Chapter 27 - Delta Quest

Angel Grove, 2006

Saksor, the half monster, half saxophone, was having fun tearing through the busy airport parking lot of Angel Grove. He couldn't speak, but since he could literally toot his own horn, it didn't matter. The only hiccup since the Power Rangers powered down where the giant chameleon and a black figure throwing fire around.

He whipped around, looking for the chameleon, but it had disappeared. He gave a mirthful burble and turned his attention on the black clad figure, but she only left a crimson blur as she ran away. In anger, Saksor let out a deafening blast.  An impact to his back caused him to crash into the ground.

Having just attacked him, a Pai Zhua master in orange, and a ninja in black stood behind him. "Thank, mate. Wasn't sure if I'd get enough strength on my own," she told her temporary ally.

The young man gave a teeth gleaming smile. "No worries," he assured. "I just came to visit family, not sure what exactly we just walked into," he said, looking up as Riti made her pronouncement.

"You walked into a war," Red Senturion said as he and Blue arrived on the scene. "Welcome to Angel Grove," he said, recognizing the young man as his own cousin, Nyo Kotze, the younger brother of Ifetayo Kotze.

"Better to leave this to the professionals now. For your own safety," Blue Senturion said. "Monster, this is your only warning to turn yourself in peacefully," he said in an authoritative voice.

Saksor faced the foursome and blew his horn. The sound met a wall of fire. "I got time to kill on my layover to Briarwood," Emily Bly, the Fire Ninja, said. She jumped as Saksor attempted to attack again.

"Senturion Synergizer!" Blue shouted and a lethal looking laser blaster popped out of his leg armor. "Then we'll be grateful for the help," he said.

Red nodded. "The more the merrier," he agreed and pulled his own Synergizer out of his armor. The four of them attempted to keep Saksor occupied and focused on them while they waited for the Power Rangers to save the day.

-x-

New Tech City, 2025

Winking into existence in another time and place was mildly disconcerting. Especially since they had no idea when or where they were headed. None of them, not even Wood, had recognized the team the Morph Keys represented. They appeared on a ridge overlooking a city teeming with all sorts of lifeforms. The majority were human, but more than enough weren't.

"I can't believe it," Wood said in awe. "I think I know where we are," he said.

"Somewhere there's a lot of aliens, and time where they are openly living on Earth. Interesting," Lammy said. Being an alien herself, living with an assumed identity, she could somewhat appreciate such a time and place will exist. After all, not every alien species in the galaxy were bent on dominating and conquering other worlds.

"It's New Tech City, isn't it?" Tori asked, dazzled.

"Huh?" Nathan asked.

"I think so. In our time, it's just desert, an old ghost town where they're planning to build the S.P.D. facility," Wood said and pointed in the distance, to the center of the city, a gleaming glass and steel building could barely be seen with the Space Patrol Delta emblem on it.

"Oh," Nathan said and shrugged. He still had no idea what they were talking about. "Is that where we're headed?" he asked, eyeballing his little blue figure.

Wood held his up as well. "This is supposed to lead the way," he said. His wrists began to vibrate. "Huh?" He held his hands up and his yellow cuffs appeared. The Morph Keys began glowing. They each made their cuffs appear. The Morph Keys bonded with the Power Coins. Wood's cuffs turned red and his Smilodon emblem was replaced by an S.P.D. insignia. Tori's cuffs stayed pink but her pterodactyl was also replaced with an S.P.D. logo, the rose-gold color of Lammy's cuffs turned yellow and Nathan's pink turned blue. They twisted their wrists again and the cuffs disappeared.

"Well, now that's done, any idea which way to go?" Lammy asked, rubbing her wrists absently.

Wood nodded. He grinned at them. "That way," he announced, pointing toward the city.

Nathan grinned, too. "Good, maybe we can find a cantina to start a fire fight in," he said. Wood's grinned widened. Tori giggled, but Lammy eyed them strangely. None of them bother to explain the reference as they began making their way off the ridge.

-x-

"Are you sure you're leading us and not wandering around in fascination?" Nathan asked Wood when it seemed like they'd passed the same spot for the third time. "I'm getting dizzy," he said. "From, you know, the circles we've been walking in," he added, making a circular motion with his finger to emphasize his point.

"Yes, we got it Nath," Tori said with a slight laugh.

Wood frowned. "I don't know. It is fascinating, but I can feel this tug and for whatever reason, we're going around in circles," he said, rubbing his wrist.

"More like a spiral. This is the only place we've passed more than once," Lammy said. She looked around for anything out of the ordinary, but the whole city wasn't what she was used to in Angel Grove, everything looked out of the ordinary. But one thing was for sure, "This is the place where most of the aliens gather," she said.

"What do you mean?" Wood asked.

"I mean they're scattered all over the city but this is a little mecca. I see shops, food stalls, very few humans without a reason for being here, and every time we've passed, the people either hide, look extremely uninterested in us, or leave in a hurry," Lammy explained.

"You're an alien, can't you mingle or something and figure out why we're going around in circles?" Tori asked.

"You spent a lot of time aboard a spaceship where humans and aliens coexisted. You mingle," Lammy said.

"I would, except I haven't seen any of the species that are part of the Reaver Alliance," Tori said back.

"This probably isn't the part of town where human-friendly aliens hang out," Nathan pointed out.

Lammy sighed. "All right, but you guys cannot be weird about this. It'll hurt my feelings," she said.

"We've seen your parents, and Win when his mutations go wonky," Nathan said. Wood and Tori nodded solemnly.

Lammy sighed again, and her visage began to change. Her fingers lengthened into sharp tips, light brownish-gold interlocking exoskeleton began appearing over her skin. Her clothes changed to her black leather and gold armor, while the exoskeleton formed something of a tiara-like crest around her face, while her hair remained. Black feathery wings and an agile tail sprouted from her back. She rolled her head around on her neck. "Ah, this actually feels pretty good," she said. She didn't often take this form, especially while trying to blend in on Earth. It was something of a battle form.

"Ooh, a hot alien babe, how hideous," Tori said and gave an exaggerated shudder. Nathan and Wood chuckled.

Lammy gave a slight scoff and began walking again. "Come along human servants," she said imperiously. "Let's see if we can solve this mystery," she added. She gave wood a sidelong glance. "Any idea which way we should go?" she asked.

Wood held out his wrist and turned in a circle. He felt a buzzy sort of tug. "That way," he said. Lammy led the way through the street.

"Psst. Missy. Psst," a hiss came out of one of food stalls. Very bad smells were emanating from it and leathery, bird-like but not really, alien was gesturing to Lammy.

"Oh, wow," Tori held a hand over her nose. "Go see what he wants, we'll be right here waiting," she urged.

"Yeah, as far away from that smell as possible," Nathan agreed.

"Okay, but try not to get into trouble," Lammy said and headed toward the stall. "Yes?" she asked him.

"You look new around here so a piece of friendly advice, on the house even," he said and look around. "Don't walk around like that, as lovely as it is, if you don't want to get deported," he said.

Lammy crossed her arms over her chest. "Deported?" she asked.

"If you ain't registered, you get deported if you're caught. Trust me on this. Go back to trying to blend in with those human kids," he said.

"Thank you for the advice," Lammy said. She recognized his species. She held out a hand and opened it, a fist sized black egg appeared, floating a few inches above it.

"Oh, what is that? It smells worse month old hamburgers rotting in the desert," Nathan said, gagging. Tori was speechless, and Wood had to hide as he lost his lunch.

The alien, however was ecstatic, "Where did you get that?" he asked he reached for it. Lammy pulled it out of his reach.

"This isn't a token of my appreciation for the free advice. This is of you can give me any information," she said.

The alien sunk back and looked around suspiciously. "This isn't some kind of trick is it?" he asked. "You ain't workin' with those Power Rangers are ya?" he asked.

"If you don't want it, that's fine," Lammy said and began to close her hand.

"Wait! Okay, Missy. What do you want to know? Ol' Piggy should be able to help," he said in an oily manner.

"Do you know anything about recent temporal disturbances, or any objects that look like they could be pieces of a white staff?" she asked. Her other hand gave a tap of the egg and sent it spinning.

Piggy stared at it with rapt attention. "S.P.D. dogs have quarantined an area outside of the city a bit. Seems that anyone that gets close to it, gets attacked by some sort of unknown creature. I hear rumors that it's guarding a white stick," he said and reached out and grabbed the egg. "Shops closed!" he barked at his customers and closed his window.

Lammy headed back to her friends, reassuming her usual human appearance. "If the locals are interfering, then that might explain why we're going around in circles. Or it could mean that we aren't to find it just yet," she said after explaining what she found out.

"What was that thing with the stink?" Nathan asked.

"I recognized his species. They will literally sell their grandmothers but they always have information. That egg was a rare delicacy from his planet. Only the richest could afford it," she explained.

"I don't think I'll ever be able to smell again," Wood declared, rubbing his nose. He had a more distinct tug in his wrist now and began to lead them away from the alien community. Except they didn't get too far when five people in uniforms appeared before them.

"That's far enough. We're with S.P.D. we need to ask you a few questions," the young man in the red splashed suit announced.

"Uh-oh," Nathan said and held up his hands. Wood followed suit.

Tori put her hands on her hips. "And what exactly are you questioning us about?" she asked. "Walking down the street?"

"We need to check your registration status," the girl in yellow told Lammy and pulled a device. "Please state your name, species, and planet of origin," she said.

Lammy reasoned at this point in time, given what was happening in their present, she was probably in their database. "Lammy Goldsmith. Rachnaemance-Wolzyd, and I was born on the moon," she announced.

"Shiny," the young man in the green said, waving his hands in front of his face. He gave a slight laugh to himself.

"Bridge," the young man in blue said in a scolding tone.

Elizabeth "Z" Delgado looked up at Lammy with a slight frown. "This lists your current residence as Angel Grove. Is that correct?" she said.

Lammy nodded. If she was right about what was hidden somewhere in Angel Grove, there would no need to leave once she found it. "Correct. Now what's this all about?" she asked. She slid her eyes to the girl in pink. There was something about the girl that was making her senses tingle. Not in a dangerous way, just a curious sort of way.

"We're not aliens, by the way," Nathan spoke up.

"Did he just say we were shiny?" Tori asked, eying Bridge Carson.

"Like in an Autumn sort of way," Wood confirmed with a nod.

"We heard you talking with Piggy. What do you know about the monster and the staff piece?" Sky Tate said

"That's classified," Tori stated.

"Yeah, like super-mega classified," Nathan agreed with a nod.

"This isn't game we're playing with you kids," Jack Landors stated.

"Kids? If you're older than me, I'll each my shirt," Nathan responded. Jack puffed out his chest, offended.

"Okay, okay," Syd Drew said. "But you are civilians, and we're S.P.D. so there's really not much of a choice here," she said. "We'll ask you to come along quietly and answer our questions, or the alternative," she said.

Wood rubbed the bridge of nose. He wasn't sure what the best play was here. No one bothered to tell them what to do if they ran afoul of the current time's authority or "Power Rangers," he said. "We're Power Rangers," he stated. "From the past," he added. "We're looking for that staff piece to save the Morphing Grid," he added.

"What happened to super-mega classified?" Nathan asked.

"When in doubt, tell the truth," Wood said with a shrug. "Besides, I'm pretty sure they're this time's Rangers," he added in a whisper.

"Power Rangers from the past. Right. Let's take them to headquarters," Jack said.

"I don't think you have time if those are what I think they are," Wood said, pointing over their shoulders as mechanical creatures began to appear on the streets.

"If they're the same things as that, then they probably are what you think they are," Bridge agreed, pointed over their shoulders.

"Oh, great. He resold information," Lammy sighed. She ducked as a Krybot attacked. The S.P.D. B-Squad Rangers had to start defending themselves as well and keep an eye on these self-proclaimed time-traveling Power Rangers.

"Let's try not to get too tangled up in this fight," Wood said as he sprung away from an attacking minion, only to bounce up again, as if he were hopping from trampoline to trampoline. He landed in a crouch by a food stall that reminded him a sashimi restaurant. "Can I borrow these? Thanks!" He said and took the sharp edged spatula the now cowering alien cook has been using. He began defending himself using them in a similar manner to his daggers as he bounced around.

Tori waited calmly as several of the androids came upon her with her hands on her hips. "You guys are going to regret this," she warned them. They paused warily but then continued to come at her. "You were warned," she said and shrieked at them, the sound blast hitting them with an unexpected force that also had them sparking and twitched. She cartwheeled through them, occasionally stopping to kick or punk, or even toss over her shoulder when she deemed it necessary. "Never mess with a cheerleader," she said.

At first Nathan didn't go high. Going high was more useful when he had a weapon. Instead he crouched and rolled, looking for something he could use. He spotted it when he came face to face with a couple of alien kids hiding. There was a sling-shot on the ground near them. "Perfect. I'm borrowing this," he said with a grin.

He scooped up the slingshot and a handful of the sharp-looking rocks they were using for ammo. He rolled to his feet, put most of the rocks in his pocket but kept a handful as he began to use the rocks against the Krybots.

He got their attention. He ran forward, doing a one-armed hand spring, landed on the shoulders of one of them, fired a few more shots, kicked his host in the head and jumped, hovering as he gave his friends some cover, occasionally even helping the uniformed officers.

Lammy threw a handful of energy small energy balls at the Krybots, but realized that if she missed, she'd damage the small community. "Dang," she said, imitating her brother's drawl. She ducked and rolled, coming to feet with a long, thin metal tube that belonged to a food stall in the middle redoing some plumbing. "En guarde!" she said, jousting forward with the pipe, jabbing and swiping with ease and skill.

"Come on, guys. This way," Wood said, finally scouting an escape route. The other travelers joined up with him and they dashed away from the scene, leaving the era's Rangers to deal with their enemies.

-x-

The good news seemed to be that the four of them weren't walking around in circles anymore, but the bad news seemed to be that New Tech City was a lot bigger than they anticipated. It was also laid out in a haphazard manner as the city expanded over the years. But they finally made it out to the dessert, where Nathan dramatically collapsed on the sandy ground. "I need sugar," he moaned.

Tori sighed and sat down on his butt, making him grunt. "And you call yourself a gymnast," she sniffed.

"Hey, I even beat Rex this year. I deserve a little sweet," he said, propping his chin on his hand, looking around.

Lammy held a hand over her eyes and scanned the horizon. "I'm not seeing anything unusual," she said. "Instead of wallowing on the ground, how about a bird's eye view?" she suggested to Nathan.

"Would if I weren't being used as a throne," he answered.

Wood chuckled and held his hands out to help Tori bounce to her feet. Nathan rolled to his back and sprang up. He jumped again and levitated. "I see it now. It's a little way where it looks like they're trying to build one of those gated communities. There are personnel milling around. Looks like we'll have to go deeper into it to find what we're looking for," he said and his feet touched the ground again.

"So, we have to get past the guards and wander around in a cookie-cutter neighborhood for a while," Lammy said. She cracked her knuckles. "Let's go," she said.

Nathan sighed and gazed in the direction he'd indicated. "Can't you like, poof us over there?" he asked her.

"That'd be so awesome," Wood agreed. "My feet are kind of killing me," he said.

"It doesn't work that way. Come on, let's go," she said.

"Coming," the other three chorused tiredly and began to drag themselves behind her.

-x-

What Nathan hadn't seen was familiar faces joining the guards at the construction site. The B-Squad Rangers, anticipating that the foursome that had run away might make their way here. "What's the deal with this place again?" Syd asked, looking around at the planned community with a slight frown.

"There's a monster here," Z answered.

"Then why don't we just go defeat it?" Jack asked.

"We have orders not to interfere and only observe from a safe distance," Sky stated.

Z frowned. "The time-traveling Power Rangers?" she asked.

"Doggy probably knows more about this than he's letting on," Jack said with a frown. "Do we really believe that they're time-traveling Power Rangers?"

"Don't be ridiculous," Sky said.

"I don't know. They had unusual abilities, like us," Syd said.

"So I wasn't only one who saw the flying person?" Bridge asked. "I believe them," he said. "Let's call back the other guards," he suggested.

"You can't be serious," Sky said, slightly appalled.

"I agree with Bridge. There's something, I can't put my finger on, about the alien girl, Lammy. I think we should trust them," Syd said decisively.

"Me, too. If I allow myself to think they are from the past, I think we should give them a shot to accomplish whatever it is they're here to do," Z said, she had an eerie sense of familiarity with the kid with the afro and the girl with her distinctive colored eyes.

Sky looked at them like they'd lost their minds. He glanced at Jack. "Please tell me you aren't going to go along with this," he said.

Jack paced for a moment as he thought. Finally, he clapped his hands together. "Okay, let's do it. Clear the way. Observe without being seen. Don't jump in before we have orders otherwise," he said. Sky threw up hands but they began to take the necessary steps to evacuate their personnel.

-x-

"I thought you saw guards," Wood commented to Nathan as they finally entered the community site. He definitely had a more definitive sense of where they were headed, and they were close. He could feel it.

Nathan shrugged. "Maybe they're on break or something," he suggested.

"Yeah, because that makes perfect sense," Tori said. Nathan shrugged again. He couldn't tell what he didn't know.

"Whatever happened, let's just be on guard," Lammy said.

"You're the one with the spidey senses. We'll take our cues from you," Nathan said quietly.

"Why are you whispering?" Lammy asked.

Nathan glanced around warily. "It's a little too quiet around here," he answered. "Okay, gang, let's not split up," he suggested. "I'm pretty sure an episode of Scooby-Doo started like this," he declared.

"I'm pretty sure every episode of Scooby-Doo started like this," Tori declared.

"Nah, sometimes it was night-time out in the wilderness," Wood corrected them.

"Except there won't be an old man Jenkins in a mask at the bottom of this mystery," Lammy added, surprising the other three. "Finster likes to watch cartoons in his lab," she said by way of explanation.

"Jinkies," Tori couldn't help but interject.

Their good spirits were quickly squashed as they came upon the center of the community where a park was being built. A kids' playground had many half-finished projects. One of pile of junk they could have dismissed as the supplies for a monkey bars or geo dome suddenly began to move and assemble itself into a monster larger than a house that seemed to part antenna-part satellite dish.

"Zoinks!" Wood and Nathan exclaimed at the same time. They all went scattering for cover when the monster began firing laser beams at them.

"Well, I think we're at the right place finally," Nathan said loudly.

"Anyone see the staff piece?" Tori asked from her hiding place.

"It's at the top of the slide," Lammy said.

"The slide on the other side of the playground with the monster between us and it?" Wood asked, peeking out.

"That's the one," Lammy agreed.

"We're not going get past it without Morphing," Tori said.

"Agreed. Let's do it," Wood said. He twisted his wrists and stood up. "It's Morphin' Time! S.P.D. Emergency! One!" He brought his cuffs together and activated the Morph. "SPD Red Ranger!"

Lammy, Nathan, and Tori made their cuff appear as they stood.

"Two!" Nathan brought his cuffs together. "SPD Blue Ranger!"

"Four!" Lammy brought her cuffs together. "SPD Yellow Ranger!"

"Five!" Tori finished out the sequence. "SPD Pink Ranger!"

The suits that formed for them were mostly solid colors, except while and block color blocking formed number on the left sides of their torsos and arms. Silver belts and helmets with angular visors and silver mouthpieces finished out the transformation. They had a side weapons on each hip.

This surprised the cadets watching. "They can't do that? Can they?" Z demanded and almost stepped out.

Jack stopped her. "Stop. Just continue to watch for now," he said.

"We'll arrest them afterwards," Sky stated.

Syd gripped her Delta Morpher. "For what? It's not like they stole these or anything," she said.

"Power Rangers from the past," Bridge said simply, "use powers from the future." He shook his head.

Meanwhile, said Power Rangers from the past now had sabers in their hands they pulled from their holsters. Except Red, who had two blasters in his hands.

Blue's was long but he'd recently began to learn to use a sword, well a wooden stick, so he wasn't totally ill-prepared. It had actually been Tai's idea that while mastering their individual weapons, they should all be familiar with the basics of using a sword. He wasn't sure how handy it would be against the oversized Guardian, but he went for it. The Guardian began firing at him, but used the saber to knock aside the fire as his feet frequently left the ground.

He managed to get in close, slash at the Guardian but he was thrown off his feet. He managed to correct his trajectory to land of his feet. "It's a good thing I can fly," he said, resting his hands on his somewhat shaky knees.

Yellow's saber was think and shaped somewhat like her VelociRapier, but a little shorter, but she managed to compensate. She put on a kick of speed, dodging laser fire and jabbed him several timed before back flipping away.

Pink's saber was similar to Yellow's, but slightly longer. While Yellow was drawing fire, she used the opportunity to attack at the same time.

Red was using his Delta Blaster to give them some cover fire as he leapt around. Getting fed up, the Guardian's dish-like head began to emit a high frequency sound and suddenly began hurling giant laser blasts from it. They all took cover.

Blue, Yellow, and Pink drew their other side arms. "Delta Strikers!" they put the sabers and the blaster bases together to form a single, long barreled laser weapon each.

Red put his Blaster's together "Delta Blaster Combo Mode."

They popped out of their covers at the same time, "Fire!" They aimed at the Guardian and powerful lasers were fired at him. They exploded around him.

"Did we win?" Red asked into the silence that followed.

A volley of laser suppression fire gave them the answer and had them diving for cover.

"Hey, Lammy, can't you throw a spirit bomb at it or something?" Blue called to her.

"First and second, I'm not Goku and this isn't an anime," Yellow answered. "But, mostly, since this thing was created by Zordon, arguably one of the powerful beings in the galaxy, my magic wouldn't make a scratch on it," she said.

"Does this team have a cannon?" Pink asked.

"As a matter of fact it does!" Red said and got to his feet and threw something in the air that resembled a metallic bone or dumbbell. A robot shaped like a dog streaked through, jumping up in the air the catch the bone in its jaws. "Canine Cannon!" It transformed into cannon with twin barrels.

The Power Rangers converged under it. and supported it. "Fire!" They said at once and this time when the laser blasts hit the Guardian, it didn't return fire.

The cannon disappeared and so did their Morphs. "Well, I guess that was that," Tori said. "Let's get the staff piece and go," she said.

"I couldn't agree more," Lammy said.

"Then what are we standing around for?" Nathan asked.

"Good question," Wood said. They all got into motion at the same time, running to the slide where the Staff piece was still hovering peacefully.

Nathan levitated just enough to grab it. He held it out as his feet touched the ground again. Each of them grabbed hold and they winked out of that time and place as if they were never there.

Except for the witnesses. All seven of them.

"I can't remember the last time I jumped around like that," a male voice said from behind where the B-Squad Rangers had been watching with rapt attention.

"Me either. I feel old just watching that," a female voice agreed.

B-Squad turned with a start and saluted an older couple in high ranking uniforms. "Sir, Ma'am," they greeted bewildered as for some reason the Commanders in charge of the junior cadet training and facilities were standing around as well. Until it hit them.

"I knew they were Power Rangers from past," Bridge declared. The others were still trying to wrap their heads around seeing their superiors as teenagers, except Z, who was just smirking since she'd figured it out first.

"Come on. There's no need to report to Doggy about this," the man with the long dreads said. His wife with her aquamarine eyes winked at them as they started back toward the S.P.D. facilities. They followed.

-x-To Be Continued-x-           

You are not authorized to comment here. Your must be registered and logged in to comment