “I figured you could use one; seeing as Tuesday was originally going to be my day.”
“You don’t have to do this.”
“I want to…” Phoebe sets the glass on the counter by the sink and puts on rubber gloves, so she can do the dishes.  

[Samuel Grant]

Chapter 20
Project Runway

Chapter 20
Project Runway
Once again, the Hearst Gym at UC Berkeley plays host to another event; this time it was a charity fashion show. All of the proceeds go to helping speed up the process of rebuilding the lab building that Serpitox had pilfered from the lot.
The music plays and each of the participants in the fashion show struts their stuff as they walk up and down the runway showing off their one of a kind designs for how big of a crowd they were expecting for tonight’s showing.
While they all rehearsed, Starla was in the back dressing room along with Phoebe and Caitlin, who were helping her into her outfit.
Starla was modeling a white, strapless wedding dress with white roses. She had her hair tied in a bun with a white ribbon as she stood there with Willis down at her feet with a needle and thread and a tape measure for measuring waist sizes draped over his shoulders.
“Why… did I ever let you guys talk me into doing this?” She flinches when the needle almost penetrates her skin.
“Oh, c’mon, Starla. It’s for charity.” Willis answered.
“I don’t even know anything about your planet’s sense of fashion.”
“Well, I ain’t exactly the Heidi Klum of the fashion world myself, so you can’t expect me to get up stage now can we?” Phoebe replied.
“I dunno; if any one of these girls gets sick, you might need to.” Caitlin said to Phoebe.
“I don’t even know much about this world’s latest fashion trends.”
“How come?” Caitlin asked Starla. “What’s it like with the fashion trends on your planet?
“We feel that we shouldn’t tell our people what to wear in order to fit in; clothing is just something to wear.”
“Well here on earth, clothing means everything to some people; it’s like art you can wear on your body. Junior high to high school, fashion is one of the things that female students pride themselves on the same way they do with schoolwork, which to me seems like a waste of time really.”
“What exactly are the other things they pride themselves on?”
Caitlin looks over at one of the participants; an energetic blue-eyed woman with her silky, curly, white hair is worn in a style that reminds you of a complex device. She is very tall and has a curvy build. Her skin is light-colored. She has bushy eyebrows and a strong chin. Her wardrobe is flattering. She was looking at herself in a handheld mirror, making kissy faces. “Their beauty; without it, they look at themselves as being worthless.
“Jessa?” Caitlin called, getting no response at first as she picked up a can of hairspray. “Jessa!” she shouted again, this time getting her attention. “Don’t you think that’s enough spray?”
“Sorry…” Jessa answered.
“Please be considerate of others around you; most of the people here have severe hay fever and can’t take it,” Samuel addresses everyone in the room.
Seconds later up in his spaceship orbiting the earth, Ling Khan is looking down on the very girl Caitlin was speaking too and came up with an idea for another monster to keep his enemies busy due to his adopted daughter’s incessant rambling on and on about humans and their obsession with beauty.
“I know just the monster for the job, my dear Sapphira,” Ling Khan said with a smile as if this was his best plan yet. “You remember the blank canvas warrior, who can make his victims see themselves in a whole new way through their own reflections?”
“You mean Sinistare?” Sapphira answered Ling Khan.
“Yes, the one and only; I think it’s about time he rears his ugly head, don’t you?”
Moments later back at UC Berkeley Campus; after getting out of the dresses they were meant to model and putting on their regular clothes, Caitlin, Starla, Phoebe and a few other girls duck out to get drinks. When they came back a few minutes later, they find the director of the fashion show in a bit of a crisis situation.
“What happened, what’s going on?”
This man puts you in mind of a busy bee. He has deep-set brown eyes that are like two acorns. His silky, wavy, charcoal-colored hair is medium-length and is worn in an exotic style. He is very short and has a slender build. His skin is dark. He has a low forehead and wide feet. His wardrobe is professional. “A couple of the models had to pull out; one of them had… I dunno, an allergic reaction; her face had red splotches on it and couldn’t stop sneezing. One of the male model’s skin started swelling up like a balloon.”
“Allergic reaction, huh…?” Caitlin raised an eyebrow and strokes her chin like a detective who’s just about solved the case.
“I’ve called in a doctor to have a look at them, but let’s not go accusing anyone until we know for sure; that means you, Caitlin. As of right now, we got more important matters to discuss. Like who are going to get to replace them if their conditions don’t improve?” Samuel explained.
“I know just the guy…”
Seconds later after confronting Max and Willis with the idea, the two immediately said no without giving the ladies time to explain in further detail.
“Please, Max? For me?” Phoebe said with puppy dog eyes.
“That may work sometimes, but not now.”
“What about you, Willis?” Starla asked.
“I don’t do fashion.” He said slowly.
“Why not?” she asked.
“It always seemed like it was for girls more than guys,” Max answered in place of Willis.
“A girl thing? What do you think this is the 90’s? There are tons of guys in Fashion today,” Alex intervened.
“Well why don’t you do it instead of one of us, Alex?”
“I’m not the modeling type. Trust me.”
“Please, Willis? If not for me, do it because it’s for a good cause.”
“Oh alright fine, I’ll do it.”
“Great, now that’s leaves just one spot open…” Starla, Phoebe, and the others all look at Caitlin.
“Uh-uh, no way.”
“C’mon, Caitlin…”
“It’s for a good cause, remember…” Willis mocked Caitlin’s exact words.
After talking them into it, the two join the rest of the models in the dressing rooms.
While trying on the clothing they were going to model on the runway, they noticed something peculiar about the other models.
To Caitlin and the others who were looking at them, they seemed fine, but to the women, what they saw in their own reflection seemed to be quite the opposite.
A brown skin, Indian woman with a tall, wasp-waisted build and eyes the color of the evening sky looks at her luxurious, straight, ivory hair, which worn in a style that reminds you of a crown. In her reflection, it looked as though she had a single strand of gray hair coming down the side of her head, which began to multiply like rabbits.
A similar incident also happened in the men’s dressing room. A Caucasian male; Swedish, with short blonde hair, narrow beige eyes, and broad shoulders looks into the mirror and notices his reflection losing muscle mass like a balloon slowly deflating in the sun. He looked away from the mirror and towards his own arms and what he had saw in the mirror, his mind tricked him into believing.
“Probably just pre-show jitters making them see things.”
“Hey, Kevin, you okay over there?”
Kevin was African American with eyes the color of amethysts and a medium boyish build. He had His thick, curly, black hair. “Okay? Do I look okay to you? My skin is breaking out in hives, man; maybe it’s this new cream I’m using.”
Max comes in from the stage area moves closer to him, “I don’t see any hives, Kevin.”
Kevin rolls up his sleeves, “Oh no, it’s starting to spread.” He panics and gets up from the mirror.
“So it’s not just the girls that are going hysterical; it’s the men as well.”
“The others have looked at themselves in the mirror and saw something about themselves no one else could see as well?”
“This seems like your average case of stage fright, but I’ve never seen it happen to everyone at the same time before…”
“Let me check in with the others back at home and see if they can shed some light on the subject,” Caitlin and Starla leave the auditorium and use their communicators to contact Samuel at the command center.
“Yes, I know. It’s happening in other places across the globe as well; not just in fashion but in sports as well; reports of star players freaking out after looking at themselves in the mirror; celebrities, who were due for commercial shoots, canceling appearances. All of them looked at their reflections in the mirror.”
“Somehow, I think one of our nemeses is involved.”
“Yes, but who?”
“Sounds like the work of a monster from Ling Khan’s army known as Sinistare,” Starla answered. “He was an all-black demonic figure with light blue lines running up and down his body in waves like when you throw a stone into a pond and you get ripples. He had short, curvy horns, which went in a lowercase “R” shape towards the back of his head. His power was that he casts spells on one’s reflection and makes them see something that really isn’t there; imperfections in the skin, hair; whatever his victim fears the most. To some, he hides in a mirror or any reflective surface, easily undetectable until he wants to be seen.”
“So how do we fight something we can hardly see?”
“Well, if he leaves an energy signature, MEGAN can easily sniff it out,” Samuel explains.
“Beginning short range scan now,” MEGAN replied. “Target approximately 200 meters northwest of current position.”
“Hearst Greek Theatre.” Caitlin and Starla take off towards the building while alerting the others of where they’re going.
“Target is on the move; I advise using your mobile tracking devices to pinpoint target’s location.” MEGAN answered.
Starla and Caitlin split up and check each room via windows until coming up on the stage area.
“Target located up ahead,” Caitlin told Starla as she looked towards the stage and back at her locator.
Starla used her power over light to shine a beam down at the mirror and towards the unsuspecting victim looking into it. As the light continued to blind him, the monster standing behind him suddenly became visible to everyone in the seats.
The monster’s skin was that of a light-blue color with red stripes running across his face seeming to follow the shape of the red dot in the center above demonic white eyes. His wardrobe of choice being an anime-styled white jacket which came down the length of his legs in an “A” shape, a red and black pair of pants, which resembled the clothing seen on a joker in a deck of playing cards.
As the light dimmed, the boy on stage fled with the others at the sight of the terrifying beast.
Max, Willis, Alex, and Meerlix joined the two in a matter of minutes, “Whoa, what is that thing,” Willis asked, putting emphasis on ‘that’.
“I am Sinistare,” it announced before entering some witty banter and then attacking. He attacks with a cross chop from the right, which Caitlin blocked while Alex struck back with a low punch to the abdominal area.
Sinistare took a step back and lunged forward with a low backhand from his left, pushing Max back. Then Sinistare takes a swipe at Caitlin as she approached and knocked on her back.
Phoebe attacked with a spinning back kick, which Sinistare blocked and used to knock Starla down.
Meerlix jumped over Starla and attacked Sinistare with a fury of swipes like an angry cat.
Sinistare stumbles back towards the mirror and rotates it towards Meerlix, who immediately looks into it and doesn’t like what he sees. Sinistare took advantage of that moment and struck him down.
Caitlin focuses her attack and fires a laser beam from her eyes towards the mirror, which reflected it towards Sinistare and knocked him off the stage. She then approaches Meerlix, who was cringing in front of his own reflection, “Meerlix, are you alright?”
“No… I’m not alright; I’m bald. He said, looking down at his hands, which to him looked as if they had no fur at all on them.
“It’s just one of his tricks, Meerlix. It’s not real.”
Meerlix refused to believe it as he pushed Caitlin away.
“You’ll pay for that,” Caitlin said furiously as she summoned her weapon.
“Uh… how about I just give you an IOU; see ya later…” Sinistare disappears into the mirror.
“Is Meerlix going to be alright?” Phoebe asked.
“As long as we keep him from seeing his own reflection; further gazing may worsen the effects of Sinistare’s spell,” Starla explained.
“And what do we do about Sinistare himself?”
“To reverse the spell temporarily, you need to make the victim feel better about his or herself. But to permanently lift the spell, Sinistare must be destroyed.”
“Hard to do that, seeing as we can hardly find him…”
“And if we manage to find him, the more difficult task is keeping a lock on his signal long enough to catch him.”
“Right you are, Willis. What we need is bait.”
“Wait, why are you all looking at me?” Phoebe asked. It had soon become clear to her what their motive was. “No way, I’m not doing it.”
No matter how much she objected, it didn’t do any good as a half hour later, we see her sitting in front of a vanity mirror in a green dress, which went halfway down her thighs. She sat there fixing her hair and makeup as if nothing was wrong while the others lie in wait for their plan to spring into action.
“Shouldn’t he have been here by now?” Alex asked.
“I dunno…” Starla answered.
As Starla, Max, Willis, Caitlin and Alex stood waiting, they were unaware of their opponents lurking behind them until it was too late. Ling Khan’s soldiers pounced without warning, leaving Phoebe vulnerable.
Sinistare’s reflection appears in the mirror at the bottom right-hand corner and begins to work his magic on Phoebe while the others had their hands full with a small army of Konglatons.
They brawled, scrapped, and fought for minutes all the while Sinistare worked on making Phoebe’s reflection look horrible enough to make her feel self-conscious about her body and unable to assist her friends in battle.
Starla looked up at Phoebe as her eyes were still glued to the mirror, “It’s a trap; he’s knew we were waiting and he set us up.” She motions herself over to Phoebe, turns into light and shoots herself into the looking glass, where she takes the fight to Sinistare as they bounce all around and end up in random locations inside a mirrored world.
Once Starla and Sinistare vanished, so did the Konglatons, leaving our heroes confused.
“What was that all about?”
“I’m not sure; where’d Starla go?”
Sometime later on a random beach, Starla and Sinistare shoot straight out of a small puddle near the shore and tumble to the ground several inches apart.
Sinistare comes to a few seconds later, approaches Starla and checks to see if she’s still alive before picking her up by the collar; Starla retaliated with a punch to the stomach causing him to release her. Then she attacks with a left cross and misses. She tries with her right leg and Sinistare grabs her by it and swings her around and towards a couple lying on a towel.
Starla lands right in the middle of the two and immediately springs to her feet once Sinistare leaps at her; the couple gets out of the way and lets them get on with their fight.
Sinistare throws a couple punches, which Starla blocks with her arms up. At the same time, she strikes back with a shin kick and then an elbow strike to the face.
“All these years and you still some fight in you, huh Starla?”
She didn’t answer; she just stood there persuading him to come forward with a hand gesture.
Sinistare answers back in the same way.
They both rush at each other; Sinistare strikes with a left, but Starla quickly leans back. Sinistare attacks again and this time, Starla spirals and hits him with a Capoeira style kick to the chest and knocks him on his back.
“In a fair fight, you’d obviously beat me; but that’s not how I roll.” Just as he said that, Ling Khan sends down a couple dozen Konglatons to assist. They attack while Sinistare stands back and watches.
Starla takes out the first one with a fan-kick, then strikes another a pam thrust to the chest; the one lying on the ground behind her gets up and the Konglaton in front of her kicks her into its arms. As the one in front of her approaches, Starla lifts her legs and smacks the Konglaton in the ears before breaking free of the one behind her, spiraling and shooting her arms out to the sides where she shot burst of white light from her palms, which knocked them both down.
The rest of the Konglatons stormed her and she did her best to keep them off of her until her friends arrived.
“Need any help?” Willis asked.
Starla, who was still fighting them off, answers with a reassuring tone, “What took you guys so long?”
“Sinistare’s trying to get away!”
He was heading back towards the puddle to make his escape, but Caitlin beat him to it by using her laser vision to evaporate the small body of water.
Caitlin and Starla go after him. They double team him and get the better of him up until Ling Khan drops in and intervenes.
“I thought I’d even the odds…” he retorted.
“Aww him again?” Caitlin said sarcastically.
“I’ll handle bad girl; you tackle Starla.”
“Yes, Sir...”
Ling Khan swings with is left foot and missed as Caitlin drops to the ground on her back. As he attempted to perform a curb-stomp, she rolls out of the way and onto her feet again from where she performs her laser vision move.
Ling Khan holds up his arms and deflects the attack before swinging with a right backhand.
Caitlin blocks and throws back a low punch to the gut, which Ling Khan blocks before twisting her arm around her back.
Caitlin uses her free arm to perform a back elbow, which Ling Khan also blocks. Caitlin then hops, quickly drops to the ground and flips Ling over her head and face first into the sand. As she moved in to attack him, Ling tosses her over him and onto her back in the sand.
During the fight between Starla and Sinistare, Sinistare strikes with a back fist to the face, which Starla evades before throwing a low chop to the chest; Sinistare counters with a kick to the stomach.
Starla reacts by cringing but then immediately retaliates.
Back to Ling Khan and Caitlin; Ling Khan leaps at her with karate chop, but Caitlin intercepts with her laser vision and knocks him on his back.
Ling quickly gets to his feet and rushes at her like a rampaging rhino.
Caitlin spirals, crouches and performs a sweep, which Ling rolls right over before spiraling and hitting her with a kick to the face, making her spiral to the ground.
During the fight between Max and the others and the Konglatons, Willis uses his super speed and knocks some of them on their behinds like a bowling ball to a set of pins; Alex turns into a wildebeest and tackles some of them before turning into a gorilla and fighting them on their own level.
Max and Willis regroup; Max takes his brother by the arms and spins him around so he kicks them down one at a time before tossing him into the air where he pulls out his laser weapon and fires a couple shots each into their chests.
Back to Starla and Sinistare, Sinistare attacks with various combinations of attacks, but Starla blocks them all, quickly draws back her left hand and strikes with a palm thrust; during the attack, she shoots straight through him like an arrow made of light and comes out the other side.
Sinistare falls to his knees and goes up in smoke.
“Lights out for you…”
Seconds after he was destroyed, everyone else who was under his spell returned to normal ad Starla had explained.
“The battle may have been won, but I will return.” Ling Khan vanishes.
Once the fashion show started, everyone was as ready as ever; the crowd all lined up to see the various outfits they would all be modeling. Each of the models came out two at a time showing off the designs they wore; our heroes were close to the last ones to show what they had.
“You know, I really gotta hand it to ya, this is quite a turnout.”
“It was all on Starla; if not for her, Sinistare’s spell would still be in effect. But next time, I’d prefer not to be the bait.”
“Might I add that you looked great in that green dress…?”
“It would’ve looked better on Caitlin than me,” she complained.  

[Samuel Grant]

Chapter 21
Ghost in the Machine

The sun had just set when Max, Phoebe, Willis, and Starla exit the theater after seeing a ‘romantic chick flick’ Max said, putting it mildly. The four were arguing most of the way as they headed for the parking garage where they had put their motorcycles; Willis was on the girl’s side of the argument.
“Well thanks for being on my side, brother…” Max said sarcastically.
As they walked and talked, they were unaware of the presence of a set of red eyes watching them from a distance, moving with them block after block like a lion stalking its prey in the Savannah waiting for the right time to pounce.
Starla heard the sound of an engine purring. But when she turned around, she saw only the cars that were parked out of the local businesses.
“You alright, Starla?” Willis asked with minor concern.
“I thought I heard something; probably just the wind.”
Several minutes later, upon entering the parking garage, a black Mustang GT model 2008 rushes at them on its way out; they quickly dive out of the way and the vehicle continued to speed off.
“What was that about? That guy nearly killed us.” Starla said.
“Maybe he was late for something.” Phoebe answered
“Still, that doesn’t give him an excuse to nearly run us over,” Willis replied.
Max, Phoebe, Starla, and Willis get on their motorcycles and casually exit the parking garage. They pass by a gray Mustang the same make and model as the black one that almost ran them down, which began to change colors like a chameleon; it’s color of choice: black. It pulls away from the curb and quietly pursues our heroes for a couple blocks before attempting to run them over once again.
“Man, what is with this guy?”
“I dunno, but I don’t wanna stick around long enough to find out.” Starla increases her speed; the rest soon follow after her as they attempt to outrun the crazed individual behind the wheel. They maneuver around every corner trying to elude him, but the driver kept up with them every step of the way.
“Whoever he is, he’s sure persistent…”
“Max, watch out!” Phoebe pointed to the car up ahead.
Max turns his attention forward, quickly slams the brakes, and maneuvers in between to get by while the others drive their bikes on the sidewalk, causing the pedestrians to react. “Sorry!” Starla shouted as she races down the walkway.
The driver of the Mustang came up on the same cars Max passed by, turns on his high-beams and passes straight through like a ghost. Max looks behind him, wondering how the guy could still be behind him. At the same time, the car’s headlights turn red just before it fired laser beams at the back of Max and missed.
“What the…?” Max couldn’t even finish his sentence, that’s how surprised he was.
The others wait until they arrive at a crosswalk before getting off the sidewalk.
A few more blocks later, a cop car stumbles upon our heroes being pursued by this unknown assailant and assumes they were having an illegal street race.
“About time the cops arrived,” Willis said.
“Maybe they can help us…”
The cop goes after the Black Mustang first, “This is the police, pull your vehicle over!”
The driver doesn’t comply, so the officer repeats the ultimatum once more before taking matters into his own hands. Both he and the racer were bumper to bumper down the street, the cop bashes into the side of the driver, who eventually bumps him back even harder.
Soon enough, more squad cars join; most of them tailing Max, Phoebe, Starla, and Willis.
“Pull over now!”
“Hey, we’re on your side; get that guy!” Willis shouted while pointing the unknown driver behind them.
“Something tells me they’re not here to take sides…” Starla answered.
“This is the police, stop your vehicles!”
Meanwhile in the back with the black Mustang, four cop cars move in for a PIT maneuver. As they surround him on all sides, the car turns on its high-beams and phases through the first car as it stops abruptly. Once out in front, the driver drops an oil slick and all the cars, except for one, spin out of control; one collided with a fire hydrant, another into a lamppost, and the third car into a parked car.
The cop car pursuing our heroes went alongside Max’s bike just as the black mustang approached; he unintentionally pushes him out of the way as the mustang switches on a pair of purple colored headlights and sucks the car up molecule by molecule like an alien spaceship with a tractor beam.
“Whoa, did you guys see that?”
“I saw it, just keep driving!”
The mustang fires it lasers at them as they swerve left and right to avoid it.
“Guys, head down the alleyway in front of us.”
Phoebe took the lead; Willis, Max, and Starla took up the rear.
The mustang veers right and passes through the shop; the cop that was pursuing him had no choice but to stop.
“1-baker-11, what’s your status, over?”
“I lost visual. Suspect went through a building.”
“I’m sorry, could you repeat that? Sounded like you said he went through the building.”
Even though our heroes had lost the police, the Black Mustang still maintained pursuit.
“Alright, this game of cat and mouse is getting boring; we gotta do something.”
“Like what? What do we do?”
Willis slows down a bit, quickly does a 360, pulls out his laser weapon and aims for the tires, causing the car to spin out.
During that time, our heroes saw that as an opportunity to make their escape.
Back at home moments later
“The driver was completely out of his mind; it first started as a near hit-and-run and then turns into a high speed chase out of some action movie.”
“Did you get a good look at its license plates?” Alex asked.
“Yeah, but what good would it do if the cops can’t even stop this maniac?”
“This guy’s car wasn’t an ordinary vehicle; it had weapons beyond anything our dad can construct,” Willis explained. “It had lasers…”
“It had the power to drive through walls…” Max finished Willis’ sentence.
“It even atomized one of the cops in pursuit with some weird purple headlights.”
“And it was a Black Mustang, you say?” Samuel asked.
“As dark as the night itself, why? Have you seen it?”
“No, but there’s been reports of a car with that description racing around most of Southern California.”
“There’s more than a hundred Black Mustangs in the state of California; most of them have the color black and some of the drivers like to race recklessly.”
“Did you get a good look at who the driver was; enough for a positive ID?”
“His windows were tinted, couldn’t see through.”
“Doesn’t narrow the search down enough, but eyewitnesses couldn’t ID the driver either, cuz the windows were also tinted.”
“How about license plates, there’s gotta be a traffic cam somewhere that got a glimpse of it.”
“I’ll look into it and see what I can find; in the meantime, you all get some rest.
Late at night, Caitlin tosses and turns in her bed; result of a nightmare. She was walking down the street alone and felt the presence of mysterious shadowy figure following behind her at a safe distance. Every time she turned to look behind her, she saw no one; every time she moved forward, the footsteps continued. She continued as if nothing was wrong until coming up on a corner, which she traversed around quickly in order to evade her perplexing pursuer. She continued for another two blocks, where she finds that her stalker has not lost sight of her. She turned again to find no one behind her, “I’m warning you! I know karate!” her words didn’t seem to have an impact. She turns and is greeted by an orange light; a part of it reaches out and lays a finger on her heart.
Caitlin immediately awakens in a cold sweat.
Meanwhile down in the command center.
“Any luck with the camera footage?” Samuel asked.
“Best I could get was the corner of Beverly Blvd and North Union Ave in Los Angeles, sir,” MEGAN replied.
“City of Angels; and there seems to be a devil among them…”
“Bringing the image up on screen now.”
“Is there any way to make the image more clearer?”
“Increasing sharpness by 65%.” Most of the image was still blurry, but the license plate was clear enough to make out some of the letters.
“Run the numbers through police database please, MEGAN?”
“They seem to be government plates, sir.”
“Marine corps, perhaps?” MEGAN asked.
“I’m thinking CIA; what possible use would the military have for a vehicle such as this?”
Meanwhile inside CIA headquarters the CIA direct, a sharp looking Caucasian male with beady eyes the color of obsidian. His luxurious, straight, jet black hair is worn in a style that reminds you of Frank Sinatra. He has a thin build. His skin is ruddy. He has high cheekbones. His wardrobe is businesslike, with a lot of blue and black; he was seen walking down the hall with another man standing right beside him.
“Sir, there’s been multiple missing persons reports in the Great Los Angeles area; most of which are related to a Black Mustang GT model 2008 that’s been running rampant throughout most of that area.
“Could just be random kidnappings, Johnson we’re the goddamn CIA, not hostage negotiations.”
“Sir, Eyewitnesses also report having noticed a flash of purple light and that same said car fleeing the area.”
“Oh.”
“Still think it’s just coincidence, sir?”
“It’s obvious why we’ve never got any demands from the thieves, who stole it; they were planning to use it.”
“What’s the plan of action?”
“Coordinate with National Guard and have them seal off the Los Angeles Area; I want that thing contained.”
“Bad idea, Director…” General Creed’s voice said in a low reassuring tone. “We need to keep this as quiet as possible. We don’t want the public getting wind of this; it’ll only end badly for us in the long-run.”
“What do you suggest then, General?”
“Get a hold of the press and feed some lie to put this thing on ice; meanwhile, I’ll coordinate with LAPD, and other departments to track this entity down.”
“Would that be a good idea? We already lost one cop to that thing earlier.”
“Who authorized this call?”
“Better one cop than the lives of millions, Grant.”
“So you’re just gonna sacrifice as many officers as it takes; cops with families, who worry about them everyday while they put their life on the line to protect us?”
“I’ll do what has to be done to contain the situation.”
“No, you’ll do whatever has to be done to make yourself look good.”
“Not everything is a popularity contest.”
“You’re right about that, Daniel; if this were a popularity contest, I’d have you beat.”
“General, who is this guy?”
“Samuel Grant, billionaire entrepreneur.”
“You may have heard about my team, Operation W.A.S.P.”
“And… what do you propose we do?”
“Let my team handle this without having any more lives be put at risk.”
“Samuel, why don’t you stick to fighting aliens and let us handle matters such as this; can someone get him off the damn screen?!”
“Okay, what was that about?” Caitlin asked.
“How long have you been standing there?”
“Long enough, Samuel.”
“To put as simple as I can, the General and I have a long history.”
“A history, huh?”
“That’s as simple as I can put it without getting into a long, drawn-out story about my personal life; it was a way long time ago, Caitlin, just let it go…”
“Okay.”
“Anyway, shouldn’t you be in bed?”
“Couldn’t sleep,” Caitlin explained.
“Try some warm milk; that always helps.” MEGAN butted in.
“I was thinking maybe I could help you.”
“I’ve got everything under control, but thanks for your offer; MEGAN, check the CIA database and see if they have any blueprints. I wanna know what we’re dealing with here.”
“Won’t be easy, but I’ll do my best.”
“And try not to leave a paper trail, please; I’m really pushing my boundaries by doing this.”
“Affirmative, sir.”
Somewhere outside Southern California
“Gentlemen, you have your orders. I want this car in one piece. Do what needs to be done and get… it… back. Is that clear?”
“Affirmative.”
“Make your country proud, boys…”
“Alright men, move out!” all the cops scramble towards their squad cars and take off scouring the city for any signs of the Black Mustang.
Around the same time, Celsior had caught onto what the General was planning and decided to make a move. “Now this hardly seems fair.” He watches on as a couple of police officers were in hot pursuit. The mustang drifts hard around the corner with the cops not too far behind; when they finally catch up, the car was gone just like that.
“How could he lose us that quick?”
“Driver of this car must be one hell of a race car champion.”
“Alright, we’re gonna need air support; this b*****d’s not getting away that easily.”
“It’s about time I stepped in, don’t you agree?” he asked a couple of Glacieroids, who were standing by watching as well. They nod back and Celsior orders them to assist the black mustang.
“Uhm… we may have a bit of a problem here…”
“What’s going on? What’s happened?”
“Where the hell did these guys come from?”
“Car-12 Come in, can you read me?”
Shots could be heard on the other end of the CB Radio.
“Damnit, talk to me; what’s happening?”
On the other end, the officers had their hands full with Glacieroids riding in on motorcycles packing heavy firepower.
Focusing on this new enemy, one squad car loses control, hits a parked car and turns over.
Starla and Phoebe ride in on their motorcycles and proceed to assist.
“Starla, you help them; I got these guys covered.
Starla stops in front of the downed cop car, dismounts and rushes over; she uses her powers to pry the door off before pulling them out one by one, “Any of you damaged in anyway?” she asked.
“No we’re good.”
“Just sit back and let us handle this.” She mounts her motorcycle and takes off.
“Man, who gave these guys a license anyhow?” Alex replied as he took aim and disabled one of the enemy cyclists chasing the squad car.
“Focus, Alex…” Willis replied.
“Guys, police chopper got a fix on the Mustang entering a garage on Wilshire Blvd,” Samuel said.
“I’m the closest; I’m on my way now.” Max answered.
“Wait, Max, don’t go alone.” Caitlin replied.
“Better hurry, police are setting up a perimeter; SWAT’s on their way to assist.” Samuel explained.
“Roger that.”
“MEGAN, how’s it going with the blueprints?”
“The Car’s built like a tank: bulletproof windshields, self-inflating tires, nanobots designed for self-repair, lasers headlights; it’s even got some highly advanced technology.”
“How advanced?” Samuel asks.
“Something out of a Sci-fi genre, sir; the purple light that was mentioned is some sort of teleportation device; the destination is something I am still attempting to ascertain. There is also a feature built into the headlights capable of decreasing the vehicle’s molecular density.”
“Puts a whole new definition to the phrase ‘Ghost in the machine’, doesn’t it?”
Outside the parking garage, the cops wait outside waiting on SWAT to arrive.
“Incoming vehicles…” one of the cops pointed out.
“Whoa whoa whoa!” one of the officers shouts as he and a couple others try to stop Max and Caitlin, who race in like bat out of hell; pass right through the cops’ blockade and drift on inside the structure.
“Caitlin keep your eyes peeled, he could be anywhere.”
“Don’t have to tell me twice.” She and Max both had their sidearm at the ready as they check each of the cars.
Meanwhile, as they searched for the car, the car was checking them out; through the eyes of the driver seat, the windshield goes into nightvision while at the same time displaying readouts, learning everything it could about them. It sets eyes on their communicators and deployed a jamming signal.
“Guys, SWAT team just arrived; you got heavy firepower coming it right now.”
“Samuel? We did get all that, could you repeat?”
“I said SWAT’s on their way in!”
“Still can’t hear you, Samuel… Hello?”
“Guys… guys!!” “MEGAN, what’s going on?”
“All communication inside the structure has been severed; some kind of radio jammer, sir.”
“Switch to FM; what about video feed?”
“That’s also out,” MEGAN explained.
“Guys, can you hear now?”
“We can now, what happened?”
“My guess is the car’s got something to do with this; some sort of radio jamming equipment according to MEGAN. Also radar is not working and security camera feed is out of the question; you’re on your own in there. And to add a bit of spice to the recipe, you’ve got SWAT team making their grand entrance.”
“We can handle them; just call the others for backup.”
“Caitlin, under no circumstances are you to engage in physical confrontation with law enforcement. We’re the good guys same as them.”
“I can’t make any promises; you know how I feel about authority.”
“You guys may be superheroes, but you’re not above the law. They can still charge you with assaulting an officer.”
As the SWAT team makes their way in, they separate into teams of three and explore the area.
One of the teams passes right by a gray mustang, which waits for the last member of the group to pass in front its headlights before turning on and using the purple light to teleport him to an unknown destination.
The guy let out a scream, which faded along with his body; the other two turn and notice he was gone.
“Chris? C’mon, Chris, this isn’t funny.” The man travels back the way he came; the leader of the team covered him. As he moved towards where the mustang was, it also transported him with its purple beam, which made the leader react.
The other officers could hear the gunshots; the nearest team moves to their location to see him get eaten by the purple headlights.
The car pulls out of its parking space, changes its color back to black and races at the other officers, who opened fired; the bullets bounced off the car as it got closer and closer. The officers jumped out of the way and the car proceeded further into the garage.
“Team 3 to team 1, this guy’s got some kind of disintegrator cannon; it just ripped team 6 up atom by atom. What the hell’s going on here?!”
Meanwhile, on the outside, General Creed arrives on scene, “Gentlemen What’s the holdup here?”
“The driver ducked into that parking garage; SWAT is inside.”
“How many?”
“Three dozen men.”
“That’s not gonna be enough; this a*****e’s got a goddamn arsenal in the form of a sportscar and you send in 36 men?”
“Also, a boy and girl went in just before they did; guy was well-built, blonde, wearing a black jacket and pants with a red stripe. Girl was also blonde, a bit shorter, wearing the same outfit with an orange stripe across the chest.”
“That’s Grant’s team; a couple of them, actually. Under no circumstances do you let the other ones in, is that clear? I don’t want the millionaire playboy’s band of misfits screwing this up.”
“What harm could they possibly do?”
“Sergeant, these people aren’t you average freelancers; don’t underestimate them.”
Meanwhile, somewhere far out of the way, Phoebe, Starla, and Willis sit back and wait.
“Alex, are you in position?”
“Affirmative; ready to initiate Operation: Animal Kingdom.” Alex stood on a rooftop high above the cops, who were waiting outside the garage.
“We won’t approach until the roadblock is clear.”
“Roger that, Alex out. Here goes nothing…” he then takes a leap of faith off the edge before transforming into a gorilla in midair and landing feet first in the middle of the blockade. He beats his chest before getting to work. He takes out one of the cop cars with a swift uppercut from his mighty fist. As they start to open fire, he transforms into a rhino and starts to rampage.
“What are you waiting for, cut him down!” the General roared.
Before the cops could even react, Phoebe, Starla, and Willis arrive on scene, “Not so fast,” Starla says as she uses her powers to blind them all before she, Alex and the others head inside.
The car approaches Max; Caitlin got to him just in time to block the car’s purple beam with her laser vision.
The car continued on its course towards Max, who rolled out of its way, turned and fired his weapon at its rear left tire, causing it to turn sideways and hit a wall. “Ha, I got’em!” Max’s smile soon left his face as he noticed the tire re-inflating. “Aww man…”
The car turns and faces Max before speeding at him; Max kept firing until the vehicle got close enough and sucked him up with its teleportation beam.
“Max no…!” the car soon went for Caitlin after she yelled out Max’s name, but it didn’t get the chance to get her the same way it did Willis speeds in and tackles her out of the way.
“You okay?” he asked.
“I’m alright, but Max…”
“He’s probably okay; Dad told us that thing just teleports anything it touches with that purple light.”
“Really?”
“He also said there’s no driver.”
“SO we’ve been chasing some sort of Knight Rider type car?”
“That about sums it up.”
“He and MEGAN are trying to figure out how to get them all back; we just need to catch that car before Creed does or we can kiss any chance of doing that goodbye.”
“Starla’s right, we gotta move.”
Our heroes get back on their bikes and pursue the Mustang.
“Hey, where’d the pigs go?” Caitlin asked.
“Caitlin…?” Phoebe said.
“What?”
“Maybe the Glacieroids got’em,” Alex said.
“Guys, I just realized something.”
“What is it, Phoebe?”
“We don’t have anyway of stopping that thing.”
“She’s right. All the shots fired by the SWAT team didn’t even put a dent in it. And Max hit’em with everything he got; got the same result. Not even any busted windows.”
“Perhaps I can beam myself inside,” Starla explained.
“You can do that?”
“I just gotta aim for one of the windows and I can travel straight through as light.”
“You guys said it can go transparent, right? What if it turns invisible? Will she still be able to what she’s suggesting?”
“I dunno, Alex, maybe we can distract it somehow.”
“Why are ya’ll looking at me?” Alex asked.
“You’re the only one who can do that.”
“Yeah, you can change into the strongest or fastest animal, it goes ghost, and passes through you, then it won’t be able to react fast enough when Starla does her thing.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“What other choice we have, Willis?”
“Just one thing, what will you plan to do once you’re inside the driver seat?”
“Good question. I know nothing about technology.”
“Maybe I can help; can you do that travel through the windshield idea with more than just yourself?”
“I suppose so, but you need to hold onto me or else you’ll revert to your human form.”
“Then I’m going with you,” Willis responded, “I know tons about computers.”
“Great now all we gotta do is find the car, which won’t be easy considering it seems to always disappear as quickly as the wind.”
“Well let’s split up and search the area, it couldn’t have gotten far.”
“Teams of two, we don’t wanna lose anyone else.”
“There’s only five of us.”
“Then a team of three and team of two.”
“Okay, this guy’s not stoppin’, we’re gonna need an aerial ESD,” Said one of the cops in pursuit of the black mustang at Monterey Park.
“Copy that, we got one inbound.”
“Guys, got a lot of chatter on the scanners; they’re somewhere in Monterey Park with electronic scrambling devices.”
“This is bad; if they deploy, it’s gonna make it difficult to get Max back.”
“We’d better hurry than; Thanks, Samuel.”
The Mustang drifts hard around the corner going left with cops right behind it and a helicopter above. After half a block, the chopper flies in low; the shooter with the ESD at the ready. He takes aim, but the car turns transparent before the device has a chance to hit and one of the cops gets the device pinned a couple inches from the front left tire. The machine started to do its work as it scrambled all of the electronics onboard. The driver suddenly loses control; it rotates 90 degrees in front of the target, which plowed straight through, sending up into the air where he landed on top of two of the cop cars behind it, causing a multiple car pileup.
“Damn, it didn’t work.”
“Gee, ya think?” the pilot retorted to the gunman.
The gunman reloads for another try at the same time Alex, Phoebe, and Caitlin arrive.
“Willis? Starla? You guys don’t have a lot of time; the gunman’s ready for a second shot.”
“We’re hurrying as fast as we can…”
A block and a half later, Starla and Willis rounded the corner; Willis on the back of Starla’s bike as they were on a collision course with the car.
“Are you sure this is gonna work with tinted windows?”
“I dunno, maybe…”
“Maybe?!” Willis said in shock.
“Hold on…”
Willis lets out a loud scream as he and Starla got closer and closer. Once close enough, Starla converts Willis and herself into light. They pass straight through the window; Starla was in the driver seat while Willis landed on the passenger side, eyes still closed and screaming like a child on a roller coaster. Once he stopped screaming, Starla responded with, “And you were worried…”
“Hey, when someone reassures you at first a plan might work, then turns around and is unsure it’ll work, that’s a perfect time for someone in my position to panic.”
“Just do your thing, okay? We’re not actually on a road trip here.” She said while she did her best to dodge the incoming fire from the chopper above.”
“I might need a lil help with this; this isn’t exactly Windows 7 you know…” Willis contacts Samuel.
“Willis, just calm down, I got the blueprints in front of me thanks to MEGAN. I’ll guide you through it all.”
“Great, first and foremost, where are the controls for the teleportation unit?”
Samuel refers to the blueprints then points it out to Willis, who then follows his instructions exactly.
“Okay, I got them; Max, and all the other officers as well. I’m trying to get a lock on their signal now.”
“Well do it fast, this thing doesn’t exactly like me being behind the wheel…” the steering wheel was fighting against Starla as she maneuvered the city streets like a maniac swerving all over.
Once Willis got a lock on their signal, he presses the button Samuel tells him to. Max and the officers were then shot out of the car’s taillights, causing Phoebe, Alex, and Caitlin to swerve.
As for the car, it finally regained control. The wheel shrunk as the car converted to autopilot and began to spin out of control. It also opened the doors so that when it gained enough speed, Starla and Willis would be flung out onto the street.
The others stop right next to them, “Are you guys okay?” Alex asked.
“Yeah, but it’s getting away.”
“Not if I can help it…” Meerlix’s voice said over the communicator.
“Is that Meerlix? Where have you been?”
“Had to pick up something; let me know what you think of this move.” Meerlix flies in low from the opposite direction on some sort of cat-like mechanical armor painted dark gray with twin rocket boosters in the back; two large, white arms with paws on the tip, which wrapped around like a hula hoop and a cat-like helmet. Meerlix locked on to the target and then conjured a big light blue ball of energy, which he then fired at the hood of the vehicle, which destroyed it instantly.
“Whoa… where’d you get that thing?”
“A present from some old friends; I’ll explain more when we get home.” Meerlix slowly approaches the others and makes his descent.
Several minutes later, the General arrived on scene, “What have you done? Millions of government dollars down the drain all thanks to you.”
“Too bad, Creed…” Samuel’s voice answered.
“You… I was doing just fine until you came along; you know I’m starting to think you were put on this earth to make me look bad.”
“Look bad, General? You’re perfectly capable of doing that yourself. You’ve caused more damage than that goddamn vehicle did!” Grant explained.
“You are really something, Grant. If you weren’t all buddy-buddy with the president, I’d have your head for this!”
“Well, go ahead. Take me head off, I’m right here!!”
Daniel shoves Samuel, who then immediately retaliates with a tackle.
“Will you both just cut it out? You’re acting like children.” Caitlin tried to break up the fight.
“Might wanna listen to your daughter there, Samuel. Or sister, whoever she is.”
“I’m his kid sister…”
“I’m beginning to see a resemblance here; not in looks, but in attitude and no respect for authority; this isn’t over yet, Grant.”
“You too much of a chicken to face me one on one, Creed? What, you need an army of your men presence as backup?”
“Samuel, stop it. It’s been a long night, why don’t we all go home and get some rest?”
“Finally, an idea I can relate to,” Alex replied.
Back at home, we see Caitlin sitting in the kitchen having a glass of warm milk when Bradshaw walked in.
“Ah, I thought I heard something.”
“Hey Bradshaw. I couldn’t sleep, so I thought I’d try Samuel’s suggestion of a glass of warm milk.”
“Anything you want to talk about?”
“Nah, I’m sure it’s nothing.”
“Okay, Miss Rose, pleasant dreams.”
“Wait…”
“Yes, Miss Rose?”
“Now that you mention dreams, I did have this weird one; it involved some flash of orange light. It was following around wherever I went.”
“Do tell…”
Meanwhile, back at the site where the remains of the Mustang lay, two unknown female soldiers, who looked a lot like Cameron and Christi scavenge through the remains looking for something, which they found after a couple tries; the box for the car’s teleportation device.
“Aunty S will be very please…”  

[Samuel Grant]

Chapter 22
Camp Spirit

“I’ve fought monsters, aliens, armies of creatures created from the molten energy of magma and the chilling embrace of the arctic snow, but nothing could prepare me for what I was about to endure; an opponent, whose moves are ever-changing and unpredictable.” Caitlin thought to herself as she and some African American kid, 9 years of age whom she knew by the name of Jason, wandered around in the wood with a rifles in their hands.
“They could be anywhere, keep your guard up,” Caitlin looked cautiously all around as her enemy jumped from tree to tree.
Closer and closer they got. Caitlin still couldn’t identify them, but she and Jason stuck to cover.
A single paintball hits her in the side just above her right hip. “Yes, folks, it’s the dreaded 9-year old kid. In case you haven’t noticed, I’ve been roped into playing counselor at a summer camp. I’ve never done well with little kids, what made Samuel think I was ready for this?”
Samuel grant’s Mansion: 3 hours ago
Instead of joining the others on a camping trip, Caitlin stayed behind and practiced more fighting techniques inside the virtual reality training room, fighting hordes of Magma Golems. First she fights in unarmed combat; brawling, scrapping, throwing hit after hit as each Golem rushes up to attack. She fought for minutes nonstop until all but a couple dozen were left then she conjured her weapon to finish them off.
“Simulation complete,” MEGAN’s voice said as the scenery faded around Caitlin’s holographic self before it vanished too and revealed her to be sitting in a chair with some type of helmet on with a black visor. She removes the helmet, gets up from her seat, makes her way back into the command center, and up into living room area, where Bradshaw had prepared lunch for her. A tuna fish sandwich and a glass of fruit punch sat on the table in front of the couch she sat on.
“Thank you, Bradshaw.”
“You’re welcome,” he replied just before going back into the kitchen where he finished preparing his meal. “May I inquire as to why you chose not to accompany the others on their picnic?”
“It just isn’t my thing. It used to be when I was little and it was both me and my father. We used to go up to Yellowstone Park every year until he and my mom passed away.”
“Well what about helping out Phoebe? She felt homesick and decided to visit her ranch.”
“I don’t do so well with livestock.”
“Well you need to do something besides sitting around here all day; why not join Samuel out as he plays counselor at that summer camp?” Bradshaw sets his plate down next to Caitlin’s and takes a seat on the couch.
“Camp Cheyenne, are you serious?”
“It’s much better exercise for you than spending time in the virtual reality simulator. You’re actually using your muscles instead of sitting down in a chair and letting a holographic version of yourself do all the work,” Samuel explained. “Sorry, I couldn’t help but overhear. I was packing some stuff to take with me, but I can’t seem to find my lucky backpack.”
“Have you tried the attic?” Bradshaw asked.
“Oh right, thanks Bradshaw. There’s bound to be a lot of junk up there, would you mind giving me a hand, Caitlin? When you’re done eating of course.”
“Sure thing, Samuel,” she replied.
After eating, Caitlin wanders the hallways calling out Samuel’s name. He answers her call and she heads around the corner to the opening in the ceiling with the ladder hanging down.
“C’mon up,” he said.
And so she did. Once all the way up, she notices all the junk right away; an assortment of old lamps, books, snowboards; everything but the kitchen sink. Caitlin navigates her way through this maze of items on her way to the very back. “You ever thought about having a garage sale to get rid of all this?”
“You know… Bradshaw mentioned the very same thing, but I never listened to him.”
“Well you should. One of these days, someone’s gonna get hurt up here.” She said as she climbed over piles of toys and old comic books to get to where her brother is. “By the way, whose comic books are those?”
“Just help me look for the backpack. It’s tan colored and has a picture of a kangaroo on it. I got it when I traveled to Australia; you look over on that side and I’ll check over here.”
“Okay…”
“You know, I would really love it if you accompanied me on this whole summer camp experience; a great way to get in touch with nature.”
“I dunno…”
“C’mon, Caitlin, we need more counselors at the camp, please?”
“I wouldn’t really know what to do if one of the kids came to me with a problem.”
“Just try to work it out the best way you can.”
“But I…”
“Please?”
“Those puppy dog eyes didn’t work when my friends at the foster home did it, and they’re not gonna work now…”
Samuel continues with the sad face for a little longer and Caitlin finally caves.
“Alright alright, I’ll do it.”
“Great, because I already signed you up.”
“You did what?!”
Next thing you know, Caitlin and Samuel board the private jet and flies to an airport somewhere near where they’re supposed to be going, which was in Nebraska.
After stepping off the plane, Samuel and Caitlin enter the limousine that was waiting for them and arrive at the camp.
The one in charge of the camp, an African American male in his early 30’s named Willy Riles, was there to greet them. He gives them the guided tour and then introduces Samuel to the boys:
Jett, who was a 13-year old Caucasian kid with deep-set gray eyes; thick, straight, orange hair cut at shoulder-length, which is worn in a carefully-crafted style. He is short and has a bit of a muscular build. He has prominent ears and nearly-nonexistent eyebrows.
Dominic was a 15-year old kid from England with hooded brown eyes that are like two discs of wood. His luxurious, wavy, very long hair is the color of black coffee, and is worn in an uncomplicated style. He has a graceful build. His skin is deeply-tanned. He has a low forehead and a wide chin.
Charlie, who was also 15-years old, had droopy gray eyes that are like two pieces of steel. His fine, straight, long hair is the color of an overcast sky, and is worn in an uncomplicated style. He is very tall and has a thin build. His skin is ruddy. He has a high forehead.
Rodney was 17. He has round gray eyes that are like two pieces of steel. His fine, curly, yellow hair is worn in a style that reminds you of a pile of leaves. He is very tall and has a broad-shouldered build. His skin is dark. He has a small mouth and wide feet.
Miles was 8 years old. He has round eyes the color of an overcast sky. He has silky, curly, midnight black hair is medium-length and is worn in a complex style. He is short and has a slender build. His skin is china-white. He has a small nose.
Jay was 9 years old. He had hooded gray eyes that are like two silver coins; luxurious, curly, black hair worn in a style that reminds you of a complex device. He is tall and has a feminine build. His skin is china-white. He has bushy eyebrows and long-fingered hands.
Lastly, there was Filbert. An 8-year old kid, who kind of makes you think of a clever fox. He has a pair of box-frame glasses over his narrow green eyes that are like two emeralds. His smooth, bold cut hair is the color of dark chocolate, and is worn in a practical style. He was the shortest of them all and had a scrawny build. His skin is light-colored. He has an elegant nose and small feet.
“Hey, you’re the guy from TV, right; the one with the superhero team?” Jay asked.
“You mean Operation W.A.S.P.? that’s correct.”
“You built some of the gadgets they use to help keep the world safe.”
“I see where you’re going with this; you’re wondering if I brought any of those toys with me for you to play with. Well the answer to that question is no. The weapons my team uses are not toys; someone could get seriously hurt by those things.
While Samuel and the boys got better acquainted, one of the others in charge, an Asian woman much younger than Willy himself who was named Jill Granger, introduced Caitlin to the girls:
The first was Margo; this 16-year old girl makes you think of a placid lake. She has slanted eyes the color of dark chocolate. Her silky, straight, night-black hair is worn in a style that reminds you of a crown. She is very tall and has a voluptuous build. Her skin is ruddy. She has a low forehead and a scar on her chin an inch and a half long.
Elise was 14. She had narrow eyes the color of chestnuts and luxurious, wavy, brown hair medium-length and worn in a precise style. She has a narrow build. Her skin is white. She has a low forehead.
Cheryl was a very short, narrow light colored African American; 18 years of age. She ahd slanted lavender eyes and fine, curly, ash-gray hair. She has a flat nose.
Grace, 11 years old has wide violet eyes that are like two drops of wine. Her luxurious, curly, very short hair is the color of chestnuts. She is very short; not skinny, not fat, but somewhere between. Her skin is cream-colored. She has high cheekbones and a small mouth.
Giselle has wide gray eyes that are like two pieces of steel. Her luxurious, straight, yellow hair is worn in a style that reminds you of a peacock's tail. She is short and has an hourglass build. Her skin is china-white. She has a large nose and a large mouth.
Kayla has slanted violet eyes that are like two windows on the evening sky. Her silky, wavy, chocolate-colored hair is worn in a style that reminds you of an animal's ears. She is very tall and has a curvy build. Her skin is white. She has full lips. Her wardrobe is risque and utilitarian, with a lot of gray.
Kirsten has large eyes the color of blue tropical waters. Her luxurious, curly, chestnut hair is worn in a style that reminds you of a complex device. She is tall and has a curvy build. Her skin is pale. She has large hands.


Lastly, there was Lila; an antisocial woman has narrow eyes the color of the evening sky. Her fine, wavy, black hair is worn in a style that reminds you of a mysterious hood. She is very short and has a muscular build. Her skin is cream-colored. She has a hooked nose.
“Hi everyone,” Caitlin said back to them before noticing the girl sitting on the bed way in back texting on her cellphone. “And what about her?” she said, pointing to her.
“Oh that’s Lila, she mostly keeps to herself; no one knows why.”
“Have you tried talking with her?”
“She’s not one for talking out her problems; she prefers to pull pranks, which is the reason why the last counselor quit.”
“Oh really?” Caitlin displayed a smile that showed she’s been down the road Lila traveled.
An hour after settling in, the activities began. Samuel and his boys take the baseball diamond while Caitlin and the girls play paintball in the woods.
It was like the movie “Sandlot”, the way they played the game. It was nine of them, including Samuel and the owner of the camp; they play it just like a regular game, except they don’t keep score, so it was hard to tell who wins and who loses. They each take a position on the diamond; Samuel steps up to the mound; Jill fills the position of catcher and umpire.
Dominic was first. He missed the first pitch, but the second one he hit it high to left center. Jay catches it and Dom was out.
Randy was up next. He hits the ball low to right center and makes it to first base before the outfield could react.
Miles hits the ball on his first try; but as he makes it to first base, Jett picks the ball up, passes it to Charlie, who was close to second, who then tags Randy; making it two outs with a single runner on base.
Filbert was up to bat first.
He misses the first pitch.
“Strike one!” Jill said as she caught the ball.
“Don’t worry about it, Filbert. Just keep trying.” Samuel said as reassurance to Filbert.
Filbert misses the second and third pitch and the teams switch positions.
“Way to go, jinx…” Dominic aggressively bumps into Filbert’s shoulder as he walks past.
“Dominic…” he said in a disapproving tone.
Dominic tried acting all innocent despite what Samuel saw, “What?”
Meanwhile, inside Serpitox’s lair; the six shadow rangers who were left stand around bored. Once again, Serpitox isn’t around to give them their orders, which meant they would eventually start to branch off on their own again.
“You’re doing this again?” the green shadow ranger asked.
“Don’t you remember what happened last time?”
“The brown shadow ranger had it coming; getting in the way of my bounty like that.”
With the brown shadow ranger gone, the orange shadow ranger continues with a repeat of her old plan to destroy Caitlin and take her powers for her own. She sets out, scouring the globe for her presences and comes across her energy signature in Nebraska.
At almost the end of the day, Caitlin and her girls take to playing paintball with Samuel and his boys. They had two teams consisting of nine players in makeshift wooden bases with a single slot three inches in length and several inches in width that were several yards away from each other. After a three minute break, the teams exit the base and onto the battlefield. Paintballs fly everywhere as they navigate the woods; moving from tree to tree while the orange shadow ranger lurks in the distance. Keeping a close eye on the real Caitlin, who breaks away from her team, the Orange Shadow ranger follows her carefully from a distance.
A voice was calling out to Caitlin like a whisper from the ghost of a former lover lost at sea. She followed it like a dog following a scent until she couldn’t find her way back to the others. Up ahead, she sees an ominous orange glow; a small, coin shaped object the size of Caitlin’s fist with a wolf on it. In her hands, it gave off a brilliant flash of orange light, which almost blinded her.
“It wouldn’t do you much good to run…” the orange shadow ranger said.
Caitlin, who was stooped down, slowly gets up and turns to her opponent, who had already assumed her form. “I had no idea you could do that; it’s like looking into a mirror.”
“I can do many things; most of which solely rely on me draining you of your power.”
Caitlin’s double fires a darker red laser beam from her eyes and the real Caitlin evades with a roll. Once up close, she throws a few low punches to the chest, which her double blocks. Shadow Caitlin throws a knee kick and Caitlin blocks with both palms; shadow Caitlin swings with her right, but Caitlin leans back as Shadow Caitlin lowers her left leg and kicks repeatedly to the face with her right; Caitlin blocks, but after several kicks, she takes one to the jaw and spirals face first into the dirt.
Shadow Caitlin then picks her up by her hair, turns her and lands a strong punch to the stomach and follows up with a punch to the jaw, which Caitlin blocks before she kicks her in the crotch and throws an elbow; Shadow Caitlin manages to block while she experiences pain from the kick; Caitlin repeatedly throws an elbow strike until she knocks her back. Shadow Caitlin stops a foot away and lands a fan kick, but Caitlin ducks, spirals and sweeps her off her feet.
While shadow Caitlin was on the ground, she mounts and throws punch after punch until Shadow Caitlin traps her right arm and rolls her over. Caitlin fights back and manages to throw her off. While her opponent was still on the ground, Caitlin delivers a kick to her stomach; her opponent teleports behind her before she makes contact, and with her peacock fan blades equipped, she strikes Caitlin in the back.
With her left arm drawn back, the light from the medallion Caitlin was holding took over her body like Max’s pill bug armor and continued up her skin until all of her glowed brightly. Seconds later, she disintegrated. Every molecule of her being looked like it was being sucked into the medallion, but really, her body was just turning transparent. Her invisible body lied there behind a tree. The medallion’s light soon faded. Shadow Caitlin looked all around for Caitlin and soon took off further into the forest until she heard everyone call out to Caitlin. She traded her monster form to make herself look exactly like Caitlin, except with paler skin. “I can sense her, but I can’t see her,” she mumbled to herself.
“Caitlin, what’s going?”
The orange shadow ranger forgot for a second, who she was pretending to be. “Oh, sorry.”
“You okay?” Samuel asked.
“Yeah, I… just got turned around is all.”
“Maybe we should wrap things up here. Everybody grab their gear, we’re heading back to camp.”  

[Samuel Grant]

Chapter 23
Camp Spirit part 2

In the temporary location of the science building; a white room that was decorated with an assortment of red, blue, and violet papers, pamphlets, and brochures, the science students sit in rows of five in front of Serpitox in his human form as he teaches the class. He’s been teaching class after class after class since 10 o’clock in the morning Pacific Time.
Just then, Pachytar walks in. his human form was a big, muscular African American with a smooth head of hair like the actor, Michael Jai White. His eyes were like two black marbles. His mustache reminds you of windshield wipers as they run along his upper lip and stop just short of his dimples. He had a thick beard, which reminds you of the powder puff brush things that come in a women’s cosmetic kit; the thing they use to powder their noses. His wardrobe was a black t-shirt and blue jeans.
Serpitox notices him in the doorway all silent and patient. “Excuse me for a moment,” he said to his class before departing with the man. “What is it now, Pachytar?”
“Sir, the orange shadow ranger has taken off again. I don’t know where to find her.”
“Where else would she be?” Serpitox said with sarcasm. “The shadow rangers only have one purpose; you find the real rangers, you’ll find them.”
“Yes sir.”
“Oh uh… have Fahl Kun track her down.”
At the camp, it was night; in the girls’ cabin, all were asleep except for Lila; Shadow Caitlin knew this, but decided to give her a head start before chasing her. She found her spray painting graffiti on the back of Willy’s cabin. Willy was a very heavy sleeper, so he didn’t hear the mild hissing of the canisters spraying a fast-drying, red liquid in a rather undecipherable language.
They move on to the next location; the boys’ cabin with a variety of multicolored buckets; some were filled with an unknown, gooey liquid, the rest had ropes, water balloons, feathers, and a white, foamy liquid that may have been either whipped cream or shaving cream. Caitlin silently picks the lock and she and Lila make their entry.
A half an hour later, they exit with empty buckets and sit out in front of the girls’ bathroom.
“You know, any other counselor would have turned me in.”
“I’m not like the others.”
“Yeah, I noticed…”
“I’ve done this sorta thing on a number of occasions,” Caitlin’s double explained; the advantage of being made from her shadow was that she had all of the real Caitlin’s memories. “I once had these alarm clocks. I put a bunch of them all over my cousin’s room in various places and set them to go off at random times.”
“You think that’s funny, then you’ll love this one. I took a paint roller and some honey, painted my neighbor’s car and the next morning, she came out to find bees all over it.”
Caitlin and Lila chuckled.
“I’m curious. Why did you help me? Why not turn me in?”
“Because, from the moment I saw you, I saw a bit of myself in you. I used to pull pranks at your age; that was after both my parents died in car accident when I was a young girl.”
“I know this isn’t the same, but my mom left when I was 5. Things haven’t been the same without her since.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry.”
“Sorry for what? It wasn’t your fault.”
“I just… feel sorry that’s all; I have a friend, whose parents split up. It’s really difficult when you’re going back and forth, visiting as if you were going to see your aunt for the weekend or something.”
Meanwhile, as the real Caitlin body lied still where she found the medallion, her mind had entered a forest that was exactly the same. It was day time as she looked around and called out to anyone, who might be nearby. All she got in return was her own voice echoing back at her. She decides to explore a bit. She picks a direction and sticks to it; the sound of her feet sliding through the leaves hits her ears with each step. For miles, all she could see was the trees. With no wind, their branches were silent and still like statues overhead. She enters a small wooden hut up ahead. Inside, she finds herself standing on a single white tile amongst a black limbo. The lights come on as Caitlin rounds a corner to four blue balls bouncing back and forth from one end of the room to the next. She had to get across the room without getting hit by either of them. across the way, a single spot of the room was lit up; revealing a large, blue door. in front of Caitlin was a tile with all except two of them missing. The two that were present were made up of letters. The one in front of her spelled “lean” and the other at the end spelled “gout”
A voice called out from the shadows, a low, god-like voice, “Move from the first to the last rung of the ladder by changing only one letter at a time!” then a pad with a glass screen descends into her hands, allowing her to spell the words out. In this order, she made it across “LEAN, LEAD, LOAD, LOUD, LOUT, GOUT”.
Beyond the blue door, she finds she’s standing outside a room with no windows and only one door. she gets a quick glimpse of the screen, which shows her the inside of the room. Inside were three light bulbs. She looks in front of her as soon as the screen goes black and three light switches materialize out of nowhere; one red, one blue, and one yellow.
The answer to the riddle came to her fairly quick and she realized what she had to do. She had to figure out which switch belonged to which bulb while only entering the room once. She turns one on for 5 minutes, then turns it off and turns another one on. She then proceeds to enter. She finds the first one was cold and off, the third one was on, and the second was off, but warm.
Meanwhile, Caitlin’s other self and Lila decide to hang out by the lake while they wait for the sun to rise. Lila directed Caitlin to the lost and found, where they find an assortment of old junk no one ever claimed either because they didn’t want it anymore or forgotten about it. They rummaged around until coming up on an array of old bathing suits, swim trunks and all sorts.
The sky was turning from pitch black to a light blue as the large, glowing orange sphere rises from the east; sunbeams flew in every direction. The colors made by the rising sun changed, growing more vivid with the passing time; making the sky more radiant as it climbed higher and higher into the sky. But as beautiful as the morning was I knew today would be horrible; for the residents of the boys’ cabin that is…
Filbert reaches for his glasses and knocks over the object Caitlin left, which produced a foul odor upon shattering.
“Alright, which one of you cut one?”
“It wasn’t me…”
“He who smelt it dealt it.”
“Okay, enough!” Samuel yelled. “Someone open a window and let it out.”
Dominic tries, but the window wouldn’t budge.
“Alright, everyone outside now.”
Filbert tries the door and it wouldn’t open either, “It’s stuck too.”
“Stand aside, let me try.” Samuel jiggles the knob, bashes into the door, and kicks it, but none these methods seemed to work. “Clear the way, I’m gonna need a running start.
Jill passes by the boys’ cabin on her way to the showers when she hears the sound of someone kicking a door. She motions over to the boys’ cabin to find several pennies in the crack preventing it from budging.
Samuel continued to knock the door down, Jill pulled the pennies out; Samuel comes crashing through the door and into her. As she falls, a large, green balloon falls from the roof and lands on Jill; emptying its content, which she found to be whipped cream as she tasted it.
“Oh my god, I’m sorry. Let me help you up.”
“It’s okay, I can manage.”
“I dunno what’s going on, but first there’s the awful smell, the windows were stuck and so was the door and now this. By the way, what are you doing here?”
“I was just at the girls’ cabin and they said Caitlin and Lila were missing. Lila, I’ll bet had something to do with all of this.”
“How do you figure that?”
“Because this isn’t the first time someone’s been a victim of her pranks.”
“Why not just kick her out then?”
“The owner and operator, Willy, used to be a friend of her parents before they passed away; he’s all she got.”
“Oh.”
Moments later, on the way to the lake; Fahl Kun stalks Caitlin and Lila. She follows them from tree to tree until finally, Caitlin spots her.
Fahl Kun then hides behind the tree once Lila starts looking.
“What is it, Caitlin?”
“I thought I saw something over there. You go on to the lake; I’ll catch up.”
“Are you sure?”
“Positive; just go.”
Once she thought Lila was out of sight, she sheds her human form as she ventures over to Fahl Kun, who, at the time, was wingless and didn’t have her hat covering her straight, luxuriously long black hair.
“Serpitox is displeased that you disobeyed his orders.”
“What else is new…?”
“Anyway, why are you hanging around that girl? I thought your target was the ranger.”
“Well, at the moment, I can’t get to her. She’s surrounded by some field of energy that came from this object she picked up.”
“What kind of object?”
“Large, orange, coin shaped.”
“What type of insignia was on it?”
“I couldn’t tell; her hand was covering it.”
“What does the girl have to do with this?”
“Nothing; I was discovered by Samuel and the others moments after the orange ranger vanished and I’ve been at the campsite all day yesterday.”
After Lila returned to find the Orange Shadow ranger in her monster form, she lets out a ear-shattering scream; Samuel, who was scouring the forest for her and Caitlin, heard the scream and went in the direction it came from.
“Get her…” Fahl Kun yelled before she assumed her warrior form; her eagle wings grew back, her hat materialized on the top of her head and she follows shadow ranger orange as she chases after the girl.
Samuel soon came to Lila’s rescue, “It’s about time you picked on someone your own size, don’t you think?”
“Maybe I should pick on somebody my own age as well; you sure you wanna do this, old man?”
“Old? Well, now that just hurts my feelings…” Samuel answered sarcastically. “Lady, I’m young enough to have passed for your brother.”
By underestimating Samuel’s abilities, the battle was over in minutes; shadow ranger orange took off midway through to look for Caitlin. After Fahl Kun left, Samuel turned to Lila.
“Are you okay?”
“Caitlin and I… we were meant to be at the lake, laying low in case you were all mad at us. She told me to go on without her. When I came back, she was gone; that lady was there with some orange bird-like thing. It was my fault, I shouldn’t have left her.”
“Listen to me, Lila, it wasn’t your fault. I bet everyone back at camp is worried about you; I want you to head back that way. I’ll find Caitlin.”
Lila takes off running; Samuel follows the path the orange shadow ranger left while at the same time contacting Bradshaw back at home; he was still asleep when the phone rang. He reached for the alarm clock, thinking that’s what was making the noise, but it wasn’t. he then gets out of bed and answers the phone.
“Whoever this is, do you have ANY idea what time it is…?”
“Sorry, Bradshaw, I don’t mean to disturb your sleep, but I kinda need a favor. Caitlin’s gone missing, I cannot pinpoint her location on my tracker; there are energy signatures all over the forest like some kind of cloaking device.”
“I’ll see what I can do, sir.”
“Thanks, Bradshaw. Now I gotta go catch me a shadow ranger…”
Back at Serpitox’s lair, Fahl Kun is slammed into a wall with Serpitox’s hand gripping her throat.
“I ask you to do one thing. You were supposed to bring her back with you, why isn’t she here now…?”
“She’s extremely determined, my lord. You know how these shadow rangers are.”
“Yes… I do. I’m the one who created them, do you not remember?” Serpitox pulls her from the wall. As he rotates her to his right, he loosens his grip. “No matter. I’ll deal with you later. For now, I shall let the events unfold. Once she defeated, I will be there to reclaim the life force I wasted on making her; and then some…”
“Excuse me, my lord?”
“The Shadows rangers gather a small amount of energy from their surroundings. Once I reclaim what I gave them, it may be twice what was already there, maybe more.”
Meanwhile, Samuel caught up with the shadow ranger halfway up to where the real Caitlin was last seen and he fired a shot into her back to get her attention.
“Pretty fast for an old guy…”
“Where is she?”
“Oh I’m sure she’s around somewhere. You may have even passed by her.”
“You don’t even know where she is?”
“Something is shielding her from me. Eventually, I will find her.”
“I don’t think so. You’ve just reached the end of the trail.” Samuel unsheathes his weapon; the orange shadow ranger summons hers.
“It seems I’ll get to claim two rangers’ life force in one day.”
“I’m not a ranger…”
Orange ranger strikes from her left, but Samuel quickly evades, spirals, and attacks her feet; she takes a step back and attacks from above with her left.
Samuel moves his sword up in her weapon’s path and quickly throws a punch to her abdomen before getting up and spiraling towards her; sword pointed out at his sides.
Orange shadow ranger alternates between blades as she blocks and then aims for Samuel’s neck with her right.
Samuel blocks her at her wrist and spirals; twisting her arm behind her back; she elbows him in the face and then teleports behind him once he lets her go.
She strikes him to the ground with a single slash to the back and he rolls over onto his back, performs a backward roll and a Wire-Fu kick, which knocks one of orange shadow ranger’s fans from her hand. As she attacks with her left, Samuel quickly disarms her.
Shadow ranger throws an uppercut from her left; Samuel dodges and takes a right swing; Shadow ranger ducks and goes for an inside leg kick; Samuel flinches and Shadow ranger hits him with a hard right to the jaw and a frontal kick to the stomach; Samuel reaches for her, She grabs his wrist, pulls him forward, flips him over, and then gives a swift kick to ribs and sends him sliding towards a tree.
He was confronted by Shadow ranger once again; Samuel rolled away, got up and sidestepped each of her attacks.
As he took a swing, Shadow ranger grabs a hold of his wrist with one hand, places her arm near his elbow and bends his arm backwards.
Samuel tries to break free, but it was no use; Shadow ranger then bends him backwards, performs a sweep kick, lands him on his back, performs an elbow drop, picks him up by his collar, and throws a Muay Thai elbow to the jaw. Samuel blocks before he pushes her back with a palm to the chest.
With Shadow ranger still latched onto his arm, Samuel uses his strength to pull her towards him, then grabs her by the arm and breaks free of her hold before he grabs her by the throat.
Shadow ranger swats his arm away and Samuel proceeds to grab her with his other hand; but Shadow ranger grabs his wrist and clenches tightly, stopping his hand just inches from her neck. Several seconds later, she lets go, pushes him back and proceeds to do a jump kick. Shadow ranger rushes up as Samuel stumbles back and performs a spinning back kick; Samuel leans back, shoots forward with a swift punch to the face and a flying knee.
Shadow ranger tries for a haymaker, but Samuel blocks with an elbow and responds with a knee kick to the stomach; Shadow ranger aims a low kick to the side of Samuel’s left knee; Samuel flinches and then comes back with a fake punch from the right to throw Shadow ranger off as he hits with his left and then throws several low kicks and then a rear horse kick to the chest; Shadow ranger spirals around it and lands a backhand to Samuel’s right eye, and then grabs a hold of his neck and lowers it while throwing several knees to the forehead.
Samuel responds with a double fist punch to the chin and breaks her grip and then fakes a spiraling high kick, spirals again and lands a kick to the knee; Shadow ranger kneels as Samuel makes his approach and then gives a punch to the crotch and a back flip kick to the chin; Samuel stumbles back towards the railing as Shadow ranger rushes up. With his back against the wall, he waits for Shadow ranger and then flips her over his head; Shadow ranger quickly wraps her arms around his neck before she went over and drags him down with her.
With the help of their superpowers, they managed to survive the fall and continue the battle.
Samuel throws a left; Shadow ranger grabs his wrist and his forearm, twists his whole arm, and pushes him back with a side kick. As Samuel stumbles back, Shadow ranger throws a right; Samuel blocks with his palm, sweeps her off her feet and goes for an arm-bar; Shadow ranger escapes moments later and she and Samuel stand back up.
“This isn’t the best of times, Bradshaw…” he answered.
“I just thought you should know I pinpointed her signal. It’s weird; one minute, her readings were all over, then all but one vanished. The one that remained is showing higher energy output.”
“Where’s it heading?”
“It’s coming towards you.”
Caitlin lands between Samuel and her shadow ranger form, glowing with a bright orange aura rising around her like a flame. In her eyes was a woman with orange eyes like two suns. Her luxurious, wavy, blonde hair is waist-length and is worn in a complex style. She has a graceful build. Her skin is deeply-tanned. She has wide feet. Her wardrobe is a risqué suit of orange armor from her neck to her feet. it was her power that was channeling through Caitlin, giving her the strength to take on her foe in an uneven battle that was tipped in her favor.
All Samuel could do was watch as his adopted sister slowly destroys the enemy with each blow.
Once she was down, Caitlin’s newfound energy retreats back into the medallion she held in her hand and she too fell to the ground; but instead of being destroyed, she just lied there unconscious same as before.
Serpitox tries to claim the power he gave his shadow ranger, but someone else had beat him to it; a mysterious figure bathed in purple light absorbs the energy from Caitlin’s fallen foe like a ball of gas in space that was turning into a star.
“What is it?”
“I’ve been beat out. Someone dares to cross me and deny me that which is mine.”
“What?”
“Someone else is after my power. I intend to find out who…”
Caitlin soon awakens back in the infirmary with lunch waiting for her on the end of the bed.
“Good you’re awake; I wasn’t sure which flavor soda you wanted.” Willis answered.
“Strawberry, thanks.”
Willis laid the can of soda next to her tray.
“How long was I out?”
“About two hours; you were at the camp and after defeating your shadow clone, you just… collapsed.”
“You had me worried; I wasn’t sure where you were,” Lila said.
“I remember wandering through a forest. I found this orange medallion just when…
“Samuel found you…”
“We think it had something to do with the orange medallion you found…”
Zierian appeared beside them all in the room and began to explain, “The orange light is the spirit of the medallion, Crimsonia. She was one of the warriors meant to guard the Karma Lunari back on our home world.”
“She mentioned something about passing a trial of intelligence.”
“It is her way of testing to see if you’re of possessing her power; the other nine, including myself, have our own tests for anyone who find our medallions; you cannot just pick it up and instantly get power, you must prove yourself to us. Otherwise, anyone could wield it and cause devastation.”
“I passed her test, I experienced power far beyond anything I’ve seen before, but… it takes a bit of energy out of you.”
“That’s because the power of the medallion used your life force to give you that power; they need to be re-energized.”
“How do we do that?”
“Only when they’re reunited with my shield will they be at full strength. My shield has eight indentations around my medallion which is a part of the shield itself, but all the medallions must be put on at the same time, for the finders of the medallion to be endowed with its power.”
“How do we find them?” Willis asked.
“Only when they want you to find them, can they be found…”
Later on after having breakfast, Samuel notices Filbert with a bow and arrow practicing archery all by his lonesome; he proceeds to join him.
“So… Filbert, you mind telling me why you’re here alone instead of joining the others on the go-cart track?”
“It’s because I’m a jinx; none of the others boys want anything to do with me.”
“You’re not a jinx. Don’t let what they said get to you.”
“I’m not.”
“Then why are you over here playing Robin Hood? You can’t tell me you’re having fun.”
“I’m here because… last time I was on the go-carts, I… kinda caused an accident.”
Filbert has a flashback to the year before at Camp Cheyenne, when he nearly ran one of the campers off the dirt trail.
He and the other boys take the go-carts out for a drive through the forest; Kyle let out a scream as he takes off flying a few feet from the ground and shoots between two trees; the others take to either side as they maneuver around the trees, trying to keep up with him, “Yeah, how ya’ll like that one?!”
“Show off…” Dominic steps on the gas and zooms past the others, dodging everyone except for Filbert, whom he shoves into a tree, “Sorry,” he said in a sarcastic tone as the distance between him and Filbert increased.
Filbert was furious as he put the kart in reverse and took off. a couple miles up ahead, he saw Dominic driving alongside Samuel and saw this as the opportunity to get revenge; as Dominic and come up on a slope, they quickly drift to their right; Charlie made it, but Dominic wasn’t as lucky because Filbert quickly bashes into him and sends him rolling down to the bottom.
Charlie and the others quickly hit the brakes as they hear a faint scream from below.
“Dominic!” Jett called out after getting out of his kart and looking over the edge.
“Filbert, what were you thinking? You could’ve seriously injured him or worse.”
“I’m sorry. I was just… I got tired of being picked on, that’s all.”
“You sorta remind me of a kid I once knew; he did almost the same thing you did, in high school, to gain the respect of his peers.”
“What’d he do?”
“He used a scared tactic; to keep you from mimicking him, I’d rather not go into detail.” Samuel picks up the other bow and arrows and he and Filbert then have a shooting contest to see who can outdo the other.
A couple of Samuel’s shots, he split Filbert’s arrows down the middle as he went for a bull’s-eye.
“How’d you get so good at this, Mr. Grant?”
“I had a lot of practice; and you don’t have to call me Mr. Grant. Call me Samuel.”  

[Samuel Grant]

Chapter 24
Sleight of Hand

Cameron and Christi were still trying to figure out the parchment. “Hey, check this out. This looks like an ancient symbol for a flower.”
“That could be a number of places; we need to figure out the rest before we start going on an expedition.”
A while later, a monster Farenhart sent to find them named Deviox descended upon them; he skin was a dark green/black color; he had armor covering his arms, his knees and his shins; he had long devil horns and word a black blindfold, which led them to believe he doesn’t rely on eyesight to see.
“Another goon to do the big boys’ handiwork; we’ll make quick work of you…” Cameron said.
“Don’t be so sure.” Both he and Cameron and Christi ran at each other; Christi leapt over him and stood her ground behind him as her sister stay in front of him.
Deviox swipes at Christi with a backhand, which Christi blocked. While he was preoccupied with her, Cameron attacks with a low kick to the waist. Deviox struck back with a swipe of his hand and causes Cameron to spiral to the ground. He then focuses his attention back on Christi who evades with a back flip before throwing ninja stars at him in retaliation.
Cameron approaches with her sword in hand; Deviox turns and she slashes him in the chest several times before he reacts with a palm block and a swipe from his right hand; Cameron ducks and rises back up with an upward slash. She raises high enough to jump over his head and lands next to her sister. She looks at Christi and Christi looks at here and immediately they both knew what to do. They alternate their attacks and drive Deviox backwards; Deviox blocks to the best of his abilities until Christi gets him with a shin kick and causes him to kneel; Cameron gets him with a frontal kick to the chest and knocks him flat on his back. She and Christi then unsheathe their swords and attack again, but this time Deviox pushes them back with a red energy beam he shot out of his horns and then quickly gets on his feet.
“Alright, what now?”
“Wait, I remember Max and Willis pulling this one move off the last time they fought us.” Christi cups her hand like she was going to give her sister a boost up to a high area.
“Are you sure this will work?”
“It worked for them…”
Cameron and Christi ran towards Deviox; Cameron out in front, but a couple inches to her sister’s left. She puts her right foot in Christi’s hand and Christi shot her into the air. Cameron takes her sword as she spirals and delivers a devastating strike, which brought Deviox to his knees once again.
“Give up?” Cameron asked as she landed behind him.
“Not until I get that parchment…” Farenhart said off in the distance before coming into the light and calling on his Magma Golems.
“Oh this just keeps getting better and better…” Cameron said with sarcasm.
“You’re acting as if it’s over, dear sister.”
“I’m not giving up so easily; I’m just pointing out the odds aren’t exactly in our favor.”
“Attack!!!” Farenhart ordered.
Cameron strikes right with her sword, hits lefts with her left fist and knocks the Magma golem in front of her down with a frontal kick. She then bends forward to allow her sister to roll over her back and attack the enemy on her right with ninja stars; a magma golem grabs Christi from behind and she breaks free and drives him to the ground where her sister finishes him off with a stab to the chest, reducing it to a pile of ash.
“Thanks.”
Cameron bows in thanks.
“Look out behind you!” Christi warned.
Cameron turns quick and ducks as Christi launches a throwing star at the magma golem.
“There’s just too many…” Cameron and Christi stand back to back as Farenhart’s forces surround them on all sides. Just when they thought their time was up, Max and the gang arrive.
“Great, your ex-boyfriend’s here.” Cameron said with sarcasm.
“HEY, WILLIS!” Christi said in a sexy voice that made Willis feel embarrassed.
Willis waved back shyly.
“Christi? He’s the enemy; you need to get over him.”
“But I can’t, I still love him.”
“You’re obsession will have to wait. Right now, let’s focus on getting outta here while they’re preoccupied.” Cameron drags her sister off.
“Don’t just stand there, GO AFTER THEM!” Farenhart barked at his magma golems.
While the golems chased the two, Deviox faced off against our heroes.
“You guys handle you exes; we got this.”
Max and Willis nodded and took off.
Alex summoned his Scorpion saber and the others summoned their soon after. Alex attacks first, but Deviox ducks under his blade.
Caitlin rushes in and blocks before he could strike Alex back.
Phoebe throws her Mantis boomerang and Deviox dodges, shoots his fingernails out at Phoebe and takes her to the ground.
Starla attacks Deviox in the back to get his attention, but before he could attack her, Alex changes his sword into a chain, grabs Deviox by the arm near the joint, pulls him back and delivers a strong punch to the chest that knocks him on his back before reverting his weapon back to a sword.
Meerlix jumps, clawing at Deviox, who reacts violently.
Farenhart gets tired of standing on the sidelines and jumps in. he takes out his sword and strikes Meerlix down.
Alex lends a hand to Meerlix and gets struck down as well.
Meanwhile, Cameron and Christi ran through the woods with Max and Willis right behind them, “We’ve gotta lose them,” Cameron suggested.
Willis then rushes out in front of them at sonic speed and blocks their path. Cameron and Christi turn and run back the way they came only to have Max block their way.
“Aunty S, we could sure use a lil help.”
“Yeh yeh yeh, just don’t screw this one up or I’ll disown you; Putras are on the way…” at the snap of a finger, Seductra teleports a dozen and a half Putras to her nieces’ location.
“Too afraid to fight us yourselves?”
“Willis, I love you and all, but get outta our way.”
“I can’t do that…”
“Enough sweet talk, GET THEM!” Cameron ordered of the Putras.
Max took them on while Willis fought Christi and Cameron. Max summons his pill bug armor; it attaches to his right arm as he rushes at the Putras. One of them attacks from his left and Max blocks with his right; his pill bug armor switches to his left as he pushes the Putra back with a strong punch. Another Putra attacks him from behind, but Max ducks just in time, spirals around and throws a strong punch. The Putra cocks his head to the left. Max sweeps his arm to the left and the Putra ducks, rises up and pushes Max into the arms of another Putra with a frontal kick. Max elbows him in the kidney, breaks free, flips the monster over his head and kicks him into the Putra in front of him. Another Putra comes in from Max’s right and Max reacts with a sweep from his arm that had the pill bug armor attached. Another Putra comes in at 45 degrees to Max’s right. Max’s armor moves down to his right leg and aids in amplifying the strength of his kick to the Putra’s abdominal region. A Putra with a sword comes at Max, swinging blindly at him. Max evades with several back flips before knocking him to the ground with a double leg drop kick; after he and the Putra fell, Max pulled out his laser gun and fires one shot each at all the Putras swarming him.
Cameron, Christi, and Willis fight hand to hand before they summon their weapons; Christi throws a right kick, but Willis block. Cameron throws a karate chop from the right, Willis blocks; Cameron and Christi alternate as they throw hit after hit, trying to wear Willis down. This proved difficult, but after a while, Cameron brings him down on one knee with a shin kick. Christi throws a low kick to the face, which Willis blocks. Willis continues blocking while crawling backward on his knees until getting back on his feet. Christi backhands Willis and drives him to the ground face first. Willis quickly gets up using a Kip-up. Christi strikes with a straight punch, which Willis blocks. Cameron hits him dead center in the stomach with a frontal kick, but Willis grabs her foot and holds on tight. He then winks at her before spinning her around and initiating a sweep with his arm.
Seconds later, Christi strikes him with a punch to the chest and knocks him down.
Willis and Cameron get to their feet. Christi and Cameron unsheathed their swords; Willis summons his Elephant axe.
Alex takes on the monster and gets tossed to the ground like a rag doll; the others soon joined him.
“Man, this guy’s tough.”
“Had enough, Rangers?” Farenhart asked.
“Never, neither you nor Cameron and Christi will walk away with the parchment.”
“Lemme finish them off, master.”
“Guys, We’ve got trouble. One of Celsior’s monsters named Volt-ture is wreaking havoc at the power station.” Samuel explained over the communicators.
Volt-ture was a giant bird-like creature with a human form. He had large wings for arms; his whole body was covered in black and white feathers. He had a huge, orange, crooked beak.
“Excellent,” Farenhart said to himself.
“We’re kinda a lil busy here, Mr. Grant.” Alex said.
“Alex, you, Meerlix and Phoebe go check it out; we’ll stay here and handle them.”
“You sure?” Phoebe asked.
“Yeah, we’re sure. Now go!”
Alex, Meerlix and Phoebe wait until they’re at a clearing to summon their bikes and take off.
Back at the command center
“Sir, I must stress that splitting the team up like this would decrease their chances of victory.”
“I know, MEGAN, but what other choice do I have?” he continues to monitor the situation at the power station.
Meanwhile, Alex, Meerlix and Phoebe arrive on the scene to confront Volt-ture.
“Don’t you know that siphoning off electricity is against the law?”
Volt-ture turns to face the heroes, “Ah, Gaia Ranger, just in time,” he says. “This oughta send a shock through your system.” He points his wings at them and shoots electricity from the tip.
Alex, Phoebe, and Meerlix jump out of the way; after regrouping, Meerlix takes the lead as he and the others charge towards the beast.
Meerlix lays into him as he scratches him at half the speed of sound; Volt-ture tried to keep up with him, but it took up to several more attacks before he countered and knocked Meerlix to the ground.
Phoebe charges him with a low kick to the side. Volt-ture swipes at her with his right wing and takes her down.
Alex leapt at him with a jump kick knocked him on his back.
“Well, that ruffled a few feathers…” Volt-ture said.
“Alright, let’s cook this bird.” Alex said as he and the other reached for their laser guns and took aim.
Volt-ture looked on in shock just seconds before Alex, Phoebe and Meerlix fired.
Checking back in with Max and Willis, who were chasing after Cameron and Christi through the forest once again.
“Stop!” Max yelled. But Cameron and Christi kept going until reaching a cave entrance.
Once inside, Cameron notices a light at the other end and orders Christi to block the entrance.
Christi strikes the wall of the cave and causes a cave-in.
“Damn it!” Willis shouts as he pounds his fist into one of the rocks piled up near the entrance.
“Max? Willis? What’s the status of the mission?”
“Cameron and Christi got away.”
“We can deal with them later. For now, I need you to go and help Alex, Meerlix and Phoebe at the power station; the others are already en route.”
“Roger that, Dad, Max out,” Max ends transmission.
Meanwhile back at the power station, Alex, Phoebe, and Meerlix were getting their butts kicked by Volt-ture. After a while of getting tossed around like rag dolls, Max, Willis, Caitlin and Starla show up, “We’re coming, guys!” Starla shouted.
Meerlix, Phoebe, and Alex join Max, Willis, Starla, and Caitlin’s side.
“Got here just in time,” Alex replied.
They all summon their weapons at the same time and get back in the fight. Alex rushes the beast first, slashes through his midsection as he passes him by; Phoebe rushes in and does the same with Mantis Boomerang, but fails as Volt-ture grabs her weapon; Max walks up Phoebe’s back and, with his pill bug armor attached to his right elbow, lands a flying elbow to the top of the head, causing Volt-ture to release her weapon.
Caitlin rushes in and slashes from the right, but Volt-ture ducks, swipes at her and makes her spiral onto her back.
Starla flew in and strikes with her armadillo blades. She strikes with her right first then her left, but the monster strikes back with double the force and she drops to the ground.
“Hey, ugly,” Alex shouted to Volt-ture.
The monster turns around as Alex switches his blade to its chain mode and whips it at him.
Willis rushes in with his elephant axe and delivers a sweep to both of Volt-ture’s legs before joining Alex’s side.
Volt-ture gets up on his feet and brushes himself off.
Max summons the W.A.S.P. stinger mark II, which immediately descends from the sky via jet propulsion. He then proceeds to get inside the cockpit and activate the controls, “Volt-ture, your goose is cooked.” Max locks on target; the beam charges up and as soon as it reaches 100%, Max fires. The beam instantly destroys Volt-ture, leaving nothing but a pile of debris and flames.
Later back at the command center, Max, Willis, and the others storm in.
“We almost had Christi and Cameron, but those slippery slugs got away.”
“Guys, it wasn’t your fault. None of us counted on Celsior interfering the way he did. He made you guys separate, so you would be weaker; if anyone’s to blame, it’s me. I sent you guys after that monster, knowing the odds of success wouldn’t be in our favor.”
Meanwhile somewhere in the forest half an hour later, Cameron and Christi ran and ran until they couldn’t anymore, then they stopped to catch their breath.
“We were lucky to have even survived the fight back there.”
“For once you’re right, Christi. If it wasn’t for our aunt and her army, we would’ve perished.”
“You know, it’s only a matter of time before Farenhart finds us, we need a plan.”
“Yes, but what?” Cameron asked.
“Well… we can’t keep using Putras to fight our enemies, because they’ll drop like flies; we need our own monster; any monster will do.”
“How about a rock monster? It may be cliché, but think about it; there’s nothing in nature stronger than rock.” Cameron takes the book from off of Christi’s back, flips through the pages and looks for a spell. Once she found it, she focuses her energy on a large boulder and turns it into a giant rock monster.
“The name’s Gravelaxe, how can I be of service?” Gravelaxe’s top half resembled a crater shaped like moose antlers all the way around; a white light emits from behind his head, which was crafted in a “W” shaped with soulless white eyes in a 90 degree angle. Underneath its crated shaped upper half were two arms that resembled caveman clubs with a round, rugged boulder connecting the arms to the body. On the tip of the monster’s arms were smaller, jagged rocks for fingers.
“My. My, such huge muscles he’s got,” Christi commented.
“Thank you.”
Cameron smacks her palm to her forehead and shakes her head at Christi in disgust.
Just then, the three were hit with a sudden blast of energy; the force of the blast causes them to fall and as they get up, they immediately saw where it came from; Farenhart and his monster accompanied by a couple dozen Magma Golems.
“Do you really think you can evade me that easily?” Farenhart inquired.
“We were counting on it…” Cameron said smugly.
Farenhart orders his monster and Magma Golems to attack.
Cameron and Christi synchronized their efforts and blew through most of the Golems on their way to Farenhart himself while leaving his monster and his army of Golems to fight theirs.
“Guys, we got trouble,” Samuel said over the intercom while watching the battle that ensued between Cameron and Christi, Farenhart, the Magma Golems and bot their monster.
Our heroes rush down the steps and into the command center.
“It’s another battle for the parchment; I need you guys to get down there.”
Back to the fight; Cameron attacks first with a slash from the right, which Farenhart blocks. Farenhart then attacks Christi, who blocks and strikes back with an upward diagonal slash and pierces through his armor. Farenhart attacks Christi and temporarily disables her while he continues fighting Cameron, who defends for a bit before evading with several back flips; Farenhart continued to follow her until she stops and attacks again.
Christi attacks from behind and gets Farenhart’s attention.
Farenhart turns around and attacks, but Christi blocks.
Cameron attacks from behind, but Farenhart unsheathes his other sword and blocks. He then turns to Cameron, strikes her down and then turns back to Christi and does the same.
They both get back on their feet at the same time and continue.
Meanwhile, Gravelaxe strikes Deviox in the chest with its axe-like left arm and causes him to spiral.
Deviox faces him once again and claws at him with his right hand.
Gravelaxe strikes again, but Deviox blocks this time and headbutts him in the midsection, pushing him back a few feet and into the arms of several Magma Golems; Gravelaxe manages to break free and takes them all out with a single strike each.
Deviox then brings his left hand to his face and quickly pulls it away as he fires a jolt of lightning from his eyes, which struck the ground around Gravelaxe; the blast was strong enough to land Gravelaxe on his back.
“Hope you don’t mind if we crash this lil party; after all, it is open invitation.”
Max summons the W.A.S.P. stinger Mark II again, but as soon as he was about to enter the cockpit, Willis stopped him and argued, “You already had your turn, Max, let me have a go…”
The whole time they argued, Alex took the controls.
“Okay, let’s see how you work this thing…” he types in a sequence and was able to convert the lasers into mini-guns. He then locks onto several Magma Golems at once and fires one shot each, taking them all out instantly. He then focuses his aim at Gravelaxe and Deviox; the blast from the main lasers just knocked them to the ground temporarily.
“Sorry, Alex, I forgot to mention the W.A.S.P. stinger still requires that you recharge it, otherwise, the blast won’t be as effective.
Alex exits the cockpit and the machine instantly returns to the vehicle holding bay.
With the Magma Golems gone, it made things a little easier for the team as they confronted Deviox and Gravelaxe.
“You know, Farenhart, perhaps it’s time we settled on a temporary alliance.”
“I agree, at least until those meddlesome Gaia Rangers have been vanquished.”
Cameron, Christi, and Farenhart all rush the rangers at once.
Max and Willis break away from the team and take on the three.
Cameron performs a low kick, while Christi performs a high kick; Max rolls sideways between their attacks and land on his feet behind them. He then attaches his pill bug armor to his right arm as he blocks Cameron’s sword from his left; he then wills his armor to switch arms as he blocks Christi’s sword and attacks Cameron with his right, kicks Cameron’s shin with his left and pushes Christi back with a punch. Cameron attacks with her sword again and with his pill bug armor attached to the middle of his right leg, Max blocks; his armor slithers down his leg as he performs a kick to Christi’s midsection.
Willis summons his elephant axe as he rushes Farenhart; Farenhart strikes and Willis blocks with the handle of his axe before slashing diagonally from his upper left. Farenhart strikes with a high kick and Willis blocks it with his axe once again. Farenhart strikes with a straight punch and Willis sidesteps. Farenhart attacks with a back elbow, but Willis evades by using his weapon to perform a cartwheel. Willis lands on his feet and quickly slashes Farenhart in the back; Farenhart reacts before quickly turning and striking Willis down with a blast of red energy from his eyes.
Max then strikes the ground with his super strength and creates a crack, which engulfs Farenhart’s lower half.
Cameron cartwheels towards Max and attacks; Max does all he could to block her until Willis speeds by at the speed of sound and knocks her down. Willis joins Max’s side as Christi comes rushing forward. They take out their blasters and fire, but Christi manages to deflect every single shot before getting close enough to strike.
Starla and the others take on Deviox and Gravelaxe; Gravelaxe attacks Alex with his bladed arm, but Alex blocks with is sword and strikes back, only to have Gravelaxe block his attack as well. They both go back and forth until Deviox interfere; he strikes at Alex with his sharp claws, only to have Caitlin block him; Alex strikes back at Gravelaxe and Deviox until Starla jumps in. With her Armadillo blades in hand, she attacks diagonally downward with her right first and then her slashes horizontally with her left before performing a spin attack, hitting Deviox and Gravelaxe at the same time and knocking them down.
Back to Max and Willis; as Max and Willis fought Cameron and Christi and Farenhart, Willis noticed the parchment sticking out of her right pocket. It took a while, but he managed to retrieve it. As he cartwheeled past her, he grabbed it from her pocket and safely tucked it away in his back pocket. He then noticed Farenhart creeping up behind and dashes away at sonic speed and came back at him with a flying kick.
Back to Starla; after a few minutes of fighting, she draws back her left palm, shoots forward against and shoots through him as light energy. After returning to human form behind him, she kneeled on one knee as Deviox fell; all that remained was a pile of debris and flames.
“Guys, the W.A.S.P. stinger is now fully recharged and at your disposal.”
“Thanks, Samuel.” Phoebe summons it again and hops into the cockpit. She locks onto Gravelaxe after the others had worn him down and fires.
Gravelaxe fell with the same outcome as what happened to Deviox.
Max and Willis had defeated Cameron and Christi and left them retreating with their tail between their legs.
After returning home, our heroes were more than pleased with their victory.
“I can’t believe the W.A.S.P. stinger’s power; that upgrade was awesome.”
“Yeah, I know.”
“And we all have our dad to thank for that.”
“You’re right, where would we be without his brilliance?”
“Speaking of brilliance, I oughta get this artifact to him so he can decipher it.” Caitlin took off to find Samuel while the others lounged about on the couch.
Meanwhile in Farenhart’s lair
“It seems your plan to divide the team and conquer them has failed; I lost one of my best creations thanks to you and we didn’t even get the parchment,” Celsior said on the screen.
“A temporary setback, dear brother, I can assure you; I’ve got another idea on how we can obtain the artifact in question.”
“Please. Tell me your plan, brother.”
“This guy I’ve heard about, he’s is a self-employed mercenary; the perfect guy for the job.”
“And what makes you think he can help?”
“I’ll persuade him…”
“Don’t fail me… brother.” Celsior ends transmission.
“Old fool…”
“And I thought things were bad between my brother and I…” a mysterious voice said from the shadows.
“You’re late…”
“Better late than never, isn’t that how the saying goes?”
“Here, this should do for now.” He tosses a medium sized bag at the mercenary’s feet, which appeared to be red, white, and furry in nature.
“You’ll get the other half when the job is complete. I don’t know if I can trust you enough to give you full payment all at once.”
“Smart man or whatever you are.” He paused. “May I ask what is the importance of this artifact?”
“What do you care, you’re just a gun for hire?”
“That’s true, I am, but I have a right to know what I’m risking my neck for.”
“I’d rather not tell you, because this information might affect your decision to carry out the mission. So just do what I pay you for, got it?”
“Understood…”  

[Samuel Grant]

Chapter 25
Day of the Wolves

Samuel Grant is not a man, who gives up on something easily once he puts his mind to it. Four hours he’s been at solving the parchment. He has not yet cracked the code.
“Samuel, you’ve been working on this all afternoon, don’t you think it’s time you’ve had yourself a lie-down?”
“Your pleas fall on deaf ears, Bradshaw; I’ve been suggesting the same thing since after hour number 4.”
“At least let me make you something to eat, sir.”
“I’m fine you guys, stop worrying; I’m not hungry and I will rest when I’ve solved this thing.”
“If you haven’t solved it by now, don’t you think it’s about time you try other methods?”
“Like what? Who else is there that can decipher the code?”
“I’ve got a contact in London, if you’re interested.”
“Alex, how long have you been there?”
“His name is Electra; she’s a friend of mine that works at a university there.”
“A jewel thief with a friend that makes an honest living. almost feels like a contradiction to me.”
“I wasn’t always a jewel thief to begin with.”
“Sound’s great, Alex; take Max and Caitlin with you as backup.”
In the lair of Farenhart, we see him and a familiar gentleman, Wulf ninja warrior; Wulf was Caucasian with green cornrows, green eyebrows and emerald eyes covered by a thick, rounded rectangular pair of glasses; emo glasses as they’re usually referred to. He wore gloves and boots that resembled a wolf’s feet with white and red fur. He also wore a muzzle of the same color and style, which was covered by a red scarf, which wrapped around his mouth and nose and ran down the length of his body. His wardrobe was a red life-preserver type vest, gray sleeveless top known as the Greco Roman, and black, baggy pants. He had a sword mounted on his side with a peculiar red and beige pattern on its wrap.
“All you want is some piece of animal skin? I don’t get it.”
“I thought you said reasons were irrelevant? What this parchment consists of his not what something we agreed upon when we made our arrangements. Just get it to me; don’t let anyone stop you.”
“Then if you won’t tell me, I wish to double my fee.”
“No way…”
“Then good luck finding someone else better than me.”
“Okay, wait…”
“I knew you’d see it my way.”
“You’re the only one who I assume can defeat the rangers. All of my monsters have failed.”
“Then tell me… why does he have to come with me?” Wulf points to Ravenoire.
“As backup; and to make sure you don’t get any ideas about turning on me.”
Meanwhile, Alex, Caitlin, Meerlix, Starla, Willis, Phoebe, and Max were onboard diving beetle flying towards England. They arrive within an hour and get on their bikes as they make their way to the university.
“About time you’ve come to see me, McLaren. No phone call, you don’t tweet, you don’t facebook me. What’s a girl supposed to expect?”
“I’ve… been busy, Electra.”
“Busy? For at least 2 years?”
“Two years, Alex?” Caitlin whispered in his ear.
“And who’s she, your new tramp?”
“Okay, now there’s no need for name calling; unless you wanna explain to your friends how you got a black eye.”
“Both of you chill out,” Max intervened. “We’re not here to drudge up the past, we need your help, Alex said…”
On the outside, Wulf and Ravenoire show up. Wulf takes point and tries rush people out of the way before the fighting starts.
Meanwhile, a confused Ravenoire tries to figure out what he’s doing.
No one would listen to Wulf; they think he was trying to play a practical joke.
“Just what exactly do you think you’re doing, mercenary?” Ravenoire places his hand on Wulf’s shoulder.
“Try to prevent unnecessary bloodshed. No one needs to die, because of us.”
“What kind of mercenary are you; doesn’t like bloodshed, are you serious?”
Back inside the university, Electra and the rangers take a seat at a round table in the cafeteria; Electra takes the map from Alex and unfolds it to see various symbols of unknown origin printed in black ink.
“Oh Alex said, huh? All this time not talking to me and now when you finally need something, you come crawling back. Well, what if I don’t wanna help, then what?”
“Please, Electra, it’s a matter of importance; the future of the world depends on your assistance.”
She examines the map further and manages to find one symbol that looks familiar.
“So what do you think, are you able to understand any of the symbols?”
“This is a remarkable find, but so far I don’t know any of these symbols; except for this one, which means fire, I don’t know the rest.”
“Thank you, you’ve been a big help,” Alex replied.
Sometime later outside the facility, Wulf and Ravenoire quietly argue.
“Look, I know you answer to this Farenhart guy, but if we’re gonna do this thing, we’re doing it my way; no civilian casualties, you got that?”
“Yeh sure sure, whatever you say.”
“Okay, here they come,” Wulf said before him and Ravenoire spring into action.
“First time Farenhart has sent two monsters,” Max answers.
“I believe you have something that belongs to my employer.”
“Oh yeah, well come and get it.”
“Now now, must we solve this with violence?”
“If that’s the way it must be handled.”
“We’re never letting you take this away from us.”
“Alright then, if that’s how you want it.” Ravenoire summons the Magma Golems.
“What’s the deal here, I work better alone?”
“Farenhart wants to make sure the job is carried out without failure.”
“I never fail…”
“He trusts results rather than someone’s word…” Ravenoire answers. He and Wulf split up; Wulf takes to battle without waiting for the Magma Golems to be summoned.
Max, Alex, and Phoebe meet him halfway. Phoebe makes the first strike, which Wulf slides under on his knees as he approaches Alex, who blocks with his sword.
As Phoebe attacks from behind, Wulf blocks her at the wrist and knocks her down with a back kick. Shifting his foot forward, Wulf aims for Max, who kicks back with the same force and negates his attack.
A second later, when Alex strikes from above, Wulf looks to his right and dives towards a tree with Phoebe right behind him. She attacks him at the neck first and he ducks, punches her in the stomach and strikes from his right; Phoebe blocks his sword with her Mantis boomerang.
Max leaps at Wulf moments later, but Wulf saw him coming from a mile away and rotates Phoebe 45 degrees and kicks her so she makes contact with his feet and make him spiral in the air before coming down and landing face first on the grass.
With Wulf focusing on Max, Alex comes from behind; sword at the ready. Wulf immediately blocks as if he has eyes in the back of his head and could see his opponent’s moves before they make them.
Quickly deciding his next move, Wulf spirals and with his palm forward and strikes hard to Alex’s right breast. As he was stunned, Wulf grabs him by the shoulders, pulls him close, knees him in the stomach, turns around while latched onto him and allows Max to strike him by accident.
“I’m sorry, Alex…”
As soon as he went down, Wulf leaped over him with a spinning back kick to Max’s chest and then, while still in midair, rolls in Phoebe’s direction with a flying inverted kick to her jaw.
Alex gets up; using his superpower, he transforms into a panther and pounces on Wulf, who lies there with his hands latched onto Alex’s wrists as Alex growls and snaps at him. He takes one hand off of Alex and reaches for the gun he pulled off of him in an earlier altercation. He aims for a tree with one shot in the right area to make it fall over. Then he throws the gun away, kicks Alex in the crotch, rolls him over, punches him repeatedly in the jaw until he was unconscious and then allows the trees to fall on him.
Off in the distance, a woman’s screams for help caught Wulf’s ears. He looks over in her direction as she was being terrorized by Magma Golems. After he dealt with Max and Phoebe, he rushed over to the redheaded, brown eyed Caucasian woman in the burgundy shirt and blue jeans and defeats her captors. “I told you people to clear out. Get moving!” he bellowed.
“What the…” Meerlix said aloud in confusion before he breaks away from the others in their battle against Ravenoire and the magma golems and heads in Wulf’s direction. He grows out his claws and quickly bombards him with multiple strikes from the left and right. “What the hell are you playing at…?” he asked.
Wulf answered back as he ducked, dodged, and blocked his opponent’s incoming strikes, “I don’t know what you mean…”
“You’re the bad guy, why’d you save that woman?”
“Not all of us are cut out for the whole ‘evil’ thing.”
With the next move Meerlix made, Wulf rolled out of the way; and as he passed him by on his left side, he reaches the parchment stuck in his robe pocket.
“Thanks,” Wulf said in a smug tone as he rushed off. “I got it; now let’s get the hell out of here!”
Caitlin planned to follow after Wulf, but Ravenoire recaptures her attention; he hits her with a right, she blocks, he throws a left kick, she ducked, he threw another right, she leaned back, he throw another kick, she ducked again, but this time hit him with a sweep and knocked him off his feet.
“Hold on, Caitlin, I’m coming!”
In time, Wulf makes it off the campus and into the woods. Willis caught up to Wulf at a crossing. Wulf had just turned around when Willis leapt and threw a superman punch to the jaw. Thinking quickly, Wulf grabbed him by the arm and threw him to the ground where he proceed to mount and repeatedly throw punch after punch, elbow after elbow; but Willis bobbed his head left and right as Wulf made dents into the ground.
Willis kicks him in the crotch and rolls him over, but Wulf kicks him and flips him over his head and the gets up, grabs him by the arms, and drags him until he throws him into a shallow stream.
“I admire your skill; even better than your friends, except less angry,” Wulf replied as he continued the fight.
“Do you always make it a habit to compliment your enemies?”
“Only when they manage put up more of a fight…!” he crouches a bit and teases Willis as he gestures him forward with both hands. “C’mon…”
Willis surprises Wulf with a lighting fast tackle, which pushes him and makes him trip over a boulder. Willis stands and waits as Wulf emerges from behind the rock and then he draws his pistol.
Each shot that came at Wulf, he immediately blocked after he drew his sword. The shots bounce at his feet as he bats his sword around like a baseball player hitting balls left and right.
Willis then drew his Elephant axe and rushed at him.
Halfway through the fight, Willis reaches for the parchment; Wulf keeps a firm grip on it as he and Max yank back and forth. Eventually, they end up ripping it; Willis ended up with a bigger half as Wulf kicked him away and covers his escape with a smoke bomb.
Willis returns to the others on the empty campus after Ravenoire left.
“What’s that?”
“Piece of the parchment; all I could get away from the guy.”
After heading back home, they explain to Samuel what all they found out.
“About all my contact could decipher from the parchment as a whole was that one symbol meant fire; without the rest of it, we won’t be certain.”
“Great, the only symbol we could figure out is in the hands of our enemies; are you certain she couldn’t make any of the rest of it out?”
“Well when we took the piece that Max got from his opponent back, another student was able to figure out that this symbol stood for ‘Ruby’.”
“Perhaps the Star of Scorpio; it’s the only jewel that fits the description seeing as rubies are usually red,” Willis answered.
“And speaking of red is there anything you could ID about the fighter, Max?”
“Weren’t you watching? You couldn’t tap into the security cameras or whatever it is you do?”
“The image was scrambled; I didn’t get a good look at him.”
“Well anyway, there was nothing much. He wore a red scarf, which covered most of his head. Except for that, he was extremely criticizing in a constructive way.”
“Doesn’t sound like one of Farenhart’s usual monsters, I can assure you that,” Willis explained.
Wulf takes the time to examine his find closely as he sits down, legs folded, with his back against a tree.
“What news do you have, Wulf?” Ravenoire asked Wulf.
“Both good and bad, I’m afraid; I got your stupid parchment, but your precious Rangers got the most important piece of it.”
“They’re always interfering.”
“You underestimated your opponent; maybe if you’d stop being impressed by their skill, like you’ve done all your previous foes, you would have the whole thing.”
“They’ve put the most fight outta all the rest I’ve ever face; they deserved commentary.”
“Farenhart will not be pleased if we show up with only half. We must get it back from them.”
“Well if you have any brilliant ideas, I’d like to hear them; it’s not like we can walk up and take it. You’ve seen for yourself they put up a good fight. Usually, my opponents aren’t as skilled as me,” he addresses his next sentence at Farenhart, whom appears off in the distance out of a roaring flame, which died down as he stepped out of it.
“Our deal was for the whole parchment. If you want your payment, I suggest procuring the rest.”
“C’mon… we’ve got work to do.”
Back in the command center, the team gets the distress signal brought on by Ravenoire and Wulf demanding the piece of the parchment they possess or else more destruction will follow.
“You guys go on ahead; I’ll prep the WASP stinger Mark II and meet you.”
“Okay, Starla.”
Wulf watches as Ravenoire and the magma golems tear the whole city apart
“So… what do you think of my handiwork?” Ravenoire asked Wulf.
“I already told you once, I don’t like random destruction; I do things a lil more differently on assignments.”
“But destruction’s usually one of the fun parts.”
“That’s the old me…”
Max, Willis, Caitlin, Meerlix, Alex, and Phoebe arrive on scene via motorcycles and start directing people to safety.
“This has gone on far enough, you two.”
“Things are just getting started, rangers,” Ravenoire replied.
“Do you have the parchment piece?”
“That’s none of your concern.”
“Be that way as you must, but my employer requires it and I will deliver it… one way or another.”
“Well you’ll just have to come get it.”
“My pleasure.”
“You guys go after Ravenoire…”
“Are you sure?” Alex asks Max and Willis.
“Yeah. We’ll be alright.”
Meerlix takes the lead. He hurtles towards the enemy and leaps over the debris of a ruined building on all fours before he sticks his feet out in front of him and lands a double leg drop kick to back of a Magma golem. After landing on his back, Meerlix gets back up and slashes left; the enemy spirals and lands face first in the rubble; then Meerlix performs a sweep kick on the enemy to the front.
Alex, Phoebe, and Caitlin bombard the enemy with laser fire left and right to soften them up; Caitlin was hit with a surprise attack, which makes her drops her weapon. She turns and performs a back flip to avoid a strong right hook from her enemy, Ravenoire, and hits back with her laser vision.
Phoebe hits her opponent with an elbow strike to the chest and then blocks as he attacks back with a knee kick; she holds one palm in front of the other and then pulls them apart as she performs a low kick to the shin and follows up with a karate chop to the neck. For her next move, she points gun at enemy to her right from under her shoulder; the golem stumbles back instantly as it runs up. She then points to her left and a golem knocks it from her hand and backhands her in the chest.
Alex uses his weapon’s secondary mode as he spirals and whips the Golems left and right. he goes through this move several times and then loops the weapon around his enemy’s hand, pulls him close, spirals around him, and with his back up against his opponent, he pulls forward on his weapon as he leans forward and flips him. After he falls, Alex releases him, changes his weapon back to the primary mode and repeatedly throws slashes to the chest and abdomen.
Starla dropped in piloting the WASP stinger Mark II.
“Hope I’m not too late,” she asked.
“Not at all; you take care of the Golems, we’ll beat these guys.”
“Right.” Starla turns on the thrusters and jets off towards the onslaught of Magma Golems in the distance causing destruction.
The others race at Wulf and Ravenoire as they raced towards them.
Wulf cartwheels over Alex and towards Phoebe. He lunges from the right and Phoebe leans left as she attacked back. Wulf quickly brings his sword down and blocks. They go back and forth until Wulf spirals around and elbows her in the back before proceeding over to Willis. Willis sidesteps, ducks, spirals and then uppercuts Wulf in the chin before summoning his weapon.
Ravenoire moves his attention away from Caitlin, Phoebe, Alex, Starla, and Meerlix and helps Wulf with Max and Willis;
Moments before they attacked, a distraught civilian ran out towards Slade; he grabbed her and used her as leverage against them, which made Wulf look over in disgust.
Willis knocks Wulf down with a frontal kick to the stomach. Wulf looks at him in anger, but doesn’t proceed to attack back. Instead, he ran over to Ravenoire and separates him from his hostage.
“Not good at following orders, are you? I said we do this MY WAY! No civilian casualties!”
“Why do you care if a few of them live or die?” Ravenoire threw Wulf to the ground.
“I may not be evil like you, but doesn’t mean I’m a pushover!”
Ravenoire slashes at Wulf, but misses as Wulf slashes back from the left and the right.
“What’s going on here?”
“I dunno…”
“No! What are you doing, traitor?!”
Farenhart then teleports out of his lair and onto the battlefield; he stands beside his monster, Ravenoire.
“Looks like you lost control of your monster, Farenhart.”
“Not for long, I haven’t...” he yells out for his Magma Golems, who them swarmed in to help Ravenoire
As the Magma Golems stopped causing destruction, Starla took notice. She cut a path for Wulf to escape.
“I’m outta here!”
“Wait!” Max yelled out as he took off after him.
Wulf turned to strike, but Max fought back. After a few seconds, Wulf temporarily injured him long enough to get away.
Max’s persistence showed as he got back up and continued the chase, leaving his friends to face Ravenoire on their own. Max managed to follow him all the way back into the woods far outside city of the town, “Stop Wulf!”
“You again?! I don’t need this!” Wulf quickly picks up some dirt and throws it.
Max shields his eyes as he moves closer.
Wulf unsheathes his sword as Max called for his pill bug armor; with his injury, Wulf moved a lot slower than he did before. For every attack, Wulf threw, Max blocked; Wulf attacks low, and Max’s armor moved to his shin as he blocked; his armor moved back up to his elbow as he performs a flying elbow to the top of Wulf’s head.
With Wulf on the ground, Max shifts his armor to his left leg as he brings it down on Wulf like an axe; Wulf rolls out of the way and hops onto his feet. He strikes with his sword; Max knocks it from his hand with a backhand after the armor switches to his right arm. Max proceeds to deliver the final strike, but Wulf blocks with arms up in an ‘X’, draws Max in close, delivers a shin kick and brings him down on one knee.
“Stubborn boy, why do you continue to pursue me?! Why is this document so important you?” Wulf asks.
“Look, if you wanna destroy me, go ahead. But know this; my friends won’t stop until they avenge me.”
“Don’t test me!” Wulf brings his fist within striking distance, but stops himself just before the initial attack.
“You’re not evil, I noticed that when you saved those women.”
“Look, kid, I’m not like my evil twin; I only killed those who threaten the way of life of the peaceful.”
“And what Farenhart has you doing doesn’t count as threatening the peace?”
“Please, what harm could a piece of paper do?”
“That piece of paper will lead him to a rare stone that is the power source of an artifact millions of years old.
“What type of artifact are we talking about here?”
“The Karma Lunari…”
“I’ve heard of that; the Goddess Luna’s fortune, right?”
“Yeah… we’re trying to keep people like him from using it for evil purposes.”
“If I had known, I wouldn’t have taken the job.”
“You mentioned something about a twin, mind telling me about it?”
Wulf pauses as he’s not sure if he can trust a stranger with is life story.
Meanwhile, Max’s friends still fought Ravenoire and the Magma Golems for the safety of the town.
Phoebe took over in place of Starla in the WASP stinger while Starla helped the others.
Meerlix dazzles many Golems with his lighting fast agility and fury swipe attacks, Alex showed a combination of excellent swordsmanship with his scorpion saber and gunplay with his sidearm; Caitlin and Willis took on Ravenoire with their weapons, “Of all the times my brother picks to go AWOL and he picks now?”
“We need to hold on until he returns.”
“You know it’ll take a lot more than this to take me down,” Starla said as she threw in a couple good strikes with her armadillo blades and silenced a few Magma Golems for good.
“Starla, behind you!”
Starla quickly converts into light and scatters before reassembling behind the Magma Golem for the final strike. She then back flips off the chunk of the building and plows straight through another pack of Golems on her way towards Meerlix.
“How you holding up, Meerlix?”
“You know me; always ready for a good fight, no matter the odds.”
Meanwhile, Wulf explains the story of his evil twin among other things, “His name was Jodan; not sure if it was a given name or birth name. We were both part of a super soldier project designed to make more obedient subjects, ones that would follow orders without question. The project was disbanded and Jodan and I are the only ones left.”
“How is that possible, wouldn’t you have been disposed of to keep things a secret?”
“The company tried… and failed; Jodan burned the place down in our escape, though I had no knowledge of this at the time. We traveled the universe ever since that day, chased by one team of mercenaries after another due to a crime he committed. We had to fight our way off a hostile planet filled with exotic creatures. It was me, Jodan, and a bunch of travelers; not all of us survived. One day, we met an army seeking revenge on Planet Gaia for sentencing them into exile; they threatened nearby home world, Zelos Prime. We stopped them, Jodan assumed command of the army and vanished; I’ve been tracking him ever since.”
“What led you here?”
“One of my earlier assignments led me to a known criminal. I’ve been tracking him for months and when I finally got close to him, the b*****d opened a rift in space and sent me here.”
“Are you saying you’re from an alternate universe?”
“Hard to believe, yes, but it’s the truth. Though I didn’t arrive here at this precise moment thanks to him; at least not right away, my last assignment landed me on this world’s moon. I was chasing criminal who was experimenting with a rare plant that could indoctrinate human subjects and use them slaves.”
“What happened to him…?”
“He had turned it into weapon of mass destruction and was planning to use it on Gaia before my partner and I launched it and him into the sun and destroyed it. That was several weeks before I met Farenhart and offered my services to him, by the way, here’s the piece of the parchment if you want it. If you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to right a wrong…”
“Wait…” but before Max could finish, Wulf was already gone.
Meanwhile in Max’s absence, Ravenoire soon became victorious over the others, “The mighty Gaia rangers at their finest,” he mocked.
“Finish them!” Farenhart ordered.
“How about you try your hand at someone a lil more challenging?”
“About time, traitor; you had better have the rest of the parchment.”
“No I don’t, and in light of new information, I won’t be getting it for you.”
“You might wanna run that by me again.”
“You heard me the first time, hothead.”
“I did, I just thought I’d give you the chance to rethink your decision.”
“I’ve already made up my mind; keep the rest of your payment, I won’t be needing it.”
“Ravenoire, show him what I do to traitors!”
“Gladly…” Ravenoire approached Wulf, but Wulf stood his ground with his sword still sheathed waiting for his opportunity.
When it arose, Wulf quickly pulled the sword out and sliced through Ravenoire. Standing behind him, Wulf quickly turned for another strike; Ravenoire grabs onto the blade and Wulf delivers a swift kick to the shin and makes him kneel delivering his next strike, “If this is the best you have to offer, I am not impressed.” With a final strike, Wulf downed the beast for good. “Come at me yourself, Farenhart, if you have the guts…”
“Be careful what you wish for.” Farenhart takes his sword and strikes from the right while Wulf lunges forward and blocks and attacks in low, causing Farenhart to defend. They motion back and forth at each other for minutes until Wulf cartwheels behind him and takes Farenhart’s other sword from off his back.
Farenhart turns and Wulf blocks each of his moves alternately with both swords until trapping his sword by placing one sword underneath area separating the blade from the handle, and placing another sword above it.
“You’ve picked the wrong man to mess with…”
“Oh I didn’t know I was messing with a man, more like an abomination,” Farenhart breaks free of Wulf’s grip, pushes him back with a strong back fist to the chest and then brings his free hand to his face and jerks it away as he shoots a beam of energy from his eyes; Wulf spiraled onto his back instantly. “You may have bested my warrior, but that was just luck.”
“Oh I think we all have to disagree with you on that, brimstone breath…”
“And who’s ‘we’?”
“All of us…”
“Meddlesome Gaia Rangers, you’re more trouble than you’re worth.” He calls in more Magma Golems to deal with them, leaving Wulf once again on his own. “Now where were we…?”
As Farenhart makes his way towards Wulf, Max jumps in.
“Leave’em alone, Farenhart!”
“Alright, if I need to go through you to get to him, then that’s the way it has to be.”
“What took you so long?”
Max dons his pill bug armor; he and Farenhart approach each other, Max ducks as Farenhart takes a swing at him, holds up his right arm with his armor attached as Farenhart swings in from the opposite direction for another. He pushes upward to get Farenhart’s sword out of the way before he throws a strong left punch to push him backwards.
Farenhart fires another beam from his eyes, but Max cartwheels out of the way, initiates a sweep of his opponent’s feet with his right and proceeds to land a punch.
Farenhart rolls out of the way and gets back on his feet for another strike
Wulf approaches, spirals around Max and hits Farenhart with a slash only to get hit by Farenhart’s attack at the same time.
“Wulf, are you okay?”
“I’m fine…” he shakes Max’s arm off his wounded shoulder. “Go help your friends.
“No. you’re injured. I won’t leave you.”
With his crossbow in hand, Meerlix gets Farenhart’s attention long enough to allow Max and Wulf to escape.
“We gotta get outta here.”
“Come back you coward!”
“Farenhart!” Phoebe got his attention long enough to charge up a blast with WASP stinger and strikes him down. “Had enough?”
“Don’t assume this is over. I’ll be back with an even powerful monster.” Farenhart vanishes in a flash.
“C’mon, we gotta find Max and that guy…”
Meanwhile somewhere in the forest outside of town
“Are you sure you’re okay.”
“Just a lil shaken up; I don’t see how you can survive hits like that.”
“Our dad developed this machine to give us superpowers; it’s hard to explain, but they’re the reason why we’re so resilient.”
“Perhaps I should meet your father and see if he can’t hook me up with superpowers of my own.”
“Maybe, but I’m not sure he’d come to trust you like I have.”
“Allow me to earn my trust by making up for the harm I’ve done. Farenhart almost got his hands on this, so I… got to it before he could.” Wulf pulls the piece of the parchment, he had recently given Max, from his pocket; Max takes the smaller piece he had and they both reunite them.
“Awesome. Listen, we’d better get going.”
“Good idea,” Wulf said.
Max wraps his arm around Wulf’s shoulders and carries him to safety.  

[Samuel Grant]

Chapter 26
Day of the Wolves part 2

“I don’t suppose you’re good with reading alien symbols.”
“You know, they actually had a class like that at this academy I went to; but it was full.”
“So that’s a no then…”
“Yeah, it’s a no,” Wulf chuckled.
“Well I’m not sure how we’re meant to translate it.”
“Perhaps we should take it back to your place.”
Farenhart refused to give up; which is why he sent out the second of his bird-like creatures, Stormclaw and more magma golems in another failed attempt to re-obtain the parchment and dispose of Wulf permanently. Their odds improved slightly based solely on Wulf’s injury as, every time they hit his arm, he would shudder. He had to slow down a bit and let Max pick up the slack.
“You okay there, Wulf?”
“Don’t you worry about me; this old dog’s still got some fight left in him!”
“Old? Just exactly what is your age?”
“That was a joke, Max.”
As Wulf fought his half of the Magma Golem horde, he notices Max in need of assistance. He then turns back to the Golem in from of him; he takes a couple more of them down, and then looks up as Stormclaw, who had his wings up. He shoots explosive feathers from them, which Wulf deflected with his sword. As the final feather flew at him, Wulf turns his sword slightly and bounces the feather off of it towards the horde surrounding Max. The blast from the feather was enough to knock them all down.
“Okay, how’d you do that?”
“All in the reflexes, boy…”
“That was impressive.” Max then punches the ground, creates a crack, and drops the Magma golems in it.
“Okay, now I’m impressed.”
As the last of the enemy falls, Wulf temporarily blinds Stormclaw and he and Max continue on before he could regain his sight. When Wulf takes the lead, he closes his eyes and all around him was then projected as a light blue aura; the trees, the rocks, the grass, everything. The sky was pitch black. Up ahead of him and Max, he saw the ground was loose; like there was a giant sinkhole. As they approach, Wulf holds Max back.
“What are you doing?”
“Saving your life, kid. Stick close to me,” Wulf said, moving to the right of the hole a couple of inches away from its edge.
“Mind telling me what’s going on?”
“What’s going on is we’ve got a sinkhole that I want to actively avoid.”
“What?”
“When I close my eyes, I can summon kinetic energy that’ll allow me to see things no matter if it’s dark or if they’re hidden from me. I call this power ‘blindsight’. Technically it’s sonar, but I wanted to make up a name for it since I’m not a bat.”
After getting back to the mansion, the two head down to the command center; Wulf takes one look at Samuel and the two start arguing.
“Wulf ninja warrior, I had a feeling it was you.”
“Nice to see you too, Samuel.”
“You two know each other?” Max asked.
“More or less; you failed to mention he was your dad,” sarcasm laid deep in Wulf’s tone as he looked over a Max.
“Wulf, I hear nothing from you for months and you show up now; working for our enemy?”
“You know me; I’m always willing to work for anyone for a price. It’s my nature as a soldier.”
“Soldier of fortune seems more like it…”
“At least I work for the money; you’re just reaping the benefits of other’s labor. Grant Industries, what a joke.”
“Alright, that’s it. You wanna take this outside?”
“I’m up for it if you are.”
“Wulf, you’re badly injured, maybe you should rest.”
“Yeah you’re right. We’ll finish this later,” Wulf replied. “Besides, you should be more worried about the Karma Lunari jewels and less worried about me.”
Samuel looked as Wulf in astonishment.
“Max told me. I had to hear it from a former enemy, because my boss had me on a need-to-know basis.”
As Bradshaw wanders in, he takes one look at Wulf.
“You still have your butler…” Wulf said.
“No one bothered to tell me we were having a visitor.” Bradshaw extends his hand, “Always a pleasure to see you again, Wulf.”
“Haven’t aged a bit, Bradshaw,” Wulf complimented as he shook his hand.
“Have you had any lucky deciphering it?” Samuel asked Wulf.
“What do I look like, a treasure hunter?” Wulf answered.
“May I see it?”
Wulf pulls the paper from his pocket and sets it on the table as he passes it to Samuel. “According to Alex’s contact, she says this symbol means fire.” As Samuel presses his finger over the symbol, the table the parchment was on ran a line from the edge of the paper to the corner of the table with the word “fire” in bold letters and the Japanese symbol for it.
“Sir, there are two million search results for the keywords ‘fire’ and ‘gem’. It will take weeks to sift through them all.”
Wulf was baffled by the sound of MEGAN’s voice as if filled the room out of nowhere. “Who’s that?” he asked.
“That’s MEGAN; she’s the super computer, which controls the command center; and most of the household.”
“Nice to meet you, MEGAN.”
“MEGAN, this is Wulf ninja warrior; a friend of mine from long time ago.”
Wulf takes one look at the document after he notices something odd over one of the symbols where a drop of lemonade from the glass next to Willis was spilt. He snatches the glass, which makes Willis upset.
“Hey, if you’re thirsty, go make your own.”
Wulf pours a bit more of the yellow liquid on the parchment.
“Hey, what the hell are you doing…?” before Caitlin could finish, she saw what Wulf was trying to accomplish.
As the symbols dissolved into a black puddle on the page, Wulf rubs a finger across it to reveal something underneath.
“What in tarnation…?” Phoebe said as Wulf rubbed the rest of the ink off to reveal a bunch of numbers.
“What are those?”
“Longitude and Latitudes; clearly, someone needs to study geography.”
“Indeed,” Wulf added.
“Megan, bring up the world map.”
“I’ll just plug these numbers in and we shall have our coordinates,” Willis explained.
“Well…?”
“Might wanna pack your sunscreen; we’re going to Hawaii.”
“I’m coming with…”
“You’re still injured, Wulf.”
“Just patch me back up and I’m fine.”
“Just let’em go, Max. I tend to let him do whatever he wants when it comes to fighting. He’s as stubborn as he as ugly.
“I’ll take that as a compliment…”
Max and gang, accompanied by Wulf, arrive in Hawaii, one of the world’s most beautiful places and the world’s most popular vacation destinations. The placed smells fresh, like salty ocean, sweet plumeria blossoms and trade winds all mixed together.
On the beach, surfers were riding 10 foot swells; party-goers were either playing volleyball or lying in the sun on a towel or blanket.
Max and the others abandon the aircraft somewhere in the jungle close to the bottom of the volcano opposite of the lava flow, which was pouring into the ocean.
“Okay, I’m not sure if I’m reading this thing right; it says the jewel’s inside the volcano.”
“You’re reading the same thing we’re reading, Starla,” Alex explained.
“We’ll find a way to get it out, in the meantime let’s get moving before anyone we don’t like shows up.”
From out of nowhere, Farenhart appears. He says in a menacing tone, “Too late…” he, Ravenoire and his Magma Golems stand in their path. “I’ve come for the jewel… and to deal with him.”
“I’ve seen the light, Farenhart; why can’t you?”
“Because the light dimmed for me long ago,” he replied.
“It’s not too late to do good.”
“You are so naïve. You roam from planet to planet, fighting one cause after another for money. Why do you care what happens? It’s not your fight.”
“I care… because I was bred as a soldier by Gambino corp. I still have some good in me.”
“What’s Gambino corp.?”
“Back in my world, Samuel Grant doesn’t exist; so no Grant Industries.”
“Thanks for the offer, Wulf, but I’m fine where I am now.”
“And so am I; I’m standing between you and the destruction of this world. It’s where I belong.”
“You could’ve had more power than you already possess.”
“No man should have this much power.”
“Well, lucky for me I’m not a man. I’m far above it.” he signals his soldiers to attack.
Stormclaw takes the lead out of all of them.
“You really won’t join the side of good?” Wulf asked as he Farenhart jump straight into a swordfight.
“I already answered your question the first time,” Farenhart grunts as he says ‘question’ and uses both swords to cut Wulf’s weapon in half.
Wulf throws the sword away and evades Farenhart’s swings until he has the opportunity to strike back hard and fast to the chin; then he throws a low kick to the thigh, spins around, and lands a midair back kick.
After a couple of strikes, Alex summons his Scorpion Saber; but he doesn’t use it, he lends it to Wulf.
“Good looking out, Alex!” he lands a couple of strikes before Farenhart has a chance to block.
Farenhart then attacks high with his left sword and attacks low with the other while Wulf blocks.
Before the blade approached his midsection, Wulf arches forward and then stands straight to perform a knee to the stomach. When Farenhart took a couple steps back, Wulf quickly spirals; pressing the button on the handle, he switches the blade to its secondary form and then wraps it around Farenhart’s waist. He pulls him forward after he gets a firm grip on him and hits him with palm strike to the chest.
Farenhart swings at him with his right and Wulf ducks.
Wulf releases his grip, causing Farenhart to spiral, and attacks with several strikes high and low. On the final attack, Farenhart lands on his back.
“We need to get to that jewel before they do,” Starla stated.
“I agree…” Willis replied before he picked up Starla and rushed off at sonic speed towards the volcano.
Alex transforms into a cheetah and follows them.
“Stormclaw! Go after the jewel.” Farenhart asked.
“Yes sir,” Stormclaw flies off immediately. He reaches the rim of the mountain as Willis, Starla, and Alex do and fights them for possession.
“I’ll go get it,” Starla said after looking down to a pool of lava.
“Whoa hang on. Are you sure?”
“In my light form, I can handle the heat if I concentrate hard enough.”
At the bottom of the volcanic tube, Starla spots a brilliant flash of light shining brighter than the molten lava itself. She hovers over it with one arm extended. She reaches for it and then pulls back whenever the lava would splash up over it; dragging it down a bit, but allowing it to come back up. She makes another grab for it and pulls it out of the pool quickly before she makes her ascent.
Up above, Willis automatically rushes towards Stormclaw. With the Elephant axe, he slashes left and Stormclaw jumps up and lands on his blade. He then walks across it like a tightrope walker, leaps over Willis’ head, spirals on the way down and slashes him in the back causing him to fall to the ground.
Alex spirals over to him and shoots him in the back.
Willis changes modes on his weapon. He takes aim at Stormclaw, who chops through his weapon’s beam with his wings crossed like a pair of scissors.
Alex takes the opportunity to leap at him with a flying kick and pushes him back. After he lands, Stormclaw takes a swing at him and misses.
With his super speed, Willis zips past and hits Stormclaw with an uppercut and sends him straight down the volcano; he tries to fly out as he descends, but couldn’t.
The same time Starla gets out, Wulf finishes Farenhart off with one last strike to the side. After he falls, he gets back up within minutes clutching his shoulder.
Starla, Willis, and Alex descend the mountain and join Phoebe, Meerlix, Max, and Caitlin behind Wulf after they defeat the Farenhart’s army.
“Keep your money, Farenhart. I quit.”
Without any last words, Farenhart retreats to his lair. Once the battle was over, Wulf turned to Alex, scorpion saber in hand, and presents it to him.
“I believe this is yours. It’s a fine weapon, but I don’t find myself wanting one any time soon.”
After defeating the rest of the Golems, Wulf and the others return home.
“Here you are, Samuel, one Ruby without the long wait.”
“Thanks, Wulf; don’t know what we’d do without you…”
“I don’t why people say that; your team did just fine without my help. But I tell ya what, I’ll stay on and help you guys out anyway.”
“That’s good to know, Wulf. We’ll need all the help we can get.”
“Meh… I don’t do so well with housemates. I’ll join your team, but I won’t be living here.”
“Wait, Wulf. Before you go, here’s a lovely parting gift.” Samuel gives him a brand new sword identical to the one Farenhart destroyed.
“Thanks. Sorry I didn’t get you anything.”
“Oh and so we can stay in touch,” Samuel hands Wulf a communicator.
Later that night, Wulf roams the streets as a silent guardian; watching over the seemingly peaceful city for any disturbances. He soon came across a woman crying for help. He approached a dark alleyway where a couple of thugs have a woman cornered; she had caramel colored skin. Her hair was black as night and worn in a braided style with a ponytail. She wore a brown leather jacket with a red shirt and black jeans.
The men were trying to steal her purse when Wulf intervened. He destroys all the lights surrounding the woman, except for one above where she was standing in fear. With his sword still in its wrap, he fights his opponents with lightning fast agility; giving them no chance to attack back. When the fight was done, Wulf left the men lying unconscious with their heads resting against a dumpster. He stays in the shadows where the woman could not see him as he throws back her purse.
“Thank you,” she whispered.
Wulf hesitated for a while and then answers, “Happy to help.”  

[Samuel Grant]

Chapter 27
Which is which

The rangers wake up at 9 in the morning, ready to go out and have fun. Willis and Starla were going to go to the park, Phoebe and Max were going for a walk, Meerlix had tickets to a musical (the others guys were wondering why anyone would want to see a musical), Caitlin was going to spend the day at a friend’s house, Alex was going for a drive; no one knew what Wulf was up to.
“We’ve defeated two already, which means we only have five more to go.
“Don’t get overconfident. You beat them on account of two of them being power-hungry and their selfishness made them vulnerable. The other five may not be a walk in the park,” Bradshaw explained.
“Don’t worry, Bradshaw. We’ll beat them just like the others.”
“I’ve monitored your progress from the first encounter. They took you the ground without as much as a struggle. I suggest reassessing your strategy on how to beat them.”
“They’re shadow versions of ourselves created in the image of our weapons, so they know how we fight. Perhaps we need to switch them up.”
“Everyone, pass your glove to the man or woman to your right; anyone at the end of the row, pass it back to your left or right.”
Phoebe gives her glove to Alex, Alex gives his to Max, and Max gives his to Caitlin, and so on so forth.
“In order to beat them, we’ll need to challenge our counterparts with each other’s weapons.”
“Are you sure this will work?”
“On a scale of 1 to 10, 3; but it’s the only plan we have so far.”
“They’ve been spotted just outside the El Cerrito mall.”
“Okay, time to go to work…”
As usual, the shadow rangers leave a trail of destruction in their path. As pieces of the buildings fall, the people scatter like roaches in a room after you turn on the light. The red, green, blue, black, and white shadow rangers stand side by side, marching through the mall’s interior. After they reach the escalators, Max, Willis, Starla, Phoebe, Caitlin, Alex, and Meerlix show up; the shadow rangers could literally feel their energy as they approach them from behind.
“We’ve been looking for you…” the Black shadow ranger said.
“Well, you didn’t look hard enough,” Alex replied.
“This hardly seems fair; seven on five. How about we even the odds.” The blue shadow ranger summons Cobra drones to join the fight.
“You call this even?”
“Attack…”
The rangers’ counterparts rush at them at the same time and the rangers while the Cobra drones take up the rear.
While the others tackled their counterparts, Phoebe and Caitlin stayed back and took on the army of cobra drones.
Max starts off using Alex’s Scorpion Saber versus his counterpart’s spiked version of his pill bug armor. Sparks fly as red shadow ranger blocks left and right. After twelve hits, red shadow ranger goes on the offense. He throws a low punch below the belt, which Max blocks. Seconds later, Max takes a swing from the right; the shadow ranger ducks and takes a shot at Max; pushing him back by his heels before he runs up and throws a low kick to the hip. Max switches to using his sidearm, but the red shadow ranger bounces the shots off his arms as the pill bug armor switches from left to right at the speed of sound.
Using Caitlin’s weapon, Alex throws the one from his right hands to distract the black shadow ranger while he rushes up. Getting in close, the shadow ranger slashes at him upwards from his left; Alex sidesteps and strikes hard and fast with his left and ducks when the black shadow ranger swings from his right.
Picking up his other fan blade, Alex performs an uppercut; causing black shadow ranger to spiral, and when he does, he switches to the weapon’s secondary mode and latches onto Alex’s waist. Alex wraps more and more of the weapon around him as he pulls himself close for the next strike.
Meerlix blocks an attack from blue shadow ranger’s hawk crossbow with Phoebe’s Mantis boomerang, and curves it before throwing it; blue shadow ranger holds his weapon up and bounces the boomerang back. As Meerlix catches it, blue shadow ranger turns his crossbow into a sword and rushes up. He attacks Meerlix from the right, but he blocks and quickly scratches at blue shadow ranger’s shoulder. As he spirals, Meerlix kicks him in the back and he lands on his stomach.
Rolling over, blue shadow ranger then revert his weapon back to crossbow mode; Meerlix bats each shot away like baseballs. Getting back on his feet, blue shadow ranger and Meerlix have a swordfight; Meerlix goes on the offensive for a while until blue shadow ranger takes control of the situation.
Starla, using Meerlix’s weapon, fires shot after shot; all them were deflected as white shadow ranger spiraled and moved her Armadillo blades up, down, left, right gracefully like a ballerina on stage moving her arms as she performed a dance for the audience. Starla converts to sword mode as her counterpart brings both blades together and fires a beam of white light, which knocks the weapon from Starla’s hands.
As we reach Willis, who was using Starla weapons, the shadow rangers were on to the ranger’s strategy.
“You rangers are finally learning…”
“Surprised?” Willis asked.
“Not really.” The green shadow ranger replied and knocked Willis to the ground. He interrupts Phoebe in the middle of her fighting off the cobra drones.
“Phoebe!!” Willis yelled.
“Why worry about her? You should be concerned with yourself,” white shadow ranger answers.
Within seconds the fight matchups were as followed: Max against black shadow ranger, Starla versus blue shadow ranger, Phoebe versus green shadow ranger, Willis versus white shadow ranger, Caitlin against red shadow ranger, and Alex and Meerlix were left with the cobra drones.
There was still no sign of Wulf anywhere which meant Samuel had to step in once again as Purple ranger, “I knew it was a mistake letting Wulf on the team. I should’ve followed my gut instincts and said ‘no’…” He dons the suit and flies up out of the hole in the garage floor and heads out the garage door as he makes his way to the scene.
He slowly descends upon the mall and flies through the revolving door before he holds both arms up with his feet sliding along the ground and fires a bolt of white light from his palms. He takes down green shadow ranger and gets the attention of the others as he readies ever piece of ammunition he has stocked in the suit.
“The purple ranger…”
“Just in time; as always…”
“You guys seem bushed; let me take over,” Samuel said in an altered voice.
The shadow rangers give off a low growl as a response.
“You want them, you need to go through me first.”
“With pleasure…”
Samuel materializes his katana in his right hand and slings it around in an intimidating fashion before he rushes into battle. He takes all of them down with several strikes, except for the blue shadow ranger, who somehow slipped away to attack Meerlix.
“Oh no you don’t, bird boy…!” Samuel swoops in as the blue shadow ranger takes one last strike at Meerlix while he was down and pushes the blue shadow ranger away from behind.
In time, Serpitox calls the shadow rangers back to base, which leaves Samuel confused.
“Hmm… that was easy.” He looks to the rangers as they gather around a wounded Meerlix. “Is he okay?”
“He’s badly hurt.”
“It probably would’ve been worse if you hadn’t come along.”
“Happy to help. I must go now.”
Everything for Meerlix goes back as Samuel takes off yet again, leaving the rangers in the dark as to who he really is. He wakes up and finds he is lying in bed; right arm in a cast, his cheek bruised and his left ear in bandages. He struggles to get up as he finds every part of him aches.
“Whoa, take it easy, friend,” Phoebe said as she sat by his bedside.
“So much for Willis’ plan, eh?” Meerlix chuckled, but then stopped once he started hurting again.
“Don’t concern yourself with that right now, Meerlix. Just get some rest.”
Meanwhile, down in the command center, an infuriated Samuel stands near the glass tabletop with the black screen underneath while the other rangers were at work all around him.
“I can’t believe this, WHERE was Wulf when you guys needed him? You were lucky that purple ranger showed when he did.”
“I tried hailing his communicator frequency, but there was no response,” Bradshaw explained.
“He’s just entered the mansion now, sir,” MEGAN explained.
“Bring him down here; I must have words with him.”
Wulf descends the winding staircase into the room, “Look, if you’re gonna scold me, then don’t. I was busy.”
“That’s the problem; you’re ALWAYS busy. You could’ve just said no if you didn’t wanna join us. They needed you and you weren’t there.”
“Sounds like they managed just fine without me…”
“Actually, the purple ranger showed just in time; well, sort of…”
“Meerlix got injured.”
“Oh my god, I’m sorry.”
“What was so important that you abandoned your team?”
“I do various assignments on the side; like rescuing lost children or catching bad guys. You know… the usual.”
“Very noble of you, but how about contributing to the team sometime?”
“Maybe next time those bastards show themselves, you leave’em to me.”
“You wouldn’t stand a chance, Wulf, believe me,” Max said.
“We tried using each other’s weapons when we fought our counterparts, but that didn’t work,” Alex said.
“Yeah, they just switched opponents on us and we still got our butts kicked,” Caitlin explained.
“Just be thankful we’ve only got five to deal with instead of seven,” Starla replied.
Back at Serpitox’s lair, the shadow rangers once again argue as to why they were called back.
“I almost had the blue ranger. Why’d he stop me?”
“He only thinks of us as his play things,” the green shadow ranger said.
“Do I look like a toy to you?!” the white shadow ranger bellowed.
“It’s hard to tell in this light,” the black shadow ranger teased.
“Not funny…”
“Ooh sensitive,” the black shadow ranger answered back.
In the other room, Fahl Kun and Pachytar stood around Serpitox as he sat in his chair.
“They’re getting angry, my lord,” Fahl Kun replied.
“I’m sure we’re in for a repeat performance.”
“Why did I create them…? It took almost all of my energy during that last battle sending them all out at once. Also, with each one that gets destroyed, I have an unknown adversary stealing their energy from me.”
“What will you do?”
“I’ll send the blue shadow ranger back out, but with you as his backup.”
“Shall I tell them?”
“Not yet. Wait a moment while I rest up.”
Back at home; Meerlix was meant to be resting, but instead, he was up and about. He took a stroll down to the command center while everyone else was lounging around the house, supposedly keeping an eye on him; but they weren’t doing a good job of it if he was able to get past them so easily.
Meerlix was sitting in a rolling office chair having MEGAN replay the footage of the fight from earlier.
When Caitlin went to check on him in his room, he wasn’t there. In time, she found out he was down in the command center, “You’re supposed to be in bed. What’s the deal, man?”
“I couldn’t sleep. I kept having nightmares about the fight.”
“Sitting here dwelling on the past isn’t healthy.”
“We need to learn their weakness for the next time.”
“If you don’t get rest, you won’t feel better. If you don’t allow yourself to get well, there may not ‘be’ a next time.”
“I doubt the shadow rangers will wait for me to get well again.”
“If you’re so eager to get back in the fight, maybe you should use Samuel’s machine; get a power.”
“Not sure it works on aliens.”
“He could always take the serum,” Samuel’s voice explained out of nowhere. “But it won’t give him a superpower; It’ll just give him the ability to rapidly heal.”
Caitlin looks back at the screen, which starts to should triples of the video playback just when the camera shows Meerlix fighting his counterpart.
Once Meerlix looks back at the screen, he gets an idea. “Samuel, you remember that serum you gave Bradshaw; the one that allowed him to mutate into the monster?”
“Yeah…” Samuel said confusedly.
“You think maybe it’d be possible to make one that’ll make duplicates of a person?”
“I’m… not sure I understand.”
Meerlix approaches the chessboard with the pieces shaped like the rangers and their doppelgangers. He reaches into the drawer underneath the chessboard and pulls out five pieces that represent him and replaces Max, Willis, Phoebe, Caitlin, Alex, and Starla’s piece.
“Oh, now I see it…” Samuel said. “Just give me a moment to whip something up; MEGAN, get everyone down here.”
“On it sir…”
Down in the lab, Samuel takes a Bunsen burner, a pan, a cheese grater, and a cutting board after he gets the following ingredients: chocolate (in bar form), baking powder, ginger ale, Boomslang snake skin, and chameleon DNA. He takes about half the chocolate and grates it into powder while melting the rest. Once melted, he pours all of the contents into a large container, pours in the whole bottle of ginger ale, adds in the DNA and snake skin and baking powder, and stirs it all together. The mixture seemed as if it did nothing at first, but once he presented it to the rangers…
“Alright, Samuel, what’s so important?” Caitlin asked.
“My serum, which allowed Bradshaw to assume the monster form; I modified it a bit and now it should play a part in defeating the shadow rangers.”
“How so?”
“Meerlix came up with the idea that you should assume his form in order to trick them.”
“That concoction will turn us into him?” Willis asked.
“Not yet it won’t; it needs just one more ingredient.” Samuel pulls out one of Meerlix’s furs and places it in the container before stirring it all around.
“This all seems so familiar…” Max said, scratching his head.
“Allow me to demonstrate,” Samuel said, scooping some of the bizarre, brown liquid into a plastic see-through cup. He then brings it to his lips and drinks the whole thing. Within moments, he twitched and convulsed as the brew took its toll on him; rearrange his cellular structure one molecule at a time. Soon, he grew fur; his eyes turned urine yellow and his pupils maintained an oval like shape similar to cat’s eyes. He grew whiskers, sharp claws then protruded from his fingertips. “It’ll last depending on how much you drink. You can’t be sure how long your battle will last, so drink at least a cupful.”
Disobeying Serpitox once again, the shadow rangers set out to destroy the Gaia rangers. They get their attention by attacking a random factory outside of the city. By the time the rangers got there, the place was in ruins; but their enemy was still standing around waiting for them.
They were in for a shock as they saw not one, not two, not three, not four, not five, not six, but seven Meerlix’s staring them in the face with matching clothes; no weapons though. If they carried them, they’d give away who’s who before the fight even starts.
“What’s the matter, guys?” Starla asked.
“You look like you’re seeing double,” Max teased.
“Which one’s the blue ranger?” blue shadow ranger asked.
“You’ll never know…,” Meerlix mocked.
With the battle underway, each of the shadow rangers take on one of the Meerlix’s; and the two left over help two of the others. They each try to find out which one was their respective counterpart as the battled raged on, but had no luck. The rangers kept their minds clear, so not to give any details away that might make things easier for their enemy.
As the seconds turned to minutes and the minutes slowly accumulated, the shadow rangers were no closer to finding out who’s who.
“The blue ranger could be any one of them; how do I go about narrowing it down?”
“Allow me to help ease your pain…” Wulf’s voice said from behind the blue shadow ranger as a red jolt of lightning shoots at all seven rangers.
As they all fall, they still retain the form of Meerlix. They each look up in surprise one by one as they saw their attacker; Wulf ninja warrior had been transformed into a gold and black figure with long, pointy dog ears. He had no article of clothing on; just gold rings around his wrists and ankles, a golden circle painted over his chest and red, demonic eyes.
“What the…?” Phoebe asked in confusion.
“I am shadow ranger gold and I have come to claim the power of the Gaia rangers myself.”
“A gold shadow ranger?”
“How could this be?”
Back at Serpitox’s lair, he too was shocked as what he saw.
“So he’s the one that’s been stealing my shadow ranger’s energy.”
“Should go down and deal with this personally, master?”
“No, Fahl Kun. If he is the one, then he’d be too powerful for you or Pachytar to take on; even if you tackle him together.”
Back in the fight; the shadow rangers were also confused as to who this new guy was.
“What gives you the right to steal our bounty?”
“I’m stronger than you, I’m faster than you; I’m everything you’re not.”
“We’ll see about that, Anubis wannabe…”
“Let me spell it out for you; they’re mine… and if you try to stop me, none of us will possess their power.” Wulf holds up a weapon, which was similar to the WASP stinger Mark I, but in black. He aims it at the Gaia rangers first, but when the red shadow ranger took a step towards him, he fired.
The shadow rangers instantly fell to their knees; once they got up, all but the blue shadow ranger leaves.
“Your friends are smart.”
“They’re just cowards. C’mon, I’ll take you on myself.”
“I don’t think so…” Wulf sheds his monster form just as the other rangers stand directly behind him.
Realizing he had been tricked, the blue shadow ranger rushes into battle without thinking and the battle was over in minutes.
Wulf stood back as his friends delivered the final strike with the WASP stinger Mark II; Meerlix, the real one, got in the pilot seat and took him down with one shot.
Upon the shadow ranger’s defeat, the same mysterious force snatched up the energy left behind for himself.
Serpitox confronts his remaining shadow rangers in his semi-weakened state, “You disobey me again, yet you left your comrade to die alone; HOW COWARDLY OF ALL OF YOU! I had expected better!”
“But sir, we…”
“Don’t give me any excuses. You have failed! Perhaps this is somehow my fault. I should’ve given you more brains than you already possess in your collective heads. How you could allow yourselves to be so easily ‘tricked’, IS BEYOND ME!”
Back at home; once the others returned to normal.
“We barely survived that last battle. Why’d you have to hit so hard, Wulf?”
“Samuel told me I needed to make it convincing. We got rid of the other four and left blue shadow all by himself.”
“How’d you know he’d stay when his friends didn’t?”
“I studied the way he looked at you, Meerlix. He was more determined than the others to find you out and destroy you.”
“Well, now there are only four left. Let’s hope we have what it takes to beat’em.”  

[Samuel Grant]

Chapter 28
Attitude Adjustment

“What you working on, master?” Pachytar asks as he walks in the room.
“Just another way to destroy those rangers,” he answers.
“They do seem to get in the way; not even Celsior and Farenhart can stop them.”
“That’s because they’re preoccupied with something else, Fahl-Kun; the Jewels of the Karma Lunari, what a joke. In about a few hundred years’ time, the jewels will be obsolete, as you may already realize. Nowadays, science is the way to go. Look at what it’s done for the world we came from…”
“Yes, but technology today is so limited, I don’t see how these humans get things done.”
“Technology makes them weak,” Pachytar pounds his fist into his palm as he puts emphasis on weak. “They create things to make their days go a lil easier; they’ve become dependent on it like it were air.”
“How’s about one of you help me out instead of chatting?”
“What do you need us to do?”
“I need the rangers’ essence to perfect my newest serum. One of you be useful and keep them busy long enough to extract it; any of it will do: a strand of hair, dirt from their footsteps, it doesn’t matter,” Serpitox explained. “On second thought, why don’t you both go? The place will be quiet enough for me to think while you’re gone.”
“Yes master…” they both said at the same time before teleporting.
“Okay, I’ll draw them out; you sneak in behind them and gather the dirt from beneath their feet as we fight.” Pachytar said, handing her an old fashioned Dustbuster from the 50’s.
“Sounds like a plan, but how do we draw them out?” Fahl Kun asked.
“You leave that to me, you just be ready when I give the signal.”
Fahl-Kun vanishes; Pachytar heads towards civilians in the park that were playing and ruins their fun. He bashes headfirst into a tree, using all of his strength to uproot it.
One of the guys playing Frisbee with his friend just barely gets out of the way before it fell.
Meanwhile back at home, the rangers get the distress signal.
“Finally, Pachytar comes out to play,” Meerlix says.
“Look at him, he’s massive.” Phoebe said shocked at his size.
“You’re gonna have to fight as a team to beat him.”
“How would you know, Samuel?”
“Well, I uhh….”
“Never mind; we gotta go.”
Max, Willis and the others head down to the vehicle holding bay and take off. They arrive at the park just as Pachytar picks up a basketball some guys dropped and crushes it with his bare hands.
“Okay, I’m calling a foul on this one. Offensive foul,” Willis replied with a thumb down.
“Gaia Rangers, finally you show up.”
Moving in closer, Pachytar gets pelted with laser blasts; not just from the ranger’s weapons, but from Caitlin herself as she shoots beams through her eyes. The shots don’t have any effect as Pachytar moves in closer, charging through them like a rampaging bull, making them fall like bowling pins.
“Well, that was easy…”
Max launches Willis right at Pachytar and hits him in the back with a flying kick. As Pachytar moved forward, Meerlix hits him with an upward slash from his left paw.
Willis then fires at Pachytar with his sidearm, getting his attention; Pachytar’s trunk on his mask lengthens as he draws back and drops it down over him like a hammer.
Willis dives out of the way; Phoebe takes his place after turning invisible off in the distance and reappearing on Pachytar’s side with a right hook to the jaw.
Starla beams in and hits him with a palm thrust to the stomach.
Pachytar comes to his senses and strikes with a left punch, but Starla ducks. Pachytar comes around from the opposite direction his left fist and she blocks before placing her foot on his stomach and pushing off with a frontal kick.
Max leaps in high with his pill bug armor attached as he performs a flying punch, which Pachytar blocks before spinning him around and tossing him into his teammates.
“This is looking bad, sir,” Bradshaw says, stating the obvious as he and Samuel watched the fight on screen.
“And where is Wulf? He should be helping.”
“Best guess is he’s on another assignment, but I cannot determine where, because he turned off his locator.” MEGAN explained.
“Typical, he’s around when you don’t need him, but gone when you do.”
Back in the fight; Willis throws a right to Pachytar’s jaw, Pachytar retaliates with a back fist, which Willis ducks under before throwing an uppercut. Pachytar land a knee to Willis’ midsection and knocks him into the sandbox behind him.
Max takes out his laser and fires some shots until Pachytar rushes him like a football player; Pachytar was just about to knock him over when Phoebe rushes in while invisible and trips him.
Pachytar pounds the ground with a closed fist before getting up.
Starla jumps in and throws a straight punch to Pachytar’s mask; Pachytar grabs her by the wrists and turns her around; Starla strikes with her other elbow a couple times before Pachytar blocked.
Meerlix leapt in behind Pachytar and lands a few fury swipes to make him release Starla; he had his full attention to give Caitlin a clear shot with her laser vision.
Alex uses his morphing skills to transform into a gorilla and jumps on Pachytar’s back. After shaking him off, Pachytar turns to strike Alex, who grabs him by the wrists; Pachytar fights with him until breaking free and knocking him off his feet and on his face in the grass.
“Maybe it’s time I switched my style…” Pachytar said before summoning his shark tooth sword and causing the others to summon their weapons.
Fahl-Kun swoops in and lands feet first in front of him, “Had your fun?” she asked, not expecting an answer from him, “C’mon, we’re leaving; we got what we came for…” she and Pachytar vanished in an instant.
“What was that all about?”
Pachytar and Fahl Kun return to the lair.
“Were you successful…?” Serpitox asked.
Fahl held up the dust buster full of the soil the rangers had walked on.
“The final component for my experiment.” He takes the mini vacuum from her and dumps into a beaker. He then takes a piece of his armor from his upper left arm and drops it in along with the dust before pouring in a blue liquid. The liquid dissolves the dirt and his armor into a black dart. “Locate one of the rangers…” Serpitox paused for dramatic effect before giving the dart over to Fahl Kun, “And shoot them with this.”
“Okay… mind telling what this is?”
“Just complete the task; bring the ranger to me after the process is complete and I will explain if you succeed.”
“Why not let me do it?” Pachytar asked.
“You’re the muscle; she’s stealthier.”
“What about us?”
“What about you?” Serpitox addressed the shadow rangers.
“We can do just as well as them.”
“Why not send us?”
“Challenge my order one more time and I will vaporize you. Seven of you and you can’t even beat your seven counterparts. Every step you take ends in failure; and every failure is an insult to me.”
Back at home; Samuel folds his arms and turns his head in disgust as he notices Wulf enter.
“You need to work on your priorities.”
“They were doing just fine against that goliath. They didn’t need me.”
“Pachytar is stronger than he looks.”
“Is his loyalty truly in question, sir?”
“Bradshaw, stay out of this. Wulf, why didn’t you have your communicator on?”
“Guys, can we drop this and get back to what’s really important here?”
“Obviously they’re up to something far more sinister; Fahl Kun and Pachytar…”
“Obviously they’re gathering something to use against us and Pachytar was a diversion, but for what, I have no idea…”
“MEGAN, hack into one of the security cameras nearby and see what you can find.”
“Right away, Mr. Grant,” she replied.
Back at Serpitox’s lair, Serpitox calls forth Fahl Kun again to take on an important assignment.
While they talked, the four remaining shadow rangers had a discussion of their own.
“It’s obviously he doesn’t have respect for us as shadow rangers. We should do something about this,” the red shadow ranger mumbled to Green one.
“Yes, but not before we deal with the Gaia rangers and take their powers.”
“They outsmarted last time, but we’ll have the upper hand when we see them again.”
Back at the command center
“Scans have picked up something.”
“There’s our winged mistress…”
“Yes, but what’s she doing vacuuming up dirt?”
“I’ll go alert Starla to what we have found.”
Meanwhile out by the pool, Starla decided to take a relaxing swim; Fahl Kun snuck onto the premises in her wingless form, wearing only the strapless top and brown pants; no hat. From a distance, she watches Starla’s every move until she saw the opportunity to strike.
Starla gets out of the pool and puts her towel on when Fahl Kun reaches for the dart in her right pocket and creeps in closer. Fahl stuck her in the neck with the dart. After letting go, Starla convulses violently after removing the item from her neck.
“You’re about to undergo an experience that will change your life forever, Lumindemian.”
“Fahl Kun. I should’ve know…” Starla stammered as she struggled to keep on her feet. “How do you know what I am?” Whatever her enemy injected her with slowly took over her body.
“Your people’s power is legendary in my time; your friends will soon fully understand the reason why when you destroy them.”
“That’s… never going… to happen.”
“That’s no longer your choice to make.” Fahl teleports herself and Starla away before Caitlin arrives.
Back in the command center, “You see, Serpitox is a man of science; whatever he’s planning must have something to do with it,” Meerlix explains. “He takes material, including pieces of himself, to make all manner of creatures and devices to do battle with me and my team.”
“So wait, he uses pieces of himself? You mean like skin samples?” Alex asked.
“Talk about putting your blood and sweat into a project…” Max added.
“His armor has the regenerative properties similar to an iguana when it grows back its tail like new.”
Just then, Fahl kun and a large, black, spiky monster with red eyes, long black nails protruding from the fingertips of her right hand and a round nub of a left hand with that had quills sticking out like a pincushion appear on screen terrorizing the city; people fled the scene in panic as the monster of Serpitox’s creation shots quills at all who crossed its path.
“Well now we know what Serpitox is planning.”
“It seems the creature’s quills are causing the citizens to be hostile towards one another,” MEGAN observed.
“You guys know what to do,” Samuel explained.
Everyone except Wulf left the room.
“That means you too,” Samuel directed his order at Wulf.
“Yeah I know. Leave the hawk girl to me; you take care of… whatever that thing is.”
“You’re probably gonna need a set of wheels, Wulf. You may be fast, but you’re not that fast,” Samuel replied.
“Motorcycles aren’t exactly my thing and you know it.”
“I was thinking some with a couple extra wheels, old friend.” Samuel gives Wulf the keys to an all-terrain vehicle for him to use to get himself to the scene of the crime.
Max, Willis, Phoebe, Caitlin, Alex, Meerlix, and Wulf confront Fahl Kun and the monster she refers to as Quillamus. Once the battle starts, Zierian returns from the spirit world after a long long rest and hovers right behind Samuel and Bradshaw in the living room where they watch on a TV screen, which was hidden behind a painting of someone on a horse.
As she flaps her wings, Fahl Kun shoots several razor sharp feathers like bullets, which Wulf blocks with every slash of his blade. While Wulf defends himself against the onslaught of eagle feathers coming his way, Fahl Kun takes the skies; she swoops in a light speed, sword in hand, and slashes Wulf each time she passes. He kneels and she lands on her feet in front of him to perform a right kick, which he blocks as he stands.
Wulf strikes with his left, but Fahl Kun grabs his arm and throws a left kick. Wulf blocks with his elbow and Fahl Kun lets go of his other arm to throw a punch to the stomach; Wulf grabs her wrist with both hands, pulls her forward and then swings her round and round. After he lets her go, she flaps her wings and hovers several feet off the ground.
Wulf runs towards a wall; placing one foot after another, he walks up the wall, bounces to a lamppost and keeps climbing onto he reaches her level and quickly lands a flying kick which knocks her out of the sky.
Fahl Kun cracks the rear windshield of a car as she crashes down.
“He seems to show a bit of promise, this Wulf ninja warrior,” Zierian said as he appeared in the room alongside Samuel and Bradshaw.
“Yeah, but his heart’s scattered in a million different directions; if he focuses more on small tasks than the bigger picture, the others will eventually get massacred.”
“Like he said, sir, the team doesn’t need him 24/7. At least he’s making a difference elsewhere… in his own way,” Bradshaw explained.
MEGAN then interrupts the conversation after finding something alarming, “Sir, I’m monitoring some unusual energy readings coming from the monster fighting alongside Fahl Kun.”
“How unusual?”
“The readings appear to be mimicking those of Starla herself.”
“Contact the rangers on their communicators. They need to hear this.”
Samuel relays the message just moments before the rangers summon the WASP stinger mark II; causing them to hold off on the attack.
Returning to the command center, Samuel tells them what he discovered out by the pool.
“That beast has traces of Starla’s DNA jumbled in with its own, which could be one of two things: it’s a copy or it’s the real Starla, which could explain her absence. I was inclined to consider the foremost, but then I found this on the patio.” Samuel presents the dart Fahl Kun stuck her with.
“Now we know what Serpitox was up to…”
“Is there any way to save her?”
“That I am not certain, but I’ll see if I can work on an antidote.”
“I’ll help you,” Meerlix offered.
Later in Serpitox’s lair
“Excellent work, master.”
“The rangers will do everything they can to save their friend,” Pachytar said.
“They won’t destroy her, but she will want to destroy them, which means I’ll soon be rid of my enemies and get back to ruling this world. If I can’t rule it from where we come from, I’ll settle for conquering it in this time…” said Serpitox.
Back at the mansion
“So tell me a bit about yourself,” Samuel asked Meerlix.
“Not much to tell, really…”
“What’s with the fur? Where do you come from? I know you’re from the future and all, but I’m guessing you weren’t born on earth.”
“I come from a planet called Savpharus, we have various species with reflexes similar to those of earth; Gorillas, Giraffes, panthers, so on so forth. I was not born here. I came to earth just before my planet was destroyed.”
“How did you end up fighting Serpitox?”
“He was just like your average villain with a plot to take over earth, in my time; he used to be a brilliant scientist until a terrible accident changed him forever. He was working on a way to give mankind traits of common reptiles. An example of his work being a way to help humans regenerate body parts like an iguana that’s able to grow its tail back. On the road to this new discovery, he had undergone a tragic ordeal, which cursed him with his appearance.”
“Sounds brutal…”
“It is…”
“How’d you end up getting sent back to this time along with him?”
“When we tried to seal him away inside the book, he kept evading our every attempt, so I volunteered to hold him still until the spell was complete; he and I were trapped inside the book. My friends decided the book was no longer safe in that time and sent it into the past. They presumed that if the book were to be opened back then, Serpitox’s resources would be limited…”
“Thus making it easy for anyone to destroy him…” Samuel finished.
“Precisely.”
“You know, to actually make the cure, I need to know what it is we’re dealing with.”
“He may still have some of the serum back in his lab.”
“Only one problem, we don’t know where to start looking.”
“There may be an inter-dimensional portal Serpitox forgot about that leads from the site of the missing UC Berkeley science building to his island fortress.”
“Thanks, MEGAN, I’ll take it from here.”
“You? Are you sure about this, maybe I should go?”
“On second thought, maybe we both should go; I might not know my way around and you know how the saying goes ‘two heads are better than one’.”
“That’s true, Samuel…”
For the rangers, Samuel and Meerlix’s disappearance became the least of their problems as the monster known as Quillamus shows up again, but on its own.
“Let’s look for him later, we got work to do.”
Willis, Wulf, Phoebe, Caitlin, and Alex spring into action.
Quillamus remains silent as it notices the other confront him. Its first move involves firing explosive quills at their feet and knocking them off their center of gravity.
“That packed a punch…”
“Remember, we can’t hurt her.”
“Can’t say the same for her, though…”
Caitlin takes the lead; she strikes with a fan-kick and misses. Wulf comes up behind Caitlin, surpasses her and strikes Quillamus with a right; Quillamus grabs him by the fist, twists him around and kicks him in the behind. Alex rushes up and grabs her by the shoulders.
“Starla, listen to me. You don’t have to do this.”
Quillamus breaks free and hits Alex with a backhand to the face.
Willis rushes up behind Quillamus at the speed of sound and grabs her by the waists.
Quillamus breaks free with an elbow to the solar plexus, then turns and shoots him with quills.
Willis lands on his back; his jacket smoking, but no apparent damage.
Wulf passes right by and cuts her quills down with a quick slash, “Sorry, thought you could do with a manicure…” he replied smugly.
Quillamus strikes him with a laser blast from her eyes, which Wulf deflects with his blade.
Meanwhile, at the site of the missing science lab at UC Berkeley, Samuel and Meerlix survey the site looking for anyway to gain access to Serpitox’s lair.
“Are you sure MEGAN isn’t coming down with a virus or something?”
“She’s never wrong; sure, I’ve programmed her to lie, but with this type of thing, no.”
“Fine, I’ll keep looking.” Meerlix said surly.
After a while of searching, Meerlix is instantly zapped up by a purple light, getting Samuel’s attention.
“Meerlix?” he answered with no response from him. He moved closer to where he was last, “Meerlix, stop messing around…” a faint spark of purple lightning was revealed as Samuel stepped closer. He reaches out to touch and was instantly teleported into the Laboratory Serpitox saw fit to call his home.
Meerlix was in the clutches of some of his Corba-drone accompanied by Fahl-Kun and Pachytar.
“Did you expect it to be that easy?” Pachytar asked.
“No, that’s why I always come prepared,” he takes his sidearm and fires several laser blasts to disable the drone, and then he switches modes to stun and used the weapon on Fahl and Pachytar next.
“Nice…”
“It’s only experimental, c’mon, we gotta find what we’re looking for and get out.
“What’s the hurry?” Serpitox asked.
Samuel fires the weapon again, but Serpitox rapidly evades and disarms him, “Your inferior toys may work on my generals, but I’m much stronger than them.”
“Oh well… I was expecting a bit of a challenge anyways.”
Serpitox attacks Samuel with a right; Samuel blocks and throws back a cross chop; Serpitox blocks and swipes at Samuel with his left; Samuel ducks and performs a palm thrust to the chest to push him back. Serpitox grabs Samuel by the collar and pulls him close to hit him with a punch to the face. Samuel puts his leg around Serpitox’s, pushes forward and they both hit the ground; Serpitox and Samuel roll around until Samuel end up on the bottom; Samuel throws him off and jumps to his feet.
“You fight well. Are you sure you’re on the right side?”
“Are you?” Samuel answered. He throws a low kick, which Serpitox counters with a knee and an elbow strike, which Samuel blocks before he strikes with a low punch to the kidney.
“I said you fight well, but you’ve still got a lot more to learn…”
“So do you…” Meerlix surprises Serpitox with a flying kick; Serpitox slides backwards and hits one of the counters.
Meerlix and Samuel continued their search while they constantly switched places to keep Serpitox busy.
“Think you can hurry up over there, Meerlix?!”
“I have no idea what to look for, give me time.”
Samuel strikes Serpitox with a high punch, which he blocks before twisting Samuel’s arm behind his back.
“I think I found it!” Meerlix shouted.
Samuel breaks free of Serpitox’s grip with a back kick and he and Meerlix make for the exit.
Once back at the mansion, they quickly finish synthesizing an antidote and race to the rescue with Bradshaw at the wheel.
It takes three of our heroes to restrain Starla/Quillamus in order to administer the cure. As Meerlix injects it into her blood, it quickly takes effect, causing the beast to convulse; she puts her hand to the side of her head as she shook back and forth; the quills on her hand disappear, the monster’s form slowly faded, Starla falls to her knees as the transformation took place.
Willis rushes in and picks her up.
“W-where am I?” she asked. “What happened?”
"It's a long story..."