Streaks of Purple Saga/Spectrum Force - Heather Ray (best beach reads txt) 📗

Near the North Pole

Seven beams of light coalesced on the icy tundra, the biting wind and darkened sky offering a cold welcome.

"Brrr!" Jocelyn gasped, a protective aura of energy immediately blinking to life around her. She sighed in relief as the arctic gales blew around her shield, leaving her reasonably warm.

The Power Rangers seemed undisturbed by the stark drop in temperature. She grinned wryly. Those suits are definitely

sturdier than they look.

The Blue Ranger took a reading from his scanner, and pointed. "That's the direction we're heading."

Black looked out at the ominous gray clouds hanging over their destination. He sighed. "Of course

it is."

White stepped forward, his hand already on the hilt of his trusted weapon. "Get ready, guys," he warned, his voice soft yet commanding. "We have no idea what's waiting for us up there."

All humor dropped from even Zack's countenance. The six Rangers each brandished their Power Weapons, holding them with steady, though tense, fingers.

Tommy then turned to Jocelyn. "Let's go."

She nodded, slowly levitating off the ground into the morbid sky, and held out her palm toward the Rangers. They watched as a beam of orange energy slid under their feet, stretching upward and meeting at a point above their heads, creating a translucent sphere of power.

"Hold on tight!" she called.

The Rangers did their best to balance themselves, and were barely able to maintain their footing as Orange took off, dragging them along at a speed that left the world below a dizzying, orange-hued blur.

It took only seconds. Almost as soon as they'd left, they'd arrived at the spot Jocelyn had chosen for their landing.

The sphere touched the tundra softly, and then winked out of existence, setting the Rangers on solid ground. It took a moment for the team to gather their bearings, and Jocelyn used that time to take a peek over the snow mound behind which she'd hidden their arrival.

What she saw made her blood freeze.

"Jocelyn?" Trini called, raising her voice to carry above the whistling of the arctic gusts. The snow billowing in the air, coupled with the dense clouds overhead, made the North Pole a particularly treacherous battle ground.

When the Orange Enforcer didn't answer, the Rangers hurried to her side to share her vantage point. And as a result, they shared her horrified, thunderstruck reaction.

On the plain before them, over a dozen grotesque creatures scuttled about the snow. Pinchers large enough to snap a man in half stretched from each of four forward appendages, and four other limbs let them speedily cover ground.

"Chaotics," Billy murmured, "And this time, there's more than one."

"We're outnumbered," Zack groaned fatalistically.

Tommy rose from his crouch, sheathing Saba. "We need a plan, guys." He stared numbly at the frightening battle ground before him, his heart sinking when he saw yet another horse-sized crab emerge from the cave. "A really

good one."

Jocelyn shivered at the sound of a high-pitched shriek. Even at a depth of over ten feet, she could hear the cry pound between her ears.

Or, maybe I'm not literally hearing it,

she surmised. Maybe it's telepathic.

She couldn't really say. Ever since the battle had begun with the Chaotics, her powers had been acting… strange. The nightmarish creatures seemed to radiate a dark, burning power that pierced her skull. Even at a great distance, swirling impressions of death, agony, and destruction tensed her muscles and blurred her vision. Her heart raced, her mouth was dry.

I'm not going to panic,

she resolved, clenching her shaking fist. This is me, not

panicking!

"Jocelyn? Are you okay?"

She turned and stared into the opaque visor hiding the Blue Ranger's eyes. "I don't know," she confessed. "It's like my mind is swimming. Did you… did you hear that scream before?"

Billy tensed, and Jocelyn instantly regretted asking. "No," he answered after a long pause. "All I've heard is pounding above us. The frozen earth separating us from the surface should insulate us from most sounds."

He then turned away from the Orange Enforcer, casting a worried glance down the dark tunnel in the direction from which they came.

Jocelyn watched him for a moment, her heart twisting sympathetically. If it had been her

friends fighting for their lives against mysterious and terrifying creatures, she'd probably hurtle back through the tunnel to aid them. Or even blast right through the ground under which they traveled, giving away their location and their strategy.

She reached for the distracted Ranger's shoulder. "I was probably wrong, Billy. These monsters, they have a weird aura that's screwing with my powers. I think I'm… hearing things."

Billy nodded slowly. "You're probably right," he decided, his voice a sigh. "In either case, the most good we can do is complete our task. Let's keep moving."

Jocelyn smiled encouragingly, despite the fact that her mask hid her expression. Then, she turned back to the solid earth that blocked her path, braced herself on her knees, and raised her arms.

Orange energy flowed from her palms, carefully penetrating the ground and forcing a narrow tunnel through the frozen soil. The broken earth was then packed neatly into the newly-formed walls, held in place by a faintly glowing orange force field.

Jocelyn crawled deeper into the makeshift tunnel, the Blue Ranger close behind her. She sighed, remembering the shriek that had shaken her just a minute ago. In her heart, she was terrified that it was a Ranger, screaming in agony as one of the Chaotics used its deadly pinchers to lop off a limb, or crush bones… Stop it!! This isn't productive at all

! Focus on the plan… focus on the plan. She grimaced. Maybe this wasn't such a great plan after all. How long can five Power Rangers distract all those demon freaks anyway?

It had seemed like a logical strategy to accomplish their most immediate goal: figure out what had happened to the portal that had transported Jocelyn Armand into an alternate Earth under the guard of the Power Rangers. When they'd arrived at the North Pole, they'd been greeted with a terrifying sight: a small army of creatures roughly the size of horses, each armed with pinchers large enough to slice a full grown man in half. And they all circled the mouth of the cave, which was their only hope of getting any answers.

Since Billy was the technical genius, and Jocelyn was capable of piercing and shaping the frozen ground with her powers, they were chosen to tunnel beneath the battle field, scan the portal, and deliver whatever information they could to the Command Center.

As the ground was frozen, it was tedious work. The precision required, coupled with the pounding on Jocelyn's head thanks to the Chaotics, made the tunneling all the more challenging.

Fighting back another wave of fear and distraction, Jocelyn focused on the task at hand, drilling through the earth with rays of light at her fastest pace. The pair worked in silence, the Blue Ranger carefully watching the scanner in his hands, until he finally reached out and touched her leg.

"This is it," he reported. "The cave should be right above us."

"Are you detecting anything?"

"We're too deep to pick up specific energy patterns in detail, but there's a great deal of activity." He frowned deeply behind his helmet. "Let's get up there and see with our own eyes."

Jocelyn nodded, straightening on her knees. She touched her palms to the makeshift ceiling, closed her eyes, and concentrated.

"Hang on to me, Billy," she advised.

The Blue Ranger did as she asked, holding on to her waist just as the orange aura began to brighten. Then, she launched herself upward, carrying Billy with her through the layers of dirt, rock, and ice.

They emerged in a small cavern, eerily illuminated with red light pulsing from a large two-dimensional portal.

And they weren't alone.

"Billy!" Jocelyn shrieked in warning. Reflexes honed after over a year of service as a Power Ranger made the genius dodge just in time to avoid being caught in the sharp pinchers of one of the crab-like Chaotics.

Billy rolled into a crouch beside Jocelyn, drawing his Blade Blaster and opening fire. Jocelyn immediately responded, fisting her hands and adding twin beams of orange light to the barrage. The monster flailed helplessly, unable to resist the pummeling dual attack, until it shrank into itself and burst into an acrid smoke.

The Blue Ranger sighed, holstering his weapon. "We're in the clear."

"No," Jocelyn murmured, her voice stricken, "there's another one."

He followed the Orange Enforcer's line of sight, and stared in shock at the portal. An array of insectoid legs stretched from the opening, wriggling like worms and carrying a cylindrical body into the material realm.

Billy grimaced at the sight of the large creature, over seven feet in length with curved horns stretching from its anterior like antlers. Its countless legs swayed like hairs in the ocean, carrying it over the ground with shocking speed.

The new monster wasted no time and charged the two humans, its horns glinting in the dim light. Billy quickly drew his Power Lance and braced himself.

He greeted the Chaotic with a sharp swing, forcing the monster to turn its head and keep the piercing horns from meeting flesh. However, the sheer power of the monster's charge sent Billy crashing into the wall, the monster's body pulverizing several inches of solid rock as he pressed the Blue Ranger through the cave's wall.

"Billy!" Jocelyn cried, mustering her power. A vivid flash of orange flooded the cave as tendrils of energy stretched from her body, wrapping the millipede-like monster and dragging it backward. The monster thrashed against her grip, growling shrilly, until she finally managed to throw it into the opposite wall hard enough to cause small rocks and dust to snow from the