“I didn’t think it was this far back. Talk about off-target...” Jen stared out the viewport as Alex’s ship circled above a thick carpet of trees, looking for a clear place to land. There was no sign of civilization. Even more startling, she could see animals in the distance, big ones, huge bodies, long necks, tiny heads reaching to the treetops...
“Missed by sixty-five million years. The timestream is very disturbed.” Alex was smiling slightly at her when she glanced at him.
“You’re lucky you got through in one piece.”
“Yes.” He had returned his attention to piloting, frowning slightly with concentration now. “And it’s lucky most of the disturbance only exists between 2001 and our time.”
“So Ransik succeeded in doing something in 2001 to change history.”
“It could be something he’s done, or something he’s going to do. Either way, we have to fix it.” He touched the controls, sending them slanting down toward the ground.
“What’s changed? Have there been any effects yet?”
His face tightened, but he didn’t look at her. “No. Nothing definite yet.”
Jen looked at the viewport again to see a clearing in the trees, big enough to land in. She waited as the ship circled it, centered itself, and lowered to a landing. They both stood up. “Alex...”
“Let’s get going,” he interrupted. “I’ve located the Q-Rex with my morpher, but we’ll have to do some walking to get to it, and Ransik or whoever he sent is here too, remember. We can talk on the way.”
“Right.” She sighed faintly. “Duty first.”
“I can’t believe she went with him...” Wes stared up as the second timehole faded from the sky, after what must have been Alex’s ship flew into it. His fists clenched in frustration, anger, concern, maybe most of all jealousy.
“It makes sense,” Lucas said. “Never a good idea for someone to go after one of Ransik’s mutants alone. He needed backup.”
“But...” Wes swallowed his words. It was dangerous, but Jen was a trained Time Force officer, and a Ranger. He wished it had been Lucas, or any of the others, not her. But only for his own selfish reasons.
“He’s her fiancé,” Katie said gently. “She wanted to be with him.”
“I guess.” He couldn’t help sounding sulky. “Well -- let’s get the hell out of here.”
They had reached the entrance of the alleyway when the sound of a fresh burst of blaster fire greeted their ears. Looking in the direction of the fight they had just come from, they saw the Guardians, clustered around their cars, scrambling to pull out their equipment again, as a new wave of cyclobots swarmed towards them.
“Come on!” Lucas waved them back out of sight, just long enough to morph. Then they were running, seeing the new battle as the Guardians fought back, some with blasters, some hand-to-hand.
The second attack must have taken the uniformed troops completely by surprise, giving them no chance to organize and find cover. They scattered into clumps of men, struggling with the robots, many of them already down. As the Rangers ran up, Wes saw the commander in his red beret, shouting as he collected most of his troops into a ragged line among the cars, standing shoulder to shoulder with them as they drove back a wave of cyclobots with a coordinated burst of fire.
“Look!” Katie exclaimed. A tall form was walking behind the robots, drawing closer, a larger blaster in his hands. White skin, bald head, gray body armor, a powerful build. “Conwing!” she hissed.
“Watch out, he’s a tough one,” Lucas said calmly, as they plunged into the fight. For the next moments, Wes had no time to think, as he concentrated on battle, the rhythm of blocking kicks and punches, ducking, dodging, slipping past defenses to strike, leaving one cyclobot after another lying useless on the ground. He was aware of Lucas, Katie, and Trip engaged with their own opponents, the sounds of crashing metal bodies, blaster shots, human voices crying out in pain or effort or anger or fear...
Then he was watching Conwing as he strode through the mass of combatants, eyes fixed on one spot in particular, the main group of Guardians, their commander’s red beret standing out in their midst. Wes started to head him off, but a trio of cyclobots charged him.
A quick side-kick knocked one of them into another, but the third grabbed him from behind. Wes kicked back, felt the metal arms around him loosen for a moment, and drove an elbow into the robot’s neck. As it fell, the other two were on him, trying to grab his arms. He ducked, punched one in the midsection, kicked the other’s feet from under it. A yank, a lift and flip, and they were in a tangled heap.
But Conwing had reached the Guardians. Wes ran forward, seeing the scene that would forever be imprinted on his memory, the Guardian commander looking up, fear starting to shine in his eyes, bringing his weapon around as Conwing aimed directly at him with an almost leisurely motion. Even as the trigger began to move, Wes leaped and summoned his own blaster, landing between them, seeing the flash of the blast reach for him as he fired back.
It hit, hard, sending a burst of light and energy rolling around him. As it faded, Wes found himself on his back, gasping for breath, realizing the two blasts had struck each other and exploded, flattening all the Guardians around him. He was surrounded by groaning, half-conscious men. The commander was behind him, on his hands and knees, reaching for his blaster.
Conwing had been affected, too, he had fallen back a few steps and fallen to one knee. But he wasn’t even close to out. The tall mutant rose to his feet, snarling, raised the blaster again and fired before Wes could move. There was a scream of agony behind him, a quick glance showing the commander slumping to the ground.
“No!” Wes cried, looking for his own weapon, which seemed to have disappeared, as Conwing smiled, turned, and started away.
Before Wes could get up, a man came flying from the side, grabbing Conwing’s arm and wrestling with him for the blaster. They both staggered, struggling, for several steps. The mutant was strong, he shook off his human attacker without much effort and began to aim at him. As the man came at him again, leaping into a spin kick that deflected the blaster, Wes recognized Eric, his cap and sunglasses gone. As Wes pushed himself to his feet, Eric shot another kick at the mutant’s knee, pivoted and drove a boot into his stomach. But the blows had little effect; Conwing only growled in anger and swung a fist in an inhumanly fast backhand, catching Eric and knocking him to the ground on his face. And now the blaster was aimed again, right at Eric’s head as he rolled over and stared up, helpless.
“You’re outmatched, human,” Conwing said with a cold smile. “You can join your commander in death.”
“Eric!” Wes was up again, leaping over the distance between them, pushing the blaster aside, the shot going wild, side-kicking Conwing and knocking him back. But this time the mutant didn’t waste time on words, he fired as Wes started for him, the blast hitting in a burst of painful energy.
Wes didn’t even feel himself fall, only felt a tingling, shocking sensation running through him. He blinked, dazed, only gradually realizing he was demorphed, defenseless now, raising his head, rolling up to one elbow, looking around to find himself staring into Eric’s face, seeing his eyes wide with shock.
A soft chuckle made them both look up to see Conwing standing over them, that blaster still in his hand. “I don’t know which one to take care of first,” the mutant said.
He had missed his chance. Wes saw a blur of blue, green, and yellow as Lucas, Trip, and Katie seemed to appear from nowhere, tackling Conwing, Lucas wrenching the blaster from his grip. Katie, using her own inhuman strength, amplified by the Ranger suit, pushed him back and then kicked him in the middle, sending him down, doubled up in pain.
But the mutant still had his transporter device. “No matter, I’ve done what I came to do!” he snarled, touched his belt and vanished in sparkling light.
“What happened, Alex? How did you survive Ransik’s attack? How did you get the Quantum morpher? Why are you here?”
Alex could almost smile at the series of questions. He couldn’t blame Jen, she must be so confused... He turned to look at her face, the face he had thought he might never see again. As he felt emotion threaten to overcome him, he looked away. “It’s that way,” he said, pointing to the side of the hill they were approaching. “We have to hurry. It must be underground somewhere, we have to find an entrance. There’s a lot of dangerous animals in this time, too, we should morph at the first sign of trouble.”
“Alex...” There was a warning note in her voice.
“All right.” He began to talk as they started into a clump of trees, the temperature seeming to drop, sounds muffled, except for the crunch of their footsteps and his own voice.
“I thought I was dying, after Ransik blasted me. Thought we were saying goodbye forever... Guess I wasn’t thinking right, or I wouldn’t have given you my morpher. Shouldn’t have sent you after him.”
“You had no choice.”
“Maybe. Anyway, you know as much as I do about that part. Next thing I remember, I was waking up in a hospital bed. Logan was there. He said I had almost died.” He paused before continuing in a lower voice. “That was only a few weeks ago.”
“A few weeks? You were unconscious for two months?”
“Yes. In a coma. They said I made a remarkable recovery.”
“How could they give you that morpher and let you come here? You need more time...”
The concern in her voice touched him, although he didn’t let it show. “I was the only Time Force officer left who was trained to be a Ranger. The only logical one to use the morpher. They wanted to send it back alone, but... I took it.”
“You took it?”
“Yes. Took it and locked it to my voice. They had no choice but to let me go.”
She stared, a little smile playing on her lips. “That doesn’t sound like you.”
“I had to come, Jen.”
He felt Jen’s hand take his, glanced to see her face turned to him as she moved closer, matching his steps. “You came here, through a badly distorted timestream,” she said softly. “A big risk.”
“It was a rough trip.” He stared back at the ground as they walked, unwilling to share the memory of that flight, the fear he had felt... the vision that haunted him, of his world, and hers, vanishing into a nightmare place; or his knowledge of her own fate, destined to die in a final battle. No need, they would put it all right, they had to... “I detected mutant life signs as soon as I landed. Nadira, robbing that store.”
“That was yesterday. Why didn’t you tell us who you were right away?”
“I...” He hesitated. “Seeing Wes threw me. I was pretty sure someone was using the red morpher, but to see him... It was a shock. I was suspicious.”
“Thought he was a mutant in disguise?” She sounded amused.
“What would you think? Seeing a double of yourself, taking over your place...”
“Wes hasn’t taken your place.” But she sounded uncomfortable now. “We needed him, and he’s been great. I don’t know what would have happened to us if he hadn’t unlocked the morphers, and found us a place to live, and helped us find work.”
“Sounds like you like him.” He hoped the unexpected pang of jealousy he felt hadn’t shown in his voice. But the thought of Jen spending her days -- and nights -- with a man who looked so much like him... When she thought he was dead, had she looked for comfort? For friendship? Or more?
Her tone was neutral as she answered, “He’s a good Ranger. A good teammate.”
Is that all? But he didn’t say it.
Eric watched them as he pressed a hand to his face where he had landed on it, taking it away to see blood. He looked up again as Wes climbed stiffly to his feet, the blue and yellow Rangers helping him up, the green Ranger running over, returning from waving some kind of instrument at Commander Porter.
“Wes, Wes, are you all right?” the yellow Ranger asked.
“Yeah, I’m okay. Conwing shot that guy... We have to do something...”
“No use,” the green Ranger said. “He was hit hard. Even if we had the medical unit with us...”
“Nothing more we can do here,” the blue Ranger said. “Let’s go.”
Wes glanced back, meeting his eyes for a moment as they took off, avoiding the knot of Guardians Eric could see clustered around their fallen commander, and quickly disappeared. They were several yards away from the others, Wes had been blocked from direct view by wrecked cars. As he struggled upright, Eric realized he was the only one who had seen the red Ranger magically change into Wes Collins. He knew something about the Rangers that no one else knew.
His mind was already busy wondering what kind of advantage that knowledge would give him when the thought was banished by what he saw as he returned to his companions. Commander Porter, lying on the ground, unmoving, eyes open and staring at nothing, two of the troopers working over him, but Eric sensed that CPR would do no good. He leaned against a car, watching, feeling numbed, helpless, the beginnings of anger stirring, anger at the mutant who had ended a good man’s life, unreasonable anger at the Rangers, who should have saved him, and a core of anger at himself, for not acting just a little bit faster.
“In that cave,” Alex said, his voice low. “Morph now.”
“Right behind you.” They both raised their morphers, transforming behind the cover of a few large trees. Then they started for the dark mouth of the cave Alex had led them to, moving as silently as they could. A few meters back they had seen a small flyer, the ship the mutant had used to travel here. Ransik, or whoever he had sent, had already found the Q-Rex. They had to be prepared for anything.
She heard the voice almost as soon as they were inside, as the cool darkness closed over them, the sensors in their helmets compensating so they could still see. A rough, confident, even arrogant voice, one she recognized.
“Brickneck,” she whispered, knowing the helmet communicator would carry her voice to Alex without letting their enemy hear it.
“Got it. Come on.”
A few more seconds, and they passed through a narrowing of the cave, almost a tunnel, and into a large cavern, the floor studded with stalagmites, the ceiling with stalactites. It might have been beautiful, she didn’t have time to notice. The two creatures standing several meters away claimed her attention.
One was Brickneck, just as she remembered him, tall, thin, his skin brick red and heavily lined. The other -- she had never seen it before, but she knew what it was. The Q-Rex. The Quantasaurus Rex. The Quantum Self-activated Battle Tank, to use its correct name, but she could easily see how it had gotten its nickname. It looked like some bizarre, metallic Tyrannosaurus Rex, a thick central body, powerful legs which she knew could unfold into wings, weapons arrays looking like short, stubby arms, sensors concentrated in a triangular ‘head’ raised above the body.
Brickneck hadn’t seen them yet. He was pointing something at the Q-Rex, and talking to it. “Just as soon as I get this controller activated...” he muttered. “You’ll respond to my voice, instead of the Quantum Ranger’s. And then -- we’re going on a little trip, back to Silver Hills.”
“You won’t get the chance,” Alex said, walking into the open and raising his voice.
The mutant jumped and spun to face them. Jen caught a glimpse of slitted, reptilian green eyes. “Rangers!” he hissed. “But too late!” He held up the device he was holding and shouted into it, “Q-Rex! Get them!”
The giant, dinosaur-like robot stirred. Jen felt a prickle of fear, and saw Alex pause and then back up as it rose over them, weapons taking deadly aim.
Alex raised his morpher to his face. “Q-Rex!” he shouted. “Stop!” There was no effect as he tried again, the robot only advanced a step as they fell back.
“Come on!” Jen cried. “Run!”
They fled, back through the tunnel, hearing the pounding of giant footsteps behind them as the Q-Rex pursued. Alex turned and drew the Defender, hesitating for a moment before he apparently realized the obvious, that his hand blaster would be useless against the giant combat robot. She stopped long enough to grab his arm, and they ran again, together.
Brickneck had disappeared, but she saw him as soon as they burst from the cave, leaping into his flyer. It lifted off as they ran towards it, circling before sending a narrow beam lancing upward.
“Look! He’s opening a timehole!” Alex said. They both turned, and retreated as the Q-Rex emerged into the open, looking around them for cover. But it didn’t pursue them, instead it began to change.
Jen watched, fascinated despite the circumstances, as the thick legs became short wings, the head moved down and in front of the body, and the dinosaur became a large and heavily-armed aircraft. It lifted upwards and followed Brickneck’s flyer, a moment later vanishing into the purple and black swirl of the timehole.
Beside her, Alex was raising his arm, shouting into his morpher. “What are you doing?” Jen cried as the TF Eagle appeared above them and lowered into position.
“Going after them. You get back to the timeship as fast as you can.”
“Alex, wait!” But he was already leaping into the flyer. With a wave, he slid inside. The small ship lifted rapidly, and took off fast in the direction of the timehole.
He made it, rocketing out of the timehole, shaken up by temporal turbulence but undamaged. Alex breathed a sigh of relief. But not for long. As he looked around, he saw the Q-Rex and Brickneck’s flyer speeding towards the city, already almost out of sight in the distance.
The Eagle was fast, he caught up and opened fire on Brickneck. The small flyer swerved and dodged. It apparently didn’t have any blasters on board. But of course Brickneck had a more effective weapon at his command. The Q-Rex turned and came at Alex, firing a few shots as he dove sharply and tried to circle around it. It was no good, the Q-Rex cut him off.
Alex retreated, trying to get out of range. Both of his opponents pursued. Brickneck had apparently decided to take his opportunity to get rid of one of the Rangers. But it wasn’t all bad, it gave him the opportunity to lead them away from Silver Hills, try to prevent the destruction the mutant intended. He swung around, led them back the way they had come, back over empty beach, then circled over the water.
“Q-Rex! I order you to break off and land!” he said into his morpher. There was no response.
“Voice command is locked out,” the morpher’s ‘voice’ said in his head.
“That’s obvious. Override lock.”
“I cannot comply.”
“How can I restore voice command?”
After a moment, the morpher replied again. “The blocking device must be removed in order to restore voice command.”
“Blocking device… Locate it.”
The morpher complied, displaying a targeting crosshair on the nose of the Q-Rex as he looped around it again. All he had to do was get close enough. Not an easy matter when its weapons were much more powerful than his. Grimly, Alex dodged another shot and came around again.
They circled, firing a few shots, playing a cat-and-mouse game for several minutes as Alex tried to think of a way to get within shooting range without being blasted out of the sky. Just as he was beginning to be afraid Brickneck would get tired of chasing him and head for the city again, help arrived, in the form of another timehole, blossoming in the sky.
“Jen,” he murmured. She must have run all the way back to the timeship. And a moment later, the ship shot out into the sky, too fast, Alex holding his breath as she brought it under control and swept into a turn, coming back at them.
The Q-Rex turned to face its new attacker as Jen flew at it. Alex took his chance, following it, zooming past from behind, opening the cockpit cover to use the Defender, thankful for his target training as he aimed at the small device fixed to the Q-Rex’s nose, and hitting it with the first shot. The device exploded.
“Q-Rex! I order you to stop! Break off your attack!” Alex waited tensely.
“Voice command established,” the morpher announced calmly. The Q-Rex slowed to a stop. Alex smiled, but allowed himself only a moment of triumph before he turned to his next target.
“Q-Rex. Force Brickneck’s flyer to land,” he said. He watched, flying overhead as the huge battle machine pursued the mutant’s small, unarmed flyer. It was no contest, the mutant twisted and turned, but he couldn’t outrun the Q-Rex, and had no effective way to attack it. But he wasn’t giving up, even as Alex in the Eagle and Jen in the timeship joined the chase.
“Alex!” Jen’s voice came through his morpher communications system. “He’ll never surrender,” she said.
“I know. Gives us no choice.”
“What are you going to do?”
“Shoot him down.”
“Alex...” He could hear her hesitate, but she was a good soldier, she knew what they had to do. “You’re right.”
He felt little regret as he raised his morpher again and gave the command. As he watched the Q-Rex fire on the little flyer, crippling it, sending it spiraling down, leaving a trail of smoke. How many humans would Brickneck have willingly killed, after all? How many would Ransik kill, if they didn’t stop him quickly? Just the way he had almost died, when he got in Ransik’s way... No, he felt no real regret as he swooped down to land near the wreckage.