Chapter 2 - Impossible Pilot .2

Taylor didn't waste a moment when they returned to the lab after the battle with the aliens. He broke the grip around his neck, grabbed the arm and flipped Gore over, twisting the arm behind his back. "Never grab me like that again," he warned.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Eagle Eye, chill out," Ram said trying to intervene.

Gore gritted his teeth. "You had no reason to be there. It was dangerous and you are a civilian," he said tightly.

Tay released him and stepped away. "I'm not trained to stand idly by," Tay declared and stalked out of the Lab without a word.

No one tried to stop or follow him.

Sin crossed his arms over his chest. "Great. You guys pissed him so much no one got the chance to ask him he did that," he told them.

Gore rubbed his shoulder. "He obviously has some kind of elite training," he said.

"That's what I been trying to tell you guys. Taylor Hicks is not what he appears to be on paper," Ram said with a sigh.

Yellow nodded. "Don't ask me for anything for the pain. You deserved that," Tempest said to Gore. "You on the other hand, look like you could use something. Come on to the infirmary," she prodded Ram. He made a fuss but went anyway.

Lark frowned. "It's not often I'm wrong. Looks like I may have to do some digging on this matter," she said and sat down at her terminal. "You two may go," she dismissed Sin and Gore.

Sin left with Gore. The other man was quiet. The mystery of Taylor Hicks had just deepened greatly.

--/-\--

Earth Orbit

A ship, invisible to satellites, orbited Earth. Three beings gathered on the bridge if the Devourer as they watched the Earth below. One appeared to be a moth-like creature. Another; a giant lava lizard made of actual lava and rock. The third was cricket-like in appearance.

"You won't find conquering Earth easy," Sylon, the cricket-like creature warned.

Captain Drage glared at him. "It was you who brought us here," he reminded.

"The Earth is well guarded, but you have crushed other planets with Power Rangers. So I hear," Sylon said. They were aware that Sylon wasn't truly one of them. Neither knew who or what he was only that a short time ago he contacted the Warstar Council and invited his help in concurring earth. His main contribution was the Oozers and Ooze. They had yet to see the Ooze in action, but Oozers appeared to be a success. They could never truly be destroyed, only splattered apart until they eventually come back together again.

Commander Kragar sneered. "It's a pathetic planet. Power Rangers. I eat them for dinner," he said. "I already had a taste. An aerial vehicle. It was yummy," he added.

"What was that?" Captain Drage demanded.

"When I went to meet with this thing. I crashed through an aerial vehicle. It was fun," he said.

Captain Drake grunted, dismissing that from his mind. It was irrelevant. "Commander, have Lieutenant Sclumorg conduct a ground raid," he ordered.

"Aye, captain," Kragar agreed. He left the bridge.

Drage eyed Sylon for a long moment. "What do you gain from this?" he asked.

"Human beings are lesser life forms that deserve nothing. No mercy. No life," Sylon answered easily.

Drage grunted. He turned on his heel and walked away from him.

--/-\--

"Ah! Caught you!"

Tay lifted his head from his pillow and glared at his intruder. "Don't you knock?" he asked. He yawned and sat up.

Ram just grinned. "Well, everyone's been scouring this place for you since yesterday. I thought maybe a middle of the night ambush might be in order," he answered.

Tay scrubbed a hand through his hair. "Even on a floating island in the sky, no one looks up," he said grumpily. "I'm just biding my time until the next plane comes and not answering awkward questions," he said pointedly.

Ram propped up against the door, crossing his feet at the ankles. "We've known each other since flight school. Even then, everyone knew you weren't like the others. I'm not saying you owe anyone answers. Your business is your business, especially if you aren't allowed to talk about it. I just thought you might be interested in this," he pulled a card out of his pocket.

Even in the semi-darkness, Tay could see that it was the Morph Card that the others used. He stood and went over to him. "Where did this come from? I thought Little Miss Smarty-Pants couldn't find it," he said as he took the card and looked it over.

"One thing I've noticed about Doc, she tends to be too literal and linear minded. Now, me on the other hand… Wanna know how I originally got into the military?" he asked.

"I already know, but tell me in your words," Tay said.

Ram narrowed his eyes at Tay's answer. "Hacking. I got into a few places I wasn't supposed to go. Eventually government goons hunted me down and all but forced me into the Air Force and expunged my records," he explained. "How--?"

"I have a friend whose cousin has never gotten caught," Tay answered. "So, you used the computer's back alleys to find the code?" he asked.

"That I did," Ram agreed. "I figure you'd know what to do with that. I've been around long enough to know incidents like this don't just happen once and that's the end of it," he said.

"No. No they don't," Tay agreed.

"And you, my friend, have serious skills. You jumped from two miles in the sky, landed without a scratch, and someone created a whirlwind. When you want to tell me about that, I'll listen. Until then, hold on to that. Don't let Doc and Gore get to you. She's too dependent on her tablet and he's got a few issues." Ram nodded to him and left the room.

Tay looked at the Morph Card. He shook his head. He knew that Ram meant well, but that wasn't way he did things. He'd hand it over to the Doc in the morning. It went against the goat not to help if he could, but he's sat out before when asked to. He could do it again.

--/-\--

Lieutenant Sclumorg was a large scarab-like creature with a grinder belt into his middle and was primarily gold, blue and red. He appeared in Starkweather Valley's downtown business distract. He looked up at a building. "I guess I'll start with this one," he said. He hit the building at its weakest point until it collapsed in a massive pile of rubble.

"It's always a good idea to start with a planet's infrastructure," he declared and stood on top of the pile of rubble. He sucked it into his chest and ground it up. He spit it out from a tube at his waist. The ground up rubble formed several large boulders of ground concrete and metal and wood and plastic.

"I needed that pick me up. Next target!" He said and looked around. He spotted two more buildings and fired lasers from his eyes. Each beam hit one of the buildings, reducing them to rubble within seconds.

--/-\--

Captain Drape watched Sclumorg at work. "One of our best," he gloated.

"That guy really knows what he's doing," Kragar agreed.

Sylon watched quietly. They would definitely see about that.

--/-\--

Sclumorg rolled around a top of a ball of debris. He chased around people who'd been in the area or managed to survive the destruction of the buildings. "Run run, as fast as you can! I'll catch you and make you part of the rubble!" he crowed.

"Hold it right there!"

Four Rangers had appeared in his path between him and the humans. "What's this now?" he asked.

"We're here to stop you from destroying this city," Ranger Blue said.

Sclumorg laughed. His eyes flashed and from the desolate shells of building around them several rubble boulders crashed through. They flung themselves at the Rangers.

They split up to run away. Ranger Blue spun around, reaching for the Sea Sniper Card but he wasn't fast enough. The Boulder rolled over him and he was absorbed into the debris, causing his Morph to fail.

Yellow ran somewhere she hoped was safe enough to use her Land Claw Card. It wasn't. Black only just knocked her way. He was absorbed into another boulder.

A third one came out of nowhere and rolled over Yellow. She cried out as she was absorbed and her Morph failed.

Ranger Pink ran away as one of the boulders stayed right on her heels. She screwed up and skid on a piece of loose debris on her feet. She fell. She quickly rolled over but she had to crab walk backwards to try and stay ahead of the debris. She wasn't anywhere near fast enough for that. She screamed as she was absorbed into the debris.

Sclumorg laughed and summoned the four smaller boulders to him.

A sharp whistle sounded. He looked up to see a lone guy standing before him. "You want to be part of the debris, too?" he asked. He shot eye lasers at the interloper.

Taylor rolled out of the way. He got to his feet. "Not going to happen. You have no idea who you're dealing with," he warned.

"You'll just suffer more if you keep resisting!" Sclumorg warned him.

"Call me a radical," Tay declared.

"You were warned!" Sclumorg said. The Ranger boulders rolled toward him. He jumped and rolled, dodging them as he heard the others' muffled protests. He jumped over one and landed in a crouch. He got to his feet.

"Now I'm warning you. Release them or you'll regret it. I've eaten bigger monster than you for breakfast before I graduated high school," he said.

The four boulders rolled toward them at intersecting courses. He jumped just before they got to him. They collided with such force that they exploded, allowing the others their freedom. He stabilized himself and began running on air toward the monster.

Sclumorg activated his grinder and Tay found himself caught up in the suction. "Crap," he said and pushed against the monster's chest so that his face didn't get ground into hamburger. Sclumorg laughed and hit him as hard as inhumanly possible. He went flying into a wall before he could even attempt to correct himself. He landed hard.

Grunting he got to his knees. He walked out of the building, brushing himself off.

"You pest! Who are you?!" Sclumorg rolled toward him on the big boulder. Taylor jumped up and over him. He landed and winced. He'd banged his knee up pretty bad going through the wall.

"That's the question of the hour, isn't it?" Gore said he and the other three moved up behind him.

"Me? I'm just your friendly neighborhood Wind Ninja. Oh, and I have this. Sorry, Doc. I'm just borrowing it," Tay said and flipped out the Red Morph Card.

"Where--"

"Later," Sin said.

"Yeah, let's deal with that thing first," Tempest agreed.

"Oozers!" Sclumorg summoned, sensing a new determination in the five of them.

"DynaMorphers!" Tay called. He held up his wrist to reveal his borrowed Morpher. The others flipped out their Morph Cards as well and held up their Morphers.

"Blue Ranger Power!"

"Pink Ranger Power!"

"Black Ranger Power!"

"Yellow Ranger Power!"

"Red Ranger Power!"  Taylor slid the Morph Card along the reader. Red energy surrounded him. It formed a red and white power suit, a side arm blaster and a helmet. His power suit was emblazoned with the Air symbol wings. His helmet had a dragon motif and was crested by the Scared Face.

Remembering what the data on the card said, Red felt obliged to introduce himself properly. "With the power of Sky and Storms. Dynamic Ranger Red!"

"With the power of Sky and Life. Dynamic Pink Ranger!" Pink found herself getting caught up.

"With the power of Land and Rock! Dynamic Black Ranger!"

"With the power of Land and Flora! Dynamic Yellow Ranger!"

"With the Sea and Waves! Dynamic Blue Ranger!"

--/-\--

"So, those are the Power Rangers," Captain Drape said.

"They don't look so tough," Kragar said.

"I wouldn't underestimate them," Sylon warned. He all but seethed in rage but he hid it from the two Warstars. These humans were using Caervinian technology. He should have realized it sooner but he'd been too distracted by his own plans. How was it even possible for them to not only have access to the technology but make use of it as well?

He would find out and destroy it all and them along with it before finally wiping the human race from this planet like the vermin they were.

--/-\--

Red flexed his fingers. "I almost forgot how awesome this was," he said.

Sclumorg scoffed. "Oozers! Get them!"

The Oozers rushed forward preparing to fire their weapons.

"Summon the Micro DynaZords!" Pink said and reached into her belt, pulling out a card. "Micro DynaZord!  Phoenix!" she slid the card through the reader.

"Micro DynaZord! Shark!"

"Micro DynaZord! Snake!"

"Micro DynaZord! Tiger!"

"Micro DynaZord! Dragon!"

Their cards turned into tiny animal heads. "Dynamic Blasters!" Pink drew her blaster and stuck the Phoenix head on it. The others drew their blasters as well and stuck the heads on them.

They met the Oozers in battle. Blue fought off several and blasted several others with blue energy. He was very comfortable with the blaster in his hand. Guns were kind of his thing. Seeing more coming, he stopped and got the blaster in a double handed grip and held the trigger half way in. "Shark Bullet!" He squeezed the trigger. A massive shot of blue energy fired, taking out all of them.

Black walked into the middle of the Oozers, firing his blaster at them. He may not be a super sniper like Blue, but he was a soldier and it was time he remembered that. Oozers kept coming. He held the trigger halfway in to charge the blaster and allowed them to get closer. "Snake Bullet!" He fired a massive shot of ultraviolet purple energy at them. They exploded.

Yellow she fought her way through them and fired yellow energy blasts. She wasn't some shrinking violet. Her father was a cop and she wasn't from the best neighborhood in her hometown. She held the button of blaster down half way, letting the blaster charge as punched and kicked her way through Oozers. It was time to stop acting like she didn't belong in this suit. "Tiger Bullet!" She went down on one knee and fired at them. An explosive blast of yellow energy erupted, taking out any Oozers near her. She mimed blowing on the barrel.

Pink jumped around, nearly floating as she fired pink blasts at Oozers as they chased her around. Her main assets seemed to be her speed and agility. She wasn't particularly good at aiming. She landed once and charged her blaster. She could hear Oozers coming up behind her. "Phoenix Bullet!" She spun and fired a massive blast of pink energy at the Oozers. They exploded.

Red's tendency was to go high. Oozer followed him around broken walls of buildings even as he fired at them. He back flipped off the building and landed in the center of a group of them. He took them out one by one. He charged his blaster. "Dragon Bullet!" He fired at them. They exploded around him as the explosive red energy blast hit them.

The others regrouped around him.

"You've done this before," Blue commented.

"No comment," Red said.

"I'll crush you!" Sclumorg cried out as he began rolling his debris boulder toward them.

"All together!" Red said and the five of them fired at the boulder.

It exploded and Sclumorg crashed into the ground. He gained his feet. "Reverse Suction!" his grinder began spitting large hunk of debris at them. They fired their blasters at the rubble making it explode around them before it could crush him.

"What?!"

"Let's go with the weapons," Red said. He holstered his blaster and pulled a new Card out of his belt. "Sky Sword!" He slid his Card through the reader and it turned into a red sword.

"Sky Shooter!"

"Sea Sniper!"

"Land Axe!"

"Land Claw!"

They summoned their weapons. "In that case," Sclumorg held out his arms and summoned dark matter bursts and threw them at the Rangers. It exploded around them.

"Dragon Blast!"

"Phoenix Fired!"

Red and Pink gave out of the explosion, jumping over his head. She shot him with her Shooter. He slashed him with red energy from his Sword.

Yellow ran forward, crouching and sliding on the ground as she slid forward. "Tiger Shock!" She slashed him with electric yellow energy from her Claw.

Black followed her with his Axe. "Snake Bite!" He hacked upwards hitting the monster with black-violet energy.

Blue rushed forward and jumped nearly upside down. "Shark Snipe!" he fired blue energy from his Sniper and landed behind him.

Sclumorg fell hard. He tried to get to his feet.

"Let's bring 'em together," Red said.

They combined their weapons. "Dynamic Cannon!"

They pulled out new Cards. "The Shining Power of the Sky!" Pink and Red put the cards into the Cannon.

"The Raging Power of the Land!" Black and Yellow their cards into the Cannon.

"The Serene Power of the Sea!" Blue put his card into the Cannon.

The Cannon Charged.

"What?" Sclumorg started to run away.

"Dynamic Cannon Fire!" The Cannon fired a powerful blast of golden light and electricity that tore into Sclumorg. He flew into the sky from the force of it and exploded. They turned away from the sight, Red still holding the Cannon.

"For the record I wasn't trying to butt in. I was just trying to do the right thing. If any of you plan on continuing to be Power Rangers, the Right Thing is an important concept to grasp," he said as he lowered the Cannon. It disappeared in wink of light and returned to its dormant state. He activated the teleports.

--/-\--

Tay was about to board the plane taking him away from Sky Base. He'd given back the Morpher and Morph Card. He'd refused to answer any of their questions. If he wasn't on their team, and he wasn't otherwise given permission, he wasn't going to break the confidences he held.

The cargo plane that would take him home arrived along with three new people. Doc's other test subjects he presumed. He didn't stick around to find out. It wasn't his place. He'd signed a new confidential agreement that said he wouldn't reveal the true purpose of this base and figured that was the end of it. Ram had obviously been disappointed with how things turned out.

Even though Tay hadn't turned him in, he'd admitted himself to being the one who found the Red Ranger code and given it to Taylor. Doc and Gore had been stunned and mildly angry but Sin hadn't said much.

After saying his goodbyes to Tempest and Ram he'd come to the air strip where the cargo plane was preparing to leave.

"Mr. Hicks! Mr. Hicks! Wait! You can't go!"

Tay turned around to see Doc running toward him. "Excuse me? Aren't you the ones trying to get rid of me?" he asked.

"That was before," Doc said as she came to a stop.

"Before what?" he asked, raising a brow.

"Before we redistributed the Morphers and only Lieutenant Monning's worked," she answered tightly.

"Come again?"

"The Morpher has molecularly bonded to each of us. They will only work for the ones who they were first activated by. You can't leave because you have to be our Red Ranger," she said in an annoyed tone.

"I don't hear a please in there anywhere," he said.

"Please stay. We need your help," Lark said and she meant it. She didn't understand why she couldn't find out anything about him other than what she already knew, but he'd proved that he was much more capable than anyone, especially her, had given him credit for. Well, perhaps Tempest and Lieutenant Ramon had had inklings.

"Well, ok then. But I need clothes. Seriously. I've been living in these for three days. They are not fresh," he said.

"That can be arranged," she agreed and began leading him back to Central Citadel.

"And I want a room higher up," he added.

"You can have your choice."

"Oh, and you need to start learning how to control your Sky Powers when your morphed. We'll start your training tomorrow morning."

"Wait. What?"

"I did mention I was a Wind Ninja right? It wasn't a joke. I can manipulate air with my ki. Sin should get a handle on his Sea Powers quickly enough. He'd actually make a pretty awesome Water Ninja. Gore looks like the type to master Land Powers or die and Tempest has a real natural feeling for it. You, on the other hand, suck. It's your head space. You have to think outside of the box. The Laws of Physics don't necessarily apply when you're in the sky," he explained.

She looked at him oddly. He just grinned at her. She blinked. She had really underestimated Taylor Hicks.

"Oh. Just because that stung a bit, I'll explain. The reason my grades dropped in my senior year is because I was fighting Shadow Ninjas bent on world domination as the Red Wind Ranger," he said and sauntered off ahead of her. She finally came out of her stupor and caught up with him, peppering him with questions.

It was the beginning of a new adventure for Taylor Hicks and his team of Dynamic Power Rangers.

-/End 02\-           

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