Aries: Red Skies

Red Skies is the second episode of the Aries arc and the series Power Rangers: Neo Zeo.

Synopsis
Casey, Violet and Lidian try to fend off the Winjammers, and receive unexpected help.

Plot
Violet and Casey ducked behind a rock as one of the marauding ships flew too close, and a laser blast sprayed them with flecks of stone. Screams and yells for help rang out from the beach, where most of the attackers' attention was focused. The civilians kept trying to run or hide, but the monsters' ships just wheeled around them, keeping them from getting away.

"Vi, I don't think they're trying to kill us," Casey said. Violet gave her a look as if she'd just claimed that she was made of cheese. She pointed. "They're herding everyone together—like they're sheepdogs or something."

"That's comforting. We're not going to be slaughtered, we're being rounded up for alien experiments or something!" Violet snapped. The duo ducked another close shot from a passing ship.

"If we could just get everyone away from them, where they can't fit their ships . . ." Casey said, frowning thoughtfully at a passing ship.

A volley of lasers peppered the ground at their feet. Casey yelped and clutched at her leg, falling down as Violet dragged her back. Looking down at her ankle, Casey blinked through her watering eyes and saw a nasty red burn just above her shin.

"Okay," Violet said. "I'll try to organize everyone, you get to the car."

"What do I do—"

"Drive it over here, see if you can keep the ones on the ground running, maybe pick up some of the other civilians. Don't give me that look, I know you know how."

Casey swallowed back the tears. "Right."

More shrieks and screams rang out from further up the beach, where the other civilians were being rounded into one large group. A few ships circled them, keeping everyone in place, while the rest chased stragglers. More of them were landing now, forming a ring around the cluster of people.

"Three, two, now!" Violet sprang out and darted along the rocks, bounding like a deer.

Casey, less graceful but still fast, scrambled up the beach towards the parking lot. A few shots followed her up the slope, kicking up hot spurts of sand. Their car—or rather, Dad's pickup—was alone in a corner. Reaching it, she hauled herself inside, slammed the door and fumbled for the keys.

The car engine rumbled to life, and Casey sent it forward onto the sand. It wasn't made for the terrain, and slid in the sand, but she kept it going forward until she hit a rocky part of the beach. Bouncing in the seat, Casey looked around for a target. A monster was just hauling a struggling man into his ship. Casey gunned the engine, rumbling towards them.

At the very last second, the monster saw her and threw himself aside. Casey spun the wheel, and banged the fender on the monster's ship. Backing up, she vroomed towards the monster, and felt a surprisingly satisfying thud as he hit the front bumper. Leaning across the passenger seat, she swung the door open.

"Hey, you!" She yelled at the man. "Get in!"

He stumbled towards her, catching the door and throwing himself inside. Slowly, the monster started to get up, and Casey hit the gas. The car jolted as it ran the monster over forwards, then backwards. The booms and clangs made Casey wince.

"Okay, now trees," she said, looking around. "Aha, trees!"

Jerking the wheel hard to the right, Casey headed for a cluster of trees on the shore. From here she could already see Violet heading that way, several other civilians in tow, and grinned. Maybe this was going to work out after all.

oZo

Lidian let his captor throw him into the back of his small spaceship, nearly on top of another girl about his age. She was unconscious and unable to get out of the way, so Lidian scrambled back and curled up, hands covering his head. The act worked; the monster let out a snort of contempt, and climbed into the cockpit. As it fumbled with a coil of rope, something bleeped in the console.

"Oh, what now?" Dumping the rope on the floor, the monster sat down, hitting a button. "Ectopore here, this had better be important."

"What's taking you so long?" The sound was so bad that Lidian couldn't tell whether the caller was male or female. "They're unarmed civilians, just grab a couple and head up."

"Ever heard the phrase 'not as easy as it looks'?" Ectopore snapped. "Plus we're trying to catch them unhurt, and we're running out of nonlethal weapons!"

"I didn't call to hear excuses, Ectopore."

Peeking through his fingers, Lidian scanned the console, looking for something familiar. The buttons and labels were completely alien. As Ectopore argued with his commander, Lidian sneaked an arm around the seat and picked up the fallen rope. He took a deep breath, calculated, and then threw out a loop.

"Look, I've got two now so stop whining—" Ectopore cut off with a grunt as Lidian jerked him back against the seat. He struggled, but Lidian jumped around in front of him, winding the rope around his body and the chair. With a furious snarl, Ectopore spat slime at Lidian, catching his shoulder. The green stuff began burning through his shirt. Hastily, Lidian planted a foot on Ectopore's throat and swatted the slime away.

"Ectopore? Ectopore, what's going on?" The communicator crackled.

As Ectopore choked and gurgled, Lidian finished tying him up, forcing the ends of the rope into his mouth for good measure. That done, he climbed over the seat to check on the other prisoner. She was breathing, and she stirred. Lidian slid her over his shoulder in a fireman's hold, and began climbing out of the ship. Her weight made him double over, but he hit the ground running, and headed for the water. It was the closest safe spot he could think of. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a monster heading for him, but a battered truck flattened the creature before he even had time to worry about it.

Halfway down the beach, another sound became clear through the laser fire and yelling: a high-pitched wail. Lidian looked around, and saw a little red-faced boy bawling by himself. Quickly, he swerved and reached out for the toddler, scooping him up with his free arm without even slowing down. That drew a startled shriek from the toddler, but Lidian just hugged him and ran into the lake.

The water was startlingly cold. Lidian waded up to his chest—high enough for the toddler to get wet and let out a squeal—and headed for the rocks. He shifted his grip on the unconscious woman, towing her so her head was above water. It took the strain off his shoulder, but his arms were already starting to hurt. A glance back proved that nobody seemed to be paying attention to him anymore. The toddler was still crying, so Lidian hefted him higher, out of the water, and started making soothing noises. The kid clung to his shirt, and began to calm down, though he still hiccuped with sobs.

Letting out a long breath, Lidian looked back towards the shore. The monsters' ships were starting to take off now, though plenty of them still swarmed through the air, and some were coming back. Most of the civilians seemed to be heading into the lake, like him, or fleeing into woods. The ships tried to chase them, but couldn't fit through the trees. For a minute, Lidian thought they were going to escape—then the ships started shooting. The forest quickly ignited, and a smoky haze smudged the sky.

With a whistling shriek, one of the empty spaceships on the ground exploded. Everyone looked up as bits of burning metal rained down on the beach. A red streak shot through the air, and another ship exploded. The others began pursuing the red thing, which whirled and zipped away from the forest to the middle of Angel Grove Lake.

Lidian stared upwards in confusion. The red streak finally paused long enough for him to get a good look, and he heard other people start to shout in excitement. Lidian recognized it just as they did: a phoenix-shaped Zord, the one used by the Red Zeo Ranger three years ago. He whooped, startling the toddler. The Power Rangers were back!

As the civilians left their hiding places, the ships either headed into space or chased the Zord around the lake, colliding, accidentally shooting each other, and dropping out of the sky in flames. Some the giant bird blasted or slashed apart, some it only winged, making them crash on the shore. The Zord picked them out of the air like a bat snatching moths. Within twenty minutes, it was all over. The civilians went wild.

Lidian swam back to shore, as did the other civilians. His fingers and toes were going numb, and the going was slow with his hands full, but he didn't even care. However, the thrill of seeing the battle was tinged with worry—where were Violet and Casey? He looked around, but couldn't see them among the other survivors.

Finally reaching the shore, Lidian dragged the woman up the beach and set her down. The toddler's mother finally found them, extricating her son and thanking the teen over and over. He managed a few "it's fine, don't mention it"s, and once she was away, rolled his shoulder around with a wince.

The Red Zord's shadow passed over Lidian. Taking one final loop around the lake, to make sure it hadn't missed anyone, it winged off towards the desert. Lidian watched it go, wondering where the others were.

"That was AWESOME!" Casey yelled directly behind him, making him jump.

"Casey!" He wheeled on her, and saw her burned ankle. "Are you okay?"

She made a dismissive gesture. "Don't worry about it, it doesn't even hurt anymore. What happened to you? You're soaked."

"Hid in the lake. You? And where's Violet?" Lidian asked.

"Making sure everyone got out of the wrecks okay," Casey said. "She's kinda in charge until the cops show up, I think."

Lidian started wringing out his T-shirt. The adrenaline was fading, and he realized he was shivering. In the distance, he could hear sirens, and guessed the police were on their way. Probably the fire brigade, too; the woods were still burning.

"That Zord looked familiar," he said.

"Yeah, it did." Casey thought for a minute. "Zeo? That's the last set I remember with a bird."

"I think you're right." Lidian sighed. "Here we go again."

"Yeah. Did you see me in the truck?" Casey asked, becoming excited again. "It was like bumper cars, but with a real car and a bunch of monsters!"

Lidian stared. "You were the one in the car?"

"Yep! But don't tell anyone, I don't have a license yet," Casey added in a conspiratorial tone.

The woman Lidian had saved let out a quiet groan, and Lidian turned back to her. "Can you hear me?" She nodded a little, eyes shut. "Do you remember what happened?"

"Can I help?" Casey asked.

"Go get the paramedics, when they show up," Lidian told her.

"Okay!" Casey dashed away.

oZo

The far side of the Moon was pockmarked with craters left by space debris. Inside one of the deeper pits, those Windjammers who'd made it back had landed their ships. Some of them were still transferring prisoners to the main ship, flying in and out of the main hangar. All of this was visible from the bridge, on the rear of the prison ship, where Aries and Ophiuchus were catching up on the eleven thousand years since his imprisonment.

" . . . fighting a team of Power Rangers?" Aries was just saying. He let out a bleating laugh. "Scorpius will have his tentacles full."

"Do you think they'll ally with us? After all, we both want Scorpius dead," Ophiuchus said.

"They might, but I doubt it. If these Rangers were chosen by mystical powers like the ones you described—quasars, you said?—they'll probably be the type to protect their people, not conquer galaxies. It's a shame, though. We could use fighters of that quality."

As Aries finished speaking, footsteps slapped up the hall, and both monsters looked up in time to see the doors open. A Windjammer ran in, skidding to a halt just inside the doorway.

"What is it?" Ophiuchus asked.

The monster was out of breath, but he managed to get out two words: "Power Ranger."

"What?" Aries whirled on Ophiuchus. "You told me there were no Power Rangers on this planet!"

"There weren't! Not when I left my system or even when I arrived here!" Ophiuchus protested.

By now the messenger had regained enough breath to explain, and he did. "A Red Power Ranger came from nowhere, attacked us and freed the prisoners. We took off, but he teleported some of the others out before we could stop him."

"Some?" Aries asked.

"We saved fourteen."

Aries growled, and turned away. Ophiuchus gestured for the monster to leave, so he did, glad to escape without being punished for his failure. Silent, Aries accessed the ship's database, and began scrolling through incoming damage reports. Ophiuchus looked on.

"Just one Power Ranger was able to do that," the Zodiac Emperor said in a low voice.

"The Windjammers weren't expecting that kind of resistance. There's only one, and Power Rangers are creatures of habit. All we have to do is lure him out and destroy him," Ophiuchus replied.

Aries snorted. "You've never fought a Ranger, have you?" As Ophiuchus started to reply, he added, "Leave me, I want to think. Help those incompetents deal with the prisoners we have."

Ophiuchus said nothing, merely bowed and headed out. As his footsteps faded, Aries leaned back in the seat, looking thoughtful.

Rangers

 * Lidian Byron
 * Violet Wildman
 * Casey Wildman

Villains

 * Ectopore
 * Fire Emperor Aries
 * Ophiuchus

Trivia

 * In previous versions of the chapter, Casey had to blow things up to escape. Either it was a door aboard the prison ship itself, or Lidian's camera, which she turned into a flash bomb.