I was way too freakin' excited to not finish this chapter tonight, and that's to your benefit! Here it is, chapter 8!Chapter 8
When the Rangers landed in the Megaship, Alpha laid in the course for Eltar. Tommy sat down in one of the chairs. “What is going on?” he asked. “First this new evil appears. Then Goldar shows up, more powerful than ever. Then we find the Space Rangers, unconscious, without a clue as to what’s happened to them. Now Eltar’s under attack.”
“I know,” said Tanya. “It’s like some bad dream.”
“Or somebody’s strange idea of a good story,” added Adam.
“Incoming Transmission from the Gold Ranger,” said DECA.
Tommy looked up. “Put it through,” he said, looking at the viewscreen. Trey appeared on the viewscreen.
“Tommy, it is good to see you are safe. I heard about what happened on Earth.”
“…Yeah, we’re okay,” said Tommy slowly. “We found the Space Rangers.”
“I know. Delphine told me. She also told me they have no idea what has happened to them.”
“Do you know anything?”
“Unfortunately, no. But, right now we can’t concentrate on that. As you have heard, Eltar is under attack. I was on Earth when Navon contacted me. I brought help.” Trey moved aside and Wes and Eric appeared on the viewscreen.
Tommy managed to smile. “Wes, Eric. Good to see you guys again.”
“Good to see you too,” said Wes. “Trey’s filled us in on everything. We contacted the future, asking them if this happened.” Wes stopped, a solemn look etched on his face.
Tommy sensed something was wrong. “And?”
Wes sighed. “This…crisis…it shouldn’t be happening. Time Force has no record of it at all. Whoever is behind this, shouldn’t be doing this. Time Force is worried the future will change. They’re sending the other Time Force Rangers back to this time to help us.”
Tommy took a deep breath. “That will help us a lot. Where are you guys right now?”
Trey reappeared on the viewscreen. “We are en route to Eltar. Eltar must not fall to evil.”
Tommy nodded. “Good,” he said. “Delphine contacted someone, letting them know of our predicament. She said he can help.”
Trey’s brow furrowed. “Oh? Who?”
“She didn’t say,” said Tommy. “But, we could use all the help we can get.”
Trey nodded. “Agreed. We will meet you on Eltar. Trey out.”
They landed on Eltar at the designated coordinates Delphine had given them. When the Rangers disembarked, they were surprised to see…nothing. No robots, no fighting, no buildings or structures, nothing.
“Um…are you sure this is the right place, Dr. O?” asked Ethan.
Tommy frowned. “Should be. These are the coordinates.”
“Perhaps something has happened to Navon,” said the Phantom Ranger.
“Like what?” asked Kira. “I mean, there’s no robots here.”
Ethan tapped Kira on the arm. “You so sure about that?” he asked, pointing ahead. Ahead was an entire army of robots!
“Those aren’t the same robots we fought on KO-35,” said Trent.
“Yeah,” said Conner. “Any idea what they are?”
“They’re not Tyrannodrones, but they’re definitely up there in the creepy department,” said Kira. She then stopped and looked down a bit, confusion crossing her face. She turned to Trent. “Why do I get the feeling I’ve said that before?” she asked. She looked at the robots again. “And, why do they seem familiar to me?”
The robots were clad in black, except for silver on their chests. Some had what looked like giant laser blasters on their arms. They had weird metal soccer ball heads and were going “BING! BING!” They made up most of the robots. Some, though were blue with X’s on their head. And some were orange, with claws on their hands with heads that had spikes in them, and they carried large orange swords that also had spikes on them.
“Yeah,” said Conner. “You know, they do look kinda familiar.”
“Yeah, they do,” said Ethan.
Trent and Tommy looked at them. “I’ve never seen them before,” said Trent.
“Nor have I,” said Tommy.
“Let’s take care of these wanna-be Cogs,” said Adam.
“Right,” said Tommy. “You guys ready?”
“READY!”
“IT’S MORPHIN’ TIME!”
“DINO THUNDER, POWERUP!”
“Let’s do it!” said Tommy. They rushed towards the robots.
Kira flew towards the robots and started to take out all the robots in front of her and directly to her sides. Conner took out his Tyranno Staff and began work on some of the robots. Ethan took out his blaster and changed it to sword mode and began to slash at any robots in his path. Trent took out his Drago Sword and drew a bunch of arrows, sending them into a dozen or so robots. Still, many robots remained.
“ZEO V POWER KICK!” Tommy performed a megakick, which sent a wave of wind at the robots, destroying many. He then rushed forward, diving into the pack of robots.
“TOMMY!” yelled Kat.
The robots seemed to have overpower him. But, then, Tommy emerged from the robots. Somehow, he had gotten one of the robot’s arm blasters! He attached it to his right arm and began firing back at the robots.
“C’mon!” said Adam. He rushed in.
“Right behind you,” said Tanya. She followed after Adam.
Rocky followed after Tanya, with Kat pulling up the rear. Finally, the Phantom Ranger joined the fight.
All 10 Rangers were now fighting amongst the robots. After a few minutes, they were all thrown back into one group. They slowly stood up, hands up against their chests, where their hearts were. “They’re a lot tougher than Cogs,” said Tanya.
“Yeah,” said Rocky. “How are we supposed to fight them all?”
“I got an idea,” said Conner. “Triassic Time!”
“Now, time to Battlize these bots.”
The blast wiped out a HUGE portion of the robots. The remaining robots saw what had happened, and turned around and fled. “Yeah, you better run,” said Conner. He then powered down, the other Rangers following suit. The other Rangers then ran up to Conner and congratulated him.
“Way to go, man!” said Ethan. “You took care of the robots.”
“Very impressive,” said an unfamiliar voice. The Rangers all turned defensively towards the sound of the voice. A man with light blue skin and yellow dots on the back of his neck came out from behind some bushes.
“Navon!” said the Phantom Ranger. He ran over. “Good to see you’re still alive. When we lost communication…”
“Yes, the enemy took out our communications satellite. Thankfully, I am still alive. Thanks in part to these fine people.” He motioned towards the bushes, where 4 adults and a child appeared.
“Wait a minute,” said Tommy. He stepped forward a little bit. After a few seconds, he said, “T.J.?”
“Hey, Tommy,” said T.J. It was! T.J., Cassie, Ashley, Carlos, and the child smiled at the Rangers. Conner didn’t recognize the child, but he was glad to see the Space Rangers were alright. Except…
“Hey, wait a minute. Shouldn’t you guys be unconscious still?” asked Conner.
Tommy nodded. “And, T.J., why are you wearing red? And Carlos, why are you wearing green? And…” He looked at the child. “Justin, why are you still so young?”
The 4 Space Rangers and the child, Justin, looked at each other in confusion.
“I believe I can answer that question,” said Navon. “Zeo Rangers, Dino Thunder Rangers, meet the Robot Rangers.”
“Robot Rangers?” asked Ethan. “Way cool!”
“They’re…robots?” asked Tanya.
“Indeed, they are,” said Navon. “While still the Turbo Rangers, the real-life counterparts of the Robot Rangers built them with the Turbo powers, in order for the Robot Rangers to serve here on Eltar, protecting it. They are extremely well built. Hmph.” He frowned. “Lightspeed Rescue tried to make Robot Rangers of their own, but the fools didn’t know the first thing about doing it right. It’s no wonder that they went haywire and the real Lightspeed Rescue Rangers had to save the city from them. These, however, are extremely well built and still function quite well, despite their age.”
“That explains the color differences,” said Kira.
“And why Justin here is still so short,” said Tommy, rubbing the hair of Robot Justin.
“Hey!” said Justin, knocking Tommy’s hand away.
“You mean, they survived Dark Specter’s attack on Eltar?” asked Kat.
“In a sense,” said Navon. “They were severely and critically damaged in the fight. When Dark Specter was finally destroyed, we went to work rebuilding them. We finally were able to. We then restored the Turbo Powers, which had been destroyed in the initial attack. By this time, the real Justin had retired and T.J., Cassie, Ashley, and Carlos had become Space Rangers. Eh, how ARE the Space Rangers doing anyway?”
“You said…we were supposed to be unconscious?” asked Carlos, looking concerned at Conner.
“Well…” said Conner sheepishly.
Suddenly, the sound of air craft went over their heads. Everyone looked up and saw space jets zipping across the sky.
“This is not the safest place to be,” said Navon. “Come, we will take you back to our base. It’s not far.”
“Your base is a semi truck?” asked Rocky.
“Hey, Michael Knight’s base was a semi,” said Ethan.
“Michael who?” asked Conner.
“Never mind,” said Ethan.
“It’s a semi, but it’s got all the equipment we need,” said Navon.
“Isn’t it…a little exposed?” asked Tanya, looking around. The semi was in the middle of a rock valley, open to the elements, not hidden at all.
“We were trying to get our hiding place between attacks when our truck broke down,” said Navon. “Still, it’s quite secure. No army could break in here.” He opened the door. “Come inside.”
“Trey! Wes! Eric!” Tommy was relieved to see them standing inside the semi. He hugged Trey and shook hands with Wes and Eric. “Good to see you guys made it.”
“Yep,” said Wes. “And, we got some help from the future.” He motioned towards 4 strangers. “This is Jen, Lucas, Katie, and Trip, the Pink, Blue, Yellow, and Green Time Force Rangers, respectively.” They nodded.
“This crisis shouldn’t be happening,” said Jen. “We’re here to make sure things end up okay.”
“We’ll take any help we can get, especially cute help,” said Conner.
Kira hit him on the shoulder. “Can you please keep your hormones to yourself, please?”
Navon sat down in one of the chairs. “Now, what’s this about the Space Rangers be unconscious?”
Tommy took a deep breath. “On KO-35, we found the Space Rangers unconscious on their Megaship. We don’t know what happened to them.”
“Where are they?” asked T.J.
“They’re on Aquitar, being watched by the Alien Rangers,” said Adam. “That’s where we were when we got your distress call.”
“Do they know anything?” asked Ashley.
Tommy shook his head. “No. It’s a complete mystery to them.” He saw the worried look on the Robot Ranger’s faces. “Don’t worry. Delphine will figure out what’s wrong with them.”
A loud explosion was suddenly heard outside the semi. “What was that?” asked Trent.
“Sounds like trouble,” said Kat.
“That’s our cue,” said Conner.
The Rangers ran outside. To their dismay, there was another army of robots.
“Aw, man,” said Ethan. “I’m really starting to not like robots. There’s gotta be a thousand of them!”
“One hundred, actually,” said a deep voice. The Rangers saw a green-skinned monster wearing a black trenchcoat. Half of his face and head was covered up in black and had spikes coming out of it. Red hoses came out of the other side of his head. He had an evil and creepy looking smile on his face. Coming out his back were what looked like pipes. He had a mandible claw for a left hand, and his right hand had large spikes coming out of the top of his palm sleeve. “Which you’ll never beat.”
“Don’t be too sure of that,” said Tommy. He looked at all the other Rangers. “Ready?”
“READY!”
“IT’S MORPHIN’ TIME!”
“DINO THUNDER, POWERUP!”
“SHIFT INTO TURBO!”
“TIME FOR TIME FORCE!”
“QUANTUM POWER!”
“Ha,” said the monster. “That won’t help you.” He fired from his right hand energy that surged through the Rangers. They groaned in pain and then dropped to the ground. They slowly got back up.
Just then, a streak landed in front of the Rangers. “What?” said the monster.
All the Rangers could see was someone standing in front of them. The person had blue skin and wore a black coat, almost like a uniform. “BENAGG!” he shouted. “You won’t escape me this time.”
The monster, apparently called Benagg, smiled even more, something Conner didn’t think was possible. “CRUGER!” he said with glee. “So good to see you! Do you like my army?” Cruger…growled?
“Oh my gosh,” said Jen.
“What?” asked Wes.
“That’s Anubis ‘Doggie’ Cruger. The Shadow Ranger.”
The other Time Force Rangers, except for Wes and Eric, looked at her. “Are you sure?” asked Katie.
“Positive,” said Jen.
“I have not forgotten what you have done to me, Benagg,” said Cruger.
“Good,” said Benagg. “Then, know what the rest of your kind felt when they were destroyed!” He fired another beam of energy at Cruger. It hit Cruger square in the chest, and Cruger fell backwards on the ground. The other Rangers were astonished. Cruger was…a dog?
“NO!” said Jen. She took out her laser pistol and began firing at Benagg, at the same time running towards Cruger. When she reached Cruger, she checked his vitals. “Cruger? Shadow Ranger? …Doggie?” She looked back at the other Rangers. “HELP ME!” she said with urgency in her voice. The other Time Force Rangers ran to her. “Get him up. We need to get him inside the semi.” She looked at the other Rangers. “Give us cover fire!”
“Right,” said Conner. He took out his blaster and started firing at the robots. The other Dino Thunder Rangers and the Zeo Rangers took out their blasters and began firing at the robots as well. The robots started to fire back. Slowly, the Rangers backed up into the semi. When the last of them were inside, Navon closed the door and entered in a code. “There,” he said. “Semi secure.”
Jen took off her helmet and looked at Cruger. “Cruger! Cruger, can you hear me?”
“Jen, who is he?” asked Wes.
Jen looked at Wes. Wes was surprised to see tears in her eyes. “He’s Doggie Cruger. The SPD Shadow Ranger.”
“SPD?”
“SPD started on the planet Sirius, Crugers’ home planet,” said Navon. “It stands for Space Patrol Delta. It is a space police force that is growing throughout the galaxy.”
“SPD later became Time Force,” said Jen. “In 2025, Cruger here becomes the Shadow Ranger, and defeats Gruumm of the Troobian Empire. Those robots out there are Krybots. Gruumm uses Krybots for his army.” She looked back at Cruger. “If Cruger doesn’t survive, Gruumm will have captured Earth, and our future will be gone…forever.”
“Jen, he needs his morpher,” said Katie.
Jen looked at Katie in confusion. “What?”
“She’s right,” said Trip. “His morpher is the only thing that can save him.”
Jen looked back at Cruger. She took a deep breath and stood up. She wiped her tears from her eyes and cleared her throat. She hit a button on a console. “Time Force Commander,” she said.
Alex appeared on the screen. “Jen,” he said. “It is…good to hear from you again.”
“Alex, look.” She took another deep breath. “I need the Shadow Ranger’s morpher. The Patrol Morpher.”
Alex looked stunned. He took off his sunglasses. “What?” he said quickly.
“Look, please, don’t ask questions, just give it to me.”
“Why do you need it?”
She sighed. “Cruger. He’s here. He’s been hurt. He’s dying. He needs the morpher to survive.” She paused. Alex said nothing. “Alex, it rightfully belongs to him.”
“Not for another 19 years.”
“If he doesn’t get it now, he’ll never have it, and Gruumm will have conquered Earth. Alex, please. It’s his only chance.”
“Do you realize what you’re asking me to do? You’re asking me to significantly alter history, to give a morpher to someone who’s not supposed to have it yet!”
“This whole crisis shouldn’t be happening, Alex. History’s already been significantly altered. And, we can fix it once we’re done.”
A look of contempt crossed Alex’s face. He stood up, went to the vault behind him, punched in a code, and opened the door. He reached inside and took out a morpher. He set it on a pad on his desk and entered in a number. The morpher disappeared from the pad, and re-appeared next to Jen. Jen picked it up. “Thank you, Alex,” she said. Alex nodded and terminated the connection. Jen ran over to Cruger and handed him the morpher. “Doggie, take this.”
Cruger weakly took it. “DNA confirmed,” said an electronic female voice. Cruger began to glow. A few seconds later, the glow stopped. Cruger sat up slowly. “Where…am I?”
“You’re on Eltar,” said Jen. “You’re with friends.”
Cruger put his hand on his head. “My head,” he said slowly. He then looked in his hand and saw the morpher. “What…”
“This is your Shadow Morpher,” said Jen. “Here, I’ll show you how to use it.” She took it from Cruger and held it up diagonally across her left breast in her right hand. She then made a circle with her arms. When the morpher was at the bottom of the circle, she said “SPD” and then thrust out the morpher, saying “EMERGENCY!” She handed the morpher back to Cruger. “Take it,” she said. “It’s yours.” Cruger took the morpher.
“CRUGER!” said Benagg from outside the semi. “I know you’re in there, Cruger. Come out and fight me!”
Cruger growled softly and got up. He walked over to the door and opened it and walked outside. “C’mon,” said Tommy.
“Ready for round two, Cruger?” asked Benagg.
“You better believe it,” said Cruger. He looked at the morpher.
“Incredible,” said Conner.
“Check it out!” said Wes.
“A Power Ranger, Cruger? Interesting,” said Benagg. “I see you’ve got the number 100 on your suit. Let’s see if you can take on 100 of my robots!
“You’ll wish you hadn’t asked for that, Benagg,” said Cruger.
“IMPOSSIBLE!” yelled Benagg. “NIGHTSTALKER!”
A figure, which looked like some sort of big bat with large eyes and ears behind a fishbowl appeared next to Benagg? “What is it, Benagg?”
“Cruger destroyed my army of robots!”
“WHAT?” Nightstalker looked at Cruger. “IMPOSSIBLE!”
“BROODWING!” said Cruger. “Of course. Krybots are your specialty, aren’t they?”
“Amazing,” said Trey. “Nightstalker…is the infamous Broodwing.”
“NO!” said Broodwing. “You’ve ruined EVERYTHING, Cruger. You will pay, Cruger. Mark my words!” He flew off, into the sky.
“You haven’t seen the last of me, either, Cruger,” said Benagg. He vanished in a bolt of lightening.
Cruger turned around and face the other Rangers. “Power down,” he said. He resumed his civilian, dog form.
The other Rangers raised their arms. “Power down,” they all said, lowering their arms. They resumed their civilian, human form.
“That was so cool,” said Conner. He then frowned. “Haven’t I seen you before?”
“You do not appear familiar,” said Cruger.
“Ah, that’s okay,” said Jen. “Probably looks like an old friend or something.”
“But…he’s a dog,” said Kira.
“Yeah, I’d have trouble forgetting a face like that,” said Ethan. Cruger growled. “…Not that there’s anything wrong with that face.”
Cruger looked at the morpher, then held it out to Jen. “Thank you,” he said.
Jen pushed his hand back to him. “Keep it, for now. You may need it later.”
“Nightstalker is Broodwing,” said Trey. “That’s vital for us to know. I must examine my records aboard Pyramidas. Follow me.” The Rangers followed Trey back to Pyramidas.
