Whole New World

By Jeannine Trevizo

Chapter 7: Fighting the Good Fight

“We’re under attack!” yelled Jason, realizing what the alarm signified.

The team began moving rapidly, trying to find where they could see and identify just what was coming at them. They split up across the consoles Alpha was reviewing, looking at the images and data being displayed there.

“We have incoming! Looks like at least a squadron of planes, less than half a mile from the Command Center,” announced Adam as he looked at the readings scrolling across one of the consoles.

“Is it Zedd?” questioned Aisha.

“No, I think it’s the Global Government forces,” Tommy replied tersely.

“How did they find us?” Kimberly wondered aloud, and everyone turned to regard her.

“Maybe they followed us back?” Aisha offered, and nearly everyone paled at the suggestion.

“We have to get to the zords and get out there now!” Zack insisted.

“What about the Command Center and the grid?” questioned Jason, worried that the Command Center and the morphing grid would be vulnerable once they left the base.

“Rangers, the Command Center is safe… With the reactivation of the Morphing Grid by all of you, the Command Center Force Field is back on line,” explained Alpha, prompting a small sigh of relief from some of the group.

“Tommy, we need to get in the air and defend the Command Center,” Kim suggested, moving to his side and laying a hand on his arm.

Looking down at her, he nodded, his eyes closing. They were the only two with zords that could fly. It would be their responsibility to take down or discourage the planes flying their way. It meant they would be in the most danger, but he had to trust that just the two of them were up to the task.

“Ai, yi yi – rangers, enemy vehicles coming from the North are making their way down Angel Grove’s Main Street!” Alpha stated, startling everyone. Zack moved to look at the radar readings that Alpha had just announced and saw the new set of signals; a number of troops and vehicles were advancing on the ground. Now they had a fight on two fronts.

“Adam, Aisha, Jason and Zack engage the force coming down Main Street. Keep the ground forces from getting into the city center. If they get that far, it’ll be easier to shell the Command Center,” directed Tommy. “Let’s go!”

The team rushed to the elevator and crammed inside, the last person in, Jason, pushing the button for the hangar bay. When they hit the ground, they ran to their zords. Kim and Tommy were parked next to each other and before he passed her, she caught his arm, making him swivel with his paused momentum.

“Kim?”

“Kiss for luck,” she said quickly, pulling him close enough for her to lean up on tiptoes and kiss his lips briefly.

He kissed her back, wishing they had more time to enjoy this, but they had more urgent matters at hand. Pulling back, he patted her hand slightly before disengaging from her grasp.

“Be careful out there Beautiful,” he said breathlessly.

“You too handsome,” she replied.

Moments later they were all in the cockpits of their zords, firing up their thrusters. Tommy and Kim launched directly from the hangar bay, their falcon and crane zords flying out to engage the planes halfway into Angel Grove’s air space. Using the piloting skill that they both had in their memories, they maneuvered around the planes advancing on the Command Center, using the lasers and rockets on their own vehicles to trim down the advancing squadron.

Right behind them, Aisha, Adam, Jason and Zack were moving the ground based zords out of the hangar bay. They headed to the city center, knowing the advancing army was coming from the North. Jason had paired them up – he and Aisha and Adam with Zack. It made the most amount of sense since Adam was most familiar with the Frog zord that Zack now piloted and could quickly provide technical support for him. In the same manner, Aisha remembered some special attacks of the ape zord that she said used to belong to Rocky, the Red Ranger who had followed him. If he couldn’t figure out something, she’d be there to help.

Above the four ground zords, Kim and Tommy’s Crane and Falconzords flew circles around the attacking planes. Maneuvers that had laid dormant in their previous selves’ memories flew back to them with rapid fire intensity. It wasn’t long until they’d gotten the fight down to somewhat fair. Still, the remaining planes were trying to line up on the mountains and the Command Center.

At the ground level Jason saw the first of the heavy infantry coming their way. A dozen large tanks were wheeling down the main street towards the old Angel Grove High School. Behind them were what seemed to be an endless stream of smaller support vehicles and infantry. These were people, Jason thought sullenly, and they were hunting them.

“Okay everyone, let’s wait for them to show us what they’ve got,” Jason said across the zords communication channel.

They didn’t have long to wait as the first series of tanks fired an array of anti-tank, high explosive and anti-personnel rounds. They exploded around the zords, Zack and Aisha’s zords taking a hit each, but with negligible damage.

Another round came at them, this time from the armored hum vee’s behind the tanks; 50 caliber guns shot at the zords. Inside their zords, they heard the pinging sound of the munitions bouncing off the metal.

“Tommy, we’re getting pounded down here. Do we have clearance to wade in and take them down?” Jason asked, deferring to Tommy as the team leader.

“Permission granted,” Tommy replied seriously.

“You heard the man. Let’s mix it up.”

With that, Aisha drove her bear forward, and then as it faced the first line of tanks, she reared it up and let the front legs fall to crush a tank beneath them. Beside her, Jason’s ape zord caught a lamp post and swung around it, using his hind feet to knock another tank through a ruined building and halfway across the city.

Zack used the frog zord tongue to wrap around one tank and he swung it around and sent is sailing over ten blocks away. Adam had leapt to the second row and caught a tank in his wolf zord’s jaws and shook it, the plating and treads falling off until Adam dropped it back to the ground in a crashing thud.

The ape zord bounded with the bear zord, the two slamming a few more tanks from one side to the other, the frog and wolf zord bounded past them towards the hum vee style vehicles, knocking them aside. The ground infantry had broken up and moved to cover in the ruins of the city, firing anti-tank grenades and rockets at the zords, causing Zack to curse when his electrics sputtered for a minute after a near direct hit to his cockpit.

Both above and below, the fight was engaged, and Alpha watched inside the Command Center, nervously monitoring the zords and the number of enemy signals. Then suddenly on the ground, from behind the Global Government’s forces a lesser group of vehicles and armor pinned the Global Government military between the ground zords and themselves. As some of the smaller vehicles and ground forces turned to face the new combatants, the other group started firing whatever they had: grenades, mortars and machine gun fire.

“Tommy, looks like we have an assist,” said Jason over the com.

From his Falconzord, Tommy wheeled the vehicle in the air to see the group of armored vehicles and people coming into Angel Grove and behind the tanks of the Global Government forces.

“Okay, but be careful. If they fire at you, they’re hostiles.”

“Understood.”

Knowing Jason had things under control, Tommy turned back to where Kim was dealing with the last three of the planes that were rapidly trying to head towards the Command Center with the commotion below and Tommy’s distraction. She quickly put two out of commission, one of which caught flame and crashed by the old park. Tommy hurriedly swooped in and shot the tail off the last just as it dropped some munitions on the base, but he watched as it exploded harmlessly off the force field. The plane he’s shot weaved in the air before plowing into the ground with a fiery explosion.

“Air attack is eliminated,” Tommy announced over the com.

“All right!” yelled Zack from the frog zord. “Let’s get these tanks outta here too!"

Following another offensive by the other military force behind them, the Global Government forces realized their precarious position and split up, taking off down opposite roads, retreating out of the city. They left behind more than half of their forces destroyed or dead on the streets of Angel Grove. With the crisis now averted, Tommy called a return to the Command Center. Once everyone had gotten back into the hangar bay, he took a status of the group.

“Everybody okay?” he asked looking over the weary faces of his team.

“Banged up a bit, but none of the zords seem to be badly damaged,” replied Zack.

“So what was with the extra help out there?” Kim asked, perplexed.

“I don’t know. But I’m going to find out,” Tommy announced as he headed for the elevator, the rest of the team on his heels.

They’d all quickly made their way up to the Command Center main chamber where Alpha was monitoring the situation. Inside the room, they all converged on Alpha, who was moving excitedly, even in his banged and patched up state.

“Rangers! You’re safe!” he said before moving on to his next news. “The Command Center took no damage. And there is an incoming communication.”

Everyone looked around, surprised at this last bit of news. Adam and Aisha moved to the control panel that the communications were at and pulled up the signal.

“Tommy, the transmission is coming from someone who says they’re with the Center,” announced Adam, looking up from where he was standing with Alpha.

“Put it through.”

There was a crackle of noise through the room, and then suddenly a voice spoke out.

“Power Rangers, my name is Lieutenant Thomas Jason Cranston. I’m the head of the Center resistance, and I’d like to offer my organization’s full assistance to you to provide whatever support we can.”

The team all looked at one another in stunned silence. In meeting Sarah, Samuel and James, they knew there was an overlying group that the Center comprised, but none of them had expected it to be this… organized. And the names… this man had Billy’s last name and Tommy and Jason’s first names.

“Lt. Cranston, I’m Tommy, the White Ranger. We’re glad for whatever help you can provide, but we want to make sure that you’re not putting your people in any unnecessary danger.”

“Understood sir,” said the older sounding man, and some of the teens couldn’t help but laugh quietly. “I’m former Global Forces military, hence my rank. I have under me a variety of former military and other support staff ready and waiting to assist you.”

Tommy turned towards Adam and made a slashing sign across his throat, and Adam recognized the sign and pushed a button so they could close off the audio on their end.

“Do we trust that they’re who they say they are?” asked Tommy, glancing around at the others.

“I’d say yes. I’m betting that Billy was his ancestor. I mean, we know some of our family lines lived on. We already met James who told us he knew of some of them… there’s no reason that he and the Center aren’t legit,” Jason insisted. “And we could use the technical assist… none of us really know how to repair any of this stuff.”

“I think we can trust him,” Kim said suddenly and the others looked at her with questioning faces. “I don’t know. I just get the feeling we can.”

“Open the line up again Adam. I’m going to invite them in,” Tommy stated, and then waited for the crackle of sound to indicate they were transmitting. “We would appreciate any aid we can get. Some of the equipment here is a mess and we don’t really have any technical people. We have the hangar doors for the zords open. If you come around the mountains until you reach it, a couple of our team will escort you and a handful of your people inside.”

“We’re on our way,” replied Lt. Cranston.

-x-

After Zack and Jason had checked over the team of about ten techs and military personnel dressed in a hodgepodge of khaki uniforms, they’d all taken the elevator up to the main chamber of the Command Center. Exiting the elevator, the others fanned out to assess the technology that needed repair while Lt. Cranston moved directly to where Tommy stood in the center of the room in his White Ranger armor, sans the helmet. The team had all decided that they didn’t want to waste a moment suiting up into their uniforms if they were attacked again, so they were all interspersed around the room, their helmets lined up across one of the non-working consoles.

“Sir,” Lt. Cranston said, extending his hand in greeting.

Tommy shook it and stared at the man before him. He was middle aged with dark short hair and dark eyes; he was Caucasian but there was a trace of Asian in his features. It was the shape of his face though that reminded Tommy of Billy. He could almost imagine looking into blue eyes as he stared at Lt. Cranston. Once again, Tommy had to wonder what his parentage truly was.

“Excuse me, we were all wondering, you wouldn’t by any chance claim Billy Cranston’s as an ancestor?”

The man before him grinned, his dark eyes shining. Tommy thought that perhaps he was proud of being asked if he was related to an outlawed Power Ranger. Considering his role with the Center, he probably was.

“Yes sir. My family line includes two rangers. Billy Cranston and…”

“Trini Kwan,” interjected Kim suddenly, as she moved to stand next to Tommy.

“Yes ma’am.”

“You need to stop that,” Tommy finally said, moving to lay a hand on the other man’s shoulder. “You’re way older than us. Please, if you have to, you can call us by our names or at least our ranger identities.”

“Certainly sir… Tommy,” he faltered, and then got back to business. “What can my team do for you?”

“First, we need to address the government’s attack on us, and try to get them to let us help them by getting rid of Zedd. Is there any way we can do that?”

“Sir… sorry, Tommy, I would suggest communicating directly with the Global Government. I have reliable intelligence that they have been in contact with Lord Zedd, and no doubt he has threatened Earth’s existence if you are not hunted down and killed. They should be informed that they need to support the Power Rangers, as you are our only hope of permanently removing the threat of Zedd,” Lt. Cranston suggested.

The team all paled at Lt. Cranston’s words. It was unbelievable that the government would be blackmailed by Zedd, but since they had lost the ranger team a few hundred years back and had to negotiate terms with Zedd, maybe they’d felt that they had no choice but to keep letting Zedd dictate to them. Of course there was always the possibility that the Global Government wanted things like they were, and Zedd’s threat was the excuse…

“What would you propose?”

“I’ve brought with me some of the best technology people in the world. They can get you worldwide communication access so you can take your message to the populace, as well as the Global Government. What you may not know is that too much about why the government does what it does is cloaked in secrecy. The Power Rangers need to be above that. And once this is over, there are members of the Center who are still underground that can come in and help rehabilitate the governments and broken systems.”

“Good, ‘cause we have no idea what to do after we get rid of Lord Zedd,” Jason added, as he and the rest of the team gathered around Tommy and Kim.

“Not a problem. The Power Rangers are the inspiration, the driving force behind the Center’s principles. We have the people to make things right again with the governments. But I have to tell you, it’s an honor to meet real rangers face to face. Many of our group never thought we’d see the day.”

“Lieutenant, were you aware of the clone project we came from?” Adam asked suddenly, surprising the others as well as Lt. Cranston.

“Yes. When one of our teams found an anti-chamber for this facility, we’d though we’d found the Command Center. In reality, it was only a smaller, semi separate building, but it contained the DNA samples and information on the rangers they were from. A few of our scientists were tasked to head the cloning project. I think you might recall one of the team… Samuel Deacon?”

The rangers all nodded. They remembered Samuel all to well. Tommy still dreamed of seeing the man’s face just as he locked them out in the escape tunnel as he prepared to face down the Black Global Force’s soldiers.

“We have been waiting for nearly 300 hundred years for rangers to return. So when we realized we had Power Ranger DNA… it was decided to try and revive the Power Rangers. And here you are,” Lt. Cranston said.

“Here we are,” replied Tommy, his jaw tightening slightly before he relaxed again and turned to the techs and his team. “All right everyone, let’s get to work.”

-x-

Tommy stood before the projection system still dressed in his White Ranger uniform without this helmet. The team had discussed at length how he was going to address the world. Some had thought he should wear his helmet; keep his face off the airwaves, in case the battle with Zedd and the Global Government dragged out. Others had thought showing his face would display their humanness; that rangers were just like everyone else and were nothing to fear.

Finally Tommy had decided that he’d go ahead and show his face, noting to the others that they didn’t have any direct family to target, so showing his face was simply being honest with the people.

“Communications up,” announced Adam, where he and Lt. Cranston stood by the console rigged by the Center technicians that would allow Tommy to broadcast to the world.

“This is the White Ranger, leader of the Power Rangers,” said Tommy as he looked into the transmission device that had been put together using the old Viewing Globe technology, but in reverse. “The Global Government has attacked us in the remnants of the city of Angel Grove in the futile attempt to destroy us. We want to make it clear however… no matter what they throw at us, we are not going anywhere.”

The team watched anxiously as Tommy spoke to anyone with any kind of communication device – televisions, computers, video transmitters… Around the world, people gathered around what they had to see the first images of the Power Rangers and listened to what the White Ranger was saying.

And in the council chambers of the Global Government, the leaders of the regions watched the White Ranger’s form projected on a large screen before them and nervously waited for his next words.

“The Power Rangers have one purpose – protecting the people of Earth. This is what we have always done. The government that outlawed rangers nearly 300 years ago was afraid. And since the loss of your protectors, the government has let Lord Zedd break and humble you. We’re here to let you know that the Power Rangers have returned and that we will defeat Zedd. When we have, we look to the Global Government to disband, and to begin restoring freedoms and holding elections, allowing the people to rebuild and take control of their lives once more.”

“Finally, we have a message for Lord Zedd; we remember you. *I* remember you,” Tommy nearly growled out the last. “We are coming for you. You can leave now and never come back, or you can be destroyed. Your choice. Power Rangers out.”

Adam cut off the transmission and the team all looked around at one another. The war had officially begun.

-x-

And in the outlying edge of the solar system Earth called a home, Lord Zedd screamed in fury.

-End-

Hey there all. I have probably at least 2-3 chapters left. I plan to keep pushing them out as best I can until this is done. Thanks – Ms. J.