Chapter 8
“I can’t believe it…” Mel muttered.
A week had passed since she and Joshua had been brough to the world of the Dragon Force. They had finally gotten the all-clear from the military to return to investigate the ring that had brought the couple there.
“I was just… Here!” Mel said.
“Okay… this… this kinda reminds me of a Stargate” Thom said “just lying flat on the ground.”
He and Greg had accompanied Mel down the shaft while Alex waited on the surface with Joshua. Kelly, Kira, and Marvin had remained behind on standby if any attacks happened.
“So, how did it start?” Greg asked.
“Well, we stood in the middle, and it started to spin and the pillars that are sticking out of the limestone, they lit up one at a time.”
Thom contacted Alex, who brought Josua down.
“Alright…” Mel said, taking the boy’s hand “Let’s go home.”
“Goodbye my friends…” Joshua said.
“Last friends I’m letting you have” Mel muttered just a touch too loudly.
The couple stood within the ring, but nothing happened.
‘Work, damn it… I want to go home…” Mel complained, kicking the ring. ‘Come on, spin and shout stuff already…”
“It might be broken” Alex pointed out.
“It brough us here…”
“Did it? This might just be the receiving end, or it might only be able to receive… the one that sent you might work fine, but this one might not.”
“How would you know that?”
“That tends to be what portals or transport devices do…” Thom added.
Alex and Greg took pictures of the device, and the group began to head back towards the surface, Joshua following them.
“Hey… Hey… wait… what about me?” Mel demanded “I… I want to go home.”
“Obviously this thing doesn’t work and even if it did, we don’t know how it works. I thought it was some kind of single portal, just connecting our two worlds, but Thom is proabibly right, this is part of some kind of larger network…. Sending you back is predicated on knowing where to send you… It’s like trying to call someone and you have no clue what their phone number is. Unless we had a list or by some miracle this thing has some sort of operator…”
Mel felt defeated. Alex was right. She had no clue how this worked.
“Damn it…”
“Look, we’re going to try to help you,” Thom told her as the othere nodded “but… right now, we can’t.”
“Fine… let’s go back…”
The group climbed out only find about a dozen worker Ferrox trashing Alex’s DragJet.
“I though we… what are they doing here?” Greg asked
“Nevermind that… start shooting…” Thom yelled.
“You have got to be kidding me…” Alex added before turning to the Carters “Find someplace to hide.”
“What?”
“I am not putting you two in danger if I can avoid it. Now hide.”
Alex looked over at his two teammates, having already morphed and were fighting the workers in hand-to-hand combat.
Mel and Joshua ducked down behind some rocks.
“I served an enlistment in the French forgine legion… I have been chased by natives more times than I can count… or angry mothers… and yet here I am ducking behind rocks while some men protect me… Men… the indignity. If anyone back home ever finds out the great Mel Carter was protected by MEN… I’d never hear the end of it…”
She saw a very large, but broken off, tree branch. She picked it up, and began running towards the Ferrox the three rangers were fighting.
“Alright, you ugly freaks, time for an ass whooping…” Mel yelled
“What did I tell you?” Alex yelled
“I don’t take orders from men!”
“Are you trying to get yourself killed?”
“Shut up, boy…” She snapped at him.
“Mel! Come back!” Joshua screamed for his wife.
“You stay out of this!”
Two of the Ferrox tackled her to the ground moments later.
“You dumbass…” Alex yelled, kicking the Ferrox he was fighting away.
“MEL!!!” Joshua yelled.
He didn’t think. He just did. He ran out from his hiding spot and grabbed another branch hitting the ferrox from behind.
“Leave her alone, you big bullies…”
“Joshua, get out of here…” Greg yelled.
The two bugs stopped attacking Mel, and went for the smaller boy.
“Oh no…” Alex said. “Joshua!”
The bug swung down at him. He held up the stick. The stick he knew would no nothing to stop the bug’s strike.
He closed his eyes and waited for the blow.
CLANG!!!!!
Joshua felt a warmth in his hands. He opened his eyes, to find the stick had been transformed into a sword. A sword with a dragon head at the hilt.
“DragonXcaliber”
“What the?”
Joshua felt a warmth in his pocket, and pulled out the rock he’d picked up.
“Be reborn… Dragon of Light!” A voice called out.
“No way…” Alex said.
“What… what’s going on…”
“Joshua… that’s a Dragon Soul!’ Alex began and the others joined in.
The Face of the dragon had a gap… just the right size as the stone.
“You have got to be kidding me…” He said. He put the stone in.
“Holy Blade of the Dragon… return to the field of battle once more. Master of the Light, Arise!”
Joshua closed his eyes and yelled out
“Dra… Dragon Rise!”
Joshua opened his eyes. Nothing had happened. But then he noticed, no one was moving.
“Well now, you’re an interesting little one, aren’t you?”
“Who… who are you?”
“My name? You can call me Tega.”
“Where are you?”
“Everywhere, no where… I am inside the source of your friends power… and now your power as well, the Morphing Grid.”
“I’m a Ranger? I can’t be… I’m…”
“A boy, by your own standards?”
“No… I’m weak… I’m not a fighter. I’m scared. I’m surrounded by things I don’t understand…I’m nothing. I can’t be like them.”
“There is more to being a ranger than just being able to punch and kick things. The others don’t know this, but each of you embodies a feeling or emotion. Red, courage. Blue, trust. Green, knowledge, Yellow, strength, Pink, Love… even Sliver is friendship… Do you want to know what you represent?’
“What?”
“Child… you are hope… the hope for this world. You are now the Dragon Force Light Ranger…”
His body began to glow a bright, blinding light.
When it cleared, he was transformed. His suit was sparkly, somewhere between a light golden and a white color. It also had a skirt that went down most of the way to his knees and his boots had a bit of a heel to them. It most directly resembled Kira’s suit.
Joshua noticed time had restarted. Mel’s jaw fell open at the sight.
“Holy crap…” Joshua said, looking himself over.
“Alright you creep, let’s see how you like this.” He said as he swung the sword, striking the Ferrox in the torso and causing it to stumble back.
“We can gawk later; we need to help him.” Alex yelled.
Joshua was breathing quickly, but somehow, he didn’t feel the heavy weight of the sword he was holding. He simply swung it towards the bugs and when he made contact, it cut them deeply. He felt an energy flowing through him. He began to put force behind his swings. Eventually he reeled back and stabbed the sword clean through the bug’s torso. He’d never felt like this before… the rush. He pulled the sword back, and on impulse, swung, cleaving the bug’s head clean off.
It fell to the ground, its head rolling towards Joshua’s feet. The fluids dripping onto his new ranger suit.
The bugs retreated, leaving Alex, Thom and Greg to look over their newest teammate.
“Wow…” Alex said
“Joshua, take that costume off this instant.” Mel demanded as she tried to stand, only to collapse to the ground. She was bleeding something awful.
“Mel, you’re hurt… we need to get you to a hospital ASAP.” Thom said. He summoned his own dragjet and he and Greg loaded her inside, Mel still screaming about Joshua.
Joshua removed the stone from the sword and returned to normal.
The weight of what he’d just done finally hit him.
“Oh… oh my… oh God what did I just… I just…”
“It’s okay… it’s okay… you did good.” Alex told him.
The jet powered up its engines and took off, leaving Joshua and Alex behind.
“Oh, those two are so dead…” Alex yelled.