Ancient Ancestor, Alpha Ranger

[Femina]

Oooookay ladies and gents here comes some nerdtastic narrative drivel for your happy consumption!

This one comes inspired from the recent 'Power Drain' topic on this very site and from some er... fun I had as a youngin' watching a certain stupid TV show that my brother would watch, and that I could either learn to love or watch nothing, and which not to insignificantly inspired some of the foundations of what invariably brought me to this corner of the internet. It's also criminally underdeveloped in these parts. So if you'll entertain me...

POWER RANGERS fanfiction!

I'm just starting it up, its evolved to be a little (okay a LOT) more serious in tone than I'd originally intended, but expect that it ought to scratch some itches regardless. Hope you all enjoy it, hope its even a little nostalgic for some of you.

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Ancient Ancestor
ALPHA!RANGER



THE ORIGIN!OF SPECIES
Part One

__________________________

Rangers.

It is time for you to know.

In times before your world became embittered by this perilous conflict. In a star system beyond your pitiful technologies ability to witness… the Promethean flame of what you have become was lit. Not by mortal hands, rather, what you might call a divine spark.

When I was just a child, my world was invaded! They came from the stars, brilliant, powerful, radiant as the sun itself. The Vita, a race of sentient peoples comprised almost entirely of variant energies in quantum entangled genetic structures that likely shall not ever again be witnessed in our cycle.

I was just a girl when they came. I thought that they were beautiful, as they rounded us up… I thought that they were beautiful as they caged us like beasts… I thought that they were beautiful as they put us to task alongside thousands of other lesser species to better their own comforts!

Rebellion, one might say, was inevitable… the Collective was born of righteousness! No one, least of all you warlike monkeys, has any right to say that it was not! When you are the slave, when you are the workhorse of the gods, when you are the footstool of another’s will there is no response, no degree of retaliation that is.Not.Justified!
…
...
They rallied to me because I was strong, and the last of my own people… because I had lived long enough to witness from nearly the beginning, scraping testing material from the dirt across the galaxy to eek out experiments into the Vita’s very being like one measures the erosion of a grain of sand across time…

I was so… patient back then…

When the time came to strike I’d made the weapons with which to fight, but it was no simple thing… for centuries we fought underhanded, under supplied, at disadvantage after disadvantage! It was me! My weapons! My genius… my ability to turn the very essence of our enemy against them which slowly turned the tide.

When the measure of advantage turned to us… it was also slow, no cascade of victory… it was in this time, I think, that I began to realize our victory was inevitable… for though the Vita fought us first with the indignant fury of a Master then eventually with... dare I even utter it… valiant desperation… my genius had signified their end that first night I pulled it over my head. One simply cannot fight themselves... not individually, not… collectively.

As centuries of war came nearer to conclusion the Vita were no longer Master, no longer even comprised of the individual creatures of malicious cruelty that came before the last ones to survive… they were frightened children and civilians... that was when they did something that reminded me how… beautiful they could be.

I watched as a species all but sacrificed itself. I watched as the starlight landscapes of their homeworld’s winked out like so much candlelight until only the capitol remained. I’d not fathomed their purpose until, as I approached to snuff out that last of their light once and for all… to end this once and for all!

I was met…

By you.

[bgrhugs]

looks like should be good.. great picture also

[Femina]

CHAPTER!ONE
The Final Battle

“We’ll be making planet fall in three minutes Empress,” General Zultch told his mistress. The squat Silver armored man did his best not to stumble whenever the ship would shudder against some turbulence as he lumbered down the center aisle of the landing craft towards the woman.

Medula, the self proclaimed Empress of all Known Space, lifted her head to acknowledge him before she rose up to her feet. She towered over Zultch, she towered over everyone… their empress was a mysterious and powerful woman. Sealed inside a high tech verasteel armored jumpsuit inlaid over a nanoweave bodysuit of the same make as the Omega Ranger’s own costumes, Medula cut an impressive figure. Atop her head covering all but the smooth green skin around her mouth from which a pair of undertusks protruded out her puffy lips ,was the Medula Mark 1 helmet. Her very first, and purposefully, very best invention. Out the back of the headwear hung three long, dangerous, prehensile tentacular tubes with three pronged Verasteel fingers at their tips.

No one living had ever seen what the Empress looked like beneath the ‘veil’ of the Medula Mark 1. Theories abounded amongst the Collective, ranging from speculation of wild beauty to great for the eyes of any living being to less flattering suspicions she was in fact hideously grotesque… Zultch himself wasn’t quite sure where he fell in his own theorizing save that she had a pleasing enough mouth and jaw line and a full strong figure… while he had entertained thoughts, he respected his warlord’s power and command within the Collective much to greatly to risk angering her. There was also that, like Zultch himself whose lizard like features were entirely unique to him, she belonged to a species extinct to the degree that her existence as one of the Collective was the only qualifier that mattered anymore. He was her General, and she was his Empress. It was, currently, as simple as that.

“Excellent,” Medula replied, her voice was deep and full of the power of position, a voice of authority, “the Poles?”

“Already deployed,” Zultch responded. He’d sent down a massive troop of Poles, AI soldiers representing either a positive or negative chipset, as a precursor to their own coming landing. They were cheap to produce, but came with the drawback that, when two Poles of opposite chipset touched they shorted out. Their usage as foot soldiers was an unfortunate resource-based necessity, they were cheap to produce and power, but took time to build and repair meaning that to the present, Earth’s ‘Omega Rangers’ hadn’t been confronted with an actual ARMY of them… at least, they hadn’t until today.

“Imagine it,” Medula intoned, “they’re down there right now, battling with the largest fighting force we’ve yet set upon them… what monster do they imagine we’ve cooked up for them this time?”

“Whatever it is,” General Zultch shared a savage grin with her, “they aren’t prepared for you.”

He meant it. This was it, all their planning, all their preparations. The paltry invasions they’d thrown against the Rangers to this point had mostly been Medula’s ploy to keep the team busy, to stop the earthlings from looking toward their moon and what the Collective was preparing from the Fallen Palace, their crashed starship. This was what they had long prepared for. This was the day the Omega Rangers were destroyed, the day Earth fell…

Then they could harvest what they needed, get the Palace repaired, fueled, and finally gone from this garbage heap sector of space.

The landing craft lurched as its re-entry jets activated, and then lurched again shortly after when the landing gear touched down onto the surface of the planet.

For an instant he thought he heard Medula sigh, surely he was mistaken. As light cracked around the edges of the now lowering exit ramp she spoke and made for the exit, “Let’s finish this quickly!”

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Medula stepped down the ramp with all the presence and flair she could muster. She threw both arms outward as she walked out into the maelstrom of combat. “RANGERS!” she cried, “So good to finally meet you in person!”

The Omega Rangers, for their part, were only partly distracted. The Pole soldiers, nearly a hundred of them sent down in the first landing crafts, were far more numerous than the heroes were used to… but they weren’t really a match for the awesome might that was a Power Ranger. For that you needed either a monster… or an Empress. She’d brought both.

“MEDULA!” she heard someone shout. When she turned her head toward the nuisance she could see the Red one… she knew he was the leader based on recon into their combat tactics. The sound of his voice betrayed equal parts apprehension and disbelief. Her presence could at least inspire that much fear out of them.

She tilted her head at him, the Pole soldiers between them split at her unspoken command thanks to the programming she’d installed into the Mark 1, not much… just enough to convince him that there was an opening.

She could almost envision his face just by reading his body language. The tiny dip of his head, a slight slouch of his shoulders… he measured himself. Did he wonder at his own power or at his own worth? Body language alone wasn’t enough to tell her… but as his head rose up and his shoulders set she knew he’d fall to the bait anyway.

“Erik don’t!” someone shouted.

The Red Ranger charged through the gap in the Poles, his feet moved with the grace and speed of a ninja, he leapt near the end raising his sword for the strike, for the kill!

The tentacles sprouting from the back of Medula’s Mark 1 whipped into frenzy. Wynken struck out first, catching the Ranger in the chest, halting his momentum and causing him to ‘whoof’ so loudly it could be heard even through his helmet. Blynken struck out next, horizontally, slapping the side of his helmet hard enough to cause him to spin in the air, and finally Nod slithered up from beneath and caught him at the base of the spine before he could reach the ground.

“Ughh….” The Ranger groaned, dazed by the assault, too stunned to do anything in time to prevent Wynken and Blynken from then wrapping themselves around his arms, effectively paralyzing him from any further action, “N-no!” He cried out before she violently slammed him face first into the dirt with her tentacle hold, once, twice, three times until his grunts of pain stopped.

“STOP! Stop that!” The Pink Ranger cried out. Her arm outstretched toward their leader as two positively charged poles were holding her back. They weren’t much for fighting or even harming the rangers, but when they needed to be a barrier the Poles could be surprisingly effective.

Medula strode forward and slammed a foot onto the defeated Red Ranger’s back then glanced violently around, her tentacles whipped aggressively in all directions, “Surrender!” she demanded, her voice amplified from the speakers of every nearby Pole, “Surrender or your leader dies!”

Silence descended over the battlefield, but not for long. Beneath her boot, the Red Ranger groaned, “K-keep fighting! We can’t… let them…” Medula supposed it was enough to remind them what they were fighting for because the melee resumed.

They didn’t understand that the war was already over, that she wouldn’t dare show herself on the battlefield until she was ready to enact her master stroke… it had taken time… but the Mark 1 was currently charged with enough power to kill every last one of them if forced to.

Nevertheless it was frustrating to be even so marginally ignored. They feared her, but not so much as they should. One Ranger’s defeat was not demonstration enough.

“So be it,” she growled. There was a sound like the whir of a spinning fan before electricity arced out from the Medula Mark 1 down along her tentacles and into the downed Ranger.

His scream of pain forced her to douse the Mark 1’s audio receptors. Their ally’s plight pushed a surge of courage intp the rest because as one the Omega Rangers rallied. They fought more efficiently and managed to break through the line of Poles to rush at her…

The fools.

Wynken and Blynken immediately rose up from where they pressed into the Red Ranger and snapped out. Wise that there might be some danger of this the Rangers tried to avoid them, but to dodge wildly thrashing tentacles was easier said than done. The Blue and Yellow Rangers were caught around the throat and chest respectively. They were halted and added their own cries to those of their leader, which left only Pink and Black for her to actually deal with.

They tried to pincer her, coordinating an attack from either side, but she cut that avenue off by dashing out first toward the Black Ranger, her tentacles expertly contorted themselves to remain at their tasks even while Medula moved. She traded two quick strikes at the Ranger, he managed to deflect the first attack admirably but he must have mistook the speed and power at which a foe as large as Medula could strike with, because while he did block the second strike, her sheer strength threw him backward several feet onto his back.

“Hope you enjoyed that you,” the Pink Ranger snarled. The whelp proved faster than Medula expected, her kick caught the Empress in the leg which buckled and dropped the larger woman down onto the other knee, “because now I’m going to take you down!”

“Wouldn’t get so cocky,” Medula threw right back. She swiftly blocked Pink’s second kick and threw her arm out with force the instant they made contact to better spin the Ranger off balance. She then reached out and simply caught the girl around the throat and lifted her off the ground.

“AACK!” Pink gasped, her hands reached up to claw at Medula’s bicep while her legs kicked feebly in the air… but for the moment she seemed to have plenty of strength to keep hammering ineffectually into Medula’s armor, “L-let me… go you…”

“Keep her busy Em, I’ll get the others free!” Black had regained his footing, but then something utterly unfathomable occured even by Medula’s wildest conceptions. He moved to attack, but not her. He reached for one of the tentacles…

She could almost follow the train of thought. Remove the tentacle from its connection to her helmet, free an ally… but with the surge of power currently running the length of the appendages the instant his hand clamped onto Wynken his muscles locked up and he too was trapped in the electrical storm. She imagined that she could hear his own self reflective irony in his groans.

“N-urk-oooo…” Pink gurgled while one of her arms reached reached out toward her friend.

“I… I can’t… let… go….” He gasped helplessly, but with so much… desperate effort.

“Aha…. Ahahahaha…” Medula found herself somewhat convulsed by a sound she’d not made in ages… laughter? “Ahahahahahaha!” It was just so… sad. “No… eheh… n worries Black,” she promised, “It happens to the best of us.”

“No!” Pinks struggles intensified for a moment, sheer desperation fueled her limbs and she delivered a couple decent but weakening kicks into Medula’s side before she began to start shuddering in Medula’s grasp… and to cough more than groan, “N-no -Cough.- We c-can’t –Cough- can’t f-fail… ah –Cough- C-can’t… can’t… b-reath…”

As the Pink Ranger faltered in her grasp, Medula realized she’d… already won? Outside the crackle of electricity and the desperate noises the Omega Rangers made where they flopped uselessly around her or in her grasp all was quiet. The Poles stood motionless without her will to command them… but perhaps more interestingly was the silent wide eyed terror of the human being civilians. Most had run off long ago, but there always remained a few, either to terrified to properly flee with the rest of them or else hoping to themselves find a ‘perfect opening’ to do something and make a difference themselves… but now, huddled up against walls and hugging tight to each other all eyes were on her and their fallen defenders in silent disbelief.

“Oh don’t be so surprised,” she told them and instantly regretted those words. It wasn’t their fault. They didn’t know yet. They didn’t understand. So maybe it was time to teach them. “It’s the place of the weak to…” she began to say.

Medula heard the loud crack of an object breaking atmo… she also knew that there were no more landing craft coming from the Fallen Palace. With just the vaguest inkling of uncertainty she began to look upward, but before her head tilted even halfway to the sky a bright flash and blur of white slammed into the earth directly in front of her.

“What the…” Medula began to say. But the words died on her lips as the object… no… no not an object at all… as the Ranger rose up in front of her from a crouched landing position. The Empress recognized her even before the Mark 1 began throwing up identifying windows but even so…

I.D: Lumara Synergon – White Power Ranger.

Her uniform, though recognizable as a ranger, was not of a style the same as the Omega’s. The helmet had vague almost saucer like protrusions out the sides, her sleek white uniform was awash in gold trimming and sections of black… she bore no visible melee or projectile weapons… that didn’t matter, she was the weapon.

Medula was stunned, “… Impossible.”

The Ranger struck out with her palm into Medula’s torso. A Power Rangers strike was never anything to gawk at, that Pink had managed to bring Medula to a knee earlier was testament to that… but the strike from this Ranger was like being hit from a capitol ships primary cannons point blank.

Medula was flung backward up the landing craft ramp where she crashed through the metal doorway that separated the troop section from the cockpit. Needless to say that she, Wynken, Blynken and Nod had each lost their grip on the captives.

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Lumara was seeing red beneath her helmet! At last! At long, long last she had caught up with the Collective. Ages and ages of hurtling through space with nothing but herself and her hatred could not have prepared her for this moment!

Fate taunted her. Empress Medula was there! Right there! It would take but a thought to kill her! Incinerate her!

It was too dangerous. Nothing could have prepared Lumara for this moment or what she would find. The five fallen Rangers sprawled around the street was an impossibility that Lumara could barely comprehend… this was almost joyous… and it was a complication that she could not ignore. So she clenched her fists and swallowed down her hate…

The strange metallic soldiers filling the area began to turn on her. So with a swift swipe of her right arm she summoned forth a horizontal shard of light which cut the whole column of them in half… robots, she calculated a less than point zero three likelihood of sentience which was within acceptable risk parameters for her to feel safe destroying them utterly. She then quickly dealt with the soldiers on her other side…

The landing craft began to pull up its gear and rise… Lumara had accidentally thrown Medula all the way up into its cockpit… the perfect place for a quick escape unfortunately… again the Ranger fought the impulse to destroy the woman… but the sort of power it might take to be certain Medula died might ignite the oxygen in this strange planet’s atmosphere.

So Medula’s quick escape was favorable to her… and too quick for the squat silver armored lizard-faced man whom Lumara did not recognize. He made a leap for one of the landing craft legs… but couldn’t quite reach it.

“Medula! Empress!” he screamed, his voice full of hopeless disbelief, “Where are you going!?”

She is escaping, Lumara thought viciously and did her best to put the craft from her thoughts. She began to stride his direction.

The squat thing stumbled backwards and away from her, “W-wait now! L-lets not do anything… hasty?”

“Begone!” she snarled at him her voice trilled almost musically. High, elegant, but with an unearthly echo… she could smell Collective all over him… the things she wanted to… instead she raised her arm like she planned to strike. The creature squealed ,turned, and fled on short shuffling feet. She watched, wanting to put a beam of death through the back of his skull the whole way… but relented.

Littered around her were the leftovers of Medula’s apparent quest to destroy everything and anything Vita left in existence… five Power Rangers… she could already tell they weren’t like herself… and yet there was a part of her that sensed something… familiar in them all the same.

They were all alive, the four who’d been electrocuted were completely unconscious, so Lumara first moved to the Pink Ranger whom wasn’t completely out of it and lay coughing where she rubbed at her throat. Lumara knelt down beside the human then displayed some degree of strength as she rose, easily lifting the Pink Ranger up cradled in her arms.

“W-who…” the Pink Ranger mumbled weakly. Her head struggled to rise even the smallest bit and turn toward their savior.

“Save your strength Ranger,” Lumara spoke kindly and quietly so no one else would overhear, “you are currently very weak and mustn’t let your core become depleted.”

“M-my… friends?” the Ranger pleaded, her chest rose and fell sucking in more air, making one valiant attempt to remain conscious, if only to learn the truth… with her power core almost completely drained it was a valiant attempt.

“Safe,” Lumara answered the Pink Ranger’s question. The form of the woman cradled in her arms was distressing for Lumara… because she was both so familiar… and so different from someone else… she spoke one last whisper, “as I swear you all shall be.”

The Ranger moaned a quiet sigh, her head slumped gently into the nook of Lumara’s arm and after one last shudder of defiance against darkness… she went limp. Lumara would have very bad news for the rest of the Rangers when they woke up… for now this one was Lumara’s first priority.

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Note: Sorry I can't be bothered to find most of the things i'd like in italics here. But tried to get the important ones.

[Damselbinder]

Not bad at all! It's definitely an untapped source of potential interest, as you say. The battle scene was pretty exhilarating, and seeing the rangers get pummelled so badly was a real gut-punch. Medula's a very effective villain, and I'll be interested to see her and Lumara clash. Speaking of Lumara, a really fun design. I'll be looking forward to seeing you do more with it.

[Femina]

THE ORIGIN!OF SPECIES
Part two


It shames me to admit that I had forgotten what it was to be helpless. I had forgotten the strength that inevitably forms within the repressed… but who could blame me? Our victory was so close to absolute! Our enemy grew ever less and less effective against the evolving engine of my Collective… so when our capitol ship arrived at the Vitan capitol world… it surprised me to find the mass sacrifice I witnessed had all been a desperate ploy for survival…

Why? Why did this surprise me? I ponder this still.

…

Now close your eyes… Imagine the churning energy of quadrillions of energy based life forms all manifestly condensed into six foci of power… yes, Power Rangers… what I now know were just the first, the Alpha. It seemed so… silly, and small! What could six individuals do to prevent what an entire species had failed? Yet… they did prevent us, and they repelled us. Within each one of them was the strength and energy of trillions.

Oh you cannot imagine it… to see the end of a thing that has consumed you… for eons! Eons beyond what you’re insignificant lifespan could fathom… to see it all staunched at the ending… For you to know what I felt at that moment… it would be as one of your mayflies witnessing your dreams crumble before your very eyes… would you say that thing was your equal? Would you suffer the condescending horror of a mayfly? It exists to live and die in one evening, a feast for their… their betters… food… slaves…

…

I- I lost my patience. I threw myself and the Collective against the Rangers, again and again and again! Their names and faces are burned into me… their victories keep me up at night, their deeds torment my deepest nightmares. Lumara… I-I wonder? Would she hate me still if she understood how fully they still live inside of me? If it is true what you humans say, that we all die two deaths… surely she and I are all the hope of immortality that remains to them!

…

Eventually I was forced to find some pittance of my old genius… honestly the ‘Power Rangers’ had only ever fought a battle of survival. To assault, retaliation, to advance... these are things unattainable to those fighting at the brink of extinction… I know. Believe me… I understand.

The day came. They lost. It was hard fought but at last I defeated and dispersed all but one of them, I don’t know where Lumara was when her companions fell… I thought perhaps I’d destroyed her when I turned my canons on their planet… when the last of their starlight was gone. Finally gone, eradicated… erased…

Then… then w-we had peace at last…

I slept like a baby that night for the first time since I’d been an actual babe in the crib… and many nights after…

...

But we can’t escape the weight of our sins forever…

[Femina]

CHAPTER!TWO
Aftershock



Emily Chamberlain, aka Omega Pink awoke with a mild gasp some time later with a splitting headache. She moaned and brought a gloved hand up to touch her forehead… only to feel it tap up against the hard, not quite metal, material of her crowned helmet… She was currently morphed…

“My friends!” she bleated as some of it came rushing back to her, with a smooth practiced movement she rolled off of the surface she was laying on and rose to her feet… but then a dizzying wave of nausea overcame her. She uttered a clipped “O-oh- uuuuohhh…” before her ordinarily able thighs turned to jelly, her knees drifted inward toward one another and she collapsed down onto them. With seemingly no strength to stop it from happening, her upper body then pitched forward, but luckily she managed to get her sluggish arms to cooperate enough to get her forearms down against the ground just preventing her from slapping helmet first into the earth.

She ‘stood’ there, panting, on her forearms and knees for what felt like an eternity before her head stopped spinning. What’s… going on? Emily pondered desperately; panic steadily tingled up her spine while she started to try and piece together anything to explain her current predicament. She had to look at her gloved hands one more time just to remind herself that she even was in her Ranger uniform, I’m a Power Ranger? She reassured herself, So… why do I feel… so weak?

She could not afford to be weak right now! Her friends were fighting that… that monster with her and… and she had to… how long ago had that been? Where even was she?

“Ngh… no!” She gritted her teeth. She wasn’t going to stand for this sort of thing! Get up Emily! You’ve been in worse scrapes than this! She balled her fists and, with monumental effort she pushed up off her forearms and onto the palms of her hands… she shook a little with strain but once she locked her elbows she had enough support that she could shift her right leg out underneath her. Once she felt comfortable the foot was solidly planted she carefully pushed off of it…

Emily succumbed to a brief moment of elation when she was finally up onto two feet… a moment that was dashed an instant later when she sighed out a despondent tone of understanding as she began to tip backwards and knew deep down that she could do nothing to stop it…

She did not strike the ground, instead she fell into a pair of arms. “Ah!” Emily cried out and squirmed pitifully, whose arms could these be but the enemy? “N-no! Don’t! Let me go!”

“Steady yourself Ranger,” the person, or woman rather by the sound of her voice, spoke soothingly. It did a little to assuage Emily’s fright… but not entirely, the voice had a degree of musical authority… but it was trilled, she didn’t sound right… before she could wonder any further at the potential monster holding her however, the acquaintance shifted her grip ever so slightly so that Emily rolled into her, when the Pink Ranger’s head tilted up from the crook of an elbow she saw the white helmeted head of what could only be a Power Ranger… it all came back to her now, even those final delirious moments of the white blur rescuing her…

“P-put me down…” Emily asked her. As if to indicate her intent to get up on her own the Ranger’s shining pink clad form wriggled, the silky material of their suits were a little slippery against one another but it wasn’t enough of a problem to even register to the stoic other.

“That would not be wise,” the White Ranger responded, she stiffly shook her head, “You will probably faint again if I allow you exert too much effort, it is astonishing that you even managed to rise to your feet at all.”

She would probably FAINT?… faint AGAIN? What was that supposed to mean! Emily felt her cheeks heat up with embarrassment and was mildly thankful for the helmet. She would not just have… have fainted like a defenseless damsel! She was a Power Ranger! Power Rangers did not… they did not faint!

But maybe she had been knocked out? Her head was still splitting… Emily decided she ought to at least figure out what was wrong with her first? “What… happened to me?” she finally asked, “I… I feel…”

“You and your team were defeated by Empress Medula of the Crimson Collective,” the White Ranger explained. “She is an extraordinarily powerful being, you must have drawn to deeply from your Power Core when you attempted to wrest yourself free of her grip”

Defeated… despite herself, Emily shuddered in the White Rangers grip… and she hated herself for it.

“My… Power Core?” Emily asked, as much to cover up her momentary lapse of emotional weakness as to know.

The White ranger’s head tilted to the side quizzically. After a short pause she said, “You do not understand even the most basic principles of your abilities do you?” The chastisement burned just a little bit… the White Rangers voice was devoid of reprimand or disappointment as she spoke, they were words spoken simply as matter of fact, “It is no wonder that Medula has rendered you so helpless.”

The Pink Ranger felt so much heat built up within her helmet she was certain her redness must be visible even through her Ranger gear! Her breath caught somewhat short… Why… does she have to-to say it like that?

“You need to let your core recharge,” the White Ranger pressed on, oblivious to Emily’s predicament, “It is safe for you to de-morph here. You shall find that for the time being your ordinary form will be stronger than you are now.”

But if I de-morph… she’ll see how embarrassed I am! “N-no!” Emily gasped, just a little too emphatically. She could not do that! Not right then, “I… We should return to Ranger Central… it should be… safer there.”

“Oh… you have a headquarters? Excellent,” the White Ranger remarked and before Emily realized what was about to happen, she uttered a mild squeak as she was scooped up into her… rescuers arms. She could just die of shame! “Where should I go?”

“I… can activate the teleport from… my belt…” Emily told her… but felt her shoulders shrink even further when the white Ranger shook her head no.

“In your present condition it is better not to risk it.”

Of course it was better ‘not to risk it’ for poor helpless Emily! She bit her lip before she realized she’d been lapse and forgotten something more important than her own soiled pride. “Wait! My friends they…”

“I’m afraid to report to you that your friends are in no condition to aid us at this time,” the White Ranger’s voice dipped low as she said this, a tinge of sadness seemed to overcome her, “You’re medical professionals were able to collect them from the scene of the attack… rest easy Ranger, they yet live… but we should speak of these things somewhere less open.”

“O-okay…” Emily tried not to sound shell shocked. “But… I’ll have a lot of questions. I’m… Emily, by the way. Emily Chaimberlain.”

“Lumara,” the White Ranger responded, bobbing her head in what almost appeared like some sort of attempt at a bow that was only blocked by her armload of precious Pink Ranger, “Lumara Synergon… where do I take you Emily?”

Emily sighed and relaxed in Lumara’s arms… resigning herself to be carried like a waif for the time being as she pointed a direction… it wasn’t like Ranger Central had a Street Address , “It’s this way…”

* * * * *

Turn Around!

Medula was screaming at herself silently. Her eyes were glued ahead out the front viewport of the landing craft cockpit, her hands were in death grips on the control stick and throttle while for some reason she simply could not make her body respond to what she was thinking. What are you doing! You could have killed her right there? You should have just killed her right there! It was over! Now it isn’t! Now it may never be over!

“It IS over,” she mumbled at herself, her eyes were wet and she realized as the first tear began to roll down her cheek that she’d forgotten to blink! She certainly wasn’t crying. She slammed her eyes shut and back open to relieve the strain.

It was never over. That’s what she was coming to realize. She’d only thought it was over! What a fool she’d been! Thinking that they were all gone! How could she? How could anyone be so confident in the eradication of an entire species as to assume that one might slip through the cracks?

She released her hold on the control stick and clutches at her face, a gesture that covered some of the skin around her mouth and the eye ports of the Medula Mark 1. She let out a sound like a scream or a growl. Wynken, always the first to know when its mistress was upset helpfully slammed hard into the mostly broken door between the cockpit and troop area. The door finally smashed completely off its supports.

Go Back! Kill them! The tirade of self defacement continued… but the logical part of her brain was already countermanding it. It was too late to kill them, the Rangers wouldn’t be where she could easily find them anymore.

She’d blown it. There was no going back now.

You left General Zultch! You coward! That thought at last broke through the shell she’d been constructing around herself. Her skin prickled in goosebumps. “Oh Gods…” She slammed on the afterburner. She would run out of fuel if she turned back now, one glance at the counter told her that, but as soon as she was back in the Fallen Palace she could use the mothership’s sensors to locate her General and get him home.

If she hasn’t killed him already…

“No!” Medula slammed a fist into the dash. No! She wouldn’t think about that. He’d be fine. He was a good soldier. He was a survivor, like her. He’d make it.

* * * * *

Emily was so used to the sensation of morphing at this point in her life, that awesome moment when she transformed from an average young woman into a Superhero! She’d always reveled in it. It was like a broadening in her chest, like a glowing hot ember of pure strength that fueled her limbs with health and vigor…..

Emily was not used to what she felt that afternoon when she finally de-morphed at Ranger Central. Nothing in her life had ever felt more… wrong. It wasn’t right that what had made her so powerful had become so weak! The sensation of that energy running off of her, but feeling stronger for the absence of that energy… it felt like a perversion, and even though she knew that being a Ranger wasn’t a ‘sentient’ power or anything like that… she nevertheless thought a silent apology, I’ll never feel like that again, she swore, I’ll never let any Ranger feel that again!

She’d gone ahead and had Lumara leave her in Ranger Central’s gymnasiums changing room, so with her ordinary human condition apparently more than strong enough to walk, Emily made sure to really set her shoulders and hold her head high when she left the dressing room for the Briefing Room. She had a few questions… and accusations, for the mystery Ranger.

“Welcome back Emily,” AVA, the headquarters AI greeted her. The soft almost motherly tone of it was comforting after all that occurred. “I am so sorry about the others, If I had suspected Medula was coming personally I never would have... I’m glad you’re safe.”

“Thanks Ava,” Emily put her hand down on the nearby control console and looked down at the ground which caused her long auburn hair to hang down past the front of her shoulders… “I know… none of us were prepared.”

“I’ve been monitoring the situation at the Angel Grove Medical Center. The team is alive… their identities are unfortunately now public, but in their condition that’s to our benefit as they are being provided the best care possible. They are even flying a neurological team in from the New York area.

“The Hero treatment…” Emily mumbled and nodded solemnly. So her friends were alive… but needed a neurosurgeon or something like that? She felt that bead of worry for them in her stomach intensifying.

“Correct, i-in the meantime, I’ve been speaking with our incredible new friend!” Eva’s synthesizers pressed out optimistically, “She says…”

“That your friends are Rangers and strong,” Lumara spoke up for the first time since Emily had entered the room, apparently she wasn’t willing to be spoken for. The White Ranger was standing where it looked like she might have been pacing a few feet away from the console and surrounding furniture. Emily was a little surprised when she looked up to see that Lumara was still in her ranger gear… but was more interested in what Lumara was saying for the time being to make a note of it, “They have been gravely injured, it is so, but a Ranger’s physiology is strong. I know not when they shall return to us, but I am absolutely confident that they shall. In time.”

“Us?” Emily asked. She wasn’t entirely sure what she was even asking.

“Yes, us?” Lumara’s head tilted, she stated it like fact, but there was a degree of strong emphasis In her voice as she added, “Rangers.”

Emily felt a strange outpouring of something in response, much too great a something to quantify or categorize… “We were lucky that you showed up when you did. Thank you for your support.”

“It was my privilege,” Lumara actually bowed, almost regally, at the waist. When she rose back up she said, “You will have questions?”

“I do…” Emily nodded again… though not as many as she thought she would. They’d already covered her friends, which was the majority of her main concerns for the time being… and she wanted some time to herself, but she did have two very important questions that couldn’t wait, “Just a couple for now.”

When Lumara nodded a ‘go ahead’ Emily asked, “Power Cores… what’s all that about? I’ve never felt like that before… not ever and it isn’t like we’ve never been up against long odds.”

“Your Power Core appears to be present primarily in your morphing device,” Lumara answered, she pointed to the rectangular device clipped to Emily’s belt which took the form of her belt buckle once the Ranger transformation was complete, “I shall need time to confer with your Advance Voice Assistant to understand completely but…”

“Please just Ava,” Ava interjected, she sounded embarrassed “Designations make me feel naked.”

“Noted,” Lumara nodded at the console. Due to a tendency to sometimes speak stiltedly and with care, Emily had at first wondered if Lumara herself was a robot… but the more she studied the Ranger the more she began to recognize a more militant attitude. Lumara was probably a soldier, wherever she came from.

“As I was saying, while your Core seems to be located within that device, it seems to act predictably with my experience in function. It is, in laymen’s terms, the well of Power that allows you to be a Power Ranger.”

“Alright, but then why do I feel stronger now than I did when I…” Emily clenched her fists, “if it’s all power, why did I feel like that at the end?”

“Your core fuels your powers… but the transformation you make to be capable of utilizing your core is actually quite taxing. Your physical body, as point of reference no physical body, is capable of acting as a Ranger on its own without a core to provide energy. When low on core energy, a body is essentially pulling the weight of being a Power Ranger itself. The power becomes a strain upon the it, demanding more energy than it can provide”

So my body wasn’t strong enough, Emily snarled the unspoken addition at herself. So she’d have to be extra careful from now on. She wanted more specifics about the core, how to measure her usage of it, anything it took to never feel that weak again… but that could wait till she’d had some rest.

“One more question then,” she took a deep breath, scowled and her frustrations came boiling out of her, “Who are you? Where did you come from! Why haven’t you… we’ve needed you! For a long time! Not just… and you waited till now? When…” Her anger continued to spill out until she realized that her words were hitting Lumara hard. The White Ranger’s head was lowered and turned away.

“Emily… this is not her fault,” it was Ava who spoke up, “Lumara only just arrived here, I tracked her arrival personally.”

“What do you mean? Where was she?” Emily wasn’t ready to let go of her anger just yet. Wherever Lumara had come from she’d have had access to a TV and national news! She wasn’t going to get off that light!

“I mean that I tracked her entry into Earth’s atmosphere only a few hours ago,” Ava dropped the bombshell. Emily’s mouth slowly gapped open as she realized the implication… It should not have hit her so sideways, she already knew Medula and her minions were Alien… but a… an Alien Power Ranger?

“I was not here…” Lumara spoke up, solemnly, as she reached up to tap the side of her helmet, the saucer areas creased and clipped out to the sides. Emily realized that Lumara was taking off her helmet. “but I wish it had been otherwise… young Ranger, I wish more than anything I had been here to protect you…”

Lumara slipped her helmet completely free and secured it neatly under her shoulder. The being that now looked across the room at Emily was… beautiful unlike anything the young woman had ever seen. Lumara’s skin was white yet shone like alabaster, her eyes like pools of purest blinding light while glowing golden blonde wisps of energy rose off her crown like shifting curls devoid of gravity.

The beautiful woman put her free fist to her heart and bowed once more, “Emily Chaimberlain… I ask your forgiveness for my tardiness. Though I know I have arrived as soon as I could, great hardship may have been avoided were I…”

“Stop…” Emily interrupted and held up her hand… she could not hold onto her anger any longer… it was clear to her now that none of this could ever have turned out any different, “I believe you… it’s okay. You don’t need forgiveness.” She turned and started to leave the room… for though she no longer held any anger toward Lumara she didn’t actually want to be in the same room with the Alien just now… it hurt to lose that anger, she needed time.

When Emily was gone, Lumara slumped against the nearby wall and stared blankly into the hallway that her new friend had disappeared off into.

“Yes,” she whispered to no one, “Yes, I do.”