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

[Samuel Grant]

Chapter 41
The Haunting Hour

The day was October 30th, day before Halloween and it was time for Samuel and the gang to decorate the mansion for the party. Alex, Max, and Bradshaw were in charge of getting the stuff. The two were down at the storage facility where Samuel kept some of his stuff he didn’t have room for in his mansion gather an assortment of items such as: mini orange and black lights similar to the bulbs you put on Christmas trees, skeletons, cardboard cutouts of bats and ghosts and ghouls and all things Halloween and loaded them onto the back of a delivery truck.
Alex struggled with one of the larger boxes of stuff, taking a break between words, “How much… more stuff is there?” he panted.
“Just a few more boxes...” Bradshaw said.
“Good, then I can finally go and pick up my costume before there’s a long line.”
“I still don’t see why you need a costume when you can change into any animal you want?” Max adds as he carries a couple of large boxes in each hand as if nothing were in them.
“Maybe because what I’m going as doesn’t involve an animal; at least not a realistic one…”
“Please tell it’s not a Vampire, Alex; so cliché,” Willis explained.
“You’ll just have to wait for Halloween night.”
Meanwhile, as Serpitox spies on the three from their lairs, he gets an idea.
“Vampires cliché, huh? We’ll see about that.” Serpitox comments. “Pachytar, what’s the status on Fahl Kun and her mission?”
“She’s retrieved the item you requested and is on her way back right now.”
“Good, then we can move ahead with my other plan; since Zierian has seen fit to hand his powers over to Wulf, we need to act quickly and retrieve them from Wulf before it’s too late.”
“I agree sir…”
“His power is the key to my ultimate plan to take over this world.”
At the same time, Seductra looks down on Meerlix at a film festival as he’s sitting with a crowd watching an old horror movie called “Wolf” starring Jack Nicholson and Michelle Pfeiffer.
“Werewolves… Werewolves” she mocked in a melodramatic tone, “Why must it always be Werewolves…” she practically emphasized on the word ‘why’. “It’s always the same with every Halloween; so annoying, don’t you agree, girls?” Seductra referred to Cameron and Christi “Whatever you say, Aunty S.”

“Anyway, I need a plan to get rid of the rangers and take that gold freak’s power for myself.”
“Perhaps pit one against the others; use this world’s clichés to your advantage.”
“You’re suggesting I turn one of them into a horror movie monster?”
“Yeh; maybe a werewolf or something…”
“Of course; I could turn the very one they’d least expect into a werewolf. They won’t know what hit them until it’s too late. But I’m gonna need a monster to pull this off…”
“I’ll check to see if you have one in your army, mistress.”
Max and Bradshaw return home without Alex to find Phoebe Willis, and Starla moving the last of the furniture out of the living room area.
“Good to see you guys have made record time…” Bradshaw commented.
“We do this now and there’s no worrying about it on Halloween tomorrow.”
“So, what did you guys get?”
“One delivery of authentic Halloween gear without the long waiting period,” Max explained.
“Great, we can start putting them up. We’ll put the skeletons over here…” Phoebe explained.
“Where are Wulf and Caitlin?”
“We sent Wulf out to get the food,” Samuel said. “I’m… not sure on Caitlin’s whereabouts.”
“Yeah, she was just here,” Starla answered.
Someone taps Max on the shoulder and as he turns around, a green, slimy, long curvy nosed monster stares in directly in the face and snarls; Max jumps and gets in his fighting stance, but before he could attack, the beast removes its face and reveals itself to be Caitlin Rose in disguise. “Haha, scared ya,” she laughed.
“Good one, Caitlin,” Max replied as he stood down.
Later on in the afternoon at Seductra’s lair, she was greeted by a burnt orange, long-haired werewolf with big yellow eyes and a long snout towering a couple feet over her as she sat in her chair on the command deck.
“So, Lycanda, what makes you think you’re qualified?” Seductra asked.
“Well, for starters, I have strength twice that of humans and I’ve got a mean temper, and my bite… well let’s just say it’s worse than my bark.”
“Good, because to start off, I want you to first sink your teeth into one of those pesky rangers.”
As Alex feared, there was a long line he had to wait in to pick up his preordered costume; it was night time when he and Meerlix walked home, which gave Seductra’s monster and Pachytar time to strike. Lycanda attacked Alex first just after he walked away from the costume store. He dragged Alex into an alleyway, and after a short fight, he had bitten him on the arm and fled.
Wulf arrives in his car to find him. He gets out and goes to Alex’s side, “Hey, Alex, what are you doing out here? Are you okay?” he asked. “C’mon, we need to get you back home.”
“That lil space pirate; what does she think she’s doing? Oh well, time to switch targets, Pachytar.” Serpitox brings Meerlix up on screen and Pachytar springs into action.
Pachytar strikes the ground with his right foot while Meerlix leaps into the air and performs a kick to the jaw. Pachytar tackles Meerlix, who performs a spiraling uppercut to the chin. Pachytar then picks up a a garbage can and chucks it at Meerlix, who rolls to his left, clings to a wall as he performs a Parkour move and scurries at Pachytar like a cat running from a dog. As he approaches, he spirals along the wall until his feet faced Pachytar and then lands a double leg drop kick. As Pachytar stumbles back, Meerlix rushes in low to the ground like a lion about to pounce on its prey and then springs upward with a flurry of scratches to Pachytar’s chest while he just stands there and takes it. Moments later, he stampedes towards Meerlix with incredible force and knocks him for a loop. Meerlix lands on his feet and summons his hawk crossbow. After most of his shots bounce off, he converts the weapon to sword mode. He and Pachytar get in close and after a short swordfight, Pachytar sticks Meerlix with some type of serum and he began to change; nothing noticeable as of yet, but Meerlix did fall to his knees.
“You can feel it taking over can’t you? There’s no stopping it once inject, now listen to me very carefully, my boss has a proposition he’d like to share with you…” Pachytar answered with an evil chuckle.
After Lycanda returns to base, he confronts a now pleased version of Seductra and tells her that his plan succeeded.
“So when does it start to work?” She asked him.
“Well, the full moon will be out in just a few minutes and the transformation will commence. Once it’s done, he won’t need to be in the presence of another one to change; only when it’s night and he feels the need to feed.”
“You better watch out, Wulf. You’re driving around with mixed company…” she laughed evilly.
The clouds clear and reveal the full moon, which shined in through the car as Wulf was driving. He would look over occasionally at Alex, but this time he noticed something was wrong. When it was too late to do anything, Alex changed and Wulf decided quickly to kick him out of the passenger door before he stopped and got out himself.
Alex was kneeled over, face down at the asphalt as he starts twitching; his body grew, his clothing ripped, he started growing hair all over like some kind of wild animal. And then it started, Alex’s pupils turned blood red and his mouth turns into a wolf snout as he turned to Wulf and howled.
Wulf was shocked as Alex rushed him, but he finally snapped out of it and tripped him. “Alex… what are you doing? It’s me, Wulf. Your friend, remember that?”
Alex got up again and rushed him.
Wulf dealt a frontal kick to the stomach, but Alex absorbed the blow and kept coming until Wulf leapt up and landed a blow to the jaw with a spiraling kick; Alex still didn’t go down. He slashes Wulf, who blocks and hits him with an uppercut; Alex grabs his wrist and twists him around before grabbing his throat with his other hand and trying to choke him.
Wulf elbows him in the kidney and breaks free before he turns and delivers a low punch above the belt, a low kick to the knee and a spiraling sweep kick before mounting and trying to keep him pinned. “I am not your enemy, McLaren, TRY AND CONTROL WHATEVER’S HAPPENING TO YOU!”
Alex continues to snarl at him and push him off, but Wulf applied a stronger force each time until Alex rolls him over and tries to bite him.
“You’re gonna have to work for this meal, pup!” Wulf thumps him on the ear and pushes him off.
Meerlix arrives on scene and scares Alex off several minutes before the others show up. “Hair-raising development…”
“Spare me the dribble, pussycat!”
“Dribble. Cute; seeing as that’s all he’s did was drool.”
“You gonna help me up or not?”
“What happened to Alex?”
“That thing… was Alex…”
“What?”
The next morning when they rangers awoken, they go through the usual routine: brushing their teeth, washing their faces, showering, etc., before going down to have breakfast. Meerlix was the only one who was off to a late start. He was the last person to come down the stairs to a breakfast table where his friends were listening to Wulf explain last night’s situation with him and Alex.
While at the table, they all notice something about Meerlix they hadn’t before: he was wearing sunglasses, when he hardly ever wearing. Another thing they noticed was when Phoebe sat down next to him with her place, he stared when he saw her Garlic Texas toast on the plate.
“Want some?” she offered him a slice of her toast and he cringed at the very sight of it as if he were allergic.
“Alright alright, all you had to say was no…”
“Meerlix, what is with you today? You haven’t been yourself since coming home from that film festival.”
“However do you mean, Starla?”
“Well for starters, when you raided the fridge and drank a bit of punch from the bowl, you immediately spit it out, and then afterwards you started mumbling something about ‘that’s not blood’.”
“And right now, the whole thing with the shades indoors.”
“I just… didn’t get much sleep. My eyes are lil red; nothing to worry about.”
“Lack of sleep means insomnia and insomnia means there’s something wrong; are you worried about anything?” Willis asks.
“Nothing I can remember.”
“Well if anything’s wrong, you can always talk to your friends about it.”
“Much appreciated, Max.”
“Hey, Samuel, any news on Alex yet?”
“Nothing right now, Caitlin; MEGAN ran a scan of the city and couldn’t find any trace of his locator’s signal anywhere.”
“Maybe he shut it off… or it could be lying ruined somewhere,” Wulf replied.
“Don’t worry; he’ll turn up eventually.”
“For now, I won’t stop searching.”
“How, Wulf?”
“The old fashioned way, no computer, no radar; just these,” Wulf points to his eyes and nose, “You’re forgetting I’m part animal.” Wulf takes a piece of toast off of Phoebe’s plate and nearly hits Meerlix with it as he picks it up, causing him to flinch.
Back at Seductra’s lair moments later; Seductra sits frustrated as she watches the monitors for signs of Alex. So far, he was nowhere to be found, which made her even more frustrated, “Ooh, I should’ve stuck a collar on that boy; how am I supposed to turn him against his friends if I can’t find him?”
“We’ll find him soon, Aunty S.”
“Focus more on finding that flea-bitten mongrel, Lycanda; it’s all his fault!” “LYCANDA!!!” she yelled slowly so her voice echoed throughout the ship.
“You howled, my queen?”
“Where… is that boy I had you bite the other night? He’s supposed to be carrying out his mission, but he’s gone M.I.A.”
“You asked me to bite him, I bit him; everything else after that is a dice roll.”
“Isn’t there something you can do to put him under our control?”
“Why didn’t you say that in the first place? I’ve got just the thing, watch this.” He demonstrates by aiming a red beam at one of Seductra’s Putras. The beam slithers around its neck and solidifies into a red ring. “This collar will act as a mind control device.” He commands the Putra to sit and it crouches down like a dog as it sat on its bottom.
“You find that kid and do the same thing to him or else… or else… ooh, I can’t think of a thing at the moment, but rest assured that if you fail me, you won’t like what I come up with.”
As he leaves, Seductra turns to her nieces, “Why’d I let you talk me into this?” she sighed.
At Serpitox’s island fortress around the same time; Pachytar confronts Serpitox and lets him know what’s troubling him, “If I may ask, master, what made you think of this idea?”
“You’ve fought him in the future, so you know how strong he is. His will is too strong for mind control, same as the other rangers of this century. This way, if he believes we hold the key to his reversal, he will bow to our will or forever remain an outcast.”
“How do you expect him to carry out our orders if there’s no sign of the one we’re looking for?”
“With a lil brute force, Pachytar, that’s how…” Serpitox watches Wulf on screen as he scours the city searching for Alex.
“I appreciate you coming with me and all, but I track better on my own,” Wulf said to Meerlix.
“Ever hear the expression ‘two heads are better than one’?”
Wulf looks over at Meerlix with disapproving stare.
“What?” Meerlix asked confusedly.
“You’ve got steam rising from your body, are you sure you’re alright? You don’t wanna switch places with me; get out of the shade?”
“No thanks, I’m good.”
The longer he’s been with him, the more Wulf starts putting together all the pieces to the puzzle: always wearing sunglasses even indoors, hatred for Garlic; he even looked at one of the windows of a shop they both passed by and Meerlix didn’t show up. “Hey, Meerlix, how about we split up, cover more ground?”
“Uh… sure.”
“I’ll take this way,” Wulf said.
As they go their separate ways, Wulf casually walks down the street, looking back to see if Meerlix was still eyeballing him before he walks into a supermarket and towards the produce section. Afterwards, he went by a hardware store and into the section with the lumber. After coming out of the store, Wulf was attacked by Lycanda.
“I was looking for your friend, but you’ll do just nicely for now.”
“Just when I thought I wasn’t going kick a lil a** today…” Wulf gets on his feet.
While they fought, Meerlix had his hands full with Pachytar and a handful of Cobra drones. The two fought long and hard; Pachytar got the best of him and the others had to jump in; half of them assisted Wulf, while the rest went to Meerlix’s aid.
Meerlix took to Wulf like a cat to catnip; he and Lycanda wear him down, but in the end, Meerlix grabbed Wulf and made his exit.
“Meerlix, what are you doing?” a wounded Wulf ninja warrior asked.
Meerlix removed his shades and revealed his glowing red eyes like demon’s eyes.
“Looks like your friend decided to join the winning side. Farewell, rangers.” Pachytar and Meerlix took off with the wounded Wulf; the others try to stop them, but it was too late.
Hours after the event in which Meerlix betray his team; Serpitox and Fahl Kun were now inside a dimly lit cave with a yellow light source somewhere in the room that was coming from a tube-like device; inside the tube was a yellow light source.
“Are you sure this will work, sir; you remember the events that happened in the future when you attempted this?”
“Quiet you…” Fahl Kun hissed at Meerlix.
“That was because I didn’t have a powerful enough energy source. This time, it will work.” “Pachytar, are the devices in place?”
“Our men are putting the last one down as we speak, my lord, I’ll get back to you with further progress.”
“See that you do.”
Meanwhile in South America, down near the bottom, a spiky monster which resembled a Mole continues to dig a large enough hole in the ground while a bunch of Cobra drones carry a large looking spike towards the vicinity.
While back at the mansion, the rangers are scratching their heads over the latest development.
“This has turned out to be an amazing day,” Max said with sarcasm, “First Alex and now Meerlix and Zierian; how could he do this?”
“At least Alex has an excuse for his behavior; what about Meerlix?”
“I dunno what got into him, but I am sure of one thing: that he’s turning into a vampire.”
“That’s ridiculous, Max.”
“Is it, Phoebe? Is it? The glowing red eyes, his thirst for blood as Starla pointed out, and his hatred for garlic. ”
“Guys, I hate to interrupt, but I’ve found a faint energy signature in the wood; it could be Alex. Plus, MEGAN has picked up seismic activity in different parts of the world; all of them settled around major oceans.”
“That’s great.”
“What about news on Wulf?”
“So far, no sign of him anywhere, but I’m still looking.”
“Caitlin and I will go and find Alex in the meantime,” Zierian replied.
“While they do that, I’ll need the rest of you to check out these disturbances.”
Meanwhile, in Seductra’s lair
“I set out to turn one of the rangers’ fellow teammates against them, but this is even better. I’ll let them preoccupy themselves in searching for him while I find their lil golden pal. No doubt Serpitox has him, but where is he holding him?”
“Scanners are detecting massive amounts of energy along the coasts of seven locations, perhaps he’s got him at one of those.”
“Where’s Lycanda?”
“Still missing in action, ma’am…”
“Why is it he’s never around with ya need’em? Fine, we’ll take a handful of Putras and find Wulf ourselves. We don’t need Lycanda.”
A while later in the woods, Caitlin and Wulf dismount their vehicles just outside the tree line before heading in.
“According the scanners, he’s somewhere around here.”
“Over there!” Caitlin shouts.
Alex lies in the dirt near a tree, jacket and shirt tattered and worn down.
“Someone’s had a rough night…”
“Alex?” she calls out, “Alex, it’s us, your friends.” Alex didn’t respond, so she slapped him to wake him up.
“Huh. What?” he responded.
“Alex, you’re okay!”
“What happened? Why do I feel like death?”
Back at home after explain to Alex what happened to him, he was shocked at what he heard.
“I was what?”
“A werewolf to put it shortly; Wulf found you when he was driving home from the grocery store and that’s when it happened.”
“You attacked me and took off. If not for Meerlix, you’d have probably killed him.”
“And where’s Meerlix now?”
“That’s the other bad news…”
“He’s now working for his arch enemy; Wulf has this theory he’s been turned into a vampire.”
“My theory is quite sound; he’s a sunlight and garlic loathing, bloodsucking demon of the night.”
“I’ve managed to run a scan on Meerlix’s brainwaves and they don’t read like someone who’s been brainwashed, but like a person who’s acting out of desperation,” MEGAN explained.
“Maybe he’s being bribed.”
“But how is Serpitox bribing him, Caitlin?” Samuel asked.
Somewhere on shores of Eurasia, Willis, Phoebe, and Starla check out the reading at the coordinates Samuel gave them; what they found when they got there wasn’t good. The spikes that were placed in several locations alone the shores of each continent were several stories high, cylindrical shape that was eight feet in diameter, and had six multicolored, pulsating rings hovering in place without anything attaching them to the base. At the very top there was a clear glass sphere pointed towards the ocean.
“What is it?”
Willis scans the device as he circles it, “Seems to be some kind of magnet, but I’m not entirely sure. Its polarity seems to be far greater than anything in existence.”
“It looks like it’s aimed out to sea.
Christi calls out to Willis like a lover spotting their boyfriend across the way, “Hey, Willis, I had a feeling I’d find you here…”
“Christi, Cameron; now’s not the time for us to be doing this.”
Christi throws down a handful Putra Jellies, which instantly grow into Putras. As she orders then to attack, she and Cameron follow them into battle.
Meanwhile, Seductra gives up searching for Lycanda and decides to go after Serpitox. She and her army of Putras mess around with one of his giant magnets in order to flush him out.
An alarm goes on the screen hanging from the wall of the control center for his devices and gets his attention. “What’s going on? What’s that sound?” Serpitox asked nervously.
“It seems we’ve got a problem with the South American polarity magnet, your lordship.”
He turns to Pachytar, who was at the monitor, watching one of the readouts on screen go red, “Go see what the problem is and report back to me; I’ll prep for phase 2 of the plan. Meerlix, you go with him, too.”
“What about our deal?”
“We’ll discuss the terms when you get back.”
“Fahl Kun, I need you here. Once phase 2 is complete, I’ll still be vulnerable; you’re my only defense.”
Meerlix and Pachytar travel through a green and black portal and appear in front of Seductra and her army halfway through their random destruction of the device and by clearing his throat, Pachytar warns of them of their presence.
“Well… I was expecting the big man himself, not his pets.” Seductra said “Listen…” she said in a reassuring tone, “All I want is the gold guy. You give’em to me, and I promise I won’t break any more of your toys, okay?”
“No deal. Our master still requires him. You can have whatever’s left when he’s done.”
“Alright then, if that’s how you wanna play it; Putras? Search and destroy.”
Pachytar unleashes the cobra drones on her Putras. Why they fought, he and Meerlix tackled Seductra.
Meerlix swipes low at Seductra’s hip, but she leans to one side; Meerlix then performs an upward slash only to have her spiral out of the way, dawn her armor and sword and deliver a devastating strike to the backside.
Once Meerlix was down, Pachytar quickly marches up like a stampeding elephant, but Seductra back flips out of the way; Pachytar stops and backhands her into a boulder. With her on the ground, Pachytar summons his sword and moves in for the kill. He strikes the ground where she was, but misses as she rolls out of the way. He turns to her again and swings, but Seductra ducks. Pachytar swung around again. Spark flew from their blades as they exchange back and forth.
After getting on his feet, Meerlix fights his way out of a circle of enemies before he was confronted by Lycanda, who leapt in and attacked him from the air. He aims for the head, but Meerlix leans back. He aims low for the abdomen, but Meerlix leans forward, grabs his wrist, spirals and slashes him in the stomach.
Lycanda slashes from the left; Meerlix blocks and hits in in the chin with the top of his head, then spirals, links his arms with his palms angled and strikes Lycanda’s chest.
A few moments later, after Seductra and Pachytar had a long drawn-out battle, Seductra’s Putras all formed together around Pachytar like a giant wad of gum and solidified until he couldn’t move.
“Seems you’ve gotten yourself in a sticky situation...” Seductra moves closer and then turns her attention to Lycanda as he’s bombarded with laser fire. “What?” she said to herself before noticing three of the rangers, Alex, Caitlin, and Max, arrive on scene.
“Are you sure you’re up to this?” Caitlin asked.
“I wouldn’t be here if I weren’t.” Alex then summons his Scorpion Saber.
As soon as they called on the WASP stinger mark I, Samuel explained how he outfitted the laser blasts with silver nitrate; perfect for stopping a werewolf.
Max and Caitlin take aim just before Alex got out of the way and fired a quick burst of energy, which was enough to defeat Lycanda.
“That’s not fair…” Seductra whined.
Once he was gone, Alex felt a change in him; he didn’t feel so weak anymore.
“Guess the spell was broken once Lycanda was destroyed…”
Afterwards, Meerlix intervened. After he knocked the weapon from their hands he attacks with a fury of hits.
Alex grips him tightly around the waist, pinning his arms to his sides. “Meerlix, why are you doing this?” he asked.
Meerlix didn’t answer. He just broke free of Alex’s grip and slashed twice across his chest.
Caitlin takes the opportunity to hit him with a small enough concussive blast from her eyes to stun him temporarily.
Meerlix comes to his senses, rushes up and hits her with a back flip kick, which lands her in the arms of the Cobra Drones.
Max leaps at Meerlix with a flying punch with his pill bug armor, but Meerlix turns around, grabs his wrist and flips him over his head before he delivers a strong kick to his center and knocks him towards Caitlin and the Cobra drones.
Back in Eurasia, Willis, Phoebe, and Starla just now finished fighting the Putra’s, started focusing on Cameron and Christi.
Cameron and Christi lock wrists; Cameron swings Christi at Starla, Phoebe, and Willis, who duck, lean back, and jump out of the way. Cameron lets go of her wrists after she lands on her feet and Phoebe rushes forward. She shot her right fist out, popping a jab at Christi’s face twice. She shook her head clear and tried to push Phoebe back, but she clinched and pounded her fist into Christi’s abs.
Christi pushed her away with a kick to the stomach and then rushed forward and hammered Phoebe’s face with a left cross. Jinx’s head snapped to the side, and Starla stepped in, plowing her left foot into the ninja’s side. Christi’s body leaned to one side, giving Cameron a chance to get in on the action. She grabbed Starla by the back of the neck and pulled her close with her left, then socked her body with several right knee kicks to the belly.
Starla grunted to the pain of the attacks and then broke free only to have Cameron shove her back with a double leg drop kick; Willis’ shot from his blaster flew at Cameron and she spiraled left and straight into a rock-face.
Christi started to move forward with Shuriken in hand and intent to use them. Phoebe responded with a series of random swings from after she summons her weapon through her glove. Christi grunted as her ninja stars dropped at her opponent’s feet and Starla then comes in from Phoebe’s right. As she passes her, she conjures her Armadillo blades into her hands. Christi draws her sword as she approaches. Starla crosses her weapons in front of her breasts and stops the sword just inches away from her heart.
As they reach the end of the fight, Samuel calls, “If you’re not busy, the others need your help with Pachytar and his goons.”
“But what about the magnets?” Phoebe asked.
“A scan shows that destroying them individually will do nothing. You’ll need to focus your attention on the one that controls the rest, but so far, we haven’t been able to determine which one is the master control.”
Back in South America, things were not going so well as Alex and the others focus more on talking Meerlix out of working with Serpitox.
“Meerlix whatever Serpitox promised you, don’t believe it.”
Meerlix pushes Alex out of the way after landing a fury of hits with the speed of a cheetah.
It was Caitlin’s turn to try and reason with him, “He’s your arch enemy; you should know him better than we do. What reason would he have to keep his word?”
Meerlix hesitates as he thinks about Caitlin’s words.
“What are you waiting for? You have them right where you want them; destroy them already!” Pachytar barked.
Meerlix raises his paw to take a swipe at Caitlin, but continues to hesitate, so Pachytar decides to intervene.
“If you’re not going to do it, I will.” Pachytar shoves him out of the way.
Just then, Willis, Phoebe, and Starla arrive and stop him before he could have the chance and make him flee along with Meerlix.
Later back at the mansion, inside the command center, Samuel’s instruments detected an abnormally high output of energy being transferred into the magnets along the shores of each continent; Serpitox was preparing to power up his machine, which MEGAN determined was going to be used by him to bring the continents together and reform Pangaea, the super-continent.
“We can’t risk waiting for him to power the machine up, because it may be too late,” Samuel explained.
“Well there must be something we can do; what about the WASP stinger Mark 3?”
“It only works outdoors; it’s no use,” MEGAN explained.
“Besides, it’s like I told the rangers; destroying each magnet individually won’t work.”
“So without a bearing on Serpitox’s main base, we can do nothing?”
“MEGAN, run a wide-range scan for unusual fluctuations in power.”
“I’m doing it right now,” she replied.
“He’s gotta be giving off a lot of heat.”
“There’s a huge surge of power emanating from the South Pole, sir.”
Samuel opens a line of communication to the rangers, “Guys, Serpitox’s main base is in Antarctica.”
“Okay thanks…”
“You need to get there ASAP; he’s powering up those big magnets. He’s planning to recreate the super continent. If he succeeds, the world will be shook to pieces.”
Meerlix and Pachytar return to the base in Antarctica in defeat.
“Well, did you take care of the problem?”
“Seductra and her men were causing trouble, but we took care of them. Though, as soon as this cat had a couple of the rangers in his sights, he chickened out.”
“At least I helped sort out the problem with Seductra, so what about our deal?”
“The deal was also to deal with any other interlopers who got in your way; your friends are not excluuuuded…”
“I can’t.”
“You want to be normal again, don’t you? Then complete the rest of our arrangement and you’ll get your form back.”
Meerlix hesitates before asking, “What guarantees do I have that you’ll stick to your end of the bargain?”
“What choice do you have, Meerlix?”
“Master, we have intruders closing in fast on our position from the northwest,” Fahl Kun shouted from across the room.
“Here’s your chance to redeem yourself; Pachytar, if this time he hesitates, destroy him along with his friends,” Serpitox ordered after Meerlix left the room.
“It would be my genuine pleasure…”
The rangers close in fast on snowmobiles and get blasted by Pachytar.
Pachytar chuckles and murmurs to himself, “Too easy…”
Max screams as he dawns his Pill bug armor and strikes the back of Pachytar’s head with his right arm; Pachytar comes to his senses and summons his sword. As he swings, Max ducks and dudes using his agility while his brother and Alex rush in from the sides and slash through his abdominal area.
Alex sheathes his sword and transforms into a polar bear as he takes a swipe at Pachytar and shoves him straight through a hill of snow and ice.
During the whole fight, Meerlix stood back as he was unsure of what to do.
Pachytar quickly turns to him after striking Willis and Alex down, “What are you doing just standing there? Help me!” he faces forward again as Max attacks with his pill bug armor attached to his left leg. He blocks the attack and strikes from above, but Max moves the armor up to his left arm and blocks his sword.
Starla intervenes by throwing her weapons, the armadillo blades, which cut through Pachytar’s sword and gave Max a fighting chance.
After a long fight, Meerlix decides to jump in, but instead of helping his enemy, he joined his friends.
“Bad move, furball…”
The rangers call on the WASP stinger Mark II and take aim at Pachytar; the blast didn’t destroy him, but it was enough to weaken him.
With him down, the rangers head inside to Serpitox and Fahl Kun stopped them.
“You guys handle her; I’ll find Serpitox.”
“You got it, Meerlix.”
Fahl Kun unsheathes her sword and faces them. They all rush her at once, but she fights them off with grace. After she pushes Caitlin down with a frontal kick, Phoebe throws her boomerang, which Fahl Kun dodged. As it came back around, Fahl Kun holds her sword down behind her head and stops it before bringing her free hand to her face and jerking it away in a quick moment, which resulted in the rangers being bombarded with an energy beam.
Meerlix find Serpitox after a short search, “It’s all over, Serpitox.”
“I don’t think so…” Serpitox turns to him.
Meerlix summons his Hawk crossbow; Serpitox shoots a laser beam from his eyes before Meerlix could react and rapidly approaches. He knocks the crossbow from Meerlix’s hand, grasps his throat and slams him into the wall; Meerlix swats his hand away and throws a low punch to the stomach, then throws a low kick, which Serpitox blocks with his palm, before he spirals and performs a back kick. Meerlix is pushed into a wall with Serpitox following him closely. With his back against the wall, Meerlix crouches and performs an uppercut, which knocks Serpitox on his back.
He gets to his feet and struck back violently, hoping to put his opponent on the defensive. A right straight punch to the chest sent Meerlix reeling, and a pair of left crosses to the ribs forced him back.
“You could’ve had everything. I would’ve let you rule by my side same as Pachytar; as Fahl Kun. But you spat my offer back in my face.”
“No deal is worth sacrificing innocents.”
“This will be better off when the human element is wiped away; all they do is create to destroy. I’m glad I forfeited my human side. Human are weak; the reptile is stronger.” Serpitox slides back and swipes at Meerlix’s stomach. Thinking quickly, Meerlix leaps towards his crossbow, picks it up, and shoots the console, which Wulf is hooked up to.
“Just because you’ve turned yourself into a cold-blooded animal, doesn’t mean you have to embrace a similar lifestyle…” Meerlix places the unconscious Wulf ninja Warrior’s arm on his shoulder as he carries him out.
Serpitox puts up one last fight before Wulf finally wakes up. The two of them together combine their power and temporarily disable him long enough for Samuel to arm the WASP stinger Mark 3 from the command center. Serpitox and Wulf managed to make it out before a concentrated beam of energy caused the place to explode.
All that was left was Pachytar, Fahl Kun and a bunch of Cobra drones. They couldn’t believe it; their boss was destroyed along with his base and his plans to reshape the world. To avenge him, they decided to stay and fight the rangers to their last breath; which wasn’t too long.
“Let’s get out of here, Pachytar.”
“Good idea,” he said back to Fahl Kun. “We live to fight another day, rangers!”
With Serpitox destroyed, Meerlix and the others return to the mansion and prepare for the Halloween party; everyone started arriving while Meerlix, Wulf, and Samuel were down in Samuel’s laboratory trying to figure out how to help Meerlix.
“I’m sorry I even trusted him.”
“I doubt Serpitox even had an antidote; why make one if we was going to destroy us and the earth anyway?”
“How do I return to normal now?”
“We’ll think of something, Meerlix, don’t worry.”
“Zierian, isn’t there something you can do?”
“I’m too weak for me to do anything. I’m sorry. That responsibility now lies on you, Wulf.”
“Me?”
“You now possess my powers; with them, you can do anything, including help out your friend.”
Wulf and Meerlix stand face to face. Wulf channels a bit of his powers through Meerlix.
At first, he didn’t feel any different, but as soon as he turned towards a mirror, he saw his reflection. His hair was less shaggy and his eyes weren’t red. He no longer felt the thirst for blood. He was back to normal once again.  

[Samuel Grant]

Chapter 42
Enter the Sandman

Several days after the Halloween fiasco, Ling Khan starts having his Konglatons randomly terrorize major cities across in the United States and the rangers had no clue why he was doing this. There was an attack on a few capital buildings in some states, random destruction done to national monuments like the Leaning Tower of Pisa, Stonehenge, and the Washington Monument; all of which could be fixed. Their final encounter with the Konglatons leads them a national park where they face the enemy weapons equipped. From the beginning, it was a losing battle as the rangers were too tired to stand up.
When it looked like it was the end for them, Wulf shows up out of nowhere, morphed and ready to kill. He takes his sword, twirls it thrice in front of his face and sticks it into the dirt; the light emitting from his sword moves through the ground and up to the enemy like a mole digging through dirt until suddenly, stalagmites grew from the ground. Most of them stuck into the Konglatons where it hurt the mosts and in another moment, they quickly retreat from battle as Wulf sheathes his sword and turns his friends, checking to see if they were okay.
They return to the mansion without Wulf all sluggish and weak like someone who pigged out on nothing but junk food all day. Starla plops down on the couch and Caitlin unintentionally lies on top of her; max, Alex, and Willis were too tired to stand there and look at them like pervs. They fought over who would get the other couch to sleep on.
“Man, what’s with all these random attacks? What is Ling Khan planning?”
“I dunno, but I can’t take much more of this.”
“Yeah me too; if this keeps up, I won’t be able to stay on me feet let alone fight.”
From inside his lair, Ling Khan can’t help but watch his enemies slumber. After hard day of crimefighting, they deserved it; though Ling Khan wasn’t going to give them any slack.
“I told you it was a good plan, didn’t I tell you? If I keep wearing them down this way, they’ll be easy targets for the next part of my plan.” Ling Khan said to Sapphira.
“And what’s that?” Sapphira asked back.
“You’ll just have to wait and see now, won’t you…? But I can assure, it will definitely have something to do with this…”
“An hourglass?” Sapphira asked confusedly as she looked at a blue hourglass with gray sand on the screen.
“That’s no ordinary hourglass, my dear. This is known as ‘the dreamer’s dust’. With this, the rangers will be too busy sawing logs that they won’t have time for us.”
“How do you plan on administering it?”
“We just need to find the right distributor for the job. I’m sure I’ve got a monster or two in my army.”
Within minutes, using Zierian’s powers, Wulf arrives in Malibu for a bit of sun, surf, and sand on one of their beautiful beaches. Further down the beach near some rocks, he finds a couple passed out; the man in nothing but swim trunks and the woman in her bathing suit. The woman was tan colored and looked to be in her mid 20’s, while the man was Caucasian and looked to be in his early 30’s the woman had a cut on her arm that was bandaged up. The bandage was almost soaked in blood before it stopped.
Assuming they were dead, Wulf poked them into the shoulder. He turns the man over on his back. Unclenching his fist, Wulf notices a pipe in his hand. The pipe was carved out of a wood resembling polished oak and it was shaped like the talon of an eagle. He took it from his hand and tucked it safely in his pocket before performing CPR. The woman awakens first after Wulf performed CPR three or four times, coughing up water as she checks her surroundings in a panicked fashion. Wulf tried to calm her down and succeeds for a short while before she gets one look at him. She screams and tries to run, but Wulf grabs hold of her and covers his mouth his with right hand, “It’s okay, it’s okay,” Wulf reassured her.
“Where am I?” she asked.
“You’re in Malibu, miss. Can you tell me what happened? How you and your friend ended up here?”
“I… I don’t remember.”
“Well, can you tell me your name?”
“I’m sorry, I don’t know that one either.”
“Hold on for a sec while I take care of him.
The man next to her slowly starts to awaken as well, “Who are you?”
“That’s funny, I was gonna ask you the same question,” Wulf asked.
“We need to get you to a hospital. You have a cut on your arm, your both half-naked, soaked, probably have hypothermia, and can’t remember your names.” Wulf takes out his phone and dials 911.
Back at home, Max, Willis, Phoebe, Caitlin, Starla, Alex, and Meerlix’s moment of peace was interrupted. MEGAN had just alerted them to a disturbance in the city. On screen, they could see an entire area full of people passed out. Some of them on the sidewalk, some were in cars, buses, in the lobbies of buildings. In the epicenter of all of it was a monster with a long, green humanoid form and several red petals sprouting from the side, top, and bottom of his head positioned to resemble the blades in an air conditioner or a fan. His eyes were blue like the sand in Ling Khan’s hourglass and he had a long, slit across the bottom of his face that was assumed to be the mouth.
“Just once, I’d like to fully enjoy a dream I’m having before being pulled back to reality.”
“As long as there’s evil out there wanting to destroy earth, I don’t think that’s possible.”
“C’mon, let’s get down there and put that thing to sleep.”
They ride in on their motorcycles from behind the enemy and dismount quickly; Alex calls out to him.
“Who are you?”
“We’re the Gaia rangers. Who are you?”
“I am Poppiton. I suggest you get your nightgown on, because you’re in for a long nap…” the first attempt Poppiton made to render the rangers unconscious took longer than it did on everyone around them due to their superpowers giving them an immunity. When it started to take effect, the only ones not affected were Max and Willis since they’re androids and their synthenic organs just filtered the blue dust through. As for the others, their eyes got heavier and heavier until they could no longer keep them open. Their legs gave out and they instantly fell. Max and Willis attack Poppiton head-on, but their power cells were still too low for them to put a good fight. A fist aimed for the head, quickly Poppiton had blocked, knocking the arm away, only to have a badly formed kick to follow. This kick was easily blocked by a low block but from behind a kick came to the knee. Luckily for him, it did no damage as it connected only to the lower leg. Max had summoned his pill bug armor and swung it around as it switched from right arm to left arm; left foot to right foot. Willis then takes his Elephant axe swings it clumsily at Poppiton’s head; quickly he ducked and then struck with a slash to the stomach; Max tucked his head in and took the opportunity to dive at his opponent’s waist while Willis spiraled to the ground. Once Max grabbed on, Poppiton elbowed him in the back, peeled him off and tossed him aside. Willis then spiraled in and in an attempt to strike hard, but Poppiton ducked swiftly as the weapon was once more swung dangerously close to his head. Rapidly, he swept his foot around in a circle, sending the attacker closest to him to the floor as their point of balance was taken from under them. Again, Max came at him, but this time with his blaster, bringing it in perfect alignment with Poppiton's chest.
When Samuel saw his sons were having a difficult time with this new enemy, he tried contacting Wulf, who had just recently shut off his communicator when approached by the doctor.
“How are they?”
“You were right about their amnesia; they both had major trauma.”
“Is it permanent?”
“Not exactly, they could get their memory back through therapy, medication; maybe even through support from friends or family members.”
“There’s no telling if either of them have homes to go to,” Wulf explained.
“That’s true.”
“So, I assume they’re free to go.”
“Yes they are.”
“But to whom? At the moment, they have no one, remember?”
“There’s the option of social services. We can’t keep him here, on account of lack of bedspace.”
“Forget social services. They can come back with me. I may have a hotel room with one bed, but they can have it while I sleep on the couch.”
“Are you sure about this?”
“Yes I’m sure. I found them, so they’re my responsibility for the time being. Just lemme go pick up some clothes for them. I saw a department store not far from here when I rode here in the ambulance with them. I’ll be right back.” As he takes off in a hurry, an infuriated Samuel Grant decides to step in and save the rangers from their losing battle.
After arriving in his jeep, he puts on a gray and black respirator and then unsheathes his sword as he passes his sons by.
Samuel was fighting entirely different from Max and Willis, him dodging then countering each attack and sending one after another back at Poppiton. On the last swing, Poppiton grips near the tip of the blade with his left, bearing down as he tries to pull it in one direction. Samuel used his right leg in a crescent kick and hit Poppiton’s, then using a back fist, hit him in the lower chest, winding him badly. As he doubled over, trying to gain a breath, Samuel rolled over his back and kicked out into an area less populated by unconscious citizens. Samuel circles him as he prepares to blow his blue sand in his direction. Upon approaching a fire hydrant, Samuel waited for the right moment to unscrew the valve and sent a stream of water Poppiton’s way, completely washing away the dust and soaking Poppiton until his petals began to droop. Poppiton took off in a huff.
“Thanks for the help, dad.”
“I came as soon as I could after trying to contact Wulf. He doesn’t seem to be answering his communicator at the moment.”
“He’s probably off doing his comic book hero thing.”
“We’re just lucky someone came along when they did.”
“Maybe it’s best that next time we face that thing, we wear dust masks.”
“Those won’t be as effective as a good old fashioned respirator; but even this won’t work for long. He may figure out a way around it.”
The people who were affected by dreamer’s dust awaken a short while after the rangers leave,
Back at Wulf’s hotel room; he sets up the bedroom for his guests to sleep while they make good use of the rest of the place. The man, whom Wulf from then on referred to as Brad, worked in the kitchen, making himself a snack while the woman, whom Wulf called Zoe, lied on the couch, watching TV. The reason he decided to name them as such was because they were a couple that reminded me of Bradley Cooper and Zoe Saldana; though with no knowledge of their past lives, he cannot tell for certain if they’re boyfriend and girlfriend or adopted siblings. He could assume however that weren’t husband and wife since he did not see a ring. He finally told them he was going out for a while and that they should make themselves a home. He told them he had an errand to run, when he was really heading to Samuel’s.
“Wulf. I was wondering when you’d show up again.”
“Save the speech, I’ve got an unidentified couple in my apartment with amnesia. I need your help in finding out who they are; they have nothing that tell me anything, except for this weird looking pipe.”
“I’ll check it for fingerprints.”
“That might be harder than you think.”
“Why?”
“They washed up on the shore in Malibu. The water may have gotten rid of any traces.”
“Well then how will you find out anything about them from this? It may as well be useless.”
“Well, it could be clue of some kind. I have a hunch. Neither of them looked like smokers to me.”
“And you’re basing that off what, exactly?”
“I know it’s not a lot to go on, but cut me some ******** slack!”
“I’ll cut you some slack once you realize we’re fighting for something a lot bigger than a missing persons report!”
Phoebe came into the room yawning, “Geez, I can hear you guys from upstairs; what’s going on?” she asked.
“Just a bit of a heated debated, Phoebe, go back to whatever you were doing.”
“It’s only heated, because you’re making it heated; he ignores my call, turns off his communicator when you guys need him the most, and then he just comes back here after a vacation in Malibu and starts playing private eye when there’s more at stake here.”
Wulf walked away mid-sentence and uses the glasstop table to indentify the object of importance. There were no fingerprints like he said, so he had to explore other means of determining the item’s origin. He cross-referenced an image of it with other databases he could find; he was unsuccessful. Out of frustration, he bangs the pipe against the screen.
“It appears the pipe is just an ordinary pipe,” MEGAN replied.
“Well, I still don’t understand it. It must hold some sentimental value to Brad if he took it with him from wherever it was he came from.”
“Or perhaps he was just on the deck of a boat, having a smoke when a storm hit and knocked them both overboard. Give it a rest, Wulf. Let the police handle this.”
“I still have a bad feeling about this, Samuel, goddamn it.” Wulf leaves in a huff and returns to his apartment. He sat the couple down on the couch and started asking questions in order to jog their memory. A few questions in particular were pertaining to the pipe that Brad had in his possession when he found them. Wulf pulled it from his pants pocket and flashed it in front of them, but it didn’t seem to bring back any memories, “I took this to my friend to cross reference it, see if there was anything that could help me identify you; fingerprints, DNA sample. I realized that the water may have washed all of that stuff away, so I tried seeing if there were any matching images; still I got nothing. Rather peculiar thing to carry with you when washing up on shore.”
“I may have…”
“Just had a smoke before the accident, yeah; my friend seemed to think that too, but just because I’ve reached a dead end, doesn’t mean I’m going to give up.”
“You don’t even know us, yet you’re going out of your way to help us.”
“I know what it’s like to not remember who you are; I still know how that feels to this very day, but I decided to leave the past behind me. I wanna start anew, help others with their problems, and be a hero.”
Meanwhile back at the mansion, Phoebe came up with the perfect way to keep everyone, including her, awake. As she went into the kitchen, she gathered coffee beans, so fresh water from the faucet and gets the pot to brew it all in. she fixes up a batch of coffee, which she gives to Willis to try.
“You sure about this, Phoebe?”
“It’s my great grandmother’s recipe for the perfect brew. Just try it before you judge.”
“I think I’ll stick to buying mine from a coffee shop.”
“Why waste your money when you can make yours at about half of what you pay them? Just take a sip, I guarantee you’ll like it.”
He takes the first sip and automatically likes. A few minutes later after consuming the whole cup, he started speeding around the room faster than usual; the effect of the coffee amplified his super speed three-fold.
Caitlin approaches the counter while Willis kept speeding by.
“Guess that batch was a bit too strong.”
“Gee, yah think?!” Caitlin responded to Phoebe.
“I’ll keep working on it; see if you can catch him and slow him down, will ya?”
Meanwhile down in the command center
“Until I can create an antidote to protect you from Poppiton’s sleep dust, I suggest covering your face and avoid getting caught in it at all costs,” Samuel replied.
“I have no doubts Ling Khan is behind this and I guarantee this Poppiton will make his debut once again.” Bradshaw explained. “So keep on your toes.”
Willis comes rushing down the stairs; the caffeine still in his system, he zigzagged left and right around his friends and then back up the stairs.
“What the heck was that?”
“Sorry, guys, Phoebe was experimenting with the perfect batch of coffee to help us keep awake; Willis had too strong a dose.” She chases him all throughout the house until finally Willis was tripped by Max’s foot.
“Ow…” Willis said slowly with his face planted in the carpet.
“Thanks, Max.”
“No problem.”
“I think I finally got it just right.”
“Oh really?” Samuel interrupted, “Then you’d better let me test it out this time; don’t want speedy Gonzalez here wrecking anything again.” He takes the cup of coffee and slowly brings it to his lips, gathering the essence on his taste buds before letting it slide down his gullet tries it, “Still too strong. With this batch, you’d surely wake the dead, no doubt about it.”
“I hate to be the bearer of bad news… but Poppiton’s back.”
“On second thought, maybe having it that strong is the way to go; I’ll hold him off until you guys get there.” Max takes the coffee from his dad, then he and the others go for their motorcycles in the garage and races off. By the time they get there, Poppiton was there waiting with a horde of Konglatons.
The rangers pull out their morphers in the presence of Poppiton; each of saying their own individual go-code to activate their ranger powers. The filters on their helmets allowed them to breathe without sucking in any of Poppiton’s dust. Alex attacks first with his Scorpion Saber and Poppiton ducks under the first strike, then leaps over the second and lands a flying kick, which took out Starla as she ran up with her Armadillo blades at the ready. Caitlin rushes up and slices one of Poppiton’s buds off with her Peacock fan blades; Poppiton responds with a swift back fist, which Caitlin dodges with a back flip. Max leaps in with his pill bug armor on his right leg as he performs a kick to the head and makes Poppiton fall to the ground.
Using his powers, Max stops a Konglaton from punching him clear into the next block. Meerlix came at the beast from the side and strikes when it’s occupied with Max. He lays into the Konglaton with a flurry of scratches and finishes with a rear horse kick. Another Konglaton picks Meerlix up by the back of the collar and he starts fidgeting like a bug in a human’s hands, trying to get down. Willis helps him down as he speeds up faster than the enemy could react; hitting Konglaton square in the chest, Willis sends him stumbling back. As he falls, he lets go of Meerlix. In the opposite direction, another roundhouse kick came at Max, aiming for his head. Max quickly ducked and went under the attack, taking him out with a strike to the stomach that sent him down and out of the fight. All at once, three more attacked either side of him, quickly Max flipped over one of the three, kicking each to the ground as he went and ended up back to back to back with Meerlix and WIllis. Suddenly more came forward out of the crowd with; Max, Meerlix, and Willis find they are surrounded.
Willis and Max, who were taking out another two Konglatons, saw a couple more attackers coming from the corner of her eye, swiftly they grabbed hold of the attackers’ hands; using one of the pressure points they knew, Max and Willis had them under their control; they made them slam into one another. As Max, Willis, and Meerlix proceeded to send the attackers down, the group closed in a little more.
After standing up, Poppiton fires more of the red darts he flung at Wulf and knocks all the rangers off their feet.
“You look a lil tired, rangers. How about a whiff of my sleeping dust…?” Poppiton’s dust blew at them; some of the particles clung to the outside of the helmets while the rest went straight through, entered their noses and slowly puts them into a deep sleep.
“C’mon, guys, we gotta… fight it…”
“Oh there must be something you can do.”
“If we can modify the CACTUS units used to control the effects on the weather brought on by Farenhart’s monster, we could set them in position and create a weather anomaly to counteract the dust.”
“Good thinking, MEGAN! I’ll head down to the Samuel’s archives.”
“If you need any help, I can guide you step by step on the process.”
The rangers held in there long enough for Bradshaw to arrive with the modified climate anomaly control tech unit. Bradshaw puts them in place and MEGAN starts them up. The devices create a powerful rainstorm, which soaks the dust and makes it fall to the ground.
It was just the one scene from the 1930’s Wizard of Oz as the rain negated the effect of the monster’s dust and kept the rangers from falling asleep. With a quick nod to each other, Phoebe and Caitlin both flipped over the rest of the group, ending up on the other side of them; they summon the control unit for the WASP stinger Mark 3 and right then, Poppiton knew that this fight was a loosing battle. It took only a few seconds for the charge and for them to defeat Poppiton.
As for Wulf and his friends, Brad and Zoe; around the same time the rangers fought again Poppiton, Wulf ran a search and found a boat floating miles off shore where he found them. He tracked it to an impound lot somewhere in Malibu and they decide to go check it out and see if it helps bring back memories. Getting inside the lot was no easy task, so Wulf, Zoe, and Brad go in under disguise. Wulf and Zoe go as an insurance representative and her supervisor; Brad was disguised as a guard that worked at the lot, a new guy. They climb onboard the yacht split up. Brad searches all the rooms; most of which are littered with documents as if someone were there before them, looking for something. Wulf and Zoe check topside.
“You okay there, madame?” Wulf asked, showing concern.
“I’m good; just admiring this boat is all. I wonder what happened here that made us have to leave such a beautiful thing behind.”
“That’s what I’m here to find out. There’s also the possibility of one of you having too much to drink and falling overboard. One of you tried to save the other and somewhere in between, the current washed you to shore.”
“That would probably explain the lack of ID.”
“Actually, it can’t. After taking your fingerprints earlier, when I got back, I ran them through the police database and still I found nothing. You guys are ghosts, Zoe.”
“Perhaps someone’s trying to get rid of us and making us into John and Jane Doe is the easiest way they know how.”
“You watch too much CSI, don’t you?” Wulf giggled.
“I wouldn’t know. I got amnesia, remember?”
Wulf peeks over the side at several bullet holes penetrating the hull of the boat, “You know, it’s usually the paranoid types that are right; you’re not crazy, are you?” Wulf joked while keeping a straight face.  

[Samuel Grant]

*this one is Wulf ninja warrior's story. his separate mission. he works as part vigilante/part private detective.

Chapter 43
Maze of a Mind

“Samuel doubted me, but my suspicions were correct about this whole thing. On the side of the boat facing the water, we found bullet holes; some sort of assault rifle, probably military grade. Whoever wanted to kill them, wanted to make sure they’re dead. The motive is still a mystery, but I wasn’t about to give up. Turning their cabin upside-down, we came across something. There was a faded postcard or picture in the top drawer of the desk on the far side. On one side there was something that looked like buildings. Those silhouette types you see in the background of some posters about a sitcom taking place in a big city. Brad and Zoe look it over, but it doesn’t bring anything to mind. And that’s when ‘he’ showed up; Asian male, mid-30 or early-30’s, thin, black that was made him almost look bald. He wore a dark green jacket, which completely hid his shirt, and blue jeans. I could smell him coming from a mile away, so I hid in the closet, waiting for him. Just when I was about to get the drop on him, Zoe beat me to it. Her skills mimicked that of an ex-special forces type. She took away his gun in seconds. As much as I would love for her to execute him, I couldn’t allow her. At the current time, she was a civilian and could be charged with murder. I took away the gun just moments before it went off. The guy got away while I was wrestling the gun out of Zoe’s hands. ‘Give me the gun’, I begged her, ‘give me the gun, please’.” Wulf’s story reaches present time where he, Zoe, and Brad were inside a large, semi-truck, a mobile command center, standing before Samuel.
“MEGAN’s taking a photo from any of the security cams in the area, trying to find a pic of this guy. If she comes up with anything, I’ll give a shout.”
“Thanks.”
“You two must be exhausted. Why not go and have a lie-down up front?”
“Sure…”
“Wulf, stay for a bit. I wanna talk to you.”
“Look, if you’re gonna give another lecture, save it.”
“I’m just worried you’re getting in too deep, Wulf. Who knows what type of history they have? They could be a duo of professional assassins…”
“You’re forgetting something; I’m also an assassin. I may not be James Bond, debonair spy, who is also a hit with the ladies, but I can handle myself if it turns out they’re not who I think they are.”
“I don’t doubt your skills, Wulf, but still I think you should be careful.”
“Didn’t think you cared…”
“After scanning the postcard Wulf found, I have made a discovery.”
“What’d you find, MEGAN?” Samuel asked.
“The picture is in fact some sort of advertisement for a place called Casa Malibu Inn.”
“Maybe this will jog their memories. I’ll go wake them.”
Zoe, who was overhearing the whole situation, then steps into the room, “No need. I couldn’t sleep.”
“Casa Malibu Inn; have you been there?”
“I remember we were following this one guy, he was checked into one of the rooms there.
“Well I’m guessing since someone tried to kill you on your yacht, he’ll spot you from a mile away if you return there,” Samuel explained. “So perhaps this is a job for some fresh faces.” Samuel pulls out his communicator and contacts Caitlin.
“Hey, Samuel, what’s going on? Where are you?”
“You’re not gonna believe this, but we’re on our way to Malibu. Can you, Willis, and Starla meet us?”
“Sure thing.”
“Thanks. We’ll be at the Casa Malibu Inn.”
“Why them?” Wulf asked as soon as Samuel hung up.
“Willis is a bit brainier than I am; Caitlin and Phoebe can be eye-candy. I know that sounds sexist, but we need to get the attention of any and every male face hanging around until we ID this guy.”
Samuel met Willis, Caitlin, and Starla en route to the Malibu Inn, where he briefed them on the mission. Caitlin came out of the back of the command center dressed in a pink and black bikini and swim shorts while Starla had a white bikini top and bottom.
“How do we look?” Caitlin asked.
Little cartoon hearts were seen glowing and thumping in Brad’s eyes as he took a good long look at Caitlin in her swimwear. He was quickly brought back to reality as Samuel elbows him in the side.
“Take it easy, Brad. That’s my sister you’re gawking at,” he muttered softly and angrily.
“Sorry, I had no idea.”
“Well you do now.” Forgetting it ever happened, he then turned to the stunning Caitlin and Starla with a backpack full of spy equipment. He gave Starla what seemed to be a pair of ordinary sunglasses. He explained to them how there’s a miniature camera under the bridge of the glasses that feeds directly into a flat screen monitor that was tucked away inside the bag. He gave the glasses to Starla and then took out a necklace to give to Caitlin, which was used to take a snapshot of anyone that comes into view of Starla. As Caitlin had to do was click it every time she wanted to use it.
Caitlin and Starla took their place on the private deck with a beautiful view of the beach. Starla applies suntan lotion while she and Caitlin sit underneath the umbrella covering their chairs. Lots of different people pass by on their way in and out of the area.
“Starla, will you focus?”
“I’m just making sure I don’t get sunburn.”
“You’re people are made entirely of light and you’re worried about sunburn?”
Tons of different guys flock towards the girls with a tray full of drinks, some of them one at a time; others three or four at a time. Before accepting the drinks they offered, Caitlin snapshots each of them as they come up, awaiting confirmation from Samuel, Willis, Brad, and Zoe. None of the men they photographed registered in Brad and Zoe’s mind, but the search still continued. The more and more potential candidates they examined, they began to remember a couple features about them; Brad recalled that the man they were looking for was Caucasian, had short, wavy, luxurious hair, and a goatee. That narrowed down the search for Starla and Caitlin by a bit. It wasn’t until after three more guys appeared on their radar that Brad ID’d the guy. He, like all the others, went after Caitlin rather than Starla which made her feel a bit uncomfortable. The guy tried almost every pickup line to try and coax her back to his room. She wasn’t falling for it, but soon changed her attitude after what Samuel had said.
“Starla, Caitlin. We got a positive ID. I’m gonna need his glass, so I can get fingerprints.”
Caitlin said she’d go with him, but she needed to freshen up first. He left her with the drink he offered and she discreetly threw the contents of the glass off the balcony and hands it to Starla, who got up from her chair.
“Willis, you take Zoe; I’ll handle Brad.” Samuel and Willis drag the two by the arm in separate directions as they escort them to safety. Brad managed to slip away from Samuel in attempt to stick close to their target. Samuel follows closely behind, trying to stop Brad, but he wouldn’t. He just kept going, passing through the crowd of people. When Samuel finally caught up, he hears a gunshot in the vicinity Brad and the mystery man. Everyone flees in terror, screaming at the top of their lungs. As the crowd clears, Samuel finds the mystery man lying there dead with a bullet hole in the head and Brad nowhere in sight. In his mind, Samuel was thinking, “Did Brad do this?” he looks around to see if he can spot Brad and then tries to take off after him, only to be stopped by a Latino in a loud shirt and tan shorts.
“Who the hell are you?”
The man flashes his badge for the LAPD in Samuel’s face, with the name Det. Roberto Martinez and his badge number underneath that.
The patio area was soon filled with police officers and coroners who immediately sealed off the area with yellow tape. Two men load the body onto a gurney and cart him off towards the ambulance. Roberto took Samuel, Caitlin, Starla, and Zoe off to the side and explains everything to them; the guy’s name, who he was, etc. “You called him Brad, but his real name was Gerald; Gerald Emerson. He was ex-marine. He was given honorable discharge, but he missed the action and decided to join the force. He was working a joint task force with Customs on a smuggling ring.”
“Good to know he’s not a complete ghost; but what about Zoe over here?”
“She’s actually Lindsay Cantrell; one of our best officers assigned to this case to keep an eye on Emerson, make sure he nothing happened. But apparently, something did happen.”
“Hey, you have no proof that he shot the guy.”
“We’ve received anonymous tips that he was accepting bribes from shady characters, the same guys he and Lindsay were investigating. We haven’t found any proof to support these allegations.”
“I told you he was bad news, Wulf…”
“Zip it, Samuel.”
“I dunno, something about that doesn’t seem right,” Lindsay replied.
“She’s right, how does this dead guy fit into all of this?”
“Brad doesn’t seem like the man to kill someone in cold blood. Something doesn’t add up.”
“Look, maybe you guys should leave this to the professionals before things get way out of hand; you comin’, Lindsay?”
“Yeah sure…”
“You think that’s wise, sir; letting them go when they know too much? Perhaps they know where he’ll turn up next…”
“I’ll take care of Gerald; don’t you have some other business to take care of; like recovering what he stole?”
“I’ve looked everywhere. It seems he’s great at covering his tracks.”
“Well, look again… there has to be something he’s overlooked.”
“I just refuse to believe he’d do this.”
“Refusing it isn’t gonna make any more true.” Samuel said.
“I need to get to the bottom of this…” as Wulf left, he unknowingly dropped Gerald’s pipe at Starla’s feet.
“Where you going?” Willis asked.
“I’m gonna find him and I’m gonna wring his ********’ neck, that’s where I’m going.”
“Don’t do anything rash, Wulf…”
“You know me…”
“That’s what I’m afraid of!”
Starla taps Samuel on the shoulder.
“Yes, Starla, what is it?”
“This was inside the pipe Wulf dropped.”
“It looks like a flash drive.” Samuel plugs it into the computer onboard the mobile command center. A small window popped up displaying various different hard drives. The one he was looking for was down at the very bottom titled “Andromeda Project”. The drive was encrypted. Without a password, it would take a while for Samuel to crack it.
Meanwhile, Wulf caught up Gerald further up the coast near a boatyard that was void of any human presence. Gerald was hiding out after the events that had happened earlier. Wulf startled him into turning around right before he slammed him up against one of the boats in a fit of rage.
“All day I’ve been risking my a** for you and you go and do this?! WHY?!”
“I didn’t do it!” Gerald pleaded.
“Oh really, well why’d ya run?!” Wulf slams him again. “It made you look guilty when you ran, and I take pleasure in hunting down criminals like you.”
“So you would rather I stick around, get escorted to some police station, and answer any questions the cops have?”
“That’d be better than playing fugitive, Gerald.”
“Gerald? Is that my name?”
“Roberto Martinez said you and Zoe were actually named Gerald Emerson and Lindsay Cantrell. You were working a joint operation with Customs. Don’t you remember?”
“It’s all still so fuzzy to me. All I know was I was about to confront the guy your friends ID’d when a shot came from the northwest. I didn’t see the shooter. I got outta there before he or she got me too.”
“Wulf, come in…”
“Not now, Samuel, I’ve just caught up with our friend here and I’m pumping him for info.”
“You got anything yet?”
“Nothing so far, his memory hasn’t exactly come back yet.”
“Well, ask him if an ‘Andromeda project’ means anything to him.”
“Andromeda project…?”
“That pipe you found on him the time of the accident; after you dropped it, it broke open. There was a flash drive inside with that name in it.”
“Is there anything else?”
“We won’t know until we get past the firewall; MEGAN’S doing that now.”
“Alright, we’re on our way. What’s your 20?” Wulf drags Gerald by the collar as they head out of the area. Unbeknownst to him and Gerald, there was a shooter in the area; he had a masculine build. He was wearing all black and had on a ski mask to hide his identity as he lied flat on his stomach with a Barrett .50cal sniper equipped with a silence. He had them in his sights until they left the boardwalk via an alternate path, which gave the shooter zero line-of-sight. It was like Wulf knew he was in the area.
Samuel had finished cracking the code for the drive as soon as Wulf and Gerald show up.
There were blueprints for bizarre weapon designs, import/export manifest, files pertaining to the project itself, email exchanges from a woman by the name of Natalie Chekov and Leslie Mccullough, the guy that Roberto accused Brad of killing. Samuel ran a search on Natalia and finds a picture. She was tan and had the figure of a runway model. She had blonde hair as yellow as the sun on a clear day, brown eyes like two pools of mud; she had a mole on her upper lift on the left side and an upturned nose. Her wardrobe was wild and unpredictable.
“Does her name ring any bells?”
“None…”
“She’s the head of the Russian Mafia. She’s been involved in various money laundering scandals, drug running; but the cops haven’t been able to pin a thing on her.”
“She just now seemed to have taken an interest in weapons.”
As they flip through the rest of the files on the flash drive, Samuel makes a shocking discovery. There was information about a power source being used to create the weapons; it was a light blue gem shaped like a large diamond. He automatically assumes it is the Star of Andromeda, the 6th jewel of the Karma Lunari.
“I think it’s time she and I had a little chat…”
“Out of the question, Gerald, she might recognize you.”
“But we don’t know where to find her.”
“She’s actually sunk her claws into this Asian fusion restaurant, the Nobu Malibu, on the other side of the city. We should check there.”
The objective was to place a listening device onto Natalia. It was 6 o’clock at night. Caitlin and Starla managed to gain entrance to the restaurant. Caitlin and Starla roamed the dining area as waitresses. Caitlin and Starla approach the manageress of the establishment; this mystical woman was in her late 20’s with droopy eyes the color of summer leaves. Her silky, curly, black hair is worn in a style that reminds you of a holy halo. She is very short and has a slender build. Her skin is black. She has nearly-nonexistent eyebrows. Her wardrobe is classy. She gave them their marching orders; Starla was to work the lounge area, so she picked up a tray and went in that direction, while Caitlin was supposed to work the main dining hall.
It was several tables later and Caitlin couldn’t find her. She then noticed a single guard in a black suit standing there in front of a door near the entrance to the kitchen; just standing there, doing nothing. She alerts Samuel and the others, who were hiding out inside the semi-truck as backup in case things go wrong. Wulf recognized the guy’s face, it was the same guy from the impound lot who jumped them on the yacht.
Starla, who was listening in, replies back, saying she can offer up a distraction to help her get past him. “One distracting coming right up…” she whispered. Using her powers, she bursts most of the light bulbs over the tables by making them burn brighter than how many watts they normally put out. The shards of broken glass fall as the sparks fly and people started panicking. The guard leaves his post to investigate the problem, giving Caitlin her window. She proceeds to the back room. The back area was lit up by a few hanging light fixtures, which left the ceiling completely dark. There were two tables, one to rear and one in the front. Natalia was way in the back while her men sit at the round, green table in the front, playing Pai Gow poker. Caitlin’s wardrobe wasn’t making things any easier when it came to placing the device on him. She felt a cold hand grip her right arm as soon as she placed a drink down on Natalia’s table. “What are you doing here?” the guard asked.
“I didn’t order this,” Natalia said to Caitlin.
“But I…”
“Besides, I already have a drink.” She then orders the man to escort her out. At this time, Samuel, Gerald, Willis, and Wulf get a glimpse of Roberto in the monitor.
“Uhm… ladies, I’m gonna need you to abort.”
“Why? What’s happening?”
“We’ve got an unexpected visitor in the form of Roberto Martinez.”
“If he sees either of you, he’ll probably lock you up for interfering with a police investigation; technically, were ‘are’ civilians.”
“I’ll slow him down,” Gerald volunteered.
“Bad call. Last time, someone wound up dead and Wulf had to play Dog the bounty hunter in order to retrieve you,” Samuel reminded him.
“Plus, the man wants to put you in chains and you’re gonna go in there and serve yourself up on a silver platter?” Wulf asked confusedly. “I’ll go.”
“No one’s going anywhere. Wulf, you go in there, and it’ll be the same as if he saw either Caitlin or Starla.”
A look of recognition appears on Roberto’s face the moment he and Caitlin passed each other. As he quickly turned to follow her, Natalia exits the back room. “I’d rather you don’t you cause a stir,” she said to him in Russian. “Keep your piece out of sight.”
Caitlin and Starla reunite and head for the exit, but soon find their path blocked by another familiar face; Lindsay Cantrell. Roberto eventually joins them.
“Look, we know we’re not supposed to be here, but…”
“We figured we oughta prove Gerald’s innocent.”
“Of course he’s innocent.”
“I don’t understand; if he’s innocent, then why would you…”
“We just needed someone to take the blame and he was the perfect candidate,” Lindsay explained in a hushed tone.
More of Natalia’s men surrounded them.
“Now can we do something?” Gerald asked.
“Like what? They may be working with the bad guys, but they’re still cops.”
“Who are you, more customs agents?” Natalia asked. “Does not matter; we have you outgunned.”
“Oh you do, do you?”
“You obviously have no idea who we are; Starla, show’em.”
Starla raises one arm to the ceiling, and in the palm of her hands, she emits a brilliant flash of light. Its intensity grew until it filled the whole room with its presence. Natalia and the others were blinded, giving Starla and Caitlin the chance to escape. They take down a small handful of guards in their way as they head for the exit along with thousands of other customers in the establishment. Once out, they go to the parking lot where they quickly enter the semi-truck; Natalia and her men followed, but were unsuccessful in locating them, since they had no idea what their vehicle looked like.
“Good thinking, Starla.”
“Thanks.”
“I managed to pin the bug on one of her bodyguards in our escape; let’s see what we got.”
The conversation between Natalia, Lindsay, and Roberto was heated; Natalia was completely furious at the fact of Operation W.A.S.P.’s involvement with her business. The more she was told to calm down, the angrier she got.
“I can assure you that they will be dealt with.”
“They had better be; the shipment is leaving from the Port of Los Angeles tomorrow. I expect no delays. I’ve got buyers from all over wanting a piece of this new tech. I’m not going to let these superheroes undo everything I’ve done.”
“What about our part of the deal?”
“Yeah, we want a piece of the Jade Panda shipment,” Roberto said.
“Only after you deal with these pests…”
“You, I want you to increase security at the docks,” Lindsay ordered.
Port of Los Angeles 10am; Samuel, Gerald, Willis, Wulf, Starla, Caitlin, and Willis have their guns in hand and Samuel’s nano-shield equipped as they tactically infiltrate the docks. the heat poured down from the climaxing sun with each step they took, with each turn they took as they maneuvered through the maze of containers, cautiously observing their surroundings. Inside the imposing building lay their goal in the clutches of the enemy. Natalia twirled the Star of Andromeda in hand several times in a bored fashion while Roberto and Lindsay sat beside her. All the while, Samuel and the gang remain silent and stealthy; but only for a short while. After placing a few silenced shots upon their enemies, the peace was disturbed ones a rogue bullet flew at Wulf and forced him to defend with his sword. He quickly drew it and deflected the bullet. It bounced off a container, past the shooter and popped the guy behind him in the head. Natalia was then alerted to the presences of the rangers and of Gerald.
“They’re here. Go deal with it, what am I paying you for?”
Lindsay and Robert arrive a while later to a string of loud gunshots. They winced as if expecting a blow to the head. Caitlin took a step away from it all to go find Natalia. It was as if she were expecting Caitlin’s arrival. Natalia stood in waiting behind the door for Caitlin to enter the room and then she takes a swing at her with a metal pipe. Caitlin ducks and then uses her laser vision to cut through it. Once done, she quickly reaches for her gun; Natalia disarms her as soon as she takes aim and then kicks her away.
Caitlin strikes with an invert palm, which Natalia blocks as he sends back the same move, which Caitlin blocks as she throws a punch to the chest, which Natalia stops by grabbing her by the wrist; Caitlin breaks free and throws a hammer fist, which Natalia blocks as he throws back an elbow strike, which Caitlin blocks before grabbing Natalia, bringing her close and knocking her in the stomach; Natalia blocks with both palms and eventually breaks free. she goes for a sweep kick, but Natalia dodges and throws a kick, which Caitlin blocks before throwing a punch to the stomach; Natalia absorbs the attack and performs a back flip; Caitlin approaches her and Natalia throws a high kick; Caitlin grabs her by the foot, spins her, and moves in for a sweep, not with her leg, but with her arm. She then proceeds to mount her and lay into her face with several elbow strikes and punches, but Natalia dodges, wraps her arm around hers, tightens her grip and rolls her right over. Now he was on top, but not for long. Caitlin throws her off and gets to her feet, but not before kicking her in the face and rolling her over again.
Natalia gets up and approaches again and throws a low kick; Caitlin throws both palms down to block; Natalia throws a high punch; Caitlin blocks with both hands same as she did for Natalia’ kick and then quickly replies with a punch to the jaw; Natalia reacts with a spinning back fist, which Caitlin rapidly dodges as she grabs her wrist, drags her closer, twists her arm, knees her in the stomach, elbows her in the back and throws her at a tree. She then throws a frontal kick, which Natalia blocked before throwing back one of her own, which Caitlin blocked before lunging forward and throwing a right, which Natalia ducked under as he threw a low punch to the stomach, which pushed Caitlin back. As Natalia approaches, Caitlin performed an axe kick, which Natalia blocked with a cross arm move; Caitlin withdraws and Natalia throws a right punch, which Caitlin blocks before landing a low punch to the stomach and a punch to the face, which misses; Natalia throws a punch, which Caitlin evades by rotating around a tree trunk. She moves 180 degrees and then proceeds to climb up; Natalia follows her around the tree, wondering where she went. He finds out as she lands with a cross chop that makes her spiral onto her stomach. “Get up!” she shouts as she grabs her by the leg and launches her 90 degrees to her left and into a rotting log.
Caitlin leaps at her with a flying kick and lands her knee in remains of the ruined log after Natalia rolled out of the way and got up on her feet. Natalia hits her with a kick, but Caitlin blocks with her palm; as she gets up, she shakes her hand back and forth to ease the pain before approaching Natalia with a right cross; Natalia ducks once and then twice as Caitlin comes back with a left and leans back the third time as she comes at her another right; Natalia then lands a spiraling kick, which Caitlin dodges before she comes back with a frontal kick, which Natalia blocks with both palms before coming back at her with a haymaker, which she blocked with both hands before landing a left punch to the jaw. Natalia spirals to the ground, but catches herself with her left; Caitlin comes rushing at her and drops her with a single right hook to the jaw. As Caitlin takes the jewel in her hands, Natalia rolls over onto her back to see Caitlin pointing her gun with intent to put a bullet in her, but she does. Instead she just gives a swift kick to the jaw and completely knocks her own. While unconscious, Caitlin ties her to a pipe coming up from the floor and going through the ceiling for the cops to find.
Down below, the gunfire slowed and Roberto and Lindsay, along with Natalia’s men, completely surround the rangers. “Drop your guns,” Lindsay demanded.
Starla raises a finger in order to do the trick she used before to escape, but she was instantly stopped.
“Try that again and I will kill you.”
“Yeah, good luck with that…”
While Samuel thinks of a way out of this situation, Gerald comes up with his own plan. Being way in the back behind Starla, Willis, Caitlin, and Wulf, he puts his hands down, and calmly squeezes in between them on his way to the front, where he looks Roberto in the eyes and says, “Well, I must say, this is one helluva a way to end a partnership, wouldn’t you agree, Lindsay?”
Lindsay was confused to what he was up to that she answered back, “What the hell are you talking about? We’ve never been partners.”
“You can stop pretending now, we have her. You volunteered to go undercover, so you could get close to Natalia and help get enough proof to lock her away for life. I must say, I am impressed.” Gerald’s words managed to turn Natalia’s men and Roberto against her.
“He’s lying.” She answered with her gun pointed at Roberto. “Aw c’mon, who you gonna believe; some guy who, until yesterday, could barely remember his own name, or the woman who helped you put all this together?”
Out of nowhere, there was a chill in the air. Frost began to form on everyone’s guns and on most of their body. Soon after, Celsior’s Glacieroids appear and toss Natalia’s bodyguards behind him as they turn their attention to Operation W.A.S.P. and a few dozen bodyguards who then joined the rest of the men as they fled the scene. It wasn’t until they made it off the docks that they land in the arms of the Los Angeles Police Department.
“Who the hell is that?”
“Believe me, Gerald, you don’t wanna know.”
“Go handle your business, we got this,” Willis answered.
“You guys too!” Caitlin shouts as she orders Lindsay and Roberto to vacate the premises. “Hurry up. What are you waiting for?!”
The Glacieroids charge into battle first and the rangers take them on hand to hand.
Meanwhile, Roberto and Lindsay take to one of the containers housing the Andromeda project. One particular object that caught their eye was a large, silver machine; very complex. The base was a three-sided pyramid shape with a sunken in tip. On top of it was a large, spherical object with a huge black hole at the top; four lines ran down it, which allow it to open up like the bud of a flower. Lindsay examines the item up and down and all around after Roberto removes it from the dark and dank container. “We’ve found it, Pachytar,” she said to Roberto.
Several police officers show up just seconds before Lindsay and Pachytar shed their human forms. After taking aim, they lower their weapons after seeing what they really look like.
Rather than sticking around to fight, they place a small, rectangular device on the large device they claimed for themselves and set it for 10 seconds. When it reached zero, a green light shrouds them, instantly transporting them back to Serpitox’s lair, where they immediately get to work.
After long, drawn-out battle between Celsior and the rangers, Celsior returns home empty handed, leaving the rangers to deal with LA’s finest. At that time, Gerald intervenes. “Whoa whoa, put your guns down. They’re on our side.”
“Did you get Lindsay and Roberto?”
“Negative, they took off.”
“They ‘took’ off?” Gerald asked confusedly.
“Roberto transformed into this metallic elephant-like monster and Lindsay turned into some hot black chick with wings and they teleported away with some odd looking device.”
“Pachytar and Fahl Kun…”
“You know them?”
“They are two of our many arch nemeses, looking for this,” Caitlin holds up the Star of Andromeda.
“Oh right, the Karma Lunari thing.”
“What exactly does this Project Andromeda do anyway?”
“Well, one stage of it was a blackhole device; allows you to open portals to almost anywhere. Another stage of it was making weapons of mass destruction on a much smaller, more manageable scale.”
“The blackhole device seems like a means of an instant strike. Why would anyone, even us, consider building something like that?”  

[Samuel Grant]

Chapter 44
Confidence in oneself

Cameron and Christi were attacked as soon as they leave their house. Pachytar and Fahl Kun needed the device that the two pilfered from the scene of the CIA ghost car to complete their machine. Things have gotten so tense that the rangers decide to step in. to Alex, Meerlix, Starla, and Caitlin, the two sides settle on a temporary truce. Pachytar was the first to run up. He literally shakes the ground with each step until he performs a spiraling back kick and makes Alex trip over the fire hydrant. Willis gets his attention. As the laser beams makes dents in his almost indestructible armor, Christi steps in front of him, waving her sword left and right.
Starla and Meerlix take aim at Cameron, who ducks behind a tree, clutching several Kunai in her hands. Fahl Kun swoops in and carries Starla off, leaving Meerlix to deal with Cameron by himself; Starla breaks free of Fahl Kun’s hold and their fight continues in the air. They fly back and forth, exchanging hit after hit exchanging positions for minutes at a time. Finally, Fahl Kun is on top once again and she pushes Starla back to the ground with a double leg kick.
Meerlix successfully dodges all the ninja stars coming at him and pulls Cameron from behind the tree. He swings at her from his left with a high punch, but it is blocked just before she pushed him with a right punch. As Meerlix stumbles back, she leaps at him with several flying frontal kicks to the chest. Once she landed, she performed a shin kick and then when Meerlix was on one knee, she throws a low kick to the face, which he blocks as he throws back a punch to the kneecap, stands up, and performs a sweep kick; his attack misses, but he makes another pass, this time aiming a bit higher. He makes Cameron spiral with one well-place kick to the jaw, but she retaliates with a spinning back fist.
Meanwhile Wulf, Samuel, Max, Phoebe, and Willis are facing their toughest challenge in the form of a half-naked magma skin demon with a red bandana. Max, Willis, and Phoebe fight against this newest creation of Farenhart’s while the Wulf and Samuel assist firefighters in rescuing people from a burning building the monster, Pyrotar, had set ablaze.
Samuel and Wulf search all the rooms at the top of the structure for survivors.
“All clear here,” Wulf said.
“Same here,” one of the firemen replied.
Wulf and Samuel heard screams coming from the south end of the hall and proceed in that direction. Samuel tries ramming the door, but it wouldn’t budge. Wulf took over as he unsheathed his sword and sliced through, causing flames to burst out at him. He and Samuel jumped back and waited until it was safe before entering.
“You guys okay?” Samuel asked.
“You need to come with us, alright?”
“Wait, where’s my son?”
“What’s your son’s name?”
“Benjamin,” the mother answered.
Don’t worry, I’ll find Benjamin. You just follow Samuel and he’ll get you outta here.” Wulf said. Wulf went further into the room calling out Ben’s name. There was no answer the first couple of times, but he did a faint coughing sound. “Benjamin if you can hear me give a shout so I know where you are!”
Benjamin was a short, chubby, cobalt-blue eyed kid, 8 years of age, with cream colored skin and medium-length brown hair worn in a practical, severe style. His wardrobe is uncomplicated and dignified, with a mostly green color scheme. He yells out as soon as he hears Wulf’s voice call to him from the other room, “I’m in here!” he yelled.
Wulf elbows the door to break it open, “Just sit tight, I’ll have you out in a minute!” after a few more tries, he burst through the door to find Benjamin with a 4x4 over top of his leg, keeping him from moving. Wulf tries and lifts the board. He then notices the board is wedge between something and proceeds to use his sword to cut it and make it easier to move. Once it was out of the way, the boy took Wulf’s and they headed out the way he came.
Out on the street, Max, Willis, and Phoebe keep Farenhart’s monster at bay. Pyrotar makes a comeback by throwing a flurry of fire punches; with each swing of his mighty fists, a tiny ball of flame was hurled at our heroes, which made them take cover. Showing great reactions, Willis sped out from cover and ran circles around him, robbing him of as much oxygen as he could before Pyrotar fought back. He uses what air was left inside Willis’ vortex to create a miniature supernova. Willis’ rhythm was broken by the sudden burst of energy and falls to the ground. Phoebe quickly followed up with a boomerang throw to distract him and then immediately moves in to perform a series of quick punches to the monster's body. Pyrotar tried to cover up, but every one of Phoebe's punches hit their target. The monster retreated, but Phoebe continued her body assault until Max jumps in. One final punch to her gut from Max shocked Pyrotar as he sways his body to one side. Completely stunned, Pyrotar just stood there, awaiting Max, Willis, and Phoebe’s next move. They call upon the WASP stinger Mark 3 and acquired their target. In an instant, the monster was hit with a blue beam, which shined from the heavens. Every molecule of his body disintegrated in mere seconds.
At Alex, Caitlin, Meerlix and Starla’s location; Fahl Kun and Pachytar; the combined efforts of Fahl Kun, Pachytar, Cameron, and Christi were more than they could handle, yet they still endured, no matter what their enemies threw their way.
After turning himself into an Elephant, Alex stampedes towards Pachytar. The ground shakes once more, but Pachytar maintained his balance as he waited on Alex. Considering his next move for a moment, he then grabs Alex by the tusks. He wrestles with Alex, trying to get the better of him and a couple minutes later, he succeeds. Once on his side, Alex changes into a gorilla and immediately gets back up. He delivers a right hook, but Pachytar ducks and comes back with an uppercut. His attack rocked Alex briefly and Alex then lowers his body to perform a tackle. Pachytar grabs him in a guillotine, elbows him in the back, tosses him aside, and quickly finishes him with a rear horse kick to the chest.
Caitlin shoves him back with a laser beam to the stomach, which quickly gets his attention.
After summoning his Scorpion Saber, Alex literally leaps into action. Attacking Pachytar from the side, Alex takes care to avoid Pachytar’s punches and kicks. Several hits later, Pachytar takes him down with a single back hand to the chest, causing Caitlin to take over. With her Peacock fan-blades in hand, she attacks with the agility and speed of a crane. Pachytar found it more difficult to keep up with her than Alex.
Waiting for his opportunity to step in, Alex finally gets one. As he rushes in, Pachytar took his eyes off Caitlin and focused on him. Thinking quickly, he switches positions with Caitlin and lets her take the hit intended for him. Caitlin limps off to the side with her jeans torn on the left knee and her knee slightly bruised.
Pachytar, taunts Alex, only to have Fahl Kun call to him as she held Cameron and Christi’s large, metallic cube in her hands. The two leave Cameron and Christi to deal with the rangers, who were now short one person due to Caitlin’s condition.
Cameron and Christi show a bit of compassion for the rangers as they flee the scene outside their own home and give them their space. With them gone, Alex rushes to Caitlin’s side after Phoebe, “I’m so sorry, Caitlin…”
“Oh no, it’s all my fault…” Alex said, responding to Caitlin’s injury.
Later in the waiting room, Alex was pacing back and forth while the others sat down watching him.
“Alex, it wasn’t your fault.”
“Yeah, you weren’t to know Pachytar would do what he did.”
The doctor came into the room, “Good news, Caitlin’s gonna be fine; I’ve never quite seen anything quite like this, except maybe in comic books, but her knee is healing rather quickly. At the rate it’s going, she’ll be mobile in a matter of hours. she will need to take it easy for a while.”
“Can we see her?”
“Actually, she’s just checking out right now; her brother, Samuel, is in there with her.”
While the others were excited to hear she was okay, Alex decided he’d take a walk. He couldn’t bear to see his girlfriend in her condition. Getting on the elevator, Alex feels a sudden chill hit him; the other people on the elevator with him didn’t feel anything. Alex turns to the short Japanese woman on his left with the Amazonian build, narrow coffee-colored eyes; her thick, straight, neck-length hair the color of varnished wood, and is worn in a precise, uncomplicated style. He tries to talk to her, ask what’s going on, but she didn’t respond. He poked her and his index finger went right through her shoulder as if she were an apparition.
Alex stepped outside the main entrance. He walked for hours, not caring where he was going, all the while the scenery around him changed. He kept going until reaching the park area. Sitting down on the bench, he hears the voice of a familiar enemy right beside him; his shadow clone. The one created by Serpitox as a way to defeat the rangers.
“What seems to be getting you down,” the voice of his shadow clone said.
Alex’s fear as he looked at who was sitting next to him soon turned to confusion. He began to ask him a question. “What are you doing here? I thought I destroyed you for good.”
“You can’t destroy your shadow; it’s always a part of you.”
“What do you want?”
“Relax, if I was here to destroy you, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. So how about telling me what’s on your mind. I can tell something’s bother you and I don’t have to tune into your life wave to figure it out.”
“Can’t you tell? You have my memories.”
“Yes I do; but that doesn’t mean I know what you’re thinking of now.”
Meanwhile at Celsior returns to his lair with a rare, blue crystal he acquired from a meteorite fragment. He caresses it in his hands as he sits down in his throne. “With this rare crystal… and one of my strongest warriors, I will create a monster unlike the rangers have ever faced. It will take their strongest weapon and use it again them; the human mind…” his hand goes straight through the Glacieroid’s heart where he placed the crystal. It immediately went to work in transforming the creature. The Glacieroid turned green, grew long, vine-like hair; leaves formed over its body from its neck down to its legs and its eyes changed to an aquamarine color before Celsior’s eyes, “Hallucinia, the goddess of illusion.”
“How may I serve you, master?”
“I want you to use your powers to make the rangers think they’re fighting monsters they’ve already defeated; use this to your advantage and destroy them.”
“As you wish…”
After getting Caitlin back home, Samuel helps her to the couch. He gives the remote to her in her good hand.
“Is there anything I can get you; something to eat, something to drink?”
“I’d like to see Alex, if he’s around…”
“That’s the thing, we can’t find him.”
“Seriously?”
“We tried his communicator and he’s not responding. I’m having MEGAN scan for him, but she hasn’t picked up any trace.”
“You think he blames himself for what happened to me?”
“According to the others, I’m sure he does.”
Back to Alex; while his shadow clone sat on the grass near the lake, Alex stood up and paced back and forth in front of him. “Ever since the fight earlier with Pachytar and accidentally hurting the one I love, I’ve felt the need to watch my every move.”
“What happened to Caitlin was an accident; so you took a chance and end up hurting someone. It happens to everyone.” His clone responded.
“Everyone except me.” Alex explained. “Look, it’s just that… I just can’t get over the fact that she got hurt because of me; because of my mistake. I feel as though one of these days, I’m…”
“Going to end up making the wrong move?” he asks as Alex throws a pebble, which hopped and skipped across the shallow part of the water.
“Exactly…”
“What you must realize is saving the world every day is a risky job. You’ve got to take chances every once in a while, regardless of if you mess up.”
“When exactly have you messed up?”
“You’re seriously asking me that? We’re both one in the same, remember?”
“Oh…”
“My mistakes are your mistakes and vice versa. Listen, I can sense you’re still having doubts, so here’s what I’m going to do. I’m gonna help you regain your confidence.”
“How will you do that?”
Alex and his shadow get right to work; his clone has him training like someone preparing for a karate tournament; they race throughout the park, they spar; all sorts of training.
Meanwhile, Caitlin was still stuck at home watching TV and being waited on by Bradshaw while the others were out having fun and while Samuel was down in the command center trying to locate Alex.
“I’ve got activity in the warehouse district, sir.”
“Thanks, MEGAN. Patch me through to the others.” Once he was tuned into their communicator frequency, “MEGAN’s just picked up and energy signature in the warehouse district.”
“Could it be Alex?”
“I dunno, but whoever or whatever it is, she’s got a strong reading. I think you should check it out. I’ll send the coordinates to your trackers.”
They get to the location and all seems quiet as they spread out and search.
“Are you sure this is where Samuel said the energy signature was?”
“Yeah, I don’t see anything.”
“Just keep looking, guys, it’s got to be here somewhere.”
Just then, Starla was confronted by the face of the vine-like monster she and the others encountered when they got sucked into a drawing made by the Inkwell monster.
“Guys, I think I found what was generating the disturbance, but you’re not going to believe it.”
“Oh yeah, well we also got one you’re not gonna believe,” Willis answered as he stood by the Bear-ometer monster, Farenhart’s weather generating monster.
“Not even Alex is gonna believe this one,” Meerlix stared down the werewolf monster known as Lycanda; Max took on the monster, Terror-watt; Phoebe and Wulf meet face-to-face with Grizzoid, the beast they encountered during their trip to Atlantis.
“I thought we defeated all these guys…”
“Yeah, me too.”
“That’s the thing about mother nature…” Bear-ometer said, “She’s unpredictable…!” he then generates a gust of wind to knock Willis off his feet, but Willis rushes to his right and then towards Bear-ometer as he tackles him and tries to bring him to the ground; Bear-ometer grabs a hold and tosses Willis to the side near a stack of metal drums.
The monster throws its vines at Starla and causes her to duck and dodge. As she did so, she waited for the right opportunity before firing back balls of white light to cut the vines down to size. The monster then switches to throwing razor-sharp leaves, but that didn’t stop Starla as she flew right back then and lands a kick to the beast’s waist, then spirals and throws a strong right punch, which the monster blocked with its palm. Thinking quickly, Starla performs a back flip and breaks free from its grip after kicking the monster in the chin. After she flipped back onto her feet, the monster grows another vine and wraps it around her ankle.
Phoebe summons her mantis Boomerang. After throwing it and having it bounce off the monster and back at her, Wulf leaps into the air with his sword in hand; Grizzoid blocks with streams of dark energy in the form of whips. As Wulf lands, he draws back and conjures Zierian’s shield to block at Grizzoid comes at him strong from the left.
Phoebe pulls out her sidearm and pelts him with a laser shot, which barely grazed Wulf’s shoulder as if flew towards Grizzoid, who absorbs the blow before he performs a frontal kick to push Wulf back. Focusing his attention on Phoebe, he knocks her down with explosive, black ink-colored bubbles, which detonate on impact.
Wulf rushes forward and punches with his shield, but Grizzoid turns into a black puddle, slides under him, and takes on his true form behind him as he fires a beam of energy from his horns.
Samuel was confused as to what was going on at the rangers’ location as he noticed them fighting against imaginary opponents as if they were stuck in a virtual reality game. “MEGAN, I don’t get it. Who are they fighting? According the radar, they’re right on top of the source, but according to the view screen, there’s nothing there.”
“I am picking up faint energy signatures surrounding the rangers; if I had to make a guess, I’d say the rangers are under some sort of spell. Whoever they’re fighting is only visible to them.”
Meanwhile, somewhere on high, Hallucinia keeps an eye on things as the rangers do battle with their imagination.
“These guys are tougher than last time,” Meerlix said just before he got sucker punched with an uppercut and landed near one of the loading dock doors.
“We never had to face them all at the same time last time, that’s why.”
“Rangers, come in,” Samuel called out.
“Samuel, we’re busy here.”
“I can… see that. I need you to pull back and return to the command center right away.”
“But…”
“Just pull back now, that’s an order.”
“Oh alright…”
“No, what are you doing?” Hallucinia asked herself.
Meanwhile, back in the park; Alex and his clone continue their sparring; only the real Alex was wearing a blindfold. He listened for anything that could identify his clone’s movements as he circled him. His clone circled around behind him quietly while Alex listened closely. Alex’s shadow cloned charged then, bringing his right arm to bear on the right side his opponent’s head. Before he could connect, Alex swung a right elbow behind him in a flash. His clone’s arm was elevated a couple inches, which gave him the opportunity to follow up with a quick spiral and a shin kick, making his clone lift up his leg in reaction.
"Don’t hold back, Alex. Give it 100 percent,” he said, offering that as words of encouragement.
Alex was smiling as he continues cocking his head cautiously to the left and right, relying solely on his hearing to guide him where he needed to go. His clone makes his next move in the form of a frontal kick and Alex blocks with his palm, quickly grabs him and attempts to flip him onto his back, but fails. His clone then swiftly rotates and performs a sweep kick, knocking Alex on his behind.
Alex stands up, kicks with his right leg and gets blocked by his clone’s elbow before catching his spiraling kick and landing on his chest.
“On your feet, Alex; again…”
Alex does as he’s told; his copy waits until he’s ready and then attacks with a frontal kick, which Alex sidestepped before initiating a spinning back fist, which his clone ducked under before he struck Alex in the stomach with his palm and knocked him off his feet and on his face.
“Again…”
Alex pounds the mat with his fist and gets back up.
“Try and focus, Alex.”
“I’m trying!”
“Not hard enough. Let your intuition take over.”
After getting back to the mansion, Wulf takes the lead as he storms down the spiraling stairs and into the command center. “Wanna explain what the hell that was about?” he asked furiously.
“Yeah, why’d you tell us to retreat? We had them on the ropes.”
“Had who on the ropes? According to my video feed, you were fighting against the air. Take a look for yourselves.”
“But… they felt so real.”
“Only because your minds made them feel real. Something or someone was causing these intense illusions you were fighting, no doubt about it. The monsters may have been fakes, but there was still something in the vicinity pulling their strings; something strong.
“I wasn’t able to pick up anything else outside the energy signature. Whatever it was, it didn’t want to be found,” MEGAN explained.
“It must be applying some sort of mental block to hide its identity.”
“Great, how do we fight something we can’t see?”
“Perhaps we can look for heat signatures or something; it may be able to hide itself, but its heat should still show up.”
“Good thinking, Meerlix.”
“There’s still matter of if we find this entity, how do we keep it from interfering with our minds again?”
“We need some kind of neural inhibitor that can block its power, like what Magneto had in x-men.”
“That’s brilliant, Max, but isn’t that just sci-fi?”
“If I have the right tools, I can build it,” Samuel said.
It took some doing, but Samuel managed to rig the helmets from the individual galaxy suits he bought to contain the ranger powers to block the waves created by the unknown entity, which was revealed to be a plant-like being, Hallucinia.
When the rangers returned to battle her, they return in their ranger forms. Hallucinia tried to get inside their minds to create more illusions, but couldn’t. She didn’t count on them actually finding a way to keep out her out of their heads.
“This presents a problem; Glacieroid…?”
A couple dozen Glacieroids appeared at her side; she stood back and let them take over.
The battle was over quick, but the Glacieroids managed to rid our heroes of their ranger forms and make them vulnerable once again.


Meanwhile, Alex still had doubts about if he has what it takes to be a ranger. No amount of pep talk from his other self could convince him otherwise. He took off running without saying a single word; his clone calls out to him only to get no response. It was like Déjà vu all over again as a resurrected version of Pyrotar pops up out of nowhere and attacks Alex’s clone. He stood ready to fight despite not having enough energy. Pyrotar bombards him with intense flames from his right fist like rockets from a shoulder-launch RPG; Alex’s shadow absorbed some of the heat before diving out of the way and summoning his Scorpion Saber. He threw a left, which Pyrotar dodged, then threw a right, which Pyrotar blocked with a wrist grab and countered with a low kick to the kidney. Pyrotar then pulls on his arm, nearly tearing it out of its joint as he jerked Alex’s shadow forward. As he’s pulled towards Pyrotar, he tripped him, and he flipped onto his back. Once he was down, Pyrotar uses a scissor-lock to trip Alex’s clone and then proceeds to launch and assault before he’s rudely interrupted.
“That’s enough!” Alex speeds by Pyrotar while transformed into a cheetah, then stops a few feet from him before he turns back into his human form.
“Two of you?!” Pyrotar shouted confusedly.
“You mess with him, you gotta deal with me too, Pyrotar.”
Pyrotar aims his flamethrower at Alex, who turns into a falcon and takes to the skies before coming back down, turning into human, rolling past him and knocking him on his behind with a sweep kick.
As Pyrotar gets up, Alex’s shadow jumps in; the two double team him. The battle lasts for minutes before Alex defeats him; his clone congratulates him as he shakes his hand.
Eventually, Alex’s clone turns into the spirit of the black medallion and presents his powers to Alex. “Is this what I think it is?” he asks.
“You’ve earned it…”
Taking the medallion, he looks to his surroundings, which immediately had its color restored. The grass was now a brighter shade of green, the sky was blue again and the park was filled with people going about their usual activities. He looks back to the medallion in his hand, which gave off an aura of black light.
With his new powers, Alex arrives just in time to rescue his friends. “Alright, enough mind games…”
“And just who are you…? Wait, doesn’t matter, you’ll be under my spell just like your friends.”
“Alex, get out of here; she’s too strong!” Phoebe yelled as she fought one of the imaginary monsters.
Having already absorbed the power of the medallion, Alex leaps into battle almost immediately, ignoring Phoebe’s words. Hallucinia punched Alex in the stomach and he barely flinched. He shoves her back with a powerful concussive blast. When the telepathic plant-like monster staggered back, Alex transforms into a panther and claws at her ferociously, nearly tearing Hallucina to pieces like a vegetarian eating salad.
Hallucinia struggled, but Alex was too strong as he possesses the strength of a reinforced steel blast door. Picking up the pace, Hallucina wrapped him in vines that were as strong as nylon rope.
The others wanted to step in and offer their assistance, but as soon as Alex breaks free, they changed their minds.
Hallucinia shoots little razor sharp leaves from her chest at Alex, who then generates a miniature force field in front of his upper body and deflects. Hallucinia stops firing and Alex summons his sword; he races up at the speed of sound and with one strike, his enemy falls in a cloud of smoke, and her spell on the others fades. And as the spell faded, so did the powers of the medallion, which drained Alex of his energy. The others take him back the command center to sleep it off.
Sometime later, after Pachytar and Fahl Kun reconfigure the cube to work inside the machine they stole, they immediately turn it on. It generates a small black hole, enough to fit a person through. There was a dark, diamond-headed figure slowly walking through and back into this world and as it grew larger, Fahl Kun and Pachytar soon recognized the shape. They were soon able to confirm the identity of the mysterious person as he spoke out. “You sure took your sweet time bringing me back,” Serpitox said.
“We had trouble locating the necessary components.”
“It’s great to have you back, sir. I was beginning to worry.”
“Yeah, I wouldn’t have been able to take over in your place at the University indefinitely,” Fahl Kun joked.
“What will your next plan be now that you’ve returned, master…?”  

[Samuel Grant]

Chapter 45
Giving Thanks

It was Thanksgiving; everyone in the Samuel Grant estate except for Wulf Ninja Warrior had left to go celebrate the holiday with their families; Alex’s family is in London and since they don’t celebrate that holiday anywhere except United States and Canada, he tagged along with Caitlin as she and Samuel went to visit her cousin’s family somewhere in Northern California. Max and Willis, Starla, and Meerlix, went with Phoebe back to her ranch in Southern California to celebrate Thanksgiving on her ranch.
“It was sure nice of you to invite us to your place for Thanksgiving dinner, Phoebe.”
“I’m glad you accepted my offer, but wouldn’t you feel better being with your dad?” She asked Max and Willis.
“No it’s okay, besides, we didn’t wanna be rude or anything.”
“I wouldn’t have mind either way.”
“Do you need help with anything,” Starla asked.
“Well the turkey needs to be prepared, wanna give me a hand?”
“Sure, what do I do? I’ve never had to do this back on my planet.”
“It’ll need to be cleaned inside and out; I’ll take care of that. You can work on the stuffing.”
“Perhaps I should help,” Willis insisted, “I’ve studied many recipes and I can help with the cooking.”
“If you insist; perhaps Max and Starla can pick up some groceries. Here’s the list.”
Max looks at the list, the first he noticed on it was, “Fresh Cranberries? Why not just get the cranberry sauce in the can?”
“No one likes it from the can,” Willis replied.
“What about the cornmeal? Wouldn’t it be easier to get cornbread stuffing or something?”
“What about me?” Meerlix asked.
“You can help pick some of the crops from the field, so we can have fresh vegetables; I’m making green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, Waldorf Salad, corn on the cob, Butternut squash- cheddar Gratin with rosemary breadcrumbs, and pumpkin pie.”
“Wow, that’s a lot.”
Meanwhile, at Caitlin’s relatives’ place, most of the women in the family all slaved away in the kitchen while the men, and Caitlin, sat down in front of the TV watching football.
In the kitchen as the women prepared the meal, each person worked on a separate course; Jen’s aunt did the cranberry sauce, her mom made the Maple Pumpkin Pie, her grandmother prepared the stuffing,
“Could you pass me the sugar, Jennifer?” her aunt asked as she was working on the cranberry sauce.
Jen passes her the sugar to her mother, and she pours about ¼ of it into the boiler with the cranberries and water and stirred it all together. She stirred until the sugar dissolved, then stopped and allowed it simmer.
Back in the living room
“Shouldn’t we be in there helping the women?” Samuel asked.
“They got it under control…” said the potbellied, bald guy, who was Jennifer’s father.
Meanwhile, back at home, Wulf woke up around 10 o’clock in the morning. He was feeling lazy, so instead of cooking, he ordered out.
Half an hour after, the doorbell rang and Wulf went to investigate. His delivery had arrived from the Chinese restaurant, Tsing Tao. The man was your basic stereotypical Asian trying pay his way through college; he had thick, black, squared framed glasses, wildly erratic black hair, green shirt with light green spots on it that looked as if he accidentally spilled bleach on it and blue jeans, “I didn’t expect a guy like you to answer at a place like this…”
“I’m housesitting for the owner; he and his sister have gone to their families’ for Thanksgiving.”
“And what about you?”
“What about me?”
“You’re here, housesitting. Shouldn’t you be visiting your family as well?”
“I’m… not a fan of the whole Thanksgiving scene.”
Wulf’s order came to $24.87; he paid with 30 dollars. Just moments before Wulf shut the door, the delivery guy interrupted. “Hey, aren’t you a part of Operation W.A.S.P.?”
“Yeah, what of it?”
“Nothing, I just wanna say you and the others do an amazing job saving the world and all.”
“Thank you.” Wulf shuts the door and takes his order, takes it out of the bag, and places it on the living room table. He takes the first of his Chow Mein just as the voice of Samuel’s super computer, MEGAN, interrupts him.
“I don’t quite see how you can prefer this over having a nice dinner with family; discussing random topics, swapping recipes; normal human behavior, not this.”
“Leave me be, MEGAN. Don’t you know you shouldn’t disturb an animal while he’s eating? By the way, I thought Samuel only hardwired you into the command center?”
“He had my eyes and ears turned off until he and the others decided to leave; he wanted me to keep an eye on you.”
“How very thoughtful of him, but I don’t need a babysitter; especially not one who has the voice of someone, who sounds like they’re half my age…”
“Right now from just listening to you, it seems like the other way around.”
“Look, I don’t the whole family thing so well. I barely even got along with my brother back in my world. We always fight.” Wulf continued eating until he was full and pushed the rest of the food aside before reaching for the remote and turning the TV on to the news; apparently, there was a robbery in progress. Not staying and listening to the rest of the report, Wulf scurried downstairs to the command center and into the secret area with the seven Galaxy suits Samuel had bought and modified. He strolls over to the golden one and as he was about to touch it…
“I don’t think it’s a good idea to…” MEGAN was cut off by Wulf.
“MEGAN… you’re not my mother, so don’t lecture me.”
“But using the suit to stop a few bank robbers seems a bit… excessive, don’t you think?”
“You’ve known me for a long time to know I like things to be extreme; now how does it work, it doesn’t have an indentation like the others?”
“Since Zierian’s medallion is melded into his shield, there was no need. Mr. Grant made it so you only need to will your powers to work in conjunction with the abilities of the suit.”
“Sam, old buddy, you’re just full of surprises…” Wulf suits up and immediately shoots out of the garage door of where the vehicles were being held. He then takes to the air like a bird leaving the nest to find food for its babies. “WOOOOHOOO!!” Wulf yelled as he went higher and higher, faster and faster while en route to the location of the robbery in Downtown San Francisco.
“I’d like to repeat that this seems like a bad idea!”
“Stop being a wet blanket, MEGAN. ENJOY THE RIDE!” Wulf prolonged his pronunciation of the word ‘ride’ as he did all sorts of spins, flips, and so on as if he were Iron Man, Tony Stark, himself. “Don’t blow chunks on me, MEGAN!”
“I’m a machine, Wulf!”
“You really need to suggest, nay, ‘BEG’ Samuel to install a sense of humor chip or something.”
Once Wulf approached the bank, which was at least 20 stories or more, he slowed to a stop and hovered there for a second. “This thing got x-ray vision or something?” he asked MEGAN.
“Switching to thermal now,” she replied.
Wulf saw a bunch of greenish, yellow, red shapes like humans; the majority of them were sitting on the floor, some of them with their hands behind their head or their hands under their butts while at the mercy of a bunch of human figures with a much lower body temperature that looked to not be wielding and kind of firearm.
“Can’t tell who’s who in there, can you try hacking into security camera footage or something?”
“I just did while you were scanning body heat; it seems like most of the cameras have been smashed, stabbed, blasted or something; I’m not sure.”
“Whoever they are, they’ve covered all their bases. Okay, time for a less subtle approach.” Wulf activates pulse rockets and curves around towards one of the windows that would give him the best advantage; advantage for what, you ask? Only Wulf knows the answer to that.
“What you are doing?”
“Ever saw the movie, Hancock?”
“Han-who…?”
Instead of answering, Wulf smashes through one of the windows as he designates his targets and accurately places his shots. He managed to take out half of the enemy before shooting out the other window and realizing who he was facing.
“What was that?” Cameron asked.
One Putra out of the ones still standing after Wulf’s assault shrugged its shoulders.
“I should’ve known it’d be those two.” Wulf circles around for another pass, but this time, stops in the center of the room on a dime. “Making a withdrawal, ladies?” Wulf uses the flight stabilizers on his palms to take out each of the Putras rushing him from all sides then stops. “Hyper-freeze pellets!” he said to MEGAN, who quickly activates them for Wulf to use to turn a couple of the Putras into icicles.
Wulf takes the closes one to him and shatters him with a spinning back kick. Then out of nowhere, Christi leaps as Wulf and knocks him down with a jump kick.
Christi towers of Wulf while he’s on his back; she unsheathes her sword and attack, but Wulf rockets out of the way and pushes himself onto his feet with his flight stabilizers and turns his attention to the hostages.
“Perhaps we should get them out of here, don’t you think?”
“I couldn’t agree more.” Wulf emits a golden light from his fingertips, which engulfs the citizens and turns them into white light and teleports them to the ground floor outside the bank.
“Nice look; really works for you,” Sarcasm was heavy in her voice as she spoke to Wulf.
“You really think so? Only problem I have is it weighs me down in certain areas, but other than that, it gets the job done.” Wulf holds up his arms, flight stabilizers glowing a brilliant white and ready to fire. “Now we can do this the easy way or hard way, ladies.”
“You’re actually giving us a choice?” Christi asked, hands down at her waists as she reached for a pair of ninja stars. With quick reflexes, she shot her arm straight up and threw them. As they hit Wulf’s armor, sparks flew before they hit the ground.
Wulf realized this wasn’t going to be that difficult, but he played along to make them think they got the best of him.
Out in the fields around Phoebe’s place, Meerlix got right to work picking some of the crops Phoebe told him to get. The sun was beating down, but Meerlix didn’t mind as he went from row to row with his small burlap sack and filled it with the crops he was instructed to get: lettuce, carrots; some of what Phoebe needed for the dishes she and Willis were preparing.
“How’s it going out here, Meerlix?” a bearded, brown-skin Latino in a ten gallon hat, crisscross red and white striped shirt and blue jeans asked Meerlix as he came up to him and casted a shadow over him. “Need a hand?”
“No thank you, Hector, I got it.”
“Well, I need to get these inside to Phoebe,” he said as he carried a basket of eggs in one hand and cartons of milk in the other. “Lemme know if I can lend a hand in any way.”
“Thanks, but I’m almost done.” He picks a little bit more of the lettuce before closing up the sack and joining Hector as he went inside.
“So Phoebe…” Willis asked, “When are you folks coming?”
“They’re driving up this way right now from Arizona. I’m hoping to get all this fixed before they get here; at least some of it actually.”
“Seems like a lot of work; thank goodness you have me.”
“You didn’t have to come you know…”
“I wanted to come.”
Meanwhile at the local market, Max and Starla cruise the aisles; both looking in separate parts of the store to save time. The place was packed with customers doing their last minute shopping, making it impossible for Max to get what he needed.
Meanwhile Starla faced a small problem; figuring out which brand of corn meal to buy. Her eyes paced back and forth at the two brands she held in here; the Quaker’s yellow cornmeal mix, which was the one in the blue and yellow box with the picture of the Warhol Oats man on the cover, or the Albers’ cornmeal which was the dark blue and orange box with a picture of a yellow corn on the cob. She turns to a passerby, an older Caucasian woman in her 50’s; long sleeve, blue shirt, blue jeans; short, silver looking hair and almost no wrinkles on her face and hands. “Which do you think I should buy?” Starla asked her.
While the woman helps her decide, we check back on Seductra; she’s watching the view screen, looking at her nieces, Cameron and Christi, being arrested.
“That Wulf ninja warrior, he thinks he’s so tough with his new gold ranger power. Zierian’s life force should’ve been mine; with it, I could’ve taken over this entire planet in an instant.” She contemplates another plan as to how she was going to steal the powers yet again when she notices a shooting star zooming past earth; its power levels were too off the chart to be a normal star.
Just when she thought it would be out of earth’s atmosphere, it changed directions and descended towards the planet, landing in a forest region somewhere in Oregon. Seductra sends down a small army of Putras to retrieve it, but as soon as they got there, they could sense a weird energy field emitting from it. One of them got closer to touch and instantly gets sucked in like a bit of dust gets sucked into a vacuum cleaner. Seconds after the Putra disappeared into the ball of light, the ball itself solidified and showed the same markings of mauve and white that the Putras had swirling across their outer shell like one of those hard candies I forget the name of. As Seductra looks on from up in her space base, she becomes baffled as to what’s on the inside of “that thing” as she so put it.
Like a baby chicken hatching for the first time, the shell of the mysterious object showed signs of cracking. As it did, light was seen coming through. The mysterious entity finally broke through; the Putras surrounding it were easy targets for the creature as they stood their looking at it confusedly. The massacre which took place appeared on scanners back at the command center; MEGAN alerted Wulf, who went straight for the gold suit he used earlier and donned it before he took off towards the location of the energy spike.
“Shall I alert the others, Wulf?”
“Don’t you dare; I may not like Thanksgiving, but I’m not gonna ruin the holiday for everyone else. I can handle this.”
“If you say so…”
“I know so; I know killing things. I think I can handle whatever this thing is.”
When he arrived, all was quiet; no birds chirping, no creatures of any kind, except for insects like butterflies and such. “Are you sure this is the place?” Wulf asked.
“Positive Wulf, but I don’t understand it myself.”
Wulf was then attacked from the side; the creature that struck him with a white energy beam was an off-white humanoid form with no eyes, no mouth, no nose; mauve markings on the top of its head and all over its body from head to toe and a light purple aura surrounding its body.
Wulf gets up onto his feet. After brushing himself off, he turns to the monster, “I don’t know what you are, but you just picked a fight with the wrong guy.”
“I know it’d be pointless to warn you, but I’m picking up a significantly higher energy level from the target.”
“At least he’s no weakling…” Wulf charges into action; he fires his pulse rockets and flight stabilizers to initiate a powerful frontal kick which makes the monster tumble towards a lake. As it falls in, Wulf approaches and looks down, but it was too dark to see. “It’s playing possum, I just know it.” Wulf hovers over the water and searches the entire thing.
“Hmm… that’s weird; its energy reading is all over the place down there.” After minutes of looking, there was still no sign of it, but then without warning, a tentacle made of water pops up and wraps around Wulf, dragging him down quickly into the lake. Wulf couldn’t see what was attacking him, though the monster’s markings appeared two feet away from while the tentacle held Wulf in its gelatin-like embrace several feet from the surface. “Alright, free swim’s over, buddy…” he grabs onto the creature’s marking and fires his propulsion systems at full blast. He and the thing rocket out of the water and into the air. Once it came out of the water, its skin changed to a dark blue; and where its eyes and nose are supposed to be, you see an indentation filled in by a darker shade of blue. Wulf pelts him with flares and even though the monster didn’t have eyes, it was still blinded by the light they gave off. Wulf managed to break free and he fired everything he had. His enemy rapidly descends as the rest of Wulf’s arsenal hit in a small fiery explosion.
With the enemy vanquished, Wulf scoffed and said, “All that energy and it doesn’t know what to do with…” he was then cut off as a fireball emerges from the flames below and knocks him out of the sky.
His enemy emerges from the fire, skin a light orange color to match the flames. He approaches the downed Wulf ninja warrior and stops halfway as an invisible force takes hold of him. He shakes in attempt to break free, but couldn’t. The force picks him up and teleports him onboard Seductra’s space base.
“Hi… didn’t mean to interrupt you, I can see you’re a very busy… whatever you are, but the guy you were fighting? I want him intact; his powers I mean. It’s very valuable. Perhaps we can work out some sort of an arrangement.”
Wulf slowly opens his eyes to a beige colored room. He first focused on the TV set with DVD player; there were paintings on the walls that looked to have been made by an artist, “Where the heck am I?” he asked himself as he looked at himself in human form, his red wolf-like paws with opposable thumbs that showed he’s still part human, lacking his usual red scarf which covered his wolf-like snout as it draped down to his wolf feet, his red vest, gray top, black baggy pants, emo glasses and green cornrows and white skin, sitting in a comfy green armchair.
“Oh good, you’re awake…” Said Samantha, a 35-year old caramel skin woman with long, black hair in a short sleeve, green shirt and gray skirt, which went down to her ankles as she served Wulf a plate of sugar cookies and a glass of milk on a tray.
“Thank you. Would you mind telling me where I am?”
“You’re in my home. I found you passed out in the woods and brought you back here. My name’s Samantha, by the way.”
“Nice to meet you, my name’s Wulf ninja warrior; Wulf spelled with a ‘U’, not an ‘O’ like how it’s commonly spelled.”
“Do you remember how you came to be where I found you?”
“I was fighting some monster; he wasn’t in any way like the usual bad guys I fight. He must’ve gotten the better of me and that’s how I got there.”
“Why’d you take it on alone? Where’s your team?”
“They’re all at their families’ places for thanksgiving.”
“And you’re not…?”
“I’m not one for celebrating.”
“Why not?”
“I just like to be alone.”
“Oh.”
“I just… never had anyone special to celebrate the holidays with, so I said why ‘bother’,” sighed Wulf.
“I understand; I was making this special dinner for a certain someone, but he decided cancel on the last possible minute. Now I have no one to share it with.”
“Whoever this guy is, he sounds like a real a*****e.”
Samantha chuckles, “You really don’t hold back do you?”
“I tell it like it is; forget calling him a jerk or any term that sugarcoats the situation; the guy’s an inconsiderate a*****e to stand you up; tell ya what, how about I share the food with you?” Wulf offered.
“Really? You don’t have to…”
Wulf takes her by the hands gently, looks into her eyes and says, “I want to.”
Wulf and Samanta finish preparing the rest of the food around the same time the others at Phoebe’s place and Caitlin’s folks’ place and set the table. They put the silverware down and put the centerpiece, which was a lovely decoration with an assortment of flowers all in a blue and white vase, in the center while leaving the food in the kitchen to save room. If they wanted seconds, all they had to do was get up, go to the kitchen and fill their plate.
Back onboard Seductra’s space base
“Alright, it’s settled then. You bring me the gold guy you faced earlier, his name’s Wulf ninja warrior, and I’ll get you the cat-man, Meerlix. Do we have a deal?”
The monster nods its head slowly.
“Okay then. He’s about a few hundred yards east of where you met him before. A woman took him in when she found him wounded; Go.” She teleports it back down to earth.
Back at Samantha’s
She and Wulf’s conversations started off with Samantha asking where Wulf was from; he explained and Sam didn’t believe him at first.
“You actually expect me to believe you’re an alien?”
“Not an alien per se. I am human, partly. I just come from another version of Planet Gaia; one in an alternate universe.”
“How’d you get here?”
“A target I was tracking had this peculiar device to open rifts in space and time. I got sucked into one; you remember that incident with the magma skin race long time ago?”
“Yeah…”
“When I went through that rift, I ended up inside the program they built and came face to face with Samuel Grant himself.”
“Wow.”
“Well anyway enough about me, what’s your story? Why celebrate this holiday with just one person? The person, who I assume you considered to be your boyfriend.”
“It started with my sister, who called up my mother, saying she wanted to take everyone out for dinner. She was taking them to Hometown Buffet.”
“Too lazy to make a home-cooked meal was she?”
“Exactly. She’s always like that. When I go through the effort of planning something, she just has to interfere.”
“Siblings are like that sometimes they fight, they argue. My twin and I fight a lot. But anyway, please continue.”
“Well my boyfriend was the only one who didn’t buy into it, so we both decided to have a quiet dinner here. I thought he was different, but then some of his mates scored tickets to a football game and he just had to go.” Sarcasm laid heavy in her last sentence.
“If you want me to, I could track him down, teach him a few manners.”
Samantha laugh, “No it’s okay. Besides, he’s twice your size.”
“That never stopped me before.” He takes another bite of the potato salad and said, “I’ll say this though, your cooking is much better than some restaurant.”
“Most of the food made from homegrown crops; the cranberry sauce, the vegetables I put in the stuff. If you want, I can show you my garden.”
After finishing their meal, Wulf follows Samantha out to the backyard area. They pass by a large redwood tree on the way there surrounded by lush green grass. Once inside the garden, Wulf passes a variety of flowers: roses, daisies, St. Bernard’s lilies, Bermuda Buttercups and above them was an automated sprinkler system, which waters the plants in increments of the user’s choosing after being activated.
“It’s a really lovely garden.”
“Thank you; got my picture on the cover of a couple gardening magazines.”
“You must have a green thumb for this sorta thing.”
“It started out as a hobby for me, so I could keep busy, so…”
Wulf interrupted her, “Do you smell something burning?” he and Samantha looked in the direction of the smoke.
“Oh no, my flowers…” Sam ran off and Wulf was not too far behind.
Once they reached the source, the monster Wulf faced stood before the flames of a ruined patch of roses.
“I don’t know who you are, but no one messes with my garden and gets away with it…”
Wulf stops her from going any further, “It’d be best if you left this to me; he’s dangerous.”
“Who is this guy? Is that the one who attacked you?”
“Don’t worry about it, just put out the fire and leave him to me.”
Samantha goes for the garden hose, unrolls it, turns it on, and turns to the flame.
“Alright, pyro, I’ll teach you not to mess with fire.”
The beast snarls and slowly approaches Wulf.
“C’mon, bring it…!”
It holds up it left hand and shoots an intense flame from the palm; Wulf spins and wraps his scarf completely around his body, which keeps him from being reduced to ash. When the flames stopped, he unwraps himself and quickly approaches with his sword drawn. His sword automatically goes through the body of his opponent without causing any damage; Wulf stops a couple inches behind him and spirals, but before he could hit again, the monster elbows him in the face and drops him on his back. Wulf picks up a small stone and throws it; it hits the beast in the chest where a small gem was placed and instantly changes the monster’s skin from a fiery orange to stone gray; the monster cups its hand and strikes, but Wulf rolls out of the way and kicks him in the shin with the heel of his foot, causing a minor crack in the rock-hard skin of his enemy, which heals within seconds as it turns to Wulf with a large rock in its hands ready to drop it; Wulf performs a backward roll and quickly gets to his feet as he takes a couple of nail-like things and throws them at the boulder, causing it to crack. Considering the next move, the monster creates a rock wall behind Wulf and uses its power over the element to slide it forward; after the rock pushed Wulf close enough, the monster throws a right hook and smashes Wulf straight through.
From underneath the pile of rubble, golden rays of light gleam; and the muffled words of Wulf could be heard as well as he said, “Glimmering as brightly as the sun, Gold Wolf Ranger!” after he morphed into his ranger form, the rocks flew in various directions and Wulf stood there in his Topaz Galaxy Suit with his glistening yellow cape draped down to his ankles; he draws his ultimatum blade, a gold handled sword with a diamond shape where it and the blade met.
Samantha finished dousing the fire and turns to Wulf as he’s in his ranger form, “Whoa…” she said in shock.
The monster moves the earth in front of his feet, shapes it into another wall, and throws it at Wulf, who fires back a beam from his left palm to shatter it; some of the debris made to Samantha and landed two feet in front of her.
Wulf marches at the monster, cautiously blocking its shots with a wall of light. Once close enough, he grabs a hold and takes him up into the sky away from the garden area. After landing, the monster lied face first in the grass; his form quickly changed from stone gray to a light green; Wulf quickly approached it and got wrapped up in vines, which instantly grew out of the grass beneath his feet; Wulf fires a beam from his chest and breaks free, but as soon as he flies towards his opponent, another vine grows, grabs hold, and tosses him towards a tree with enough force to make an indentation.
“Should I call for help now, Wulf?” MEGAN asked.
“I can handle this…” Wulf paused in between each word to get his point across. Wulf’s armor nearly cracked as the vine squeezed tighter and tighter around his diaphragm; Wulf uses his powers to engulf a boulder in golden light, which he then aimed at the monster’s chest, causing him to turn back into its stone form; once that happened, the vine shriveled up like a plant not getting any food and releases its grip on Wulf, who peels away from the tree and lands flat on his face.
“Might I make a suggestion?”
“If you must…” Wulf answered in an annoyed tone.
“He absorbs the energy through the stone on his chest, perhaps if you aim for that…”
“It’ll cripple him, thanks MEGAN. Now I can just direct his attention somewhere else before I do that…”
Suddenly, the monster was pelted in the back of the head with rocks; it and Wulf turn to the one responsible; Samantha “Leave him alone!” she yelled at the beast, who slowly marched towards her.
This was just the opportunity Wulf was looking for, but he was hoping it was anyone else other than Samantha. He didn’t want to feel responsible if something bad happened to her. “Samantha, get out of here!”
Samantha backs away, but trips on a rock. Suddenly, Wulf shields her from its attack with a ball of yellow light before rushing to her side and delivering a well-placed punch to the chest strong enough to shatter the jewel and return it to its original form.
“Thank you…”
“Yeh you’re welcome, but what you did was brave and foolish, why’d you follow me?”
“I wanted to help. Hey, look out behind you.”
Wulf immediately turns and holds out both hands to fire his flight stabilizers; with one quick blast from both, he instantly destroyed the monster and as it went down in a fiery explosion, Wulf whisked Samantha away before they both got injured.
Seductra was more than furious that her plan didn’t work out. She stomped her feet and screamed. “Ooh, it’s so difficult to find good help no matter WHERE they come from; you may be beaten me this time, Wulf, but next you won’t be so lucky…”
After taking her back home, Wulf spent a few more hours with her and then took off for his own home at Samuel’s mansion.
He arrived half an hour before the others made it back.
Caitlin, Alex, Samuel, Max, Willis, Meerlix, Phoebe, and Starla return to the sight of Chinese food container things neatly placed on the living room table and Wulf asleep on the couch.
“Glad to see he had a good time…”
“Problems, Caitlin?” Willis asked.
“Most of Caitlin’s relatives argued over something so trivial during dinner, a couple of them were imitating a wrestling match they saw on TV in the living room while watching WWE and broke a few lamps.”
“It was not that bad, but it wasn’t good either, so we had to get out of there,” Alex answered for Caitlin.
“What about you guys?” Caitlin asked.
Phoebe, Max, Willis, Starla, and Meerlix discussed what happened at the ranch somewhere where they wouldn’t disturb Wulf’s slumber.  

[Samuel Grant]

Chapter 46
The Harry Houdini of Science

It was now December 31, 2009; New Year’s Eve, and As usual, Serpitox was hatching plan for world domination. From the safety of their lair He, Fahl Kun, and Pachytar continue work with the Andromeda project, which leads them to a grand discovery; maybe not grand since this idea’s been used before. With the use of this project, he is able to convert nearly anything into a source of energy; anything from buildings to an entire city just by shrinking it down to the size of a snow globe or a marble. To test this phase of the Andromeda Project, his first target was a Quebec City. “I knew this day would come. It was only a matter of time before I completely harness the power to snatch up entire cities. I am one step closer to returning the world to its former glory.” The satellite he had stealthily launched into orbit a couple hours ago activates. A gray light emits from the tip and as it intensifies, it draws more power. When the counter finally reaches a hundred percent, a gray beam shoots down over the designated area and in an instant the buildings were being separated molecule by molecule. The people were like ants under a magnifying glass, left with no time to flee as the beam shrouded the entire city. It took only half a minute for the entire population of Quebec to be completely vaporized. All of Quebec was nothing but a smoking crater after the satellite stopped transmitting its signal.
After MEGAN and Samuel picked up the sudden surge of energy on the monitors, they call in the rangers. “Rangers, I’m not sure if this is a computer error or what, but something big just registered on the sensors. Its energy levels are way off the charts; I’ve never seen anything like it.” on the screen, Samuel presents a citywide energy signature emanating from the northeast. “I’m not getting any feeds from the cameras in the vicinity. Whatever that thing was, it just took everything all across the city.”
Phoebe volunteered Meerlix and herself, “We’ll go check it out and report back whatever we find.”
“Be careful.”
“I always am.”
Meanwhile, in the forest somewhere around a small town, Farenhart wanders alone through the trees, or so it seems. Hiding in the treetops, there were several armed Magma Golems perched like a parrot on the shoulder of a pirate or a falcon on the shoulder of some great explorer, awaiting their leader’s orders to spring into action.
Ling Kahn unknowingly steps into his trap as he sets foot in the heart of the forest where Farenhart stood, back turned. “You’re a hard man to track down, my hot-tempered friend,” Ling Khan said as Farenhart slowly turned around to greet him like an old friend.
Farenhart snickered frighteningly as he took one look at Ling Khan with a smile more crooked than the Leaning Tower of Pisa. With that smile still upon his face, he says, “That’s funny, cuz with you, it’s the exact opposite.” He signals his men to leap out of the trees and surround Ling Khan like a pack of wolves after smelling fresh meat.
“How about you hand over the jewel and we can avoid me giving you an embarrassing beatdown?”
“You act so confident despite the fact that I outnumber you 12 to 1.”
“Only twelve, huh? You should’ve brought more men.”
“As you wish…” Farenhart immediately summons more Magma Golems with the wave of his left hand. Through a wavy, orange line of flames, his Magma Golems appear and do as he commands. Ling Khan stands, awaiting their approach; his arms down by his sides as he displays no emotion, no sign of movement; and then within an instant, he leaps up with a grunt as a late warning to his first attack, which came in the form of a kick. He then bounces off his first target and places his hands on top of the head of his next opponent on the left as he leaps over like, legs spread. He lands in a horse stance and quickly delivers a punch to the crotch, then drops on his back, using his hands to break his fall while bringing his legs back together like a pair of scissors about to cut through a sheet of paper. When locked around his opponent, he tosses him into the air, completely taking his eyes off his next opponent, who gets off a lucky hit with his sword. On the second attack, Ling Khan rolls to his left, kicking the sword from the Magma Golem’s hand as he turns onto his stomach and pushes up with his legs until he performs a handstand. For a few minutes, he fought his enemy in this position before performing a flip, landing on his feet, and doing a back kick to the stomach. Seconds after, using the palm of his hands, he shoots a beam of dark energy to his left and right and trips his enemies. As the one on his right does a flip, he immediately grabs him by the ankle and proceeds to use him as a baseball bat to hit the rest of them with. Eventually, the beast crumbled like a clump of dirt.
In a matter of minutes, Phoebe and Meerlix arrive in Quebec to the smoldering crater, which used to be the city. They look out on the horizon from a hilltop, still unable to believe what they have seen. Phoebe managed to tear her eyes away from this shocking sight to grab her communicator and tell Samuel the news.
“Have you found out what was causing that sudden surge of energy?”
“Not quite, but get this; the entire city of Quebec is gone. I don’t mean its inhabitants have gone missing, but the entire city itself has been ripped from its foundation. Not a single trace of it is left.”
“That explains the lack of camera feed…”
“What could’ve done this?” Meerlix asked.
Out of nowhere, the cold, ruddy skin hand of an old man in his mid-50’s rests upon Meerlix’s shoulder and makes him jump in fright. In self-defense, Meerlix gets into his fighting pose as he turns. “It was bright, gray, and it was massive. It rained down from the heavens and clouded the entire city like a nuclear blast. It shattered the buildings like the whole plate was made up of glass and sucked every last bit up into the sky. It was horrible; the people living down there had no idea what hit them ‘til it was too late. I was the lucky one; I had just gotten away to come out here and enjoy nature; my granddaughter’s idea.”
“I’m sorry, and you are…?”
“The name’s not important,” Phoebe assured Meerlix as she interrupted the man during his introduction. Thank you, sir, you’ve been a great help.” When she turned her communicator back on however, she had static. Hers and Samuel’s voices weren’t garbled, they were nonexistent. “Samuel. Samuel, can you hear me?” Phoebe asked.
Meerlix tried the same thing and got the same results.
“We probably should get back to base. Do you need a ride anywhere, sir…?” When Phoebe turned around, the old man was nowhere to be found. “Where’d he go?”
“He probably went to finish his nature walk; or probably to answer a call from nature.”
“Let’s get back to the command center.”
With the hyper-drive still charging up, Meerlix and Phoebe take longer to get back. Meanwhile, Ling Khan finishes off the last of the Magma Golems and starts on Farenhart himself
Right at the start of the fight, Farenhart’s arm shot out and popped Ling Khan with a jarring left cross to the chin. Ling Khan’s head swung to the side but se plowed in and started digging body blows in Farenhart’s ribs. After taking several shots, Farenhart blocked a punch with his knee and started threw a jab into Ling Khan’s face. Ling Khan stumbled back before he came back with several leg kicks and ended with a tackle; Farenhart kept punching and elbowing him in the back, attempting to make him let go of his waist. The villain took Farenhart by surprise by landing a kick to the face by bending his leg over his head like a limber gymnast and then throwing combinations of hooks and uppercuts into the villain’s chest, driving him back towards a tree. Ling Khan comes charging up to him like an angry bull only to have Farenhart land a roundhouse kick; Ling Khan grips his forehead as he sways to the right. Farenhart dives at him and Ling Khan teleports the both of them onboard his ship in front of Sapphira, who drops her ice cream on the floor, surprised.
Farenhart threw himself forward and tackled Ling Khan, dragging him across the floor of Sapphira’s room and slamming the villain up against the wall. Ling Khan stood there stunned, while Farenhart pounded his belly with fast, solid punches. Farenhart suddenly stopped punching and stood there, quivering, as Ling Khan thrust his leg up into Farenhart’s groin. While the villain was helpless, Ling Khan arced a right uppercut into Farenhart’s jaw and grabbed his reeling opponent by the horns. Pulling Farenhart forward, Ling Khan sank his left fist deep into his opponent’s stomach and then quickly lands a tornado kick, which launches him clear out the door and into the hallway; Sapphira took chase. She stopped following after she approaches the door to room Ling Khan instructed her to never open. A large, half-oval shape with weird zigzag patterns in a dark green and brown color. At the top of the door in big bold letters were the words “do not enter”. Sapphira decided to ignore these words, because she wanted to know what was behind this door that Ling Khan wanted to hide from her. Sapphira finds out it was just a storage room filled with old boxes of assorted items: video discs, books, pictures, a TV/DVD player to look at the discs with, etc. she searched through all of them while Ling Khan and Farenhart fought.
Farenhart stood there for a moment, panting, with Ling Khan’s Star of Pisces clutched in his hands, then turned around and started taunting him with it. As he gloated, Ling Khan got on one knee, then unsteadily back to his feet. He charges at Farenhart and throws his left fight as he stood centimeters from him. The punch nearly caught him square in the nose, but he was completely unprepared as he leaned back and reached forward, grabbing a hold of Ling Khan’s wrist and giving it a slight twist counter-clockwise. Ling Khan struggles to get out of his grip and succeeds. Farenhart began pummeling Ling Khan, throwing wild crosses and kicks into the villain’s face and abdomen. Blood sprayed out of Ling Khan’s mouth as the beating continued and Farenhart grabbed him by the throat and thrust him into the wall repeatedly, then pulled him forward into a right haymaker before absconding with the jewel.
Meanwhile, sometime later, Sapphira continued searching through the array of boxes. Inside one of the boxes, she plays one of the DVD’s and on it was the face of her father’s killer, Ling Khan. He had fled the scene just as Starla arrived. The tape also showed Sapphira as she framed Starla.
“I had a feeling you’d find your way back here…”
Sapphira turned at the sound of Ling Khan’s voice.
“Now that you know the truth, what am I to do about it? You’re too valuable of a warrior to destroy.” He snaps his fingers and summons a couple of Konglatons to the room. “Take her to the brain drain machine”
“No!” Sapphira struggled to get loose, but the Konglatons’ grip was too strong.
Farenhart turned up back where he and Ling Khan started their fight; Willis, Wulf, Caitlin, Starla, and Alex showed up seconds later and bombard him with laser fire. He drops the jewels several feet from him, but as he made a dive for it, Willis sped up and snatched the jewel. Farenhart makes a grab for it. He and Willis stare angrily in each other’s eyes as they tug back and forth like two kids arguing over a toy or a TV remote. The jewel then flies from their hands and towards the rangers just as an army of Putras mixed in with Farenhart’s Magma Golems. The fight was now a game of keep-away as Willis and Wulf fought off both sides, keeping them from stealing the jewel. Wulf locks eyes on target and he drives the tip of his blade through the groin area. With a quick grunt, he slices upward through the spinal cord of the Putra. With the jewel in its right hand, it falls towards a Magma Golem; Wulf quickly turns his blade right and lands a quick attack, making it release the Star of Pisces. In that time, Wulf made a jump for it, smiling as he grabs it, and then performs a roll onto his feet.
With precision aim, Willis strikes hard and fast from left to right several times. With a few Golems and Putras down, the rest start storming towards Willis, who avoided them at sonic speed; sneaking in from behind Wulf were a couple of Putras, so Willis sped to his rescue. Willis was knocked out cold after the impact and fell limply to the floor with a stream of sparks flying from his abdomen. Wulf slowly grabbed the Magma Golem and swung it around towards Willis’ foe, exhausted and battered from the onslaught. Just then Alex and Seductra race towards them. Seductra was in front as she and Alex tear through Wulf, the Putras, Magma Golems, and Willis, pushing him back down again. “Sorry,” Alex shouts as he brings up the rear, sword in hand. Alex gasped for a moment as Seductra threw him against the tree and then eventually laid into him with her sword. He defended as best as he could before he changed to the weapon’s secondary form, wrapped it around her leg, and pulled up; she fell onto her back instantly and Alex struck back. On the ground, she blocked and pushed up on Alex’s abdomen with her right leg. She then threw him over her and onto his back before she herself stood up. Getting up as well, Alex led her deeper into the forest and took to hiding in hopes to gain leverage. When hiding didn’t work, he ran back towards the others, his sword still in its secondary mode as he took out his blaster and looked back. He watched the tree-line in order to keep from bumping into any of them as he took a shot at her. Seductra deflects while still gaining on him. Alex then wraps his weapon around a tree and swings around and back at her for a double leg drop kick to the chin. He laughed as soon as she hit the ground. Seductra was briefly dizzy as she looked up at the sky, but then shook out of it just before she got up again. She stares angrily at a still laughing Alex Mclaren, and with a growl as a warning, Alex stopped and continued running.
Starla and Caitlin stand before Farenhart. Starla ducked beneath a decapitating cross-stroke, then jumped over a low slash as Caitlin quickly aimed a slash at Farenhart’s thighs; Farenhart reverse-somersaulted and shot a short stream of red lightning at his enemy. Caitlin jumped high into the air, and brought her eyes in alignment with Farenhart and shot a laser, which he blocked with his twin swords before he rained balls of fire back at her. Starla flew in front of Caitlin and shielded her with a wall of light as they both slowly descended. Starla put her arms down at her side as she summons ball of light into her palms. Then, she thrusts them forward, shooting the light from her hands like baseballs; Farenhart deflects all but two and is thrown to one side.
On the rangers’ communicators, they hear the sound of Samuel’s voice call out. “Rangers, do you read me, come in?” When Caitlin had the opportunity, she answered back.
“We’re busy here, Samuel?”
“I understand, but this is urgent. Max and Meerlix went off on their own. There was another faint energy signature in Miami. They reported seeing Fahl Kun with some type of device like a bomb. Next thing I know, they’re attempting to evac the city, there was another energy spike and the city was gone, just like the others.”
“What about Meerlix and Max?” Alex asked.
“I picked up their energy signature outside the city, but then it just vanished. I need one of you to check it out.”
“I’ll volunteer.” Caitlin said.
“I can get there faster. I’ll go,” Wulf answered.
“I can get there faster too. Besides, you might need backup.”
Starla and Wulf take off in a hurry. She first stops a small shack and uses the light above the front door travel through at the speed of light and comes out the other at a lamppost about a mile outside of the city. She arrives the same time Wulf does.
Moments before their arrival, Meerlix and Max roam about Miami where the atmosphere was more dull and lifeless. The place was void of color, everyone except Max and Meerlix were all in black and white, the people’s movements were as slow as a tortoise, they walk around, minding their own business, not saying anything; they didn’t know what was going on, but they were trying to find out. Everyone on the street that they asked had nothing to say. They just pass them by without acknowledging their presence in this dismal realm.
In the sky above, Meerlix saw a tan, slightly shaded figure of Serpitox looking down upon them like a god or a kid watching an ant farm.
“What the hell is going on around here?”
“I dunno, but we now have a good feeling as to who’s behind all this. Look up,” Meerlix instructed.
“Serpitox; But I thought we destroyed him?”
“I thought so too.”
“Let’s see if we can find a way outta here.”
Instead of splitting up, they stick together. They weren’t sure their communicators would work here. When they approached the courtyard of some huge building, a portal opens. As it shines a bright light through, Max and Meerlix shield their eyes. Without them looking, a pack of Cobra drones step through one leg at a time, looking around for Max and Meerlix before spotting them in the distance.
“Uhm… Max?”
“What?” Max puts his arm down. “Oh…” He and Meerlix see one of the Cobra drones tuck some peculiar looking device behind its back before the fight commenced. It was a small, round, disc like object two inches in height, 1 inch in diameter, and had several lines running across in a pattern like pizza slices.
“I’m betting that thing is our ticket outta here.”
“We’ll have to take it from them first.”
“No problem…”
Meerlix raced up, somersaulted over one of the Cobra drones, and, with his left paw, aimed a thrust at its spine. As he turned to attack the Cobra drone behind him, it caught Meerlix by the wrist
Max jumped in to help Meerlix. He clenched his right hand into a fist and summoned his pill bug armor, then looked at his enemy. Max frowned as he leapt in and landed a bone-shattering blow to the Cobra drone’s chest. As he lowered his hand, another Cobra drone came at him with a kick to the side. Max stumbled in the opposite direction of his enemy and gets tripped by another enemy. Meerlix galloped up, leapt over his partner and lands a drop kick with both feet.
Max picked himself up, using a stone cube as a crutch. He runs up, ducks under a Cobra drone as it takes a swing, and counters with a cross-uppercut. His pill bug armor travels down to his leg as he turns and performs a back flip kick.
Meerlix blocked a blow, then brought his knee up into the Cobra drone's gut. The creature backed down, catching each of Meerlix's renewed attack blows. Finally, the two of them locked their hands together and circle. Meerlix was panting from exhaustion. Suddenly, Meerlix raised his left eyebrow as he set his sights on the device. He reached for it and the Cobra drone clutched his wrist and shoved him back. Meerlix summoned his Hawk Crossbow and used it as a sword.
With the pill bug armor now on his right leg, Max raised it and slammed his foot into a Cobra Drone's face, sending it into a tailspin. Another Cobra drone lunged forward, and latched onto Max’s leg. After he landed on his back, Max got to his feet, watched a Cobra Drone jump up to one of the lampposts, and fire several rounds of red, dart-like beams from above. Instead of firing back, Max kicked the lamppost, causing it to bend and sending the Cobra drone flying into a handful of enemies that Meerlix was fighting.
“Thanks,” Meerlix said. “Watch out behind you, though…”
After Meerlix pointed it out, Max saw an enemy flying at him, spinning through the air as it launched at him. Max somersaulted backwards and pounded the ground as soon as his pill bug armor went back up to his left arm. The ground split open and swallowed most of the drones up.
Max turned and found more of his opponents charging at him. He and Meerlx stood side by side, their weapons ready for one last strike.
Meanwhile outside the mysterious dark realm, Wulf and Starla scope out the area where Miami once stood; nothing but smoke rose from the dirt of the crater around them. They were then blinded by a brilliant flash of light. The same portal Max and Meerlix used to travel into that alternate dimension appeared before them. Meerlix was the first to be spat out. He hits the dirt face first and scoops up a mouthful. Max was flung out a minute later and he lands on Meerlix before rolling over onto his back.
“Meerlix? Max?”
“Oh. Hey guys…”
Fahl Kun is confronted as soon as she returns to base.
“They know…”
“Who?”
“The rangers were there in Miami when you planted the bomb. They intend to stop me from conducting my plans. I mustn’t allow that.”
“What should I do?”
“Same as you’ve been doing all day. It’s time the rangers witnessed firsthand what the Andromeda Project can do.”
With that, Fahl Kun takes an instant portal generator, travels through it and appears inside the rangers’ home in a few seconds. Everyone except Bradshaw was down in the command center, listening to Samuel explain what the device was.
“We all remember what Gerald said about the Andromeda project. One stage of was creating blackholes, which would make it possible to travel to any destination in an instant. Well that’s what this is; a blackhole generator. I assume since it’s the same color as the beam the old man described, that it and that beam are made by the same element; Iridium or something like that.
“If I had to make a guess, I’d say it was Osmium.”
“I have to agree with Meerlix; both Rhenium and Iridium are in the same family as platinum,” Willis explained. “They’re both found in meteorites and form anti-protons, which are necessary for such an effect as making wormholes. However, for Serpitox to do what he just did to Miami, he’d need Osmium; much denser than Iridium.
“Serpitox tried making this very same effect using it in the far future. It’s not as brittle.”
“So this is his latest plot to wipe out the human race?”
“Well this way, he’ll get what he wants without us putting up a fight.”
In order for Serpitox’s device to work, Fahl Kun must place the bomb-like device in the center of the area that he wished to aim his ray beam. The Andromeda project picks up on the signal and awaits the time to reach zero before it commences.
After she had placed it, set the timer, and backed away, Bradshaw enters the room.
“Oh dear,” he said, looking at the cylindrical, grayish device, sitting in a closet in one of the corridors. He then alerts the others and they come rushing in immediately.
“Okay, that’s the thing I saw Fahl Kun carry.”
“Can you disarm it?” Alex asked Meerlix.
“If I knew, I would’ve done so earlier.”
“Let me try it.” Samuel pushes and shoves his teammates aside and approaches the bomb. “You might wanna stand back just in case I can’t do this.”
The timer was set for two minutes. After everyone leaves the room, Samuel carefully opens up the side of the device. Inside, there are three unlabeled wires that must be cut in the correct sequence in order to interrupt detonation. The clock quickly winds down as He quickly pulls out a pocket knife and first cuts the wire that leads to the Primer. With half a minute to go, he then cuts the Reactor wire, and finally the wire that feeds the Ignition Timer; the timer stopped at 2 seconds left.
Meanwhile in Farenhart’s lair as he’s talking with his brother, Celsior.
“So brother. How goes the jewel hunt?”
“I was just about to ask you the same thing.”
“I nearly had the Star of Pisces, but those rangers interfered once again. They have a real knack for showing up uninvited.”
“So that makes five for them. Where’s the sixth?”
“It’s with the space pirate of course; Seductra.”
“Perhaps we team up to take her on.”
“Hundreds of millions of years we’ve been out of action; if Ling Khan was able to defeat me, what do you think Seductra’s capable of?”
“We’ll soon find out…”
Sometime later at the command center, “I have located Serpitox’s base in the Pacific Ocean; there’s an energy signature emanating from Latitude N 32° 14' 59.908", Longitude W 142° 59' 52.9688",” Alex answered.
“Our suits don’t have enough power to make it that far, so we’ll need to make as far as we can normally before morphing. We need to put a stop to this now before Serpitox wipes out the whole world.”
As soon as they make it out to sea, a team of F/A-22 Raptors appear out of nowhere, going in the same direction. Samuel, who at the helm, looks out on the horizon through a pair of binoculars after he hears a thunderous noise pass overhead. Also, coming in slowly from behind were several helicopters, the kind with the platform on the side for soldiers to sit on as means of rapid deployment. The president had ordered General Creed to launch a full scale assault on Serpitox’s base. When the aircrafts came in range, Serpitox’s defense systems activated. The first of them were giant rotating turrets, which fired two inch blue lasers in three-shot bursts. Two of the fighters go down in the third wave of fire; the rest take evasive action and come back with everything they had, but it wasn’t enough. They took out a few of Serpitox’s anti-air cannons, but he still rained fire down upon them.
The jets manage to keep most of the fire focused on them to allow ground troops to move in. they came in by air and sea, but as soon as they make it further up the shore, they were confronted by Cobra drones.
The rangers sail in close and equip their morphers. With their individual activation codes, they instantly transform. Wulf goes first, then Meerlix, Max, and so on.
“Glimmering as brightly as the sun, Gold Wolf Ranger!”
“With the fluidity of water, Blue Wolf Ranger!”
“Shining light in all shades and forms, White Wolf Ranger!”
“Power of the Earth beneath my feet, Brown Wolf Ranger!”
“By power of the full moon, Purple Wolf Ranger!”
“Mysterious as the dark night sky, Black Wolf Ranger!”
“Power of the sun, Orange Wolf Ranger!”
“I call on the power of… Green Wolf Ranger!”
“By the roaring flame, Red Wolf Ranger!”
“Okay, here’s the plan. Phoebe and I will find a way to shut off those guns. Wulf, Alex, and Starla, you help out the ground troops. Caitlin, Max, Meerlix and Willis will infiltrate the base and do whatever it takes to stop Serpitox from firing that weapon again.”
After they all receive their orders, they take off in separate directions.
On the shore, the bloodstained ground was hidden by the many lifeless bodies adorning it and the guns of fallen soldiers. On the other side however the battle still ensued. Many a soldier took cover behind the rocks as they fired back at the never-ending wave of Cobra drones storming in from further inland. Cries of pain and of victory were heard until there was silence; for a brief period of time, the silence of submission: of defeat on one end and victory on the other. To remedy the situation, Serpitox dispatched Fahl Kun and Pachytar to the battlefield. Pachytar generates a massive shockwave that knocked the enemy off their feet by just landing in between the two sides. After they got back on their feet, the soldiers struck Pachytar back, nearly emptying entire clips into him only to have his armor make a “ting” sound as each bullet bounces off. Pachytar stampeded and easily tore through all of them until Alex and Max caught him by surprise with a frontal kick to her ribs and left hook to the jaw that came from nowhere. The blows rocked Pachytar’s body, but he never gasped for breath, not once. He threw back a couple of jabs as they race towards him and missed and then Starla's foot crashed into the side of his knee, sending him to the ground. As Max went to pounce on Pachytar for a right punch to the top of the head, Pachytar instinctively grabbed him by the wrist flipped him over his head. As Cobra drones surround him while he was on his, Max reacts quickly by taking aim with his palms. He takes some of them out instantly before he gets on his fee; Pachytar felt like his head was ringing as Alex and Starla continue their assault.
Starla was sure not to make the mistake of pressing her advantage recklessly and instead, brought up her guard again. She and Pachytar exchanged punches and the occasional clinched knee strike but neither really gained an advantage. After several exchanges, Pachytar missed one punch and Max punished him with a hard knee strike to her ribs. Immediately, Alex summoned his Scorpion Saber and slashed into Pachytar's armor and he was forced back.
At the top of Serpitox’s lair, Phoebe held in and continued to unload strike after strike to the countless number of Cobra drones being led by Fahl Kun herself. Fahl Kun blocked most of Phoebe’s attacks, but some of them did connect. Fahl Kun went for a jumping elbow strike to Phoebe’s head, but Phoebe blocked it with her forearm, wincing at the pain. Fahl Kun certainly packed a lot of power into her strikes. Phoebe threw a quick uppercut to Fahl Kun's chin that knocked her down.
Samuel attempted to hack into the controls for the gun turrets. After a few minutes, he was successful in shutting them down to give the jets an easy target. Then, after he messes around with the bomb Fahl planted in his home, he sets the timer back at seven minutes and discretely plants it out of sight before he joins Phoebe in fighting off the enemy.
Phoebe got to her feet surprisingly quick as Samuel joined her side. She was breathing harder than normal and her suit was slowly losing power, but still she seemed to have an energy about her that her and Samuel’s enemies currently lacked. Fahl Kun decided to try to take this to the sky and went to tackle Samuel, but Phoebe caught her across the nose and mouth with her rising thigh.
Fahl Kun fell back to the ground, but as Phoebe went to take advantage, a horde of Cobra drones surrounded her legs and forced her off balance and to the ground. Fahl Kun gets to her feet. Again Samuel set his sights on her and strikes her with every ordnance that was packed into his suit.
Caitlin, Max, Meerlix and Willis infiltrate the lair from the back. The walls all around the building were crumbling due to the excessive force displayed by the US Navy’s jet fighters as they pass overhead. Caitlin, Max, Meerlix and Willis locate a balcony out of sight of patrolling guards, engaged thrusters and flew in for a soft landing. They moved quickly through the hallways, listening for signs of danger and finding none, poking their heads around corners and into various rooms. Max and Caitlin found one set of particularly fancy doors, and when a peak through the keyhole revealed no one inside, they quickly slipped in.
Max sets foot inside of an office. A massive wooden desk sat at the back of the room, covered in neatly stacked papers, and the walls were adorned with drawings. One was a portrait of a scary, grumpy-looking guy with a long beard and a flame-shaped thingy stuck in his hair. The others, though, were various sketches of what looked like mechanical devices. The most prominently displayed was a large drawing of Serpitox himself in human form.
Caitlin had stumbled upon a classroom. Empty desks line the room, facing a small wooden desk at the back of the room. Behind the desk was a whiteboard similar to the one used in most college classrooms that use markers instead of chalk. Despite the room not being used as much, the furniture was still dust-free.
No sooner had they walked into a large storage area on the top floor of the building, Meerlix and Willis had run into trouble. Serpitox was there with at least twenty Cobra drones alongside him standing in front of a large machine. Meerlix and the others dispose of the drones quickly, but as soon as they confront Serpitox, he hits Meerlix with a thin red laser to the chest and traps Willis in a green energy bubble.
“Didn’t think it’d be that easy, did you? I should’ve used this a long time ago; then you won’t be able to get in my way. I press this button and I can send you anywhere I want; I think putting you inside the tome I was imprisoned in would be a great place to put you; or maybe on a roaming comet. Sorry to have to do this, but our adventure has to stop somewhere. Hundreds of millions of years on this festering rock and the human has not yet learned from their mistakes.”
“Don’t forget, you used to be human, Serpitox.”
“Yeah, ‘used’ to be; past tense. Now I am something more. I speak those who came before the human races, the ones who ‘truly’ deserve to live on this spinning ball of life; the ones who had been pushed aside as the dominant species, the reptiles. Once the human element is gone, they will usher in the new era.”
Just then, Caitlin flew in and shot Serpitox in the back before she landed. As he falls to the floor face first, she approaches the console he was standing at and shuts off the beam. “I kinda like the era we have now.”
“Caitlin, Max; Boy am I glad to see you guys.”
“You… you rangers just keep popping up like weeds. No matter, I’ll just cut you down.”
A legion of Cobra drones were summoned to the room and lined up beside Serpitox for one last fight. Meerlix took the lead out of his friends as they stood and faced their enemy. Meerlix took to Serpitox like a Mongoose to a cobra as the others, with the exclusion of Willis, readied their weapons and rushed towards the army; Willis made a break for the machine in the background with a means to deactivate it. With no knowledge of how the console works, it takes him awhile to gain access, but as soon as he does, he gets to work locating the missing cities Serpitox wiped off the map, literally. There were several cities from around the globe: Cairo, Paris, most of northern Africa and Russia, a couple small cities in India. Willis goes through them one by one, restoring them to original location.
Meanwhile, Meerlix literally gave it to Serpitox. He was throwing out hits left and right. he and Serpitox were really an even match. Serpitox began pummeling Meerlix desperately, throwing wild crosses and jabs into the heroine’s torso like a snake attacking its prey. Meerlix convulsed as each shot hit him like someone was shooting a BB gun. Each attack slowly weakened him. Meerlix stood for a moment, grunting and groaning, then switched his fighting style as he performed a crane-style kick to Serpitox’s face. He took on the crane stance and proceeded to block his opponent’s punches and switched styles again as he landed a double fist jab to the chest. Serpitox quickly grabbed him by the wrists and shoved him back. He then slashed him twice across the torso and stopped as soon as Meerlix summoned his Hawk crossbow. With three shots, Serpitox fell instantly and rose back up 30 seconds later. After he waited for Meerlix to strike, he saw his move coming in low and grabbed his wrist; pulling him backwards, Serpitox sidesteps, pulls him even closer and clotheslines him to the ground. He drops his left foot down over Meerlix’s chest and Meerlix immediately stops him.
With three minutes left to go, Willis was ¾ of the way done with the reversal process when he was briefly interrupted.
“Willis, how’s it coming?”
“I’m almost there; just a couple more cities to go.”
“I shoulda said something sooner, but you’re kinda on a time limit.”
“I’m what?!”
Samuel explains about reprogramming the timer and planting it; Willis goes faster than he ever did before. When he was finished, he uploads a virus that Samuel gave him into the mainframe. Once it starts eating through memory after memory, ram after ram, Willis alerts the others to fall back; Meerlix ignores him as he and Serpitox stay and fight. Max drags him out by his shoulder to an empty beach and with just seconds before the blast hits, they all escape the island.
As Meerlix looked behind him, Serpitox’s beams came down and engulfed the whole area in gray light; separating atom from atom until nothing remained; Serpitox and his men were now at the mercy of his own device. Meerlix couldn’t believe it. His arch foe was gone and this time, his top generals went with him, which meant there was no way he could be resurrected. He started considering whether or not he should leave the team; with his enemy gone and all. What was the point of him sticking around? Samuel begs him to stay. When his words weren’t enough, Phoebe spoke out. When her words had no effect, Wulf spoke out; Wulf’s words got his attention. After much coaxing, Meerlix decided to stay; at least until the jewels were safe and out of enemy hands; until the world was free of their evil.  

[Samuel Grant]

Chapter 47
The Expendables

Samuel and the gang was all outside on a sunny New Year’s afternoon, hanging out by the pool, mingling, laughing, and playing music while Wulf and Samuel were Barbecuing; various aromas could be smelled from the smoke rising out of the pit: Ribs: beef and pork, hot links, chicken, as well as various vegetables.
“Guys, can a hardworking chef get a soda or something around here? Max. Willis. One of you guys make yourselves useful, you ain’t doing anything.”
“I’ll get it…” Alex replied as he got up from his seat to get one for himself as well. “Strawberry or lemon lime?” he said as he picked up a can of grape soda for him.
“Lemon lime if you please, Alex…”
Alex tosses him the soda he asked for; Wulf catches and proceeds to open it.
“What a way to celebrate the new year, eh Wulf? No disturbances around the world for weeks since your lil adventure during Thanksgiving.”
“I’ll admit it was kinda fun.”
Samuel leaned in close to Wulf, “So… what’s going on with you and Samantha?” he whispered.
“What do you mean?” he asked.
“What do you mean? You spent Thanksgiving with her and then you bailed on us to go spend Christmas with her too, what’s up?”
“Strictly we’re just friends, so don’t get any ideas.”
“Sure you guys are, Wulf.” Samuel rolls his eyes.
“Don’t be like that. What about you and that CIA girl?”
“Who told you about that? Was it Caitlin?”
“Does it matter?”
“That’s different, she was totally outta my league.”
“And you still went after her; followed her while she was on assignment.”
“Can we not talk about this please?”
“Don’t talk about Samantha and I won’t bring her up in conversation again.”
“Is the food ready yet, guys?” Phoebe asked.
“Yeah, we can smell it from over here and it’s making us hungry!”
“Be patient, guys, it’s not done yet.”
“Yeah, we’ll call when it is…”
Bradshaw approaches the Barbeque grill, bearing urgent news from General Creed. It was for Samuel and Wulf’s ears only, so he was very discreet in saying so. “General Creed is on the line for you, sir.”
“We’ll take this down in the command center, Bradshaw. Keep an eye on the rangers, won’t you?”
Later down in the command center, Samuel and Wulf stand before the giant image of General Creed on the screen as he tells them he has an assignment for them. It seems the daughter of the President has gone missing. “Where have we heard that before?” Samuel thought to himself as he rolled his eyes.
“And you want us to rescue her, right?” Wulf strokes in chin as he paces back and forth across the floor. “What’s in it for us?”
“Anything that you want…”
“I already have everything I want. But I’ll still do it. Only one problem; we don’t know the first place to go looking for her.”
“We lost her signal outside of a hellhole town in Cuba called Gaspar. We have contacts that will meet with you there.”
Samuel, Wulf, Olive Winters, and one of Creed’s soldiers dressed as tourists approach from the northeast by truck. On the way in, the place looked almost abandoned at first glance as some of the buildings gave the impression of being uninhabited. The lights were off in some of them, others had busted windows and walls, others appeared to have been set aflame recently. They get out of the truck closer to the center of town and check out a local bar.
“When we get inside, let us do the talking…”
“Nonono. If you want the girl back, you’ll let us handle this. I won’t just get’em to talk, I’ll get’em to sing,” Wulf answered.
“Is this guy for real?” Olive asked.
“Clearly, you haven’t seen him in action,” Samuel answered vaguely and in a hushed tone.
When they enter the bar, half the people inside eyeballed them as Samuel, Olive, and Chris take a seat and Wulf approaches the counter. Samuel sits down at a table closest to the bar so he can serve as Wulf’s backup in case things take a turn for the worse. He wasn’t necessarily worried about Wulf getting hurt more than he was worried what Wulf might do to any unsuspecting victim that crosses his path. During one of Wulf’s late night vigilante crusades, he busted a guy’s leg. Prison doctor thought he may have needed to have the leg removed due to the amount of damage Wulf did. Wulf took out a photo of the president’s daughter. She has dark brown skin, round gray eyes. Her silky, straight, brunette hair is neck-length and worn in a ponytail. She has a wide-hipped build, a large nose and long-fingered hands. Her wardrobe is urban, with a lot of black and purple. The woman, who Wulf showed the picture to, claimed to have never seen the girl before in her life. Wulf was half-sure that she was lying to him, but he could not prove it. He couldn’t confront her violently, because he was too chivalrous to hit a lady. If a woman was hitting him, he’d surely fight back, but the woman wasn’t bothering him. he let her walk away as soon as he saw in the mirror that several men slowly approached from behind; Samuel got out his gun switched to stun beam as a safety precaution while Wulf just stood there, looking at their reflection as it got bigger and bigger. The head honcho was a half-naked, tan Hispanic fellow with several tattoos on his arms and one on his neck. He had deep-set brown eyes that are like two bronze coins, shaved black hair, and a scar on his left cheek. He spoke to Wulf in Spanish, so he had no idea what he way saying. Wulf grips his sword as he still faces the mirror; looking into the reflection of the man’s eyes, anticipating his movements, studying him like a predator does its prey before the big kill.
“Hey, I’m talking to you, gringo!” the man shouted in Spanish.
As soon as he put his hand on Wulf’s shoulder, that’s when all hell broke loose. Wulf turns quickly, grips his shoulder and applies pressure before he kicks him into the table behind him. as soon at the bullets started flying, everyone in the bar, with the exception of Samuel, Olive, and Chris, drops to the floor out of the line of fire; Wulf unsheathes his sword before the bullets leave the chamber and sways his blade left and right. The men all reload and Wulf gets his window of opportunity to strike.
Wulf kept his guard high in a traditional boxer’s stance. The first of ruffians tucked his chin and advanced more slowly, hoping to be ready for the first attack.
Wulf shot his right hand out, popping his jab into the guy’s face twice. He shook his head clear and tried to push Wulf back, but the half man half wolf hybrid sidestepped him and pounded him in the stomach with a kick.
The next guy approached with a fist to the jaw and then hammered Wulf’s face with a left cross. Wulf’s head snapped to the side, and he quickly spiraled with a back-fist into the thug’s nose. The man’s head snapped back this time, and Wulf grabbed him by the back of the neck and pulled him close with his left, then socked his body with a right belly punch. Then Wulf shoved him into the next thug that decided to step up and take his turn. The two literally split one of the tables down the middle as they flew over towards a couple with their heads down to the floor. The next thug snapped his left foot straight into Wulf’s crotch. He stumbled back and swatted at his eyes with his paws as he hits one of the bar stools. Before the thug could follow up, Wulf unwraps the sheathe around his waist, and with the sword still inside it, he gives the guy a not-so-gentle tap below the kneecap, nearly breaking his leg. He screams in pain and Wulf smacks him across the jaw.
The next guy shoves Wulf back, but he holds onto his wrists and they both stumble over the counter. While mounted, the thug repeatedly punched Wulf in the sides. Wulf responded with a powerful right to the ribs. The guy grunted and Wulf shook off before he proceeded to mount him and dealt devastating blows to the head. As he gets up, one of the thugs comes at him with a bottle; Wulf snatches it from him and uses it against him before he pulls him in close and tosses him at the wall of booze.
Wulf was having a bit too much fun, so Samuel intervenes. With a gentle tap the shoulder, the thug turned around. He was immediately greeted by the fist of Samuel Grant. With one punch, the thug spat out blood as he stood there, stunned. Samuel took advantage and hit him on the chin with a left hook before he body slammed him onto a table. He fired a shot into the air to get the attention of everyone, including Wulf, who was still fighting; and then, he started drilling the thug for information. In Spanish, he shouts, “Where’s the girl?!” the guy reveals that there’s a girl with a striking resemblance to the one in the photo being held at the other end of town.
Back at the mansion, trouble started brewing. The rangers find their party interrupted as MEGAN notifies them of a possible jewel sighting in Egypt. They were the first ones to find out this information; otherwise they’d see their rivals at the scene, fighting over whatever was inside one of the pyramids. After arriving in Egypt, they head the rest of the way by camel through the hot desert sun.
Meanwhile, by the time Samuel and the others arrived at the end of town, it was obvious someone had tipped them off. The girl fitting the description of the one in the picture was being shoved into the back of a van. Samuel was the first to step out of the vehicle. He wanted to fire, but he was afraid he might hit the President’s daughter; Wulf took the opportunity, but after three shots, Samuel stopped him.
The driver starts the van and takes off like a NASCAR racer down the road. Samuel and Wulf pile back into their vehicle and they maintain pursuit.
The sound of Olive’s heartbeat dominated everything. She had lost sight of the van as she and it turned the corner. The driver was several yards ahead. Now she, Samuel, Christopher, and Wulf hunted desperately, frantically, to find them and rescue the girl. The world narrowed to that anxious need, the rhythm of her feet on the pedals, and the staccato beat of her heart.
One of the cars parked on the curb rushed past. In its wake a powerful draft of air pursued. Olive’s head came up, pupils shrinking. A trace of his scent circled around Wulf, who had his head out the window like a dog going for a ride with its master. “It’s him.” he said.
Olive pushed the pedal down as hard as she could and caught up once Samuel said “floor it.”
The chase continued for a couple more blocks before Samuel climbed out of the passenger seat and got in the back. He was carrying some sort of grappling hook. Before he got in the back, he had told Olive to wait for his signal, which was a loud thump on the roof, before she would turn and continue pursuit in reverse. When he signaled her to do so, Samuel pries the backdoor off its hinges using the grappling hook. The bad guys were waiting for him, guns loaded.
He barely registered the first wave of gunfire as he whizzed past his head and hit everything but him. It took one of those bullets flying dangerously close to his shoulder for him to finally unsheathe his sword and defend. He performed the same move Wulf used in blocking the bullets. As soon as they stop to reload, he fires back. It took three shots each before he killed them. The girl hiding behind them was lucky none of the shots came anywhere near her. Samuel switches his pistol for his grappling hook and reels her in like a fish; her body not touching the ground as he pulled her in close. “Hi!” Samuel said with a smile like she was an old friend.
“Who are you?” she asked with great concern.
“I’m Samuel Grant. My friends and I are here under direct orders from the president himself to rescue you.”
“Heads up, Samuel, we got company!”
Back in Egypt after approaching the pyramids, they follow the energy signature deep into the catacombs. The place was in excellent condition despite how old it was, it was not worn or destroyed, unlike real ruins, but it sure was abandoned. Even with Willis’ extensive knowledge, he couldn't figure out for how long it has been abandoned though. There was hundreds of years’ worth of Hieroglyphs on the walls of the pyramid. The rangers tried focusing on their task, ignoring the surroundings, but their brains kept trying to find something to hear in the suffocating silence; Phoebe slowly began hallucinating things as she snapped her eyes from wall to wall in a panic frenzy.
“Phoebe?” Max said in order to snap her back into reality. “Are you okay? You seem a bit jumpy.”
“I must be hearing things. It almost sounded like someone else was here with us; watching our every move.”
“No one’s been home for I dunno how many years. We’re fine.”
The mysterious entity seemed to stick closer to Phoebe than the others, for with each step she took, so did it. Phoebe led it away from the others and stuck to narrow passageways with no crevices or corners; it took away any chance of whoever her stalker was from ducking in and out of sight. The only corner was up ahead of Phoebe and she quickly turned. To her surprise, however, she finds herself face to face with a brilliant flash of light; white in the middle and brown around the edges. It took her in like an angel calling to a soul to crossover to the other side.
Phoebe finds herself back on some ranch she remembers from her childhood, she was 8 years old again and wearing the same clothing; a green plaid, blue jeans, and cowboy boots, but no hat.
One of the ranch hands, a beautiful 20 year old Asian woman in a blue t-shirt and jeans standing next to a brown horse, looks down a list of names for those who signed up for horse riding lessons; Phoebe’s name was next after a boy named Doug. “Okay… Phoebe? Phoebe Dallas?”
Phoebe raises her hand, “That’s me…” she said.
“You’re up, Phoebe.”
She approaches the trainer, who then equips her with a black helmet. She straps it on tight, but not too tight and then helps her get up on the horse. The closer young Phoebe gets slowly, the more she becomes unsure of if she wants to go through with this. The horse makes a weird noise with its nose and makes her jump, but that didn’t stop her. She reached out to touch him and frightens him to the point where he raised his front feet and flailed them back and forth; Phoebe falls on her behind in the dirt and the other kids laughed as she backed away slowly.
Back in the real world; the rangers were so wrapped up in the mission that they didn’t noticed Phoebe was missing until they delved deeper into the pyramid. Meerlix was the first to turn around. “Guys, we lost Phoebe.”
“Someone needs to go find her.”
“I’ll do it; you guys keep going.” Alex said, turning into a vampire bat. He figured he could locate her quickly using sonar. He takes off in the direction they came in and looks to his left and then to his right.
Meanwhile, while Seductra was down on earth following the rangers as they explore the great pyramids of Egypt, things were slowly escalating onboard her ship. The temperature was rising, her computers were malfunctioning, and on the factory floor where she created her army of Putras, the jellies that were being produced started to melt. While the computers were acting up, they displayed error messages telling the crew that the engines were failing. Without them keeping the ship afloat, they slowly moved out of parking orbit and into the atmosphere; the one behind all this was none other than Ling Khan. From his ship, he holds his hand up to the screen displaying Seductra’s ship. A yellow beam transfers from his palm, through it and engulfs her ship.
Seductra’s crew made her abandon the mission to help them determine the problem while at the same time, Sapphira comes into the room and takes one look at Ling Khan. “What ya doing?” she asked.
“I’m just shaking things up for Seductra…” he said vaguely. “Listen, Sapphira, I need you to do me a big favor…”
“Anything, father…”
He orders her to go out to the quarry and wait for Seductra’s ship to crash land; she stands out there for a long time before it arrives.
Meanwhile in Cuba, Samuel and the others reach the airport with the president’s daughter. It wasn’t until getting out of the truck that Wulf caught a whiff of something he didn’t like; something that alerted him to the presence of enemy mercenaries in the vicinity. He pulls Samuel and the girl back just before they see a rocket hurtling towards their transport. In seconds, the plane was lit on fire; pieces of it were flying all over and Samuel, Olive, Chris, Wulf, and the girl were blown back on their behinds, ears ringing.
Their ride was history and the entire area was filled with soldiers like a horde of flies attracted to a pile of cow dung. Bullets were flying at them left and right and they had no way out. They took cover behind a huge wagon-like thing, the kind used for transporting luggage onto the tarmac to be loaded on a plane. Chris and Olive kept the President’s daughter between them as they, Wulf, and Samuel take turns firing back at their assailants.
Samuel and Wulf pop out of cover, swords drawn and guns in hand, as they seek to remedy this current predicament. They deflect bullets left and right at the speed of sound and fire back. One by one, they fall until only a handful remained.
A truck drives by behind the remaining shooters from out of the backseat, comes this determined lady with hooded eyes the color of wild grass. Her luxurious, straight, yellow hair is worn in a style that reminds you of a pair of horns. She has a busty build, caramel-colored skin, small ears and nearly-nonexistent eyebrows, wearing a police uniform, “Alto! Alto…!” she shouted over the gunshots.
Both sides stop firing so to listen to what she had to say.
“And just who the hell are you…?” Wulf replied.
“You can call me Marcella Gomez. I believe you have something that belongs to us.”
“As if, Puta…”
“Wulf…”
“Tell your Perro to behave himself, or he’ll be put down like the dog he is…”
“I’d like to see her try,” Wulf mumbled.
“Wulf, that’s enough; Look, Ms. Gomez…”
“Please… call me Marcella.”
“I’d rather not get on a first name basis with a woman I barely know. So how about we just cut the s**t and you tell me what is your interest in this girl? If it’s money, then forget it. The United States is committed to their policy of not negotiating with terrorists.”
"Since when has the U.S. ever followed its own policies? Besides it's not like you have a choice given your predicament."
“Seeing as we wiped out almost your entire band of trained monkeys, I say we do…”
“Wulf, be smart…”
“Smart? We kicked their asses; it’s them who need to be smart about the situation…”
Samuel whispered, “We can’t deflect their shots forever.”
“Right, but they don’t know that,” Wulf whispered back.
“Give us the girl now.”
Just then, more trucks drive onto the tarmac and they are once again outnumbered. At this time, Olive joins Wulf and Samuel’s. “Thought you could use a lil help…”
“Wulf, we need to pull back,” Samuel whispered.
“Is she that important that you would risk your lives for her?”
“I won’t even dignify that with a response.”
Just then a gunshot came from behind; they turn to find Chris dead and the girl being whisked away once again and stuffed into the back of an SUV.
“Have it your way then; kill them.” The gunfire starts up again as soon as she leaves.
Over the sound of the enemies’ guns, Samuel announces that he is going after the truck. He hops onto one of the mercenaries’ bikes, turns the key, and revs the motor. They travel down the road east of the airport, zigzagging through traffic like a mouse navigating a maze.
Meanwhile at the quarry, a tiny ball of fire appears in in the northwestern part of the sky; Seductra’s ship finally drops out of orbit and hurtles towards Sapphira’s location like a meteor entering the atmosphere. Its nose digs about several yards into the gravel and rock causes it to ripple as it slides more and more towards her. Pieces of the ship break off and fling in different directions while the ship itself slows to a stop. On the interior, Seductra and her Putras emerge from the pile of busted machinery and overturned consoles. Seductra coughs as she brushes the dust and debris from her outfit. Out of the front windshield, she looks towards the patiently waiting Sapphira, who had her sword still in its sheathe on her left side and her right hand draped across, palm firmly grasping the handle. Seductra angrily stumbles through the wreckage on her way to the airlock door. She holds her left hand high to block the rays from the bright sun as she dons her knight armor and draws her sword. She and Sapphira stand with swords pointed straight up with the flat part facing their opponent; each patiently awaiting the other’s move.
Sapphira ducked beneath a decapitating cross-stroke, then jumped over a low slash and landed rear horse kick. As she landed, Seductra aimed a slash at her ankles, but Sapphira reverse-somersaulted over and shot a short stream of fire at her enemy. Seductra jumped, and brought her sword in front of her face to deflect Sapphira. When it was safe, she leaps forward again sword drawn back on her right.
Sapphira brought her own blade up and blocked the blow. Then, she countered with a lateral cut, followed by a low-to-high slash. Seductra parried the first attack and jumped away from the second. Sapphira closed the gap between them, swinging her sword diagonally at Seductra’s right shoulder. Seductra parried and swung her own blade at Sapphira's waist.
“You’re actually pretty good.”
“Thanks,” Sapphira answered. “You’re not so bad yourself.”
Seductra knocked the blade away; Sapphira somersaulted over her. Seductra spiraled aimed a thrust at her spine the moment she landed. Sapphira was lucky the flat part of the blade was facing north and south as she caught the tip of it with an elbow and knocked it to the ground. They both back away and pick their swords from the ground.
Seductra and Sapphira ducked beneath a red projectile coming at them from the east and as they turn to get a look at their mystery attacker, they see Farenhart marching towards them.
It was now a two on one. Seductra and Sapphira had put their bout on hold until their newest threat had been dealt with. Farenhart draws his swords. His grin widened as he spun his swords around his wrist, spun in a tight circle, and swung his blade at Sapphira's neck.
Sapphira ducked, but Seductra countered with a lateral cross-cut. Farenhart blocked the blow, then brought his knee up into Seductra's gut. She backed away and Sapphira approached, catching each of Farenhart's renewed attack blows. Finally, the two of them locked their swords together. Seductra was panting from the blow to her gut and held her in both hands, awaiting her turn. Suddenly, Farenhart raised his left hand and began charging a fire ball in his palm. Sapphira brought her right arm up, and knocked Farenhart's hand aside. A fireball shot from his hand and crashed to the side of Seductra’s feet. Sapphira shoved Farenhart back, who stumbled into a and fell to the ground.
Farenhart picked himself up, using one of his swords as a crutch. Immediately as he got to his feet, Seductra lands a kick to the stomach and he stumbles back; still he manages to keep his balance. Sapphira ran at Farenhart, swinging laterally. Farenhart caught Sapphira's sword arm, then he swung at her head. Seductra swooped in and caught Farenhart's blade with her own.
Back in Egypt, the rangers nearly escape death; their Footsteps crunching down on the stone path as they race through the corridor, not looking back; Labored breathing, the occasional screams of terror, the sound of crumbling walls coming in from behind them along with a trail of smoke.
Max, Willis drag up the rear as they carried the unconscious body of Phoebe behind Alex, Caitlin, Starla, and Meerlix. Starla leaped out in front and created a bridge of light over a huge gap caused by the vibrations of the unstable temple. The others continued on and then Starla takes her human form once again. Turning corner after corner, they manage to keep some distance between what was behind them. Navigating through this maze was no problem once Alex took the lead, since he could transform into any creature. He sees the wall coming down before his eyes and transforms into an ape so he can use his strength to keep it up and provide passage for the others. Meerlix and the others immediately saw the light and knew they were approaching the surface of the pyramid. As the light grew bigger, the each leap through one by one and find themselves rolling along a slope and down towards the cushioning sand below; Ling Khan was waiting for them after they settled at the bottom with the last jewel in their possession.
“I’m taking up a collection of rare artifacts…”
“Well, you’re out of luck. We saw this one first.”
“You wanna play it that way, fine. I like a challenge.”
Ling Khan takes them all on his own; no help from the Konglatons or his adopted daughter. He stands sideways with his right foot forward. He looks to the ground and slides his foot, collecting sand as he raises his leg into the air and shoots it like a catapault. As the sand travels towards the rangers, he turns to face them and shoots his left arm out, fist balled, and ignites the grains with a purple aura. On impact, the glowing purple sand temporarily blinds his enemies for him to land a killing stroke. He leaps in and attacks Starla with a double leg drop kick. She stumbles backwards while Max races up, right hand cocked back, and socks Ling Khan in the jaw. At that time, Willis sped up and, with his blaster drawn, fires a round into Ling’s chest.
Meerlix leaps in for a strike. He draws back his right and quickly brings it forward, but Ling Khan grabs him by the wrist. With half his strength, he spins him around, tosses him into the air, and then goes for Caitlin, who knocks him back with a laser beam from her eyes. Ling Khan minimized the damage of the attack by crossing his arms in front of its path.
Alex comes at him, Scorpion Saber in chain-mode as he wildly slings it high and low; Ling Khan ducks, sidesteps, moves back one step at a time, and back flips as he does everything he can do avoid getting hit. One the last swing, Ling Khan grips the tip of the weapon with his left and pulls Alex close. He then kicks him in the crotch, waits for him to kneel, and jumps on his back; still holding onto the sword, he spirals towards Starla in midair and then performs a front flip; Alex is pulled back by the grace of the weapon and is flung towards Starla, who teleports to safety just seconds before impact. Since she was the one who held onto the jewel, Ling Khan focused his attention on her the most as he continued his onslaught on each ranger one at a time. He was just determined to get his hands on the Star of Taurus no matter what, but each time he made a grab for it during the fight, Starla would interrupted.
Starla suddenly raised her right leg and slammed her foot into Ling Khan's face, almost breaking his nose. Ling Khan spiraled and pulled an elbow shot to the face; knocking Starla back a couple feet. Ling Khan quickly turned, watched Starla reach for her sidearm, and jumped at her with a superman punch to the wrist to knock it out of her hands. Getting even closer, Ling Khan goes for another elbow strike, but this time, to the left cheek. After Starla spiraled to the ground, Alex transformed into a Billy Goat, leapt over Starla and rammed Ling Khan hard in the stomach. For his next move, he changes from a goat to a dragon in two seconds and breathes fire in Ling Khan’s direction.
Ling Khan covered his face with his left arm as soon as the flames start flying; his armor absorbed most of the head, but it soon got too unbearable and he had to leap into the air. He launched himself at Alex’s dragon form, his right arm drawn back and his fist closed as he landed lightly and gripped Alex’s long, scaly neck. Then, he shifted all his weight in the opposite direction and pulled his opponent down. Ling Khan shifted around to the back of Alex before the fall and performed a back flip, landing feet first in front of the other rangers.
The battle dragged on until Phoebe snapped back into reality; she had a distinct glowing aura of brown colored energy emanating from her body like a Super Saiyan from Dragonball Z. She slowly rose into the air, arms at her side in a curved angle; her elbows pointed down. She soon set eyes on Ling Khan as a single step he made towards the rangers got her attention. And so she swooped in and landed between him and her injured friends; the brown aura now filled her eyes as hers and Ling Khan’s lock onto each other.
“Look who finally awoke from her sleep. I suppose you want a go at me, too.”
While their fight drags on, Samuel, Olive, and Wulf have the president’s daughter in their custody once again. Marcella was only partly furious, because she knew she’d see them again at some point; without a plane and with all the airports posting a wanted ad for them, Samuel and others would have a hard time getting out of Cuba.
Samuel, Olive, Wulf, and the girl stay off the main roads and head through back alleys to stay off the army’s radar, but after wandering for several blocks, it became increasingly difficult.
A mysterious figure in the shadow of a doorway of some clothing store whistles at them softly. Wulf turns first; the shadow figure stuck its wrinkly, tan colored hand out and gestured at them to come over and so he did, until Samuel placed a hand on his shoulder, silently begging him to stay with them. Wulf shook Samuel’s hand off his shoulder and ignored him as he walked over. Samuel soon joined him and so did Olive and the girl.
The guy, who Wulf had blindly trusted, claims he can offer them a way out of the country. Samuel wasn’t sure if his words were true. Something about this guy put him in the mind of a serpent. He has narrow blue eyes that are like two turquoises. His luxurious, wavy, jet black hair is neck-length and is worn in an exotic, attractive style. He's got a beard and moustache. He is short and has a thin build. His skin is pale. He has a high forehead. His wardrobe is classy and mysterious, with a completely white and black color scheme. He tells them of a boat leaving the docks that was heading to Miami. If they could get to it, it’d be smooth sailing from then on.
“We’re gonna need transport. It’s not like we’re just gonna walk out of here.”
“There are soldiers scouring the city for us.”
“I’ve got that covered. You will be traveling by a concealed transport.”
Just outside of the door an hour after they switched disguises, Wulf’s ears picked up Marcella’s voice. She and a couple of soldiers were going door to door, flashing a wanted poster with no success. The man tells them to hide while he goes to the front door to get rid of them. There was inaudible whispering between him and Marcella and Wulf and Samuel could hear almost every other word of what was being said.
Her men then shove him aside and move about his place of business, poking their guns inside of the clothes racks, hoping to get lucky.
Back in Egypt, the battle between Phoebe and Ling Khan raged on; the others stood back and watched Phoebe display her newfound power as she took to the sky and avoided Ling Khan’s assault with speed, grace, and elegance like a hawk swooping in to snatch its prey.
Ling Khan extended an arm out to throw another energy beam from his fist, when Phoebe then swooped in fist pointed forward as the aura of the brown medallion trailed behind her like a comet’s tail. Ling Khan stood still for a second until she got close and he rolled to the right. Phoebe turned towards Ling Khan, bolted forward, running with all fours like a wolf after its prey, but before she reached him, he turned towards her, with his right foot planted in the sand. He slid it forward, bringing a trail of sand in direct alignment with Phoebe’s face, though it didn’t faze her; she kept on coming like a runaway locomotive. Phoebe whizzed past him on the right and he spiraled to the ground in an instant; sparking flew from his armor
At this point, Ling Khan became enraged. He got to his feet, inhaled with a shuddering fury, and beat his chest like an angry gorilla. Phoebe takes to the sky, holds her arms up and spreads her legs to make an X shape. Brown aura escapes from her fists and feet, which engulfed Ling Khan for a brief moment. The energy seemed to fold around him, like water around a rock in a stream. It was soon apparent Ling Khan was absorbing the energy as he flailed his arms in a windmill pattern. It coursed around his arms, and then puffed out of existence. Ling Khan was slightly damaged, but his skin seemed to glow subtly with its own light; no doubt from the energy Phoebe unintentionally fed him. Phoebe dropped to the ground and stepped forward one pace and then another.
“It’s going to take a lot more than some fancy light show to defeat me, cowgirl!” Ling Khan laughed manically afterwards.
Ling Khan seemed to rapidly grow taller and hairier, until he was slightly less than eye level with Phoebe. The energy he absorbed started to take over and turn him into a King Kong sized ape with burnt black samurai armor. His eyes were glowing yellow like the sun as he took one look at Phoebe.
Phoebe knew the fight would only get harder from here on.
Before Ling Khan could react, Phoebe curled back her right leg, then kicked upwards in a blazing, air displacing arc. The kick landed on the lower front of Begrukirm’s jaw.
His great, hairy head recoiled back, and his nose was thrust straight upwards against the blunt impact of her foot. Ling Khan held his eyes shut as he experienced a pain he had never felt before. It seemed to him to travel like an echo throughout the entirety of his skull, yet never fading in intensity.
Ling Khan opened his eyes through pulsing pain, only to see Phoebe winding her fist back. The punch arrived with more haste than he could think. The first two knuckles of her fist connected precisely on the outer part of Ling Khan’s lower arm as he attacked seconds before Phoebe.
Ling Khan’s arm bone had cracked by the energy of the punch. Ling Khan let out an agonized roar. Phoebe’s temporary rise in power levels could not be matched. No ordinary human or any other villain could come within a fraction of her strength. She was temporarily a goddess.
As Ling Khan coupled his hands together, Phoebe drew her foot back and kicked him in the skull. Ling Khan’s head rocked to the side as he roared in pain. Then he saw her as she jumped up and the shadowy outline of her feet as she brought them straight down along the side of his hairy face.
The sharp crack of breaking bone echoed through him, and he was instantly filled with unimaginable pain.
Phoebe now turned away as Ling Khan let out one last roar and fell to his feet in a huge explosion. The jewel that was in her opponent’s possession quickly flew towards her as if pulled by a magnet and she grabbed for it with both hands. Her friends rush over to congratulate her.
Back at the quarry, Seductra and Sapphira’s battle comes to a standstill. Both fighters leave with almost the same about damage done to each other; Seductra, who now has the jewel in her possession, contemplates where she will go. With her floating fortress in pieces all around her, she didn’t have that many options. She shows up at Cameron and Christi’s doorstep, clothes tattered and torn. They were shocked to have seen what happened to her.
“What a pleasant surprise, Aunty.”
“Yeah, what brings you here?”
“My ship is destroyed, I’ve got nowhere else to go.”
“How’d this happen? Was it a malfunction or something?”
“Deliberate sabotage by Ling Khan; his little pet was there waiting for me. She did most of this to me just to get her hands on the jewel; but in the end, she didn’t get it.”
“Well, it’s good to see you made in one piece.”
“What do we do now?”
“First, we get the chestplate, then we go after the jewels, and lastly, I’ll get my revenge on that monkey man and his little girl too.”  

[Samuel Grant]

Chapter 48
The calm before the Swarm

After an hour, Phoebe awakens from her sleep and joins the others downstairs. Starla assures the others that Sapphira will be out for revenge for them destroying Ling Khan. “With Ling Khan gone, his daughter, Sapphira, will be out for blood,” she said, looking at all of the rangers. she was not wrong; Sapphira held a grudge after Ling Khan had tricked her into believing Starla was responsible for her father’s death and they’ve had this constant feud ever since the accident.
“There has to be a way to prove you didn’t kill her real father.”
“Unless we can magically get our hands on a tape that implicates him in the murder, there’s nothing we can do,” Alex said.
Sapphira was back onboard Ling Khan’s ship. She had abandoned the jewel hunt to take time, practicing her scheme for revenge. Through her perspective, she has now lost two people that ever cared for her; not including Starla. As she caresses a picture of Starla and her father, a ruddy skin, muscular, heavyset fellow in a black kimono with gold Chinese symbols, a Fu Manchu mustache and a long beard tied up in black rubber bands, she is greeted by a mysterious figure that lurks in the shadows. He offers to help her out with her plans for revenge without even telling her his name. Judging by the shadow, Sapphira could tell it was a man with a slender figure, wearing baggy pants and shirt, boots, and a beret.
As they discuss their plans, Samuel, Olive, Wulf and the president’s daughter catch a ride to the shore in an army truck with a covered wagon style trailer. Samuel sits on the left side by himself while Olive and the first kid sit on the right side together. So far, the drive was peaceful. No one was trying to kill them, but it was just a matter of time.
After a couple more miles, they reach a checkpoint.
“What’s going on, why’d you stop?”
“We got a checkpoint ahead, be cool.”
Samuel wasn’t taking any chances. He cocks his gun and aims towards the rear of the trailer, awaiting any unfriendly faces who may peek inside; Wulf places a hand on his sword, waiting for the right moment to strike. The driver steps out of the truck as per the request of the soldier and proceeds to the back of the truck. Samuel fires the first shot and the other soldiers react as their comrade’s body hits the ground. The driver was the next to be killed. Wulf blocks the soldiers’ bullets by rapidly swinging his blade around in front of him. The bullets drop at his feet and he leaps out of the back, still swinging just before he stabs the soldier closest to him.
Samuel was next to jump out and land next to Wulf; syncing up with Wulf’s constant shielding, he fires back bursts of aquamarine laser beams from his gun and takes some of the heat off his friend.
Realizing there were too many of them, Samuel orders Olive to take over in place of the driver. “Olive, start the truck and get us the hell out of here!” Samuel leaps back into the truck as Olive jumps out. Wulf’s defense provided cover so Olive could make her way to the front of the vehicle. Once inside, Wulf then ceases his actions and jumps back into the truck.
“Well, that was fun…”
Samuel gave Wulf a blank stare.
“What?” he asked.
“Why did you jump out just then?”
“Why’d you…?”
“It was only to safe your pathetic skin.”
“I have no idea why I did it; it was in the heat of the moment, I thought I could take’em all on. You shoulda stayed back and protected her. I can manage.”
“I couldn’t leave you behind even if I wanted to.”
“Gotta learn to let go…”
Olive saw in the side mirror a small, flaming projectile rapidly approaching the truck. “Guys, RPG inbound!”
Samuel saw it before Wulf did. “I got this…” by deploying the nanobot shield, Samuel contains most of the blast on the opposite of them; the shockwave penetrated the shield and caused Olive to swerve. She drives right into the wall of some shop.
“Smooth move, Samuel… now leave this to me.” Wulf pushes up off of his back and prepares to leap out once again in another one of his reckless stunts.
“What are you gonna do this time?” Samuel asked.
“Something we should’ve done long time ago.”
“No, Wulf… no…” Samuel protested.
“You and your code, Samuel. When you gonna realize the world’s not gonna always fight fair?”
“What code?” Olive asked.
Wulf didn’t respond; he just got out his morpher and recited the phrase, “Glimmering as brightly as the sun, Gold Wolf Ranger.” with that, Wulf dons his ranger form and jumps out to confront the army of jeeps lining up behind them to take the girl back by force.
“Fuego!” one of the men said.
The soldiers once again open fire and their bullets immediately bounce off with so much as making a dent in Wulf’s shiny, gold armor. Wulf stood there, fake yawning and then brushing off his shoulders. When the firing ceased, Wulf held up his palms alternately and fired back, taking down one at a time until only one remained. The single soldier then put down his gun and ran. “Piece of cake…” Wulf said, brushing his palms together like a worker during quitting time. Megan then warns him of a projectile coming at him from the roof of some building. Wulf’s armor was only slightly burnt on the back as he falls on his face in the street, but one of the advantages to Zierian’s powers, is that Wulf can rapidly repair damages in his armor if it’s not too extensive. As he gets up and brushes off, the assailant reloads. Wulf turns to him once Megan zeros in his location and flies at him, dodging his next rocket as it hurtles towards him at the same speed he was going. Wulf grabs him and takes him high into the air before he drops him. Once the shooter was dead, Wulf’s power started fading. He could barely keep himself afloat, so he set himself down gently. “What the hell? Samuel, your suit’s malfunctioning.”
“I don’t think it’s the suit; it should be powered by Zierian’s powers. Maybe there’s something wrong with them.” Samuel spots more soldiers in the distance, slowly marching towards their position. “Wulf, pull back.”
Wulf hesitates as he looks back at Samuel and then at the army.
“Wulf, pull back right this goddamn minute. That’s an order!”
“Look, I’m not one of your soldiers, Samuel! Olive, get this rig moving and get your a** outta here.”
“I’m not leaving you, man. Get in here!”
“Gotta learn to let go, Sam…” Wulf points his right paw back at the truck; Samuel, Olive, and the first kid are instantly teleported via golden light to a safe location near the shore. When Wulf tried it on himself, nothing happened. All guns were now pointed at him. Wulf casually places his hands behind his head and turns around, to which he is hit with the butt of a rifle and falls unconscious.
Meanwhile, Phoebe, Meerlix, Willis, and Alex check on a disturbance in a remote part of the Congo in Africa. The radar at the command center had picked up seven distinct energy signatures that they had encountered before. Alex navigates from the treetops after he transforms into a gorilla. As he swings from branch to branch, his friends follow from below. Meerlix took the lead out of the others as he scratches at the various shrubberies in their path.
Willis was in the middle. With his gun equipped, he casually covers all points.
Phoebe covered the rear using her invisibility so to stay out of sight if anyone or anything was following them.
A half hour of searching the jungle floor brought zero results. They assumed the energy reading was a glitch in Megan’s systems until they hear a faint rustling noise off in the distance. Whatever was causing the energy signature had revealed itself; sort of. It led them further down an unbeaten path until it finally brought them to a clearing. The thing they were following had led them straight into a trap. Their arch nemeses, the Shadow Rangers, who they thought were destroyed, had made their return; but they weren’t alone this time. An army of Konglatons drop down from the treetops; one of them was carrying Alex in his human form.
After a short battle, the rangers lie defeated and confused before their enemy until Sapphira finally steps out of the shadows and stands before the shadow rangers with an evil grin. Their whole world went dark in an instant as the shadow rangers hit them with a surge of electrical energy in their corresponding colors. They awaken in a dark room with the only source of light coming from the ceiling. They were strung up by their wrists and ankles in front of their shadow clones, who stood there silent and still as Sapphira came into the room.
“First, Starla takes away my real family, and then you take away someone who was like family.”
“Sapphira, don’t do this.”
“Look, we’re sorry about what happened to Ling Khan…” Phoebe said.
“You’re not sorry; not yet anyways…”
“He’s deceived you. Starla didn’t kill your father, Ling Khan did.”
“Liar! I saw Starla standing over his body after his untimely demise.”
“That doesn’t necessarily mean she did it.”
“You can’t believe everything he tells you; sometimes, you have to figure things out for yourself.”
Back at the command center, the others notice the radar go blank; Starla fiddles around with the console to try and get it to work, but it was to no avail. She pounds her palm against it, which gets Caitlin and Max’s attention. “I lost the signal.” Starla replied in frustration.
“What?”
“I lost the signal; Willis and the others just vanished, and so did the energy reading they went after.”
“Maybe it’s some sorta interference; lemme check…” Max politely shoves Starla aside and gives it his best shot.
“Well…?” Caitlin asked.
“Doesn’t seem to be anything jamming the signal…”
“We have bigger things to worry about,” Zierian said as he popped up out of nowhere.
“What are you talking about?”
“Farenhart is on his way here to collect the jewels.”
Just then, a huge explosion occurred outside the mansion several yards downhill.
Max brings up the feed from one of the security cams overlooking the courtyard. Over a thousand Magma Golems were seen marching towards them, destroying everything in their path.
“My god, look at all of them…” Caitlin said in shock.
“What do we do?”
“We need to activate the mansion’s defense systems. That should slow them down, but I don’t know for how long,” Bradshaw explained.
The defense system was put in by Samuel in case such an event as the ones the rangers are about to face were ever to occur. Hidden in the ground were motion-sensing laser gun turrets, which fired a light blue laser to vaporize targets. There were also drones in a humanoid form with bullets filled with depleted Uranium and liquid nitrogen; nitrogen which was to be used on Farenhart’s Magma Golems as an instant death, soundwave cannons with enough concussive blast to leave most enemies stunned; on Celsior’s army of Glacieroids, it would normally shatter them to pieces since they’re made of ice, and flamethrowers in case the sound cannon didn’t work. Megan activates the defenses and that keeps Farenhart’s men at bay for the time being.
When Farenhart saw the turrets pop up, he stopped immediately and let his soldiers take the hits. Most the golems survived the bombardment of laser fire and nitrogen shells as they plow through, destroying them all on a direct course up to the mansion.
“It’s not working. There’s just too many.”
“Wait and see, Miss Starla.”
The golems then ran right into an energy field, which generated enough electricity to send a mild shock through their system. The golems, which hit head on, fell, and as electricity surged through them, they were reduced to piles of ash.
After they take notice to the image on screen, Caitlin high-fives Bradshaw excitedly.
“Guys, I’ve found the others. Sapphira took them aboard Ling Khan’s ship. You think you can handle Farenhart on your own?”
“Where are you going?” Max asked Starla.
“I’m gonna get’em.”
“Are you sure that’s such a good idea?”
“I’m probably the only one who can talk some sense into Sapphira.”
At the same time in Greenland, Cameron and Christi infiltrate Celsior’s lair in hopes of obtaining the chestplate. Seductra had entrusted them with this task in her weakened condition despite their many failed attempts at their other assignments.
They checked the guard posts seven times; Several Glacieroids roamed the halls in synchronization.
Cameron and Christi split up and continue scanning the area. The enemy showed no sign of being tired as they go over the same paces hour after hour, which left Cameron scared.
Christi crept down the corridor with soft footfalls and approaches the throne room. She clung to her right side and eventually took cover in a small crevice once she heard footsteps coming her way. She breathed slowly into her mask and pulled out her sword. She held it high, ready to strike if the enemy were to find her in this spot. The Glacieroid walked past and didn’t even notice her. She snuck behind it and moved on until she heard the sound of Celsior’s voice.
He stood in front of the screen as Farenhart patched himself in and gave a status report of his latest home invasion. In the background, his soldiers stand their ground near the electric force field, looking for a weak point.
“The field is weakening, but I don’t know how many more Magma Golems I can spare…” Farenhart explained.
“Just keep trying, brother.”
“It would go along better if you were here helping me.”
“I told you, I need to guard the chestplate. I can’t very well do that if I’m there; and we’d risk losing it if I brought it with me.”
“Just keep it safe, it’s no use to us if it’s gone.”
After the transmission ended, Celsior heard a commotion in the other room; Cameron and Christi had run into a bit of resistance upon exiting the lair with the chestplate.
In the three minutes it took Celsior to find them, they had destroyed a dozen Glacieroids and got out; returning to their home, they present Seductra with the chestplate. She was most pleased with their success that she shared the rest of her plans with them. “Farenhart’s attempting to get the jewels from the rangers. What we’ll do is wait for them exchange hands before we make our move.”
As soon as he came up with a plan, Farenhart orders his Magma Golems to fall back; Max and Caitlin looked confusedly at the screen, wondering what their enemy was planning to do next. When they had found where Farenhart and his men settled, they made a discovery; as he stood there, his magma golems fought each other in a free-for-all that lasted somewhere around 20 to 25 minutes.
“I don’t get it; what are they doing?” Caitlin asked.
“Yeah, why are they all fighting?”
“Believe me, Master Max, I’m just as baffled as you two are,” Bradshaw replied.
Farenhart shifted his eyes left and right as the magma golems continued slashing, kicking, punching, and throwing energy beams at each other from their eyes. On occasion, he would yell out to them to encourage or discourage them; the weaker ones of the army went down in a single hit while the stronger ones kept going until they couldn’t carry on anymore. Finally, the army of magma golems was down to one and Farenhart stepped forward, right arm out. He emitted jolts of red lightning from his fingertips, which surged through the golem, granting him more power than he could ever imagine. The creature’s new form was a darker shade of red armor from the neck down to the toes, more muscular, a helmet with giant oval shape ears, a red and gray respirator, and an orange cape similar to Farenhart’s. This new creation was named Kilovac and Farenhart hoped it would be able to penetrate the force field surrounding the mansion. Part of its power is that it can absorb any excess amount of energy. Kilovac took the lead as he and Farenhart approach the mansion again. Using his knuckles, Kilovac pounds the force field relentlessly; instead of the field blasting him back like it did with the other magma golems, the electricity, which generated the dome, was being channeled through him with each punch. Eventually the dome cracked. The rangers weren’t sure how long it would last, but they prepared for the worst if and whenever it was bound to come.
Meanwhile, in Cuba, Wulf was at the mercy of Marcella. Same as Willis, Phoebe, Meerlix, and Alex, he was chained up by his wrist in a dark room with the queen of evil herself, Marcella Gomez, circling him like a hawk.
“Level with me, Marcella. This isn’t about the girl, is it?”
“Hmph… what makes you so sure?”
“You could’ve just sent a video to the president with a ransom demand, stating how much you wanted. Instead, you waited until we arrive. Why’s that?”
“Truthfully, we did it just to lure your amigo here.”
“Samuel is hardly my ‘amigo’,” Wulf scoffed. “But why do you want him so badly?”
“He didn’t say.”
“And who’s ‘he’?”
“An anonymous third-party; he sent us an encrypted message outlining the details of the assignment he wanted us to carry out; said he wanted us to deliver Samuel to him.”
“Well then, I suppose you got more than you bargained for.” Wulf said calmly.
“He also requested you.”
“Now who would want lil old me?”
“I told you I don’t know. Now unless you want me to hand you over to him/her, you’d better tell me what I want to know; where is your friend? Where have you sent him?”
“Why should I tell you?”
“I’m trying to cut a deal, usted perra testarudo. You give him up, you get to go free.”
“If your boss wants me, then how will that work?”
“I’ll fake your death.”
“I highly doubt that.”
The whole time that they talked, Wulf was planning his escape. He cut through part of the chains using Zierian’s power to make it seem like he’s still tied up. He would wait for the right time before he’d strike. Wulf tuned her voice out as he monitored the three armed guards that stood beside him in the shadows by closing his eyes and using a power he called “blindsight”. This power allowed him to see living things in the surrounding area as either blue or red auras. The guards and Marcella were highlighted red in Wulf’s mind to show that were the enemy. He scoped around the room for his weapons, wherever they lied before he sprang into action. He latched onto the chain with one hand as his feet hit the floor and then whipped it at the guard to his right. as it hit his jaw, his face rotates 45 degrees in the opposite direction before he spirals and drops to the floor. Wulf turns his attention to the guard on the left, grips his ankle with the chain, and yanks it forward; the man is swept into the air quickly and then he dropped. Before hitting the floor, his head hit the table. The third guy, Wulf did a forward roll seconds before the first bullet left the chamber of his rifle. He pushes the gun to the right with one hand, then backhands the guy in the jaw with the other, and uses him as a human shield until a bunch more guards storm in. with his human shield, he looks over to the table with his weapons lying on top and maneuvers slowly; his eyes shifting back and forth from the table to his opponents. He pulls the gun attached to the man’s hip, then throws him down and quickly picks up his weapons from the table before the gunfire commences. Without thinking, he shields his body from fire with his sword and fires back. But instead of aiming for the soldiers, he sets his sights a bit higher; the light bulb in the center of the ceiling. As soon as it goes dark, Wulf knew he had the advantage. None of them had nightvision goggles on them; neither did Wulf, but he didn’t need them seeing as he had the power of blindsight.
Marcella couldn’t see, but she had a feeling Wulf was smiling at them maniacally. Her men fire blindly, hoping they hit something, but with Wulf’s speed and agility, he evades and quickly makes his way towards them. The sound of metal scraping against flesh and bone could be heard all around Marcella and there was nothing she could do. She cringed whenever she heard the sound of Wulf’s sword cutting through flesh. She screamed whenever she felt a bloodied limb of one of her comrade’s fly by her. When the gunfire and swordplay ceased, she knew she’d be next seconds before she made her way to the door. She tries to open it, but it only budged slightly; someone or something was holding it closed.
“Where you going?” Wulf whispered.
She took her hands off the door and turned away from it. She dropped to her knees and begged for her life in Spanish.
“You know… I could’ve escaped anytime I wanted to, but this way it’s much more fun. I do this sorta thing for a living where I’m from; hunting people like you. You think this little scare tactic of yours was going to work on a guy like me? You’re kidding yourself. I’ve gotten out of much tighter spots than this,” Wulf explained over the sound of her whimpering. “You see, I only let myself get captured to confirm my suspicions about you. Now that I found out what I wanted to know, I have no further use for you.”
“What’ll you do next?”
Wulf takes a bit of rope, ties it around Marcella’s neck, drags her to the center of the room, hoists her up, plops a chair under her feet, and replaces the light bulb he shot out, so she can get a clear view of him before he performs the deed. “Hate to leave you hanging, but I gotta run…” he said before kicking the chair from under her.
Moments later, more soldiers storm into the room to the sight of their boss’s lifeless body and no sign of Wulf. Unbeknownst to them, Wulf was perched above the doorway in the darkness like a spider. As soon they all march in, he quietly jumps down and exits the room. He morphs into his ranger form as he casually strolls down the hallway, unsure of where he’s going.
Just then, a small explosion occurs further down the hall. Samuel comes from around the corner, ranger form and all.
“I got rid of you for a reason. Why’d you come back?”
“I couldn’t just leave you.”
“How touching; but I could’ve found my own way back. I didn’t need your help.”
“Sure you didn’t…”
“Where are Olive and the girl?”
“They got on the boat. They’re safely making their way back to the states.”
“How are you sure?”
“For some odd reason, the soldiers pulled back once they had you. It was smooth sailing all the way to the dock.”
“I’ll be right back…”
“Where the hell are you going?”
“I just need to check something. I’ll meet you outside.”
Samuel hesitates for a moment and then follows after Wulf.
At this time, Starla beams aboard Sapphira’s ship. She searches high and low for her friends, going from door to door with no success so far. She managed to remain undetected despite the amount of security cameras which lined the hallways. She would duck in and out of rooms whenever she heard footsteps of random Konglatons patrolling the area as well as take down the ones she could not avoid. Soon enough, Sapphira caught up with her. She unsheathed her sword and pointed it towards Starla from several feet away as she calmly talked to her.
“Wasn’t enough that you killed my real father; you had to go and kill someone who was ‘like’ a father to me.”
“That’s not how it went down, Sapphira. You have to believe me.”
“Why should I?”
“Because Ling Khan is deceiving you, he…”
“Shut up! You’re just like the others; lying to protect your own skin.”
“He’s manipulating you. He let me take the fall for this and destroyed any evidence in order to gain your trust. He needed you on his side to help him obtain the Karma Lunari so he can take over the galaxy.”
“No. he wanted to obtain them to keep them out of the hands of someone like you. Taking over the galaxy was your plan; my father figured it out and you killed him.”
“You are so gullible. Wake up to yourself. Would someone who wanted to keep a person like me from ruling the world cause as much destruction as he did?”
“He did that to draw you out. What’s a little collateral damage compared to what you had in mind?”
“You know what? I’m done explaining myself. You need to see this.” Starla pulls a tape from her pocket and throws it over to Sapphira. “That was lying in a bush after we defeated Ling Khan.”
“What is it?”
The tape showed Ling Khan and Sapphira’s dad standing near a huge lake surrounded by trees, park benches, and a beautiful, dark blue sky. Several seconds in, Sapphira’s father paces back and forth while he listens to Ling Khan talk; there was no audio, so neither Sapphira nor Starla could make out what was being said. Towards the end, they see her father stabbed and killed. Ling Khan pulled him close to utter a few last words before he let go and let him fall to the ground. Sapphira couldn’t believe it; everything Starla and her friends said turned out to be true. She decided to free the others. She told the Konglatons guarding the cage to stand down as she approached with a set of keys.
“Starla…”
“Are we glad to see you; what took ya so long?”
“Never mind; it’s great that you’re here.”
“Glad to see you finally came to your senses,” Alex added.
“Starla finally showed me the light,” Sapphira replied. “I’m sorry about torturing you.”
“It’s okay.”
“Starla, you’re not gonna believe this. The Shadow rangers are back.”
“What? How can that be?”
“I dunno; they were with her and a bunch of Konglatons when we were kidnapped.”
“There was something weird about them, too. They had this strange purple glow in their eyes.”
“Let’s discuss this once we get back.”
“Yeah, about that, Willis; the mansion is under attack.”
“What? By whom?”
“Farenhart; he’s after the jewels. We managed to keep him at bay with Samuel’s defense system, but I fear it’ll only be a matter of time before he breaks through.”
“Well then let’s get moving.”  

[Samuel Grant]

Chapter 49
The swarm: playing things close to the “chest”

Farenhart’s monster finished breaking through the force field and was already at the rangers’ front doorstep. As soon as he pounds the doors down, he steps through first before several dozen Magma Golems do the same. They came from different areas of the mansion like a spider crawling out of a hole in the ground after their home has been disturbed. They came in from the ballroom, the kitchen, the sun deck, upstairs balcony near the back of the house; they had everywhere covered.
Max and Caitlin come up from the command center already in their ranger forms and ready for battle despite the number of Magma Golems there are. This was the largest number of enemies they’ve faced in a single day and it was just the two of them for now. Well three if you counted Bradshaw. He stood by Caitlin and Max’s side through this whole ordeal.
The longer they fought, the more the place was getting torn apart as both sides toss each other into the walls and towards furniture, causing it to tip over and break.
While the rangers were preoccupied, Farenhart casually walks past them towards the command center; Megan locks the door as soon as he approaches and gives him a hard time. Farenhart grips the knob firmly and jerks it forward, but the latch wouldn’t budge.
“You are not authorized to access this area of the mansion.”
“Obviously you two haven’t met; that’s Megan, she’s Samuel’s computer brain. She controls most of the house.” Caitlin explained which made Farenhart turn around. “Step away from the door.”
“I don’t think so. I’ve come too far to just let some teenagers get in the way of my plans for world domination.”
“You should’ve stayed at home…” Caitlin throws her left fan and Farenhart quickly swats at it with his right sword.
Caitlin had used that attack as a distraction so she could maneuver in close. She flew at Farenhart as stiff as a board, arms pointed straight back to stabilize her flight and then pointed them straight up as she tackled him down the hallway. When they reach the end of the long corridor, Farenhart plants his feet firmly to stop Caitlin from shoving him any further. He then elbows her in the spine and tosses her aside. With a single kick, he causes her to crash through the door and into the gym. While on her back, Caitlin holds up her palms and fires at Farenhart. Her shots miss and hit the ceiling above the doorframe, causing Farenhart to do a forward roll into the room. When Caitlin came into view, Farenhart fires back at her and she stumbles over a weight lifting bench.
“Stay outta my way if you know what’s good for you, little girl.”
As soon as Farenhart turned his back, Caitlin popped up. Her right arm shot out and released a miniature gray disc-like item, which hit with a ding sound Farenhart in the back of the head; like a fight announcer ringing the bell. Getting his attention, Caitlin then tossed an even larger disc at him.
Farenhart leaned to his left and the disc slides past and crashes through a wall. He looked back for a split second and then directed his attention back at Caitlin. As she hurtles towards him, he disappears. He then reappears behind her and latches onto her right ankle as he swings her around, releases, and launches her back towards the weights. Farenhart gave her a moment to shake it off and then leaps at her. He then realized this was a mistake as she sends him flying to the left with a massive swing from one of the barbells.
Farenhart bounces and tumbles and knocks chairs and benches out of his way as he hurtles towards the huge mirror which stretched from one corner to the next and shatters a section of it.
Max and Bradshaw fanned out to have more room to fight the horde. Bradshaw took to the upper levels where a multitude of the red, lava rock beasts gathered. With an extensive knowledge of mixed martial arts, Bradshaw stuck mostly with Muay Thai as he battered the magma golems senseless across the living room floor. He had one of them pinned to the floor as he landed one elbow strike after another to its forehead before he was interrupted. He took a frontal kick to the waist, rolled off his previous opponent, and immediately sprung up onto his feet.
Two magma golems rush him, grab him by the arms, and drag him backwards towards the piano in the center of the room. He managed to escape their grip with a couple of kicks and punches, but as he stumbled back, he was greeted by a sudden vibration in the floor; the ground rose up and burst open like a volcanic tube, except instead of spewing out lava, it shot Caitlin straight through. Bradshaw was knocked on his butt and Caitlin landed on her back over the piano.
Farenhart was the next to come through the hole in the floor. He shot straight up like a blazing fire and then returned to his natural state before Bradshaw and Caitlin.
Several minutes later inside of Marcella’s base when Wulf and Samuel infiltrate the computer room, they rapidly approach the main computer in the back of the room; a gigantic screen sitting on the wall over a large console, Wulf asks Samuel if he can hack into it.
Samuel asks him why he’s doing this and Wulf answers, “Marcella said that an anonymous figure contacted them and put out a hit on us. If we’re lucky, Marcella hasn’t deleted the transmissions; which means we may find the answer we’re looking for.”
They hear the soldiers at the door, pounding; trying to bust in.
“I can’t do this without you, Samuel.”
“We could’ve just got out of here and forgot all this.”
“Just do your thing; I’ll cover you.”
“Here, at least use this…” Samuel tosses Wulf his gun.
Wulf was standing behind Samuel, back turned as Samuel go to work. Samuel had hacked in using Megan to speed things along. He immediately had her sweep through all the folders in present view before anyone could find out what he was up to. In three minutes, she had found what Wulf had Samuel to search for; an audio conference call between Marcella and a digitally edited voice, outlining the mission parameters for her and her men to carry out. as Samuel downloaded the file, he tried hacking in some more to see what else he could find. Just then, something popped up on the screen; it was another conference call between the same anonymous voice and a man, who presumably was supposed to be the replacement for the late Marcella Gomez.
“Shouldn't you maybe get outta there before they find you man?” Wulf asked, a little nervous.
“In a minute, there’s another incoming call from our mystery man.” Samuel attempts to run a trace on the IP address that, at the moment, didn't exist.
“I calculate we have less than ten minutes before they break down that door. There’s an alternate route in the vent to your left, but we have to move now.”
“You could take’em all on with your eyes closed; literally. Why is it all of a sudden, you feel like running?”
“I have my reasons; now can you get on with it?”
“I almost got it… Wulf? You’re not gonna believe this.”
“What?”
“You need to see for yourself, c’mon over here.”
“I had my suspicions, but I never thought…” Wulf stopped midway through his sentence as he was shocked at what he saw; a picture of General Daniel Creed staring back at him and Samuel.
“I’m just gonna copy this and… we’re outta here.”
The soldiers bust through the door and find Samuel and Wulf were gone. Wulf left the air vent open to convince them they were still in the base somewhere, when they really teleported back to the mansion.
“What the hell happened?”
“Max and Bradshaw were right here and so were a bunch of magma golems. They split up; Bradshaw went to the upper levels and fought them from there.” Wulf continued into the next room as he followed several sets of footprints, “Max fought one of Farenhart’s monsters over here after taking down a couple hundred golems; he defeated him here. As for Caitlin, she stopped Farenhart from getting into the command center. Judging by the condition of the door, she was only able to keep him occupied temporarily. Farenhart absconded with the jewels.”
“What, how do you even know that?”
“I have a nose for this sorta thing; plus… part of it is what I would’ve done if I was in his place.”
“It was just the three of them?”
“Phoebe, Willis, Meerlix, and Alex were responding to a distress call. It was later found out that Sapphira kidnapped them as part of a revenge plot,” Starla explained.
Samuel and Wulf accompanied her down to the command center and as soon as they saw Sapphira stand before them, they jumped.
“It’s okay, she’s with me.”
“A lot has changed since we were gone…”
“We had a situation in Cuba; President’s daughter was kidnapped, we had to get her back.”
“You know, you could’ve just said ‘it’s a long story’…”
While Samuel kept telling the story, Farenhart and Celsior meet up outside the base. It was by Celsior’s choice that they meet outside, so Farenhart wouldn’t melt the place down. Celsior tells him how he lost the chestplate which makes him furious.
“I knew I should’ve held onto it.”
“You’d like that, wouldn’t you? You hold onto it, collect the jewels, and cut me out. We’re in this together, brother. Anyway, why are we bickering? We should take this time to get it back.”
Farenhart looks as Celsior and Celsior looks back; the two look into each other’s eyes like each could tell what the other was thinking. Instead of telling his brother where they were going right away, Celsior just reached Farenhart’s hand and off they went in a portal that was a mixture of red and blue. They materialize near Cameron and Christi’s exact location in some factory area to hear them having a conversation.
“Don’t you think we should get this back to Seductra?”
“Why should we? Once we have the jewels, we’ll have all the power of the known universe. I don’t plan on giving it up.”
Celsior cleared his throat as he and Farenhart approached and draw their weapons.
“We want… the chestplate.”
“Well, it seems we each have something other wants. I want the jewels; you want the chestplate. The only way you’ll get this back is if you pry it from my cold, lifeless hands.”
“I was hoping you’d say that. Now things are getting interesting.”
While they fought, Wulf and the others stayed at the mansion as Wulf completed the ritual of re-energizing the medallions. Samuel, Phoebe, Max, Starla, Willis, Caitlin, and Meerlix place them on the shield around the gold medallion in the center. Each one glowed as brightly as the moon when the sun’s light bounces off it in the night sky as it gave off light, which corresponded with the individual colors as the golden medallion in the center transferred its power through them. All the rangers could do was stare as they waited on the process to be completed. They stood around Wulf for minutes at a time, while their adversaries fought over the jewels. By the time the medallions were fully energized, Celsior and Farenhart took the chestplate from Cameron and Christi with very little effort. After Farenhart placed the individual jewels on the front of this mystical artifact, Celsior watched him put it on and he quickly began to change. His armor around his arms, chest and legs shrunk slightly. The part around his legs and chest took on a black and grayish metal hue while his shoulder pads grew two long spikes and developed a dark blue shade. His helmet then covered most of his face so that only his demonic orange eyes remained. Three horns sprouted from his head; the two on the outside grew larger than the middle one. He held out the white-bluish glove of his right arm and bombarded the ninja girls with wave after wave of fire. As they retreat, Farenhart turns to his brother with a maniacal expression resting upon his face. In that moment, Celsior knew; but it was too late for him to do anything about it. Farenhart’s attack melts straight through his abdominal region like a flaming poker going straight through a block of ice, leaving a huge gaping hole 4 inches wide. Celsior uses his staff to keep himself standing as he asked his brother in a soft whisper, “Why?”
“This world only needs one ruler. I’m sorry, brother,” he answered insincerely just before he gripped him by the neck. He tightens his grip and sends intense heat through his palm and into Celsior, who slowly started to melt away until only his head remained. Farenhart grips even tighter and shatters it to pieces.
About several hours later, the rangers arrive to find the area was abandoned. They immediately see shards of ice on the ground, which were the remains of Celsior. Wulf scoops up a handful and looks at them for a brief moment before he drops them again.
The good news here was the rangers had one less villain to worry; the bad news was that Farenhart now has the power of the Lunar Goddess in his possession. he can do anything he wanted and no one could stop him.
“So what’s the plan here, Samuel?”
“Same as always, Alex; we get the jewels back and save the world.”
“But he’s got more power than all of us combined.”
“Alex, when has someone being more powerful ever deterred us from our duty?”
“Starla’s right, we can’t give in now. Not when we’ve come so far.”
On the Eastern seaboard, in a scorched version of New York, people flee in terror after they see Farenhart stomping down 5th avenue as a giant, red dinosaur made entirely out of rock with pentagon shaped discs coming out of its back along the spinal cord; thin Tyrannosaurus Rex-like arms longer than actual dinosaur’s arms and huge, feet several yards in length that could crush cars, tanks, and almost anything in a single stomp, and a large tail about the same length as its body.
The NYPD was there trying to contain the beast with a wave of small arms fire. Despite their attempts being futile, they continue to fire until the beast direct its attention at them. that’s when they start running.
Farenhart leans his head back, breathes in deep, and sends a wave of fire their way. Most of the cops got burned alive while others made it to safety behind several large tanks surrounded by national guards. Their turrets were locked onto Farenhart’s heat signature and ready to fire. Upon impact, he was pushed back a few inches by every tank shell and every rocket that hit his tough shell in a huge, fiery explosion. As the smoke cleared, it became apparent that they would need something larger to penetrate Farenhart’s armor.
Minutes later, the army scrambles fighter jets and gunships to take down the target.
Farenhart, once again, flinches when hit with wave after wave of missiles and 50.cal rounds. As soon as the jets fly over his head, he turns and sends balls of fire after them as they speed away and prepare to turn. The fireballs then sprout wings, a head and beak about several inches long.
“Mayday. Mayday, we got bogies on our six!”
While the beasts, which Farenhart refer to as “Phoenix Flyers” chase the pilots all over the city, Farenhart attends to the gunships. With one swing of his tail, he sends the first of them in a tailspin. In a chain reaction, that helicopter slams into another helicopter, which slams into another one; sending three gunships hurtling towards the troops on the ground.
Soldiers scramble in every direction, screaming and swearing just moments before the choppers come down and collide with the tanks, sending shards everywhere.
The two helicopters that remained, Farenhart grabbed them with his huge, scaly dinosaur hands, crushed them with all his strength, and threw them to the ground.
The few soldiers that remained in the area were now trapped in a ring of fire created by the debris from the tanks and helicopters that littered the street.
Several minutes later at the forward operating base…
“Sir, we’re having a bit of trouble with that giant lizard thing.”
“What’s the problem?” General Creed asked.
“Our weapons are ineffective; sort of.”
“What do you mean ‘sort of’?”
“We pelted it with tank gun fire, rockets; we even sent in F-35’s. We were able to make it flinch; nothing significant.”
Samuel Grant, who was listening in on the conversation, took that as a cue for him and his team to jump in.
The General looks to the sky as nine distinct shapes come into view over the base, heading towards the scene of the attack. “Right on time…” he said in a hushed tone with an evil grin.
”We’re gonna need to keep him focused on us so he doesn’t tear the whole city apart. We got Sapphira down below. She’s trying to contain some of the madness, but there’s still the matter of those flying things. Alex, Starla, Phoebe and Meerlix, I’ll need you to take care of the Phoenix flyers. While they’re dominating the skies, it’s gonna be difficult for the soldiers to do their thing. The rest of you are with me on taming Godzilla over here.”
After traveling several blocks through the ruined New York City, Alex, Starla, Phoebe and Meerlix break formation on Samuel’s command. Samuel, Wulf, Caitlin, Max, and Willis quickly close in on Farenhart from behind and then break formation to attack. Samuel stayed on course for a few yards, then stops and fires from the wrist a rocket the size of a cigar, which hit Farenhart in the neck with an explosion the size of a rock. The force from the rocket felt like a giant bee sting, but it got Farenhart’s attention. He gripped his nape with his left claw and rubs up and down to sooth the pain before he turns to Samuel with a huge roar.
Wulf, Caitlin, Willis, and Max hovered in a square shape around Farenhart’s chest; Farenhart violently reacts to the random fire from all sides, roaring and convulsing, and then swinging his tail. On the first swing, he knocks Caitlin for a loop. His next one was aimed at Willis, who dropped just below it and let it pass right over him; Max grips the tail firmly as he swings towards him at the speed of a wrecking, and then Wulf comes in, gripping his sword with both hands, flying at sonic speed, sword pointing straight down. He reached Farenhart’s tail in an instant and quickly brought it down, slicing through a Samurai sword through bamboo. Instead of blood, drops of magma leaked from the severed body part and quickly stopped as the wound started healing and the tail started to grow back.
“Any more bright ideas?” Wulf asked.
“Uh… yeah; I didn’t actually plan for that…” Samuel laughed softly in embarrassment just before getting backhanded by Farenhart and sent soaring through an office building window.
Pushing himself forward by the grace of his palm thrusters, Max lands a frontal kick to the jaw, knocking Farenhart into the building opposite of the one Samuel flew into; it was a large building, about three-quarters the size of the empire state building, three yards wide, seven yards long and painted a dark red. Farenhart proceeded to climb to the top, but halfway up, Samuel, Willis, and Caitlin shoot him down and he lands on his back after a three-hundred and thirty foot drop.
Alex, Starla, Phoebe, and Meerlix were immediately alert; their thrusters were on high as they led the flyers on a chase. Maneuvering through the maze of building, the four began to roll somewhat lethargically from one side to the next, avoiding fireballs that were coming at light speed on their way to Central Park. “Ugh, these angles aren’t making things any easier,” they thought as they kept going.
To thin out the herd, they separate into two men groups. Alex and Phoebe took the right; Starla and Meerlix took the left.
Meerlix flipped onto his back. Keeping his balance, he managed to look back and fire at his pursuers with impeccable aim before turning over and banking left. He took half of the Phoenix Flyers with him as he moved further and further away from Starla.
Starla gradually sunk to street level. She figured if she could use her powers on the street lamps, she could eliminate most of her followers. She was right. She took out ten to fifteen of them before they started learning to evade.
Phoebe and Alex rapidly blow through the intersections, slowly approaching a dead end. The enemy shot several balls of fire at the rangers’ rear, but thinking quickly, Phoebe deflected them using Samuel’s nanobot shield. Their pursuers immediately maneuvered around the contained explosion and came at them faster than before. Alex and Phoebe still flew towards the intersection. Four blocks away from the huge building blocking their way, Phoebe banks right, but Alex kept on going.
“Alex, you see the building, right?” Phoebe asked with great concern as she saw Alex showed no signs of slowing down.
Before Alex could answer, the Phoebe Flyers pass right by Phoebe on their way up to him.
Alex quickly lowered himself as he murmured, “C’mon.” he glanced behind him and saw his pursuers getting closer. He turned his attention back to the building right in front of him. “Deploy flaps!” he shouted. The back of his suit opens up and four large metal flaps decrease wind resistance. With the added help from the flight stabilizers, he comes to an abrupt stop. Seconds after, he shoots straight up and runs a parallel line with the skyscraper while the flyers have a head-on collision.
Phoebe was too hooked on Alex’s antics that she failed to notice a group of Magma Golems on the adjacent building. She was blasted out of the sky before she even knew what hit her and landed in between several Konglatons while they were in a fight against Magma Golems.
On the rooftop behind Phoebe’s attackers, Sapphira appears.
Sapphira is immediately interrupted by Seductra once more.
“So now you’re helping the rangers, are you?”
“I only did what I did out of revenge. I thought Starla killed my father and it turned out I was wrong. What’s your motive for revenges; a busted ship or a love life that coincided with your line of work?”
“The ship could be replaced; with the right material on this festering ball of rock and dirt, I’d be well on my way to creating a new spacecraft. But my army is irreplaceable.”
“I’m sorry to hear that, but I was just doing my job.”
“And so was I! With the Karma Lunari, I was meant to be queen.”
“Well, why are you talking to me about it? Take it up with Farenhart.”
“I will as soon as I deal with you first!” Seductra unsheathed her sword and faced Sapphira in a fit of rage. Her anger soon turned to confusion as she noticed Sapphira didn’t draw her sword.
“We’re alike, you and I; we both spent our lives plotting revenge. You know what?”
“What?”
“It’s not gonna make you feel good inside.”
“Thank what you want; you’re kidding yourself.”
“Oh, so I’m kidding myself, huh? What about you and that Wulf character? Will killing him really bring you piece? So he was there to kill you, big deal. The point was he changed his mind, didn’t he?”
Seductra didn’t even respond to that question. She just stood there.
“And even if I was still motivated by revenge, there’s nothing I can do about it now. Ling Khan is already dead. I am too late.”
“So he fell by the rangers’ hands, huh? Prepare to meet a similar fate; by ‘my’ hands. You’ll be with Ling Khan and your real father soon enough.”
In the fight between, Samuel, Caitlin, Wulf, Willis, Max, and Farenhart; things were taken to ground level as Farenhart reverted to his original form; the one he donned after putting on the chestplate with all seven jewels. He draws his sword from his back as he confronts the rangers.
Max and Wulf came out, weapons drawn, throwing a flurry of energetic slashes. Showing great reactions, Farenhart blocked all the attacks and made it look effortless. Then, the Farenhart's rhythm was broken by a sudden jab to the jaw from Max. Farenhart quickly replied with a series of quick punches and slashes to Max's body. He tried to cover up, but every one of Farenhart's attacks hit their target. Max retreated and Caitlin joined Wulf’s side as he rushed up; Farenhart continued his body assault until Max and Caitlin's backs were to the ground.
Samuel lands one kick to Farenhart’s gut, which does nothing. Farenhart returned a slash diagonally across the chest and rocked him. With no wind in him to make a sound, he fell to his knees, mouth open, trying desperately to catch his breath. Wulf offered his hand, which Samuel took and was now breathing deep breaths. He pulled down on Wulf's hand and used it to pull himself to his feet, and at the same time Farenhart drew back his hand into a fist and drove it forward before unclenching it. the two clearly expected the tide of the battle to turn with Farenhart’s cheap move of summoning a ball of energy in his palm, but instead, Caitlin obstructed Farenhart’s view; with her fans held up over her face and chest, she swatted and slashes through everything that came her way.
Willis cried out as his Elephant axe hit Farenhart's metallic armor with a ting sound. Farenhart barely flinched before he turned and drove a heel kick to Willis’ body, that landed him near a fire hydrant.
Almost immediately after Wulf’s fist hits, Farenhart knocks him over with jumping knee strike to his stomach. Amazingly, Max caught Farenhart off guard with a laser blast; Farenhart stayed on his feet as he slid back and created sparks due to friction. Farenhart stopped and stuck his sword into the asphalt, sending a huge crack surging towards them as if an earthquake was happening. The vibration then pushed pieces of the ground up, which in turn sends them flying in every direction.
In a complete 180 degree turn of events, Samuel displayed an enormous amount of power as he fired almost every piece ordnance equipped in his suit; all that firepower pressed against Farenhart and detonated without leaving a single dent.
Farenhart walked through the flames of the aftermath and brushed his shoulders and the parts of his arms and without hesitation, he dropped Samuel to one knee; his chest impacting with Farenhart’s left shin before he falls and gets knocked out of his ranger form.
While Samuel took time to recuperate, Willis stepped in front of him to keep Farenhart at bay. As he held up both hands, he alternately fires shots from his palms. As the blasts hit, sparks fly off Farenhart’s armor while he kept marching forward. Finally, he and Willis come face to face. he grips Willis’ throat tightly and doesn’t let go. Willis breaks the connection with his right hand, but Farenhart quickly comes at him with the other arm and sends him sliding back towards Samuel and eventually falling on his back.
“You alright, son?”
“I’m fine, dad, how about you?”
“I’ll manage…”
“Samuel, please tell me you have a plan?”
“Wulf’s right; he’s just too strong,” Caitlin said.
As he strokes his chin, Samuel looks towards Farenhart and his son, Max at the same time that Willis jumps back into the fight. It takes him but a few seconds to come up with something. He looks to Wulf with a smile and says, “How about a lil Texas two-step?”
“What?” Caitlin asked in confusion.
“You’ll see, dear sister; c’mon, Wulf,” Samuel chuckled.
When Max and Willis go down, Wulf approaches from behind. He gets in a few lucky hits before Farenhart twists his arm with a Kung Fu grip, spins him around a couple of times and tosses him at Samuel, who, thinking quickly, slides under him on his knees. As the two meet, Wulf and Samuel lock while Samuel fires back at Farenhart. After he was done deflecting shots, he notices Wulf swing Samuel around and toss him into the air. Samuel flips and Wulf grips onto his ankle as the pair of them liftoff. Wulf takes aim at Farenhart successfully before Samuel swings him by the grace of his foot alone and lands him behind Farenhart. From there, Samuel dive bombs towards Farenhart from the front.
Farenhart is pushed back and Wulf shoves him forward as Samuel prepares for a superman punch. Farenhart dismisses the attack as he grabs Samuel by the wrist and pulls him down.
Wulf jumps in and climbs Farenhart’s back. As he grips tighter and tighter around his neck, Farenhart tries to shake him off.
Samuel gets on his feet and he and Wulf double team Farenhart.
Farenhart blocked their blows for a moment and then eventually selected his sword. He quickly slashed left, taking down Samuel, and then turned around and backhanded Wulf with a clenched fist. Wulf blocked, but he was pushed back by the blow.
At that time, Phoebe contacts Samuel; asking for assistance.
“Got it; help’s on the way,” Samuel explained. “Wulf, Caitlin; you’re up!”
Wulf nods and he and Caitlin fly to Phoebe, Alex, Meerlix, and Starla’s rescue.
Fifteen minutes and several miles away, tension rises as Alex, Meerlix, Starla, and Phoebe come face to face with a new foe. The Phoenix flyers, Farenhart’s newest creation, keep multiplying. More of them pop out of nowhere; taking the place of every 20 they’ve destroyed. It was a game of cat and mouse and they were the bait for some bloodthirsty Phoenix flyers.
All, but Starla, were running out of ammo as they fly around New York, zigzagging to avoid fire.
Passing by one of the builds Sapphira and Seductra were on top of, Starla and Meerlix turn their attention to the thousands of Magma Golems climbing the side like ants climbing a tree. They hug tight to the wall and fly up in between several Golems, which they knock off with random fire.
Meanwhile, up top, Sapphira and her Konglatons attend to few dozen Golems who managed to make it to the top to accompany Seductra as she takes her revenge.
Minutes later, Phoebe passes overhead with a dozen Phoenix flyers on her tail. She thins out the herd over the course of three blocks and then turns her attention to a big, brutish thug of a monster, which raced up the building, tearing bits of it out after every few feet it ascends. It reaches her level and jumps away from the side towards her. She slows down, covers her face as she cringes; awaiting the inevitable.
Just then, Alex collides with it and they both tear through the wall of an adjacent building; a bank. The top floors were fairly empty as the workers have all fled when Farenhart and his monsters arrived. So there was no one in the way to get hurt as Alex and the beast blast through floor after floor after floor until reaching the bottom. Alex was buried underneath the monster as well a pile of rubble from the several floors. After a few pushes and shoves, he managed to throw the carcass of the beast off of him. When he got up, he brushes the dirt off his shoulders, cracks his back and his neck and gets back into the fight.
After helping Phoebe get out of trouble, Wulf flies over Sapphira and Seductra’s location. Sapphira lied flat on her back with Seductra pointing a sword at her; her weapon was out of reach and Seductra was about to deliver the final blow when Wulf interrupted. As he de-morphs, he stands in the open with his weapon sheathed while he looks into Seductra’s eyes.
“You again? Wait your turn, you flea-bitten mutt.”
“Leave the girl alone. Your fight is with me.”
“My fight is with both of you; her for destroying my ship and you for almost succeeding in killing me.”
“Gotta let go of that; revenge isn’t healthy for someone as beautiful as you..”
“You’re the second person to say that; she’s he first; also, flattery will you get you nowhere.”
“Look, I know I messed things up. I’m sorry for that.”
“It’s too late for apologies.”
“I wasn’t expecting you to accept it. Now, let the girl go. We can finish what we started.”
“I’ll get to you in a minute.”
“I’m not a big fan of waiting…”
“Alright then…” as soon as she steps away from the edge, it starts to crumble.
Wulf stood there until Seductra almost went over and then he reaches for her. He misses and then dives after her; donning his ranger form, he engaged thrusters and caught up to her just before they hit the bottom.
“Get off of me…”
“Is that anyway to thank your savior?”
“I wouldn’t have to thank you at all if you had let me fall. Don’t think this changes anything.”
“I wouldn’t expect this to…”
Instead of continuing, she left Wulf in the capable hands of Farenhart’s army.
“Great job getting rid of her, but why’d you save her life?” Sapphira asked. “Why allow her to live when her sole purpose is to kill to you?”
A few minutes later and hundreds of miles away, Seductra paces back and forth in her nieces’ home, wondering the same thing. She paced back and forth in the living room while Cameron and Christi sat on the couch, trying to watch their favorite TV show. Seductra stroked her chin while she tuned out the rest of her surroundings to be alone with her thoughts; unaware she was saying them out loud.
“He saved my live. Why?” she would constantly stop as she tried to ignore the sound of her nieces’ voice each time they took turns talking to her. “He must expect me to return the favor in some way; or at least forgive him.”
“Aunty, maybe this conversation would be better off…” Christi was cut off.
“Well, if he expects me to forgive for what he did, well almost did, then he’s got another thing coming.” Cameron interrupts Seductra’s train of thought this time, but she continued to ignore her as she mumbled, “Alright, Wulf, enjoy your lil battle, cuz when it’s over, you’re mine…”
“Now, what’s this I heard about tea?”
“I was offering to make you some. You seem stressed.”
“Of course I’m stressed. I can’t wrap my head around this whole situation with Wulf. Why’d he save me?”
Cameron pretended like she and Christi didn’t hear the conversation she was having with herself a few minutes ago. “I dunno, Aunty S. that Wulf Ninja Warrior’s a weird individual.”
“Something just doesn’t add up. Maybe he really has changed his mind about killing me.”
“Let’s not go that far, Aunty S.” Cameron replied.
“Yeah, if he didn’t want to kill you, why try so hard last year to do so?” Christi explained.
“So, Aunty, about that tea…”  

[Samuel Grant]

Chapter 50
I have dreamed a dream

Tensions mount back on the battlefield, but with Seductra gone, things got a little easier.
Sapphira was still battling the endless horde of Magma Golems, Starla, Wulf, Alex, Meerlix, and Phoebe kept flying around, battling Phoenix flyers and something brand new added to Farenhart’s list of creations; this new beast has been made from the combining of several Phoenix flyers and was a giant, red dragon-like figure with triangle shaped wings attached to its arms; almost like a Pterodactyl.
Alex and Meerlix used themselves as bait as Wulf separate from them with unknown intentions. Meerlix looks back nervously as the terrible beast extends its head to try and take a bite out of him and Alex. Alex was the only one who was calm as he steady faced forward. At the next intersection, Wulf comes dashing from the right; Alex was the first to notice him as he turns in the opposite direction and Meerlix immediately follows.
Wulf switches positions so his feet face the monster for a hard kick to the face. He shoves the beast to the ground quickly and tears up half the street and knocks Farenhart over as he does so. The beast was dead within seconds of impact, but Farenhart emerges from the rubble and shoves the monster’s carcass off of him.
“You can’t beat…” he was cut off as Starla flew in and bombarded him with beams of white light, which bounce off his armor, leaving burnt seconds that revealed the chestplate with the seven jewels perched atop.
In an instant, Samuel had another idea. “Starla, keep doing what you’re doing,” Samuel shouts. He then turns to the others and says, “Help her out. I need only but a minute.”
Max, Willis, Caitlin, Meerlix, Alex, and Wulf rush into battle and quickly separate as Starla flies past due to Farenhart’s attack. Meerlix distracts him with a few shots from his Hawk Crossbow to give the others a chance to get some lucky hits in; Caitlin strikes with her right fan first. It passes just inches from Farenhart’s neck as he leaned back to avoid it. he quickly strikes back with his sword and she spirals.
Meerlix cleaves bits of metal off Farenhart’s armor with each scratch as he manages to evade Farenhart’s swings.
“Meerlix, duck,” Alex yells as he comes at him and Farenhart with his Scorpion Saber. With the press of a button, he converts the weapon to its secondary mode and slings it like a Chinese warrior was wielding it. he strikes low, but Farenhart blocks and swings back with an open hand; fingers bent to simulate the claws of a wild animal. Alex ducks, reaches for his sidearm and fires back. He gets off one shot before Farenhart swats the weapon from his hand. At that time, Alex strikes high with his saber and wraps around Farenhart’s sword arm. He quickly turns his back to him, yanks on the weapon, arches forward and flips Farenhart over his shoulder.
Farenhart landed on his feet and was instantly struck in the back by Wulf. With anger in his eyes, he throws a back fist in attempt to knock him out, but misses.
Wulf then rises up and lands a left hook to the jaw. As Farenhart turns, Starla was there to push him back into Wulf’s arm just before her performs a suplex.
“Alright, it’s ready; get out of there!” Samuel exclaimed as he locks onto Farenhart’s signature with the WASP Stinger mark III. “Alright, Farenhart… it’s time to extinguish your flame,” Samuel muttered to himself just before he pressed the screen and sent a surge of blue energy from the sky and down over Farenhart’s position.
With his armor temporarily exposed in various areas, he was left himself wide up for attack. He convulsed as sparks flew from the holes on his armor. Within minutes, his whole body disintegrated; he took his army with him and left behind the chestplate, which expelled the jewels upon hitting the asphalt.
Sapphira stood on the rooftop with her army of Konglatons and was confused as to why the magma Golems just crumbled to ashes before her. One of her soldiers shrugs its shoulder and asks her in Gorilla language, “what happened”. She responded to the beast’s answer with a confused expression upon her face and an almost hushed tone, “We won.” She then looks to the sky, which was partly clear. There was no sign of any of Farenhart’s aerial creatures, the Phoenix flyers or any sign of disturbance at all.
She then joins the rangers at street level as they plan on taking the jewels with them.
Seductra dispatches Cameron and Christi to the scene to steal the jewels. They use smoke pellets to cover their escape once they have them.
Wulf accompanied Samuel to make sure he didn’t do anything drastic when he confronts General Creed.
“I gotta hand it to you, Samuel. I didn’t think you had it in you.”
“Well, the credit goes to my team; and to you as well, General. Without you, all of this wouldn’t be possible.”
“Something I thought I’d never hear you say, Samuel.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, last time we got this close, you put a gun to my head.”
“Don’t misinterpret my words, Daniel, I still resent you for stealing my ideas and poorly exploiting them in the way you did. That’s my life’s work and you just hire a thief to stroll in and take them in a single afternoon. But again, none of this would be possible without your interfering like you usually do. Obviously, I have you to thank for Alex McLaren.”
“Well then you’re welcome.”
“You mind if we talk in private? There’s another matter we need to discuss.”
“I think I know what this is about; everybody take a break. What, are you deaf? I said everybody out!”
Wulf discreetly passes in front of a table littered with spy equipment; listening devices, recorders, tracking devices, etc. With his back turned, he picks up a couple of things while Samuel and Daniel continue talking.
“While we were in Cuba, Wulf and I stumbled upon something fairly interesting.”
“Did you now…?”
“Actually, Wulf discovered it first; someone hired the terrorists to kidnap the President’s daughter so that you’d send us in. We were the fish and she was merely the bait to lure us in; the real target was us.”
“You don’t say…” Daniel replied with only half concern. “Did you find out who it was?”
“We…” Samuel was cut off by Wulf, who steps in front of him.
“We traced the IP address of a message sent to the leader, Marcella Gomez, back to you,” he finished Samuel’s sentence and then elbows him in the chest to shut him up. “That could only mean two things; you were the mysterious bankroller or someone else in your organization is. It’s only a matter of time before we find out the truth.” Wulf slowly approaches the General, who extends in arm as a means to defend himself if Wulf were to attack. Wulf twists his arm, pulls him close and puts him in a choke hold. “You can make it a lot easier on yourself if you just admit it was you or rat out the real traitor here; because nowhere where he or she goes, I ‘will’ find them.” He uttered softly into Creed’s ear.
“Wulf, that’s enough.”
Wulf hesitates before he does as Samuel orders him to and leaves with him; the general glances at their backs as they walk away.
“What the hell was that all about?”
“Your method was taking too long.”
“What method? He wasn’t meant to be made aware of what we found out in Cuba,” Samuel whispered.
After Samuel and Wulf left, several soldiers crept in from the shadows.
“What is your plan of action, master?” one of them asked.
“Yeah, shall we crush the rangers?”
“I know you were created for a purpose, but that purpose shall not interfere with my true intentions, is that clear?”
“Yes, master.”
“We stick the original plan. Samuel and his team won’t know what hit them.”
The rangers now enjoy another afternoon of peace around the house while they await word from the Megan about the whereabouts of Seductra and her nieces.
Meerlix, Starla, and Caitlin hang out by the pool; Alex, Bradshaw, Phoebe, and Samuel sit at the table, eating some of the delicious BBQ they never had a chance to enjoy before; Max, Zierian and Willis go for a swim; and Wulf wanders around the garden area by himself. Various insects such as dragonflies, butterflies, and bees pass by going from place to place as Wulf traverses the stone walkway and admires the trees and the flowers that lined alongside it. He never had to enjoy the simpler things in life with how he and his twin were constantly at war with each other back in the world he came from. So he figured he’d better enjoy it while he can since he was to be leaving soon.
He heard a hissing sound in the distance. Someone was calling out to him, but he wasn’t sure who. He figured it couldn’t be the other rangers, as no one knew he was here.
“Psst…” the voice said once again from whereabouts unknown.
Wulf finally pinpointed the exact location of who it was that was calling and pulls back the shrubbery to reveal it was Cameron.
She stands up once Wulf holds a blade to her neck and answers, “Seductra would like to see you. Meet her at these coordinates.”
Once Samuel finds out about this, he is not pleased with Wulf’s decision to go through with this. He literally protests to this as Wulf heads to the command center; Caitlin and Sapphira overhear and stop doing what they were doing so they could follow them.
“What’s going here?”
“He’s gonna go kill himself, that’s what’s going on.”
“Seductra asked to meet with me and I’m going; alone.”
“Wulf, it could be a trap, don’t go by yourself.”
“Yeah, what if she has an army waiting for you upon arrival?”
“Well, her ship was destroyed; she doesn’t have any Putras left.”
“Yep, it’s just her, Cameron, and Christi.”
“All the more reason for us to accompany you…”
“No!”
But despite Wulf’s best efforts to keep them away, they follow him down to the quarry. As Wulf said before, it was only the three of them; no Putras, no monsters, or anything.
“You know, I still can’t wrap my head around this; why’d you save me before? If you expect us to bury the hatchet, then you’d better get rid of that deluded fantasy once and for all; one good deed won’t redeem you of your past sin.”
“Look, I only did it, so we could finish what we started at a later date; not for you to forgive me or anything.”
“Alright then, if that’s how you want it… let’s finish this; with all your lil friends watching.”
“Just consider them as… referees.”
“Once we’re finished here, it’s over. I go back to my plans of ruling the galaxy.”
“Fine by me…”
“I get the feeling you’re not taking this seriously.”
“It’s because I’m not.”
“What? Why?”
“Look, I don’t wanna go through with this; and I’m certain you don’t want to, either.”
“Is that a fact?”
“Yeah.”
“Well how do you know what I’m thinking?” Seductra asked nonchalantly.
“I’ve learned to read people; their inner most thoughts, their behavior patterns, etc. etc. Trust me, I know.”
“You may ‘think’ you know, but you don’t.”
“You’re thinking ‘Wulf has no idea the damage he caused me. I opened up to him and he betrayed me the moment he told me he was there to kill me.’ I’ve apologized for that, Seductra, what more do you want?”
“For you to say it 50 more times; and not just 50 times in a row. You need to show me how truly sorry you are.”
Just then, Samuel interrupts, “Uh… guys? We have a problem.” He holds up his communicator and puts it on loudspeaker so Wulf, Seductra, Sapphira, Cameron, Christi, and Caitlin could hear.
Creed’s voice was on the other end. “Samuel, if you’re listening to this, then you and your friends are about 30 seconds away from death; you’ve been a worthy rival, but like the ancient city of Rome came to an end, so must you.”
“What the…”
“May god be with you…”
“Well, someone really hates you…”
Creed’s voice was replaced with static; Samuel tried to contact the others back home, but there was no response. Samuel left the area and when he finally returned to the mansion, it was in ruin. All that remained of the structure was burning wood, shattered glass and scorched furniture. There was no sign of Bradshaw or the other rangers.
He said with a whisper as tears streamed from his eyes and hit the rubble beneath his feet, “I have dreamed a dream; and now that dream is left me.” He goes from silent whimpering to a loud, drawn out, “No!” as he looked to the smoke filling the sky overhead.
What came next was Wulf tackling Samuel to the ground behind a chunk of the building just seconds before a passing UAV drone scopes the area.
Caitlin, who was right next to Samuel on the opposite side from Wulf, covers his mouth to keep him from giving away their position.
The vehicle was several hundred miles above their position and Wulf managed to see it coming and rescue Samuel. Samuel wasn’t surprised by this; Wulf has powers beyond what he can do.
He waited until the drone was gone before he started to wring Wulf’s neck. While he was still angry, he kept his voice down as he strangled him and said, “This is your fault! If you hadn’t gone blabbing to Creed, none of this would be happening!”
“Samuel, let him go,” Caitlin begged.
“Because of you, my sons and the others are dead!”
“He would’ve killed us either way, don’t you get that?!” Wulf shakes Samuel’s hands from around his neck and looks back at him in anger. “He wanted us dead so badly that he was willing to make a deal with the devil, the devil being a woman; Marcella Gomez. He wasn’t going to leave anything to chance; even if we did not know!”
“You didn’t have to physically assault him.”
“Actually, I did…” Wulf takes out the listening device he swiped from the General.
Creed was still unaware he was being bugged; Wulf, Samuel, Caitlin, and Sapphira heard every word, but he could not hear them. he rambled on and on as if someone else was in the room with him. Technically, there was, but not anyone he could physically see. He paced back and forth in a dark room with the only source of light in a lamp above him.
Just then, Alex’s counterpart enters the room to deliver the good news, “UAV recon confirms no signs of life at the Grant estate.”
“Send in the ground team to double check. If I know Samuel, he’s always got a few tricks up his sleeves.”
“Yes sir. But what about us?”
“Seductra has something that I want very badly; retrieve it for me, please.”
Wulf, Samuel, Sapphira, and Caitlin then decide to vacate the area. With nowhere to go, their options were limited.
“You’re the idea man, Samuel; I’m just the guy who likes to bust in like Rambo and tear the place up.”
“Wulf’s right, you got a plan?”
“At the moment, Caitlin, all I have is that we need to follow the shadow rangers’ trail back to Creed. After that, we’ll need ‘another’ plan.”
“Why would we need to follow them back to him?”
“Because I doubt the General will use the same base he used in Nevada.”
“You never know. He might still be there.” Wulf said.
“Wouldn’t hurt to check…” Sapphira replied.
“But he’s supposed to believe we’re dead, remember; Thanks to ‘Rambo’ over here.”
“You’re forgetting that I’m a master of stealth, Caitlin. They won’t even see me coming,” Wulf replied sinisterly.
“Sapphira, you’ll go to Seductra’s; Creed won’t expect you to be dead, since he doesn’t know you; Caitlin, you’re with me.”
“Where are we going?”
“You think the mansion is the only place that has a command center?” Samuel answered vaguely.
Half an Hour later, while the General is en route to his new base via jumbo jet, he receives words from the team that was investigating the site of Samuel’s mansion.
“Sir, the ground team confirms it; they’re all KIA.”
“I have lost a worthy adversary in him. Samuel Grant will be missed. How goes the development of Project Fortune?”
“The suits are being prepped to harness the power of the seven jewels as we speak. They should be shipped to the new base in a matter of hours.”
“I want them tested out so we know if they’re working properly before we install the jewels. Wouldn’t want the shadow rangers to use them when they’re malfunctioning now, would we?”
“No sir…”
From an abandoned warehouse district in Los Angeles, Samuel and Caitlin travel by motorcycle, heading west towards a lot which was used for storing shipping containers. On the fence surrounding the perimeter, there was a sign that read “Grant Industries private property. Trespassers will be prosecuted.” Samuel takes from his pocket a set of keys on a giant ring and after sorting through them, finds the one that fits the lock. He and Caitlin then proceed to the center of the lot where they find a large, green container. Inside it was a huge lift, which they rode down to the very bottom where they find a room exactly identical to the command center at the mansion, except with stone walls and a lights covering most of the ceiling except for the lift they came in on.
“Welcome back, sir,” Megan’s voice called out.
“You’re just full of surprises, aren’t you?”
“Nah, I’m just paranoid,” Samuel joked. Upon entering the code, Megan’s voice filled the room as she told Samuel and Caitlin they now had access to the various consoles and monitors spread out across the room. Samuel takes the new information they had gathered thanks to Wulf’s cleverness in attaching a listening device to Daniel Creed and plugs it into the computer. After putting it together with the encrypted message they discovered in Cuba, he was just about ready to hand it over to the military; he just had to make copies of it just in case the General gets a hold of the original and tampers with it; something he can give as evidence at his court hearing if such an event were to occur in the future.
Meanwhile, half an hour earlier, Wulf wanders the floors of Creed’s not-so-secret military base under cover of darkness. Wulf had a nose for trouble. He knew every soldier in the compound would converge at the bottom of the lift, guns at the ready, so he decided to get off early. After dropping several stories, Wulf enters a ventilation shaft. He comes to a slight drop after a few yards and grips the walls to slow his descent. He reaches the end of his fall and continues crawling around until he approaches the medical bay. He stealthily watches as the doctor operates on a patient before he moves further and further through the vent. The rest of the way, he navigates through like a mouse in a maze trying to find the cheese. Wulf hadn’t been here before, so he didn’t know which way to go. He had his eyes closed so he could use blindsight to locate everything and everyone. Below him, were two guards walking and talking about sports. Wulf stopped suddenly as his swords hit up against the sheet metal and alert the soldiers below. He held the sword behind his back to it wouldn’t cause any more trouble for him.
“Probably just rats or something,” soldier #1 said.
“Those must be some huge rats then,” said the other soldier as they walk away, still unaware of Wulf’s presence.
“With the experiments we got going on here, I wouldn’t be surprised…”
Wulf adjusted the sword it was mounted on his back and then moved on. half hour later, He makes his first stop at the morgue. As he passed by the vent over top of this room, he smelled something that aroused his suspicion. He dropped in from the ceiling and the first thing to hit his nose was the smell of formaldehyde and the first thing to hit him like several knives all over his body was a chilling embrace that made him feel what it felt like to be a frozen entrée. Ignoring the smell of embalming fluid, he let his nose guide him around. He approaches the drawer with the number “428” once he gets a whiff of something that peaks his interest and once he opened it, he was slightly surprised as what he saw and contacted Samuel to tell him what he discovered.
“Samuel, are you there?”
“I’m working on something right now, Wulf, what do you want?”
“I just wanna ask you something. Did Creed have a twin brother?”
“No he did not. Why?”
“Then something is seriously wrong here. I’m staring at his body in cold storage.”
“What?” Samuel asked in shock.
“It could just be a double; remember that movie ‘Swordfish’?”
“No, it’s really him. I can tell.”
“Well, you found him. Can you return to base now?”
“Not yet; I’m gonna have a look around, see what else he was planning before his untimely demise.”
“I can have Megan do that from here…”
“By the time you do that, he’ll be hot on your trail. My way is better.”
“Just be careful, Wulf,” Caitlin replied.
Seconds later outside of Cameron and Christi’s house, a huge battle ensues between Seductra, Sapphira, her nieces, and the shadow rangers for possession of the chestplate and the jewels that sit atop it.
Jinx shot her right glove out, popping her jab into Raven’s face twice. The Titan girl shook her head clear and tried to push Jinx back, but the witch clinched with her and pounded her fist into Raven’s abs.
Sapphira broke free of the brown shadow ranger’s grip with a fist to the jaw and then hammered her face with a left cross. She spiraled and came back with a spinning back fist to the cheek. Sapphira ducked and hit with an uppercut. The Brown shadow ranger’s head was pushed up by the force of the blow and she spiraled into the air.
The white shadow ranger grabbed Sapphira by the back of the neck and pulled her close with her left, then socked her body with a right belly punch.
Sapphira coughed, and then punched the shadow ranger’s cheek with a right hook. Starla’s counterpart’s head snapped in the opposite direction and Sapphira drew her sword to stab her in the back; but she turned into light and flowed around the blade, her body, and reassembles as she lands a kick to the back, which drove her right at the brown shadow ranger, who knocks her for a loop with a clothesline move.
Phoebe’s counter prepares for an axe kick. She holds her leg in place at face level with the back of her hands until it was time to let go and she released her foot with the full force of a bowling ball being dropped from up high; Sapphira rolls out of the way and as soon as she gets to her feet, she blasts the shadow ranger with light from the side, which hit with enough force to knock her to the ground.
The white shadow ranger leaps at Sapphira, wielding Starla’s Armadillo blades and Sapphira unsheathes her sword just in time to block.
Cameron stumbled back and swatted at her eyes as her vision became blurry. Before the blue shadow ranger could follow up, Cameron threw down a smoke pellet to blind him while she recovered. She started to move forward into the smoke, but Meerlix’s counterpart shoved her back with a series of scratches as he blindly swung at her in the thick, black cloud. Cameron responded with a powerful right to the ribs. Meerlix’s copy grunted and the red shadow shook Cameron’s skull with a right uppercut to the chin.
Cameron spat out blood as she stood there, stunned. The red shadow ranger took advantage and hit her on the chin with a left hook. Cameron stumbled back again, and waited for him to approach; but the blue shadow ranger took the red one’s place as he left off the tree to Cameron’s right and took her down with a right jab to the teeth. As Cameron reeled from that, the red shadow ranger leapt in, pounded his pill bug armor into the girl’s stomach, spiraled, and willed the armor to move over to his left side as he smacks her with a backhand.
Christi cringed as she took one step backwards at a time from the flood of hits from both the orange and black shadow ranger. She turns to her right and lands an elbow strike to the black shadow ranger’s chin, then turns to the left and throws a punch to the orange shadow ranger’s chest; then the black shadow ranger shoves her back with a frontal kick. Christi grabbed her leg, spun her, and performed a sweep of her other leg with her arm.
The black shadow ranger leaps at her with a flying punch and she grabs him by the wrist and throws him to the ground. When Christi performed a curb stomp on Alex’s double, he transformed into a snake and evaded her foot as he made indentations in the grass; Caitlin’s double hits Christi with a laser beam from her eyes, which Christi deflects with several swings of her blade the moment she unsheathed.
The black shadow ranger locks his Scorpion Saber around Christi’s weapon and quickly yanks it away like a toy from a child as he pulls out his laser weapon and fires off two shots.
As Christi falls, Seductra attacks the shadow ranger by throwing a bag of explosive ninja powder at him and igniting it with a laser blast. As he fell, Christi rose. She turned to her aunt and gestures with a ‘thumbs up’ before they both turn their attention back to their opponents.
Fifteen minutes later, inside the base, Wulf gains access to the lab under the guise of one of the scientists so he doesn’t arouse suspicion. He needed a username in order to login, so he listened to the PA system until he found one he could pronounce: Evelyn Cunningham. Within seconds, he had access to every file on every computer; one that he found intriguing was a folder marked top secret. As eh clicked on it, Wulf found it needed a passcode. He ran a decryption that he got from Samuel and then sits around, waiting for it to finish.
In another part of the building, one of the commanding officers is alerted to Wulf’s actions.
“Can you pinpoint the exact location?”
“I’m doing that right now.”
Wulf had now come to realize that they may be on to him and what he’s trying to do. So he gets up out of the chair, turns the monitor off and takes to hiding.
The soldiers kick down the door and rush in in a double file line to an empty room. They figured he’d still be in the room, so they search all over; unaware that Wulf was concealed in the rafters above them like an acrobat, doing his best to stay quiet and still as if he was one of the metal rods holding the ceiling up.
The soldiers went through, checking under desks, inside closets, office spaces, and still Wulf was nowhere to be found. One soldier located the computer Wulf was previous sitting at. An unrolled newspaper covered up a flash drive he had inserted to bypass the firewall and gain access to the top secret file, Project Fortune. Before he could speak, Wulf dropped from the ceiling and landed right behind him. As he turned around, Wulf landed a strong, left hook that knocked him out in seconds. The sound of his head hitting the floor alerted the rest of them to Wulf; he unsheathed his sword and deflected each bullet as they flew at him at the speed of sound. Then before anyone realized what hit them, Wulf dashed at one of the soldiers that was reloading, loaded the clip for him, and took control of his arms as he made him fire back at his own team. The soundproof glass made it impossible to hear the gunshots from anywhere in the base, so Wulf didn’t have to worry about more soldiers crashing the party.
Half a dozen soldiers were left standing, excluding the one whose throat Wulf had slit.
Wulf’s program has finished decrypting the file, but before he could focus on it, he had to deal with his uninvited guests first.
Realizing that their guns were useless against Wulf, they decide to take him on in unarmed combat; things ended badly for them as Wulf killed them without so much as breaking a sweat. As their bodies hit the floor, Wulf switches out the previous flash drive for a new one and downloads the file as well as several others of key importance before he vacates and returns to Samuel’s secret underground base near the warehouses.
What he and Samuel find under Project Fortune was anything but pleasant. There was a blueprint outlining the work with Project Fortune. Seven suits similar to Samuel Grant and his rangers’ drawn in such detail. There were a few added improvements to the chestpiece so that they could house the jewels.  

[Samuel Grant]

“So I guess that’s what he needs the jewels for…”
“Son of a b***h…”
“What’s going on?” Sapphira asked as she came in via elevator with Cameron and Christi by her side.
“What the hell are they doing here?”
“Easy, Samuel, they’re with me.”
“Seductra’s gone. They destroyed her and took off with the jewels.”
“So I guess the ball’s in their court now…”
“Sapphira, please tell me you were able to place a tracking device on one of them…”
“It’s ready and waiting, Samuel.”
“What’s our plan of attack?” Caitlin asked.
“We attack, plain and simple,” Samuel replied.
“Just the six of us against General Creed, who just so happens to be in league with the shadow rangers, our toughest adversaries ever created; are you insane?”
“You know me, Samuel, I’m all for revenge; but I gotta agree with Caitlin on this. We need to think things through.”
“I’m done thinking. There’s no scientific approach here. It’s just good old fashioned revenge pie and I’m gonna make sure Daniel Creed gets a slice. He killed my sons, the only two things I’ve done right in this life, my greatest creations, and worst of all, he killed our friends. I won’t allow him to get away with this. I dunno about the rest of you, but I’m going.”
“Not alone, you’re not.”
“Sir, I’ve picked up the signal from the tracker somewhere in the Sahara Desert; exact location is hard to pinpoint.”
“Ah what the hell; I’ve stuck by you since the beginning, I’m not gonna abandon you now. Just let me make a quick call first before we go.”
Meanwhile, at General Creed’s base in the Sahara; the General himself enters the lab to check on the progress of his top scientists. The head of the science division, Dr. Corveau, was working on one of the ranger suits when Creed walked in. Corveau was a vain gentleman with slotted gray eyes. His luxurious, long silver hair is worn in a style like King Trident’s. He had a very slim build for a man in his early 60’s. His skin is China white. He has a high forehead and nearly-nonexistent eyebrows.
Dr. Corveau delicately wired a tiny arm, humming a soft tune that was similar to a lullaby. He then connected the circuits into place, connecting them to the tiny motors that would move swift, tiny red fingers, and bend a petite elbow. Gentle eyes paid attention to the details--each and every one. He had to get this right.
Dr. Corveau’s team had their concerns at first; how would these suits handle the amount of energy put out by these seven mystical gems that have been buried in the earth for nearly 65 million years or more?
Their answer came in the form of the blueprints drawn up by, who the General had assumed to be the late Samuel Grant, who had previously been pronounced dead at the scene of his mansion; a worthy foe at best as the General so eloquently put it.
Dr. Corveau attached the legs to the red ranger suit, linking the circuitry and wiring in place with careful precision. Sparks literally flew out from the area where he attached the wires and circuitry. A work-worn hand ran up the length of the mechanical leg, checking for any loose bolts before stopping for a while to chat with a patiently waiting Daniel Creed.
“Everything is coming along nicely, sir. The modifications we made to the suits are accepting the jewels into their core. They should be ready within four hours.”
“Four hours is unacceptable. What will it take for you to get it ready in half that time?”
“A miracle…”
“Then I suggest you start praying for one. I want them done in two hours or else I’ll find someone who can.” As the General walks out the door, a tall Caucasian woman in brown camouflage with slanted eyes the color of blue tropical waters. Thick, wavy, yellow hair is worn in a style that reminds you of a peacock's tail, joins Creed as he walks away from the lab and down the hallway.
“Why the rush on this project, sir?”
“I have a few guests stopping by that I’d like to roll out the red carpet for…”
The woman had pretended like she didn’t know who he had in mind, when she in fact did; Samuel Grant.
Two hours later; the sun was setting by the time Wulf, Caitlin, and Samuel arrive. The base was just over the horizon. Upon approaching, Samuel, Wulf, and Caitlin find themselves being bombarded with gunfire like it was the 4th of July.
They go in separate directions to avoid being blown out of the sky; with the wave of bullets whizzing past him in mid-air, Samuel tumbles, flips, and loop-de-loops around them. When the rockets hit, Samuel did the same up until the last rocket, where he turned off his propulsion units in his hands and feet, allowing him to drop a few feet just as the rocket detonates. Then at the blink of an eye, he re-engages the propulsion system, performs a back flip and speeds at the mechanism firing the rockets. With a single tiny explosive device, he takes aim at one of the holes; the device he had fired into it had exploded as the next rocket deploys. He performs a barrel-roll and zips past the explosion, but gets hit by a tank from out of nowhere.
He gets up, brushes his armor off, hold out his right arm and then out pops a pink explosive device from his wrist. He takes aim at the tanks turret, the missile deploys like a rocket from an RPG; just when the tank driver thought the weapon Samuel fired was a dud, he retaliated and received a huge explosion that shook the interior, destroying the vehicle from the inside out.
Wulf dive bombs and lands in front of Samuel, generating a golden force field made of nano-bots, which contained the blast as if it had hit a reinforced steel wall; no part of the smoke and flames got through to Samuel and Wulf’s side; once the fire dies down smoke clears, Wulf and Samuel stand back to back, surrounded by soldiers.
Instead of regular assault rifles, they all carried modified weapons straight from Samuel Grant’s arsenal. Samuel was the only one to notice them using his tech. “Son of a b***h…” he said in a low, semi-angry tone almost to himself.
Wulf and Samuel then look around at each other while still having their backs face each other; with their visors down, they nod their heads like they each knew what the other was thinking; then all hell broke loose as they lower their visors and launch straight into battle. Still standing back to back, they hold up their palms and hit the enemy with every piece of ordnance that was packed into their suits. Not a single soldier was able to put a dent in their armor or even get near them for a melee attack. The battle lasted several minutes before a new enemy emerged.
The shadow rangers appeared before Wulf and Samuel with ranger forms similar to Samuel’s former team, only a darker shade of their corresponding ranger colors so the General could tell them apart in battle.
Alex, Meerlix, Max, and Willis’ shadow rangers face Samuel and Wulf while Caitlin, Starla, and Phoebe’s take the air after Caitlin. With their new forms, they make quick work of the heroes and haul them in front of Daniel himself; void of their ranger forms, they were pushed down onto their knees in front several armed soldiers near of a large, rectangular table. Daniel gets up from his chair sitting under a broken light that shrouded him from view until he stepped away and walked around to where Samuel, Caitlin, and Wulf stood.
“You know, I had a feeling you two weren’t dead yet.”
“It’s a funny world we live in, isn’t it? We’re supposed to be dead; you’re supposed to be dead. Well, it looks like none of our wishes are coming true this week.”
“I assume you’re referring to the body that was on ice in the morgue.”
“I’ve done a bit of snooping; found a few key items that should put a hole in your plans.”
“Project Fortune is dangerous; trying to harness the power of each jewel individually like that, the outcome would be catastrophic,” Samuel explained.
“So you say…”
“No no, I’m serious…” as Samuel continued explaining, Wulf looked over to one of the soldiers behind Creed when his attention was focused on elsewhere; the soldier gave a wink with his left eye.
“The Scientists have checked their numbers; such an event would be impossible.”
“You’d do well to heed Samuel’s words, Comus. He tends to be right about this type of thing.”
“Wait, Janis? I thought you were Daniel Creed.”
“Wulf, what are you talking about?”
“I didn’t realize it ‘til right now; he has the same aura as him. He killed Creed because he now had what he needed and he was no longer useful.”
Caitlin hung her head in disgust, “Ugh, not this s**t again…” she said as she knew what was coming; Wulf’s convoluted version of Sherlock Holmes’ deductive reasoning.
“He then figured he’d keep the body around in order to implicate us even in dead, so that the next generation will wonder if they’re putting their faith into the right person the next time a superhero enters their midst.”
“You don’t have any…”
“Any Proof? No…” Wulf paused dramatically, “Wait, yes I do. The listening device I planted on you during our previous interaction. It has recorded its fair share of incriminating information.”
“Who’d you send it to?”
“Not me… haven’t you noticed there’s a certain someone missing?”
Comus looked confusedly at Wulf, Caitlin, and Samuel, “No.”
In a whisper, Samuel called out the name of who Wulf was mentioning, “Sapphira…”
“Oh that’s right, you haven’t met her.”
“Well whoever you sent the information to probably won’t get here in time to save you…” Comus said as he pulled out a gun and held it to Wulf’s forehead.
“I figured that much; which is why I came up with a backup plan…”
One out of the seven soldiers lined up behind Comus stepped forward and held a gun to his head while the rest kept their pointed at the shadow rangers.
“Stand down. That’s an order, corporal.”
“What the hell’s going on here?” Samuel asked.
Creed turns, quickly lifting his right arm in the air, as he reaches around and disarms his captor; then out of nowhere, Samuel leaps into action; jumping on the General’s back and blinding him.
Wulf and Caitlin stood back and took care of the shadow rangers until the glass in the window to the north of them suddenly breaks and the fighting pauses for a brief second. Several armed men rappel into the room just as Creed knocks Samuel off his back.
While flying backwards through the air, Samuel pulled his gun and fired back; each shot that came the General’s way, he disappears for a brief second as he dodges left and right at the speed of sound. It was in that moment that Samuel figured out who this fake General Creed, a.k.a. Comus, really was. He had thought Guy Tucker killed him long time ago, but clearly that wasn’t the case. Janis lives.
He sheds the form of General Creed and assumed his real identity, which was that of a younger white male, silver hair that almost reminded you of a plate of steel that was worn in a forward-combed hairstyle. He has round black eyes that are like two lumps of coal. He had a small nose and large hands and an artistic wardrobe with a lot of dark blue and gray, “That form was slowing me down anyway…” he turned his attention to one of the soldiers as he felt a slight sting and his right shoulder blade. He felt the wound in his back the bullet had made and felt his blood trickle down in tiny drops before the wound suddenly healed up.
The soldier next to the one who fired the shot took over as he sent a barrage of machinegun fire Janis’ way. He kept dodging wave after wave and none of his opponents could keep up with his movements until it was too late; Janis approaches one of the soldiers and tosses a left hook; but the guy leans to his right and throws back an uppercut. The blow shook Janis for a bit, but then he snapped out of it and fired back a low kick; the soldier blocked and one of his comrades came in from the left, gun locked and loaded, as she sprayed bullets at him like water from a fireman’s hose; Janis slowed down time as he leaned to one side, gripped the barrel of the handgun, pulled her in close and landed a sideways knee to the stomach, then lowered his foot, turned to the first soldier, and butted his head against his; then turned back towards the second soldier, twisted her arm, and threw her at the first guy.
The other five soldiers rushed in seconds later and Janis knocked each one down like a bowling pin. As they land near the shadow rangers, their true form is then revealed as the molecules of their faces rearrange and showed Samuel who they really are.
“Max, Willis, Phoebe, everyone else? I thought you were all…”
“Dead? Far from it, sir.”
“Can we discuss this later? Janis is getting away,” Wulf bellowed as he spotted him running out of the room.
“We’ll handle them; you two go,” Alex instructed.
Before the fight started, Alex, Phoebe, Meerlix, Max, Caitlin, Starla, and Willis don their ranger forms.
Meerlix started off, “With the fluidity of water, Blue Wolf Ranger!”
Next was Starla, “Shining light in all shades and forms, White Wolf Ranger!”
Phoebe, “Power of the Earth beneath my feet, Brown Wolf Ranger!”
Alex, “Mysterious as the dark night sky, Black Wolf Ranger!”
Caitlin, “Power of the sun, Orange Wolf Ranger!”
Willis, “I call on the power of… Green Wolf Ranger!”
And then finally Max; “By the roaring flame, Red Wolf Ranger!”
Passing through the hallway, Samuel and Wulf slow down as the two sides, the soldiers fighting with Samuel and friends and the ones fighting with Janis and the shadow rangers, have an all-out war. Wave after wave of laser beams and bullets fly back and forth past Wulf and Samuel’s head as they run through like the participant of a marathon runs through the confetti when they’re almost close to the finish line. Some of the shots bounce off their armor as the distance between them and Janis grows larger and larger. After a couple hundred yards, Janis picks up the gun of a fallen ally and proceeds to fire back as enemy soldiers head his way. He kills them all with a single shot each while Samuel and Wulf kept coming, merciless and unyielding; like the terminator, shooting down everyone in their path who dares to oppose them.
“This doesn’t make sense. Why’s he running?”
“Maybe he’s scared.”
“Maybe he’s luring us into a trap; like a fly into a spider’s web.”
Janis leads them into the docking bay. The door almost shut in front of them, but with a single shot, Samuel hits the top center of the doorframe. Sparks fly from it as the door tries to shut, but can’t.
Before they could advance, however, they had to deal with a 7ft tall monster in a black armor wearing a mask with several holes around where the mouth was supposed to be and rocket launchers under both arms. As it comes galumphing forward, it fires a burst of orange colored energy from one of its rocket launchers. The first shot hits Wulf and sends him flying backwards in an instant.
Samuel fires back from his palms, trying to draw its attention away from Wulf until he recovers. His shots were bouncing off, causing little to no damage, but he kept firing nonetheless until Wulf was on his feet and raring to go.
Wulf leaps without thinking, left arm cocked back, and receives a backhand to the side, which knocks him clear against the wall; making an indentation.
Samuel takes cover as soon as the next shot is aimed at him, “Megan, find us a weak spot please.”
After scanning the entity up and down, Megan comes up with something after 30 seconds, “Sir, on the surface there appears to be nothing. You’ll need to remove the chestplate.” Megan points out two large disc-like objects on its chest as soon as she x-rays the machine; Samuel relays the information to Wulf and the two double team it with nearly everything they had.
The brute went down in a matter of seconds and they went through the door; Wulf destroys the console on the other side of the door, but leaves the one facing opposite of them intact. As the door closed, Samuel and Wulf kept their wits about them as well as turned on their nightvision after being greeted by nothing but darkness and silence.
Wulf turns on coms as he whispers softly to Samuel so Janis wouldn’t hear. He suggests that they should split up.
“Are you sure that’s such a good idea?” Samuel whispered back.
Janis was watching from atop one of the tanks in the room with nightvision goggles just like Wulf and Samuel. As of right now, he was the spider and they were the flies; or so he thought. Wulf had something up his sleeve, which made Janis worry as he lost sight of him in two seconds after he and Samuel separated.
Wulf located a huge tank completely equipped with shells and he hopped into the driver seat. His first thought was to take aim at Janis and take him out in one clean shot, but somehow, he knew that wouldn’t be enough; so he set his sights a little higher. He aims the turret at the silent and with a loud bang, the shell flies up and bring part of the ceiling crumbling down over top of Janis’ location; like a scared little frog, Janis hopped out of the way; most of the rubble takes out the fighter jet he was perched on top of and almost buries Samuel, who screams in terror at the hundred feet of rock and sand raining from above.
Wulf may have flattened Samuel, which was clearly not his intention, but he did manage to brighten the room up a bit; although, when Samuel came to, he pushed his way through the sand and stone to freedom. He had lost his ranger form in the aftermath.
“What are you trying to do, kill me?” he asked Wulf.
“I thought the place needed a skylight,” he joked.
“Oh, very funny, Wulf; how about I bury your head in the sand next time, see how you like it…”
“Samuel, look out!”
Samuel quickly turned, unsheathed his sword, stuck it through the heart of Janis and kicked him; instead of the attack killing him, Janis proceeded to pull the bloodstained weapon from his chest. He throws it back with a smile, which signals Samuel to rotate 90 degrees. The sword passes just two inches by his face and abdominal region on its way towards Wulf’s tank.
Samuel had no time to react as Janis sped at him with a superman punch. He takes the blow to the jaw and stumbles back as his head snaps to the right. Janis approaches with a frontal kick, but Samuel blocks within an instant with both palms and immediately leans to the left as a right punch comes straight for him. He gets in a couple of lucky punches once he starts to fight back, but then Janis wised up and started ducking and throwing body shots, uppercuts, and rear horse kicks; Samuel blocks the kick with a leg grab and pulls him back until Janis kicks with the other leg and lands a blow to the jaw, causing Samuel to release.
Samuel continued stumbling back, unintentionally putting distance between the two of them. Pulling up his blaster, he commences firing. He knew this tactic wouldn’t work, but it couldn’t hurt to try; Janis kept dodging left and right and bum-rushes Samuel; latching around his waist in order to perform a suplex. Samuel protested by repeatedly bashing him in the back with his blaster, but Janis proved to be too strong as he finally flips Samuel over and body slams him.
Samuel fired back again until Janis kicked the gun away and mounted him.
At this time, Wulf got out of the cockpit and joins the fight. He flew at Janis without warning and tackled him. “What the hell you waiting for, Morph already!”
“I can’t. It takes time to charge back up after that lil stunt you pulled!”
“Son of a b***h…”
Janis finally got his footing. He elbows Wulf in the back and swings around towards one of the jeeps.
Samuel got him to turn around with a single shot to the back and from then on, Janis sped up to him, still dodging shots, and knocks Samuel over with a tornado kick.
“How the hell is it that you’re back?” Samuel asked before Janis attacked again.
He was more than happy to explain, “You may not have noticed it, but you remember that time with the Mustang GT that was roaming around Los Angeles?”
“Yeah…”
“Well, when your team managed to free everyone imprisoned inside its storage unit, there was a dimensional rift between this world and the realm of the dead; I snuck through. I’ve been wandering the earth, gathering strength until that fateful day when I allied the villains together to destroy you and your pesky rangers once and for all.”
“And that’s when you failed and had to start back over again.”
“So the evil alliance wasn’t such a good idea, but they did help me draw a bit more strength. I just couldn’t harness it yet until after I had a little chat with an acquaintance of yours…”
“General Daniel Creed of the UMSC…”
Wulf flashed back to the moment he found the General dead back at his base in Nevada.
“He had served his purpose; I finally have all the power I’ll ever need. No weapon on earth is a match for my greatness!”
“Well how about something ‘not’ on earth?” Wulf said in a sinister tone as he conjured up the control pad for the WASP stinger Mark III.
By that time, Samuel’s suit had fully powered up. He morphed back into his ranger form and the first thing he did was make sure Janis couldn’t dodge the attack. He shot a missile filled with coagulant gel at Janis’ feet and he and Wulf stood away from the blast radius.
Instead of a beam of blue light, in came a beam of red light, which engulfed the area where Janis stood. As it slowly ripped him apart molecule by molecule, Janis looked at every part of his body until the pain slowly kicked in and he started screaming at the top of his lungs. Once the last bit of him disintegrated, so did the shadow rangers and so did the hold Janis had over the minds of General Creed’s men all throughout the base; Phoebe, Willis, Alex, Starla, Caitlin, Max, and Meerlix looked around all confused like as the soldiers stop their fighting and the shadow rangers, who had them on the ropes just moments ago, pass right through their chest as a black aura and disappear; becoming one with them once more.
At the rangers’ feet, the seven jewels lied, glowing ever so slightly before their light extinguished. They each picked up one. Back at Samuel’s penthouse, they provide Zierian with them as he holds the chestplate in his hands.
“Finally, the jewels are where they’re supposed to be, thank you, rangers; for everything.”
“We were happy to help, Zierian,” Phoebe replied.
“On another topic, I’m still confused how you survived the blast.

Wulf was more than happy to explain this one, “Well, remember when I roughed up the General a lil bit? Remember I mentioned that I planted a bug on him back at the FOB? Well, that was to listen in for whenever he coordinated the airstrike; you remember that potion you made that makes you look like someone else?”
“You mean the Omni-juice potion I concocted for the fight against the blue shadow ranger?”
“Yeah, that one; well anyway, during the scuffle with the General back in New York, I didn’t just put a listening device on him, I also got a sample of his hair. I gave that strand to Willis…”
“And I improved on the recipe to make it longer lasting.”
“Wulf gave us explicit instructions on what to do and we just waited for the impending attack he had predicted before we went into hiding.”
“Then we knocked out the soldiers sent in to investigate the site, took a strand of their hair and drank the potion one sip at a time.
“And, unbeknownst to General Creed, he had several double agents working for him.”
“That’s very clever, Wulf.”
“Thank you; sorry about your house though…”
“It can be rebuilt. I’m just glad to know you guys are alright.”
“You’re forgetting the purpose the jewels were created for.”
“They have the power cause catastrophe or create miracles, right Zierian?” Alex asked.
“Oh right,” Max said.
“If you wanted, you could use their power to rebuild your house.”
“Well, I’ve been meaning to remodel the place anyways,” Samuel replied. “And now that the world is safe, I’ll have the free time to do so.”
“What’ll you guys do now that we’re no longer Gaia Rangers?”
“Maybe I’ll go back to being retired. I still like the thrill of being a rodeo champion, but for now, I’ll stick to enjoying a quiet life on my ranch. Who knows, maybe I’ll go back someday,” Phoebe explained.
“What about you, Alex? I suppose it’s back to stealing priceless gems for you…” Meerlix asked.
“Nah, I think I’m gonna give up that line of work; go legit; perhaps and Artifact recovery specialist.”
“You’re gonna need a partner, right?” Caitlin asked.
“Perhaps…”
“I’ll probably head back to Lumindemia with Sapphira; it’s our home.”
“And what of you, Meerlix?” Zierian asked. “If you’d like, I could drop you off back in your own time, if that’s where you’re most comfortable.”
“That’d be terrific, thanks.”
“Hey, what about me?”
“You, I can also drop off in your own world; now that I have my powers back.”
“You’re leaving, Wulf?”
“I don’t belong here. I’ve never belonged here. If you think I did, you’re only kidding yourselves.”
The same time Wulf gets up, Samuel does. “So I guess this is it, huh…?”
“Yeah.”
“You know, for some weird reason, I’m gonna miss you.”
“Me too, Samuel. Me too…”
We part ways after a short handshake; I’ve never been great at long goodbyes. In a flash of yellow light, Meerlix and I disappear with Zierian to parts unknown, never to be seen or heard from again. I managed to get a glimpse of Meerlix’s time, but I won’t tell; no man, woman, or child should know about their own destiny. Besides, I had my own world to worry about. There have been times I often wondered what it was like in my absence. What has Jodan done while I was saving another universe from peril? I’ll know when I get there…”

The End