PART IV
By:
QUINTIN J. SCOTT
High
atop
"Now, Prima," Iaxious hissed, "sssstart
the sssstatic pulsssse!"
The female shot the snake-man a look that would have
killed. "Don't
tell me what to do, you slithering idiot!
I know what I must do!"
She took her Wrath Staff and spoke into the orb atop
it. The spoken spell ignited the energy
within, causing a yellow glow to emanate from the orb. Letting the staff slide through her fingers
until she held the end, Prima started to twirl it over her head. The yellow energy flicked off the orb,
floating into the clouds above. Great
thunderheads rumbled into view, peals of thunder shaking every window in the
city. Iaxious
could feel the electricity flowing over his scales.
The door of the rooftop access stairway burst open, several
Defenders piling out onto the roof. They
drew their pistols and the obvious leader of the group, wearing sergeant
stripes, spoke to the two Neverwherians. "Cease and
desist. Put your weapons down, lay face
down on the group, and do not move!"
Prima, her face a mask of concentration, managed to squeeze
out a "Stop them" before going back to bringing the electrostatic charge.
Iaxious slithered between her and
the Defenders. The leader ordered them,
again, to stand down. However, none of that
mattered as the reptilian alchemist reached into his loose-fitting robes.
He leapt into the air, whiplike
speed propelling him over the surprised guards.
From his left hand, a spheroid container launched, slamming into the
ground at their feet. Upon
contact with air, the gel within oxidized, releasing a noxious green vapor.
The guards had little chance as they dropped to the ground,
eyes rolled back in their sockets - their last breath a sickly gurgle.
Iaxious alighted on the roof,
hissed in humor at the plight of the guards and slithered back to Prima's
side. He watched as the storm clouds
continued to gather at Prima's command.
He reached into his robes again, pulling out a small rectangular box
that was about the size of a cellphone. An indicator beeped on its monitor, the
audible tone growing louder with each passing second.
"Electrosssstatic
chage issss building," Iaxious reported. "Within ten minutessss, we sssshould have
enough to unleassssh."
Prima twirled the staff faster, the yellow tendrils of Neverwherian hexes pulsing into the atmosphere. By nightfall,
The doors opened up to reveal the Armory, a massive room
filled to the brim with weapons of all shapes, sorts and sizes. There was an audible gasp from Maya. Pacifistic by nature, the Mirinoian
woman had learned the Art of War when she donned the uniform of the Yellow
Galaxy Ranger, Chosen Warrior of the Wildcat Quasar Saber.
Scorpius had made sure that Maya
would have ample to fight for: ordering her planet turned to stone. Soon after, she and the other Galaxy Rangers
fought to free themselves from the Lost Galaxy.
When they found Mirinoi (and subsequently
returned it to its glorious natural state), Maya found herself drifting back
into the pacifist mindset again.
However, this "summoning" on the part of Sean had piqued her
senses, and her Galactabeast urged her to go. Somehow, it sensed the great trouble on
Earth.
However, for her to stand in a room totally dedicated to
fighting frightened Maya, but she shook it off and stepped in line behind
Ashley.
Bill started speaking as soon as he stepped on an encircled
"B". "Jason,
you're on 'A', Maya you're on the triangle, Ashley on the backwards seven, and
Sabrina's on 'E'."
Each one took his or her position.
Looking up, Bill shouted, "Activate
Power Matrix!"
Above them, a column of polished steel slipped from its
alcove. It lowered rather quickly,
coming to a stop when it was three meters away from the ground. Around the column, five mechanical arms lay
folded against it, each one's claw holding onto a gold device.
They were half a meter in length, two handholds protruding
out from a central orb. Scripted across
the length of a handhold was the word "eXtreme' in reflective black ink.
The central orb wasn't a perfect sphere - two apertures on either side
of a near-symmetrical split allowed the Ranger candidates to view whatever was
causing the odd glow on the inside.
The arms unfolded, lowered, and presented them with the
devices.
"Initiate Power Transfer!" Bill ordered. At his
command, energy leapt from the diodes on the steel column, attacking the
devices. The odd glow on their insides
intensified.
"Whatever you do," Bill said, looking at each one of them, "don't
let go of your Morphing Matrix!"
They nodded and reached out and grasped the Morphing
Matrix. As their fingers slipped into
the handholds, the seam of the orb split, minutely. The exposed energy washed over their faces,
bathing them in the colors of red, blue, white, violet, and green.
"Ready,
team?" Jason asked, never taking his eyes off the cascading
energy chains within the orb. They
indicated their readiness with a nod of their heads.
"NOW!"
Jason ordered and, taking his lead, the others pulled their orbs apart,
unleashing the complex energizing formulae made real through the power of the
The energized chain that made up the Morphing Matrix
enveloped each one of them. Every muscle
was purged, restructured and energized by incredible amounts of power. Nerve endings came alive with searing pain
whilst encoded information fed directly into their brains via their optical
burst. Every joint, tendon, and organ
was reinforced bio-electrically.
On each of their left arms, energy coils slid around their
wrists, coalescing into hexagonal-shaped devices. A final bolt of energy created a gold coin, emblazoned
with a reflective black "X".
For what seemed like an eternity (even though it was only
30 seconds), the energy wash finally disappeared. The Rangers stared down at their wrists,
admiring the Battle Bracers and touching their coins.
"That...was unpleasant," Sabrina noted with a tinge of disgust.
"I know," Bill said, clearing the cobwebs. "Necessary? Yes. Pleasant? Definitely not."
"Understatement," Ashley moaned.
"Jason?" Sean's voice broke their moment. "Are you guys
done?"
"Yeah!"
Jason responded. "We're
on our way! Let's go, guys!"
When they stepped foot in the Command Chamber again, the
viewer was split into multiple images, showing the carnage on smaller scales.
"They've overrun the AFPD
and taken over two-thirds of downtown,"
Sean announced from his perch directly in front of the viewer. "Civilian
casualties are climbing. Show them."
Angela pressed a few more buttons on her station and the
viewer blinked, revealing two different views.
One showed an armored individual with a huge blade cutting a swath of
destruction through downtown. He seemed
to be giving orders to the black creatures, as well. The other view showed something going on atop
"The big guy in armor seems
to be in charge. He's managing the foot
soldiers. What's going on at my office
is beyond me, but we have a theory."
"ELECTROSTATIC
ACTIVITY HAS INCREASED BY SEVENTY-THREE PERCENT, MASTER," Z announced. "I…AM HAVING A BIT OF DIFFICULTY IN MAINTAINING COMMUNICATION WITH OUR
IMAGES.”
"Too much electrostatic will
cause a communications blackout,"
Bill said.
"That’s probably their plan," Angela noted.
Sean snapped his fingers.
"However..."
The monitor switched again, showing an eight-foot tall pink
creature trudging through town, energy bolts launching from its mouth.
"...That is something else you
will have to contend with." Sean turned and walked over to the Rangers
and gave them their last bit of instructions.
"Now that you have accepted the Power that
I have offered you, it is up to you to utilize it: to benefit the world. When you call out 'Power Team...to the eXtreme', you
will be transformed into the...very...BEST...Ranger
group of all time: the Power Rangers eXtreme!"
The Rangers nodded their affirmatives, eyes and hearts
showing their commitments to this new team.
There were innocent people in trouble and it was up to them to help: to
protect and serve in the only capacity that the Power gave them.
"Follow me, guys," Bill said, stepping forward.
"POWER..." He thrust his left arm up at a 45-degree angle across his
chest. "...TEAM..." He did the same with
his right arm, making an "X".
"...TO THE..." Bill swung his left arm up and exposed the activation port
on his Battle Bracer. Upon speaking the
word "EXTREME," he touched his X-Ring to the port. Immediately, the coin started to spin,
forming an interdimensional jump point for the morphogenic particles.
The minicomputer in the Battle Bracer formed the Morphing Matrix. A highlight of iridescent blue formed around
Bill before it exploded, blinding the others momentarily.
As their vision cleared, they startled at Bill's
transformation. He stood there, encased
in some black fabric they could only assume was latex. Emblazoned on his chest was a blue stylized
"X", the terminators of
their lines crossing over his shoulders and under his rib cage to join with
another "X" on his
back. His shoulderpads
held a slightly darker hued blue coloration along with the blue gauntlets
surrounding his wrists. His Battle
Bracer blended seamlessly with his left gauntlet. A silver and blue cylinder rested against his
left gauntlet, as well. A stylized
"X" formed the buckle of
his belt while black tights terminated in blue boots and shinguards,
studded with gold chevrons.
"How do you feel?" Sean asked.
Bill turned his head, itself encased in a sleek-looking
blue helmet with a smoky "X"
visor. The light glinted off the small
gold "B" medallion above the visor.
The visor snapped open, revealing a smiling Beta Ranger.
"Morphenominal!"
Jason nodded and held up his own morpher. "Ready?"
"Ready!" The three women
responded.
They all shouted at the same time, repeating the movements
they'd seen earlier. "Power Team...to the eXtreme!"
Differently colored iridescent shields formed around them
before exploding and morphing them into their armor.
"Wow!" Maya exclaimed,
clenching her fists in excitement.
"Very nice!" Ashley added.
"I
think I could get used to this," Sabrina
noted, crossing her arms before her.
"Time to go to work, guys!" Jason exclaimed.
"Godspeed, Rangers," Sean said. "Be
careful out there. May the Power protect
you!"
"We
will," Jason gave thumbs up.
Angela pressed the commands for teleportation, watching as
the Rangers were bathed in the special teleport beam, dissolving into the
molecular stream and launched from the
-= BACK 2 ACTION
=-
PART I / PART II / PART III / PART IV / PART V / PART VI / EPILOGUE