Striking Out

Posted on Fri May 5th, 2023 @ 12:05pm by Spencer Gustaffson & Keon Seong

1,430 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: The Invasion
Location: Angel Grove

The original GPF base in Angel Grove had been decimated by the power of the Kaldore invaders. There was no hope of getting in there, at least, not with the few people they had. Kyarah had returned, temporarily, to the original base in Australia - they needed a Ranger there, and she seemed comfortable doing the job. They'd identified that there was a single weakness in the Kaldore strategy in the area - they were (seemingly) afraid of ghosts. Maybe it was a general fact; maybe it was the local leader. Spencer didn't care, one iota. He'd use that weakness, and seek to drive the enemy out of the way. Since Keon knew something about ghosts, and seemed to be able to communicate with them, he'd been recruited. Plus, he had the Sky Blue Solar Crystal.

Building a base was hard work for just two people; but in the situation, they couldn't risk more people in the area. More people meant more potential attention, and that meant possibly seeing the invaders overcome their fears to fight. So right now, Spencer had just finished setting up a radio room in the old attic (with two very old battery-powered transceivers), with hopes that the new aerials wouldn't be noticed, nor would the solar panels he'd put up in places where the roof had holes, with cables running down into the building to power whatever equipment they needed and could get working.

He didn't know what exactly Keon had been doing in the house over the last three days. He'd stayed up in the attic the whole time, remaining focused. Still, work completed, he walked down the rickety attic stairs carefully and then down into the main floor of the building, looking around for the new ally of the Resistance.

Stubborn as ever to get his work done, Keon had spent the last three days coming the old home for more signs of spirits. The little girl appeared every so often, to check up on the man and his new 'friend.' Ally? Whomever he was. Keon had no idea what to make of his situation, but he was going to roll with it. Especially since he seemed to have been caught up in a Ground Zero situation.

It seemed much more peaceful in Korea, but if this spread then his peaceful home may not stay that way.

"Stop." The man caught sight of Spencer just before the man whirled the corner into the set-up he created to read the spiritual presence past the home. There was a mash up of wires and antennae sticking out of an archaic computer monitor, which displayed graphs and numbers that would only make sense to Keon.

"I didn't want you to get hurt," he explained to Spencer, "I was hoping to see if we had more spiritual activity here. And we may, but I haven't seen anything yet."

Spencer stopped as soon as he heard Keon's voice, freezing as he looked at the computer. It was helpful not to fall over whatever setup the new Ranger had created. It didn't quite make sense to him, but he assumed it made sense to Keon. "Thank you. The radios are set up. We can communicate with Australia now."

He shrugged lightly at the report on the spiritual activity. "If you're not detecting anything here, is there somewhere you are detecting something - or you think you will?"

"That's why this is all set up," Keon explained, pointing to the monitor read out. "This is set up to a portable device, so it will tell me if anything appears, or what could be causing this home to be more well-guarded than the others. It'll take some time to adjust to the surroundings, but so long as this house stays up, we'll get readings."

He turned to Spencer, tilting his head to one side. "Australia, that's where some of the others are, right?"

It was a good thing Keon had a grip on the supernatural side of things, because Spencer absolutely didn’t. He was a fighter first and foremost, and for the moment considered that any ghost they encountered fell into one of two categories: ally or trouble. He hoped they would avoid the majority of the latter.

“Yeah. We got stranded there, Silver and I. The Kaldore attacked during an exercise, and the rest of the Rangers had to cut us loose, in order for any of us to survive. They’ll be back, I’m certain of it. But that day… we’ve lost too much. We’ve given too much ground over to them. We have to draw lines - firm ones, and fight for them. We have one or two towns we’ve helped down there, only one I would call ‘liberated’. The Kaldore are still winning. Maybe with your help, as a new Ranger, we can turn the tide. Three of us are more effective than just two.”

He glanced at the screen, where a ping appeared on the edge of the main display. He blinked and pointed. “Is that what we’re looking for?”

Keon's eyes darted to the screen, brow raising. "No, but it's not human either, whatever it is. This is outside the house." He pointed to the innermost circle of the radar area. "This is inside the house. Which means whatever it is is not a ghost and not human, but is about to come see what's going on in here." By this point, he had lost the thick accent he put on when he was trying to mask himself from the pair. If Spencer was right, then Keon had unintentionally put himself in the middle of a war.

This was certainly not how he saw himself putting that military training to use. "We should probably investigate, right?"

Spencer nodded tightly, looking over the radar screen. He pulled out his solar crystal. A moment later, it was slotted into the blaster on his arm. "Morph first, then we move in quiet."

He gestured for Keon to do the same, so that they would morph at the same time.

Keon stared at Spencer as if the man had sprouted an extra head and turned blue. Morph? What did Spencer think he was, a Power Ranger? Just because he had the big, light blue marble did not mean he was a Ranger just like that. And how exactly was he supposed to morph?

As if the solar crystal heard his unspoken questions, a similarly-styled blaster appeared on Keon's arm. The man blinked rapidly at the sudden weight change, staring down at the blaster in confusion. With a small shrug, he unceremoniously popped the orb into the obvious hole in the blaster.

Having centered the solar crystal, Spencer's thumb spun the ball, locking it in place as the Blaster lit up, flashing blue to match the Solar Crystal he'd put in. "Your first time is going to be rough - ask me how I know. Don't let it overtake you. This is your power. Lock the crystal and activate by spinning the ball and pushing forward."

He showed it as he held the blaster out in front of him. "Then, to the side." He tapped it that way as well, and saw the glow starting. "Pull back the handle, and it's morphin' time!"

In just a moment and a flash of blue light, Spencer changed; it seemed as though the head of a wolf had emerged from the stars and wrapped itself around him as he pulled into a wide stance, discharging the energy off him with an energy crackle that almost sounded like a lupine howl as the blue ranger straightened from his morph, looking proud and undaunted. There was a wildness even in his subtle movements, an energy that Keon would never have seen before from the relatively controlled and strategy-focused Spencer.

Keon's surprise expression wiped from his face a beat after Spencer's transformation completed. He could hear the small ghost girl giggling nearby at his clueless antics, but he shook his head. "This was definitely not what I signed up for," he muttered, before pantomiming the motions Spencer demonstrated.

The blue light that emitted from Keon was many shades lighter, with a bear's head bursting forth in a similar fashion. The light subsided with about as much fanfare, and in the next moment Keon was clad in the skin tight armor he only heard about in the news and through passing. His hand went up to the odd scarf around his neck. "I... can't say I hate this."

 

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