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

[Samuel Grant]

Chapter 29
Pen mightier than Sword

Ling Khan stands near a tub of black substance with his daughter standing right across from him “More and more, those rangers become somewhat of an irritation.”
“Especially that Starla; not even Serpitox could do away with her. Not with all of his scientific knowledge.”
“It wasn’t entirely his fault; his resources are limited due to involuntarily time traveling, though I always found science to be an over-complication.” He swirls his finger around in the substance.
“The same can be said of magic, father; they are one in the same.”
“Except magic can’t be explained, it’s something you take on a whim; Magical ink from the well of our home world. It is useless in its current form without someone or something to harness its power, which is why I’ve created a lil something. Meet the Inkwell monster.”
Inkwell being a beast, which was part bird consisting of mostly beige feathers, red demon-like eyes, a large feather he used as a pen, “What is your request, master?”
“I just need you to take care of eight irritating little teenagers for me.”
“As you command…”
“We’ll show’em that the sword isn’t as mighty as the pen…”
Meanwhile, back at the mansion; Samuel sits out on a lawn chair by the pool soaking up the sun while the others were out doing what they needed to do on their day off.
“Your tuna fish sandwich on white bread and tall glass of lemonade as requested, sir.”
“You didn’t really have to do that; I was gonna get it myself, but thanks.” Samuel takes a bite of the sandwich. “This is good; miracle whip?”
Before Bradshaw could answer, the alarm sounded.
“A monster is attacking the city,” MEGAN answered from Samuel’s mobile phone.
“Alert the others,” Samuel gets up out of his chair and heads the command center.
Minutes later in the city, Max, Willis, Starla, Phoebe, Caitlin, Alex, and Meerlix arrive to find the place as a ghost town; not a single soul traversed the streets, all the cars empty.
“Where is everyone?”
“Let’s split up into 2 men groups have a look around. Caitlin and I will go this way,” Willis said.
“Alex and I will look over here,” Phoebe said.
“Okay, that just leaves Starla, Max, and I,” Meerlix said.
The others split up in different directions. They look for minutes and still find no one. The city was as quiet as a meditation chamber, but without the candles and soothing music.
“I don’t get it, how can so many people just vanish without a trace?”
“I don’t know, but that’s what we’re here to find out.” Caitlin picks up her communicator, “You guys find anything or anyone yet?”
“Nothing much, place is empty. No sign of a struggle taking place.”
“Same story here, baby.”
“Alex, who you calling ‘baby’…?”
“Phoebe, I said ‘Phoebe’. Sorry about that, Caitlin; probably should enunciate a bit more.”
A shadowy figure cautiously follows Meerlix, Max, and Starla so not to be seen. He pulls out a sketchpad, draws the rangers and erases their communicator
“Heads up, guys, we got movement.”Meerlix reached for his communicator and says the message, but then notices his communicator’s gone; same with Max and Starla. Meerlix then calls out the shadowy figure that just passed by, “Hey you stop!” he, Max, and Starla take off after him down an alleyway.
The figure takes a left turn after he hopped on top of a dumpster. The others take chase, but Starla stayed back as she noticed a white light that seemed to take the form of a human; she reaches out to it and it quickly pulled her in. a brilliant flash of light shines for a mere second and then vanishes. Meerlix and Max continue onward, not realizing Starla had vanished until rounding the next corner and on a basketball court.
“Where’d he go?”
“Looking for me?” Ling Khan’s monster’s voice said, getting the rangers’ attention. “Perfect, now just hold that pose or else…”
“Or Else what?”
“Or else you’ll ruin my beautiful masterpiece, that’s what.” He draws something on a much larger sketchpad than he had from earlier at the speed of sound; the rangers are baffled as they continue to watch. After a few minutes, he reveals a comic strip of a seemingly deserted island, “Do you like it? It’s my best work yet.” Inkwell’s drawing came to live as it snatched up Meerlix and Max and drew them closer and closer until they were literally sucked into the drawing.
The others heard the scream and quickly raced towards the noise.
“Well well, more art critics.”
“Who are you?” Willis asked.
“I am Inkwell, master of the arts and I’m about to drawing up an ending that I just know you’ll love.” He zaps an energy beam at the rangers from the tip of his paintbrush and knocks them on their behinds.
“That was brutal.”
“You know, I’ve never been much of a fan of art.”
“Everybody’s a critic.” Inkwell then summons some Konglatons for the rangers to fight.
The rangers get back on their feet and rush the enemy. As the battle rages on, Inkwell just sits back and lets the Konglatons do all the work while he readies his weapon. He draws an outline of our heroes standing still and then turns the canvas towards them; Phoebe takes notice right away as the canvas is aimed at her. She then dives out of the way and the canvas sucks in her opponents.
The Inkwell monster was getting furious, “Hold still, you’re ruining my picture!” eventually he ends up sucking Willis and Caitlin into his painting alongside the others.
Meanwhile, inside the painting, everything starts off as black and white until Max and Meerlix move a couple of yards away from the shore; then color filled in the gray areas. The sand turned a pale yellow, the sky was a light blue in some areas, a white circle was drawn in in the distance, which filled up with a yellowish-white like the sun; all around it the sky was yellow, red, and orange; representing a sunset. The leaves on the trees that were further inland developed a lush green texture, the trunks were a mud brown, the ground below was green and grassy. Max and Meerlix stop admiring the view, get up and walk further inland to look for a way out.
Suddenly, Caitlin and Willis land on the beach behind them with a loud thud; Meerlix and Max turn when they hear the sound and go to greet them.
“Where are we?”
“We were hoping you could tell us.”
“We were about to head further inward for some answers when you guys showed up.”
“I think maybe we should stay here in case the others show up.”
“And what will that solve, Willis? We’re just meant to sit here and starve while waiting for them; how do you know they haven’t already fled to come up with a plan to rescue us?”
“And what if they haven’t? They won’t know where to go from here.”
“They can just contact us…”
“Our communicators are gone.”
“One minute they’re there on our waists and the next, they’re gone; Inkwell must’ve taken them.”
“He didn’t take ours…” Caitlin tries contacting the others, but their frequency couldn’t get past the dimension they’re in. “Damn it, no signal.”
Thanks to the Samuel, who the rangers only know as the Purple ranger, Phoebe, Alex, and Starla head back to the command center after narrowly escaping from Ling Khan’s monster.
“We had to retreat before he imprisoned us, too.”
“That purple guy sure knows when he’s needed. If it wasn’t for him, we’d probably be involuntarily taking part in Inkwell’s so-called masterpiece.”
“You made the smart choice; if he had gotten you as well, who else would there be to fight that beast?”
“There’s Wulf…”
“Wulf is… dare I say it, ‘unreliable’.”
“What about you? You did fight Serpitox to get the antidote.”
“That’s because I had Meerlix at my side to do it. I don’t think I have enough fight in me to do this alone.”
“There’s gotta be a way to get them out of there.”
“A way to get who out of where?”
“Wulf, finally you’re back.”
“Where have you been?” Samuel asked. “Out solving petty crimes, I presume; you really need to start turning on your communicator.”
“Unless you can add a text feature and a vibrate function, I don’t think so; because the ringtone will blow my cover on stealth missions.”
“Well, here’s a thought: why not join the team instead of branching off on your own like batman?”
Samuel and Wulf argued until Phoebe stepped in, “Will you two stow it?! We’ve got bigger things to worry about here and your bickering isn’t doing one thing to solve our problems.
“She has a point there, Samuel, we should…”
“Mute,” Samuel commanded; MEGAN’s speech chip to silence. “As much as I hate Wulf, MEGAN’s right, we need to put our differences aside in order to free the others.”
“So what do we do?”
“Maybe we can set up a distraction while someone else figures out a way to help them escape.”
“I’ll be the distraction; I’m a master at the art of deception,” Wulf said. “MEGAN: unmute. We need to track that monster down, can you do it?”
“I’ll see what I can do,” she replied.
Meanwhile, inside the painting, Max, Willis, Caitlin, and Meerlix make their way inwards; Meerlix cutting through the dense greenery with his sharp claws while the others follow behind him.
“You guys hear that?” Max answered.
“Hear what?”
“Sounds like we’re not alone on this island,” he explained.
“I don’t hear anything…”
“Maybe it’s your ima…” Willis was cut off as he and the others are then strung up by their legs via vines that seemed to have come out of nowhere; Meerlix managed to evade using his lightning fast reflexes.
“Show yourself, whoever you are!” Meerlix called out.
A leaf shot at him from out of nowhere like a ninja star and sticks into the tree next to him. He falls on his behind as he looks around to see who threw it.
“Meerlix, can ya get us down before whoever it is comes back?” Caitlin answered.
“Oh right, sorry,” Meerlix answered as he climbed the trees and cut the vines with his claws.
Once they were all down, a mysterious entity covered in leaves and vines pops out of the ground like a mole and attacks the four individually as he pops in and out like the whack-a-mole game.
“Maybe it’s about time we broke out the gear, don’t you think?” Caitlin suggested.
“Good idea,” Max tries to summon his pill bug armor, but it didn’t come. He tried again and it still didn’t appear.
“It’s not working…”
“It might be because we’re in a different dimension and the weapons can’t reach us…”
“Then we’ll just have to do this the old fashion way…”
Our heroes fight back, but the beast proves to be too quick for them as it zips back and forth at the speed of sound; digging its razor sharp leaves into them like claws.
Meanwhile, the remainder of our heroes managed to track the Inkwell monster to an abandoned warehouse; his paintings were scattered about the room as if the place was his temporary art gallery.
On the roof of the building, Alex and Phoebe take their positions and wait as Wulf marches in through the front door.
Phoebe whispers, “Alright, Alex, I’m gonna need your strongest and thickest web, so in case Inkwell turns around, he won’t see what we’re up to.”
“You got it,” Alex whispered back.
Wulf goes through the door. He notices Inkwell is nowhere to be found and hides in a dark corner prepared to strike like a spider after a tasty meal gets stuck in its as soon as he shows up.
Phoebe rappels down on a rope while Alex transforms into a spider and creates a thick enough web to separate one half of the room from the other.
“We need to locate the others first before we free the civilians; we’ll need all the help we can get to defeat Inkwell,” Phoebe explained.
“I found them. Uh-oh.”
“What? What do you mean uh-oh?”
“It looks like they’re getting their clobbered. Have a look at this.”
Phoebe takes a look as the canvas shows a comic strip of the others fighting a monster completely covered in green leave and vines, “We’ve got to get them out of there…”
“But how…” Alex asks.
“His magic pen; maybe that holds the key to their release.”
Alex chuckled at Phoebe’s statement.
“What?” she asked confusedly.
“When this is over, we need to discuss all the things that are wrong with that sentence.”
The Inkwell monster returns to the warehouse and finds the web Alex created; Wulf steps out from the shadows to attack.
“Who are you?” Inkwell asks.
“I’m Wulf ninja warrior.”
“Well, Wulf, you’re about to find out why the pen is mightier than the sword, or in this case, brush; En Garde!” Inkwell conjures up a giant paintbrush and uses it as a sword against Wulf.
The two go back and forth, creating sparks as they exchanges strikes like expert swordsmen; Wulf then ducks under one of Inkwell’s attacks and delivers a punch to solar plexus.
He picks up his communicator as Phoebe contacts him, “Wulf, we need his paintbrush, see if you can get it for us.” Phoebe said.
Wulf hangs up without saying anything and continues fighting; after a couple well-placed strikes, he grabs Inkwell in a guillotine, grabs his brush from his side and tosses it. It goes straight through like a bullet through the spider web. Alex, on the other side, catches it. He hands it to Phoebe and she starts drawing something in.
“Don’t worry, guys, help is on the way…” she finishes drawing her teammates’ respected weapons into their hands.
Inside the comic, Max’s pill bug armor, Caitlin’s peacock fans, Meerlix’s hawk crossbow, and Willis’ Elephant materialize in their hands.
“Whoa, where’d these come from?”
“Does it matter? They’re here now.”
“Now let’s trim this overgrown weed.”
Willis converts his Elephant axe to blaster mode. He and Meerlix zero in on the monster.
Meerlix fires his crossbow, and with one blast, he knocks the monster out of his hiding spot, so the others can have a turn at him; they each attack with their weapons one at a time until the monster falls on his back.
Caitlin readies her fans as she waits for the monster to make its move. She alternates from left to right; cutting through the vines the monster shoots at her as she dances her way forward.
Meerlix distracts him with shots from his crossbow while Caitlin and Willis attack from the left and right.
Max makes the next move with his pill bug armor. He starts with a low kick to the waist and as the monster falls back, Willis strikes from the sky; the monster latches onto him with his vines, swings Willis around and knocks him into Meerlix.
Back outside in the real world, Phoebe puts the final touches to Inkwell’s picture to help her friends finish off the monster; she draws in the W.A.S.P. stinger mark I and the others put the beast down permanently.
With the monster defeated, the others are instantly transported off the page and into reality before the canvas just mysteriously vanished.
“Thanks a lot, Phoebe; we couldn’t have gotten out with you.”
“You’re welcome.”
“Now let’s give the artist a taste of his own medicine.”
Alex and the others tear through the web and proceed to join Wulf’s side.
After a short fight, Wulf delivers the final blow; Ling Khan’s monster goes down without a fight.  

[Samuel Grant]

Chapter 30
Drums of War

Samuel Grant believes he may have found the location of the next jewel, but to get it, he and his team will need the Sword of Ares, which Cameron and Christi still have in their possession.
Along with that, there was another artifact they need. It was a green and black glove with spikes around the wrist; said to be light as a feather to those who wield it and still retain its destructive power. It also had control over the element of earth. The weapon was called… the stone gauntlet.
Somewhere in a forest in Southern Ireland, Wulf and Starla spy on Seductra as she and an army of Putras, comb the entire area.
“Bit of a strange place for a vacation…” Wulf whispered to Starla.
“Yeah, what do you think they’re up to?”
“This map will lead me to the mighty Stone Gauntlet. Once I have it, I will have complete dominion over the element of Earth and no one will be able to stop me,” Seductra said to her army of Putras
“Did you hear that? We gotta get that map away from him before she does…”
When Wulf doesn’t hear Starla respond, he becomes worried. He looked to his left and then to his right; whispering her name.
“Well well… look who he have here; a lost wolf so far from home.”
“Nice to see you too, Seductra.”
“How long’s it been; 4 months?”
“Four and a half... oh how I’ve been counting the days.”
“At least now I’ll have the pleasure of doing what I should’ve done long time ago.” She orders her men to release him so they can have a one on one fight to the death.
Both were eager to get the fight underway as Seductra dons her knight’s armor and Wulf draws his sword. After armor was fully equipped, Seductra pulled out her sword. With a scream as a warning, Seductra drops her sword over Wulf’s head; causing him to block.
Wulf quickly takes his sword down and slashes at her chest and misses as she jumps back. He lunges forward at her and she blocks and quickly throws back a right cross, which Wulf counters with an arm grab and knee to the stomach.
Seductra angrily backhands Wulf in the jaw; pushing him back as she lunges at him, sword pointed straight ahead.
Wulf blocks her from underneath, pushes up with great force and then strikes with a double palm to the heart; then performs a spiraling slash and cuts through her armor plating.
Seductra slashes upward; the force from her strike pushes Wulf’s weapon out of the way, giving her the opportunity to attack. She goes for Wulf’s legs.
Wulf raises his right as he takes a step back.
Seductra then attacks high and knocks him to the ground; Wulf crawls backwards, avoiding each of Seductra’s attacks, and then trips her.
As she lies on top of him, their eyes lock for a brief moment before they were interrupted; in the distance, Alex fires a shot to get Seductra’s attention while Wulf reaches for the map in her pocket.
“Well… what are you all waiting for? Get back that map!” Seductra commanded of her Putras.
Alex and Wulf stood side by side, swords drawn. As the army marches forward, they take each one down one by one.
After the first dozen went down, Wulf drops his sword when one of them gives a swift strike with their club. When that happens, Wulf ducks and dodges each swing; then rises up with his left hand ready to strike and repeatedly punches the Putra in the head until he reduces him to a pink and white puddle of jelly. Once his next opponent strikes, he immediately spins and lands a rear horse kick to the stomach and follows that move with a spiraling judo chop to the neck.
Alex slashes left and punches right; taking down dozens at a time before he switches modes on his weapon and lashes out like he was whipping a chain; he manages to destroy a couple of Putras before one of them grabs a hold of the chain and swings him around.
Thinking quickly, Alex then uses his powers to transform into a T-rex. As he lands feet first and causes a thunderous earthquake, he spirals counter clockwise and whips the enemy into the air with his tail. After he turns back into his human form, he is immediately tackled to the ground. As he and the Putra roll around, Alex ends up on top. He knocks the monster out with a quick elbow to the face before he gets up.
By the end of the battle, Seductra lost most of her men. But it was worth it to regain the map.
Wulf and Alex return to the command center defeated and for once, Samuel was calm. For it was not a total loss; Wulf had placed a tracking device on Seductra in the scuffle just before she absconded with the map.
“Well done, Wulf.”
“That was a statement…”
“Now I need you two to go help the others track down Cameron and Christi. I’ll let you know if the situation with Seductra develops.”
“Speaking of Seductra, what’s up with you two anyway?” Alex addresses Wulf.
“You want the long version or the short?” Wulf asked as he and Alex walk out side by side.
“Gimme the short; you can tell me the long one later.”
“I was in love with her even though I was sent to terminate her.”
“Oh wait, so you were the one she…”
“Yeah.”
“Sorry, Wulf, Cameron told me.”
“You’re enemies, why would she tell you?”
“Last time, Bradshaw and I went undercover. We penetrated their ranks in order to get them to lead us to the Spirit falcon.”
A while later, Alex and Wulf catch up with the others after they found Cameron and Christi robbing a bank in the city.
As Samuel watches on screen in the command center, he notices Starla still hasn’t shown up. “Where is she?” he asked himself.
Upon exiting the bank, Cameron was the first to notice their path was blocked. She draws the sword of Ares and as she raises it to the sky, a gold glimmer shoots straight up the hand into the blade before it goes up into the sky. Paying no attention to this, she and Christi spring into action. It wasn’t until halfway through that their fight was interrupted by a hooded figure. The part of his face you could see told you he was Caucasian. He wore a gray chest guard with brown leather shin and arm guards. When he removes his hood, you could see had long, wavy black hair tied in a ponytail, a thin mustache/goatee combo. His eyes were a charcoal black.
He stands up and he turns to the two holding his sword, “You’ve had your fun; now I think I’ll have that back if you don’t mind.”
“Hey! Whoever you are, that sword belongs with us.”
“It has seen too much of this wretched world and it shall be coming with me.”
“And just what gives you that right?”
“The sword belongs to me, so I can do whatever I want.”
“Not if we have anything to say about it.”
Cameron and Christi were the first to attack, but Ares drops them with one clean strike from his right arm and sends them flying through the window of the adjacent building.
Ares picks up his sword and slowly marches towards the rangers as they rush at him.
Max, Willis, Caitlin, Phoebe, Wulf, Alex and Meerlix attack from all side and Ares just stands there.
Meanwhile, Starla awakens on her home planet of Lumindemia. The planet exists in a solar system where there are three Suns; making night time scarce among the inhabitants. The color of the sky varies depending on which sun is displayed.
Starla finds herself on a bench near a donut shaped pond surrounding a patch of grass with a couple of blue glass domes with white lines running across in a checkered pattern. Surrounding the domes were trees of green and pink. In the background was a large, blue cylindrical shaped tower with several smaller ones surrounding the base of it going from smallest to biggest; to the right of that one was a blue and white spiraling cone shape with a needle at the top, another tower with a rectangular cube shape. Starla looked every direction at the various futuristic buildings, wondering she was dreaming; then the words came bursting out of her mouth. In a silent confusion, she said in a whisper, “I’m home?” she gets up from her bench and moves to the large fountain with a giant triangular glass bowl with the crisscrossing lines and black dots. She admires the structure and how the water just flows from the flat top and into the pool below before she scoops a bit of it into her hands and splashes it over her face.
“So nice to see you are awake,” said a man with a slim, muscular figure and flawless caramel color skin. His short, smooth curly hair was dyed white as snow. He was wearing a dark blue t-shirt with a cirrus cloud in the shape of a wolf. He wore gray jeans with matching tennis shoes.
Starla greeted him like an old friend, “Orianos. What is this place?”
“We’re in the plaza at Dustuum square, don’t you remember? We’re here on a date. You were tired, so I left you to slumber for a bit while I got us something to eat.”
“How did I get here? last thing I remember was being on Earth, fighting Seductra…”
“Earth? Where’s that?”
“It’s about several hundred Lightyears from here. I was just there.”
“Are you sure you weren’t just dreaming it? You haven’t left my sight all day.”
“It really felt like I was there.”
Meanwhile, Samuel watches in horror as every attack the rangers and Christi and Cameron threw at Ares was given back to them five-fold. Realizing he can’t take much of this, he leaves the command center; heading straight for the lab. After donning his ranger form, he makes it to the scene. After kicking Ares to the ground, he gets up again. Most of his shots bounce off his armor, while others hit with full blast and knock him back.
Ares rushes up after a montage of hits. He throws a left, but Samuel ducks and comes back with an uppercut, which Ares sidestepped as he threw a right to the jaw; a massive shockwave emanates from the point of impact. Samuel tries to stay on his feet and then takes to the sky as Ares throws another left. He then loops around behind him and performs a sweep of his legs with his left arm; Ares falls with a thunderous shockwave and Samuel comes around for another attack.
Ares performs a double leg kick and Samuel cartwheels to the ground.
“Had enough?”
“The sword is coming with us…”
“No it’s not…”
“God of war or not; we still need it. I mean they still need it.”
“Why does it matter to you?”
“We think it may lead us to the next jewel of the Karma Lunari. We’re trying to keep our enemies from using their power to destroy everything in the known universe.”
“All of this for the Goddess Luna’s fortune?”
“We have two already.”
Later back at the command center; with the help of Ares, the rangers’ quest continues with his help.
Samuel finishes scanning the sword up and down with a green laser, which generated a grid over the part it was examining.
“Samuel, when were you going to tell us you were the purple ranger?”
“I was waiting until the time was right; the suits aren’t ready quite yet and needs more fine tuning before they can be used in the field.”
“Suits?”
“Just how many are there?”
“Nine; for each of us.”
“But there are only eight of us.”
“The last one’s for Zierian if he decides to join us.”
“What exactly do you hope to find?” Ares interrupted.
“Some sort of indentation or key phrase; we believe the sword itself holds the key to finding the jewel.”
“All we found in the book of mythology was your sword and a reference to a blue sapphire; probably the Star of Pisces.”
“Okay, I have part of it. ‘only From the heavens can what you observe be revealed, teamwork is the only key to open what has been previously sealed.’ the rest of it, my Grecian’s a lil rusty, can’t figure it out.”
“Only from The Heavens can what you Observe be revealed. What could that mean?”
“I dunno,” Willis said as he picked up the magnifying glass beside him, “There’s… some numbers here in an odd sequence, not sure what those mean either; some kinda code perhaps”
“A cipher of some kind, I remember seeing it a movie. Except it’s in 2’s not 3’s,” Alex explained.
“Maybe it’s a clue of some kind,” Phoebe blurted out.
“Anyone got a pen and paper?”
Caitlin fetches a notepad and a pencil.
Alex deciphers the numbers, which spell out the word, “Filopapou?”
“It’s a city or something in Greece.”
“Yeah, I know where it is, I’m just surprised that’s where we gotta go.”
“I’m going too.”
“Good. We could use your help, Ares.”
Once in Greece, our heroes exit the jet and go to their destination via motorbikes, Philopappos'monument, which was a two-storey structure, supported by a base. On the lower level there is a frieze representing Philopappos' as a consul, riding on a chariot and led by lictors. The upper level shows statues of three men. Antiochus IV on the left, of Philopappos'in the centre and of Seleucus, Nicator now lost, on the right.
“Is this the place?”
“The inscription said ‘only from the heavens can what you observe be revealed’, so this has to be it; Philopappos' Monument.”
“Alright guys spread out and look for anything out of the ordinary.”
With nine people, they separate into groups of three. Ares stuck near the ones, where carrying the sword; Caitlin and Meerlix. They all spend hours searching the area. They look high and low, inside and out, but nothing seemed to stand out.
Everyone gathers at Phoebe and Alex’s location after they find, buried under thin layer of dirt near a bush, a spherical shape with the three elements water, fire, and earth in a triangle formation; in the middle of the three was a rectangular shape indentation big enough to fit the blade of a sword in.
Phoebe takes Ares’ sword and drives it into the indentation. Sparks fly as the tip hits the surface doesn’t make a scratch. She tries again only to get the same result.
Max then takes the sword from her and gives it a try; not even his super strength worked in driving the sword.
“We must need the earth gauntlet or something…”
In the Palatine Hill in Rome, Italy at the sometime after the rangers arrive at the Philopappos'monument, Seductra had found the location of the Earth Gauntlet via the map she discovered in Ireland. It was hidden deep beneath the surface, so she had to use a monster called Molegill, which looked more like a gopher because its fur was brown instead of gray or black like ordinary moles. It had gills coming out of its neck, which allow it to breathe underwater if necessary. As it tunneled around in the mountain, Seductra and her men stood back out of the way of the dirt he was flinging.
“Could you be a bit more careful?!” Cameron shouted.
The monster emerges from the mountain interior fifteen minutes later with the earth gauntlet around his right hand, “One earth gauntlet without the wait.” At the end of his statement, he was then hit with a green laser beam to the chest, which made Seductra, Cameron, and Christi look behind them.
To their dismay, Ling Khan and his daughter, Sapphira were standing in front of an army of Konglatons.
“Thanks so much for doing all the work; we’ll take it from here.”
“Not gonna happen, monkey man. The gauntlet is ours.”
“Just once, I’d like to do this the easy way; c’mon, Sapphira, let’s get’em.” Ling Khan takes the lead over his daughter and the Konglatons as he slides into Seductra’s Putras like a bowling ball; knocking them over like pins as he makes his way to Cameron and Christi. He slides with his feet pointing up and trips Christi, who lands on him. Ling Khan quickly puts her in the choke hold and Cameron helps her sister out by throwing several kicks to Ling Khan’s side and he lets her go. He then flips from north-south to south-north, raises his lower half and kicks Cameron in the chin and then gets up.
As Christi rushes in from behind, Ling Khan elbows her in the breast and then focuses back on Cameron as he performs a frontal kick to the crotch, which she blocks.
Christi kicks him into Cameron and he throws several punches to her solar plexus, chest, face and ends with a shin kick; as she kneels, he grabs a hold of her midsection, lifts her, and performs a Suplex. He looks past Seductra and Sapphira as they’re fighting and spots Molegill. He rushes past both his and Seductra’s army, spirals past Seductra and Sapphira, and performs a double leg drop kick, which was immediately interrupted when Christi lands a strong left punch to his stomach.
Molegill takes one look at Ling Khan as he lies there temporarily before he strikes the ground with the earth gauntlet and creates a huge crack that Ling Khan falls halfway into.
Struggling to get back up, Ling Khan hangs onto the sides really tight while trying to climb back out.
Unable to make the trip in time, Samuel stays back at the command center and calls the rangers after MEGAN picks up on the seismic activity at Ling Khan, Seductra, Cameron, Christi, and Sapphira’s location.
Celsior had showed up the ranger’s location, which meant they needed to split up; Caitlin, Phoebe, Willis, and Meerlix leave to handle Ling Khan and the others while Max, Alex, Wulf, and Ares stay to fight Celsior.
Later on in the day on Starla’s home world of Lumindemia; she and Orianos lie in the grass, looking up at the clouds. As they pass overhead, Starla can’t help but wonder if this was all real or if she was imagining it. She reminisces about the first time she met Samuel, about her past adventures with the other rangers back on earth; all the times they’ve fought evil together and strived to keep the jewels of the Karma Lunari out of the bad guys’ hands.
“What’s the matter, Starla? You’re not still thinking of Earth, are you?”
“It all just feels so real. I can’t stop thinking about the things my team and I have been through.” She got to thinking about Willis, Phoebe, Max, Alex, Caitlin, Meerlix, and Wulf and then she immediately sat up. “I need to go back there; we were in the middle of a mission. They need me.”
“You’re truly determined to return to earth, aren’t you?”
“It just doesn’t feel right; me sitting here with you and when I know they’re in danger.”
“Alright, if that’s what you want, who am I to stop you? But you’re going to need these.” Orianos holds out both his hands. In his left was Starla’s communicator; while in the right was a white, coin shaped object similar to what Caitlin picked up in the forest around the summer camp with the wolf and everything.
“I don’t understand…”
“This was all a test and you passed.” Orianos sheds his form. He turns into a ball of white light before Starla’s eyes and quickly took human form once again; two arms, two legs, a head, torso; which were all shrouded by light. “My name is not Orianos; it’s Carrasia. I’m the warrior spirit of the white medallion I needed to test your loyalty in order to see if you were worthy of my powers.”
“Couldn’t you have tested me some other way instead of making me think I’m losing my mind?”
“For that I apologize. Your friends really need you though.”
“What’s happening?”
“Right now, they’ve split up. Half are fighting in one location; while the other half in another. The red and black one and the wolf are having better luck with their adversary than the orange, blue, brown, and green one.”
“Well then I guess there’s no time to waste.”
Starla quickly snaps out of her dream and is instantly standing in the forest where she and Wulf spotted Seductra. Seconds later, she shoots through the air as a ball of light as she heads toward Caitlin, Phoebe, Willis, and Meerlix.
Meanwhile, Max, Wulf, Alex, and Ares finish up the fight with Celsior.
Ares, with the sword in hand, faces off against Celsior while the others tend to the army of Glacieroids standing in their way. Celsior strikes first from the right, but Area blocks and pushes him back by the palm of his hand. After the shockwave from the attack ceases, Ares leaps at Celsior with his sword high; Celsior raises his staff to block and then throws the left side at him. Ares ducks and delivers a clean swipe to Celsior’s stomach. Sparks fly as he spirals and comes back with a back fist, which Ares blocks. With his right foot, Ares performs a frontal kick, pushes Celsior back a few feet, and then pulls a crescent shaped figure from his side; a boomerang, but with sharp edges. He quickly tosses it before Celsior could respond, but it is quickly rebounded as Celsior twirls his staff in front of his face.
Ares rolls under it, pulls a knife from his waist, and throws it.
Celsior spirals as he runs up and aims for Ares’ legs.
Ares leaps over his staff and lands a back kick to Celsior’s rear; he stumbles forward after Ares’ attack and quickly turns, twirling his staff as he alternates between his left and right. As he gets close enough, Ares sidesteps and with one slash of his blade, he cuts through Celsior’s staff, elbows him in the shoulder, and bashes his skull with his own before delivering the final strike; Celsior goes down quickly and immediately gets to his feet. He brushes himself off and says, “You’re a powerful god, but all that will change once I get the jewels.”
“Even with all seven you’d be no match for me. I’m the god of war; I know the best strategies.”
“We shall soon see…”
Now it was Starla’s turn. Back in Rome; as her friends hold Seductra, Cameron, Christi, Ling Khan, and Sapphira back, Starla hands Molegill.
With Starla’s newfound power, her enemy was no match for her. With every move Molegill threw, she launched it back at him seven-fold.
Molegill swipes at her with his left, but she ducks and performs a double palm strike. As he stumbles back, she approaches and performs an axe kick. Once Molegill came to, he swings with his right; but Starla grabs him by the wrist and lower arm, spirals and pulls him in close to flip him over her back. Before she could attack again, Molegill burrows underground and tunnels all around her to confuse her.
Starla finally corners him by placing four distinct balls of light on the ground in a square. When the lights connect, they form a box and restricted Molegill’s movement. Starla was able to control the size of box the lights make with the motion in her arms. She at first held her arms out at her sides, but when she brought them together in front of her face, she made the box smaller and smaller. Soon, Molegill had no choice but to surface; and when he did, Starla was ready for him. One of the balls of light then forms a chain link running from it to Molegill’s foot as he tried to get away; Starla makes the motion of a mime pulling on an invisible rope and the chain of light grows shorter and shorter at her command.
With her opponent restricted, Starla takes the sky. At several hundred feet, she takes the form of a star in the day time sky just before she shoots back down over the exact spot Molegill was standing in. once she made impact, a huge dome of light shot from their position like an explosive blast. Once it dimmed, you see Caitlin, Phoebe, Willis, Meerlix, Seductra, Cameron, Christi, Sapphira, and Ling Khan; the trees were still standing, everything around the area was unscathed, except for Molegill, who was nothing but a smoldering crater behind Starla.
Once Seductra’s monster was defeated, she and her nieces, and Ling Khan and his daughter fled without the earth Gauntlet.
As the power faded back into the medallion around her neck, Starla lied there in front of the remains of her enemy, motionless. Her friends rush to her body and check to see if she was okay.
Max calls in, asking if they were successful in obtaining the gauntlet.
“I’ll take her back to the house; you guys meet up with the others,” Caitlin said.
Phoebe, Willis, Meerlix return to the other rangers in the mountains of Greece with the gauntlet in their possession. Max was the first to try it out. He places around his right hand as he stands over the symbols in perfect alignment with the indentation. With all of his strength, he drops his fight like a wrecking ball down on it; the ground shakes, but the area around it was the only thing that split.
“I don’t get it. That should’ve worked.”
“So if the sword doesn’t work by itself…”
“And neither does the gauntlet…”
“What else can we do?”
“The inscription said something about teamwork; perhaps we should use the gauntlet and sword together…”
“It’s worth a shot.
“I think Meerlix should do the honors,” Wulf suggested as he gave him the sword.
“No. Allow me…” With the Gauntlet on his right hand, Ares grips the sword firmly, raises it high in the air and strikes it down over the rectangular indentation. The ground gives off a bluish glow before the symbol for water, fire and earth rose up and combined to make a blue orb.
“The Jewel of Pisces, I presume…”
“I don’t think so.”
“Then what is it?”
Later on back at the mansion after Starla wakes up from nap.
Caitlin comes in to have a talk.
“Now I know exactly how you felt; having that much power at your fingertips for a brief moment.”
“It’s a shame we can’t use their full power until putting all of them onto the shield; I like the feel of all that energy, none of our enemies will stand a chance.”
“Yeah, and the best part: I think some of that power was my own; I just haven’t been able to unlock it. I can see what Fahl Kun meant about my people being extraordinary.”
“When’d she say that?”
“It was just before my terrifying transformation into that porcupine beast; apparently, more of my kind visit earth in the future.”  

[Samuel Grant]

Chapter 31
All the family I have

After a couple days of searching, they figure out the mystery of the blue sphere and where to place it. A picture of a large waterfall divided into three parts that had six hydroelectric plants appeared and Willis automatically knew where they needed to go; Niagara falls.
Just outside the Navy Island national historic site, Willis and Phoebe wait by the shore for Alex to emerge from the water. When he finally did, they stood up to greet him.
“Did you get it? Do you have the jewel?”
Alex, who had transformed into a dolphin, surfaces with a blue stone in his mouth, which he spits at their feet before changing back into his normal self and swimming to shore. “Had to get deep enough before it actually worked; the thing literally glowed a bright blue as I held it in my mouth.”
“156; a high reading,” Phoebe says as she scans it.
“So this is the star of Pisces.”
“We’d better get it back before anything else happens.”
Phoebe, Willis, and Alex make their way to the jet and fly back home. After arriving at Samuel’s private hangar and mounting their motorcycles, they receive an urgent call.
“We’ve got a monster attacking the city; you’ll have to cut your mission short.”
“Dad, we already have it.”
“Really? That’s great news.”
“We’re on our way back.”
“Do you think it’s a good idea to take the jewel into battle with us? It could get taken from us.”
“Give it to me; I’ll take it back to the mansion and join you later.”
“Are you sure, Alex?”
“Yeah, I’ll be fine.”
Once on the freeway, Alex separates from the others. About a quarter of the way, he was attacked; his communicator had flown away from where he fell. He looks up to see who it was, “Why am I not surprised…?” sarcasm lay heavy in his voice as he looks at Cameron and Christi.
“You look lost, ranger; isn’t the battle the other way?”
“Wait how did you… oh so I take it that’s your monster?” Alex assumed.
“You catch on quick.”
“Well there’s no way I’m letting you take this jewel.”
“Haven’t you realized by now we always get what we want?”
Alex and Cameron and Christi draw their swords and begin the fight.
Alex charges first with his sword in its secondary mode and swings forward; Christi front flips over it and behind him with an elbow strike to the back of the left shoulder, pushing him towards Cameron, who rushes up with a low strike from Alex’s right; Alex blocks as she passes him by and then changes his sword to its primary mode as he attacks; Cameron back flips over the sword and hits him with an explosive ninja star, which knocks him on his back.
Christi picks him up by the collar and punches him in the stomach; Alex kneels, but leaps over Christi’s leg as she performs a low kick. He then forward rolls towards Cameron, draws his gun and fires a couple of laser blasts into her chest.
As Alex stands up, Christi approaches and disarms him as he turns to aim at her. After pushing her away, Alex tries to pick up his weapon; sparks fly from it as Cameron hits Alex’s laser weapon with a ninja star and pushes it further away.
Meanwhile in the city, the other face a white-haired monster with black armor on all except his arms, which had a weird tattoo drawn with white ink across his black skin; a dark mask with three “V” shapes and a dot in light blue and black and white striped above his ears; the beast drew its sword and strikes Phoebe as she rushes at him first; as she fell, Max draws his gun and fires at the beast, who deflects every shot with his sword.
Meerlix leaps in from the side and lays into the monster with a series of fury swipes; the monster strikes back and Meerlix ducks and uppercuts him in the chin.
The monster gets up and rushes him with a low kick; Meerlix dives over the beast’s leg, crouches behind him and throws back an elbow to the lumbar before standing up and blocking the monster’s next move.
“Wulf, get ready!” Meerlix calls out as he cups his hands ready to give him a boost; as Wulf rushes towards him, he his lifted into the air high above the monster. At the same time when Wulf’s in the air, Caitlin passes by the monster and attacks with her fan blades just before Wulf rapidly descends upon him and delivers the final strike.
A while after Christi and Cameron swipe the jewel from Alex in a surprise attack, they find themselves in an ambush situation as well.
Ling Khan approaches them with a legion of Konglatons; the two fought for as long as they could, but in the end, Ling ends up making off with the jewel.

Meanwhile, the team, minus Alex, returns home.
“Miss Caitlin…” Bradshaw got her attention. “There was a call for you. I took the liberty of jotting down the message.”
Caitlin takes the piece of paper from him and is surprised by what she read.
“What’s wrong?”
“My cousin, Jennifer, is coming to visit; how does she even know I’m here?”
“Probably saw you on TV; we are famous you know…”
“Anyway, what’s so bad about her?”
Just before she could answer Max’s question, Alex stumbles into the room.
“Alex! Oh my god, are you okay?”
“Yeah, it’s nothing major, but… I lost the jewel.”
“You what?” Samuel said with shock.
“On the way back, Cameron and Christi jumped me; I’m sorry.”
Samuel paused for a bit “The important thing here is you’re alright. These sorta things happen. Just don’t go solo again, have someone escort you; you’re not the only one on this team, you gotta learn to lean on your friends when you need them.”
“Yeah, that’s what we’re here for,” Starla replied.
“Now… what’s this about a cousin…?”
Meanwhile in Seductra’s spacecraft orbiting the earth.
“What do you mean you lost it?!” Seductra was literally throwing things all over in a fit of rage.
“Ling Khan ambushed us at the last second.”
“We couldn’t even summon the Putras you gave us, Auntie.”
“I don’t blame you,” she said in a calm tone, “I blame myself… for even thinking you two couldn’t screw this up!” her voice started up again like a dying fire after it was with another spark.
“But… didn’t we do right by you when retrieving that weird box thing from the government car?”
“Unless we figure out how to harness its power, it is of no use to us…,” Seductra answered with emphasis on ‘no use’ and ‘us’.
“Mistress, we’ve got incoming space junk, preparing evasive maneuvers.”
the ship rocked and rattled as the debris drew closer and closer while they tried to move downward out of its way.
“You should’ve gotten that stasis beam, but nooooo… you just had to have new drive core.”
“Shut it, both of you!”
“Sorry, auntie…”
“Now… we need a plan of action; it’s time we stop sitting idly by and watching the competition tear into this wretched world, but how do we go about it? Fear? No… it’s been done. Wait I got it. This must be your day to shine, because you’ve just given me an idea. A monster that controls gravity, motionlessness, etc. etc.,”
“We could check and see if you have any in your army that fits that description.”
“See that you do…”
Back at the mansion around the same time; Caitlin paces back and forth in the living room, stressed out about the arrival of her cousin.
“C’mon, she can’t be that bad…”
“‘That bad?’ You weren’t there when we were kids. She would always get away with everything. One time, at my birthday party, my dad was bringing the birthday cake in from the car. He gave it to me to take inside because there was more to carry; my cousin was waiting by the door and she tripped me. When I tried to explain what happened, Jen denied the whole thing and I got the blame.”
“That was like years ago, she’s probably changed by now.”
“There’s a Jennifer Riley to see you, Caitlin,” Bradshaw announced.
“And so it begins…”
Jen was 5ft 4in, had black hair, brown eyes, tan colored skin, and the body of a supermodel compared to her cousin Caitlin. She walked in the room sporting a white dress and assorted jewelry around her right arm and her neck and immediately caught the attention of Max, Willis, and Alex as she walked straight past on her way over to Caitlin. “Long time no see, cousin…”
“Likewise… Jen…?” Caitlin replied hesitantly. “You’ve changed since I last saw you.”
“So have you; time sure does fly, doesn’t it? So… are you gonna introduce me to your friends or what?”
“Oh right, sorry. Everyone, this is Jen; Jen, I’d like you to meet Alex McLaren, Starla, Phoebe Dallas…”
“Retired Rodeo champ of the southwest,” Jen interrupted.
“Right… Then there’s Meerlix, Max Grant, his brother, Willis, and Wulf ninja warrior.”
“Max and Willis Grant, sons of the famous Samuel Grant; nice to meet you, sir,” Jen immediately turned to shake his hand.
Back onboard Seductra’s ship, her nieces bring out a monster named Magneterror. He was 5’7, his body was mostly metallic and dark blue. His head was two giant “U” shaped magnets facing left and right with a pair of half-moon eyes colored red and slanted to make the shape of Pac-Man. In his left hand was a staff with a rectangular magnet on each end; the top one was red and the bottom was blue indicating they were north and south polarity. On his chest were the same two magnets, but with two north polarities facing each other and six wavy lines showing that they were repelling one another, “Yes, what I can do for you, my queen?” he asked.
“I want you to go down to earth and raise trouble, literally…”
“Yes ma’am…”
Meanwhile, a moment before Magneterror begins the attack.
Caitlin is doing the dishes. She was humming a tune from her favorite TV series. As she finished up, her cousin, Jennifer, walked in. Caitlin slowly looked back at her with uncertainty as she was unsure as to her being in the room, watching her. After a short staring contest, she quickly answered with an unsure, “what?”
“Walk with me, dear cousin.”
Sometime later outside of Starbuck’s
“I’m just… I don’t think this is what your parents would’ve wanted for you; going out and fighting monsters like some superhero. You should be off at college trying to make a better life for yourself.”
“College… isn’t really my thing.”
“You could be anything you wanna be; a singer, a dancer; based on those moves I’ve seen back there, you’d make an excellent ballet dancer.”
“You didn’t come all this way just to lecture me about my life, have you?”
“I’m just saying, you need to start thinking about what’s next after this whole ‘save-the-world’ gig is over and done.”
“You know what, save it! You’re not my mother and you never will be...”
“I know that I’m not. I’m trying to look out for you; do what’s best for you.”
Back at the mansion the alarm sounded, stating that there’s trouble; Seductra’s monster, Magneterror is on the rampage in the city.
Most of the people, who got away were lucky; the others, not so much. Magneterror uses his power to render them motionless.
“Hang around, the fun is about to begin; not that you have a choice in the matter…”
“Magneterror,” Max called out.
“Ah, Gaia Rangers; nice of you to show…”
“Party’s over, Magneterror, put them down.”
“If you insist….” Magneterror tosses the civilians separate directions.
Willis races off and catches them all one at a time while the others focus their attention on the monster.
Meanwhile, Caitlin just then gets the call from Samuel and races off to join the others.
“Cait, we’re not done here!”
“Well, I am; my friend’s need me.”
Alex leaps into action with his Scorpion saber and Magneterror blocks with his staff, twists it clockwise and disarms Alex before delivering a backhand to the jaw.
Phoebe throws her mantis boomerang and misses as Magneterror leans to his left; Phoebe just stands there, waiting as the boomerang made another pass, but instead of it hitting him in the back of the head, Magneterror holds up his hand and catches it. “Haha. Nice try!” he sneered as he threw it back and knocks Phoebe on her back.
Willis speeds in behind Magneterror, who holds up his staff and renders him montionless.
While hovering in the air, Willis tries to reach for his blaster, but Magneterror slams him to the ground in front of his friends before he could pull it from its holster.
Wulf and Meerlix rush in side-by-side; Wulf slashes at Magneterror from the right with his sword and Meerlix scratches him with an assortment of fury swipes from the left. Magneterror spirals counter-clockwise and strikes Meerlix who spirals out of the way and behind Wulf, who turns, holds out his hands and gives Meerlix a boost into the air, but before he could get around behind him, Magneterror points his staff upward and stops Meerlix high above his head.
Wulf struck Magneterror down and breaks his hold on Meerlix.
Magneterror hoists Wulf into the air by his shirt and pushes Meerlix back with a palm thrust.
Alex comes charging after morphing into a rhino and tackles Magneterror and makes him release Wulf from his grasp.
Magneterror looks around at the rangers as they surround him on all sides; he then raises his staff and strikes the ground with the butt of it, causing a shockwave, which knocked them all off their feet.
Just then, Magneterror receives a concussion blast from his right, which knocks him on his side.
“Sorry I’m late,” Caitlin answered.
“About time…”
“We were worried you wouldn’t show.”
“Hmph… you think you’re so tough? Let’s see how overconfident you are after I even the odds in my favor?” Magneterror summons to his side an army of Putras.
Unbeknownst to Caitlin, her cousin was lurking in the distance, watching the whole fight take place.
Caitlin dawns her Peacock fan blades as she gets in the middle of the army of Putras, poised and ready for battle as she awaits their first move.
One of them attacks from behind; Caitlin ducks under their sword and delivers a swift attack to the abdomen. Another one attacks her head-on and Caitlin holds up her left hand; her enemy’s blade goes straight through her weapon and she closes her blade around her enemy’s and disarms him. Another enemy rushes her and Caitlin performs a butterfly kick.
The whole time Caitlin fought, her cousin became more and more impressed with her skills; too bad the same couldn’t be said about her enemy.
“You haven’t seen the last of me…” Magneterror takes off like a bolt of lightning.
As the others swarmed Caitlin to congratulate her, Jen comes out of hiding to join in.
“Okay, I’ll admit, those moves were impressive.”
“Jen… How long were you standing there?”
“Long enough to see I’ve misjudged you, Caitlin; it seems as though you’ve found your calling in life.”
“I’m glad you see things my way; and I’m… sorry for what I said earlier.”
“It’s okay…”
Back onboard Seductra’s fortress in space
“Just so we’re on the same page, you have the rangers on the ropes…”
“Uh-huh…”
“And as soon as one more arrives, you flee like a coward?”
“That weapon of hers was powerful; even took out your men… my queen.”
“Yet, at the hands of its awesome power, you still stand before me.”
“I’d choose carefully my words if I were you,” Christi replied.
“Get back down there and get me one of the rangers before I shoot you out of an airlock!”
“Right away, your excellency.”
Back down on earth…
“After my parents died, I went in and out of foster homes. When I hit 17, I didn’t know what I wanted to do with myself. I got mixed up with the wrong kind of people and… Well… he didn’t have to, but he did. Samuel saved me from a life of living on the streets; he took me in, gave me a home.”
“And he… recruited you for…”
“I wanted to do something good for a change and being a part of Operation W.A.S.P. is that ‘something’.”
“It’s still gonna take time for me to get used to the idea of you being responsible for protecting the earth.”
“I know; we’re not little kids anymore, Jen. We’ve grown up.”
The two start reminiscing about the past and having a good laugh unknowing of Magneterror lurking in the distance.
Meanwhile back at home
“So far, Magneterror has just been stirring up trouble; trying to draw us out, but for what, I have no idea.”
“He’s been wreaking havoc with that staff of his. I can’t even get near him to destroy that thing,” Alex explained.
“Only thing that thing does is mess with your center of gravity; renders you motionless; what could Seductra gain from that?”
“If there’s one thing I know about my nemesis, is that everything she does comes with a purpose,” Wulf explained. “We just have to figure out what.”
“You may get your chance to find out after all; he’s back again,” MEGAN informed.
The others suit up and head back out. As they face Magneterror and an army of Putras for a second time, they realize something about him early on in the fight; he possessed several buttons on his waist, two of which resembled Caitlin and her cousin, Jennifer.
“Let’s see if I can add a couple more to my collection…”
“I don’t think so,” Wulf retorted.
Magneterror sends the Putras out first while he stands back and watches the fight.
Wulf led the others with his swords still holstered; the first Putra swipes at Wulf with its sword, but Wulf ducks under; his right arm behind him as he shot his left one forward and hits with a strong punch to the stomach. Wulf then spirals around, reaches for several ninja stars and throws them, taking out three more.
Max rushes up; with his weapon attached to his right arm, he leaps into the air with a flying punch, which he lands to the right jaw of his opponent. After landing, the pill bug armor moves down to his left shin as he performs a spiraling heel kick to the chest of another Putra.
Alex performs a forward roll past Willis and Max, gets to his feet and takes out a couple more enemies with his Scorpion Saber; Magneterror towers over him, ready to strike, but Alex rolls out of the way and attacks with his blaster.
While he was stunned, Willis rushes in and attacks with his Elephant axe, but as soon after that, Magneterror hits him and Alex with a stasis beam and turns them into one of the buttons on his body.
Starla surprises him with a blast of white light to the chest and knocks him down.
“We need to find a way to stop him before we end up a permanent part of his collection.”
“Agreed,” Starla replies to Phoebe’s statement.
While back at the command center, Samuel and MEGAN are monitoring the fight on screen.
“Can you see any weak points?” Samuel asked.
“None at the moment, but his staff seems to be the obvious source of power; taking that out might release the others.”
Samuel contacts the others via communicator, “Guys, you’ll need to destroy his staff if you’re ever to have any chance at defeating him.”
“Easier said than done…,” Max replies as he opens fires on a couple more Putras.
“I’ll draw his attention while you think up a plan,” Wulf explains.
“Wulf, wait…”
Once again, Wulf charges blindly into battle. With each strike Magneterror threw, Wulf would counter; Magneterror would throw a left, Wulf would block, fake a left and throw a right, then fake a right and throw a left. Magneterror couldn’t predict Wulf’s moves, but he still fought.
Phoebe then intervenes with a toss of her Mantis Boomerang and knocks the staff from Magneterror’s hands. Max rushed in and caught it before taking it in both hands; with his pill bug armor attached to his right knee, he brings the staff down while driving his leg up and snapping it in two. A tiny shockwave emits from the top of it, which changes the buttons on Magneterror back into people.
Without hesitation, Max brings in the WASP stinger mark 2 and puts an end to Magneterror for good.
“You guys alright?”
“Yeh…”
“I just have one question… what took you so long?” Caitlin asked.
“That’s a funny way to say thank you,” Starla replied.
“Thanks.” Jen said.
“Now that’s more like it…”
Moments later after the others head back home, Caitlin and Jen head back out to grab some lunch and catch up on old times.
“You have really interesting friends; including that Alex fella; he’s cute.”
“He’s mine; don’t even think about it.”
“I won’t. I know you have feelings for him; I’ve seen the way you look at him.”  

[Samuel Grant]

Chapter 32
Fight for Power

As Samuel instructed, the ranger took the day off; Max, Phoebe, and Starla were out by the beach, soaking up sun and having a good time, Alex and Caitlin went to see a movie and Meerlix decided to take on the form of an alley cat and hang out with the other felines; kind of odd, but I guess he feels more like a cat than he does a human being.
As for Wulf, he walks out onto the patio in the backyard and finds something a bit odd; instead of going on and enjoying himself like the others, Willis stayed behind and was training as usual.
“Everyone else is having fun. I’m curious as to why you’re not joining them? You could go see a movie, go to the park, or something.”
Willis doesn’t respond, he just continues practicing his martial arts moves.
“Very impressive, but I see a bit of weakness; not in your technique or anything…”
Willis still remains silent, but Wulf finally sees why. He approaches Willis and removes one of the earphones from his left ear.
“Care do a lil sparring?”
“Oh, Wulf, I didn’t hear you come out. Sure, I’d love a sparring partner that is if you can keep up.”
“Me keep up? You forget who you’re talking to.” Wulf puts his weapons down and stands a fair amount of distance from him.
Moments before the fight started, Samuel walked out into the backyard. He stood his distance so not to alert them of his presence.
At the same time in Serpitox’s lair, the four remaining shadow rangers stood around as they plotted another scheme to once again try and destroy the rangers. They were able to speak openly without watching what they say, because Serpitox and Fahl Kun were gone. Serpitox was yet again on the UC Berkeley campus, but instead of being there to teach, he was kicking back with a few of his fellow students on the grass outside of one of the campus buildings; Fahl Kun was out in her human form, jogging through on the Marina bay, and as for Pachytar, he was taking a nap in the back room of the lair.
“That’s your brilliant plan?” White shadow ranger asked furiously.
“Looks, we’re stronger as a team. If we take on the rangers like we did the first time we met, we stand a chance at defeating them.”
“Green shadow ranger’s right; we had them on the ropes before Serpitox interfered.”
“You’re forgetting one thing; their mysterious knight in purple armor. He manages to swoop in and save them at the last possible minute. What do we do about him?”
“You leave him to me,” the green shadow ranger responds.
Meanwhile back at the beach, Caitlin and Max toss the Frisbee around; Caitlin throws it a little high over Max’s head and it lands over nears some rocks. Max goes over to get it and notices something, a red light off in the distance. He proceeds to investigate and finds Farenhart chasing the red flash of light all around the place.
“Hey!” Max calls out.
Farenhart pays no attention to him and continues chasing the light, but Max decides to get closer. After watching him for a while, a couple Magma Golems restrain him.
“The red ranger. Sorry I don’t have time to play, I’m busy.”
“I can see that. What are you doing anyway?”
“Nothing that need concern you…”
“When you threaten earth, everything concerns me.”
Several minutes later Back on the beach
“What’s wrong?” Phoebe asked Caitlin.
“I dunno Max has been gone a really long time.”
“We should go look for him then.”
Max and Farenhart fought over the flash of red light; they both held it in their hands, tugging back and forth.
“Let go of it!” Farenhart shouts.
Max doesn’t release his grip; the two of them are then transported somewhere by means of the thing they were fighting over just moments before Phoebe and Caitlin show up, leaving them in the presence of the Magma Golems.
At the same time in a back alley, Meerlix was hanging around with some local alley cats when he saw a blue, ominous glow in the distance by a pile of garbage bags. As he turns back into his regular self to retrieve it, he is stopped by Celsior; same way Farenhart was stopped by Max. they each pull the other back and bust out the Kung Fu as they try to reach for the object, which they soon found was a blue medallion. It had the same wolf picture on it as the two that Caitlin and Starla found.
After defeating the Magma golems at the beach, Phoebe and Starla decide to stay and continue their day off. After contacting Samuel, he assured them that he would call them right away with any urgent news regarding Max’s disappearance. But of course, Samuel reneged on his promise the minute he saw the shadow rangers in the downtown area, destroying everything in their path and causing mass panic.
“Sir, I must stress to you the nature of this situation.”
“MEGAN, it’s their day off. I know I promised them I’d get back to them if anything developed, but I can’t just ruin their day of relaxation by telling them they have to cut it short.”
“But your suit doesn’t have the power to take on all four at the same time.”
“MEGAN, I promise I’ll contact them if I can’t handle the situation. Besides, how difficult can they be?” Samuel soon realizes he has misjudged his team’s adversaries as he finds himself nearly low on power and nowhere near defeating the shadow rangers; but despite his severe beating, he refused to call for help. He keeps getting back up no matter how many times he gets knocked them.
MEGAN can’t stand to watch anymore and secretly calls the other rangers to step in; but as soon as they touch down, the green shadow ranger initiates the next phase of his plan.
“Sir, we have a problem. Something is jamming my signals.”
“A virus? How’s that even possible? I’ve got the best firewall installed; five star rating.”
MEGAN’s voice was garbled as the mysterious entity onboard Samuel’s suit slowly took over.
“Guys, something’s compromising my suit, you might wanna be careful.”
Thinking quickly, Alex transforms into a Boa constrictor and wraps tightly around Samuel; trying to keep him in place, but he was too strong for him. He squeezes out of Alex’s grip as he takes to the sky and immediately swoops back down like a bird attacking its prey.
Meanwhile, inside a dark room where the only source of light was from the ceiling, Celsior and Meerlix and Max and Farehart dropped into the room; Meerlix and Celsior were in a room with a blue light while Max and Farenhart were in a room with a red light.
“You just couldn’t let me have it could you?” Celsior said. “That power is rightfully mine; you can’t have it.”
“Anything that gives you an advantage, I think not.”
“Well then I guess there’s only one way to settle this…”
“A fight to the finish?”
“You know it.” Farenhart says to Max the same time Celsior said it to Meerlix.
Farenhart leaps at Max and jabs his weapon forward while Max dawns his pill bug armor; it rapidly attaches to his left arm as he blocks. Farenhart draws back and attacks again; Max switches his armor from left hand to right hand and blocks Farenhart’s strikes as he comes at him from all sides. Farenhart changes up and attacks low, but Max’s armor transitions to his knees as he blocks and then throws back a low kick to the hip.
Farenhart jumps back, Max gestures to him to make the next move and he does. He jumps up high and attempts strikes Max on top of the head, but he fails as Max blocks with his left arm. Farenhart lands and Max spirals clockwise and hits him with an elbow to the back of the neck.
Checking in with Meerlix and Celsior; Celsior attacks from the right with his staff and Meerlix ducks and lays into him with a fury swipe attack.
Celsior attacks with his left and Meerlix back flips out of the way waiting for him to attack again.
Celsior rushes at Meerlix, who sidesteps, kicks the back end of Celsior’s staff and knocks it out of his hands as he strikes him in the chest with a hammer fist.
“Now it’s time to finish this,” Meerlix calls for his Mecha armor and pelts Celsior with full power.
After flinching from the attack, Celsior rolls out of the way and knocks Meerlix out of the air with an ice blast before marching up and separating him from his weapon.
Meerlix does a back flip kick to break free of Celsior’s grip and knocks him on his back.
During the rangers’ battle against their counterparts back in the city, Wulf ducks away discretely. He rushes back to the command center and bypasses Samuel’s security to get into the lab.
MEGAN was obviously against the idea of him taking one of the suits into battle and she tries to talk him out of it.
“Don’t waste your breath, because I have no idea what you’re saying; just shut up and plug yourself in. we’re in for a wild ride,” Wulf replied as he donned the suit. Afterwards, he takes off like a bat out of hell. Upon making it back to the others, he interrupts Samuel’s attacks and drags him off to the top of one of the builds, “Hope you don’t mind me borrowing this.” He said while dealing a right hook to Samuel’s jaw.
“I told you there weren’t ready yet!” Samuel delivers a low punch to the stomach and pushes Wulf back.
“Desperate times calls for desperate measures.”
The two go back and forth exchanging hits and dialogue while down below, the others come face to face with Max, Willis, Starla, and Alex’s counterparts.
Everyone, except for Caitlin and Phoebe, face off against their counterpart; since Max was not there, the red shadow ranger was all theirs.
Red shadow ranger spirals Phoebe to the ground with swipe of his right arm; then with his pill bug armor equipped, he punches straight down; Caitlin interrupts him as she blocks with her blades and kicks him back with a frontal kick. Red shadow ranger’s weapon moves down to his shin as he performs a spiraling kick, which Caitlin ducks under.
With his back turned, Caitlin strikes red shadow ranger with her left blade and he stumbles forward.
As he turns, Phoebe attacks with her boomerang and red shadow ranger blocks, throws a left to the chest, a right to the jaw, which Phoebe blocks; red shadow ranger then gets her with a headbutt to the face and leaps at her, ready to bash her on top of the head with his left fist.
Phoebe turns invisible and takes a step back; the red shadow ranger’s arm gets stuck in the asphalt as he lands in front of her.
Caitlin attacks with her laser vision and dislodges him just before Phoebe throws her boomerang and he spirals onto his back.
Alex ducks, sidesteps and leaps over the black shadow ranger’s attacks as he slings his Scorpion saber like a chain until Alex fell on his back; Alex rolls to the left while reaching for his sidearm. He grabs it and gets to his feet; but before he could fire, his counterpart whips it out of his hand. Black shadow ranger takes several steps forward. He slashes upward and Alex leans right. he slashes at his neck from the right and Alex ducks as he summons his weapon and slashes him in the chest one and in the stomach on the second strike. As black shadow ranger stumbles back, he swings hard and latches on Alex’s blade; pulling himself forward again. Alex rolls towards his gun and picks it up. He fires a couple shots and breaks his opponent’s grip and races at him. He zips past on the left and strikes fast and hard, and then comes back in the opposite direction on the right this time; on his third attack, shadow ranger attacks low for the shins and sends Alex tumbling. As he tumbles along the asphalt, he turns into an armadillo to stop his movement, then transforms into a bull and charges in black shadow ranger’s direction.
Willis wildly swings his axe at green shadow ranger, who ducks; white shadow intervenes as she swings her left blade, which Willis quickly blocked.
Starla lands a frontal kick to white shadow ranger and the green shadow ranger steps in with a couple of slashes. Starla and Willis stumble back and both summon the WASP stinger Mark I, which was snatched from their hands by white shadow ranger; once all of the rangers were lined up, she and green shadow ranger use it against Willis, Phoebe, Caitlin, Alex and Starla and they go down in one shot.
“Too easy,” red shadow ranger said slowly.
From on high, Wulf looks down to the scene where his fellow teammates were at the mercy of the shadow rangers. They were lying there, struggling to get on their feet as the enemy moved closer with their right arm held out and their palm facing the ground. As Wulf watched, Samuel decks him with a right hook to the face.
“Sorry,” he said. “No control over my suit’s functions!”
Wulf shook his head and then just fires back at him with his palm laser; Samuel ducked and rolled as Wulf alternated between hands.
“Wulf, you’d better move!” Samuel warned as his suit started to deploy tiny, pen-like missiles from his wrist.
Wulf spirals around in the right of the incoming ordnance.
“Heatseekers, Wulf!” Samuel warned again.
Wulf looks behind him, but it was too late to maneuver; so he fired back with his right palm and detonates them. With the blast several feet away, Wulf performed a back flip under the influence of the shockwave.
“Wulf, what’s wrong? Why do you keep looking down?”
“MEGAN, can you track where they’re taking them?” Wulf asked as he watched the shadow rangers vanish with their counterparts.
“It will be difficult, but I’ll see what I can do. I got it, they’re 24.4 miles north of your location; Briones Regional Park.”
The instant Wulf took off, Samuel was right behind him.
“Still with me back there, Samuel?”
“I really don’t have a choice in it, do I?”
Wulf flew in a straight line most of the way until Samuel warned him he has target-lock.
Samuel’s suit literally threw everything it had at him and Wulf continued to dodge.
“Evasive maneuvers, Wulf! Ordnance coming in hot; watch it.”
“Are you sure you can’t do something to regain control?”
“If I knew anything, I would. Just watch your back!”
Checking back with Max and Meerlix in their separate worlds; Farenhart continues his attacks while Max evades and counters each one with his Pill bug armor constantly switching body parts to provide him with twice the defensive and offensive power.
Farenhart sweeps in low with his sword and Max cartwheels over it; Farenhart comes at him with a much higher attack from the opposite direction, but Max ducks in a swooping motion as he delivers a strong punch to his center and knocks him a few inches.
Farenhart kneels and Max takes the opportunity to strike, but Farenhart hits him with a bolt of lightning from the eyes and knocks him on his back.
Farenhart leaps into the air towards Max, who rolls out of the way before he could land, gets back up and blocks Farenhart’s next move; with his pill bug armor fully engulfed around his right hand, he grabs the back of the blade, which comes to a full stop after going halfway. Considering his next move, Max performs a frontal kick to the stomach and separates Farenhart from his weapon.
Celsior keeps up his attacks, which hinder Meerlix from getting to his weapon; Meerlix keeps up the fight, using his lightning fast reflexes.
Celsior charges Meerlix with his staff pointed towards him. Meerlix approaches, drops to his knees and slides right under and past Celsior as he slashes him in the side with his claws.
Celsior spirals and attacks with his staff, but Meerlix quickly gets up, back flips over it, lands on his back in front of Celsior and knocks him to the ground with a double leg kick to the stomach.
Celsior looks up at Meerlix and tries to hit him with an ice beam, but Meerlix dives to the right and rolls onto his feet; Celsior throws another ice beams and Meerlix leans back as far as he can go to dodge it before standing back up; Celsior gets to his feet and charges Meerlix, who then sidesteps his attack and slashes him across the face, leaving a dark blue mark across his cheek, which quickly healed. Celsior hits Meerlix with a hammer fist to the chest.
As if by luck, Celsior’s attack landed Meerlix near his hawk crossbow. After picking it up and firing back, Celsior falls to his knees and the dark room with the light shining from above faded, sending them both back to the alleyway where Meerlix first saw the medallion shimmering behind a pile of garbage bags; the blue medallion, which imprisoned them both placed itself on Meerlix’s chest, a piece of string then ran from the medallion, around Meerlix’s neck and tied itself into a knot.
At the same time, Max defeats Farenhart and sends them both back to reality; Farenhart swings his sword from right, which Max blocks with his armor as he throws a straight punch to the stomach. The instant Max uses his pistol on Farenhart and drops him to his knees, the dark room around them faded. They were back on the beach near the rocks where they first met face to face before they fought over the medallion.
At the same time when Meerlix and Max got back, Wulf and Samuel had made it to the coordinates MEGAN gave him; Samuel was still firing while he was slowly gaining on him.
Thinking quickly, Wulf extends his right hand and latches onto the top of a leafless tree. He swings around and allows Samuel to pass him before he lands a kick to the backside and sends him spiraling to the ground floor.
The shadow rangers heard the crash from inside the cave where they kept Phoebe, Willis, Caitlin, and Alex tied up next to a glowing, multicolored machine.
To their surprise, it was Wulf and Samuel. Wulf had Samuel pinned, but he wasn’t sure how long he could hold him with how strong he’s pushing back. Samuel finally shakes him off moves in for the kill, but Wulf gives a swift kick to the chin and he hits the tree behind him several feet off the ground. As he falls, he hits Wulf with a burst of white light from his palm and he stumbles over a boulder at the speed of sound; Samuel was right behind him and he quickly grapples him as they wrestle around in the dirt; Wulf manages to get in an elbow shot to the chin and Samuel’s suit completely shuts down in one hit.
“Reboot commencing, sir,” MEGAN replied.
“Samuel?” Wulf said as he taps on the visor of his helmet.
Samuel slowly wakes up; his suit gradually turns back on as his readouts pop up one at a time and his screen was still staticky. “Whatever it was that was in my system is now out of my system. Thanks, Wulf.” He grabs Wulf’s hand as he pulls him up.
“How the hell did this happen?”
“One minute, I was rescuing you guys from the shadows and then… things got all screwy.”
“Good thing MEGAN got it out; otherwise, you wouldn’t be alive right now.”
“Oh, that’s reassuring.”
“You know I can wipe the floor with you and you know it.”
“You sure you didn’t take too many blows to the head?” Samuel asked smugly.
Green shadow ranger clears his throat.
The white shadow ranger responds, “If you two are quite finished…”
“What kinda features does this suit have?” Wulf asked as he and Samuel marched into battle.
“You’ll soon find out.”
Red shadow ranger swings first from his right; Samuel glides under and throws a right punch repeatedly.
Wulf throws a left and a right to white shadow ranger’s jaw and then pushes her with a blast from his palm laser; green shadow ranger hits him with a double leg drop kick. While on the ground, Wulf sees white shadow’s ranger’s weapons fly at him like a couple of Frisbees. They bounce off the rocks and trees around him; the first one hits just as Wulf rolls out of the way and then the second ones hits just as Wulf thrusts out of the way and comes back at green shadow ranger. Wulf disorients green shadow ranger with a couple of hits and then picks him up and throws him at white shadow ranger, who zips past at light speed, picks up her weapons, and slashes Wulf in the chest and legs.
Black and red shadow ranger take turns slashing at Samuel, who held up a transparent shield of nano-bots; sparks fly as their weapons hit, but none manage to make it past the thin line between Samuel and them; Samuel finally lets up the shield and grabs black shadow ranger’s Scorpion saber with his left. He quickly wraps it around Max’s weapon and kicks him back; black shadow ranger pulls red shadow ranger forward and he performs a flying kick as his armor moves down to his leg.
Samuel ducks and performs an uppercut to red shadow ranger’s back, then spirals and fires a missile from his shoulder, which black shadow ranger deflects with his weapon; as the explosion occurs behind black shadow ranger, Samuel leaps at him with his left arm drawn back.
Black shadow ranger wraps his saber around Samuel and swings him around and drops him on the ground behind him.
“C’mon, c’mon, where are those features Samuel promised?”
“Hold out your left arm,” MEGAN replied.
Wulf did so and she activated a red light, which emitted from his fingers; they didn’t cut through the target, they just touch. Within seconds, Wulf had some of the powers that belonged to both Starla and white shadow ranger. He scatters across the air as light as she makes his way towards him and reassembles behind her, performing a sweep kick. White shadow ranger back flips and performs a spiraling kick to his face; Wulf performs his trick again shoots at her with his palm laser.
“I’m loving this suit more and more.”
Suddenly, without warning, Wulf was struck in the back by green shadow ranger. One strike from his Elephant axe and Wulf was down for the count; he and Samuel awaken sometime later to find Max and Meerlix had returned. Right away, they noticed something was different about them. Their energy readings were off the charts.
“C’mon, Wulf! We’ll let them handle this.”
Wulf accompanies Samuel into the cave. They immediately see the machine upon entry. A gray, cylindrical device on top of a tripod facing where they were chained up; a multicolored, transparent beam ran from their bodies to the tip of the device as it was draining their energy. Their skin was getting paler and paler with each passing second. Wulf and Samuel move over to the console plugged into the machine and try to reverse the effects.
“Do you know what you’re doing?”
“Wulf, you forget who you’re talking to, here…” Samuel reassured him. Within seconds, the machine’s ray beam went in reverse; returning the stolen energy to the rangers’ bodies.
Wulf then cuts the chains using his palm lasers and they literally peel off the wall.
“Everyone alright,” Wulf asked.
“We’re good.”
“What happened to the shadows?”
“They’re outside; Max and Meerlix are distracting them.”
“Let’s get out there then…”
“They kinda had things under control before we left.”
Upon exiting the cave, they found Samuel’s words to be true as Max and Meerlix used their newfound power to defeat the remaining four shadow rangers. It was a quick fight; the shadow rangers were no match for Max and Meerlix as every attack they threw bounced right off several inches from their bodies as they glow a bright red and blue and emitted jolts of lightning from their bodies like they were made entirely of the stuff. Within minutes, they had rounded their enemies up after displaying a full use of the powers the medallions gave them for a brief moment; and in a single minute, they combined their powers for the final strike. The shadow rangers disintegrated bit by bit as the blue and red glow from Max and Meerlix combine midway and turn into a violet hue.
The others look on in shock as they could not believe what they’re seeing; they have finally defeated Serpitox’s shadow rangers.
Meerlix and Max share a hi-five after their victory, but soon collapse the same way Caitlin and Starla did when the medallion’s power left their bodies. Phoebe picks up Max; Caitlin and Starla pick up Meerlix and Wulf and Samuel slowly approach to take over for them. They fly back to the command center with them in their arms while the others followed after summoning the Diving Beetle. Like with Caitlin and Starla, Max and Meerlix had to rest and gather their strength.
Meanwhile down in the command center.
“I can’t believe. The shadow rangers are finally gone.”
“And good riddance to them; I wasn’t sure how much abuse I could take from them.” Wulf said.
“I agree,” Starla replied.
“Speaking of abuse, how are things with your suit, Samuel?”
“Pretty good so far, Wulf; I’ve run a scan on all systems and things seem normal.”
Everyone was glad about the destruction of the shadow rangers, including Serpitox. As he sits in his chair, Pachytar stands around him as he has a chat with him.
“I dunno whether to be thankful or feel some sort of emotion towards the subject; the shadow rangers are gone, but my enemies still live on. The only upside to this is that my energy is no longer being drained. I have no idea… who it is that’s stealing their life force away from, but he’ll soon feel my wrath just as the rangers will.”
“It is only a matter of time, my lord.”
“Right you are, Pachytar.”
At the end of their conversation, Fahl Kun enters the room with some news. “I’ve located it, sir.”
“The shield…?” Serpitox asked.
Fahl Kun gives a nod.
“Excellent.”
“Perhaps I should be the one to retrieve it, master.”
“So be it.”  

[Samuel Grant]

Chapter 33
The Lycan, the Shield, and the Pachyderm

“It was one of those dark, cloudy nights; I could feel it in my bones. It was going to rain at some point. But that’s not the point I’m trying to make,” Wulf explained. “I was asleep in my hotel room when I felt it again. Something was calling to me like a ghost of a lover, who was lost at sea. There was no face to go along with; just a gold light shimmering like a star in the sky. I awoke from my slumber and left the building; no need to get dressed, because I slept in my clothes like I always do. While out on the prowl, I come across the faint sound of someone in distress. It was a man this time; early 50’s, Caucasian, luxurious, lengthy, wavy black hair and a green tie-dye shirt with blue jeans and a brown jacket; an ex-hippie or something like that. He was coming home from a drugstore when two guys ambush him. Being the kinda guy I am, I decided to help out like usual.”
“That is so you, Wulf,” Samuel added, “But would you mind explaining why you’re here?”
“In a minute, okay…?”
Samuel growls softly in irritation. Wulf continues telling the story.
“Well, anyway, I saved the guy as I did with the many other innocent victims; I should be getting a medal…”
“You’re a vigilante, since when do they get medals?”
“As I was saying… after I saved him, I kept getting this flash of yellow light in my mind. I followed the pathway until I reached a warehouse and guess who I saw on the second floor; Pachytar. And he was accompanied by Cobra drones. I crouch behind a stack of boxes to spy on them and I notice Pachytar has another map. Obviously, he’s having a hard time figuring it out, otherwise he wouldn’t be there.”
Wulf knew he had to get that map, but he couldn’t just burst in, sword drawn, he needed to figure out a way to get Pachytar and the Cobra drones out of the room. He snuck around them using the boxes as cover. He uses his power he refers to as “blindsight” to keep an eye on his enemies’ movement as he turned corners and ducked into crevices; allowing them to pass him by. As they do, he takes out his sword and decapitates them one by one until only Pachytar remained. As Wulf looks up at the table, Pachytar was gone. He had left the map behind, which confused Wulf a bit. He had a feeling it was a trap. He looked all around before he was bashed out his hiding spot and out into the open. He slides backwards on his toes as he slowly turns to face Pachytar.
“Your size don’t intimidate me…” Wulf waits for him to approach and then he lands a flying knee kick to the stomach; Pachytar responds with a double fist strike, but Wulf performs a back flip as he fists dent the floor and comes at him from the right as he repeatedly kicks him in the shin.
Pachytar bashes him into the wall with a back fist to the face.
Wulf peels off the wall as Pachytar marches towards him and runs towards him; sliding under his legs and climbing up his back. As he lays into him with punch after punch to the top of the head, Pachytar reaches for him and finally pulls him off. While hanging upside down, Wulf lands a punch to the jaw.
Pachytar just took it with only a flinch to show for it and tosses Wulf away like trash.
As Wulf knocks over a few of the cardboard boxes, he comes across a tool box. He opens and pulls out a crescent wrench. After he throws it, Pahcytar reacts with a loud “ouch!” as he flinches; letting Wulf know that it hurt. Wulf then takes the entire contents of the box and throws them at him, hoping to do more damage; but Pachytar catches each one and throws it back; all but two miss Wulf as they fly past him like bullets.
Samuel’s voice then interrupts, “That’s great and all, but still you haven’t answered the question.
“Well, the battle went on for another ten minutes; I managed to swap the map for something else and hightail it out of there. The only place I knew to go was here…”
Wulf enters the command center through the tunnel that he and the rangers use to for their motorcycles. It was night and all the lights above him were turned off. He enters to find it dimly-lit and void of any human presence.
“Are you aware of the time?” MEGAN’s voice bellowed, nearly scaring Wulf to death.
“Thought you were asleep…”
“I recharge my batteries, but I do not sleep. May I inquire as to the nature of this visit?”
Wulf had now reached the end of his story; he was back in front of Samuel Grant while the lights in the command center were still on.
“Yeah, I get that part. Couldn’t you have gotten yourself into this predicament at a more REASONABLE hour?” Samuel asked.
“You know what; I don’t think this can wait. Whatever is sending a message to me is filled with immense power. And if Serpitox or anybody else gets their hands on this, they’ll probably have enough power to blow up the world. How would you like that?”
“How can they if we have the map?”
“You know that saying ‘an elephant never forgets’? I’m thinking Pachytar has a really good photographic memory.”
Pachytar then returns to the lair where Serptiox was sitting on his throne in the lab.
Serpitox soon gets up when he hears the bad news Pachytar addressed him with.
“So you… lost the map?”
“It wasn’t my fault, that lycan is…”
“Don’t give me EXCUSES, Pachytar!” Serpitox pushes the contents of the lab table onto the floor in rage.
Pachytar backs away at the various colored liquids and glass approach his feet.
“You have been one of my best generals for a long time; you and Fahl Kun have fought valiantly on my behalf without failure and yet you allow yourself to be outsmarted by a rejected laboratory experiment?” with limited energy, Serpitox was weak. He sometimes had to grip any type of structure at his level like a table or a chair or press a palm firmly against a wall to keep himself up.
“Are you alright, sir?”
“He made you look like a fool.”
“It won’t happen again, I promise.”
“Of course it won’t; because I will carry on with the mission from here while you keep the rangers occupied.”
“But, sir, you do not know the…”
“I am aware I do not know the exact coordinates of the item; but if I wait long enough, Wulf will find it, and then I will follow HIM, don’t you get it? I sense that he is in tune with its life-force. It calls to him, Pachytar. It has not yet revealed itself to him, but it does make its presence known.”
Meanwhile, at Celsior’s lair; he is also aware of the thing that calls to Wulf. He decided to keep his brother in the dark about it, so he can keep the power for himself. Unbeknownst to him, Farenhart was also aware of Wulf’s constant visions.
“Oh brother, I know you are near. I just need to figure out where and your power will soon be mine,” Farenhart said.
Later on that morning at Samuel’s house, as everyone comes downstairs for breakfast, they immediately notice Wulf in the kitchen with Bradshaw.
“Wulf. When’d you get in?” Meerlix asked.
“Just last night,” he replied.
“He took it upon himself to show up abruptly.”
“Why not just stay here instead of in some hotel?”
“Living in a mansion... it’s not my thing.
“Wulf, if you have a moment, I’d like to see you in the command center.”
When they finally meet, Samuel places the map down on the table and gets straight to the point.
“According to your map, this mysterious item of yours is located somewhere in Russia; far north. It’s in the ice and snow. I had satellites combing the area and there was nothing there. It could just be somebody playing a trick, Wulf. As much as I hate you, I still advise you to exercise caution.”
“You’re giving me a lecture on caution? The great Samuel Grant, who, just like his alternate universe self, leaps into something without looking.”
“You’re right about that. Fine, do whatever you want.”
“If it’ll make you feel better, why don’t you come with me?”
“Just like that…?”
“Just like that.”
Just like that, without telling the others where they have gone, Samuel and Wulf travel halfway around the world. The part of Russia they were in was mostly snow and ice and mountains to the east and north. There were high winds blowing snow in their faces and forming icicles on parts of their face and brown parkas.
Wulf and Samuel wore goggles to keep ice from forming on their eyes as they wandered through this frozen wasteland by the map.
“For the record, I blame you for this.”
“Oh quit your whining. I may have asked you to come along, but you could’ve said no!”
“How much further do we need to go?”
“That’s just it; we should be right on top of it.”
“I told you someone was playing a trick.”
Something felt different to Wulf. Where he stood, it was as if the ground was harder than usual. He felt something metallic underneath the snow and bent down to feel with his paws. “Peculiar…” he murmured.
“What?” Samuel asked.
“Down at your feet!” Wulf uses Blindsight to get a closer look. Everything to him appeared as either a blue flame or a red flame. He felt a structure with several floors void of life; human life at least. Most of the floors appeared to be cold while the rest were warm to moderate temperature. He then looks for the entrance. It took a while to find, but he saw a hatch door a few hundred yards up ahead covered in snow. “C’mon, Samuel, this way!”
The right the lift down to a room filled with empty desks. Chairs and papers were strewn across like a tornado had hit. The lights were half off and some of the equipment present in the room shot sparks into the air. Wulf was able to make an inference as to what had happened, which left Samuel baffled. He wondered how he came up with that conclusion.
Wulf answered, “That’s what would’ve done…” Wulf then gestured, “C’mon, elevators are this way.”
The next floor was mostly covered with water. Wulf took one look and noticed something was odd. There was no sign of anywhere where there would be a leak, yet as plain as day, there was water.
“Looks like somewhere got here before us.”
“This water used to be ice, but something else melted it off the walls; something very hot.”
“Magma Golems; obviously Celsior and Farenhart are both on the premises. We can’t contact MEGAN from down here. She could be of assistance in tracking them down. We’ll have to do this the old fashioned way.”
“There are a lot of floors.”
“I’m aware of that. Perhaps we should split up.”
“That such a good idea? We don’t know our way around.”
“I’m sure a smart guy like yourself can think of something.”
In the lower levels of the compound, it was chaos as Cobra drones, Glacieroids, and Magma Golems occupy all rooms in an all-out battle to the finish. For every soldier Serpitox’s men took out, a couple more took their place; it was a never-ending struggle, but Serpitox and Fahl Kun drew closer and closer to the heart of the facility where the item was kept.
Celsior and Farenhart stood close by in efforts to guard it as wave after wave of Cobra drones slowly marched their way.
Serpitox uses what little energy he has as he takes a swipe at all Glacieroids and Magma Golems that stood in his way while Fahl Kun dragged up the rear, sword in hand.
Samuel and Wulf enter from opposite sides; Samuel found himself up against Cobra drones and Magma Golems while Wulf faced Cobra drones and Glacieroids. To keep from getting into a firefight, Wulf climbs up into the heating vents and passes right over them.
Meanwhile, Serpitox was not too far ahead of them as he bursts through the door to the vault where a gold shield was kept. The shield was a medieval design with a shape like half of a four-sided star for the top half; its bottom half was a half-oval shape. It had seven round and large indentations the same size as the medallions the rangers were finding. They were in a circle around a gold medallion, which was welded into the shield itself, making it part of the shield and unyielding.
“Well well. Look who slithered through the door.”
“I want that shield,” Serpitox said slowly, out of breath.
“That’s not going to happen,” Celsior replies.
“Then I guess I’ll just have to destroy you to get what I want.”
“Go ahead; it won’t do you any good anyway.”
“And why’s that?”
“With its owner currently deceased, its power lies dormant.”
“If it’s useless, why are you and your brother still searching?”
“We need to revive him in order to take the shield for ourselves. If he’s brought back to life, his power will be up for grabs by anyone.”
“And how do you plan on reviving him, may I ask?”
“That’s for us to know and you to never find out.”
“Fool! I will make you tell me.” He points to Fahl Kun and gestures her to commence the attack.
After overhearing, Wulf sends a text to Samuel regarding the information he just heard.
Samuel literally tries to do two things at once. He was fighting off Cobra drones and Magma Golems left and right when Wulf sent the text. “Oh really,” he said as he read it all the way through.
As if he had psychic abilities, Wulf replied back before Samuel could. His text then read “Yeah really.”
The cellphone was then thrown from Samuel’s hand as a Cobra drone strikes him; but instead of going after it, Samuel leaves it alone and continues pushing forward. Once he was almost to his destination, Farenhart jumps out and blocks his path.
“Honestly, am I really your number one priority right now?”
“My brother can handle Serpitox; so that means you and that abomination of a friend you hang out with are mine.”
“I just thought you two would wanna revive your friend, Zierian, and steal his powers.”
“How did you…?”
“Amazing piece of technology; cellphones,” Samuel said vaguely. And by the way, you call him an abomination; but have you LOOKED in a mirror lately?”
In anger, Farenhart draws one of his swords and takes a swing at Samuel. He cuts into his leg before he had time to evade. On the second strike, Samuel takes out his sword and ducks while he blocks; at waist level, Samuel fires a shot from his laser gun and pushes him back.
Farenhart spirals in attempt to hit Samuel with his elbow, but misses as he performs a slide and slices through his side a couple inches below the ribs. Farenhart spirals back the other way and hits with a back kick to the chest and knocks Samuel into a painting on the wall.
With his back against the wall, Samuel looks at his glove and then at Farenhart as he marches closer to him. He then activates the nano deflector, sending millions upon millions of nanobots in front of his face to block Farenhart’s next attack. Once Farenhart’s sword touches the transparent wall, Samuel wills it to move right by the motion of his hand as he spirals and takes a stab at Farenhart with his back turned; then Samuel fires at him to confuse him as he rushes forwards, blindly swinging his sword, and slashes.
Meanwhile, up in the air vent above, Wulf waits for the opportunity to pounce like a tiger to its prey as Celsior fights off Farenhart, who was a much better swordsman than he; for every move he threw, she countered with great speed and agility as she used her wings to navigate around him.
Wulf then abruptly drops from the ceiling behind them; Serpitox was the only one to notice him and then he proceeds to keep him from acquiring the shield. Although he was weak, Serpitox put up a good fight. Wulf didn’t stand a chance, but after a while, he started to learn his moves. He escapes during the confusion after defeating Serpitox, who then calls to Fahl Kun to follow him.
Wulf uses the shield to his advantage as he bursts through the crowd of enemies moments before Samuel finishes the last of them.
“What the heck is that? Is that what we came for?”
“We need to get back to the elevator now.”
“Well, our…” Samuel pushes Wulf and himself down as Fahl Kun swoops overhead. “Our exit is blocked. If you have another way, I’d like to hear it.”
Wulf leads Samuel directly to a secondary shaft directly under a frozen harbor. There, they find a lift used to raise submarines and Wulf toggles with the controls to get it moving.
Samuel protests his plan of Wulf’s, “This is your plan?”
“Yeah.”
“You do realize what’s up there…?”
“I don’t see you coming up with the ideas.”
“Oh, will you step aside and let me do it? You’re like a monkey operating hand tools.”
Farenhart, Celsior, Fahl and Serpitox’s men pour into the room like water through a crack in a dam once they get the doors open. All four push and shove as they make their way to the front.
“I suppose I’ll hold them off then?”
“If it’s not too much trouble…” Samuel said to Wulf.
“Best I can do is give you six minutes.”
“Alright.’
Wulf steps down off the platform. With his sword in hand, he looks left and right across the row of enemies in front of him like Clint Eastwood in one of his cowboy movies. There was not an ounce of fear in his eyes. He was calm, yet cautious like a snake during feeding time. He watched and waited for his enemies’ first attack and then takes the first few down within seconds. “Who’s next…?” he asked in a calm tone.
The minions flood him like a pack of wolves and Wulf cuts them all down to size with a single slash until none remained; then Celsior and Farenhart take the lead after they deal with Fahl Kun and her master. Each made a grab for the shield during battle, but Wulf leaves them with only a couple inches between them and their prize. Each time, a little bit of their power secretly transfers to the shield; it wasn’t much to revive Zierian, but it was a start.
Once the five minutes were up, Samuel finishes transferring power into the lift, so he and Wulf to get out of there. The lift slowly ascends to a small, rectangular box, where a hatch door opened up. The water then started pouring in and Samuel immediately summoned the WASP stinger Mark I before he had to hold his breath.
Meanwhile, down below, Farenhart planned to blow a hole in the rectangular box Samuel and Wulf ascended into; Serpitox stopped him.
“You’ll flood this entire room!”
“Oh and I suppose you have a better idea?”
While they thought of something, Wulf and Samuel held onto each other as they swam to the giant sheet of ice restricting their path to the surface.
Samuel thought to himself how fortunate he was to have summoned the tool he needed and then proceeded to blast a hole in the ice and give him and Wulf a way out. Samuel went first, as he placed a hand on the edge of the ice, another hand reached out and offered to help him up. He couldn’t tell who it was until he was all the way out and the wind had stopped blowing snow all over. To his surprise, it was Max and his friends.
“How’d you find us so fast? I was sure our signal was lost once we entered the base.”
“We’ve been searching this part of Russia ever since MEGAN told us where you went.”
“We just received your signal several minutes ago,” Alex explained in place of Willis.
“It would’ve been difficult setting the plane down in that snowstorm, so we rode the rest of the way.” Willis pointed to the giant snowmobile in white camouflage with tank-like treads as the driver sticks his head out.
“Sooner we get outta here, the better,” Wulf replied, carrying the shield on his back.
“What’s with the shield?” Caitlin asked.
“It’s a long story; now’s not the time.”
They all pile into the vehicle, but as soon as they make it a few miles, they were attacked by a walking tank-type monster. It was big, rectangular, had its treads on its sides with a slot on the front where its arms came out of it. It had its turret sticking a foot out of its chest and aimed at our heroes’ vehicle as it fires. The shot lands in front of them, which causes the driver to swerve.
Wulf stayed inside while Max, Willis, Alex, Phoebe, Starla, Caitlin, and Meerlix step out to handle this new foe, who was later accompanied by Serpitox, and Fahl Kun; Celsior and Farenhart decided to sit this one out. They were hoping on Serpitox to be destroyed and they could step in where he failed.
“Seven against three; hardly seems fair.”
“It’ll have to do for now.” He turns to Fahl Kun instantly and says, “Get the shield.”
Fahl Kun contemplated whether she should leave him in his condition.
Serpitox repeated the order slowly, “Get the shield.”
She then flew at the snow mobile while Serpitox and his monster stood their ground.
The tank monster, which Serpitox referred to as Raptore, fires several missiles from its chest and the rangers scatter.
Willis speeds forward, axe in hand and switched to cannon mode. Before he could fire the thing, Raptore grips the barrel with his right; lifting up on it, he then swings Willis around like a flag.
Phoebe disrupts him with her mantis boomerang. As it hit, he immediately drops Willis; moments after, Max and Alex lay into him with laser fire as they grip their pistols
Serpitox vs. Meerlix, Samuel, Caitlin, and Starla; Serpitox slashes Caitlin with his right and blocks once Samuel steps in with a left punch. He grabs Samuel’s fist with his left and performs an elbow to the forehead. Starla spirals at him from the right with a rear horse kick and pushes him back. Caitlin attacks him with her laser vision, but Serpitox crosses his arms in front of his chest. As the laser beam slowly burns through his armor, Meerlix comes at him from the left. Once Caitlin stopped, Serpitox focused on Meerlix’ as he pulls him closer, he performs a knee to the crotch and then stands in a horse stance as he pushes him back with a low punch to the stomach.
Meerlix quickly summons his hawk crossbow; with a couple shots, he dropped Serpitox on his back.
Using his lightning fast reflexes, Serpitox speeds up and disarms his opponent before throwing a series of punches, a knee to the abdomen, and an elbow to the chin.
Starla comes at him immediately after Meerlix and alternates as she throws punch after punch; kick after kick only to have Serpitox block each one.
Caitlin comes up from behind and grips his abdomen tightly with a bear hug. She had his arms pinned for a brief moment before he broke free and swings around with a backhand; Caitlin ducks and lands an uppercut to the side of the jaw.
Serpitox’s tank monster goes for an uppercut, which Willis dodges with a back flip.
Max quickly lands punches to the monster’s abdomen to his get attention.
Phoebe also gets its attention with her boomerang, so Alex can latch onto its arm using his Scorpion Saber.
Alex then slides under the monster’s leg, yanks on his saber, and flips him twice onto his face.
Wulf defends himself as Fahl Kun comes charging towards him like a hawk to a snake. From inside the vehicle, he gets her with a double kick before he leaps out and performs a back flip up onto the door. With the shield up, he jumps down to her level and uses it to his advantage as he blocks one attack after another and counters with a few of his own.
With Wulf’s next attack aimed at her feet, Fahl Kun leaps into the air, hovers by the grace of her wings alone, and then comes back at Wulf with a spiraling kick; he spirals to the ground face first and the shield slides from his body to where Serpitox could see it.
“At last, it’s mine.”
“Oh no you don’t, Serpitox!” Meerlix shouted as he stepped in between him and his prize. He grabs Serpitox by the wrists as he pushes him back; Serpitox comes at him with a knee to the stomach, which breaks him out of Meerlix’s hold and gives him the opportunity to strike.
As soon as he knocks Meerlix down and makes a break for the shield, Alex transforms into a goat and tackles him from behind before he changes back and picks it up for himself.
Serpitox’s monster then targets Alex from a distance, which makes Samuel comes to his rescue.
He steps between him and the bullets with his nano deflector shield and instantly bounces them back. They create sparks as they hit the beast’s tough armor.
“There’s gotta be a way through all that stuff!” Alex said over the roar of the machine gun turret.
Willis tears away from his fight as soon as Alex says something and attempts to scan for a weakness. He immediately finds one, “Aim for his chest turret!”
“Got it!” Alex said as he summoned the WASP stinger Mark II. Once Samuel takes down the shield and leaps out of the way, Alex commences firing. One single blast to the chest and the ordnance inside detonates; frying his circuits. A minute later, he falls face first in a huge explosion.
Only Serpitox, Fahl Kun, Celsior and Farenhart remained; Celsior and Farenhart were still standing in the distance, observing the battle; waiting for the moment to jump in. the longer they watched, the more things tipped in the rangers’ favor.
“Let them keep the shield,” Farenhart said.
“What?”
“We’ll get it back later. If we go down there, we have about as much luck as they are,” he said.
“You’re right; besides, it’s useless to them.”
“Hey, what’s up with that?” Caitlin said as she saw Farenhart and Celsior leave.
Serpitox and Fahl Kun make a hasty retreat, leaving the shield behind.
Meanwhile, Wulf waited until getting back home before he explains the story of this shield.
At that time, Zierian returns from the spirit world, “You found it,” he said.
“I assume this belongs to you then?”
“What Farenhart and Celsior say is true. After I used up my energy on sending it away with the jewels, I lost my connection to it. The only way to re-establish it is with the powers of other elementals.”
“How many elementals are there?”
“So far, there are only three; Farenhart, Celsior, and myself.”
“And I doubt they’ll want to lend us their power willingly.”
“Not while it’s in our possession.”  

[Miss_agenda]

Wow! You're good! 3nodding
I've only read the prologue and bits of the first chapter but I like how the story is going so far. It's quite late for me now so I'll read more tomorrow. ^^  

[Samuel Grant]

Miss_agenda

Wow! You're good! 3nodding
I've only read the prologue and bits of the first chapter but I like how the story is going so far. It's quite late for me now so I'll read more tomorrow. ^^

thanks for your comment. there's still more of this series to go. please stay tuned biggrin

it takes bits of each power ranger season and puts them all together.
i have references to episodes of Power Rangers Zeo, turbo, dino thunder, ninja storm, jungle fury; the majority of it is based on Operation Overdrive; hence the title "Operation W.A.S.P."
it's a treasure hunting/save the world thing.  

[Samuel Grant]

Chapter 34
The W.A.S.P. and The S.S.O.R.D.

There comes a time in every movie, every TV series, and every comic book; no matter if it’s cartoon or real life, where heroes and villains join forces for a common good or evil. Mostly, it’s the heroes only. Take a look at the Avengers, Justice League (though those were in comic books). When villains get tired of the whole “Good triumphing over evil”, they get desperate.
It was outside of a Museum in Canada where it all started. Cameron, Christi, and a monster they created got beaten by the rangers yet again. This monster made you think of a mythical creature from the Middle Ages with all of its long, rugged brown hair, which draped down the side of his head in braids. It had silver and brass armor from head to toe; its helmet in the front formed an “M” shape around his red eyes and over his nose. His weapon of choice was a large double sided axe. Both sides were unequal with one end being bigger than the other.
When Cameron and Christi lost the fight, they left the jewel behind they stole. They watch from afar as the rangers get praise for saving a priceless gem and that’s when Cameron, Christi, and all the other villainous factions receive a calling card from an unknown ally. The device was half of a round, purple rock with its inside being mostly black. A hologram appears from the center of it with the face pixelated. Obviously this mysterious friend didn’t want them knowing his true identity in case they changed their mind about accepting his offer.
“Word around the galaxy is that you have a problem. I can help you get rid of it if you agree to meet with me.”
Cameron and Christi quickly agreed and were instantly transported through the rock via a green light; the other villains such as Celsior, Farenhart, Seductra, Serpitox, and Ling Khan took their time before deciding.
Serpitox, Pachytar, and Fahl Kun were the last to arrive inside of a dimly lit cave to a room with a round, stone table where they met with the others, “Which one of you brought me here!” Serpitox bellowed.
“Hey, don’t look at us. We received the call same as you,” Christi replied.
“Besides, why would I invite you all when I can’t stand most of you?!” Seductra complained.
“That goes double for me too,” Ling Khan stared at Seductra when he said that.
They argue and argue until they heard a thunderous clap. A bolt of purple lightning hits the throne they see on their left and summons forth a beast in black armor from head to toe, spiky shoulder pads, a helmet with devil horns pointed up in a C shape, and a red cape all the way down his back. He held a medieval shield with red eyes and an evil face in one hand and a large, stone hammer with a triangle shape underneath, which connected the head to the handle, in the other as he sat there and waited for everyone to get quiet. “It is I, who brought you here.”
“And just who are you?” Ling Khan asked.
“I go by Comus,” he explained, “And I am here to discuss business with all of you.”
“What business might that be?”
“Everybody in this room, except for one faction, is looking for the jewels of the Karma Lunari. I can help you get them. What I’m proposing is we all work together to achieve this goal. Afterwards, you can all go back to killing each other.”
“What’s in it for you?”
“All I want in return is two people; Samuel Grant and Wulf ninja warrior.”
Meanwhile at General Creed’s base in the desert, the General’s top scientists present their latest development of Samuel Grant’s tech; they made an exact replica of his machine that was used to give his rangers their powers.
“I’ve been sitting on the side too long while Samuel and his precious Operation W.A.S.P. reap the rewards. Now is the time for me to step in,” Creed said. “Are the participants prepped?”
“General Sir, may we introduce: Katherine and Nathaniel Marsh (a.k.a Kate and Nate), two master assassins and obviously brother and sister; twins. Next, we have Paolo Barboso from Brazil; stuntman and skilled in the art of Capoeira. Bayard, we’ve run the name through the databases. There has to be an error of some kind, because it says he was born in the 1300’s.”
“Anything is possible, Allen. Who else do we have?”
“Joanna Ortiz, child prodigy, scientific genius. She helped build that machine; Kwataro, an alien locked inside Area 51 since the 50’s, Jonathan Trevelyan secret agent.”
Kate and Nate both have the same almond-shaped brown eyes that are like two patches of dried blood; Kate had silky, curly, medium-length hair is the color of black coffee, while Nate had fine, wavy, black hair worn in an artistic style. Kate was very tall and has a busty build; Nate was tall and had a wide-chested build. Both she and her brother’s skin color were white. Kate’s wardrobe was a loosely worn Catwoman suit in blue going from the neck down the her feet with black boots; Nate’s was a sleeveless black top and matching cargo pants
Paolo had beady blue eyes. His silky, curly, brown hair is worn in a style that reminds you of a mysterious hood. He is short and has a graceful build. His skin is light-colored. He has a crooked nose. Paolo was half naked; all he wore was a pair of green and yellow stretchy pants and wooden sandals.
Bayard was Caucasian with gray eyes. He had long, silky yellow hair split down the middle and worn in the style of a mop. He had a very muscular build. On his right hand was a gold ring with a blue marble worn on the middle finger. Bayard wore all blue; jean jacket with a dark blue shirt, jeans, and brown shoots. On his left cheek was a scar about two inches long and a millimeter thin.
Joanna was an Asian woman with long, wavy, black hair. She has droopy black eyes that are like two lumps of coal. Her wardrobe is mysterious and weird, with a mostly pink color scheme.
Kwataro had the body of a human with blue skin, the head of a walrus with huge tusks, and green eyes like two emeralds. His hands had sharp, tiny claws black as the nails on a dog’s paw. He was wearing a robe and pants similar to Meerlix’s, but with a darker blue color scheme
Jonathan was an African American with a smooth head of hair like a shaved afro. He has wide pine-green eyes. He is very tall and has a boyish build. His wardrobe was a blue suit and red tie.
After meeting them for the first time, he politely shakes their hands before whisking them away to the gene re-sequencing machine to receive their powers.
Meanwhile, the rangers return to the mansion for some well-deserved rest and relaxation.
Meerlix challenges Caitlin to a game of air hockey; Wulf and Phoebe sat down and waited for their turn. Max and Alex played a game of pool. Starla sits out on the patio by the pool in nothing but a bathing suit with a reflector in hand, catching some of the sun’s rays. She didn’t have a care in the world as she looked up at the sky and watched the clouds pass by slowly.
“Here’s your tuna fish sandwich and pink lemonade, miss Starla.”
“Thank you, Bradshaw.”
He set it down on the glass table to the right of her just moments before he sat down in the adjacent lawn chair.
“Beautiful day, isn’t it?” Starla asked Bradshaw.
“Indeed.”
“After a day like what we just had, it’s nice to just sit back, do nothing, and enjoy it.”
Meanwhile, on the inside in the living room area in the middle of their air hockey game
“This is the life, isn’t it?” Caitlin asked.
“I agree,” Max said.
“Imagine what it would be like if your dad didn’t put together this team, Operation W.A.S.P.; what would it be like then?”
“It’d be boring, that’s what.”
“I’ll be right back,” Wulf answered. He retreats to Samuel’s laboratory to check up on him.
“I’m kinda busy here, Wulf.”
“You’ve been down here all morning.”
“The suits, they need a lot more work before they’ll ever be combat ready. Is there anything in particular you needed?”
“I just got bored of listening to them talk. Anyway, what more do these things need? They seem to work fine to me.”
“For a limited time, yes; but to give them a much longer battery life, I need to find another source of energy with high output. So far, nothing comes close to a suitable replace, except…”
Wulf had already known what Samuel was thinking, “Oh no, you’re not thinking of using the medallions. You heard Zierian yourself, we can tap into that kind of power until all eight are put on the shield and recharged. Until that day, they’re powerless.”
As soon as the alarm sounds, the rangers’ vacation was obviously cut short.
“C’mon, Samuel…” Wulf said, literally dragging him away from his work.
After reaching the city, they’re confronted by Celsior; just him, not a Glacieroid or monster in sight. He stood there with smoke rising from behind him and the rangers stand facing him, all confused as to why he was attacking alone. They soon find out that’s not the case, when one by one, the other villains appear through the smoke; Ling Khan, Fahl Kun, Serpitox, Farenhart, Cameron, Christi, Pachytar, Seductra, Sapphira.
“Now there’s something you don’t see every day…”
“Since when did they…?”
“I dunno, but it doesn’t matter when, how, or why.”
Wulf, Samuel, Alex, Max, Starla, Phoebe, Willis, Meerlix, and Caitlin rush into the fight and so do their opponents; it was Wulf vs. Seductra, Max and Willis vs. Cameron and Christi, Alex vs. Celsior, Samuel vs. Ling Khan and Farenhart, Caitlin vs. Pachytar, Meerlix vs. Serpitox, Starla vs. Sapphira, and Phoebe vs. Fahl Kun; all locked in a battle to the finish. The rangers stood no chance.
Seductra had her sword drawn, so Wulf drew his as well. Seductra strikes high for the neck and Wulf blocks. Catching her off guard, Wulf then aims low; but Seductra was too quick as she lowered her blade in the path of his, spiraled, and landed an elbow shot the jaw.
Wulf quickly locks his arm around her neck before she could turn and face him and she elbows him in the kidney. Wulf immediately lets go and she hits him with a quick slash to the arm. He take his free hand and throws a swift punch, which Seductra stopped with her palm as she poked her sword at his abdomen; causing him to block. Quickly, Wulf throws another punch, only to have her grab his arm, spin him, and slash him in the back.
Max and Willis stood side by side as Cameron and Christi come at them alternatively; Christi repeatedly throws left and right punches; all of which Willis quickly blocks, but Cameron pushes him back with a frontal kick and Max leaps in with a fist to the top of the head and then a tornado kick, which Cameron counters with a leg grab; after she throws Max, Willis gets her with a sweep kick.
Christi jumps in and throws a low kick to the jaw and Willis spirals onto the asphalt face first.
Max gets Christi’s attention with several shots to the back before Cameron disarms him and comes at him with a quick right cross, which he blocks before throwing back a shin kick.
Cameron performs a kick at the same time and it felt like Max was fighting a mirror. Cameron stops on the sixth kick and gets Max with a spiraling backhand before Willis rushes up at the speed of sound and attacks with a palm thrust.
For every attack Celsior threw, Alex returned three-fold. Celsior goes for an overhead punch; Alex ducked and delivered three punches to the chest. Celsior throws a kick; Alex blocks it at the knee and throws back three kicks; one to the shin, the second to the hip, and the third to the face. Celsior immediately stops and fires back a couple ice beams, which Alex dodges with a couple flips; then Alex turns into a T-rex and swings his mighty tail. He gets Celsior quickly with the attack, but Celsior scrambles to his feet, summons his staff, and creates a sheet of ice at Alex’s feet; as he turned back into his human form, he slips on the ice; giving Celsior the perfect opportunity to strike.
Ling Khan uses his lightning fast agility to outsmart Samuel at every turn. Every move Samuel threw at him, he seemed to evade with the grace and skill of a Capoeira fighter. He performs a spinning back kick and Samuel grabs him by the foot; Ling Khan quickly flips and decks Samuel in the jaw with a ninja kick. When Samuel was disoriented, Ling Khan rushes forward to do a double palm strike. With him still disoriented, Ling Khan leaps at him with a flying knee, then a sweep kick; then finally, he mounts him and deals punch after punch.
Once Samuel rolls him off and gets to his feet, Farenhart steps in, swords drawn, as he slashes blindly at Samuel, who ducks and dodges. After a while, Farenhart and Samuel hit each other at the same time and spiral to the ground; Ling Khan picks him up as soon as Farenhart gets up and he throws him at him; Farenhart slashes him in the back and Samuel instantly falls.
Caitlin shoots Pachytar with her laser vision; he is instantly pushed back by the force of the intense, red beam of light as he crosses his arms in front of his face; but then he pushes back and leaps back at her with a flying elbow.
Caitlin back flips and throws a kick to Pachytar’s right; he blocks and hits back with the same kick as Caitlin grabs her gun and knocks it from her hands. He then grabs her by the shoulders and gets kicked in the crotch. Immediately after that, he strikes her with a punch to the jaw, but she blocks and he has to deliver a knee strike to the abdomen. Before she was out of his reach, Pachytar summons his sword; Caitlin spirals to the ground in one strike.
Within moments, the evil alliance had softened the rangers up to allow Comus to deal the final blow; only instead of destroying them, he used his powers to rid them of their powers; on Comus’ chest were several badges of distinct colors: orange, red, green, black, and brown; only ones, whose powers he couldn’t do away with were Starla, Samuel, Wulf, and Meerlix. Meerlix, Wulf, and Samuel didn’t have any powers and Starla’s powers were virtually limitless.
Zierian then gets between them and the rangers before they could any more damage.
“I was wondering when he’d show up.”
“Who is he?” Comus asked.
“Just a mutual friend; he’s no threat.”
But before the evil alliance could destroy the rangers permanently, Zierian instantly transports the rangers to safety.
“Now do you think the suits are ready?”
“I told you, Wulf, they need more power. You and Zierian won’t let me experiment with the medallions, so where else can I find an energy source?”
“We can’t just sit around while you figure something else out; they’re already out looking for the jewels as we speak!”
“You take the suit out, you fly to their location; then what? You won’t have any more power after that. Why do you think I never used it outside of the state of California?”
“Well, isn’t there a way for you to make it so we can teleport them to our location?”
“You know what… you may have something there, Wulf. I never experimented with that. I’ll give it a shot. I will need your gloves, so I can program the suit into the teleportation modules.”
Back in the villains’ lair, the evil alliance all huddle together at the round table; arguing Comus’ decision to leave the rangers powerless rather than destroy them.
“There’s something he’s not telling this; this Comus person.”
“He seems to have a personal vendetta with Samuel Grant. That much is apparent with his desire to get a hold of him.”
“There are things you needn’t concern yourselves with my friends. My business with Samuel is my business,” Comus said as he enters the room. “By the way, what was your deal back there when that gold, glowing freak appeared?”
“His name is Zierian. He’s the one, who imprisoned Farenhart and me many many years ago for first trying to steal the jewels.”
“Imprisoned within our own elements; meant to rot in space for all eternity. Once the Karma Lunari was awakened, we were awakened.”
“He is but a spirit and cannot be destroyed.”
“Well, I suppose that’s a good enough reason…”
“Good enough reason? The rangers are still breathing. That is unacceptable,” Serpitox said.
“Our primary goal is the jewels, Serpitox; the rangers will meet their end soon enough,” Seductra explained.
“Especially that Starla…” Sapphira muttered.
“Your primary goal is the jewels; I am after something of far greater value.”
“You never once thought of going after the jewels back wherever it was you came from?” Ling Khan asked.
“In the future, the jewels are obsolete.”
“Speaking of jewels, we probably should get to searching.”
“I agree; being cooped up in this cave is making me feel uncomfortable,” Christi said.
“Remind me again, Comus, why am I here?” Serpitox asked.
“You’re the scientific genius; besides…” Comus grabs him by the shoulder and whispers in his ear, “I know what you want. The shield… with it, you could have more power than everyone combined; but all that power it doesn’t matter if you possess the shield, you won’t be able to tap it.”
Serpitox jerks his shoulder back, “I have moved on from that.”
“Sure you have…” Comus said sarcastically.
“Something seems odd about you…” Serpitox said in a tone, which gave him away as being semi-suspicious of Comus.
“Look, do you want the shield, or are you just gonna stick with the 20 questions game?”
First stop on the evil alliance’s quest was a replica of the Parthenon from Greece built in Nashville, Tenessee; Sapphira and Seductra go to the check it.
“I like the way you think, squirt. A museum built in honor of the Gods of Greek Myth. What better place to search for the jewels.”
“Why thank you, old hag,” Sapphira answered back.
“It’s too bad about all these people though.”
“Leave that to me.” Sapphira summons a whole army of Konglatons to scare everybody away.
They search the entire place and find one of the jewels, the Star of Virgo, around the neck of its Greek equivalent, Aphrodite.
“One of you go and retrieve it,” Sapphira said to the Konglatons.
“I don’t think so…”
Seductra and Sapphira immediately turn once they hear Wulf’s voice.
Standing right in front of them were all the rangers; Wulf, Samuel, Alex, Max, Willis, Starla, Caitlin, Phoebe, and Meerlix in ranger suits identical to Samuel’s, except in eight distinctive colors. Brown, green, blue, red, orange, black, white.
“Oh no, not them again…” Seductra said all melancholy.
“Is that anyway to treat an old flame?”
“Old flame, huh? I shoulda extinguished you a long time ago; I dunno WHAT came over me,” Instead of drawing her sword, she instead summons her army of Putras to fight alongside Sapphira’s Konglatons.
Now having a ranger form, it was an easy fight; as the two armies charge at them like stampeding buffalo, Caitlin and Phoebe designate the targets on their readouts and fire one shot each; the Konglatons fall on their backs and then evaporate into a puff of smoke, while the Putras liquefy, turn into a puddle of pink and white goo and instantly vanish.
“So you got some new toys; big deal! C’mon, Sapphira, let’s break in these new gadgets.”
“With pleasure…”
“Luckily, I bring spares…” Seductra pulls out more Putra beads and throws them to the ground; summoning more of her army.
Meanwhile, Sapphira took the lead; Starla meets her halfway. She performs a barrel-roll to her left, plants her feet, slides, spirals, and grabs Sapphira in a choke hold. Sapphira steps on her foot, elbows her in the kidney twice; the second time, she makes Starla release her and shoves her into Seductra’s Putras.
Willis slides in feet first and trips Sapphira, who leaps over him, performs a roll, draws her sword and attacks Alex with two strikes. With Starla’s armadillo blades coming at her from behind, Sapphira turns, and as she deflects both of them, they swing around behind her and hit Alex and Meerlix as they run up.
Wulf, Caitlin, Phoebe, and Max make their way to Seductra. She bats her sword in the air as they fly by and hits two out of four. Wulf and Phoebe, who passed her by virtually unscathed, plant themselves on the ground behind her. Seductra turns quickly and brings them to the ground with a single slash each to the chest; while on the ground, they look back at several putras climbing up the statue of Aphrodite to the jewel.
“I’ll take care of it,” Phoebe said.
Max, Caitlin, and Wulf form a triangle around Seductra. She glances at all three as she waits for one of them to strike first. She gripped her sword firmly with both hands; her stance made her almost unmovable.
Caitlin makes the first move as she leaps at Seductra, her weapons in hand. She swings right, but Seductra leans back and swings right; hitting the weapon before throwing an elbow strike to the breast.
“Caitlin, duck!” Max ordered as he fires a blast from his palm lasers; Seductra swings her sword at each beam, cutting it in half before turning her attention back to Caitlin and sweeping her off her feet with one swing of her weapon.
Wulf sneaks in from behind, but Seductra could hear him coming a mile away. She elbows him in the nose and quickly turns to him. As she lunges at him several times, Wulf blocks with his sword and then quickly goes for the neck; Seductra ducks and slashes at his stomach, but Wulf jumps back; body arched forward. Seductra follows him until he spirals around to her side and lands a hammer fist to the hip, and then spirals back the other way for an inside leg kick.
Once Seductra ducks, Wulf aims for the top of her head and she blocks before he could split her in half. With their blades still touching, she then shoots a beam of energy from her palm. The beam quickly engulfs him like a blanket and holds him in place for her to land quick and easy strikes. After the last strike knocks Wulf to the ground, his entire ranger form disintegrates, but that was going to stop him from getting back into the fight. With one last swipe of her sword, Seductra breaks her opponent’s sword; still, Wulf wouldn’t quit.
With the assistance of Caitlin, Phoebe, Willis, Alex, Samuel, Meerlix, Starla and Max, Wulf gained advantage over Seductra for a brief moment until finally, she and Sapphira deliver a devastating attack to knock them all out of there ranger form.
Our heroes were lying on the ground, unable to get up. Their enemies thought they were finished.
Then from out of nowhere, a new foe appeared. Bayard rode in on a Harley Davidson motorcycle as he led the rest of the team into battle to assist Samuel and his team.
“What in the…” Max said.
“Who on earth are these guys?” Seductra bellowed as Bayard circled her and Sapphira and then stopped and joined Kwataro, Joanna, Jonathan, Kate, Nate, and Paolo as they stand in between them and the rangers.
“I honestly had no idea the circus was in town; who are you?”
“Does it matter, Seductra? We’ll crush them just the same.”
“You’re right about that.” As soon as the Putras return to Seductra with the Star of Virgo, she orders them to attack while she and Sapphira retreat.
Meanwhile, Samuel and the rangers stand back as this new, mysterious ally, who showed up out of nowhere, take down the Putras like they were nothing. One by one the enemy fell until there were none left and then Paolo, Jonathan, Joanna, Nate, Kate, Bayard, and Kwataro turn to the others.
“That was amazing.”
“Yeah…”
“Just one question though, who are you?”
They said nothing and made their exit.
Seductra and Sapphira then return to the lair.
“We have good news and bad news.”
“If it’s about the new team of rangers, we already know.”
“It was bad enough when we had to deal with just two; it got worse and worse when it reached between 5 and 9; but now we have 16 of them.”
“I know who they work for. Leave these new guys to me; just keep searching for the jewels,” Serpitox explained.  

[Miss_agenda]

Samuel Grant

thanks for your comment. there's still more of this series to go. please stay tuned biggrin

it takes bits of each power ranger season and puts them all together.
i have references to episodes of Power Rangers Zeo, turbo, dino thunder, ninja storm, jungle fury; the majority of it is based on Operation Overdrive; hence the title "Operation W.A.S.P."
it's a treasure hunting/save the world thing.

Ah, I see. smile Cool.
I couldn't read so much like I promised because I have to prepare for my club activities and some tests but I will definitely read (like a LOT) when I'm done with them! ^^  

[Samuel Grant]

Chapter 35
W.A.S.P. and the S.S.O.R.D.: dull S.S.O.R.D

When the new team took over, Operation W.A.S.P. felt like they were no longer needed. They decided to leave the world in their hands while they went out and had fun; Max, Willis, Meerlix, Caitlin, and Starla were the only ones to not abandon Samuel when things got tough; Phoebe went back to her ranch, Alex got back into the jewel thief business, Wulf had gone off to do his usual thing; saving random civilians from the bad people. As each one carried out their daily routine, they found something was missing from their lives. When they were part of Operation W.A.S.P., their lives were interesting. They traveled the world, saw new and exciting things; but now they were back to the ordinary, the mundane.
Down below in the command center, Samuel was hard at work trying to figure out who it was they worked for. He finally figured it out once he looked up information on General Creed. What he found was not good as usual.
The General had once again taken an idea he stole from Samuel’s blueprints; this time, it was a machine. The same machine Samuel used to give his team their superpowers. Samuel was more than furious. He donned his ranger suit and took off just before Bradshaw popped in to check on him.
“Sir, do you really think this is a good idea?” MEGAN asked.
“Just because he’s General of the goddamn Marine corp., doesn’t mean he can just do as he pleases. Those were my designs.”
“I’m sure he’ll feel the same about you barging in whenever you feel like.”
“Just get me a fix on his location, okay MEGAN?”
“It shows that he’s in the opposite direction; Port of Los Angeles.”
When he arrives, he casts eyes on a large carrier ship out on open water. Once it cleared the port, it slowly began to rise; and as it rose up, four large propellers emerge from the ocean, which made the craft levitate higher and higher.
As Samuel rushes towards it, Creed’s men immediately home in on his signal.
“Get the general; he may wanna see this.”
One of the men rushes to council room to fetch Creed.
“Sir, we got an incoming…”
Daniel accompanies the soldier back to the bridge. On the screen, he sees the tiny blip as it slowly approaches a mere 75 miles per hour.
“It’s him…” he said as he already knew who the UFO was.
“Him who?”
Daniel makes his way to the flight deck to meet with Samuel in person. Samuel powers down the suit and returns to human form.”
“Samuel Grant. To what do I owe this visit?”
“I wanna know what your beef is with me; why do you always succeed in making a bigger a** outta yourself by using the tech you stole from me?”
“Just because you have an idea, doesn’t necessarily make it yours.”
“Bullshit…”
“No, what’s ‘bullshit’, is how you tried to steal her away from me.”
“Her who?”
“You know who I’m talking about.”
“Are we really making this about her again? That was months ago. Stop living in the past.”
“This isn’t about what happened back then; it’s more about obtaining glory. Why should you get to hog the spotlight?”
“I’m not hogging anything. I do what I do because I like doing good deeds. I’m already famous, so why would I want more fame?”
“Maybe because you realize that sooner or later, you’ll be old news. My team will pick up where you left off; do the job you’ve never been able to do, which is get rid of the alien menace and kick their asses back to whatever planet they came from; especially that your feline friend and the walking light, who evaded my grasp in Vegas.”
“You don’t know what you’re setting yourself up for. There’s one other bad guy you don’t know about.”
“He’ll perish just the others will.”
“Damnit, Creed, will you just LISTEN for once?!” Samuel rests his hand vigorously on Daniel’s shoulder to stop him from walking away. “I know we had our differences in the past, but…”
“You pointed a gun at me in your home…”
“But please just hear me out. This new enemy, he’s much stronger than you and your team realize.”
“Sir, we have a disturbance on the eastern seaboard; Miami, Florida. It’s those two ninja girls.”
“That’s Cameron and Christi.”
“Send Paolo and Jonathan to deal with them.”
Wait, now we have two disturbances; this one’s in Barcelona.”
“Looks like that molten lava freak…”
“The twins can handle this one,” Daniel said.
“Yes sir.”
“And as for you, Grant.”
“Honestly, I feel the same way; I don’t wanna be around you any more than you wanna be around me. But just let me recharge my suit and I will leave straightaway.”
Wulf Ninja Warrior was seen wandering the streets on a fine, sunny day just before noon, minding his own business. He had a new sword courtesy of Samuel Grant down at his side; the same brand as the old one. He sees a robbery in progress. Two thugs, one in a brown jacket; the other with no jacket and a blue t-shirt, both of them wearing ski masks exit a small thrift shop with large bags and Wulf takes pursuit. He takes to the rooftops so no to be seen and follows them for several blocks before he jumped in front of their path.
The two stop in their tracks, confused as to who or what they’re dealing with.
“What the…” the guy in the brown jacket said.
“Who or what are you…?”
Wulf reaches for his sword with saying a single word; his opponents reach for their guns in reaction and Wulf pulls it only halfway out. He looks into their eyes and tries to read them like a book. It was as if time slowed down as Wulf watched the bullets fly towards him. At the halfway point, he unsheathes his sword and moves it in the path of the one closest to him. When it hits, Wulf immediately moves to the next bullet after the first one was about to hit the ground.
The two were so shocked at what they just saw, they tried to run; but Wulf kept up with them every step of the way. He blocks their path once again, but this time he drops a smoke pellet at their feet. From within the smoke, the sounds of fists flying and people grunting in pain could be heard.
After several hits, Wulf heard police sirens in the distance. They appeared to be getting louder, which told him it was time to go. He left the men unconscious with the bags of money at their feet for the cops to find while he watched from the rooftops for a while.
“Wulf,” Zierian’s voice called out, getting his attention; Wulf steps away from the ledge and over to him.
“If this is about my decision to leave, you can skip it; the rangers lost their powers, most of them have given up, just like I did. what else can we do?”
“This isn’t you, Wulf.”
“How do you know what is and isn’t me? You and Samuel don’t know a thing about what I am.”
“I know that you are comfortable working alone than with a team. You’ve spent half a lifetime in the world you come from, trying to figure out your origin. You spent twice that time tracking down your worse half.”
“That’s above the surface stuff; you wanna know me, you need to dig deeper.”
“I can do a lot better than that, trust me. Help me get my body back and I will do my best to help you piece together your past.”
“I will need the shield for that.”
Zierian accompanies Wulf back to the mansion. From there, he quickly passes Max and the others as they lounge around in the living room and makes his way into the command center.
“MEGAN, I have a job for that beautiful computer brain of yours; think you can handle it?”
“I’ll try my best…” she replied with sarcasm.
“Wulf, what are you up to?” Max asked.
“A resurrection…” Wulf said mysteriously.
Meanwhile, in China, Serpitox, Pachytar, and Fahl Kun in their human form sit down outside a café overlooking the ocean as they wait for a man; green hair, brown eyes, ruddy skin, a scar on his chin. He wore a black leather jacket and orange shirt with blue jeans and black tennis. As he sat down, he pulled out of his pocket a USB flash drive, waves it in front of their faces and then puts it back in his jacket pocket. There was not that many people in the area, which meant their conversation wouldn’t be interrupted. He and Serpitox mostly did their talking in Chinese.
“The price is 300 thousand.”
“No no no. we agreed on 2.”
“I decided the price has gone up. This here is not your average virus. Once you unleash it, it is difficult to stop.”
“What exactly is the hold up?” Pachytar said in English.
“It’s alright, Pachytar. We’re just having a difference of opinion.” He then turns back towards the man and the rest of their conversation continued in English, “You shouldn’t take advantage of me like this, Mr. Shu. You have no idea what I’m capable of.”
“I take my chances.”
Serpitox pauses for a bit as he thinks of something he can do to intimidate this guy. It seemed as though it would take a lot more than idle threats to scare him as he sat there with a stupid smile on his face. Just by looking at him, Serpitox could tell the guy had no family or anybody he cared about, so he couldn’t threaten something that’s nonexistent. “Tell me something, Shu. Are you afraid of heights?”
He signals Pachytar to render him unconscious and when he awakens, he notices his body dangling over the edge of one of the tallest buildings in all of Shanghai with Fahl Kun holding onto his arms.
He started shouting in Chinese, begging not to be dropped.
“You ready to renegotiate now?!” Serpitox asked.
He continues shouting in Chinese, angrier this time.
“I’m losing my grip…” Fahl Kung said in a singsong tone.
“Pull him up!”
“Okay.”
“Look, I’m nice guy once you get to know me. I could’ve simply killed you and taken it for myself, but I might require your services later at some point. So either we stick to what we agreed or I will make it so you walk funny for the rest of your miserable life.”
“Alright, 200,000…”
Serpitox asks Pachytar to bring him a small, brown paper sack; inside was two hundred thousand dollars exactly. He takes it from him and hands it to the guy as the guy exchanges the flash drive for it. “It was a pleasure doing business with you…”
Meanwhile, as Wulf prepared to travel to wherever Farenhart was located.
“Farenhart has been found in Barcelona,” MEGAN replied.
“You’re not actually thinking of going alone, are you?” Bradshaw asked.
“I couldn’t ask you to risk your lives; without your powers, you can no longer heal rapidly.”
In Barcelona, it was mayhem. The Magma Golems ran rampant throughout the city, destroying everything in their path. The citizens flee in terror like mice evading an exterminator. Most of them got away, but others weren’t as lucky as the Magma Golems burned them alive the moment their backs were turned.
Nate and Kate dealt with them first; Nate, who was a master of throwing knives, handles them using this skill; he dodges incoming fire from his opponents with the use of various ninja flips whilst throwing the knives and hitting each of his targets with accuracy and speed and then switches his fighting style when the enemy gets close. He throws a right elbow to one opponent, a frontal kick to another, and then ducks when one of his enemies takes a swing at him; bent down, he deals a clean strike from his knife to the belly, then spirals to do a low kick the stomach of an enemy behind him, and then spirals around as he deals a blow to the head on the other opponent. After he downed three enemies, another two came up; the first one drives him back with its hands gripped tightly on his shoulders and sends them both tumbling over a large chunk of a building; Nate bashes him in the back of the head a couple of times, then rolls him over, places a knife to his neck and cuts. The second Magma Golem then attacks him with a ball of fire. As it hits him in the back, sparks fly just before he falls.
Kate, who was a bit of a marksman, jumps into the fray, guns blazing. She elbows her first opponent from the left and fires at the enemy coming towards her head on. She then ducks with her left arm under her right arm and shoots down the next Golem. Seconds later, when her enemy takes a swing as her with its left hand, she quickly ducks. As she rises, she fires a shot straight through its chin. For her next move, she spirals clockwise with her right arm pointed behind her and aims a shot directly through the chest.
Wulf arrives sometime later and waits for Farenhart to show up. While he stands on a rooftop overlooking the fight, he watches the way Kate and Nate move. He was easily impressed by their skills; the way they moved. How their motion was almost fluid like water as they flowed around and under their opponents. He stopped looking at them once he noticed Serpitox; he interrupts the twins; killing most of Farenhart’s men in the process before Farenhart stepped in.
Wulf decided he was going to stand around and watch anymore and jumps in. “How about picking one someone a lil more your size and skill level, boys…”
“You handle the canine; I’ve got the twin titans.”
Farenhart nods at Serpitox and the two go their separate ways.
With the shield on his back and his sword still in its wrap, Wulf approaches Farenhart slowly as he awaits his next move. When it finally came, Wulf drew his sword. He had the upper hand this time. For every move thrown at him, he threw back at Farenhart three-fold until he finally gets him riled up enough to do something careless like uses his power over fire. Wulf puts his sword away and pulls out the shield, which absorbs as much of Farenhart’s elemental powers as it could before turning the rest away. With the first of the shield’s power restored, he tucks the shield safely on his back, draws his sword, and continues the fight.
Meanwhile, Serpitox makes quick work of the twins before he hatches his master plan. He waited for Pachytar to go ahead and disable the security cameras for the entire seven blocks, because he knew General Creed had to be watching. He was right about that as onboard the General’s ship, their feed gets all snowy. They try to re-establish connection, but to no avail, the feed would not come back. Creed pounds his fist against the console in rage while Serpitox continued.
“I promised myself I wouldn’t do this again; but hopefully, these will be temporary…” he creates more shadow rangers; this time, of Kate and Nate. Also, to make sure the reals Nate and Kate don’t interfere, he turns them into pendants; Kate’s was yellow and Nate’s was red. He gave them to their shadow clones to wear around their neck before he handed over the flash drive Mr. Shu gave him. But before they could return to the Creed’s floating base, they had another assignment that needed to be carried out. He orders them to stand by Wulf ninja warrior while he takes to Farenhart’s side.
“What are they doing?” Farenhart whispered.
“Just play along,” Serpitox whispered back, “And make it convincing.”
The clones of Nate and Kate help Wulf defeat the enemy quickly. Then they and Wulf take off. Kate and Nate’s clones board the aircraft fly back to base; Wulf boards his aircraft and heads for home.
Back onboard General Creed’s flying fortress, his men continue their efforts to get the camera feed online again; they keep at it until Nate, Kate, Paolo, and Jonathan finally arrive.
“About goddamn time; maybe they can shed some light on what exactly happened.” Daniel passes by the mess hall where he sees Samuel eating a bowl of the chef’s custom made soup and a hamburger. “Grant. I’m surprised to see you’re still here.”
“Figured I’d try the food here; I’m a lousy cook. My stuff can’t even compare.” He turns to the chef and says, “What kinda spices do you use?”
“That is for me to know and you to find out, Monsieur Grant.”
“You should definitely try some, Creed; might improve your mood.”
“I got an interrogation to get to. I’ll take a rain check. When you’re done eating, I want you off my ship; whether your suit is fully charged or not.”
“Aye, captain…” Samuel makes salute just to mock him. And when he exits the room, he talks about him behind his back. “How do you put up with him?”
At the same when the General sat down with the twins in the interrogation room to question them, Farenhart return the lair of Comus where the rest of the evil alliance converged after their latest defeat.
“Those new rangers are an even bigger nuisance than the old ones.”
“You said you’d deal with, Serpitox. How much longer must we wait for your plan to take place?”
“It is almost underway. Soon this new enemy will fall and you can go back to squashing the other rangers like bugs and continue your quest for the jewels.  

[Samuel Grant]

Chapter 36
The W.A.S.P. and the S.S.O.R.D.: Joint Op

General Creed was unaware that those weren’t the real Katherine and Nathaniel Marsh, for it is hard to tell. Shadow clones have all the memories of the person they’re attached to, which meant if you wanted to prove which one was the real one, it is impossible.
The fake Nate and Kate told Creed exactly what he wanted to hear and then carried out the mission given by Serpitox. They split up; Kate made her way to the bridge with the flash drive, while her brother went to the engine room. Both of them try their best not to be discovered.
After she plugs in the flash drive to one of the computers, Kate then hacks into the mainframe and shuts down the ship’s defenses. It wasn’t until the ship’s cloaking device turns off that people started noticing something was wrong.
“Sir, we have a situation here…”
“What kinda situation?”
“We’ve lost all power to the ship’s guns and the stealth drive.”
Just then, the sound of random gunshots fills the corridors. Followed by that, a huge explosion could be heard coming from the back of the ship.
“What the hell was that?”
“It’s Nate Marsh, sir; he took out engine number 3 with an explosive charge,” one of the guys said over the intercom.
Samuel comes busting into the room where Creed was after he heard the explosion from the mess hall, “What the hell’s going on here?”
“We’re losing altitude, what’s it look like?”
“Marsh took out both engines at the stern of the ship.”
Samuel examines the readouts on the screen, “Damage doesn’t seem too bad; but it would be impossible to make repairs while we’re airborne. I can patch it up, but it’s gonna take some time.”
“Sir, we’ve got reports of unidentified objects entering our airspace. They’re tiny; sensors indicate they’re organic life-forms.”
“What?”
“They’ve touched down, sir; soldiers on the flight deck are saying they look like snakes.”
“We’re under attack by snakes?”
“They’re humanoid in appearance.”
“They’re Cobra drones; Serpitox’s army. Oddly enough, he’s the only bad guy not after the jewels.”
“Then what is he after?”
“Total annihilation of the human race. The guy’s a nutjob. He wants to give the world back to the reptiles. He almost succeeded in the far future, until they sent him back to this century sealed inside a book.”
“Who let him out?”
“One of the other villains. He thought he could control him; thought he was another monster.”
“Can we discuss this later? We’re dropping at an incredibly dangerous rate.”
“Right. I’ll see if I can patch up the engines. These boys will probably do everything they can to prevent that from happening, so I’ll need backup.”
“I can give you Bayard,” Creed explained.
“Tell him to meet me at engine 3; I’ll get my suit ready.”
Up on the flight deck, there were more Cobra drones than the crew could handle, but still they held them off.
In the middle of the battle, Serpitox and Comus appear. They fight their way across and down to the lower levels.
“We have Cobra drones infiltrating almost every level of the ship; there is also some huge demon-like thing accompanying Serpitox to the bridge. Correction, Serpitox and that thing have separated.”
“Send Kwataro to the bridge; anybody got an eyeball on our mysterious new friend?”
“He’s heading for engine #3, sir.”
“Bayard, Samuel; do you copy that?”
“Yeah, got it. Bayard, I need you to keep these guys off me while I do my job!”
“I’m trying!”
Serpitox’s Cobra drones were determined to wreck the ship’s rotors at all costs. No matter how many of them Bayard shot down, they just kept popping up like weeds. He was almost out of bullets, so he drops the gun and continues fighting. The first one, he knocks it over the railing with a right cross. The next one, he plants both hands firmly on the rails as he performs a right kick; the cobra drone falls back on the others and they fall like dominoes.
Meanwhile, Cobra drones pave the way for Serpitox as he heads for the bridge. General Creed’s men were too busy fighting Kate Marsh to notice as they had to keep their eyes on her. It was ten or 15 of them against her and she was obviously winning.
Eventually, Serpitox shoots a blue grenade through the archway and into the room with Kate and the others. Kate managed to get out of the way as it exploded; but instead of there being a fiery explosion, what the device did was send a massive shockwave through the room, which slowed down time for anyone in the room, who didn’t take cover behind something, allowing each access. As the men hovered in the air, Serpitox’s Cobra drones stormed in with little to no resistance.
Serpitox approaches Kate and he says, “I’ll handle things here; you help your brother.”
Kate acknowledges but just as she’s about to exit the room, Kwataro jumps down to Serpitox’s level from on high. As he leaps towards Serpitox, Kate was there to stop him. She swings right and Kwataro ducks. She swings leg and Kwataro blocks.
“Kate, what the hell are you doing? He’s the enemy.”
Meanwhile, at engine #3, Comus pushes and shoves his way past as he goes for Bayard. He gives Comus a left kick and his blocks; nearly injuring his leg as he does so. Comus attacks Bayard with one swing of his hammer and he ducks as he attacks back using his power over water. He managed to push Comus back for a while, but then he pushes back; with one swing of his hammer, he then disorients Bayard long enough to initiate another swing, which knocks him over the edge.
Samuel, who had just got the gear running, notices a stunned Bayard as he slowly descends to earth, “No!” he shouts just minutes before Comus leaps at him; he tears through the blades as he makes his descent and takes Samuel with him. They weren’t that far behind Bayard as they fight in midair.
Out of nowhere, a green and red blur fly towards Samuel, Bayard, and Comus; the red blur makes a grab for Bayard while the green one separates Samuel from his assailant.
“Willis?” Samuel asked in a confused tone. Within moments, he saw the rest of his team in the up in the sky as they went towards the ship.
On the way to engine #2, Nate Marsh felt like he was being followed. He pretended like his pursuer wasn’t there until it was the right moment to strike. He quickly turns and throws a knife at Joanna as she snuck up from behind, but she quickly evades and draws her gun; Nate dodged each shot while he rushed up to her to disarm her. He twists her arm and pulls up on it once she dropped the gun. With his other hand, he took a knife and swung at her; she ducked and then delivered a shin kick, but Nate didn’t flinch. He just moves back, still holding her by the wrist as he starts to throw her. Joanna grabs a hold of the railing, slides under and swings around behind him. From there, she delivers a couple kicks to the back of the knee and then grabs him in a choke hold. Nate grabs her wrists, pulls forward, and rolls his way out of her clutches.
Grabbing another knife from his waist, he then turns and throws; but Joanna once again sidesteps. As she gets closer, she punches him in the left kneecap; causing him to reply with an uppercut to the chin. While she was disoriented, Nate lands a superman punch to the jaw and makes her stumble back.
Joanna then goes on the defensive. She waits for him to come close and then lands a punch to the stomach and another punch to the jaw; Nate responds with a frontal kick. As Joanna falls back, she grabs onto the one thing she could grab a hold of; his pendant. She snaps it off and starts to glow. She looks closely at it and sees the real Nate trapped inside. She gives both Nate’s a good long look before smashing the gem and letting the real one out; now Nate’s impostor had to deal with the real one as well as Joanna.
On the bridge, after easily defeating the Cobra drones, Kwataro found himself having a really tough time going up against Kate and Serpitox together. The two of them worked as a team to beat him. It wasn’t until Meerlix showed up that he finally gained leverage. As Meerlix took on Serpitox, Kwataro dealt with Kate. He managed to pull the pendant from her neck just like Joanna did with Nate. He crushes in his hands and as it glows, the light gave it off allowed the real Kate to be freed from her glass prison like a butterfly from a cocoon.
General Creed, a couple of his men, and Samuel make it down the lab, where a team of scientists are trying their best to isolate the problem.
“Tell me, doc, what’s the damage?”
“Sir, whoever made this virus knew what they were doing. It’s managed to bypass all security protocols.”
“We’re trying everything we can, but it seems virtually impossible to stop it.”
“Without out defenses, we don’t stand a chance at getting these suckers off the ship. We’re getting massacred topside.”
“Well, let MEGAN handle it.” Samuel plugs his suit into the ship’s computer and uploads her. While she was inside doing her thing, Samuel powers down, because MEGAN is in charge of most of his suit’s functions.
Once in his human form, Samuel was pelted with laser fire from behind. In the doorway, he and General Creed saw Comus. Creed’s men open fire, but their shots just bounce right off. Comus gets closer with his hammer down at his side and with one swing, he smashes the monitor, trying to hit Samuel.
Samuel throws a few punches to the solar plexus, which do no good as Comus picks Samuel up by the collar and throws it to the right near the lab table; literally knocking all the beakers and test tubes to the floor. When Samuel comes to his senses, he draws his sword and leaps over the table.
Comus takes another swing, but Samuel ducks and swings from the right; cutting into Comus’ armor around the legs. As he kneels, Samuel lands a punch to the face. Comus immediately replies with a right punch, which Samuel blocks while at the same time; cutting off one of his horns just before kicking him back.
Soon after getting to his feet, Comus leaps forward with his hammer pointed straight and gets stopped by Samuel, who immediately slashes at his neck, but Comus quickly leans back; the head of his hammer meets with Samuel’s sword as they just stand there, anticipating the other’s moves.
Comus lunges forward and takes a swing at Samuel, who blocks and responds with the same move. They move back and forth until Samuel throws a right hook, which Comus blocks. As he applies pressure to his wrist, he makes him kneel. Down on one knee, Samuel attempts to break free of Comus’ grip, which was difficult as he gripped tighter and tighter.
Samuel takes his sword and aims for Comus’ abdominal area, cutting a slit in his armor. As Comus released his grip, Samuel lunged at him; slashing from the left, but Comus kicks him back towards General Creed.
“Watch it, Samuel…” he said.
“Sorry.” He tackles Comus, who instantly teleports the both of them to another area of the ship; the flight deck. They were standing on the edge, exchanging punches until Comus drives Samuel over with one swing of the hammer. In an attempt to keep from fallin, Samuel grabs Comus’ cape; they both go over.
They roll and tumble as they fight in midair; they’ve been falling for minutes at a time with the wind blowing past them as they rapidly descend.
“If I go down, I’m taking you with me!”
Samuel looks behind him as the ground gets closer and closer and then dons his ranger form. He makes a grab for the badges on Comus’ chest, “Like hell you are…” he then flips over and puts Comus at the bottom. After he breaks out of his grip, he lands a devastating left punch to render him unconscious. When had finally returned to the ship, Daniel’s men had restored their defenses and driven off the enemy; medical teams move around, picking up any wounded to take to the infirmary.
“What happened, dad?”
“Yeah, where’s that one guy?”
“He had to fly…” Samuel said just before General Creed shows up on deck. “How’s Bayard?” he asked.
“He’ll live. He’s immortal, remember?”
“What happened? Before Comus and I fell, you guys were overrun.”
“Your computer vixen came through and rebooted our system just in time. She’s a real whiz.”
Samuel addressed Max, Willis, and the others, “Speaking of ‘just in time’, what made you all decide to come back?”
“We decided we couldn’t abandon you and our responsibility to Zierian.”
When Serpitox returned to the lair, he found himself confronted.
“We’re all wondering if you really are a hotshot scientist or if you’re a fraud.”
“Yeah.”
“I’m beginning to think something similar about all of you. For months, you’ve fought the rangers and not once come close to destroying them. So I suggest you keep your comments to yourselves until the day you actually do better than me.”
“You’re supposed to be this great scientist in the future, aren’t you? Or is that all going to turn out to be one big lie?” Seductra asked.
“I was one of the greats until I was shut down by the Savpharian, Meerlix, and his team. I banished to this time with no more than the scales on my body and you have the nerve to judge me; you, who had your heart broken by a man on somewhat the same skill level as your own.”
“Listen here, lizard lips; Wulf betrayed me. I poured my heart and soul to him and then I find out he was sent to kill me.”
“And what of you; the girl, who accuses her best friend of killing her biological father in cold blood…” he said, addressing Sapphira, “Revenge won’t bring your father back, so how about all of you take vengeance out of the equation? You’ll find you will be more successful that way.”
“Oh, so you’re saying you don’t want to pay Meerlix back for what he and his team did?”
“I do; it’s just I don’t let my emotions on the subject get the better of me and deter me from my real goal; you shouldn’t either.”
“Revenge is what fuels me, Serpitox.”
“Comus…”
“I gather my powers from hatred; my hatred for Samuel Grant. I propose we make one last effort to do away with Samuel and do away with Operation W.A.S.P.”
“You’ll just have to do it without me. I’ve got better things to do than get myself killed.”
“Likewise,” Pachytar and Fahl Kun said.
“Alright, fine, guess we’ll have to handle this ourselves.”
Celsior, Farenhart, Sapphira, Ling Khan, Seductra, Cameron, Christi, and Comus leave the lair to draw the rangers out. After a long wait, Wulf was the first to show up.
“How disappointing; I would’ve expected more than just you.”
“I’m here on behalf of a mutual friend…” Wulf said, holding the shield for a brief moment so Celsior could see.
“Is that shield you were talking about?”
Seconds later, Max, Willis, Starla, Meerlix, Samuel, Caitlin, Alex, and Phoebe and the members of S.S.O.R.D. skydive in via the Diving Beetle and land next to Wulf in their human form.
"Glad you guys could finally show."
"Well we couldn't let you have all the fun, can we?"
“Oh wait, I almost forgot; you’ll all need these…” Samuel hands each of the badges he got from Comus to their rightful owner. Within seconds, Max got his super strength back, Alex got his ability to morph into animals, Caitlin received her laser vision, Phoebe her invisibility, and Willis his super speed.
With that, both sides charge into battle. It was Max, Willis, Kate, Wulf and Nate against Celsior and Farenhart, Starla and Joanna against Sapphira, Meerlix and Kwataro against Cameron and Christi, Caitlin, Phoebe, and Bayard against Seductra, Paolo, Alex, and Jonathan against Ling Khan, Samuel against Comus.
Alex, Jonathan, and Paolo face off against Ling Khan. Paolo starts off showing his skills in Capoeira as he ducks, dodges, and strikes back at Ling Khan quickly. He and Ling Khan were evenly matched as neither one knew what other was going to do; Alex and Jonathan then leap in and gets a couple lucky hits in before Ling Khan starts to get the upper hand. Paolo takes over again in Alex and Jonathan’s place; Ling Khan grabs a hold of him and slams him into a tree and starts bombarding him with haymakers. Paolo blocks a few of them before he manages to get away from the tree and behind Ling Khan to perform a Capoeira style kick. Ling Khan bumps face first into the tree, climbs upwards and performs a back flip.
In the fight against Meerlix, Kwataro, Cameron, and Christi; Kwataro wildly swings from his left, aiming for Cameron’s chest; but she grabs his wrist with both arms and gives it a swings as she lands a kick to the face; Kwataro flips onto his side, where he immediately performs a sweep of both Cameron’s leg. She leaps back and his legs past right in front of her. Kwataro gets to his feet and Cameron lunges at him with a frontal kick, which he blocked.
With her foot being held up, she then kicks with the other; Kwataro ducks to avoid and then swings her around to about 180 degrees and then lets her go.
Max, Willis, Kate, Nate, and Wulf all rush Celsior and Farenhart at once. Willis speeds up and hits Farenhart with a double palm strike. As he stumbles back, Nate leaps over Willis, knife in hand, and aims for Farenhart’s chest; sparks fly as the knife pierces his armor.
Kate fires round after round at Celsior, who blocks by twirling his staff in front of his face.
Max rushes up, pill bug armor equipped, and pushes him back with a swift right punch.
Once he stopped, Celsior then held out his hand and fired jolt of blue lightning; from out of nowhere, Wulf leaps in front of Max with Zierian’s shield up and collects the last bit of energy needed to revive Zierian. As a brilliant flash of golden light emits from the shield, Zierian awakens from his sleep in the spirit world to the sight of a portal of yellow light. He passes through and finds himself standing between Wulf and Celsior with his body back.
Farenhart was too distracted by Zierian’s appearance that when he looks away from the fight, he gets caught off guard by Max and Kate as they hit him with a barrage of gunfire and strike him down.
In the fight between Samuel and Comus; Samuel was quick, but Comus was quicker. In time, Comus started getting the better of Samuel even after he morphed into ranger form.
Wulf, Max, Kate, Willis, and Nate left Zierian alone to have his quarrel with Celsior and Farenhart to go help Samuel out. They all morph into their ranger forms and stand by Samuel. Even with their combined power, it was still going to take a lot more to defeat him; But as soon as they succeed in destroying, so do the others with the evil alliance.
Zierian, Phoebe, Caitlin, Starla, Meerlix, and the rest of team S.S.O.R.D. round them all up, put them together, and summon the WASP stinger Mark 1 and 2; Kate gets in the cockpit of the Mark 2 while the others stand together as Max wields the Mark 1. With the added power of Zierian, they literally knock the enemy off their feet.
"Hmm… I knew this alliance was a bad idea."
"You and me both, Ling Khan; we're not better off than when we were separate."
"I'm going back to finding the jewels."
"Not if we get'em first, Aunty S."
"You two couldn't catch a cold let alone a few jewels."
"Tough talk coming from someone, who hasn't a single one to his name," Farenhart pointed out. "At least I have the armor plate they go on, which is a start."
"You call that a start?" Ling Khan asked as he flaunted the Star of Virgo in their faces."
They all argued for a bit before taking off.
After our heroes return to the mansion, General Creed calls in and his team gives him some startling news.
"What? You can't just quit."
"Looks like they just did, Danny boy."
"You keep out of this, Samuel; you put'em up to this, didn't you?"
"Actually, sir, we came up with the decision on our own."
"All of this… is just too much to handle…"
"Which is why we've decided to leave it to the professionals," Kwataro said in his alien language.
"What exactly will you all do now that you're hanging up your careers on the shelf?"
"Well, I'd probably go back to work for my Majesty's secret service," Jonathan answered.
"Probably be a fencing instructor," Nate said.
"Likewise," said Kate.
"And what about you, Bayard? There isn't exactly that many jobs for a medieval knight." The General pointed out.
"You could always take up law enforcement or something," Paolo said in English.
"See, General? Only difference between your team and mine… is mine actually volunteered, unlike yours," Samuel explained. "Oh and… one other thing, General. Don't try to copy my style; it doesn't look good on you." Samuel ends transmission. "Now… who's up for a BBQ?"
Meanwhile back at General Creed's base, he hears a noise in the background. He steps away from the monitor and wanders through the base, following the sound.
Whoever was following him was doing their best to keep themselves hidden until the right time to strike.
As the General turns, the mysterious entity rapidly approaches; throughout the base, the General's screams could be heard, but no one was around to  

[Samuel Grant]

Chapter 37
Stand the Test of Time

Willis has had the same dream for three days. He sees a Caucasian woman that looks like Caitlin in a purple, hooded cloak with a golden, jewel encrusted staff running through a forest; trying to escape from a knight in burgundy armor on a brown horse with red eyes and steam coming from its nose whenever it breathed. When she came to a clearing, she was surrounded by weird looking creatures that were painted black, had pointy ears, red, beady eyes, and sharp black nails. The burgundy knight and his horse stood behind her.
Willis wasn’t sure what this dream meant, but he was soon about to find out. As the lady chanted in a strange dialect, Willis tossed and turned in bed after each verse. On the last verse, she spoke in English, “I call thee forth, oh mystical knight of the ever-blowing wind. Appear before me now.” With that, Willis was sucked through the bed, leaving behind a trail of green mist. Wearing his Operation W.A.S.P. uniform, he then falls through a portal from the sky above the girl and plops face first into the dirt. As he pushes up and gets to his feet, he brushes his shoulders and says to himself, “That’s the last time I have a sandwich before bed. Where am I?” he looks up at the demon figures that surround him and then looks towards the knight.
“I apologize for my abrupt summons, but…”
Willis turns to the girl once she lays a hand on his shoulder, “Yeah, I’m used to it. This won’t take long…” Willis rolls up his sleeves and then runs at the speed of sound in a complete circle. As he does, he creates a green vortex, which he uses to instantly destroy all the demons in existence. But as he turns his attention to the knight, the girl stops him.
“Oh, don’t you dare…!” she pulls him by the arm in the opposite direction.
Before conjuring a smokescreen to cover their exit, Willis noticed something green and shiny hanging from the knight’s neck.
Up high on a cliff overlooking the area, three beings stood watch; one looked like Max wearing a red visor shaped like a pill bug’s shell to cover his eyes, two gray looking pieces of armor around his hands and feet, which stretched halfway up the lower arm and shin. He carried a sword on his right side.
The second looked like Phoebe with a knight’s visor on shaped like a mantis head, brown armor which ran the length of her torso, shin guards shaped like cowboy boots, and a red scarf around her neck. She wielded a much shorter sword than Max’s.
The third one was Meerlix in blue armor from his neck down to his waist, shin guards, and metal gloves with razor sharp claws. He wielded a crossbow and a pack full of arrows on his back.
The burgundy knight converges on the cliff, “I shall take chase. Find the wizard and the green one no matter the cost, understand?” after his men acknowledge the order, he takes off.
“Are we seriously doing this? She’s the royal wizard,” Meerlix asked.
“You heard the king’s orders. We must follow them,” Max explained.
“Lancelot’s right, Gawain,” Phoebe said.
“I know that, but…”
“Not another word on the matter; Percival, Gawain, let’s go.”
“But still, the king’s behavior is a bit… strange,” Percival wondered.
Meanwhile, Willis and Caitlin, the woman he assumed to be her, were walking through the woods. Willis was confused as to reason she stopped him from facing the knight.
“Why’d you stop me back there? If I’m not to engage him, why’d you summon me? What exactly am I missing here, Caitlin?”
“Stop calling me Caitlin! My name is Merlina.”
“Sorry, Merlina; but anyway, what’s the big idea?”
“Your efforts to defeat him would be for naught, for he is immortal as long as he bears that scabbard of his; for the sword Excalibur.”
“Excalibur? As in King Arthur’s sword, Excalibur?”
“The one and only; and with that sword, he rules this land with an iron fist.”
“So I guess everything I read about him in the books wasn’t true, huh? Given what I’ve just seen…”
“No no. they’re all true; well they ‘were’ at least. He was once a kind, caring knight, and a wise ruler, who was praised by all.”
“Then all the power went to his head, I guess.”
“Indeed. It was a woman named Novema, who gave him the sword Excalibur. She alone knows it one weakness.”
“We should go see her then…”
“Not without retrieving the weapon I told you about earlier.”
“Oh right. so where is it?”
“Just beyond the mystical lake…”
“I’ll go get it; be back in a jiffy.”
Racing through the forest, Willis faces a minor threat of demons from the underworld. He draws his sidearm from his holster downs each opponent in one shot while zigzagging through the trees, jumping over and sliding under logs, and maneuvering around the boulders in his path.
The enemy started firing back at him, but Willis dodged each shot and then after he places his left hand on the ground, he drifts in that direction; two of the demons hit the tree while the rest drift around it. About a mile ahead, Willis comes to a slope. Without thinking, he jumps; and as he slides down on his behind, He shuffles the dirt beneath him as he maneuvers left and right out of the way of rocks, random plants, and trees.
Upon reaching the edge, he then plants his feet firmly, pulls himself up and performs a leap of faith. He almost didn’t make it; he grabs onto the wall just inches below the ledge and digs in as he climbs up. His troubles weren’t over as he looks to his right at the swarm of demons rushing towards him like angry bees after you shake up their hive. Willis gets on his feet and continues running. He continues on for another two miles before he loses them in a cave. Willis wasn’t sure if it was coincidence, but he was right where he needed to be. He continued through the cave and came out the other side to a huge tree. There was a weapon stuck in its trunk that looked to be and ordinary metal stick. Willis scratched his head in confusion, but as soon as he pulled it from the tree, he discovers it’s more than what it seems.
The stick glowed in a green light and from out of the top, two shapes appeared. The tip was a half-circle shape, which took on the form of elephant ears. Once the light dimmed, the shapes took on a solid form.
“An axe, huh? I guess I can get used to it,” he said as he returns to Merlina.
“Are you ready for what you must do?”
“As ready as I’ll ever be. So where is this King?”
“If you want me, you needn’t look further,” King Arthur said with Wulf ninja warrior’s voice.
“Wait a minute, Wulf is King Arthur?”
The king looks at him in a confused manner before he dismounts his horse and draws his sword, “Prepare to meet thou maker, knave.”
Willis readies his axe. He makes the first move as he runs up to Arthur, who smacks him in the face with the flat side of the blade. As Willis lied there, Arthur strikes quickly, only to have Willis roll out of the way and attack his legs. Arthur lifted his foot and the blade passes right under. Willis attacks with his sidearm and the shots bounce right off. After Willis gets up, he kicks him several times in the shin until Arthur strikes back with a backhand and Willis then leans back and then forward again as he lands a right cross.
Arthur strikes from above only to have Willis block him. At the blink of an eye, he teleports behind Willis and elbows him in the spine. As Willis tumbles forward, he quickly regains his balance as he turns to Arthur, pistol in hand; each shot he fired, Arthur deflects with one swish of his sword before dashing up. He strikes Willis down and mounts his horse. Willis gets up and takes chase.
“Get back here, coward!” with his super speed, Willis was able to keep up despite Arthur summoning demons from the underworld to slow him down. After destroying them all, Willis gets in close for one final strike and knocks Arthur off his horse.
“You are a skilled knight, but you have a lot to learn…”
Willis stood ready with his axe out as he awaited Arthur’s next move; but he vanished instead of continuing on.
“Are you alright, Willis…”
“Just fine, Merlina; seeing as I almost had him…”
“With that scabbard feeding him power, the only thing you had was a long, drawn-out battle that will take ages. We must seek out the lady of the lake, Novema.”
“Lead the way…”
Merlina and Willis pass through a small village. In their surroundings, they see typical medieval huts, houses, and businesses. Smoke came from most of the chimneys and so did an assorted aroma of foods from each one. The townspeople all stare as Willis and Merlina approach from the south on their way to the lake. Willis was a bit nervous with everyone looking in his direction as if he was a plague victim. Merlina had assured him that the townsfolk had not seen clothing like what he was wearing; though that wasn’t the real reason. To Willis, it seemed they were all looking at Merlina more than they did him. When Willis had confronted her with his deduction, she had changed the subject by taking one look at Willis’ weapon. She had then pointed out to him the blacksmith’s shop.
“Meet me near the lake when you are finished,” she said to him.
“You’re not…?”
“I’m not comfortable around crowds.”
Upon entering the establishment, Willis comes to find yet another familiar face. It was Samuel Grant in a gray shirt and blue overalls with black gloves and a pair of goggles on his head. he steps out from behind the counter to greet Willis and is confused as to why Willis was looking at him like he was a ghost.
“What seems to be the matter, boy? You are looking at me like I’ve got something on my face,” Samuel said in an Irish accent.
“Sorry. It’s just… you remind me of someone; my father, Samuel Grant.”
“I feel you are mistaken, lad. I am not your father. Me name’s Seth. I’m the blacksmith of this town. I mostly do a lot of traveling, so don’t be surprised if the next time ya stop by, I’m not around.”
“Well nice to meet you, Seth, I’m Willis.”
“Well, Willis, what can I do for you…?”
“My blade’s a lil dull; think you can sharpen it?”
“I’ll see what I can do, but I won’t be promisin’ miracles.”
It takes only 15 minutes for the blacksmith to do his work, but when he finished, he presented the axe to Willis bright, shiny, and new. The blade was sharpened and he even managed to give the handle a bit of a polish. Willis examined it up and down and was amazed at the find job Seth did.
“I’ve never quite seen a weapon like that before. The metal that was used to forge it seemed unique in some way.”
“Well, it ‘is’ a very unique weapon.”
“In case the axe needs more mending, maybe I should tag along with you and your friend.”
“Are you sure about that? It could be dangerous.”
“Danger comes with the territory, my friend.”
So then Seth packed up the essentials he would need for the trip into a carriage; water, food, tools, etc., and he, Willis, and Merlina continue north through the woods towards the lake. Only moments after they departed, did Lancelot show up in the village. He asked around if anyone had seen characters fitting Willis and Merlina’s description, but no one would talk. He had a feeling they were all lying; trying to protect them and he didn’t like that. Not one bit.
Unlike Max, Lancelot was not a patient man, nor the subtle type. He found that he got more results from using brute force to obtain what he wants. On the third to last person in the town, he grips them by the collar of their shirt and slams them into the wall of one of the stone huts with all his might and stares into the woman’s eyes with an angered expression, which quickly put fear into her to the point where she told him their whereabouts.
A half hour later, he catches up to Willis, Merlina, and Seth in the middle of the forest and forces them to stop as he pounds the ground and generates a mild shockwave.
“What’s the big idea, Max…? Max? Is that you?” Willis rubs his eyes and takes another look at his foe as he stood there poised with his sword in hand.
“I do not know this Max of whom you speak; I am Lancelot… of the Knight’s roundtable.
“Well, would you mind moving, sir Lancelot? You’re kinda in the way.”
“You thought you could elude me, apprentice knight? Well you were wrong. Draw your weapon.”
“I’m kinda in a hurry, so can we skip it?”
“A knight never flees an opponent, Willis,” Merlina stated.
“Oh alright…” Willis, after setting foot off the wagon, starts by bombarding Lancelot with laser fire.
Lancelot crosses his arms in front of his face and waits for it to stop. When it does, he sees Willis racing at him at the speed of sound. Before he could react, he was shoved into a tree. As he slides down, he kneels for a second then gets up. He rushes at Willis, who quickly sidesteps and strikes from his right, prompting Lancelot to block. Immediately after that, Lancelot strikes high to the chest; making Willis spiral. After a 360, Willis aims for Lancelot’s neck and he leans out of the way. After Willis missed, he then performs a sweep kick and proceeds to mount him after he falls on his back; but Lancelot throws him over his shoulders. Willis performs a roll, gets back on his feet and runs further away from Seth and Merlina. Lancelot gets on his feet and takes chase. The two stop at a huge boulder where they continue the fight. Lancelot aims for Willis’ neck and he ducks. As Lancelot scrapes his blade on the rock, Willis drops the axe and throws a couple of punches to the stomach and chest area and finishes off with an elbow to the chin and the jaw; Lancelot spirals after the last hit and lands a rear horse kick. Willis’ back hits the rock hard and Lancelot continues the onslaught. He races forward with a low side kick to the stomach, then a high kick to the jaw, which Willis stopped.
Holding onto his leg, Willis sweeps his other leg from under him and pulls out his laser pistol.
Lancelot kicks it from his hand and spirals out of his grip. As he reached for his weapon, Willis picked up his and then shoots at his sword; knocking it out of his reach just before approaching him, gun aimed at the center of his head.
“Do with me what you will, green knight; for I have failed my king and must be dealt with.”
Willis walks back to the wagon, leaving Lancelot himself to wallow in his defeat.
“Lancelot, the closest one to King Arthur out of the other two; the one who was just trying to kill you only moments ago, and you let him live?”
“What’s the big deal whether I kill him or not?”
“Such sympathy is an insult; even to a knight such as Lancelot.”
They arrive at a small house sitting on the shore of a huge lake. Since it was the only house in the middle of the forest, they assume it belonged to Novema. The lady came out to greet them wearing a white dress with gray stripes along to the bottom and on the waist. On her head, she wore a white tiara with blue gems.
“Starla?” Willis asked in a confused manner before he rushes to her like a star-crossed lover; arms held out in front of him. A few feet away, Starla generated a force field of light, which shoved him back a couple of inches. Willis remained on his feet as he put his arms down at his sides.
“Forgive my rudeness, but I do not know you, traveler.”
Merlina pulls Willis to her by his right shoulder and whispers, “Willis, what do you think you’re doing?”
“She reminded me of my girlfriend back home, that’s all.”
“Willis, this is the lady of the lake, Novema. Show some respect.”
Willis pauses, because he isn’t sure if a word he’s about to use is the right one to say, “Forgive me… Milady… I thought you were someone else.”
“It’s alright. You are here for information about Excalibur, are you not?”
“That’s pretty much the gist of it…” Willis and Seth accompany Novema inside where they sit down in front of the fireplace.
“You want to know how to hinder the power of immortality the Scabbard possesses. I will happily tell you, since I was the one to give it to him. There’s just… one problem.”
“Don’t tell me, whoever slays the king and takes the scabbard will turn out the same as the king is now, correct?”
“I… believe so.”
“I’ll take my chances.”
“Basically, we’ll just trade one demon for another.”
“To prove your worthy of the information I am about to give, I will give you two tests. First test; there is a settlement in the mountains to the east that is under siege by a terrible fire-breathing dragon. You must slay this beast and free the innocence. Next, you must offer compassion to those in need. I shall give you three days to complete these tasks.”
“Well, she was no help…”
“Fool! She will only tell the secret to a true knight. I need to complete these tasks in order for her to trust me.”
“I doubt this will be easy.”
“Back home, I handle this kinda stuff all the time. We may not have slayed dragons, but we’ve done pretty much some of the other stuff.”
Willis returns to the village he and Merlina were once in. He sees an old black man standing by a fenced in area where he keeps his cows. The cows had escaped via a gap and he was trying to herd them back, but with no luck, the cows still roamed the farmland, trampling most of his crops and letting loose the other livestock. Soon enough, he had the horses and pigs to herd back into their pens as well. Willis decided to lend a hand, “Don’t worry, I’ll have this fixed in a jiffy…” Willis said as he sped around at the speed of sound. First, he went after the cows as he made enough noise using his axe to scare them into the direction he wanted them to go. After they rushed into the pen one by one, he then called out to the pigs. As he places a bunch of slop into the feed tray, he then calls out the pigs. He moves onto the chickens immediately after dealing with the pigs and then from there, he handles the horses; leaving most of the farmer’s field in shambles. The man offers to pay Willis for his services as a token of gratitude, but Willis would not accept as he was doing this out of the kindness of his heart.
Willis’ next act of compassion was an easy one; as he helped out a fellow townsperson to clean his chimney. With a rather large dust broom in hand, he vigorously moves it up and down in the giant rectangular tube made of bricks. With each motion, his broom got blacker and blacker; he could feel the blockage slowly loosen as tiny clouds of soot rise and hit his face. when finished, the townsperson offers to pay just like the last one and Willis once again declines. He goes through this several times before he moves on to the next task; slaying the dragon terrorizing a small mountain village to the east.
“You know, maybe I should tag along with ya on this mission,” Seth asked.
“I couldn’t ask you to accompany me on such a dangerous mission.”
“Danger comes with the territory, remember…”
“Yes, well this is different. I don’t wanna see you get roasted on my behalf. Stay here with your people.” Willis detaches one of the horses from the wagon and grips the reigns tightly as he rides out of the town. On his way, however, he encounters more demons from the underworld. The beasts pop up out of the ground all around him and he continuously shoots them down while riding past and ducking in between trees and over rocks on the forest floor in an effort to get where he’s going. He downs the last of the demons for the time being after he arrives to a half burnt village with people carrying buckets of water from place to place; trying to put out the fires. Meanwhile, others attempt to enter the homes to look for survivors.
On the other side of the town, the dragon continued its rampage. The dragon was a fearsome creature with glittering scales, giant bat-like wings, and a phenomenal fiery breath, green with long claws and sharp teeth. It crumbled everything in its path with its long, spiky tail and burned most of the townsfolk alive with its breath.
“I’ll take care of this; no problem…”
Willis stared in the eyes of his aggressor. And there, in that moment, the dragon’s eyes faltered. The thick tail of the dragon flicked out venomously at Willis’ face. He covered swiftly raced out of the way as the spikes hit the building beside where he once stood. The beast tried again, this time whipping its tail speedily at his opponent’s unprotected legs. Willis leaped nimbly to one side and swung the axe in a flashing arc. The dragon roared with pain as it severed the tip of his tail. The bloodied stub lay on the grass with the spikes still attached. Hurling a rock at his adversary, Willis then pulled out his gun and fires; cutting some of the spikes from the top of its head.
Willis and the dragon continued battling savagely. Willis’ opponent smacks him in the chest with its tail. Twice it had hurled claws full of soil at Willis’ eyes, but each time he shielded himself with his arm and rose swiftly to attack him. Willis hacked away stoically. He was beginning to feel his weapon loose its sharpness by the jarring blows he threw at the terrible beast’s scaly skin. The dragon too felt the vibrations each time the axe clanged upon him. The pain shot right through him, down to the tip of his injured tail. Along the ramparts they fought, panting and blowing, neither were giving quarter; across the grass once more, they slashed and struck at each other, right up to the entrance of the guard tower until Willis delivered the final blow and chopped its head clean off. When the battle was over, Willis was unaware of Gawain standing the distance. He applauds his victory the same as the townsfolk while muttering under his breath, “Enjoy the victory… hero…”
After his victory, Willis soon learns that the dragon had kept prisoners in a cave not too far from the town. He sets off to rescue them. It takes him an hour and a half to reach the cave, but once he dismounts his horse, he races into the cave interior where he notices a bunch of cages hanging from the ceiling with three to six people in each one. He contemplates how to get them down safely and then cuts the counterweight to set them free.
Outside the cave after the last of many prisoners flee the scene, Willis comes face to face with Gawain. “You know, you kinda remind me of a friend, but you couldn’t be…”
“I am Gawain, knave, and I am no friend to you. Prepare to fall.” Gawain extends the claws from his metallic gloves and rushes blindly into the fight.
“This hardly seems fair; me with my sword and you with those claws.”
“Don’t show me any sympathy; I don’t need it!”
They approach each other; Willis swings low with a sweep kick, while Gawain leaps into the air and performs a kick to the jaw. Willis tackles Gawain, who falls and slides a few yards.
As Gawain approaches, he swipes at Willis left and right. Willis evaded before shooting back and having Gawain bat the laser beams away like he were playing with a ball of yarn.
Gawain then rushes, slides under Willis and proceeds to climb on his back where he bombarded him with a series of scratches.
Each attack cuts deep, but Willis’ scars quickly healed. Willis turned and performed a spinning back elbow, to which Gawain ducks and performs an uppercut with an open paw, leaving a scratch mark on Willis’s chin. Willis immediately throws a left, which Gawain blocked with his palm as he delivered a kick to the shin; Willis kneels and Gawain quickly swipes; Willis throws a right, which Gawain evaded with a high jump.
As he leapt over Willis’s head, Willis swings around and quickly reaches back, grabs him by the leg and spins him towards a rock face.
Willis bounces off and performs a spiraling kick to Gawain’s jaw and drops him face first into the dirt. When he approaches, Gawain pushes him back with a kick to the stomach and then performs a front flip onto his feet.
“Your skills are improving…”
“Thank you.”
Gawain goes in for one last attack before Willis lands a spiraling kick to the back of the head, rendering him unconscious.
“So are you…” Willis answered back with a smirk.
As he walks away, Gawain gets to his feet.
“We are not finished here!”
“You may not be, but I am. I need to see a lady about a sword.”
“By order of the king, I shall vanquish you!”
Willis, with his back turned towards him, speeds off as a green blur. He races quickly down the path, leaving his horse behind for Gawain to use as he heads for the lake; to Novema. She was graciously awaiting his return and so was Seth.
“I have seen all that has transpired through my reflecting pool and I am proud. You have shown courage the way you defeated two of Arthur’s knights, you also showed compassion to them by sparing their lives and saving the people from the wrath of the dragon. It is those qualities that prove to me you are a true knight. My secret is now yours to bear. I will tell you how to hinder the power of Excalibur.”
“What must I do?”
“In defeating two of the knights of the roundtable, some of their energy has passed itself onto your axe. You must defeat the remaining knight, Percival, and you shall have the strength to beat King Arthur.”
“This should be a piece of cake; how hard can he be?”
“Percival… is a lady; a fine swordsman and skilled in unarmed combat. I strongly suggest you do not underestimate her.”
Willis rode from town to town, trying to find Percival. Each town he went to, people told him where they last saw her. Willis followed the trail all the way into the forest of Balor; a vast wooded area past the Mountains of Isgaard. It is likely that these forests are located in a country called Balor. The forests are home to creatures such as Balorian Spiders, which live in the caves deep beneath the forest, and the Cockatrice, a dangerous lizard-like animal. Flora growing in the forests includes the Mortaeus tree, on the roots of which the Mortaeus flower grows. There was light filtering through the top branches. Willis could smell the odor of composting leaves, crackling branches as he walked through. As the wind blew, branches above him were touching as he walks below them.
Percival lurks in the shadows like a spider trying to trap a fly while she waits for Willis to be in the right spot. She crouches behind a rock and draws her weapon, a boomerang. Drawing her arm back, she gives it a throw; Willis heard it coming and turns to block.
Percival jumps down to Willis’ level after catching the boomerang. She then straightens it to make a sword as she stands there face to face with him.
“Percival, I presume…” he said as he took one look at the knight, who resembled his friend, Phoebe.
“You seem to know my name, but I do not know yours. It won’t matter though; you’ll just be another victory.”
“Overconfident as always…”
“What do you mean by that?” Percival asked.
“Oh never mind…” Willis holds out his axe.
During the first blows, Willis concentrated on his defense and let his muscles settle into the rhythm of swordplay. He hadn't been completely honest with Gregory. He'd practiced with the axe in the hours since he first came across it, but he hadn't really fought Percival, a World-class fighter with most weapons. He'd gotten much better as time passed, but he didn't think he'd ever surpass a weapon like Percival.
After several minutes of attempting to get past Percival's defenses, Willis kept his cool and began to batter at her as if to pound her into the ground. Percival had expected a quick defeat and easy humiliation, not an equal opponent.
Willis began to fight for his life. Percival wouldn't be content with pretend wounds and victory; she was out for blood.
The air rang with the tintinnabulation of the singing blades and the hoarse rasp of both fighters' breathes.
Willis thought desperately for a way out of the mess.
Percival's weapon slipped past his defenses and slashed toward his throat. Willis dodged, laughing as if having a marvelous time. He praised loudly, "A wonderful strategy."
When Percival slashed backhanded in a return blow, Willis thrust his sword vertically and caught it before it cut him in half. "Excellent. Excellent. You're one of the finest swordsmen I've ever seen."
Percival blinked as if coming out of a daze but continued to go for blood.
Willis laughed and spouted praise for almost a minute before his opponent's attack began to ease in its brutality. Their weapons caught each other high in the air, and they stood belly to belly, face to face.
Percival whispered, "What the hell are you doing?"
"I don't want to kill you; I just need your energy.”
Percival decides to tip the odds in her favor. Within seconds of chanting a spell, her body slowly becomes transparent, giving Willis a hard time as he looked all around him like a dog trying to sniff out its prey.
After another half hour, Willis finally ends it; but instead of delivering the final blow, he leaves Percival the same as he did with Gawain and Lancelot. He immediately greeted by Merlina as she steps out of the shadows of the trees.
“I guess you saw, huh?”
“Well, I guess there’s only one thing left…”
“Kill King Arthur?”
“Kill King Arthur,” Merlina said with a nod.
“If memory serves correctly, he resides on an island known as Avalon, right?”
“That is correct. In order to save time, I shall transport us both there.”
The king was seen waiting for Willis on his horse once he and Merlina had arrived. He approaches them rapidly with his sword drawn and intent to kill.
Willis meets him halfway, his axe scraping the stone path behind him before he slides under Arthur’s blade, grips the horse’s tail, swings around and slices the king in the back.
Arthur turns after moving a couple of inches; takes his sword, and draws a red circle in the air, which fills in with three smaller circles that began to rotate counter-clockwise. As they shift, a triangle appears in the middle and bounces off the three circles as they move. Finally, one of the edges pierces the circle and a red beam shoots out like a laser. Willis ducks, jumps, spirals, and leaps out of the way before getting closer.
The horse lifts its front legs as Willis lands a devastating strike to Arthur’s chest; but Arthur maintains a tight grip on the reigns. Once his horse settled down, he then raced past Willis, slashing him in the chest.
Once Willis fell, he immediately rose and took chase, laser pistol in one hand; axe in the other. Each shot he fired, he slowed Arthur’s horse down long enough for him to move in close. As Arthur strikes with, Willis quickly blocks as he comes at him from all directions until he gets the opportunity to strike back. As he does, he literally knocks him off his horse.
Willis leaps at Arthur, who rolls out of the way; once on his feet, he strikes Willis, who defends before quickly landing a downward slash that made him spiral. Arthur quickly pulls a 360 and slashes Willis, who blocks with his axe. Pulling back on his weapon, Willis’ blade latches onto Arthur’s and pulls him in close. Arthur lands a knee to the stomach and Willis stumbles back just as Arthur creates several red, crescent moon shapes by waving his sword around.
As the psychic knife-like beams of energy rush at Willis, he ducks, and leaps over them, performing a butterfly kick while firing back.
Arthur swats his sword at each shot and then focuses his energy into the sky. Above Willis, there were now several balls of black light with red outlines raining down on him like hail; hail the size of baseballs. As they touch the ground, they take the form of the king himself.
Willis fought them all until it was back to being only one. By that time, the king mounts his horse again; this time, he runs at Willis instead of away from him.
Willis again races towards him. He leaps into the air on Arthur’s right as he spirals counter-clockwise and slices right through him, ending the fight.
Arthur falls off his horse again, except this time he evaporates in a cloud of red dust, which leaves Willis confused. He looks to where his body fell; where the green glow was. As he gets in closer, he picks up the green medallion while ignoring the sword.
“Well done…”
“Well done? I’ve just killed King Arthur,” Willis said to Merlina. “I am the worst of knights; the slayer of kings.”
“The worst of knights? I think not…”
Willis notices that she has the scabbard in her hands. He hesitates before stuttering his next sentence, “Well then… who’s the worst?”
“Mordred, of course; enemy of King Arthur.”
“Surely you jest, Merlina. He failed to kill him where I come from.”
“You fool… I’ve already killed him; with a bit of assistance from you, of course,” Serpitox’s voice said from a distance before he steps in to join them.
“Serpitox…”
“I am Mordred…”
“What did you mean by ‘you already killed him’?”
“I believe you have Merlina to thank for that…”
“Lancelot… Percival, Gawain…” Willis said in confusion as they stood by his side.
“They have been working together to overthrow him for months and finally succeeded thanks to you,” Gawain said with sarcasm.
Mordred threw a small, blue book at Willis, Gawain, Lancelot, and Percival’s feet, “I grew tired of always failing in my attempts to kill King Arthur. After my most recent attempt, I had an idea. I went to Merlina for help, since she wanted this to happen more than I did. It was a mistake, her grandfather helping him pull the sword from the stone all those years ago. The lady of the lake didn’t make things easier either with how she gave him this scabbard. So I had Merlina bewitch it. When Novema gave it to him, its power slowly corrupted him; turning him into what you just fought.”
“We needed you, Willis, because you were the only one who could lift the axe from its resting place,” Merlina explained.
“You think you’re gonna get away with this, but let me tell you something. We have a bit of a trend. Good guys win; bad guys lose.”
“Not anymore they don’t. It’s time I rewrote Arthurian history.”
“Don’t you mean ‘we’?”
“Actually, there’s been a change of plans, Mordred. You see, this world needs a queen and this is me.”
“Treacherous little…” but before Mordred could finish his sentence, Merlina sends a massive shockwave his way, which knocks him off his feet.
The scabbard emits a bright blue glow in her hands; the energy moves through her body and transforms her blue before everyone’s eyes. Each passing second, she changes shape. She began to resemble a huge, ferocious dragon measuring at about 13 feet with dark blue scales, horns on the back and front of its neck, on its chin. The beast had yellow cat eyes, razor sharp claws and a large, serpent-like tail split on the end like a snake’s tongue. As this new form of Merlina takes a step towards Willis, Gawain, Lancelot, and Percival, she hears Mordred say in a raspy voice as if he had the wind knocked out of him, “I thought we were in this together.”
“You thought wrong. See, it was always about me from the very beginning. I’m the only one of us with the know-how to rule this kingdom.” While she was ranting on and on, Lancelot, Percival, and Gawain quickly decide to do something as they jump in, weapons drawn.
Every attack they threw had no effect on the dragon’s tough hide.
Considering what he should do next, Willis stands back and watches the knights of the roundtable try their hand. Just then, the medallion in his possession begins to glow. As he glances at the coin shaped object in his hand, he then knew what to do. He marches towards the fight as the three knights stand facing the enemy as the aura of the medallion fills his body with power, “Make haste, you three; I’ll handle Merlina alone.”
“Are you mad, Sir Willis? She will tear you to pieces.”
“Your weapons have no effect, yet you still fight as if you have a chance; I know what I’m doing.”
“How amusing; you still make play you’re a white knight after committing such an act against the crown.”
“I do not ‘make play’, Merlina. It is you who are kidding yourself by thinking you can do a better job at ruling this land. You use me to do your dirty work while you just pick up the weapon and assume command. What makes you different from Arthur or Mordred himself?”
“I am ten times the ruler either one of them would be…”
“This isn’t how the story goes, Merlina. Arthur is meant to be king.”
“Not everything in books is always true, Willis; you will soon come to learn that.” Merlina pounced forward, and with a deft stroke, slashed Willis with her claws, once, twice. He was not fazed, nor did he hint at even the slightest flinch.
Willis, with the strength of the medallion coursing through his veins, lays down his axe and relies on his wisdom and skill in unarmed combat. He had shrugged off the slicing sting of Merlina’s talons; his scars healed up like before as he considers his next move carefully.
At this, Merlina became enraged. She inhaled with a shuddering fury, and let out a rumbling stream of flame across Willis. He was engulfed for a brief moment, and then the fire seemed to fold around him, like water around a rock in a stream. After stopping, Merlina began noticing a green shield surrounding him that generated from Willis simply holding his hand out, palm flat. Merlina stepped back one pace and then another.
Willis then rapidly levitates until he was slightly less than eye level with Merlina. Then, he leaped forward, the aura from his newfound power trailing behind him like a comet tail.
He hovered face to face with the angered dragon. Before Merlina could react, WIllis curled back her right leg, then kicked upwards in a blazing, air displacing arc. The kick landed on the lower front of Merlina’s jaw.

Her great, scaled head recoiled back, and her snout was thrust straight upwards against the blunt impact of his foot. Merlina held her eyes shut as she experienced a pain she had never felt before. It seemed to her to travel like an echo throughout the entirety of her skull, yet never fading in intensity. She had never felt such a powerful blow. No hammer, axe, or sword could compare. It had cracked scale through to the bone.
Merlina opened her eyes through pulsing pain, only to see Willis winding his fist back. The punch arrived with more haste than she could think. The first two knuckles of his fist connected precisely on the rim of her chin.
Her forepaws momentarily lost contact with the ground as she was actually lifted upwards by the energy of the uppercut. The distinct sound of scales buckling and her jaw breaking resounded like a thunderclap. Merlina let out an agonized roar. Leaving her stunned, Willis moves away by means of a loop-de-loop. With his left arm forward, he flies back at Merlina with the speed of a meteor flying towards a planet, and within a split second, shoots straight through her chest and out the back without leaving a huge gaping hole. Merlina instantly fell and her chin sends a small tremor through the earth once she makes impact. She immediately returns to her natural form and disintegrates, leaving her staff and the scabbard behind as she turns to purple dust like King Arthur and the knights of the underworld. Her last words before she was gone from this world were, “Such intensity; and all from a silly trinket. Maybe I should’ve taken that medallion instead.”
Willis stood where her weapons had fallen and so the knights of the roundtable, accompanied by Novema.
“Well done, Sir Willis,” said Percival.
“I’m not the only one who deserves thanks. You all played your parts as well.”
“I just can’t believe King Arthur was bewitched,” Gawain said.
“If had have known this truth, I wouldn’t have done what I had done. I’m sorry.”
“Without a king, what will we do?” Lancelot asked.
“We’re not without a king; you’re looking at him…”
“Me?” asked Willis in shock with wide eyes, “I’m no king.” And with that, Willis immediately snaps from his dream and back into the comfort of his own bed. It was still night as he awoke in his striped pajamas and looked over to his left hand, which had the medallion from his dream clutched in it.
The next morning when he comes down for breakfast, sits at the table with the medallion around his neck. His friends ask him where did he get it from and he explains the weird dream he had, “Most of you were in it,” he said as he pointed to Caitlin, Phoebe, Max, Meerlix, Wulf and Samuel. “Dad was a blacksmith, Caitlin was a witch; the female version of Merlin named Merlina, and Wulf, Max, Meerlix, and Phoebe were King Arthur and the knights of the roundtable.”
“Which one was I?”
“You were Percival,” Willis said to Phoebe, “Master swordsman and the wisest of the three knights. Oh and Serpitox was there too. He was Mordred.”
“Sounds like quite a dream,” Max added.
“One thing I never figured out though, was how it all ended. I woke up before they all figured out what they were about to do. After slaying Arthur, Camelot was now without a king.”
“Wait a minute, you slayed King Arthur? Why?”
“He was bewitched by Merlina as some plot to get Mordred into power. I had no idea that that was the reason for the King’s sudden change, and I slayed him because I thought it was the right thing to do.”
While Willis explained the story, the book on King Arthur in Samuel’s study levitates off the shelf, lands on the table and magically begins to open as it gives off a white glow. The pages turn until reaching the end of the book where it is shown that everything in their world had been returned to normal; King Arthur was brought back to life by the power of Novema. He no longer bears the scabbard given to him by the lady of the lake as he sits on his throne; crown covering his unusual green cornrow hairstyle, round edged, rectangular glasses atop his face similar to Wulf’s, but without the wolf snout, wolf legs on his hands and feet. He wore a red robe instead of a red scarf; at his side stood Percival, Gawain, and Lancelot.  

[Samuel Grant]

Chapter 38
A bond between Sisters

It was the fourth of July; the smell of Barbecue and freshly popped popcorn filled the air, the night sky was filled with the sound of thunder and an explosion of colors: reds, greens, blues, oranges, etc.
The crowd below ooh’d and aah’d as the display went on and on throughout the night.
Starla, Max, and Willis were at the south end of the park, watching the fireworks while Phoebe was getting something to eat.
“They do this every year?” Starla asked.
“As a way of celebrating the day in history where America declared its independence from Great Britain in 1776,” Willis replied.
“We don’t celebrate days like this where I’m from,” Starla explained. “Only light show we ever experience is when the life force of one of the ancients is passes on to another vessel.”
“Sounds boring, but who am I to judge?” Max said.
“Speaking of celebrations, where’s Meerlix? I assumed he wouldn’t wanna miss this.” Starla asked.
“For a guy from the future, he strikes me as a ‘seen one fireworks show, seen’em all’ type of guy,” Willis said.
“Actually, I think I saw him head towards the Ferris wheel,” Phoebe replied as she came back with a plate of BBQ ribs.
Caitlin and Alex were playing carnival games over on the opposite end of the boardwalk; Alex had just won a giant stuffed teddy bear by means of the ring toss game and he proudly presents it to Caitlin as a gift.
As for Bradshaw, he was up at bat in a baseball game against a bunch of players about 10-20 years younger than him. He takes the first swing and misses.
“Strike one!” the umpire shouts.
Bradshaw swings again and hits the ball high towards left center; the guy misses the catch and he takes first base.
Meanwhile in the forest, Samuel was there, but not so he could get a better view, but because something had called out to him; similar to the same thing that called Caitlin, Max, Meerlix, and Starla. Samuel had combed most of the area while occasionally stopping to view the beautiful array of colors from the fireworks show. “Focus, Samuel,” he said to himself softly as he pulled his eyes away from the lights and back to the ground floor.
After minutes of searching, he finally found it; the purple medallion, but as he bent down to pick it up, he noticed a reflection on his wristwatch. He looked up at the violet colored light as he came down on him like a cannonball and knocked him on his behind.
The last vision Samuel saw before he went under was that of a beautiful young woman with dark hair and the same skin tone as Starla’s wearing mostly black from the neck down to her feet, calling out to him.
“Sir? Sir?” she said to Samuel, but there was no answer; Samuel’s vision went black, but the voice still remained, “Oh I hope I didn’t hurt him too badly.” She places her right palm on his chest. A wave of purple energy moves across his body, which registered on the rangers’ sensors back at the command center.
Meanwhile on the boardwalk, all of the rangers’ communicators started going haywire as if MEGAN had sent out a distress signal.
Starla, Phoebe, Willis, Caitlin, Alex, and Max pick up, but no one answered on the other end.
Max calls home via communicator, “MEGAN, did you call us?”
“No I did not; why do you ask?”
“Because something weird just happened; our communicators just broadcasted a distress signal.”
“Well, it didn’t originate from here; it was somewhere north of where you are.”
“I’ll check it out; you guys stay here.”
“Wait, Alex, I’m coming with you,” Caitlin responded.
“Same for me; call it a hunch, but I think felt something; some kind of pulse signal as the distress signal was sent. It was almost as if I know it from somewhere.” Starla said.
When they got to where the signal came from, everyone was confused except for Starla.
“Are you sure we’re in the right place, because I don’t see anyone; or anything for that matter.”
“It’s somewhere around here.”
“Wait, there’s Samuel. HEY, SAMUEL!” Caitlin called out to his lifeless body lying on the ground looking at the stars.
“He doesn’t look as if he’s lying back getting a good view of the stars,” Alex pointed out.
Starla examines him in his unconscious state, “He seems to reading like the same energy signature I picked up.”
“Uhm… are you sure it’s not those guys?” Caitlin alerted the others to a bunch of ugly, red and black demon-like creatures with no mouths and two pairs of wings coming out of their backs, which appeared to the east of them.
“Who the heck are these guys?”
“I dunno, but I’m guessing they aren’t here for the celebration.” Starla’s hands and eyes light up, showing she’s ready to fight.
“Alex, get Samuel out of here; we’ll handle this.”
“Wait, why do I gotta take him?”
“With your powers, it’s easy to carry him.”
“Seriously? I wish it was someone else, who had animal shapeshift.” Alex transforms into a panther, scoops Samuel onto his back and rides off.
The demons watch as he takes off with him, but quickly snap their attention back on Caitlin and Starla.
“Remind me again, why he gets the easy job?” Caitlin says with sarcasm as she calls to her weapons.
Starla doesn’t answer, she just calls upon her weapons as well and tosses one of them like a Frisbee towards her opponents; the first one it hits, causes the monster to lean back and snap back at attention.
“These guys sure are durable.”
The first of the monsters quickly approach and Caitlin decide to bring the fight to them; Caitlin spirals doing a butterfly kick and takes one of them down with a slash of her right fan; the monster next to the one she defeated stretches its arms out and Caitlin ducks and dodges while fighting them off.
Starla shoots a ball of light from her hands and cuts off its arms, which quickly grew back.
“Man, what are these things made of?”
“I get the feeling that that’s something we don’t wanna know,” Starla assumed.
Starla and Caitlin hold out, waiting for the others to arrive, but Wulf manages to show up first; he makes quick work of the mysterious enemy before Max, Willis, Phoebe, and Meerlix could get there and offer assistance.
“It’s okay, guys, I took care of it,” Wulf said.
“What did those things want with Samuel in the first place?”
“Not sure it was him they were after,” Starla explains.
After returning home, the gang decided to just take an early snooze when out of nowhere, Bradshaw greets them with a new guest; the woman, whom Samuel had the pleasure of meeting earlier, who went by the name of Feketa; Feketa had almost bared a stunning resemblance to Starla, except she wore all black and her pants stretched all the way down to her ankles unlike like Starla’s.
“Feketa? I knew I recognized you from somewhere.”
“You know her?”
“She’s my sister, Feketa. I knew the aura surrounding Samuel felt familiar, but I had no idea. What are you doing here?”
“I was in the neighborhood. Can’t a girl visit her sister once in a while?”
“It’s just been so long since we’ve seen each other.”
“You know me; I’ve been all over the galaxy; seeing different solar systems and all that stuff. I even managed to get you a lil something from one of the places I visited.” She reaches in her pockets and pulls out an orange sapphire gem, “It’s an Iblitonian star crystal from the planet Ibliton.” She places it around her sister’s neck and ties it on. “My gift to you,” she says.
“Thanks…”
“Also, I would like to extend my deepest apology for harming your friend; sometimes, I need to work my landing. I do hope he’s okay.”
“MEGAN says his vitals are okay; no sign of concussions. He’ll be fine.” Bradshaw explains.
“Who’s… Megan?”
“She’s an Artificial intelligence entity, who runs most of the household.”
“Fascinating; and you are…?”
“My name’s Willis Grant. Samuel is Max’s and my father.”
“My my, aren’t you the handsome one.” Feketa brushes her hand across his cheek and makes him blush.
Starla gets in between them. “How about I give you the grand tour?” she smiles just before turning her attention to Willis and giving him a stern look as she and her sister walked away.
“What? What’d I do? I was just being friendly.”
“Maybe a lil too friendly,” Alex said vaguely.
“Wha…” Willis looked at the others confusedly as they took off in different directions.
“Don’t worry, Master Willis, it happens to all us men.”
“You may be able to get what you want, but he’s off limits.”
“What are you…?”
“Willis is mine; get your own boyfriend.”
“You think Willis and I… please, I was just…”
“I know what you were ‘just’, and let me give you a lil warning; stay away from him.”
“Whatever you say, sis…” Feketa smiles as Starla walks away.
Somewhere in Earth’s orbit was an oval ship, reddish-orange in color with no windows. Inside was several bounty hunter type guys dressed in white and black armor that covered every inch of their bodies including their face.
“Pods 2, 3, and 4 have come back empty-handed.”
“Where’s the location where the first one went down?”
“Sector 7459, sir; some green and blue planet in what is called a Milky Way galaxy…”
“We cannot allow her to slip through our grasp once again. We must go down there and extract the girl ourselves.”
Back down at the site of the attack.
“Whatever they were, they didn’t look like any Magma Golems I’ve ever seen…”
“They appear to be some sorta synthetic plasma; though much more advanced,” Willis explained as Caitlin watched him scoop a bit of it up for sampling.
“I can’t believe you…”
“What? We need to know what it is we’re dealing with in case there’s more.”
“No not that, I mean you and Starla’s sister.”
“Nothing happened.”
“Well you weren’t exactly pushing her away, when she brushed your cheek, were you?”
“Could we not talk about this now? I love Starla, I’ve never stopped liking her, and I will never leave her for anyone else; now can we can please focus on the task at hand?”
After being out fighting bad guys all night, Wulf returns home. He finds Fekete, Starla’s sister, sitting on the couch playing a video game; she looks up at him.
“Oh, hello, you must be Wulf ninja Warrior.”
“You know, but I don’t know you.”
“Sorry.” She pause the game and gets up to introduce herself, “I am Fekete. Starla’s mentioned so much about you; I’m her sister.”
“You’ve got quite a grip for a little lady,” Wulf pulls back after his brief handshake with her.
“Why thank you, Wulf; I’m also fan of what you do, taking the law into your own hands.”
“You’re one of the few who agree with my methods; others think I’m a bit unorthodox.”
“Sometimes, one must do what he or she thinks is right in order to obtain justice.”
“True that. Well, I’m heading off to bed. Have fun with your game.”
“Thanks; was nice meeting you.”
July 5th, the next morning…
Samuel wakes up and briefly joins the others for breakfast, “Good morning, everyone.”
“Good morning, Samuel.”
Fekete, who had decided to wear some of her sister’s clothing, was serving everyone, including Bradshaw, a choice of Eggs and bacon with some toast and jam and a side of orange juice. She waits for Samuel to take his seat before serving him.
“Thank you; and you are…?”
“She’s… my sister, Fekete.”
“We met once before; I flew down from the sky and landed on you. I’m sorry for that.”
“Last thing I remember was looking for something out in the forest and some purple light coming at me from the sky. I had no idea that was you. But anyways, no apologies necessary; accidents happen.”
“About time you’ve sat down had a nice meal for a change, sir.”
“Like I said, Bradshaw, I’m busy with a new project.”
“Anything I can help with?”
“Not unless you know anything about robotics, Fekete.”
“I’m much more of a combat training type of Gal.”
“Well, maybe you can give me a workout sometime.”
Phoebe kicks Max from under the table.
“I’d love to…” Fekete responded. “But I promised Wulf earlier…”
“Wulf? He hardly ever gets up this early.” Meerlix mumbled.
An hour later in the backyard, Wulf and Fekete stand several feet from one another; Starla moves up to Wulf and whispers in his ear.
“Don’t go easy on her; she tends to fight dirty.”
“Do you even have to tell me? It’s not like I ever intended on going easy in the first place.” Wulf steps away from Starla, “So, Fekete, weapons or no weapons?” he asks.
“Doesn’t matter much to me.”
“Well, I’ll try without them for the first round.” He turns to whisper as Starla, “So the only one you need to worry about is your own flesh and blood.” He sheathes his sword and turns back towards Fekete as he’s prepared for battle.
With a few of choice words, those being “let’s do this,” Wulf and Fekete race at each other.
Fekete starts with a low side kick, which Wulf slides under like a runner heading for home base; Fekete spirals and proceeds to place her knee on top of him, but Wulf rolls out of the way.
Fekete swings from her right and Wulf blocks with his wrist before throwing back a straight punch, which Fekete sidesteps before proceeding with a kick to the back of Wulf’s knee; as he’s kneeled on one knee, Wulf strikes with a hammer fist to Fekete’s midsection and pushes her back.
“You’re good, lil lady.” Wulf congratulates.
“Let’s make things interesting; draw your weapon.”
“You sure?” he asks.
“Go ahead.”
As Wulf unsheathes his sword, Fekete bombards him with a wave of dark energy balls from the palm of her hands. With quick thinking, Wulf slices through them all before rushing up. As he slashes left and right, Fekete ducks and dodges with the grace of a ballerina before focusing her powers into making dark purple replica of Wulf’s sword and fighting back. The two exchange hits, which the other blocked over and over; Fekete gets Wulf with a quick slash to the waist and makes him spiral, but as Wulf pulls a 360, he holds his blade with the tip pointed down and slashes upward; Fekete sidesteps and attacks low, aiming for Wulf’s feet; Wulf leaps over the blade; Fekete attacks high and Wulf blocks before pushing her back with a frontal kick.
Fekete draws her left arm back, conjures an energy ball and shoots it straight at Wulf; as he blocked, the force of the ball was enough to knock the sword from his hand.
Wulf looks shocked as the sword flew from his hand and almost misses the dark energy sword Fekete just threw his way. He performs backwards sideways roll to dodge; Starla uses her power to stop the sword from hitting her before giving her sister a disapproving stare.
Fekete approaches him; he grabs her and tosses her over his shoulders; before she could get up, Wulf pins her to the ground.
After a couple of seconds, Fekete rolls over and pins him to the ground with one hand lingering above with a dark energy ball waiting just for Wulf; Wulf reaches for his sword and quickly holds it to Fekete’s throat, “Let’s call it a draw…”
Down in the command center, MEGAN analyzes the sample Willis picked up, but immediately after telling him what it was, Fekete interrupts.
“What ya doing?” she asks.
“Analyzing a sample of those creatures that attacked your sister.” He explained.
“My my, aren’t you inquisitive.”
“All I want is information in case they show up again.”
“Here’s an idea. Why don’t you step away from that boring old computer and show me around the city, since I’m new and all.”
“Can’t you get your sister to do it; I’m busy.”
“I’d rather it be you, silly,” Fekete was practically flirting with him and he didn’t even notice.
“Well… I suppose I could; but only for a while.”
Later on in the day, Starla roams around the house looking for Willis; she asks Caitlin and Alex, who were playing a board game, but they don’t know; she talks to Meerlix, who was watching an old movie, “Cats and Dogs”, and he tells her that Fekete and Willis went to lunch.
“And they didn’t invite me…?”
Meerlix points her to the Subway restaurant in uptown, where Starla sees the two leaving the establishment giggling and talking. She follows them to the park where she sees them laying in the grass watching the clouds go by.
“I knew it,” Starla mumbled to herself, unaware of a bunch of monsters, similar to ones from last night, standing behind her.
Fekete leans in to kiss Willis and Starla looks away, because she couldn’t bear to watch.
“She’s within striking distance, let’s grab her while still have the chance.”
As Starla turned, some of the red and black creatures attacked her; she screamed for help, but no one could hear as the monsters covered her mouth.
Meanwhile off in the distance Willis pulls away, “Fekete, what are you doing? You know I’m with Starla.”
“You’re just too cute to pass up.”
“No. I love her and there’s no changing that.”
“I don’t get what you see in her.”
“I see what you don’t see; if I knew you wanted to go out with me just to steal me away from her, I wouldn’t have agreed.” As his communicator buzzes, he picks up, “That’s probably her now; hello… Starla’s where?” he looked over to where she was being attacked by monsters, “Okay, I see her now.” As he took off to help her, Starla’s sister sat back. “Are you coming? Your sister needs help.”
“Alright, fine…” she gets up and accompanies Willis.
As Starla was being dragged away, Willis carefully aims his shots and releases her from the monsters’ grip; they then set their sights on him.
The one on Willis’ right extends its arm and grabs a hold. As it swings him around, Alex leaps in while turned into a tiger and bites the arm off.
The one on the middle attacks next, but Caitlin stops him with her laser vision.
During the fight, the 2nd monster’s arm turns into red goo and slowly slithers towards it; Fekete just stares at it.
Willis and Alex summon their weapons and go their separate ways as they attack each of the creatures one by one. Alex converts his saber to its secondary mode and starts swinging it wildly like a chain. As he cuts through the monsters, they pull themselves together; Willis gets the same results.
Starla takes care of a bunch of them off in the distance; she conjures a bunch of light energy balls and strikes with a fury of a fighter jet; the enemies get back up after that attack like nothing had happened.
Starla flies in and takes them on in hand to hand combat.
Meerlix jumps into the fight afterwards with his Mecha Armor and shoots down all the enemies he could lock eyes on. “Agh, they just keep coming!” he said as he rained fire from above.
“Fekete, a lil help would be appreciated.”
But just before he jumped in, the others arrive on the scene and with a wave of gunfire, they finished them off.
“Sorry we’re late.”
Just then, the bounty hunters zoom in and snatch up Starla; her friends yell out to her as she’s being dragged off.
With Starla as a prisoner, the bounty hunters saw fit to head back to their ship, but just as they were out of orbit…
Wulf, Meerlix, Max, Willis, Caitlin, Alex, Phoebe jump down from their aerial vehicle and land on the hovercraft along with them, “Weren’t planning on leaving without saying goodbye, were you?” Alex answered.
“This does not concern you, Earth creatures.”
“When it involves our friend, it does.”
“So how about you just let her go and there won’t be trouble?” Phoebe asked
“Well you friend must pay for her crimes on Ibliton.”
“Well then you have the wrong girl…”
“Because she hasn’t been anywhere near Ibliton.”
“And believe me, she will pay big time.”
“You want proof? Look behind you. There goes your intended target.”
“What?” the leader was shocked as he saw Fekete taking off.
“You told me you guys could spot her from a mile away.”
“We could…”
“Then how is it we have the wrong person?”
Breaking free from bonds, Starla takes off towards Fekete after answering, “Don’t worry, I’ll handle this.” “You little sneak thief,” she addressed her sister with anger in her voice, “Leaving without saying goodbye? That is so you.”
“I know I should’ve told you, but…”
“You’d rather I take the blame for your crimes and rot in some intergalactic jail?”
“Oh right, that. Well rather you than me; have you seen what kind of scum they’ve put away throughout the millennia? I cannot go back.”
“Oh you’re going back even if I had to drag you there myself!”
“Oh please; you’ve seen my handiwork with your friend, Wulf, have you not? Are you sure you want to go there?”
Starla knocks her right out of the sky with a laser beam from her eyes. “Believe me, I am sure; unlike him, I know what you’re like.”
“Alright then, Starla, this is where I become the only child of our family…” Fekete fires back up at Starla as she’s racing down towards her; Starla dodges all but one of her shots and falls face first in the dirt.
Fekete rushes up and swiftly kicks her in the stomach and launches her into a fountain.
“You were always mother’s favorite.”
Starla gets up, levitates the fountain using her powers and throws it at Fekete, who quickly reacts by using her powers to slice straight through it long-ways.
As the two halves floated passed her, Fekete rearranges the molecules of its structure and turns it into cone shape.
Starla was shocked by this as her sister then threw it at her, but thinking quickly, Starla scatters herself into light particles and flows around it. She then reassembles right next to her to throw a karate chop, which was immediately blocked as Fekete held up her palm.
Fekete then tries a sweep of her right leg, but Starla quickly lifts her foot up and throws back a low kick to the abdomen, which Fekete countered with a leg grab and throw.
Starla quickly bounces back on her feet after being thrown to the ground. She approaches her sister, grabs her by the collar, draws her left arm back, and quickly thrusts it forward. As she punches for her sister’s chest, she shoots straight through her in her light form and comes out the other side as a bolt of lightning; her sister falls to her knees and then on her face right behind her.
Starla turns back into her human form, picks her sister back up and throws her at the bounty hunters’ feet. “All yours…”
“Fekete of Lumindemia, we hereby place you under arrest for crimes against the Iblitonian Empire.”
“Do I have the right to an attorney?”
“Believe me; no attorney would even wanna touch your case with the amount of destruction you’ve caused.”
“Hold it right there, Willis,” Starla stopped him from sneaking away from the fight. “Don’t think you’re getting off the hook that easily.”
“Look, if it’s about the thing with your sister, she came on to me, I swear. The whole time we went out, all I could think about was you.”
“If you think apologizing is going to be that easy, then you’re wrong.”
“But I...”
“C’mon, we can discuss the terms of your sentencing over a milkshake; for starters, the whole thing is your treat as punishment for making me endure that kissing scene.”
“What…? You didn’t even look long enough; I pulled away.”
“Oh. Well then, we can split it; we each pay half.”
“That’s fair.”
“Though my half would be smaller than yours, since I’m low on cash.” She explained.
“Aw man…”
Meanwhile, down in Samuel’s lab, he gets back to his previous project.
“I… still object to this idea, sir.”
“Nonsense, MEGAN, what’s an experiment without a lil risk?” Samuel places one of the medallions into the purple galaxy suit’s chest before resuming his earlier experiment with teleportation.
The armor makes it further than the last time before a sudden spark in energy surges through the medallion and hits Samuel with the force of a basketball to the head. as he lies on the floor, his vision slowly fades to black, but out of the corner of his eye, he could see a faint purple light shimmering on the ceiling.  

[Samuel Grant]

Chapter 39
Journey to the Secret City

Samuel was seen lying in a hospital room in his normal clothing, eyes closed, arms down at his sides and friends standing all around him, wondering if he was going to be okay.
“I’ve run a few tests on him. So far his vitals are normal, but there’s something going on with his brainwave patterns; they’re wildly erratic, I don’t know what to think of it.”
“Is there anything you can do for him?”
“So far he hasn’t responded to anything; the longer he stays this way, the more danger he’s in.”
“Knowing him, he’ll pull through. Never thought I’d say something positive about him,” Wulf said.
“Now’s not the time for your petty rivalry; Samuel’s in serious condition,” Caitlin explained. “Can you be more considerate?”
“That’s asking a lil much, especially from someone like me.”
“You’re unbelievable,” Max said.
“Look, MEGAN warned him about experimenting with powers he doesn’t understand, but you know how stubborn your old man is.”
“Can I ask you all to take this outside before you disturb the other patients?”
“Sorry, Dr. Krantz…”
The moment step out into the hallway, their communicators beep. MEGAN was on the other end with distressing news. Apparently, there was an abandoned cruise ship off the coast of some island in the pacific. The rangers had picked up energy readings from the vessel and Phoebe, Willis, Alex, and Meerlix immediately set out; Wulf stayed behind with the others as they awaited news about Samuel’s condition.
Phoebe, Willis, Alex, and Meerlix spread out like ants on a picnic table and search the entire ship; they search for at least 15 minutes or more and find no signs of struggle. Everything was in its rightful place; the kitchenware, the bedrooms, the paintings on the walls. On the dining hall tables, there were plates with food that had barely been touched. It was still warm, which told them that someone was there recently.
As Starla ventures down the hallway, she hears a bloodcurdling scream from one of the rooms on her right. She proceeds to investigate, assuming it was someone in trouble. But when she got there, she comes to realize the sound was emanating from the TV. It was an old black and white movie a woman in her twenties was running from a creature that had just rose up from the lake, “False alarm, guys…” Starla said in the communicator. “It was just the TV.”
“Alex, any luck on your end?” Phoebe asked.
“Nothing so far. This place is completely empty.”
“The lifeboats are still here, which means they didn’t abandon ship,” Willis explained.
While they continued the search, there was a disturbance in the city. There was a beast, a demonic figure in a purple shirt opened at the chest and black robe, which stretch down to its feet, carrying a sword on its back. His head resembled a spiky black rose bud with two small, golden horns and one large, golden horn on the top of its head, a large, purple diamond on its forehead, soulless, black eyes, and an emotionless, devilish expression. Out of the beast’s large, gold horn popped a violet aura, which it used to gather up people like a specter claiming souls. As it passes over their bodies, they turn into light and immediately compress into a ball-like form as they are pulled towards the monster’s center.
Zierian was the first to arrive on scene to deal with this foe.
“You are just the person I wanted to see…” the monster said in a tone like someone who hasn’t seen their best friend in a long while.
Zierian stood for a moment and then eventually selected his sword, “Who are you, may I ask?”
“I am Morticon…”
“Well, Morticon, now that you’ve seen me, you’re going to wish you never met me.”
Morticon pulled his blade from its sheathe and sliced but Zierian blocked.
They both ran further through the city until reaching the town square, Zierian attacking, Morticon blocking; Morticon attacking, Zierian blocking.
Morticon chased after Zierian as he ran and in a minute they were stand on the edge of a fountain, their swords almost like they were conversing through the many 'clangs' that cried out. Their bodies gyrated and twirled in circles, almost like they were dancing in their attempts to wear each other down. as the seconds pass, Zierian’s movements grew slower and slower like a washing machine after finishes a cycle. His body gave off a bright, golden glow and he quickly falls on one knee in front of his opponent. He saw parts of his armor vanishing from sight and quickly came to the conclusion in his own head that he was losing his powers.
Taking advantage of Zierian’s weakened state, Morticon attempts to perform the same trick he did on the citizens, but gets interrupted. Max and the other rangers quickly arrive to offer assistance. The fight drags on until Morticon performs his task to attempt the capture Zierian; Phoebe, Alex, and Max get in the way and are instantly transported to an undisclosed location, where he was greeted by Putras, while Willis, Caitlin, Starla, Meerlix, and Wulf escort Zierian back to the mansion.
Back at the hospital, Samuel was still fast asleep. Inside Samuel’s mind, he finds himself in the same forest from before when Feketa crashed into him. He awakens to see the same dark sky void of fireworks; just stars shining brightly as on any other night. Samuel gets up off his back and looks around. “Hello?!” his voice echoes throughout the area, but no one else answers back.
Seconds later, a young white girl 8 years of age, blonde with grey eyes appears before him dress in a pink jacket a red shirt and blue jeans that came up above her ankles.
“Who are you?” he asked.
She didn’t answer back; she just approached him and held out her hand.
“Do you know where I am?”
She nods her head; Samuel takes her by the hand and offers a handshake, but after introducing himself and pulling away, the girl still extended her hand. She gestures to Samuel to follow her.
“Where are you taking me?”
The girl remains the silent the whole time they were walking.
“You don’t say much do you?” “Can I at least know your name?”
Back at the command center
“MEGAN, what can you tell us about this monster?”
“What is doing with all those people?”
“He seems to be hitting them with some sort of ray, which creates a topological feature of spacetime, which is transporting them somewhere.”
“Great, another wormhole monster…”
“I am still trying to ascertain the location to which they are all being sent, but it’s not easy. There seems to be some sort of barrier blocking the rangers’ signal,” MEGAN explained.
“Do whatever you can, MEGAN.”
Caitlin enters the room.
“Any news on Zierian yet?”
“He’s resting right now, trying to get regain energy.”
“He was badly injured when we got there; maybe Morticon was too much for him.”
Back inside the secret city, the rangers and all the people Morticon captured were being herded like cattle towards large, white hexagonal building 12-stories high. They pass through the lobby filled with Seductra’s men on their way to the elevator. The place had a futuristic feel to it with some of the high-tech gadgetry lining the walls and electronic locks on the doors more advanced than the ones already in existence. Getting off the elevator, they were all moved down a hallway and through a door on their left halfway across. The first thing they see is a hexagon shaped fence with lasers on each corner. To the back of the room about 10-12 feet off the ground, there was a small, rectangular room with gray walls and lots of high tech machinery surrounding Seductra and her nieces. A single Putra sat at the controls while they stood back and watched what was about to go down.
“Everyone accounted for, except that Zierian. I’ll deal with it later. For now, we focus on turning these people into Putras.”
“How does it all work again?” Cameron asked.
“It’s simple, my dear. First, we convert them to data discs to make the process more manageable. Then, we plug them into a different machine, which will alter their molecular structure and fool around with their brainwave patterns and presto; we got instant Putra.” She walks over and hits the intercom buzzer, “Start placing them in the center of the room!”
The people were pushed towards the center in random increments and instantly hit with a green beam from all six corners. The beam covers their whole body until you couldn’t tell what they looked like or what their skin color was. Slowly, inch by inch, a part of them would vanish from the feet all the way up to their head as their bodies were converted from flesh, bone, blood, and organs into random data on a blue, plastic disc that was three inches in diameter. Each person was coded to a single disc, which Christi pulls out of the machine as soon as they pop out. She then takes the discs over to a large, black filing cabinet.
Later back at the command center, MEGAN finally picked up Max, Phoebe, and Alex’s energy signature, “I have a fix on the others’ location. The city is on the water not too far from where the cruise ship was located.”
“But how do we get in with that force field in place?”
“The same way everyone else got in…”
In the attic, Caitlin, Starla, and Alex find Samuel Grant’s survival gear. There were canteens, tents, flashlights, backpacks, etc.; they gather all they need and the rest of the rangers help them pack down in the living room.
“Perhaps I should come along,” Zierian said as he slowly walks into the room, holding onto objects along the wall to keep himself up.
“You need to stay here and rest, Zierian,” Willis explained. “After what you went through, you are in no condition to fight.”
“You’re probably going to need all the help you can get; I can’t just lie here.”
“We can handle ourselves; we were doing fine before you got your powers back,” Wulf replied.
Inside Samuel’s dream, he and the girl were still walking through the forest. Samuel was the only one saying anything.
“Give it to me straight, am I dead?”
She shrugs her shoulders.
“You don’t know?”
“Well if she’s not certain, you’re gonna wish you were when I’m done with you…”
“I know that voice; Guy Tucker?”
His old friend, Guy, the one he fought alongside to save the world from the magma skin race, who had enslaved mankind inside of the computer program they knew as “the Omni Gaia”.
“I thought you were dead. What are you doing here?”
“I wanna see if you still have what it takes,” Guy assumes a fighting position.
“Seriously, is he for real?” Samuel looks to the girl who was with him, but she had disappeared.
“Who are you talking to? Don’t tell me you’re getting senile in your old age.” Guy rushes Samuel with a clothesline maneuver and knocks him flat on his back. “C’mon, it’s gotta take a lot more than that to beat you, get up!” Guy drags Samuel back onto his feet and shoves him towards a boulder; Samuel trips over and falls on his face before getting back up seconds after.
“Show me you still got some fight in you; don’t hold back!”
“Oh with pleasure…” Samuel leaps over the rock and once he was close enough, he throws a right cross; Guy leans back and then springs forward a straight punch; Samuel grabs him by the arm and twists his arm to the left before throwing a judo chop to the back of the neck while he was on his knees.
Guy pushes upward and throws Samuel over him and onto his back. He then turns and kicks him towards a tree. With Samuel on his side with his back facing the tree, Guy approaches.
Samuel rolls onto his back and performs a back flip onto his feet.
Guy throws a right kick and Samuel grabs his leg and throws in the opposite direction.
“So you do have some fight left, but will it be enough?” Guy vanishes like a ghost in the night.
“What the heck is going on here?”
As the girl reappears, Samuel jumps in a fright. “Where did you go to?” “No, I’m not going anywhere with you until you start explaining a few things.”
“If it’s answers you seek, then don’t look to her, but to me.”
“Shakuro; why am I not surprised?”
“If memory serves me correctly, it takes a lot more to surprise you.” Shakuro approaches and knocks Samuel with a palm punch to the chest. “Are you going to fight or let the girl fight your battles for you?”
“I don’t need anyone’s help in beating you.” Samuel prepares to fight.
Shakuro repeatedly kicks with both his left and right; Samuel blocks with his palms then retaliates with a hammer fist. Shakuro comes back with a fan kick, but Samuel evades, slides in and performs a sweep kick; after landing on his side, Shakuro delivers a swift kick to the face and Samuel rolls over twice. Shakuro leaps at him with a knee kick and Samuel rolls out of the way. As he gets to his feet, Shakuro swings at him three times with a left and then a right; Samuel leans left, right and back and then comes at him with a frontal kick to the groin, which Shakuro blocks with his knees.
Samuel attacks Shakuro’s throat, but Shakuro clenches Samuel’s fist under his chin; Samuel unclenches and pokes him in the Adam’s apple, causing him to release. Then he knocks him to the ground with a spiral kick to the jaw.
Shakuro breaks his fall by planting his fist on the ground and pushes himself back up, “You’re even stronger than you look, but that’s not going to be enough on me.”
Meanwhile, the rangers catch up to Morticon at the marina. He had just finished rounding up everyone when the rangers dash out in plain sight. After Morticon spots them and transports them to the secret city, he thinks to himself a brief moment that capturing them was too easy.
Putras surround everyone seconds after they arrive and started carting everyone away. Starla asks the rest of the team to hold onto her hands. It soon became obvious what she was about to do, but as Starla tried to transports everyone through the light of the lamppost above, she finds it difficult, “The force field must be dampening my powers.”
“Good thing I brought these…” Wulf holds out a couple of smoke pellets. “Get ready to run.” He drops them and creates a thick enough cloud of smoke to cover their escape.
“That was close. What do we do now?”
“We’ll scout for whatever is generating the force field,” Starla explained.
“Wulf and I will free the others.”
“Okay, Caitlin, you two be careful. With the shield up, I’m guessing we can’t call on our weapons.”
After Caitlin and Wulf leave, Starla, Willis, and Meerlix fire a probe; Starla pops a small capsule into her blaster and fires a shot into the air. There was a glimmer of orange light as the device, a miniature black camera-like thing, takes pictures of the surrounding area as it slowly descended.
“Okay, we should have picture in… 3…2…1… now.”
“It’s right there; on top of a brown building with white windows.”
“Getting a lock on its position; got it. It’s to the southwest. Let’s get moving before someone spots us.”
Just then, a small army of Putras come in from the east. After seeing them coming, the rangers grab their gear. Taking deep, panting breaths they ran forward. They could hear their pursuer close behind them, just barely. Though the teen was tall, his gait was quiet.
“This way!” Starla said, turning to fire at the enemy. She glanced behind her friends briefly then gasped at how close the Putras were getting.
Meerlix soon felt a weight suddenly bring him down to the ground as a lone Putra tackled him.
"Ow..." Meerlix groaned as the world came back into focus.
Willis took a shot at the monster and reduced to a puddle of pink and white jelly, "You okay, Meerlix?" he asked with concern.
"M'fine," he replied.
Willis and Starla continue to fire back and drop the enemy one by one like flies as they pick Meerlix up and continue moving. They managed to lose their pursuers temporarily as they turn the corner of some building. Meerlix volunteers to keep the enemy busy long enough for Starla and Willis to do their thing.
Around the same time, Samuel finishes up his fight with Janis inside his head; well almost.
Janis comes back with a powerful hit and Samuel falls flat on his face.
“Do you yield?” he asked.
Samuel was hesitant with his answer as he struggled to get up, “As long as there are people like you, I will never give up.”
“Well then, I guess there’s one thing left to do…”
Samuel flinches as Janis prepares the final attack, which never came. Instead, Janis held his hand out as if he were offering to help him up, “What’s this?”
“It has all been a test, Samuel…” Shakuro’s voice as he comes out of the shadows.
“And you passed,” Guy Tucker finished.
Janis turns to them and nods. Guy and Shakuro approach, hold out their hands and unclench their fists.
“The Purple medallion…” Samuel said confusedly as he saw the three pieces in the hands of Guy, Shakuro, and Janis.
Several seconds later, the little girl from earlier steps in between two of them and offers Samuel a hand before turning to the three, who passed her the three halves to place in Samuel’s hand. As she made the exchange, the pieces give off a brilliant white glow. Once the light dimmed, the pieces became whole again.
After Samuel had snapped out of his dream, Starla, Meerlix, and Willis climbed the fire escape to the building where the satellite generating the shield was.
Meanwhile, inside the tower where all of Seductra’s prisoners were being kept, she and her nieces turn their attention to the monitors as two of the rangers rapidly ascend the staircase to their objective. Seductra turns to her nieces and orders them to go deal with the problem.
As soon as they leave the room, Wulf drops in from the ceiling vent. Seductra was unaware of his presence as he creeps up from behind, draws his sword, puts it to her neck, and gives her an ultimatum.
“You wouldn’t kill me, Wulf. I know you…”
“Well, not as well as you’d think. Now, move away from the console slowly.”
At the same time, Caitlin bursts through the doors to the room below where Wulf and Seductra were, blaster equipped as she watched her shots carefully as the last group of people were herded to the hexagon shape and immediately turned to data discs; midway through, Caitlin aims for the machine directly above them.
Seductra immediately whispers in Wulf’s ear, “If your friend destroys the machine, you can say goodbye to your friends and everyone else, because they’ll be stuck as data discs forever.”
Wulf drags Seductra over to the intercom to relay the message while she struggles to get free. As she escapes Wulf’s clutches, she summons Morticon, who appears in the room behind Caitlin. After disarming and knocking Caitlin down, Zierian appeared, He stood between them both, facing Morticon unarmed this time.
At Meerlix, Starla, and Willis’ location; as they prepare to set the explosive charges to blow up the satellite, they’re interrupted by Cameron and Christi.
“Can you guys buy me a few minutes?” Willis asked as he set the backpack down and opened it.
“Sure thing…”
Cameron came out throwing a flurry of energetic punches. Showing great reactions, Starla blocked all the punches and made it look effortless. Then, Starla’s rhythm was broken by a sudden jab to the nose from Christi, who had just jumped in to save her sister. Starla quickly followed up with a series of quick punches to the girl's body. Christi tried to cover up, but every one of Starla’s punches hit their target. Christi retreated, and Cameron continued her body assault from where her sister left off until she returned to the fight. One final kick to her side, shock the side of the air vent as Cameron compressed her body against the structure. With no wind in her to make a sound, Cameron fell to her knees, mouth open trying desperately to catch her breath. Christi leapt in once again with a superman punch to the jaw, which rocked Starla for a brief moment. Her ears were ringing, her vision slightly blurry, but it passed. The fight dragged on another minutes, giving Willis just enough time to place the explosive charges. They were small, oval, and looked like a stink bug with a timer on them. The timer was set to 30 seconds, giving Willis, Cameron, Starla, and Christi just enough time to vacate. They leap off of the 12-story building towards the grass. After they roll, they stop to take a look at the sky; Christi was lying next to Willis and took his hand in hers, which for a moment made Starla jealous.
In the fight between Zierian, Caitlin, and Morticon; Zierian was again feeling weak, giving Morticon the advantage over Caitlin. After defeating her, he hands her over to a couple of Putras that escort her to the machine.
As Seductra and Wulf, she gets to talking and asks Wulf, “Why are you wasting time on me when your friend looks like he could use some help?”
Wulf’s vision shifts from the room below to back on Seductra. After looking back and forth a few times, but before he could make his decision, Seductra had made her escape.
Wulf shatters the window as he dives into the room below and to Zierian’s aid. It wasn’t until Wulf broke his sword in the fight that Zierian saw fit to endow Wulf with his powers. He quickly takes him by the hand and a golden light runs up the length of his arm and soon his hold body. Time had slowed down to give the transformation enough time to take effect. As his body glowed, Wulf took his morpher calls on his ranger form. Zierian’s powers quickly transported it from home and equipped it piece by piece. At the end of it all, Zierian’s sword took the place of Wulf’s and time went back to its normal speed.
Zierian was now in his regular form after giving his powers to Wulf. It was now revealed that he resembled Celsior and Farenhart, but golden yellow skin, similar long, golden lion’s mane, and the same clothing that Celsior wore, but in yellow, “Go get’em…” he said to Wulf.
“You, we’re gonna have a talk later about following orders…”
“Coming from, it would be a contradiction; you never follow orders.”
“Yeh, that’s true…” Wulf said.
“Shouldn’t you be up there, trying to free those people?”
“I’m leaving you in charge of that, Caitlin; fighting’s what I do best.”
Caitlin and Zierian rush out of the room and make a left. They climb the flight of stairs to the control room. Not knowing how the work the machinery, Caitlin gave it her best. “She’s certainly not making things easy…”
“How so?”
“She’s locked us out. I need the authorization code.”
“Try using MEGAN; she can hack into anything,” Willis said.
Caitlin presses a button the side of the communicator, which allows her to plug it into the console via USB drive. In minutes, MEGAN had access to Seductra’s entire system. She opened and closed files on screen at the speed of sound, looking for what she needed.
“You have an incoming message, should I patch it through?” MEGAN broadcasted to the whole team.
Samuel had already gotten through to them before she could do so, “Sorry I’m late, guys…”
“Samuel?”
“He’s okay!”
He makes his entrance in the skies above Meerlix, Starla, and Willis just moments after Cameron and Christi struck them to the ground. Once he lands between them, he performs a sweep kick to Christi, and lands a knee kick to Cameron’s stomach and then a backhand. Cameron quickly responds by grabbing his wrist and his armpit and flipping him over her head. Samuel lands to his feet with his free hand pointed at her chest as he fires a beam from his palm. After getting on her feet, Christi immediately lunges at him with a left punch. Samuel blocks with his arms in the form of an “X”, quickly brings them down over her wrist, twists her arm counter-clockwise, spins her, and throws her into Cameron.
“This oughta hold you for a while…” Samuel fires from his shoulder, a mini rocket filled with pink goo; a coagulant gel, which wrapped around the two, holding them in place on the ground.
“Dad,” Willis said, making him turn around, “How is it you’re here?”
“Bit of a long story; now’s not the time to discuss it.”
“He’s right; we need to rescue those people.”
“We need to do it fast, though; General Creed’s men are on their way here in fighter jets to level this city.”
“How did he learn of this place so quickly?”
“Well you know him; always piggybacking off of someone’s signal.” As he heads for the tower, he suggests to Starla, Meerlix, and Willis that they should morph.
After arriving, Samuel bursts through the door to where Wulf and Morticon were, “Thought maybe you could use some help.”
“Got it under control, thanks…” Wulf said just before he blocks one of Morticon’s punches and proceeds to grip the glowing horn on top of his head. He manages to stop Morticon from unleashing the purple aura he used before in transporting people to the island. He concentrates most of Zierian’s power as he attempts to break it off and succeeds. Morticon convulses as he grips the top of his head where his horn used to be. His power leaves his body as Wulf and Samuel can see by the clouds of purple smoke seeping through the space between his fingers. He uses what little was left to transport him, Wulf, and Samuel back outside just at the base of the tower.
Wulf and Samuel synchronize their efforts as they land several body shots. Their assault lasted for three minutes before they stop; Morticon was still flinching under the illusion that their attacks were still coming. He eventually stopped long enough to see them aiming almost everything they had at him to deliver the final blow. He went down screaming in a puff of smoke and roaring flames as Samuel and Wulf turn their backs.
“Cait, how’s it coming?”
“She’s in; all that’s left is to put the discs back in. I’m doing that now.”
As Seductra sits around in her floating fortress in outer space, she looks at her now incarcerated nieces covered in pink coagulant gel. “It is so hard to find good help these days, I gotta do everything myself.” She then turns to one of her men and orders them to fire a concentrated beam of light from the sun down to the island. As the temperature rises and heats the water, MEGAN alerts Samuel to this recent development.
“Not trying to rush you or anything, dear sister, but I think Seductra’s trying to turn this place into the new Atlantis. The temperature just started rising out of nowhere. How far along are you?”
“I’m nearly three-quarters of the way done.”
“Samuel, how do you expect us to get everyone out of here?”
“I actually have a plan. MEGAN told me everything; even about the cruise ship. I managed to get it all the way here,” Samuel explained to Meerlix and Willis.
“It was 90 miles away, how’d you manage that?”
“I have my ways; now, are we gonna get them to safety or just stand around?”
“How do we get them from here to there in a matter of minutes?”
“We each can carry four people. MEGAN, how many are there?”
“Over 100, sir…”
Samuel calculates the math in his head and finds that it doesn’t seem possible; but that never stopped him before. After Caitlin finishes returning the last of the people to their natural state, she, Max, Alex, and Phoebe morph and join the others. After boarding the ship, the fighter jets enter the island’s airspace and pelt the towers missiles. Each shot slowly weakens the structure, reducing it to nothing but rubble, but the island still sank into the depths as Samuel, his team, and all the passengers slowly sail away.
Just minutes before the island sank; Christi and Cameron broke free of their bonds due to the intense heat of the sun bearing down on them. The sun caused them to sweat a little, which in turn loosened the pink goo.
Seductra, who was watching from the comfort of her ship, was disappointed that her nieces were going to survive, but she managed to mask her emotions as they teleport aboard.
“I was so close. I had him right there, but those rangers had to interfere.”
“We’ll get him next time…”
“Now that my most hated enemy has Zierian’s power, it will be next to impossible. Passing the power over to him was a smart move; too smart, if you ask me.”  

[Samuel Grant]

Chapter 40
Seductra in Blunder-land

It was, once again, time to upgrade their arsenal. Samuel Grant went through his archives and found something that could prove useful to him and his team in the near future; it was plans for an undetectable laser emitting geosynchronous satellite meant to be fired from space. It was meant to be the third stage of the WASP stinger. A long time ago, Samuel Grant designed it to be used by the United States Military when overseas as means of an instant strike, but it got decommissioned. It still sits up there orbiting the earth to this very day.
Samuel had MEGAN to hack back into it and start it up again; she protested as usual, but Samuel finally coaxed her into doing so.
Meanwhile on the other side of the world, Seductra exits from a cave mouth, with an unidentified object in her hands, “Ah, the Star of Hydra is finally mine; and without my two failures of Nieces, it will remain this way.”
“I don’t think so…” Celsior replied.
“Oh great, just when my day was going great.”
“Give me the jewel, you old crone!”
“Finders keepers, ice man.”
“If that’s how you want it, fine. I could use a bit of a workout; ATTACK!!!” he commanded his army to do; they made their move first and Celsior quickly followed.
Seductra shouts for her army to attack as well while she summoned her sword, “Okay, you frosty the snowman reject; I think it’s time I turned your sorry self into a lifetime supply of snow cones.” As she dawns a suit of gray armor, like the knights use, from her shoulders-downward, she tucks the jewel away safely in one of the pockets and charges into battle.
As her army and Celsior’s did battle, the two exchanged a fury of hits.
Seductra comes at Celsior from the right; he holds up his staff and blocks, then attacks with the bottom of his staff. Seductra counters with an attack of her own. As she bats his staff downward, Celsior spiral and attacks from her right, but Seductra leans back and the staff passes her by an inch from her nose. Without thinking, she backs away.
Celsior stands his ground and shoots a white beam of energy from the top of his staff and she falls to her knees as the blast hits. Celsior rests his staff as Seductra gets back up. He and Seductra stare at each other from a distance before he puts his palm to the ground and sends a wave of icicles towards her; Seductra slashes through each one of them on her way up to him and then swings at him from above and causes him to block. A few seconds later, she pushes upward with her sword and sends Celsior’s staff up into the air before she quickly slashes his chest; Celsior spirals onto his back and immediately fires back at her with an ice beam from his palm, which she deflects towards one of her Putras, which quickly becomes encased in a block of ice like a caveman.
Celsior laughs and provokes an attack out of Seductra. As she prepares to strike, Celsior knocks the sword from her hands with another ice beam, springs to his feet, and pushes her back with a swift punch to the chest.
Several seconds into the fight, Celsior and Seductra’s fight was interrupted by the arrival of the rangers.
“Gaia rangers…” they both muttered with rage in their voice.
“Can’t I get a break from you guys just once…?” Seductra complained.
“Don’t take it personally, it’s just business,” Wulf replied calmly.
The Glacieroids and the Putras shift their attention in the rangers’ direction just seconds before they jump into action.
“We’ll finish this later,” Seductra directed at Celsior.
“I’ll look forward to it…” He and Seductra storm towards the rangers alongside their individual armies.
Alex rushes the first Glacieroid and blocks and then he spirals and hits it with a slash down the back before taking aim with his blaster and firing a shot into the chest of the Putra running up behind the Glacieroid. Before he could rotate his fire 90 degrees to his right, a Putra comes up and disarms him; Alex swipes at it with his sword and it ducks before it strikes with a left, which Alex stops with a palm block. Another Putra comes up from behind and pushes Alex into the arms of a Glacieroid; Alex turns into a snake, slithers around behind the Glacieroid, turns into a gorilla and initiates a sweep of its legs with his arm before turning back into his human form and performing an elbow drop.
Caitlin intervenes and stops a bunch of Putras and Glacieroids from kicking him while he’s down with her laser vision. She then turns her attention 45 degrees to her right. after taking down a few Putras, a Glacieroid disarms her, twists her arms and swings her around and towards a tree.
Phoebe jumps in and takes down the Putras and Glacieroids that attacked Caitlin with a single throw of her Mantis Boomerang and then turns her attention to her left; she grabs a Glacieroid’s fist with her palm and delivers a swift kick to its shin before landing a back fist to the jaw.
Another Glacieroid kicks her back towards a Putra, but before it could put its hands on her, Phoebe hit it with an elbow to the chest, turns and grabs it to perform an heaven-and-earth throw. As she performed it, she landed it on top of the Glacieroid that hit her. After standing up, she extended her arm and her weapon returned to her.
Meerlix gets in a couple of slashes with his claws before he lands a double leg drop kick and pushes a Putra towards an embedded rock, where it burst and turned to a pink and white slime. Meerlix then turns and initiates a sweep of one of the Glacieroids coming his way before he turns, leaps into the air and performs a flying elbow to the top of the head of a Glacieroid, lands and slashes it across the chest; as it leaned forward, Meerlix climbed on top of it and leapts at one of the Putras.
As the rangers blast their way through the two armies one minion at a time, Celsior and Seductra make their way towards Max, Willis, and Wulf; Samuel gets in Seductra’s way and she knocks him back with a frontal kick to the abdomen; Wulf attacks and she quickly blocks. Seductra tosses Wulf’s blade in the air and then slashes at his chest, but Wulf sidesteps and strikes with a hammer-fist to her chest. He stands his and waits for his sword to fall before moving forward. As he strikes high, Seductra strikes low and cuts a small slit in his stomach; Wulf blocks a couple of times before attacking low, but Seductra rolls right over the blade and smacks Wulf in the back with the side of her sword.
An infuriated Wulf turns and rampages towards Seductra, who sticks her sword in the ground, crouches, places one arm under Wulf’s crotch and flips him over her head before she picks up her sword once again and faces him. “Hmph, nice try…”
“Actually, I think it was my best attempt yet,” he smiled as he presented the Star of Hydra.
Seductra checks her left pocket, which was ripped from her side. “You lil’…” but before she could finish her sentence or even attack for that matter, she was bombarded with laser fire.
Wulf got up; Seductra took her eyes off him and noticed her army and Celsior’s was gone.
As one last ditch effort, Celsior takes aim at Wulf; his energy beam, bounces off the Star of Hydra and at Seductra, rendering her unconscious and stripping her of her armor and leaving her with her normal clothing, while the Jewel continued to emit a brilliant white light.
“It’s getting warmer…” Wulf pointed out.
Samuel turns to Celsior, “What did you do?” he said angrily.
“I didn’t do anything!”
After the jewel glowed as brightly as it could, it broke into five pieces and took to the skies.
“Nooooooo!!!!” Celsior said in a long, drawn out scream. “This isn’t over, punks, I will get those shards back, but for now I shall make a hasty retreat.”

Once Samuel returns home, he has MEGAN look up more info about the Star of Hydra; this is what she found, “Star of Hydra; really lives up to its name. Same as when you cut off one head, the whole “two more take its place” thing is same principle; when Celsior accidentaly hit it, the gem felt threatened and broke off into smaller shards.”
“Can you track them down?”
“Every time I get a lock on one of the signals, it vanishes.”
“Can we expand the grid or something?”
“Not if you want to risk overloading the circuits, sir.” within seconds, she picked up something on her scanners, “I’m tracking a faint energy signature now; it is in motion somewhere in the plaza.”
Seductra was in the area. She was wandering about with no memory of who she is, asking random people on the street if they know anything. Most of the people flee in terror when they get one look at her. She finally an establishment, an Italian restaurant, and sits down at a table next to a black family as they were having their lunch. The family ran for their lives, but Seductra just sat there, pulled the plate towards her and ate it. After she was done, a waitress serves her the bill. Her shocked expression when she saw how much the food cost said it all. She had no way of paying.
“You haven’t a cent to your name, do you? I’ve seen your type before. The type that think they can just take what they want and just vanish.”
“What?” Seductra answered confusedly.
“Well, let’s see what the manager has to say. Come with me, Suga…”
The manager was woman who puts you in mind of an industrious ant. She has slanted black eyes that are like two cups of coffee. Her luxurious, curly, brown hair is medium-length and is worn in a handsome, businesslike style. She is very short and has a wide-hipped build. Her skin is a caramel color. She has nearly-nonexistent eyebrows and average sized hands. She wore blue shirt and jeans under a green apron as she stood before Seductra, wondering what she was going to about this “deadbeat” as she elegantly put it. To her, Seductra was open book. There wasn’t a thing she didn’t know.
She starts her off in the kitchen, washing dishes, and then has her taking over for Sarah, the waitress who served her earlier. She works about four tables before the boss gives her new orders. Since the restaurant also does deliveries, she gave Seductra a list of addresses, several brown paper sacks wrapped in plastic bags, and a set of keys to the delivery truck, “I assume you can drive stick,” she said.
She salutes the boss and takes the entrées out to the back where she noticed a pickup truck with a camper shell over the back, painted in the colors of the Italian flag. She first piles the food into the passenger side before she hops in the driver side, puts the keys in, and starts the truck.
Her first stop was the home of this mad scientist type. He owned a Victorian style house painted in off-white. The roof tiles were a gray color like clouds in the night sky with two rust red brick chimneys on opposite sides. The lawn around the home green, beautiful, and full of life, which showed he had time to take care of it. The man who answered the door put you in the mind of an anti-social hermit crab, the way his hair was long and spiky like the quills of a porcupine, his skin was kind of a pale white and he had spots all over the back of his hands. He wore round sunglasses that were like a full moon painted blue in the night sky, which made it hard to determine his eye color.
Seductra hands him his order and he quickly pays in cash before slamming the door shut in her face. She returned to her truck and continued making the deliveries until coming up on her final one. With her amnesia, she had ringed the doorbell of Cameron and Christi’s house. When Christi answered the door, she was shocked at who she saw standing on the welcome mat with their order.
“Cameron? Could you come here for a moment please?” she said, looking down the hallway towards the dining room area.
“What is it now? Oh, Aunty S, when’d you start working for Rivoli?”
“I don’t know who you’re talking about. I have your order right here.”
“Seductra, you don’t recognize us?”
“I’d remember if I was working at a ninja academy, dear.”
Cameron and Christi turn their backs away from their aunt and start whispering to each other.
“Is one of you gonna pay for this or not?”
Cameron pulls out her wallet and gives Seductra exact change. Once she got a receipt back, Seductra immediately retreats to her car.
Meanwhile, Samuel’s rangers search most of California for pieces of the Star of Hydra. Max and Phoebe find their piece at the Ohlone Greenway, Caitlin and Meerlix find one hanging from the branch of a tree in a park, and Alex and Wulf find one near the docks at the Port of Oakland, making a total of three out of seven. The whole time they searched, they just couldn’t shake the feeling they were being followed. There was a black guy in a powder blue sweater-vest, golf pants, and golf hat with a caddy next time who was ¼ an inch shorter than he was in a lime green sweater-vest and golf pants, who was carrying the man’s clubs and balls.
At Phoebe’s location, it was the same man, except he was dressed in an orange vest, blue jeans, and yellow hardhat working a forklift and loading crates into containers.
The same man was also scoping out the park in a brown jacket, blue jeans, orange shirt with a smooth head of black hair the color of a pool of oil; Max, Meerlix, Phoebe, Caitlin, Alex, and Wulf were unaware as this unknown enemy showed up at the different locations just minutes after the other and started following them with their eyes.
The rangers return with the three shards they were able to find, while Willis and Starla went out to pick up an order Samuel had placed, because he didn’t feel like cooking. Coincidentally, he picked the same place Seductra was working at. Christi was there before they even arrived. She was trying to talk some sense into her, make her remember who she is.
Seductra was clearing the tables with Christi following right behind her like a stray dog, looking for a master, “What’ll it take for you to realize that I don’t know you?” Seductra whispered. “Now get outta here, I got work to do,” she said as she cleared the last table and headed for the kitchen. Christi follows her in there just as Willis enters the establishment and then gets booted back out. Willis doesn’t take notice of her until after he approaches the counter.
“May I help you,” the cashier asked.
Willis was too busy scoping out his ex-girlfriend as she’s being escorted out by security. The cashier repeats the question, “May I help you?” and it snaps Willis’ attention back at him.
“Sorry. I’m here about an order my dad placed. His name’s Samuel Grant.”
“Right, lemme just check the order form here. Ah yes, here we are.” He reads the list of what’s been ordered and enters it into the register before Willis pays the amount needed.
“And here’s your receipt. Just wait one moment.”
Seductra exits the kitchen with Willis’ order and he takes one look at her. Not knowing where he has seen her from, he then asks her, “You seem familiar. Where have I seen you before?”
“You’re seriously the third person to have said that to me.”
“Table three is ready to order,” one of the waitresses whispered to Seductra, who shoves the bag into his hands and casually walks away; Willis reunites with Starla and she could already tell something was bothering him.
“What’s wrong, Willis?” she asked.
“I… I have the strangest feeling I knew her from somewhere.”
Onboard Seductra’s space base; Cameron paces back and forth while Christi sits in her auntie’s chair. Cameron was steady trying to figure out what was wrong with Seductra; why she didn’t recognize them.
“It just doesn’t add up. What’s she doing working in an Italian restaurant? She doesn’t even like their food.”
“Yeah, she’s more of a Thai person.”
“Not the point, Christi…”
One of the Putras mutters something at Cameron and Christi.
“She was looking for the Star of Hydra?” Christi replied.
The Putras bring up on screen the rangers and their beloved Seductra locked in a battle for possession of the jewel, minus the bit at the end about her losing her memory.
“Why am I not surprised that the rangers are always involved.”
“Especially that Wulf…”
“I dunno what she saw in him.”
“Funny, I could say the same about you and Willis.”
“Willis is different. He’s sweet.”
“So sweet, I feel myself going into a sugar coma; though… perhaps sweet is what we need right now.” Cameron looks through their aunt’s army of monsters until finding one made entirely of candy, pasta, rice and bread, named Glucosuut. “What I need is for you and Glucosuut to keep the rangers busy, while I tend to our dear aunt.”
After returning home to the mansion, Willis and Starla find that Samuel made a startling discovery once he looked over the footage captured from the fight earlier. He had reason to believe the Star of Hydra does more than just break apart when attacked. He plays back the fight from beginning to end and the others then notice the white beam of light that hit Seductra in the forehead.
“Wait, now I recognize that girl from the restaurant. It was Seductra?” Willis asked confusedly.
“Why would Seductra being working? She could just steal whatever she wants,” Wulf explained.
“I have this feeling she’s no longer who we think she is.”
“What makes you say that, Willis?”
“I dunno. I could see it in her eyes. She genuinely had no idea who I was; and we’ve fought her on a regular basis.”
“Each Gem has its own individual power; Hydra has the ability to control people’s memories, so it’s possible that when Celsior struck the jewel, the beam ricocheted off it, hit her in the head and boom; instant memory wipe,” Zierian explained.
“So she has no memory of who she is?”
“Wulf, I know that look. If you’re thinking about getting back with her, I’d advise against it.”
“Yeah, we don’t even know how long the effects will last,” Alex replied.
“Before she found I was there to assassinate her, she and I… we… connected.”
“You fell for your target…”
“And you call yourself an assassin.”
“Hey, she was everything I wanted in a woman. I may be stone cold, but I’m weak.”
“Loving someone doesn’t make you weak, Wulf,” Phoebe said.
“I’ve always tried leaving love out of it; I find that I live longer.”
Christi and Glucosuut appear in a back alley behind a warehouse. Two workers, a man and a woman, come out of the door near the loading dock and stroll over to an aquamarine delivery van, unaware of Christi and Glucosuut’s presence. Glucosuut catches the employees by surprise as they’re unloading boxes from the back. He pulls out from behind his back two meatballs the size of soccer balls and gives them a toss. The explosions they make upon impacting the van and the fence behind them immediately scared them off; the rangers immediately respond to the call.
Meanwhile, Seductra was walking down the street. After working for a good three hours, the manager decided it was time for her to leave. She left with her pocket full of cash from a hard day’s work, minus a few expenses. Just before she makes it to the corner, however, Cameron drags her into a dark alleyway with her mouth covered so she couldn’t scream for help. She then pulls Cameron’s hand away from her mouth after being dragged several feet and breaks free of her hold.
“What is it you people want with me?!”
“Auntie S, I dunno what’s happened to you, but clearly, you’re not thinking straight.”
“You keep referring to me like we’re relatives and I do NOT know you…”
“Of course you do, you’ve known me since I was a child, I’m Cameron, your niece; the smart one, not Christi.”
“I don’t know if it’s because you’re dense or what, but can you just please go away?” As soon she turns her back, it gives Cameron the perfect opportunity to whack her on the back of the head. When she falls on her back unconscious, Cameron holds onto her as she teleports back to the base. When she came to, Cameron crouched down next to her with an icepack in one hand. Seductra snatched it from her and applied it to the back her still throbbing head.
“Cameron, what the hell happened to me?”
“I’m so sorry for doing that, Aunty, but I had to do something to bring you back.”
“Bring me back? Where the heck have I been? The last thing I remember is getting hit by a white light to the forehead and then I woke up here.”
“Well, it’s still a bit sketchy, but you were searching for the Star of Hydra after having your lil accident. You showed up on our doorstep with our delivery from Rivoli’s, which seemed pretty odd.”
“I remember the part about the jewel; where’s Christi?”
“She and one of your monsters are engaging the rangers as we speak.”
“Good, while she keeps them occupied, we’ll be going on a treasure hunt; just as soon as a certain someone provides us with the next piece of the puzzle.”
Down in the fight, it was Willis, Alex, Wulf, and Meerlix against Christi; Caitlin, Starla, Phoebe, and Max against Glucosuut. Glucossut placed his right arm behind him and his left in front of him as he summoned two supreme combination pizzas in each hand; his left foot closest to his opponent, he spins like a tornado as he releases the meat pies like discs towards his opponents. Caitlin burns both projectiles to a crisp with her laser vision and Glucosuut instantly grabs her with a long string of spaghetti, which Starla cuts with her weapons. With her left arm behind her, Starla spirals and throws her Armadillo blade with precise aim and it carves a slit into his chest before it bounces off and she leaps into the air to catch it.
Phoebe takes this opportunity to get in close and she manages to get in a couple of hits before Glucosuut grabs her by both arms. As he grips her wrists tighter and tighter, he secretes a pink, goo-like substance almost like taffy, which slowly encases Phoebe’s body, making it impossible to move.
Caitlin manages to take Glucosuut’s attention off of Phoebe and onto her as she bombards him with gunshots. In retaliation, Glucosuut nails her with several peppermint candies; the first shot knocks her weapon out of her hands while the rest hit her stomach, chest, arms; almost every body part before she falls face first.
Preoccupied by Phoebe, Glucosuut did not see Max race up and deliver a right kick to the stomach; with the pill bug armor attached, his kick pushed him several feet away.
As soon as he goes down, Christi fires a jolt of energy into Max’s back and he slowly falls to his knees.
Meanwhile, Seductra and Cameron track down Celsior, who has found the remaining four pieces of the Star of Hydra.
Celsior stood as still as the dead, poised like a snake about to attack as Seductra confronted him in the same manner. Excluding their armies, there were only the three of them; Seductra, Celsior, and Cameron. Seductra’s men circled Celsior and his men, weapons ready and eyes watching, waiting for him to make a move. His hands hovered over his snow staff, ready to use it, but it didn’t; not yet.
Seductra scoffed. “I found it first, so it’s mine. How about you just hand it over, there’s a good boy…”
Celsior said nothing as he stood there poised, staff firmly gripped by both hands. In the split second, Cameron and an army of Putras struck out against Celsior’s Glacieroids as he and Seductra, stand back and watch. They wait until the crowd thins out a bit before they jump in.
Seductra takes her sword in her right hand and aims for Celsior’s throat. Celsior holds his staff in the path of her blade and sparks start to fly. Thrusting his staff to the right, he successfully taps her on the thigh. Her armor makes a sound like a ringing bell on contact, but Seductra quickly takes a slice out of Celsior’s underarm.
Celsior, raising his staff defensively, strikes Seductra across the cheek; she wiped the blood and the scar still leaked a couple drops at a time as Celsior came back at her with several hits from all directions, which she blocked with matching speed and dodged with great agility. Seductra leaps back, trying to catch her breath, but found it impossible with Celsior’s relentlessness. He conjures a beam of energy through his staff and channels it towards her. The explosion all around her rocked her body back and forth, left and right and then finally drove her to the ground.
From inside the command center, Samuel watches the fight. He saw the rangers get massacred. When the fight was over, Glucosuut packed each of them into Calzones and stuffed inside of a colossal oven.
“They’re about to be baked into an Italian pastry, we gotta do something.”
“Well, I’m out of ideas.”
“I gotta help them.” Bradshaw stops him from going down to join them.
“If you just waltz in there without a plan, you could suffer a similar fate.”
“I won’t be going unprepared; I’ve got the WASP stinger Mark 2 and the Mark 3.”
“Sir, the Mark 3 is still in the testing phase. There’s still terabytes and terabytes of calculations we must…”
“There’s no time, MEGAN, we gotta do a field test.” Samuel preps the remote with a teleportation unit and then dons his morpher before heading out of the command center. It took him ten minutes to arrive at the scene, which was plenty of time for Glucosuut to finish up his latest masterpiece. Samuel turns the corner to a giant oven. The door was slightly ajar, so Samuel could hear faint cries for help as he approaches cautiously, gun in hand.
“Everything okay, guys?” Samuel asked.
“Samuel, is that you?”
“Don’t worry, guys, I’ll have you out of there in a jiffy.”
“No, dad, it’s a trap!”
Once he turned, Glucosuut immediately reached out with a long string of spaghetti as long as an octopus tentacle and whips the gun from Samuel’s hand before wrapping around him tightly like an anaconda choking the life out of its prey.
“How do I always get myself wrapped up in situations like this?” Samuel said in between breaths as he squirms and tries to loosen Glucosuut’s grip. He then manages to wiggle his right arm free to reach his knife and with a single stroke, he cuts the ties that bound him, rolls towards his gun, picks it up, and fires. With his enemy temporarily unconscious, Samuel turns his attention back to his fellow teammates. He teleports a piece of his ranger outfit to his left hand. On the back of the metallic hand were two small cylinders with high intensity lasers. He carefully aims between Caitlin and Alex as he cuts down the middle of their food-like prison and after getting ¾ of the way down, Christi interrupts his work.
After getting hit with an energy blast, Samuel was thrown through a window and onto the warehouse floor where he donned the rest of his ranger form.
Christi charged, and Samuel quickly drew his weapon after getting on his feet. Their swords clashed together loudly, stinging their ears. Christi circled behind him, swinging for his waist. Samuel swings his arm downward until his palm met the blow. He deflected it easily and performed a back flip; kicking Christi in the top of the head, she fell flat on her face
Fighting Samuel head on proved to be more difficult than Christi had expected. She had to twist and turn and jump to avoid the onslaught of blows coming her way. They were both the best swordsman, but Samuel proved to be better. Before long, Christi was able to strike him in the thigh with a kick from her shin, which slowed him down considerably. Doing so allowed for an opening, though, and she received a shallow cut on her arm. It burned, but she ignored it.
With Samuel Grant slowed, the fighting became easier; or so Christi thought. She made a desperate and foolish move by raising her sword and trying to stab Samuel from above. Samuel grabbed hold of the blade and pulled it down on his right and at the same time, brought his knee up to waist level. The force from the kick broke her blade down the middle. He steady clung to what was left of her weapon as he swung her around and launched her into a support beam. Christi stopped just short of the pillar, brushed the dust off her outfit, and quickly reached for several Kunai blades that were attached to her belt. It was her weapons against Samuel’s as he shoots at her with his palms and causes a chain reaction as Christi’s blades explode halfway between them. The blast sends both of them sliding back on their heels.
After a few more minutes, Christi lost her resolve almost immediately as she disappears in a hasty retreat. Samuel sheathed his sword and regrouped with his team.
“Here’s where I shut you down, Glucosuut.”
“You again? I’ll teach you to interrupt the chef when he’s cooking up a masterpiece.”
Glucosuut then fired exploding gumdrops from his chest. But Samuel replaced his gun with his blade, started dancing and easily deflected all of the shots coming at him.
Glucosuut got more and more annoyed; making it even easier for Samuel to dodge them.
“Why you… Hold still already!” Glucosuut shouted at him.
But Samuel kept dancing and avoiding his attacks.
And eventually, Glucosuut tied Samuel in long ropes of spaghetti to keep him from moving. Then he charged at Samuel. He quickly got out of it with a little help from of four flat edged, fan-shaped blades, which retracted from his arms and cut the strings.
Glucosuut hits him with a red jelly-like substance, but Alex jumps two feet in front of Samuel. With his Scorpion Saber in hand, he slashes through the goo in an X shape, switches his weapon to chain mode and swings back from the lower right side.
“Thanks.”
“Anytime…”
Samuel brings his communicator to his face as soon as it goes off and says, “Go ahead, Bradshaw.”
“Seductra and Celsior have just been spotted down by the quarry.”
“We need to end this now…”
“I’ve got just the thing for,” Samuel said in response to Phoebe before he summoned through his glove a 12 inch flatscreen sort of like an iPad, but in black.
“What is that?”
“It’s the control for the WASP stinger Mark 3,” he answered.
“I thought that was still in the testing phase?”
“I figured we could test it now.” Samuel runs his index finger across the screen as he enlarges the view of the earth from space over their present location. Once fully zoomed in, a light-blue reticule appears. Samuel fiddles around with the readout on screen and locks onto the target, which was Glucosuut. The weapon charges up to 100% and then fires a concentrated beam of energy down on him at the speed of sound. As the light dims, Glucosuut falls in a fiery explosion and puff of smoke.
At this time, Christi makes it to Seductra and Cameron’s location and she was out of breath.
“What the heck are you doing here? What happened to Glucosuut?”
“He’s… probably already destroyed. The rangers are on their way here.”
Seductra had this to say, “Geez, I lose my memory for a FEW HOURS, and you two can’t even pick up the slack.”
With Zierian’s ability to teleport himself anywhere, Wulf arrives just moments before his team, donning his ranger form. “That’s not all you’re gonna lose.”
“Zierian?” Celsior asked with confusion.
“‘fraid not, Celsior…”
“Wulf ninja warrior; should’ve killed you when I had the chance.”
“Well, you didn’t.”
Just then, Samuel and others line up side-by-side as they stand behind Wulf, awaiting the enemies’ next move.
It soon became a fight for the remaining pieces of the Star of Hydra. Wulf tackled Seductra, Christi, and an army of Putras on his own, while Samuel and the others morph into their ranger forms and deal with Christi, Celsior and a bunch of Glacieroids. The shards then changed hands from Celsior to Seductra, back to Celsior, and then finally into the rangers’ hands after minutes upon minutes of fighting. In Starla, Phoebe, Meerlix, Samuel, and Max’s hands, the shard glow a brilliant flash of light; they shoot into the air a foot above the palm of their hands before slowly being drawn to one another. As they became whole, Wulf summons enough of his power to fill his blade and dashes at Celsior, Seductra, Cameron, and Christi. He moves in a zigzag pattern from each one at the speed of sound as a golden blur. Once he stops, they all fall to their knees.
“Had enough?” Wulf asked as he sheathed his sword. When they retreated, he took their actions as a yes.
Meanwhile at his lair, Serpitox was seen hard at work in the lab on a new plot to destroy the rangers. He carefully mixes various liquids in from different vials into multiple beakers across the table; each one had a distinct color and foul smell odor, which could be smelled in the next room.
“What’s he working on?” Pachytar said to Fahl Kun.
“I honestly do not know, but it sure doesn’t have a pleasant smell to it.”
The whole Serpitox toiled away, he talked to himself, muttering so that no one else could hear him.