RyoSanada
08-10-2004, 05:56 PM
Okay, I changed some names and a few things...and here is the final copy of episode 1:
Power Rangers Cyber Strike
Episode 1: Upload part I
“Download complete! Brad, get out of there!” a voice crackled over a wrist communicator.
“No can do, Kendall. There are still viruses down here. I’ve got to take care of them!” A figure dressed in white armor-like material spoke into a communicator on his wrist. He turned around to face the newest wave of viruses that threatened his existence.
With lightning quick speed, Brad began a frenzy of attack at the black and green creatures. Where his attacks caught the creatures, sparks flew out. Effortlessly, Brad threw countless viruses to the ground. When suddenly, an attack from behind sent the fighter sprawling.
“Ha ha ha ha ha ha! How did you like that, ProtoRanger?” a man, if it could even be called a man, cackled. He was tall, a little taller than six feet. Either his head or his hair came up to a point with two smaller curved spikes on each side. He was dressed in archaic black an gray robes. Circuitry and gridlines crossed his garment in an odd pattern. About his waist, a belt lined with many metal compartments also supported a gun holster. The gun though, was held in the creature’s right hand. The most surprising feature of his appearance was the touch-screen he wore on his left forearm.
“Hi,” Brad said to the creature, “I do hope you’ll introduce yourself, seeing as how you already know me.”
“Of course,” the creature remarked with a British accent and a slight bow, “They call me Progran. I am Master of Creation for the Taker.”
Brad’s communicator crackled inside his helmet, “Get out of there. You can’t handle the Taker. He’s the master of the Viruses.”
“I know,” the ProtoRanger explained, “Don’t forget, brother, that this whole idea was mine.”
“I know, but I’ll at least give you something to help you out. Data-Card: Proto Staff! Transmit!”
With a flash, a card appeared in the Ranger’s belt buckle. He took it and pressed a button on the device he wore on his left wrist. It popped open, the card was inserted, then the ProtoRanger closed it. After a second of beeping a flashing, White gridlines formed in Brad’s right hand and extended out to form the outline of a staff. Then, with of flash of light, Brad held the fully formed staff in his hand. “Now try it, Progran.”
“Hmm...An upgrade. I can do the same! Glitches! Versions 1.2 activate!” Progran commanded his followers. Their arms extended and changed shape. The small viruses right arms formed long blades, while their other arm formed into a blaster.
Heh. I knew this was too easy. Brad thought to himself. Then the melee began. Glitches attacked in unison. Blades went swinging, blasters fired. The ProtoRanger was clearly out numbered.
Brad did not back down from the fight. He spun into battle with his staff, attacking with both ends. In one long sweep, seven Glitches fell to the ground with sparks flying from their chest. Brad turned just in time to see a Glitch fly through the air with his sword drawn aimed straight at him. The Ranger wasn’t fast enough to move, the Glitch landed on him, but using what he knew of martial arts, the Ranger was able to deflect the Glitch and move out of harms way.
More and more of the minions began to appear near Brad. He began flipping away in order to put some distance between himself and the creatures. The Ranger landed and flipped his staff around so that the enlarged blunt end was pointed at the Glitches. He pulled a trigger on the main part of the staff and a shot of pure white energy flew into the mass of evil creations. A gigantic explosion rocked the ground as no fewer than fifteen Glitches sailed, spinning, through the air.
Still, more and more gridlines were forming on the ground and pulling up to for the grunts. Brad began to have second thoughts about entering into the cyber world in the first place. It was apparent that he was in a situation that he would never be able to handle. Brad brought his left wrist up to his mouth piece to open a communication link between himself and his brother. He wanted out.
The communicator crackled again, “Brad. I’m pulling you out.”
“Good! Hurry! I can’t handle all of this!” the Brad said aloud.
Brad stood horrified that his brother wouldn’t be fast enough. Suddenly, his world was a flash of color. He felt dizzy, as if he was sitting in a car going uphill backwards at five-hundred miles per hour. Then, as suddenly as it began, it was over. He opened his eyes and his brother was standing before him.
“Welcome back,” was all his brother said.
“Shut up,” Brad retorted.
* * *
Progran stared where the ProtoRanger had stood, confused. “Well, that was interesting.” He began to stroke his chin as the Glitches that were swarming around began to sink back into the ground as a mass of green gridlines on a black field. Progran released a small gasp and peered at his touch screen gauntlet. “We did get some good field readings though. He’ll be back…and we’ll be ready,” the virus said with a smirk.
“Progran, get back here! The Master wants to talk to you,” a woman dressed in navy blue armor commanded as she appears in a cascade of iridescent light. She wore a whip wrapped in a coil on her belt. Her red cape flowed behind her as she moved toward Progran.
“Servia, you worry too much. Master and I will speak, but he would not want me to miss this most important information. I’m analyzing it as we speak. This will help us in the near future…I know it will.
“It better, but he’s getting impatient. He wants to talk to you now.”
“Fine, I’m coming!” Progran admitted in defeat as he disappeared in a cascade of light along with Servia.
* * *
Waiting to Receive Message was all that was said on the instant message window. Brad sat staring at the screen of his computer in the living room of the house he and his brother shared. Three days had passed since Brad’s first encounter with a larger virus, but now he had other things on his mind. “He’s never going to be on…and I really need to talk to him.”
“Well, you know, that’s one of the downsides to instant messaging…you have to wait. Are you sure they’re online?”
“Yeah…I’m positive. They’re always online.”
“Who is it?”
“Oh, its just Tommy. I wanted to know how his date with Kim went last night.”
“Those two are getting together?”
“Well, they had a date, but you know how that goes. What are you doing?”
“I’m recording everything that you did in the cyber world in this notebook, then I’m going to head downstairs and check on the equipment before we turn in for the night.”
“Have fun. You need me to do anything?”
“Nah. I’ve got it all taken care of except for going downstairs…and that shouldn’t take more than ten minutes,” Kendall said as he put his notebook in his drawer and headed out the door.
“Okay, see ya’ in a bit.”
“Well, I’m going to my room when I get done so I’ll see you in the morning.”
“Alright, g’nite bro.” Just as Kendall left the room, the computer beeped with an incoming message. “Well it’s about time.”
* * *
The two brothers lived about five minutes away from the lab where the major cyber world research was going on, so Kendall kept a computer networked to the main computer at the lab and a single portable transport unit online in the basement of the house. Every night Kendall would run a complete diagnostics check on the machines to make sure everything was okay before he went to bed. He sat in the stiff wooden chair and opened the window to run a scan. Things were fine until he heard a ding.
“Crap! What is that?” Kendall exclaimed at the reading on the screen. He had the scanner set to show what was found and a decision made on how to fix it. Unfortunately, Kendall had never seen this type of reading before? “What is this?” Just as he said that, a small bug like creature appeared on the screen. “A virus! Brad, get down here!”
Footsteps thudded above as Brad crashed down the stairs. “What is it?” Brad said as he appeared at the bottom of the stairs wearing only his boxers. He looked concerned, but not really surprised. He was more annoyed than anything; he’d been lying in bed, almost asleep before he was beckoned.
“A virus has infected the main computer.”
“That’s not right…they weren’t supposed to…” Brad trailed off in thought.
“What?”
“Nothing…I’m going in,” Brad said as he was plugging in the device on his wrist. “Set up a firewall so that once they’re gone they can’t come back.”
“Okay, I got it. You ready?”
“Sure...lets do it,” Brad said as he inserted a special card with the outline of the ProtoRanger into the device on his wrist.
“Okay, Proto Morpher, online. One, Two, GO!”
The screen flashed with a special screen where the wire frame of a human was rotating. Soon 100% Complete flashed across the screen and the image changed to a visual of ProtoRanger arriving in the cyber world. A short distance around Brad was a gigantic wall of flames. Ha…a fire wall. How appropriate, Kendall thought to himself as he watched the events unfold on the screen.
* * *
Brad grunted as feeling slammed back into his body. He was surrounded in a strange, familiar world with a 100-feet high wall of flame in all directions around him. “Well, I guess Kendall got the firewall working quick enough,” Brad said aloud to himself. A sudden movement caught Brad’s eye. He looked up and nearly fell to his knees in fear.
A gigantic, menacing spaceship hovered above the ground. Its engines roared with power as a whirring sound began grinding cannons from the interior of the ship. Powerful pink and light blue energy shot from the turrets and slammed into the buildings, which were the structures of the computer program. The buildings exploded and a shower of sparks rained down upon the ProtoRanger who rolled out of the way of falling debris. His communicator crackled and Kendall’s voice came over, “Don’t let them do it again…it’ll take hours to repair that!”
“I’ll try but I’m not going to make any promises,” Brad snapped back.
Light coalesced from the ship, forming into Progran when if reached the ground. “Hello ProtoRanger. I told you our first meeting would not be our last.”
“Shut up! What are you doing here? The code of the program isn’t allowed to let you in!”
“We’re viruses…that’s what we do. We get into places we’re not supposed to. Now…if you remember correctly, there is some unwanted business I want to take care of. Glitches, GO!!”
Gridlines formed everywhere around ProtoRanger and he was surrounded yet again. Brad began attacking. Punches, kicks, knees, elbows, whatever worked to stop the Glitches he used. Soon, he began throwing Glitches into other Glitches just to slow their onslaught. He was running out of options. A data-card appeared at his belt. He inserted it into his morpher and his staff reappeared in his hand. “Now I’m ready!”
Again, he struck out with his staff attacking anything around him that moved. Again, those struck with the staff fell to the ground in a shower of sparks. With any distance he gained, Brad used his staff to fire a bolt of energy. There were too many Glitches for him to handle. The more they came, the more Brad’s resolve was steeled. He turned his sights on Progran.
Brad ran with all of his speed to the virus laughing uncontrollably as he was over powered. No number of Glitches could have kept Brad from reaching the horrid creature. Brad struck out with his staff, hitting Progran square in the chest and sent him flying though the air. Progran rolled on the ground and lay there stunned for a few moments before attempting to get up. Brad used that opportunity to fire a bolt of energy at Progran.
The bolt hit Progran in the arm that sported the touch screen pad. A slight electrical shock could be heard then all the Glitches froze in place, frizzled, then dissolved back into the ground.
Progran stood up fuming, “Look what you did! You damaged my pad! You’ve asked for it!” With unmatched fury, Progran leapt at the ProtoRanger. Brad tried to block but it was no use, Progran fist slammed into Brad knocking him back twenty yards, sparks falling all the way.
Brad landed on his feet then began his assault one more time. When he was within range, he lashed out with his staff. Progran, being a better fighter, parried each one of Brad’s attacks and hit him with every thrust he tried to make. Somehow, Brad was able to hit Progran and knocked him back down to the ground.
Brad’s communicator crackled once again, “Hey, try this out. I just got it coded. Swipe it though the reader on the handle of the staff. It’s a little extra oomph.”
“Got it,” Brad exclaimed as data-card appeared in his belt. Spinning his staff to a vertical position, Brad swiped the card. The two enlarged cannon ends began to glow with a faint blue light. He aimed the staff at Progran…and fired. Energy gathered at the far end of the staff, passed though to the end aimed at Progran and shot a gigantic ball of flaming white energy. Time seemed to slow as the fireball flew toward Progran. When it made contact, white flame shot off in all directions, explosions ensued from the contact area. The sheer light being emitted blinded Brad for a split second, and the explosions deafened him momentarily.
When all had subsided, he looked to where he shot. For a matter of moments all he could see were white flames still burning on the ground. Then Progran began stepping out of the flames, laughing to himself. His gun was drawn. “Ha ha ha ha ha! You can’t get rid of me that easily!”
He fired of a shot. It hit Brad, knocked his staff away from him and sent him to the ground. As soon as Brad stood up, another blast knocked him to the ground. “Kendall! Help!” Brad cried into the communicator on his wrist, but there was no reply.
“This is all the help you’re getting this time,” Progran said smugly as he placed the barrel of the gun in front of the ProtoRanger’s head. Progran pulled the trigger. White sparks flew out of the back of the ProtoRanger’s helmet. The Ranger sat there, and then fell lifeless to the ground. Progran stood cackling out loud. As a white shockwave ensued from the body and was followed by an explosion. As the smoke cleared, Progran disappeared back into the ship as a shower of light.
* * *
Kendall stared at the screen in shock. He saw it, but didn’t want to believe it. After keying in some commands, a screen that read BioSys-Scan came up and displayed all negative results. He opened three other windows and began scanning for different parts of Brad’s cyber code. Maybe something will come up something…anything at all, Kendall thought to comfort himself, And if it doesn’t…I’ll be able to do more at the lab. With that, Kendall manned the computers all night. He was searching for some shrapnel of evidence that his brother was alive. Anything would do.
He did not sleep that night. His thoughts were filled with the same dread: that his brother really was lost somewhere in cyberspace. Over and over the scene kept playing in his head: his brother, lying on the ground in the ProtoRanger armor, crying for help, but Kendall not being fast enough to do anything. Over and over it replayed in his mind, but not once did anything change. In the morning, Kendall had the mixed feelings of hope and despair as he walked down the stairs with a bowl of cereal in his hand..
Before even looking at the computer, he checked the portable transmission tower. The morpher was not attached to the cord that was used to turn the human body into a signal to be transmitted to the internet. However, all the readings on the tower said that someone was plugged into the system. He walked to the laptop that was networked to the main computer, raised the screen up and hit the space bar to turn off the screen saver. The BioSys-Scan still read all negative and the three searches found no matches for the entries. Kendall checked the tower, and it definitely said someone was plugged in. Oh well, its just a glitch in the tower I guess, Kendall thought. He looked at the clock in the corner of the computer screen, 7:46. I need to get to the lab. They’ll be able to help me there.
He arrived at the lab almost in tears. He opened the heavy metal door marked “Transmission Room,” stepped inside and broke down in tears. A young woman with brown hair ran across the room to comfort Kendall. “Shh…what happened,” the woman asked holding Kendall’s head to her shoulder.
“Oh, Brittany, it’s horrible. We lost him…I don’t know where to find him.” Kendall began crying uncontrollably.
“Who? Lost who? Tell me what’s going on.”
Kendall moved away from Brittany and sat down in a black swivel chair. “Remember how we kept sending Brad into the cyber world to collect data and monitor the process of the Anti-Virus Project?”
“Yeah.”
“Brad went in when a virus invaded the mainframe. He was doing okay until…” Kendall began crying again.
“He didn’t make it out?”
“He got killed by one of the viruses. I watched it all.”
“Oh God. What if we send in a search team? Maybe he’s just hurt really bad and none of the scanners can pick him up.”
“That would make sense. The transmission tower says he’s plugged in, but none of the scanners can find him.”
“Wait…what did you say about a search team?”
“Well, the last time Brad went in for data collection, he sent a lot of information back. A whole lot, as a matter-of-fact. So much information was sent back that it had to be divided into six different parts. Well…we have five complete new rangers and one partial ranger. We were also able to finish working on the wireless transmitters and receivers.”
“So we have six Rangers now?”
“Like I said, we have five complete rangers and one partial ranger. It could take a while to get that other one done.. R&D has been working on the morphers, and they’re almost done now.” She moved back to the briefing area and there sat six morphers plugged into the data system. The lights on each console were different: red, yellow, blue, green, and pink. One part of the console appeared to be turned off completely; apparently that was the “ranger in progress.”
“All this?”
“Yep, and we’ve been able to store more of the information for the rangers themselves inside the morphers so we’ve changed the hardware and put them on wireless access. Also, the suits have data transmitters so send and accept weapons. No more card swiping.”
“Okay, so…how long will it be before we’re able to send them online?”
“Well, we’re coding their weapons now…so it should be about three, maybe four hours before everything is fully functional for the rangers themselves. But we’re still working on a few things that aren’t quite done now.”
“Good.” Kendall smiled. “Brit, I’ll be back in a little while. Once everything is done, prepare to have five rangers loaded into the system.”
“Really?”
“Really. I’ll see you in a bit.” Kendall ran out the door and headed down the street. Where could I find six people fast. He stood on the street corner looking up and down all the roads around him. A street sign caught his eye: “University Blvd.” There looks like a good a place to start as any, Kendall thought as he began running down the sidewalk.
* * *
A figure in white, purple, and gold robes stared out the bridge window of a space ship at a wall of flame. “There it is. Beyond that wall of flame is our hope. Our passion. Our…FREEDOM!” The speech sounded a slight cheer from those standing around him. He turned back to the window, and peered through the flames, lost in thought. Those behind him turned back to their business.
Progran sat at a small control console with a variety of tools lying around attempting to fix his touch-screen. Servia stood at a screen that showed the status of the grid. A large creature in dark green armor started pacing. “Servia, I’m ready! Lets do this!”
“Etheran, you need to wait. I want to attack as much as you do, but we must wait until its time.” The pretty lady in navy armor scolded the large, green creature.
“But I don’t like to wait,” Etheran grumbled.
The figure in the white robes turned around. His face was menacing. His glowing, red eyes struck fear into the other viruses. “There will be plenty of time to attack. But we have to wait. Now, Etheran, if you’re so antsy, take role of pilot and take us to coordinate XG3A7-V891. We have business there.”
“Master Shiiro, that’s a college computer lab,” Servia protested, “What business could we possibly have there?”
“You’ll see soon enough,” Shiiro said cackling as he turned back to watch as their ship flew away from the wall of flame.
TO BE CONTINUED…
Power Rangers Cyber Strike
Episode 1: Upload part I
“Download complete! Brad, get out of there!” a voice crackled over a wrist communicator.
“No can do, Kendall. There are still viruses down here. I’ve got to take care of them!” A figure dressed in white armor-like material spoke into a communicator on his wrist. He turned around to face the newest wave of viruses that threatened his existence.
With lightning quick speed, Brad began a frenzy of attack at the black and green creatures. Where his attacks caught the creatures, sparks flew out. Effortlessly, Brad threw countless viruses to the ground. When suddenly, an attack from behind sent the fighter sprawling.
“Ha ha ha ha ha ha! How did you like that, ProtoRanger?” a man, if it could even be called a man, cackled. He was tall, a little taller than six feet. Either his head or his hair came up to a point with two smaller curved spikes on each side. He was dressed in archaic black an gray robes. Circuitry and gridlines crossed his garment in an odd pattern. About his waist, a belt lined with many metal compartments also supported a gun holster. The gun though, was held in the creature’s right hand. The most surprising feature of his appearance was the touch-screen he wore on his left forearm.
“Hi,” Brad said to the creature, “I do hope you’ll introduce yourself, seeing as how you already know me.”
“Of course,” the creature remarked with a British accent and a slight bow, “They call me Progran. I am Master of Creation for the Taker.”
Brad’s communicator crackled inside his helmet, “Get out of there. You can’t handle the Taker. He’s the master of the Viruses.”
“I know,” the ProtoRanger explained, “Don’t forget, brother, that this whole idea was mine.”
“I know, but I’ll at least give you something to help you out. Data-Card: Proto Staff! Transmit!”
With a flash, a card appeared in the Ranger’s belt buckle. He took it and pressed a button on the device he wore on his left wrist. It popped open, the card was inserted, then the ProtoRanger closed it. After a second of beeping a flashing, White gridlines formed in Brad’s right hand and extended out to form the outline of a staff. Then, with of flash of light, Brad held the fully formed staff in his hand. “Now try it, Progran.”
“Hmm...An upgrade. I can do the same! Glitches! Versions 1.2 activate!” Progran commanded his followers. Their arms extended and changed shape. The small viruses right arms formed long blades, while their other arm formed into a blaster.
Heh. I knew this was too easy. Brad thought to himself. Then the melee began. Glitches attacked in unison. Blades went swinging, blasters fired. The ProtoRanger was clearly out numbered.
Brad did not back down from the fight. He spun into battle with his staff, attacking with both ends. In one long sweep, seven Glitches fell to the ground with sparks flying from their chest. Brad turned just in time to see a Glitch fly through the air with his sword drawn aimed straight at him. The Ranger wasn’t fast enough to move, the Glitch landed on him, but using what he knew of martial arts, the Ranger was able to deflect the Glitch and move out of harms way.
More and more of the minions began to appear near Brad. He began flipping away in order to put some distance between himself and the creatures. The Ranger landed and flipped his staff around so that the enlarged blunt end was pointed at the Glitches. He pulled a trigger on the main part of the staff and a shot of pure white energy flew into the mass of evil creations. A gigantic explosion rocked the ground as no fewer than fifteen Glitches sailed, spinning, through the air.
Still, more and more gridlines were forming on the ground and pulling up to for the grunts. Brad began to have second thoughts about entering into the cyber world in the first place. It was apparent that he was in a situation that he would never be able to handle. Brad brought his left wrist up to his mouth piece to open a communication link between himself and his brother. He wanted out.
The communicator crackled again, “Brad. I’m pulling you out.”
“Good! Hurry! I can’t handle all of this!” the Brad said aloud.
Brad stood horrified that his brother wouldn’t be fast enough. Suddenly, his world was a flash of color. He felt dizzy, as if he was sitting in a car going uphill backwards at five-hundred miles per hour. Then, as suddenly as it began, it was over. He opened his eyes and his brother was standing before him.
“Welcome back,” was all his brother said.
“Shut up,” Brad retorted.
* * *
Progran stared where the ProtoRanger had stood, confused. “Well, that was interesting.” He began to stroke his chin as the Glitches that were swarming around began to sink back into the ground as a mass of green gridlines on a black field. Progran released a small gasp and peered at his touch screen gauntlet. “We did get some good field readings though. He’ll be back…and we’ll be ready,” the virus said with a smirk.
“Progran, get back here! The Master wants to talk to you,” a woman dressed in navy blue armor commanded as she appears in a cascade of iridescent light. She wore a whip wrapped in a coil on her belt. Her red cape flowed behind her as she moved toward Progran.
“Servia, you worry too much. Master and I will speak, but he would not want me to miss this most important information. I’m analyzing it as we speak. This will help us in the near future…I know it will.
“It better, but he’s getting impatient. He wants to talk to you now.”
“Fine, I’m coming!” Progran admitted in defeat as he disappeared in a cascade of light along with Servia.
* * *
Waiting to Receive Message was all that was said on the instant message window. Brad sat staring at the screen of his computer in the living room of the house he and his brother shared. Three days had passed since Brad’s first encounter with a larger virus, but now he had other things on his mind. “He’s never going to be on…and I really need to talk to him.”
“Well, you know, that’s one of the downsides to instant messaging…you have to wait. Are you sure they’re online?”
“Yeah…I’m positive. They’re always online.”
“Who is it?”
“Oh, its just Tommy. I wanted to know how his date with Kim went last night.”
“Those two are getting together?”
“Well, they had a date, but you know how that goes. What are you doing?”
“I’m recording everything that you did in the cyber world in this notebook, then I’m going to head downstairs and check on the equipment before we turn in for the night.”
“Have fun. You need me to do anything?”
“Nah. I’ve got it all taken care of except for going downstairs…and that shouldn’t take more than ten minutes,” Kendall said as he put his notebook in his drawer and headed out the door.
“Okay, see ya’ in a bit.”
“Well, I’m going to my room when I get done so I’ll see you in the morning.”
“Alright, g’nite bro.” Just as Kendall left the room, the computer beeped with an incoming message. “Well it’s about time.”
* * *
The two brothers lived about five minutes away from the lab where the major cyber world research was going on, so Kendall kept a computer networked to the main computer at the lab and a single portable transport unit online in the basement of the house. Every night Kendall would run a complete diagnostics check on the machines to make sure everything was okay before he went to bed. He sat in the stiff wooden chair and opened the window to run a scan. Things were fine until he heard a ding.
“Crap! What is that?” Kendall exclaimed at the reading on the screen. He had the scanner set to show what was found and a decision made on how to fix it. Unfortunately, Kendall had never seen this type of reading before? “What is this?” Just as he said that, a small bug like creature appeared on the screen. “A virus! Brad, get down here!”
Footsteps thudded above as Brad crashed down the stairs. “What is it?” Brad said as he appeared at the bottom of the stairs wearing only his boxers. He looked concerned, but not really surprised. He was more annoyed than anything; he’d been lying in bed, almost asleep before he was beckoned.
“A virus has infected the main computer.”
“That’s not right…they weren’t supposed to…” Brad trailed off in thought.
“What?”
“Nothing…I’m going in,” Brad said as he was plugging in the device on his wrist. “Set up a firewall so that once they’re gone they can’t come back.”
“Okay, I got it. You ready?”
“Sure...lets do it,” Brad said as he inserted a special card with the outline of the ProtoRanger into the device on his wrist.
“Okay, Proto Morpher, online. One, Two, GO!”
The screen flashed with a special screen where the wire frame of a human was rotating. Soon 100% Complete flashed across the screen and the image changed to a visual of ProtoRanger arriving in the cyber world. A short distance around Brad was a gigantic wall of flames. Ha…a fire wall. How appropriate, Kendall thought to himself as he watched the events unfold on the screen.
* * *
Brad grunted as feeling slammed back into his body. He was surrounded in a strange, familiar world with a 100-feet high wall of flame in all directions around him. “Well, I guess Kendall got the firewall working quick enough,” Brad said aloud to himself. A sudden movement caught Brad’s eye. He looked up and nearly fell to his knees in fear.
A gigantic, menacing spaceship hovered above the ground. Its engines roared with power as a whirring sound began grinding cannons from the interior of the ship. Powerful pink and light blue energy shot from the turrets and slammed into the buildings, which were the structures of the computer program. The buildings exploded and a shower of sparks rained down upon the ProtoRanger who rolled out of the way of falling debris. His communicator crackled and Kendall’s voice came over, “Don’t let them do it again…it’ll take hours to repair that!”
“I’ll try but I’m not going to make any promises,” Brad snapped back.
Light coalesced from the ship, forming into Progran when if reached the ground. “Hello ProtoRanger. I told you our first meeting would not be our last.”
“Shut up! What are you doing here? The code of the program isn’t allowed to let you in!”
“We’re viruses…that’s what we do. We get into places we’re not supposed to. Now…if you remember correctly, there is some unwanted business I want to take care of. Glitches, GO!!”
Gridlines formed everywhere around ProtoRanger and he was surrounded yet again. Brad began attacking. Punches, kicks, knees, elbows, whatever worked to stop the Glitches he used. Soon, he began throwing Glitches into other Glitches just to slow their onslaught. He was running out of options. A data-card appeared at his belt. He inserted it into his morpher and his staff reappeared in his hand. “Now I’m ready!”
Again, he struck out with his staff attacking anything around him that moved. Again, those struck with the staff fell to the ground in a shower of sparks. With any distance he gained, Brad used his staff to fire a bolt of energy. There were too many Glitches for him to handle. The more they came, the more Brad’s resolve was steeled. He turned his sights on Progran.
Brad ran with all of his speed to the virus laughing uncontrollably as he was over powered. No number of Glitches could have kept Brad from reaching the horrid creature. Brad struck out with his staff, hitting Progran square in the chest and sent him flying though the air. Progran rolled on the ground and lay there stunned for a few moments before attempting to get up. Brad used that opportunity to fire a bolt of energy at Progran.
The bolt hit Progran in the arm that sported the touch screen pad. A slight electrical shock could be heard then all the Glitches froze in place, frizzled, then dissolved back into the ground.
Progran stood up fuming, “Look what you did! You damaged my pad! You’ve asked for it!” With unmatched fury, Progran leapt at the ProtoRanger. Brad tried to block but it was no use, Progran fist slammed into Brad knocking him back twenty yards, sparks falling all the way.
Brad landed on his feet then began his assault one more time. When he was within range, he lashed out with his staff. Progran, being a better fighter, parried each one of Brad’s attacks and hit him with every thrust he tried to make. Somehow, Brad was able to hit Progran and knocked him back down to the ground.
Brad’s communicator crackled once again, “Hey, try this out. I just got it coded. Swipe it though the reader on the handle of the staff. It’s a little extra oomph.”
“Got it,” Brad exclaimed as data-card appeared in his belt. Spinning his staff to a vertical position, Brad swiped the card. The two enlarged cannon ends began to glow with a faint blue light. He aimed the staff at Progran…and fired. Energy gathered at the far end of the staff, passed though to the end aimed at Progran and shot a gigantic ball of flaming white energy. Time seemed to slow as the fireball flew toward Progran. When it made contact, white flame shot off in all directions, explosions ensued from the contact area. The sheer light being emitted blinded Brad for a split second, and the explosions deafened him momentarily.
When all had subsided, he looked to where he shot. For a matter of moments all he could see were white flames still burning on the ground. Then Progran began stepping out of the flames, laughing to himself. His gun was drawn. “Ha ha ha ha ha! You can’t get rid of me that easily!”
He fired of a shot. It hit Brad, knocked his staff away from him and sent him to the ground. As soon as Brad stood up, another blast knocked him to the ground. “Kendall! Help!” Brad cried into the communicator on his wrist, but there was no reply.
“This is all the help you’re getting this time,” Progran said smugly as he placed the barrel of the gun in front of the ProtoRanger’s head. Progran pulled the trigger. White sparks flew out of the back of the ProtoRanger’s helmet. The Ranger sat there, and then fell lifeless to the ground. Progran stood cackling out loud. As a white shockwave ensued from the body and was followed by an explosion. As the smoke cleared, Progran disappeared back into the ship as a shower of light.
* * *
Kendall stared at the screen in shock. He saw it, but didn’t want to believe it. After keying in some commands, a screen that read BioSys-Scan came up and displayed all negative results. He opened three other windows and began scanning for different parts of Brad’s cyber code. Maybe something will come up something…anything at all, Kendall thought to comfort himself, And if it doesn’t…I’ll be able to do more at the lab. With that, Kendall manned the computers all night. He was searching for some shrapnel of evidence that his brother was alive. Anything would do.
He did not sleep that night. His thoughts were filled with the same dread: that his brother really was lost somewhere in cyberspace. Over and over the scene kept playing in his head: his brother, lying on the ground in the ProtoRanger armor, crying for help, but Kendall not being fast enough to do anything. Over and over it replayed in his mind, but not once did anything change. In the morning, Kendall had the mixed feelings of hope and despair as he walked down the stairs with a bowl of cereal in his hand..
Before even looking at the computer, he checked the portable transmission tower. The morpher was not attached to the cord that was used to turn the human body into a signal to be transmitted to the internet. However, all the readings on the tower said that someone was plugged into the system. He walked to the laptop that was networked to the main computer, raised the screen up and hit the space bar to turn off the screen saver. The BioSys-Scan still read all negative and the three searches found no matches for the entries. Kendall checked the tower, and it definitely said someone was plugged in. Oh well, its just a glitch in the tower I guess, Kendall thought. He looked at the clock in the corner of the computer screen, 7:46. I need to get to the lab. They’ll be able to help me there.
He arrived at the lab almost in tears. He opened the heavy metal door marked “Transmission Room,” stepped inside and broke down in tears. A young woman with brown hair ran across the room to comfort Kendall. “Shh…what happened,” the woman asked holding Kendall’s head to her shoulder.
“Oh, Brittany, it’s horrible. We lost him…I don’t know where to find him.” Kendall began crying uncontrollably.
“Who? Lost who? Tell me what’s going on.”
Kendall moved away from Brittany and sat down in a black swivel chair. “Remember how we kept sending Brad into the cyber world to collect data and monitor the process of the Anti-Virus Project?”
“Yeah.”
“Brad went in when a virus invaded the mainframe. He was doing okay until…” Kendall began crying again.
“He didn’t make it out?”
“He got killed by one of the viruses. I watched it all.”
“Oh God. What if we send in a search team? Maybe he’s just hurt really bad and none of the scanners can pick him up.”
“That would make sense. The transmission tower says he’s plugged in, but none of the scanners can find him.”
“Wait…what did you say about a search team?”
“Well, the last time Brad went in for data collection, he sent a lot of information back. A whole lot, as a matter-of-fact. So much information was sent back that it had to be divided into six different parts. Well…we have five complete new rangers and one partial ranger. We were also able to finish working on the wireless transmitters and receivers.”
“So we have six Rangers now?”
“Like I said, we have five complete rangers and one partial ranger. It could take a while to get that other one done.. R&D has been working on the morphers, and they’re almost done now.” She moved back to the briefing area and there sat six morphers plugged into the data system. The lights on each console were different: red, yellow, blue, green, and pink. One part of the console appeared to be turned off completely; apparently that was the “ranger in progress.”
“All this?”
“Yep, and we’ve been able to store more of the information for the rangers themselves inside the morphers so we’ve changed the hardware and put them on wireless access. Also, the suits have data transmitters so send and accept weapons. No more card swiping.”
“Okay, so…how long will it be before we’re able to send them online?”
“Well, we’re coding their weapons now…so it should be about three, maybe four hours before everything is fully functional for the rangers themselves. But we’re still working on a few things that aren’t quite done now.”
“Good.” Kendall smiled. “Brit, I’ll be back in a little while. Once everything is done, prepare to have five rangers loaded into the system.”
“Really?”
“Really. I’ll see you in a bit.” Kendall ran out the door and headed down the street. Where could I find six people fast. He stood on the street corner looking up and down all the roads around him. A street sign caught his eye: “University Blvd.” There looks like a good a place to start as any, Kendall thought as he began running down the sidewalk.
* * *
A figure in white, purple, and gold robes stared out the bridge window of a space ship at a wall of flame. “There it is. Beyond that wall of flame is our hope. Our passion. Our…FREEDOM!” The speech sounded a slight cheer from those standing around him. He turned back to the window, and peered through the flames, lost in thought. Those behind him turned back to their business.
Progran sat at a small control console with a variety of tools lying around attempting to fix his touch-screen. Servia stood at a screen that showed the status of the grid. A large creature in dark green armor started pacing. “Servia, I’m ready! Lets do this!”
“Etheran, you need to wait. I want to attack as much as you do, but we must wait until its time.” The pretty lady in navy armor scolded the large, green creature.
“But I don’t like to wait,” Etheran grumbled.
The figure in the white robes turned around. His face was menacing. His glowing, red eyes struck fear into the other viruses. “There will be plenty of time to attack. But we have to wait. Now, Etheran, if you’re so antsy, take role of pilot and take us to coordinate XG3A7-V891. We have business there.”
“Master Shiiro, that’s a college computer lab,” Servia protested, “What business could we possibly have there?”
“You’ll see soon enough,” Shiiro said cackling as he turned back to watch as their ship flew away from the wall of flame.
TO BE CONTINUED…