The air was damp, fed by slick walls and a ceiling that dripped water somewhere every other heartbeat, and the mood was dark but strong. A strange taste that could only be described as fury was biting away at his tongue, and his nostrils contained a similar smell. Every now and again, something completely shook the meeting chamber, but the light source coming from everywhere and nowhere never flickered. It was dull white, maybe with a slight blue tint, because everyone around the table had a ethereal blue glow.
On the tabletop were packages of vials. Each vial, six per pack, almost fifty packs total, contained enough pseudoine to inject four or, at the most, five Legionnaires. In addition to those, two boxes were sealed with pseudocioal that, after this conference, would be injected into each member of Rapture Hold to magnify their already incredible powers. Corout leaned back in his seat and smiled to himself.
"Let me in on the joke," a cool voice prompted from Corout's periphery. He shifted his eyes to stare at the black-haired, crystal-eyed, tall and muscular warrior Salodis. "Then again, there is a lot about this mission that I, too, consider funny."
"We follow the Lord Betrayer's orders," Corout reminded him. Salodis, foremost among the ranks of Rapture Hold, had always been the most independent among the force. His innate ability to increase in strength after every single battle, to evolve to new proportions after even a slight scuffle, made him infinitely powerful. And that was not his most startling secret, either. "Take your seat. Our lord will be here shortly."
Salodis sat two seats away from Corout and laid his folded hands gently on the top of the table. When he wanted to, he could be very well behaved. When he wanted to, he could shatter walls with his uncontrolled temper. It was in his blood.
"Master Corout," Xe'ex announced his presence with a bow to his superior. "Salodis," he acknowledged. Then, sitting at Corout's right side, leaned back and crossed his arms as he began waiting. Xe'ex's ability to control moods was rendered ineffective by pseudoine control.
One by one, the other soldiers from Rapture Hold appeared at took their seats. The beautiful Fhare, whose talent in controlling pseudoine was surpassed only by Arcanza and matched by Corout. The more plain looking woman, but still deadly with her art to open gateways to other locations, Devus. Tunsul, in indestructible armor, Naelride, with his imprisoning power, and virus-creating Lanbow rounded out the remainder of the small army. Lanbow was the last of the non-human Holders.
The empty seat at the head of the table was the focus of everyone's attention. Suddenly the entire chamber tensed, as if it strained to get away, and everything been shaking in Corout's, and presumably the others's, vision. "Rise and bow to our Lord Tracer, heir to the Destroyer, precursor to the Resurrector, god of the Trinity of Darkness," came a woman's announcement. Corout and the other Rapture Holders obeyed, falling to one knee, as Michael Tracer entered and stood behind the empty chair, with his hands gripping its back.
"Rise," he ordered. The shaking stopped, the room returned to normal, and Corout could hear one of his soldier's throwing up. "Pitiful," Michael remarked. "How are these weak-stomached creatures supposed to defeat the Omni Rangers?"
"Their abilities outweigh their stomachs a thousand to one," Corout answered defensively. "But the final judgment, as always, is yours, my lord."
Michael stiffened upright, brushing his hand over the front of his navy blue silk shirt, probably to reassure himself the Pseudo Morpher was still attached around his forearm. Corout knew the feeling. Both wristbands he wore supplied him with power, too, and the more he relied on them the more helpless he felt without them.
As the Rapture Holders retook their seats, Salodis alone remained standing, and when Michael noticed their eyes locked in a look that could start wars. Visually calm, but obviously inwardly irritated, Michael waited for Salodis to speak, and clenched his teeth as the warrior began. "I tire of standing around doing nothing. We were brought here to destroy the Omni Rangers, and you have insisted on sending us out two by two, instead of together to make the battle end quickly. I think you are using us to buy time and I, for one, will not be part of it unless I think the cause worthy." Salodis slid a long, curved sword made of a heavy element closely resembling Earth's gold, from its sheath at his side and demanded, "Prove your power to me, 'Betrayer.' Show me the strength of the Trinity I serve!"
"I will show you," Michael promised, "but you know whatever the outcome, you will die. You will die if I defeat you, and if I am defeated I will kill you anyway. No one stands and defies me and walks away."
The Rapture Holder smiled. "I promise you, this day one will walk away."
"Salodis's power increases after every battle," Corout explained hurriedly to Michael. "The stronger his opponent, the stronger he becomes afterward. He is only trying to challenge you to a fight to increase his own power and serve you better."
Michael laughed, with thrown back head and all, then suddenly a cocoon of dull gray light materialized around him. When it faded, the Pseudo Ranger stood in his place, a magnificent creation of Corout's and Arcanza's conjoined geniuses, an opponent whose level of power instantly matched any opponent's and therefore made the eternally evil Ranger unbeatable.
With a quick lunge forward, Salodis made a fluid thrust straight for the Pseudo Ranger's heart. Michael sidestepped casually while simultaneously summoning a sword of his own to counterattack. The swing hit Salodis's side, and the resulting cry was one of genuine anguish. A renewed desire gave Salodis the courage to jump back and take a defensive stance.
The Pseudo's hands suddenly turned to fire, bright blue flames dancing along the edges of both of them, and he lifted both of them, palms outward. Two thick beams of Chillfire exploded toward Salodis and, as they neared, he smiled and straightened to take the entire hit. "You fool!" screamed Corout. "That is deadly energy. It vaporizes on contact! I designed it."
Salodis vanished in a blur, and reappeared behind Michael, delivering a spinning kick that send the Pseudo Ranger flying and, impossibly, made his mood even worse. When the Ranger regained his footing, he clenched his fists and exclaimed, "Shadow Numb!" Salodis went limp as every muscle in his body relaxed, and thoughts drifted away to nothingness, and he was unable to move or think for himself. The Shadow Numb rarely worked, but when it did, it meant death for the Pseudo's opponent.
"That is enough!" Corout ordered. "Spare him, Lord Tracer. He will obey me when he comes to his sense."
Without answer, Michael charged, plunging the Shadow Saber deep into Salodis's throat, ending the warrior's distinguished life. But something remained amiss, and suddenly Corout realized there was no blood gushing from the piercing. Pseudo must have noticed, too, because he was looking around and sliding the blade out of the body. It began to morph from Salodis back into the Legionnaire woman who had announced the Betrayer's arrival. Blood spurted from the gash in her throat as she choked and spasmed. Corout wanted to smile at the move, but he restrained himself, knowing that the Lord Tracer was acutely aware of everything in the chamber.
"Pathetic cheap attacks," Salodis remarked, appearing in the entrance Michael had emerged from. "It makes me feel ill using them, it makes me feel disappointed receiving them. I expect better from a god." His smile was defiance made reality, and Corout had a sinking feeling this little rebellion was about more than making the evolving warrior stronger. Salodis fiercely kicked the dying woman in the back of her head and ended her suffering quickly.
Michael stepped toward him. He extended both arms out, joining the thumbs and index fingers to form a triangle. The air, the light, every molecule of matter instantly reacted to move away from him. Corout, quickly, ordered the rest of the Rapture Hold force as far from the Pseudo Ranger as possible. Pseudo screamed, "Trinity Critical!"
The shockwave hit Salodis directly; there was no escape for anyone from the Ranger's best attack. Salodis instantly fell to the floor, twitching, experiencing limitless pain but unable to die, his skin boiling away and insides turning inside-out, then returning to normal fast enough to do it over two more times. By the time the ordeal ended, Salodis was curled into a fetal position, rocking on the damp floor, shivering from the cold. Michael de-morphed, smiling wickedly, and took an arrogant stance.
Usually after the battle was over, Salodis's energy returned fairly rapidly, and this experience was no exception. He was restored to maximum and beyond in seconds and lifted himself to his feet. "I withdraw from the Rapture Hold alliance. I withdraw from the Legion. Follow this weak imposter if you want. A respectable god would have killed me." With that, Salodis grabbed his sword from the floor, wrapped his hand around the blade hard enough to draw blood, and teleported away.
"I need more time," Michael said with a satisfied grin, "not followers who respect me. He will undoubtedly challenge those damn Rangers himself and give us even more time." The table had been shattered in the conflict, so he walked around the destruction and spoke to Corout as he did. "Send Lanbow to the city with his worst virus. I want as many as possible infected. Debilitate them."
Corout bowed, and Lanbow laughed deeply, promising, "They will be debilitated, my Lord Betrayer."
The sterile hospital smell was first on Cecil's list of odors he least liked. It somehow seeped into your soul, drew out the unpleasantness of the place, and then lodged so deeply into your psyche it became impossible to forget. Maybe one of the subtle functions of hospitals is to force you to remember, he thought idly. Remember the time you spent with loved ones, just in case it was the last.
He sat on an uncomfortable solid-backed chair, but leaned forward to avoid it, folded his fingers together, and stared down at them to try and phase out the rest of the scenery. Every now and then he would look up to see nurses pushing carts or carrying little bags with pills in them to various rooms at scheduled times. They exchanged words with one another, some social, some professional, and glanced at him occasionally.
A soft snap caught his attention as the door to the room he sat near opened. Slowly, Brittany walked out and turned to close the entrance behind her, wiping her eyes when she thought Cecil could not see, and turned back to face him. He was already on his feet and struggling to keep his breathing even. Reaching out and grabbing her hand, he pulled her along his side to the elevator.
"How is she?" Cecil asked as they waited for the elevator to respond to his pushed button.
Brittany sniffed in sharply, and sighed to let the air back out. "No better," she answered in a weak voice.
"We are going to get something to drink," he told her.
"I don't feel like leaving the floor," she replied.
"We will walk to the cafeteria and then walk straight back," Cecil assured her. "Do you think your dad or brother need anything?"
She shook her head, and wiped more moisture out of her brightness-absent eyes. As the elevator doors open, they stepped in hand-in-hand and pushed the ground floor button. There was a question on her face, but it was shifting back and forth between a blank stare and never materialized vocally. In silence they rode down and exited.
In the cafeteria, Cecil asked her, "Hot or cold?" and she shrugged, staring off toward the direction they had come from, longing to hurry back.
He filled a cup for himself with cappuccino, then filled one with ice and Sprite for Brittany, and paid for them at the cashier. Luckily, even though he left her, she stayed where she was with crossed arms and a still-blank look on her face.
"Are you the center of the universe?" the old woman at the cash register asked him. His heart froze, staring at her in shock, the question slapping him completely off-guard. Of all times for games!
Cecil began demanding, "What the hell are you talking..." then cut himself off as a quick memory settled in. It was an inside philosophical joke between Craig and him: What if one of them were the center of the universe, if the universe had been created when they were born, and when they died the universe died with them? "Sorry," he apologized. "I misunderstood. Yes I am."
The woman slipped a folded piece of paper to him and said bitingly, "This came for ya, Mr. Center."
He nodded his thanks and walked back to Brittany, taking her hand again and walking with her back to her mother's room as he promised. Fiddling with his other hand at the same time, he opened the fold and read the message: "Still in hiding. Tell Brittany my thoughts with her. Eyes are on you."
"Craig sends his..." he told her, then twisted the last word with a grin, "thoughts." He waited for a response, but none came, and he sighed, observing, "You probably wish it was him with you here. I know he wishes it that way too."
"We all have problems," she groaned as they got back onto the elevator. Another passenger in a white coat was already on it and gave them a sympathetic look. Cecil imagined how terrible each of them looked, and how miserable they looked together.
The time was closing in on four in the early morning, and since eight o'clock Brittany had been here at Ivory Glade Hospital at her mother's side following a surgery that had become complicated. They had known Mrs. Elliott had breast cancer for months now, but they had not known how serious it was until just recently, and the choice between the surgery and giving in to it was really no choice at all. Something had happened, though, and no one had a bright outlook of the future, Brittany herself least of all. Becky had been there with her until midnight, at which point she switched off to Cecil at his insistence.
The elevator stopped, and something inside Cecil suddenly jumped. He hesitated, noting that the guy in the white coat was standing still, and whispered, "Here we are," to Brittany. They exited together and began walking down the hall. Smoothly, Cecil dropped his friend's hand, passed off his cup to her, and whirled around, pushing the man in the white coat back with one hand and slamming the elevator's close button with the other. "Start speaking, Legionnaire, or your life ends now." The Chaos Sword materialized in his grasp instantly.
"W...w...what?" the man stammered. "I...I...I work h...here."
"My Analysis says differently. You have a 25 percent pseudoine level, and you are working for Rapture Hold."
The Legionnaire gulped, his eyes widening in fright as Cecil depressed the tip of his sword ever so gently against his chest. "My lord instructed me to watch you. That's all. And report whatever you..."
"And your lord is who?" Cecil demanded, a small stain of red appearing on the clean white coat.
If his eyes were wide before, they became huge now, and the iris and pupil completely disappeared. Fluid leaked from both ears, sliding down the sides of his face. The Legion man opened his mouth, apparently to scream, but instead he spoke. "Nice catch," came the voice of Corout, that haunting resonance he remember from hearing it in the Genetopia building. "Our game continues, Red Ranger. I look forward to your next move."
Cecil dropped the body and said coldly, "This is not a game." Lifting his Morpher to his mouth, he spoke into it, "Oriquin, this is Cecil. I need a body disposed of in the Ivory Glade Hospital elevator. I am sending his genetic code now." He aimed the OmniTech band at the body and a red light enveloped both it and the dead Legionnaire. Almost instantly the man was teleported away, as well as all of his fluids and anything with his genetic fingerprint on it.
The elevator doors opened again and Cecil exited, looking for Brittany. He found her sitting in the chair he had been occupying earlier, nervously glancing at the door to her mother's room every now and then. Carefully Cecil slid down and sat against the wall next to her. "It was nothing," he explained. "Just thought it would be easier for you to walk back alone."
He knew she would smell the lie a mile away, but Brittany did not question it. Instead she moaned, "Oh," and continued her silent vigil.
So, Craig was communicating through cashiers. Legionnaires were spying on them through proxies, too. He took his cappuccino from her and settled back, resting his eyelids low enough to still see from. As of now, he trusted no one.
The Omni Morpher around his forearm grew hot, and suddenly Oriquin's voice was filling his ears, and he assumed Brittany's and the other Rangers' as well. "Alpha System scanners detect a hostile presence at the water treatment plant. Come here first for a quick briefing."
Standing up, he hurriedly scanned for nurses and other people up and down the hall and was relieved to find none. "Stay here," he instructed Brittany when she rose to her feet, too. As soon as the words were spoken she was sitting down staring at her feet again. He put a comforting hand on her shoulder and said firmly, "Things have a way of working out." Energy flowed from the Morpher into his body and teleported it from the hospital on the south edge of the city to the Alpha Complex on the east.
Inside the Complex, Oriquin stood in front of a row of monitors displaying normal, infrared, and layout views of the water treatment plant near the lake south of Ivory Glade where the city obtained and purified its water supply. He stood attentive but relaxed and looked more rested and healthier than Cecil had ever seen him. Eventually the other Rangers began teleporting in, disheveled from being awakened in the middle of the night, and taking seats. Alex's hair was tangled and he wore a Rockies t-shirt and green pajama bottoms that looked like they were just thrown on. Becky was pretty composed, definitely looking different without makeup, her hair done up, and in a pink furry robe. Amber wore a black t-shirt tucked into blue jean shorts and wore her hair tied back; like Craig, it seemed even sleep never tangled those thin burgundy-brown threads. Bane was dressed in unrumpled, clean clothes, a white shirt with a sleeveless blue vest and matching pants, and appeared every bit composed as he normally would, probably a trait passed on from his father, who always appeared cold and collected, too.
"How's Brit?" Rebecca asked as Cecil said down next to her.
He coughed into his fist to subtlety remind her where she was, but answered just the same, "Pretty down. I can't blame her, though, I would be the same way."
Oriquin pressed down on the control panel near him and the monitors instantly switched to a profile of an ugly bug-like creature. "This is Lanbow, of Rapture Hold. As you can see, he appears to resemble a human-sized virus or germ, which is very ironic because his innate power is infecting living things with disease. His scheming in the past completely wiped four planets on the other side of the Firmament clean of all living things and created wastelands, which obviously brought him recognition from Corout and the other Holders."
"That's sick," Becky moaned.
"And that is not the worst part," Oriquin continued. "When combined with some of the pseudoine Corout obtained, his viruses became almost instantaneously lethal, according to Alpha Systems simulations. He is planning to put this disease into the Ivory Glade water supply. But he must not succeed. Destroy him quickly; if you waste time, the poison will take your city first and every other city on the planet will contract it later."
Cecil finished studying the profile and asked, "Were you able to get a measure of his strength?"
With a nod, Oriquin replied, "Stronger than any member of Rapture Hold you have faced so far, but still no chance against you considering how much your powers and abilities have developed recently. Do this quickly and you will make it back in time to finish sleeping."
"Sounds good," Alex said with a smile. "Let's get it over with."
"Be careful," Oriquin warned them solemnly. "Your powers do not make you immune to his diseases, and biological viruses is one of the powers we identified but may not be his only one. If you are in trouble, I will contact Brittany and have her meet you there."
Lifting his Omni Morpher, Cecil exclaimed, "It's morphing time!"
"Omni Dragon!" Green light enveloped Alex and transformed him into the Green Ranger.
"Omni Pegasus!" A gentle pink glow radiated from Rebecca and morphed her into the Pink Ranger.
"Omni Hydra!" A barrier of blue light wrapped around Bane and changed him into the Blue Ranger.
"Omni Cerberus!" Darkness made Amber fade out of sight and when she returned she did so as the Black Ranger.
"Omni Titan!" Cecil felt the rush of power as he gave in to it and became the Red Ranger. "Rangers, teleport." And instantly all five of them were standing on the interior of the water treatment facility at its entrance.
Cecil waved the team forward and instructed them, "Split up and search the area. If you find Lanbow, activate your Wave power to stall him while the rest of us respond to your power signal."
"Good plan," the Blue Ranger confirmed, and was the first moving to follow the directions. The other three Rangers each chose a different direction, leaving Cecil to proceed straight ahead. All around the smell of salty vapor hung in the air and, if not for his helmet, he was sure it would have made his eyes sting. Following a wide hallway to an ascending staircase, he began jogging up the steps when he felt a strong power swell up and discharge. Using the OmniTech to pinpoint the location, he teleported there instantly and found Rebecca dodging a sickly yellow-green energy blast from the mutated Holder's hand. In his other was a vial that undoubtedly contained the virus.
She hurried to Cecil's side as he cried, "Force Barrier!" and put up a weak but effective shield between them and the monster.
"I tried using Magnet Wave to detain him, but it totally failed," she explained.
"So, he's completely organic," Bane deduced as he revealed his freshly-teleported presence. Amber and Alex hung at each of his sides.
Dropping the Barrier, Cecil pointed to Lanbow and cried, "Omni Tank engage!"
Weapons materialized in each Ranger's hand, and vehicles appeared at their sides, and the Fortifier teleported to them from its hidden location. All of the summon materials began to shift and merge into one construction, a single armored vehicle about the size of a mini-van only adorned with numerous cannons and guns in strategic locations about its frame.
While it formed, though, Lanbow was on the move, blowing a hole through one of the walls and laughing as he found the pipes that pumped water from the plant into the city's sewers. "We have to hurry!" Amber urged them.
The gold-plated Omni Tank rolled at an astonishingly normal speed to acquire a clear shot at Lanbow. "Tank locked on target," Cecil reported, depressing a button on the handle of the Chaos Sword. "Fire!"
A powerful, thick bolt of energy struck Lanbow in the back just seconds before he contaminated the water. "Silhouette Steal!" Amber exclaimed, and a concentrated ball of shadow encapsulated the vial of disease and carried it to her instantly.
Lanbow gurgled on the ground, a gaping hole through his back gushing green blood-like material all over him. "Pseudocioal," the monster choked, "activate." Suddenly the hole closed, making the Rapture Hold soldier complete again, and his size began to multiply rapidly. In a matter of seconds, his gigantic size was bringing the entire treatment plant crumbling to the ground, and the Rangers were forced to teleport outside to save themselves from being crushed.
"What did he do?" gasped Becky.
"Pseudocioal," Amber repeated the name. "It sounds like pseudoine."
Cecil put a stop to their speculation with, "Not important. OmniZords online! Titan OmniZord!" He felt his body teleport once again into the machine.
"Hydra OmniZord!" Bane boarded his Zord.
"Pegasus OmniZord!" Rebecca did likewise.
"Dragon OmniZord!" Alex took to the sky in his fearsome device.
Through the communicator, Oriquin reported, "Alpha System has activated Sphinx OmniZord." Amber teleported into it.
Inside the cockpit of the Titan, Cecil instructed, "Initiate Omni Megazord sequence." In a space of under a minute, the five individual Zord had conjoined themselves into a single Megazord, armed with the mighty Megasaber and equipped with the deadliest technology on the planet.
"Yes, just like I hoped," roared Lanbow. He lifted another vial and flung it directly at the Megazord, and the container shattered on impact.
The collision did nothing at first, and Alex wondered, "What the heck was that?" Suddenly the lights on the control panel of the Megazord shut down, included the emergency lights. On the monitor that normally displayed the Zord's status, a digitized picture of a bug crawled back and forth across the screen.
"Computer virus," Amber groaned. "Not cool."
"Teleport back to Alpha Complex," Cecil instructed. "We can deploy the CrusaderZords and surround him."
Becky gasped, a high-pitched exclamation, while Bane's simultaneous grunt created an overtone of exasperation. "I can't teleport," she complained.
"Neither can I," Bane added.
Pounding his fist on the controls, Cecil swore, "Damn! Teleporting is down for all of us. The virus must be creating some type of interference around the Megazord." He detached his helmet and set it aside to take a deep breath of the stuffy cockpit air. "Communicators are scrambled, too."
Bane removed his helmet as well, and confirmed, "True. But remember Alpha System conducts data by light. Oriquin knows we are trapped in here. He is resourceful enough to formulate a plan."
"Right," Becky nodded. "And Brittany is still outside, too. Computers are like second nature to her! She could probably create an anti-virus in her sleep."
Cecil frowned, and Becky's optimism failed to spread. "I hope she can create an anti-virus through her depression, too. Be strong, Brittany. We need you."
The Morpher around Brittany's forearm, cloaked in invisibility drawn from itself as a power source, a handy trick she herself developed, grew warm for a third time, and again Alpha System's voice asked directly into her ear, "ACCEPT INCOMING TRANSMISSION FROM ORIQUIN AT CONTROL POINT?" She ignored the question again, sighing as she slumped more in her chair. She was in and out of her mother's room twice since Cecil left, going in whenever she was able to gather up enough courage and leaving so her parents and brother would not see her cry. None of them were. She could not help feeling emotional and their apparent lack of empathy made it twice as hard. Now Oriquin kept trying to contact her, but she avoiding responding because she knew in her condition she could only be a liability fighting a monster or whatever the others were doing. Twice as helpless, Brittany thought with a frown.
"I kept a bedside vigil when Arcanza struck down my father," a voice told her, and she slowly lifted her head just enough to see Oriquin standing on the opposite side of the hall. His silvery hair caught a strange glint underneath the hospital lightning, making his dark eyes all but sadder and more withdrawn than usual. "Talyserys and I waited night and day, from the time he was wounded to the time Eztram came to give us our mission to pursue Arcanza across the universe in Galaxy Hunter, our final mission. In my heart I knew he was about to die, but I accepted the task regardless, because their were other innocent lives that could be saved. Father could not."
Brittany twisted her hands together uncomfortably. "It...I..."
The Omnian lord nodded, laying a trembling hand on her unoccupied arm. "You feel like you are helping her by being here. You are. And you think by leaving her, you are abandoning her to die. I will not lie; you probably are. But there is a creature who has trapped your friends and threatens to release a deadly virus into the water supply. You are helping most by being there, not by being here, Brittany Elliott."
"Trap...trapped," she repeated, wiping her eyes clean of tears. "What's wrong?"
Releasing his hold and standing up straight, Oriquin informed her, "They have been trapped inside the Megazord by a computer virus that is also affecting their OmniTech abilities of communication and teleportation. Lanbow, the monster, is destroying the Megazord slowly but surely."
"I can make an anti-virus," Brittany assured him. "But I need the blueprints for the Zords, and Seraide never gave me access to those." As she stood up, Oriquin handed her a small circular disc and greeted her with a relieved smile. "I need to work on-site. Can I teleport into the Megazord?"
Oriquin shrugged. "I am unsure."
"It's morphin' time!" she breathed, trying to reinforce her voice to hide the pain of leaving her mother. "Omni Sphinx!"
Inside the Megazord, her friends had removed their helmets and had managed to slide the emergency exit open just a crack to allow fresh air inside. The entire cockpit vibrated violently as, outside, an ugly bug-like creature punched it directly in the center. "Brittany!" Becky exclaimed.
"Here, take this console," Cecil instructed, offered her the main piloting controls. Brittany sat, inserted the disc, and called up the blueprints and source code of the virus at the same time. Quickly she located the main disabling point the virus was attacking and tried altering it to affect another less vital location, but it failed. Frustrated, she called up a program Seraide had installed in the Megazord after its reconstruction that enabled it to instantly revert into five individual Zords.
With a gasp, Brittany exclaimed, "That's it!" Typing in an anti-virus code, she inserted it into the virus code, and instantly the Megazord began separating back into five individual OmniZords. Grabbing the controls, she aborted, and re-assembled the Megazord immediately. Testing its movement, she smiled to herself as the gigantic Zord responded to her commands.
"You did it!" exclaimed Amber.
"Excellent work," Bane remarked.
"Megasaber online," Cecil instructed. "Finish him!"
The solid black of the Megasaber in the Omni Megazord's hand suddenly grew bright, blinding white as it was charged with an immense amount of energy. With a fast, strong motion quite smooth for a heavy steel-plated robot, the blade cut through Lanbow. His scream of pain still echoed in the air as he burst into billions of tiny particles that blew away on the brisk Colorado winter winds.
One week later, life was drastically different.
Cecil watched solemnly as he stood in Control Point. After the battle with Lanbow, Brittany went back to the hospital and stayed with her mother until she and her brother were chased out by her father. Mrs. Elliott passed away shortly after. The whole town had word by dinnertime the next day, and the gossip that the Elliott family was torn apart was not far behind. Brittany's father, an executive at Ivory Glade National Bank, and her brother who also worked there took a week off to take care of the final arrangement. Meanwhile, Brittany herself spent most day and night inside Alpha Complex, reading the designs and information contained on some disc she had gotten somewhere.
"I think I can build a new CrusaderZord to replace Alex's," she told him when he asked. "Give me time."
Bane and Oriquin were at her side helping. Bane, from his constant dirty appearance, was doing most of the manual labor, and Oriquin was a little cleaner but obviously contributing to the cause. Both of them were probably in the Zord Bay at this moment working.
Finally, after a week of this, Cecil was getting concerned about all of them. "Brittany," he snapped to get her attention.
"Yeah?" she asked without looking up from the computers.
He was about to tell her to go home and get some rest. About to let her know it was okay to grieve. About to say her family needed her support now more than ever. "Never mind," he sighed, and left the room.
Original Publication Date: 18 October 2001
