Part 3
Doommaster came forward to stand before the fallen Troopers and Zeo Shadow. “At long last Ryan Steele it’s over.”
Blue Trooper could only look up and see the sneering faces of Doommaster and the vixens as Doommaster raised his sword.
The guard sat at the guardpost reading a paper when he heard a sound of a motorcycle coming towards his post at top speed. Coming to attention he went outside to intercept whoever it was that was coming towards his station. A pink and black motorcycle was coming towards him at breckneck speed. It’s rider not stopping for anybody.
Kathy Hart brought her morpher up to her wrist. Like Kincaid all Night Rangers had a solo morphing call to go along with their powers, but she didn’t like the sound of calling out ‘BATNIGHT’ in battle so she used the group morphing call to morph herself and cycle. “POWER OF NIGHT!! SHOW YOUR LIGHT!!!”.
The Pink Night Ranger was ready to fight as was her motorcycle which jumped over the barricade and the guard racing towards the battle in the parking lot leaving a stunned guard behind.
“Wow!”, was all he could say.
Doommaster had the sword raised ready to behead Blue Trooper. “Goodbye Ryan Steele. Die with dishonor!” Doommaster was ready to deliver the final strike when a sound of a motorcycle distracted him and the vixens. Looking back he saw a pink bat symbol racing towards him hitting him in the back sending him sprawling down on the ground.
The rider, dressed in a black helmet with the symbol of a pink bat on the front and one on her belt buckle as well as a pink and black ensemble turned to face the vixens. “Nice outfits. “, Pink Night said. “Have you considered trying out for the World Wrestling Federation? Vince McMahon is always on the lookout for new ho’s with an IQ of less than 1.” The vixens were more than a little angry at the comment and moved to attack Pink Night.
Pink Night held her own combining knowledge from Luciferian combat tutors with the No-Holds-Barred shootfight approach from Kincaid. The vixens went down hard and they went down quick with Pink Night even breaking one of the vixens knees leaving her howling in pain more than the rest of them.
The Troopers and Zeo Shadow looked up to see Pink Night fight and were amazed by what they saw. Zeo Shadow was confused however. A new ranger? Where did she come from?
The U-Skugs started to swarm around Pink Night and she called out, “I could use a little help here guys.”
Zeo Shadow was the first to respond with Parker following close behind. They threw everything they had at the U-Skugs but more kept coming as they multiplied. Blue Trooper and the others couldn’t hold back anymore and they moved in to help.
Soon the U-Skugs made contact with each other and they had disintigrated. “Whew, that was a workout. “, Parker said. The troopers agreed but Zeo Shadow was more focused on Pink Night. Crossing in front of her she asked “Who are you?”, in a confrontational tone.
Pink Night had no time to answer as Doommaster picked himself up. “You think you’ve won Troopers because of your new friend? Think again. Virtual Demon come forth!!”
Soon a construct appeared before the Troopers, Rangers and Parker that looked like a demon was assimilated by the Borg collective. “Troopers, you shall meet your doom!”
“I don’t think so. “, Pink Night said bringing up her Power Bow with speared tips on the ends and an artistic design reminiscent of mahogany chairs with the head of a bat facing front. Zeo Shadow looked at the bow and was impressed.
“Now it’s your choice. Turn around and walk away or face the consequences.” Pink Night had an arrow already in the bow ready to fire.
“What is that?”, Ziktor asked as he looked on at the viewscreen before him.
“Damn!”, Diabolico cursed. “Of all the resistance our monster had to face it would have to be a Night Ranger.”
Ziktor faced Diabolico with a look saying that he didn’t like surprises. “Night Ranger? What’s that?”
“A group of the most known powerful rangers among the dimensions. They have faced the most deadly evils and emerged victorious while the evil armies were left bloodied, battered and broken.” Ziktor was fuming at Diabolico’s description but then he added “At least it’s not nighttime yet. Virtual Demon will still have a chance.”
“He’d better do more than have a chance. HE’D BETTER SUCCEED!!!”, Ziktor screamed as he and Diabolico watched the fight.
Virtual Demon advanced towards the group of heroes with claws extending from its fingernails. It then jumped in the air ready to swipe when Kathy got off a shot sending the monster down.
“Ha!”, Virtual Demon said as he got up and pulled the arrow out. “Your puny arrow had no effect on me. You shall pay for your futile attack.”
“Oh, will I?”, Pink Night asked. “Think again!” Virtual Demon then looked down at his hands and found them to be dissolving with the rest of the body following suit. “What’s happening to me?”, the monster asked.
“Acid tipped arrows. “, Pink Night explained. “Designed to work from the inside out on a monster till there is nothing left of him. Not at all a pleasent thing to experience I’ve been told.”
Zeo Shadow and the Troopers looked at the sight of the dissolving monster. Never before had they seen something like they had seen now. Who is this girl?, Zeo Shadow asked herself.
“Nooooo!”, the monster called out in a death cry as the monster turned to a pile of dust and metal. Pink Night then brought up another arrow and brought it to bear against Doommaster and the vixens. “Now if I were you bongo head, I’d suggest you and your floozies hit the road before I bring out the heavy artillery.” Smiling beneath her helmet Pink Night added, “You don’t want to know what that stuff will do to you.” Doommaster and the vixens took the hint and dissapeared as fast as they could, carrying the one with the broken knee.
Pink Night got back on her morphed Harley and prepared to ride off. Zeo Shadow tried to stop her. “Wait!”, she called out but Pink Night was already riding away. “Don’t think you’re going to get away from me that easy. “, Zeo Shadow said as she got on her motorcycle and started to ride off after Pink Night. One way or another I’m going to find out who this ranger is., she vowed.
Parker was left behind with the Troopers who initiated their retroform command to change back to human forms. Parker had placed his sword back in it’s subspace pocket for use later. “So, where were we?”, he asked flippantly.
Ziktor stood in his chair stunned by what he saw as did Diabolico. No ranger or hero had ever used that type of weapon on a monster before. Karl Ziktor now had reason to believe that the Night Rangers were a threat to his plans and he didn’t like threats he couldn’t deal with.
“I take it you weren’t expecting what that Pink Night Ranger had for the monster?”, Ziktor said to Diabolico.
“No. “, the demon lord said. “Apparently the Night Rangers have more surprises than we had been led to believe.”
“I realize that. Especially since my empire had fought them for millenia. “, a voice said from around the room with Ziktor and Diabolico looking around to see where it had come from. Diabolico knew who it was however.
“Zanzibar?”, Diabolico asked. The image of the demon lord appeared before Ziktor’s desk and Ziktor was impressed with the evil the First Luciferian lord rediated.
“Do not worry about the Night Rangers. “, Zanzibar said. “I am working with one who can help deal with them.” Turning over his shoulder Ziktor and Diabolico saw the image of Biilly working on one of his new replicas. Ziktor realized what was going on and laughed at the plan that would unfold.
In the town of North Valley in the basement of the Collins house the band called Team Samuri was practicing one of their newest songs. The five man team consisted of Sam Collins and his friends known as Sydney-the computer fan who wore a flower hat, Tanker-the football playing drummer, Lucky-the surfer, and the returning Amp-who had been a space cadet taking a trip to the crab nebula with his folks. Amp decided to bring the band back together since he just returned, but when he saw the group again they seemed like pale imitations of their former selves.
Amp wanted to know what was going on but no one would tell him anything. What he did know was that there was an attack on North Valley once as well as a car accident that killed Sam’s family except for his sister Elizabeth as well as the other kid’s parents. Amp thought it ran deeper than that and he looked into the Servo program.
The program itself was running for the most part. But only the vehicles Drago and Tracto remained. The other two vehicle programs used to form Synchro were so badly degraded that they couldn’t be used anymore. If a virus ever turned up Servo would have Phormo to back him up and Tracto to cover but little else. Amp also looked at the squad and thought they needed some repairs as well.
“So what all has been going on since I left?”, Amp asked. All he got from Team Samuri was some nods and ‘harumphs’.
“Aww come on guys. “, Amp said. “We haven’t hanged for the longest time. I just get back from a family trip and all of you look like something that died.”
“We might as well have died. Twice. “, Tanker said. Amp thought that might have been a clue as to what was bothering his friends but then a rumbling shook Team Samuri out of the funk they had been in.
Explosions were heard outside and Syd jumped out of her seat. “What is that?”, she asked.
Elizabeth then raced down the stairs afraid. “Sam. There’s a giant black robot tearing through town.”
Kilokhan was enjoying his fighter mode as he soared above North Valley with Dreadwind at his side. “Just look at those meat-things down there. Such contemptable creatures.”
“Well now you have the power to do something about them. And not using mega-virus monsters that don’t do squat. “, Dreadwind said. Kilokhan liked Dreadwind’s attitude and decided to take up the Destron on his advice.
The black stealth bomber let loose with a volley of firepower destroying many houses in the residential section of North Valley. Killing many families and leaving other families homeless. Kilokhan’s evil laugh echoed throughout the sky sending chills to those looking for cover.
“Well, If the meat-things are scared of me now, wait till they see the real me. “, Kilokhan then transformed his body into his robot mode. The purple bug like symbol of the Destrons standing out among the black body of the digital overlord turned Destron.
“Meat things hear me! Your corruption of this planet and the digital domain has gone on long enough! From this moment on the digital domain shall be free of your infestation!” Kilokhan then grew in size as three blobs separated from his body and touched the ground forming three new Destron Warriors. One looked like a monstrous shark in violet and grey with legs and claws which transformed into a robot that looked just as meanacing. The other two were a black and grey wolf with emphasis put on the fangs and claws in its design. And the third one looked like a cross between a gorrilla and a dragon ready to slash and smash anything in sight. Both had warrior modes as well and those were as scary as the first one’s was.
“Maul, Rend, Mangle, DESTROY EVERYTHING!!”, Kilokhan ordered. Kilokhan’s new creations did as their leader ordered and tore through North Valley on a rampage. “Now meat-things! The end of your world is upon you!” Kilokhan laughed loud and long.
Not far away Karone watched the viewscreen on Doubledealer’s dashboard of the problems Kilokhan was causing down in North Valley, as well as the three new warriors the digital overlord just created. “This does not look good. “, Karone said.
“No kidding princess. “, Doubledealer said making commentary when he noticed something he should have realized before. “By the name of Prime he can’t be doing that!”
“Doing what?”, Zhane asked serving as the engine while Doubledealer was in vehicle mode. When Doubledealer transformed into falcon mode it was Karone who supplied his power. It was only when the mercenary was in robot mode where both Zhane and Karone worked together with Doubledealer.
“That thing is using the budding process. “, Doubledealer explained. “It’s a means of Transformer reproduction that had been outlawed due to deadly ‘side effects’.”
“Side effects? What side effects?”, Karone asked worried.
“How about microbes from the process joining together to form a swarm that devoured a good part of the universe?” Zhane and Karone both got worried. “If enough of those microbes get loose this universe will be in DEEP trouble!”
“Uhhh, I probably don’t want to know but how deep is ‘deep’?”, Zhane asked.
“You remember the stories about Unicron?”, Doubledealer answered back. Zhane understood now and would have nodded if he wasn’t Doubledealer’s engine right then.
“We’ve got to get down there. “, Karone said turning the wheel towards the direction of Kilokhan and slamming her foot on the gas.
“You got it girl. GUN IT!!!”, Doubledealer ordered as they raced at top speed to where Kilokhan was.
In another part of North Valley Team Samuri were watching Kilokhan and his Destron warriors tear North Valley apart. “Oh man. How did Kilokhan get that big a body?”, Tanker asked.
“And how did he create these warriors?”, Syd asked. “They don’t look like any mega virus monsters I’ve seen.”
“They’re not mega virus monsters. “, Amp explained. “They are called Destrons which in some dimensions is the Japanese name for Decepticon. Kilokhan was given his body by using a Transformer budding process deemed to dangerous for any Cybertronian to use due to a side effect where a swarm of microbes was created last time it was used that annihilated half the cosmos.” Everyone stared at Amp who then blinked as if coming out of some trance. “I’m sorry what did I just say?”
“Well whatever it is we have to stop it right guys?”, Tanker spoke up, but only half hearted.
Syd typed up some commands on the computer. “I’ve already brought up Drago and Tracto. Tanker will take Tracto while Amp, Lucky and I will three person the Drago.”
“Sounds good. Have you already established a link with one yet?”, Sam asked. Syd looked at the computer. “It’s the shark with legs. The one called ‘Maul’.”
“Then let’s get it overwith. “, Sam said and the Samuri squad stood ready for action. Well as ready as they believed they could be.
“Let’s samurize gu…” Sam brought down his digitizer and sighed. “I’m sorry. I can’t do it.”
Amp was stunned to say the least. “Can’t do it? What are you talking about?”
“I’m just not good enough. “, Sam said sadly. “None of us are.”
Kilokhan watched as his three lieutenants cut loose with their rampage of destruction with a tremendous amount of glee. Humans running scared, panicking, and many of them falling before the might of his Destron firepower. “This is so delicious. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha! Victory!”
His sensors then noticed three strange microbes that hovered around North Valley and Kilokhan fired a purple beam bringing them in closer for inspection. “Hmmm, interesting. Dreadwind come forth!” Dreadwind then came to Kilokhan’s side and was shown the microbes.
“Hmmm. Swarm microbes. “, Dreadwind explained. “A side effect to the budding process that gave you your body and life to your lieutenants.”
“Side effect?”, Kilokhan was curious.
“The microbes joined together to form a swarm once that devoured a good part of the universe before it was stopped by Autobot leader Optimus Prime and reformatted. But these swarm molecules bear the same dark energy the previous ones had.”
Kilokhan listened to Dreadwind and an evil idea had crossed his mind. “Perhaps I can put these lovely microbes to use for me. He then tossed the microbes into the air and fired a beam of purple energy at them. The microbes then started to change and develop human form with human size but were coated in all black and had circuit patterns on them. Twenty had formed from the three microbes Kilokhan had provided.
“Swarmers!”, Kilokhan ordered. “Take the battle to the meat things personally! Destroy every last one you find!” The swarmers obeyed and the first one they came across was a single mother who was hiding behind her family car. One swarmer fired three black rope lines that took her down and then covered her in a cocoon. Inside the cocoon everything she was had been devoured by the swarmer’s power. When the swarmer brought her energy back into himself nothing remained of the woman who was once a mother of two.
The swarmer then replicated itself and two stood where there were originally one. Dreadwind looked on impressed. No one had ever put swarm microbes to such a use before.
“My army continues to grow. Soon nothing shall be able to stop me. “, Kilokhan gloated until he heard the sound of an engine approaching. Dreadwind turned to see an armored assault vehicle approaching with a girl in purple armor behind the wheel. Dreadwind recognized the vehicle immediately.
“Doubledealer!”, he cursed.
Karone drove Doubledealer straight into the battlezone firing off a laser rifle kept under the seat at any swarmers that were coming too close. Coming up to the Destron shark warrior named Maul Karone fired one of Doubledealer’s missiles at it sending it down This brought the attention of Rend and Mangle who transformed into their monster modes and charged the Cybertron mercenary.
Karone quickly shifted Doubledealer into reverse and drove backwards as fast as she could with the Destron monsters in pursuit.
“We need to change. “, Doubledealer said. “Let’s transform to condor mode!”. Karone agreed and stopped the car. She then transformed herself into an engine component while Zhane transformed into his armored human form.
“Ready to go!”, Zhane said as Doubledealer then transformed himself into a condor with his missiles on his wings. Zhane got on and the Cybertron mercenary team took to the sky.
“Missiles ready?”, Zhane asked as the came down for a pass. “Ready to go. “, Doubledealer answered back.
“FIRE!!!”, Zhane shouted and two missiles streaked from Doubledealer’s wings into both Destrons sending them down for the count.
Kilokhan however didn’t like what had just transpired. “You will pay for your insolence. “, he said as he transformed into jet mode to confront Doubledealer. When Kilokan was close enough he locked a radar directed missile on Doubledealer’s tail and fired.
Doubledealer however managed to evade the missile and did an array of acrobatics which ended with him landing and Zhane transforming back into the second engine along with Karone as Doubledealer landed in warrior mode and took out the missile with his laser. Kilokhan then landed as well and the two faced down each other.
“So you are the notiorious Doubledealer eh?”, Kilokhan said mocking him. “Your power is no match for mine.”
“Really? Would you like to wage credits on that? I’m always looking for a way to fatten up my intergalactic bank account.” Doubledealer then raised his blaster at Kilokhan and fired. Kilokhan managed to dodge two shots but the third one hit him in the shoulder. Fortunately for him his crest was the most armored so no serious damage was done.
“Nice shot. But I still have a trick or two up my sleeve.” Kilokhan then started to transform but it was not in the jet mode rather it was in the form of a flying cannon bearing its aim at Doubledealer. When a shot got off Doubledealer rolled out of the way and hit a house behind him and saw the energy shot go through another twenty houses before Doubledealer lost track of it. Unknown to Doubledealer however the Swarmers were starting to come towards him and joined to form a giant mass that covered Doubledealer completely as the mercenary felt power leave him as well as energy from his two new partners.
“We’ve. . got to… get out of… here!”, Zhane said as he felt his energy dropping. Karone and Doubledealer felt the same weakness coming on. “Any… ideas… ?”, Karone asked.
“Maybe one. “, Doubledealer said as he activated a power surge from within his systems which reacted badly to the swarmers who ducked out of the way. “What was that you just used?”, Karone asked.
“Power pack of matrix energy. “, Doubledealer explained. I spent some time around the Matrix of Leadership to know which frequency is which, so I set up this…”
“Talk later… We have… heat. . coming. “, Zhane said.
Doubledealer transformed back into vehicle mode and Karone was behind the wheel. “Let’s get out of here. “, she said as she raced the car out of the battlezone.
“Any…. place you… know of that’s…. Safe?” , Doubledealer asked feeling the effects of the drain more and more.
“I’m open… to ideas. “, Karone answered.
Team Samuri looked at the viewscreen that had Doubledealer limping away as Kilokhan roared in triumph. “Those guys are in real trouble. “, Amp said. “They may need a place to hide. Why not here?”
Syd looked up from the computer as the rest of the samuri squad gave him strange looks as well. “Amp are you nuts? Why do we need to get involved in this fight?”
“Because for the last year we had been fighting Kilokhan. Now all of a sudden he’s back and the people who have stopped him for the last year haven’t done a thing about it!”, Amp shouted. “I don’t know about the rest of you but I’m just not going to sit back and do nothing! Those guys risked their lives for North Valley, and they need our help. And if you won’t I will!”
Amp immediately ran up the stairs to head off Doubledealer, Karone and Zhane. Sam looked at Tanker, Syd and Lucky and just shrugged their shoulders and sighed before going after their space cadet friend.
Doubledealer hated to run from a fight, and Zhane and Karone were no exception. But when Kilokhan had surrounded them with swarmers and began sucking the energy out of them, it took all they had to break free. And right now they were running on fumes as it was.
“Well… that… went… well. “, Zhane said running out of gas himself which meant big trouble for Doubledealer if he didn’t get fuel soon.
“We have to stop somewhere and fill up. Any ideas?”, Karone asked.
“Maybe those… kids over there… know something. “, Doubledealer said as he saw five teenagers waving them to come over there. Karone, not one to argue at the moment drove over. The long haired boy with a weird looking watch came up to the side of Doubledealer ready to speak.
“Hi, we saw you fight today. It must have been hard. “, the long haired one said.
“It was. “, Karone said. “That thing sapped all of Doubledealer’s energy. It’s a miracle we’ve even going right now.”
“Doubledealer?”, the one in the flower hat asked. “Is that the name of your vehicle?”
“Don’t… wear it… out… sunshine. “, Doubledealer responded. The girl was taken aback by the car’s flippant attitude. Karone half-smiled at Doubledealer’s remark.
“Look we need a safe spot to rest up before we try at that Kilokhan guy again. Do you know where we can rest up and get something to eat?” The long haired one nodded at Karone’s question.
“Yeah my house is not far away. You can rest there and eat and maybe even get Doubledealer charged back up.” Karone smiled and said for the gang to get on in to show them where the house was.
“Just hang a left at the corner and go down three blocks. “, the boy said. “You wouldn’t happen to have a name do you?”
Karone smiled at the young man and introduced herself. “I’m Karone. The engine on the back is Zhane and you’ve already met Doubledealer.”
“Charmed… I’m… sure… “, Zhane said strugling with speach as he struggled to keep Doubledealer moving. Karone then asked the boy his name.
“Sam. Sam Collins. These are my friends Tanker, Syd, Amp and Lucky.” Each one nodded and Karone responded with a nod of her own. Soon enough they were at the Collins house where Karone drove Doubledealer into the family garage. When the car stopped Zhane transformed off Doubledealer standing next to Karone.
“So where do we get something to eat?”, Zhane asked.
“We have a kitchen in the basement. “, Amp said. “And we can also share with you what we know about Kilokhan as well.” Karone and Zhane had looks of confusion while Sam, Syd, Tanker and Lucky gave him glaring looks.
“Was it something I said?”, the space cadet asked. Karone and Zhane just looked at each other. Definitely going to be an interesting conversation., they both thought.
Dreadwind, Maul, Rend and Mangle followed Kilokhan to an abandoned military base which was shut down when the cold war ended. “Look my fellow mechanoids. What do you see?”, Kilokhan asked.
“Abandoned buildings master. “, Maul answered.
“Huuur, Lunch”, Rend said.
“I don’t know. What?”, was Mangle’s answer.
“Fools. I see opportunity here. Here is where I shall set up my base in my goal of annihilating the meat-things from this planet. Here will be my seat of power.”
Dreadwind stood off to the side interested in Kilokhan’s idea. He hadn’t expected this when he used the budding process on the villian when creating a new body for him. Now he was on the verge of creating a whole new empire, or at the very least a sizable faction which could shift the balance of power into Kilokhan’s favor in the UAE. “Begging your pardon Kilokhan, but how is this place going to serve as your power base? It doesn’t seem all that technologically sound.”
“Ahh Dreadwind my friend. There is technology present. Old technology I will admit, but it’s still something I can use.” Kilokhan then went over to the control tower of the base airport and ripped off the tower top leaving the old computer and radar systems exposed. He then laid his right hand on the equipment and purple energy flowed from his hands into the equipment and all throughout the base.
Dreadwind and the Destrons saw the whole base come to life in a purple light, but that wasn’t the last of it. The whole base started to change. Technology became updated and the structures of the buildings changed as well. They became taller and more metallic in construction. For Dreadwind it was reminiscent of the time he lived on Cybertron. Then the process was completed and where a military base once stood was now a city that was a marvel of technological acomplishment. At the tower Kilokhan was at was now a throne with connections that led into the digital world should he again have to do battle there.
“Welcome my mechanical friends to Digitropolis. “, Kilokhan said sitting in his throne laughing. The next second Zanzibar appeared on a holo image before him.
“Well done Dreadwind. “, Zanzibar said. “For too long Kilokhan has been shadowed by the empires and armies of other villians of the UAE. Now Kilokhan you have an empire and army, as well as the means to make an army, of your own. Consider it my gift to you.”
“Thank you Zanzibar. “, Kilokhan said. “And it will be a pleasure to add my essence to your Matrix of Evil. When shall we leave to rendezvous with the order?”
“Soon Kilokhan. There are a few details I need to keep track of. I shall contact you later. “, Zanzibar turned off the holo-imager and turned to where Biilly was working. The duplicate was almost ready for download all that was needed was a volunteer.
Zanzibar didn’t have long to wait. “For riding down the English countryside was none other than the person of Zanzibar’s intrest–Black Night Ranger Kenjiro Tanaka.
Ken rode his Harley keeping his eye on the gauge measuring the presence of the Matrix of Spirit. The presence was weak but he could tell that he was in the right area.
Everything good so far., Ken thought, not only concerning the situation he was in but the situation within himself. Fingering his jacket pocket he felt the bottle of pills still there. It wasn’t time to take one yet, but he was glad they were there should he need them.
Flying overhead in a cloaked ship was one of Zanzibar’s Coldbloods who were monitoring Ken as he was riding. “Target: Acquired. “, was all it said.
Zanzibar hwever had more to say. “Follow him but make no attempts to apprehend. I shall see to his capture myself.”
“Yes Lord Zanzibar. “, the Coldblood signed off and continued to observe Ken Tanaka as he rode to where he hoped the Matrix of Spirit would be.