San Angeles, Elsewhere, and Back, Sunday through Wednesday
Sunday Morning, Hartford Manor, San Angeles
It had taken them all night to patch up cuts and bruises, and the manor was still strewn with the wreckage of the fight. Mack tried not to look too hard at the splinters of the pool table, the shattered statuary and broken glass, or -- worst of all in his estimation -- the books scattered everywhere as he picked his way toward the study.
"Rose and the others are trying to get a location on Flurious now, but they think he's using the Corona Aurora's power to scramble the signal somehow," he said, rubbing at his neck where it was chafed raw from the grip Flurious had had on his collar the night before, though he'd refused to let Ronny and Spencer bandage it. "Why'd you do it? Why'd you give him the jewels? Everything we fought so hard for . . ."
"I told you," Andrew Hartford said wearily, setting aside the stack of papers he'd been trying to put back in some semblance of order. "I couldn't make that sacrifice. Yes, we fought hard, but giving up the jewels was worth it if it meant I could have one more day . . . one more hour with you. I missed you while you were gone -- and I love you."
A few months ago, Mack would have dismissed that statement as a bunch of empty words, but everything he'd learned -- everything Claire and Savannah and Tori and Piper and Phoebe and his friends had said -- told him differently now. He didn't hesitate to circle the desk and wrap Mr. Hartford . . . no, his father in a tight hug.
"I love you too, Dad," he said, and was surprised at how effortless the words were.
The hug lasted a long time and yet not long enough at all before Andrew let go. "Get the others," he said, the old intrepid spirit in his voice. "This is not over yet."
Mack looked at him, grinned broadly, and sprinted for the elevator to the Command Center.
Monday Morning, In the Sky, Somewhere Over Africa
They were cruising just below the clouds at subsonic speed, and Ronny slammed her palm against the steering yoke in frustration. "I hate going so slow!"
Even the usually calm (odd description for a Mercurian) Tyzonn was fidgeting in the passenger cabin, fingers running back and forth over the catch release as if he expected to be able to jump into action at any given moment. "We've been chasing him all over the world and back for a day now. He's got to wear out sometime, right?"
Rose shook her head grimly. "As long as he's got the Corona Aurora? He has unlimited energy reserves. Especially now that the Crown's been fully restored. It . . . is called the Crown of the Gods for a reason. But even the Crown can only go so long before it burns out."
"That's so what I wanted to hear." Unsurprisingly, Dax was more restless than Tyzonn, and he unbuckled his crash belt to step forward into the cockpit and peer down at the growing swath of ice below. "And if we don't try and stop him soon, he's going to turn the Earth into the third ice cube from the sun."
From the copilot's chair, Will spoke up grimly. "Let's just hope we can corner him somewhere away from civilization before we run out of energy."
"Yeah," Ronny muttered. "If he hasn't frozen all of civilization by then."
Mack, in his own seat, was silent . . . but he'd heard every word.
Tuesday Evening, Still In the Sky, Over the Pacific
No one knew how many times they'd circled the globe by now, and nobody cared any more. They'd been sleeping in shifts -- unsuccessfully -- since sometime past midnight, and for all they could tell from looking through the windows they might as well have been in Siberia; even the ocean out here in the middle of the Ring of Fire had been turned to ice.
Mack gripped the steering yoke with damp palms and kept an eye on where he was going. A wire ran from the console up his sleeve, plugging him directly into the navigation system, but so far they hadn't gotten a lock on Flurious. He'd always wanted to pilot the S.H.A.R.C., but now that he finally had his chance he wasn't enjoying it. He wondered what Claire was doing now, and hoped she wasn't frantic over that email he'd sent. He glanced back over his shoulder quickly, and everyone else was at least pretending to sleep. That wasn't a problem. He didn't mind the quiet; it was better than Rose working them all into more of a despondent haze by babbling on about the effects of hypothermia and what it would take to save the people on the frozen planet below. Grimly, he kept flying -- and it was well past dawn the next day before he finally got a lock on their quarry.
The Elk Valley Hills Outside San Angeles, Wednesday Midday
"It figures," grumbled Will as they all staggered out of the S.H.A.R.C., exhausted and half numb from the interminable hours in flight, "that he'd make us chase him all over the world and end up right back where we started from."
Mack glanced back out toward the city; he didn't need Will's enhanced vision to know that San Angeles was a preternaturally silent, glittering ice tomb right now. Ordinarily, one would say it was a miracle that snow was falling in Southern California, but the thing was, nobody in Southern California was alive enough to say so. "Save it for later," he said tersely. "Right now we have a planet to save."
Flurious had been hideous enough before, but now, as they stalked toward him across the barren expanse of the rocky canyon -- the last patch of the planet left unfrozen -- he looked to Mack like some grotesque idol from one of his father's adventures. After so much silence, the cacaphony of hundreds of Chillers, all of them lining the canyon walls, was deafening. It was, had any of them bothered to voice the thought, terrifying, but they had nothing left to lose. In a single practiced motion, Mack, Ronny, Rose, Dax, Will, and Tyzonn charged into the fight.
It was long and brutal, and all of them were exhausted, but somehow they managed to battle Flurious's army to a temporary standstill.
And then -- as they stood unmorphed and trying desperately to catch their breath, their vision blurring from fatigue and the effort of remaining upright almost too much to ask -- then it was time for the obligatory taunting. "Don't you idiots know how to give up?" Flurious howled as the Chillers began to advance again. "Don't you get it? Now that I have the Crown no human can defeat me."
"Guys," Mack said, "you know what to do. Take care of the Chillers; I'll handle Flurious. We get the Corona Aurora, we use its power to restore the Earth." And hope it has enough power left to do that much.
"Mack!" Rose blurted out. "Are you sure?"
Mack turned to look at his teammates, his friends, the only family he'd ever known in his three short years of existence, and his smile was calm and peaceful as he unholstered his Overdrive Tracker and spun it in his hand. "You heard him. But I'm not human." He drew himself upright, keying the beginning of his morphing command into the Tracker's keypad, and began to walk toward Flurious. "I'm just fine with that."
Canyon in the Elk Valley Hills, A Short While Later
Ronny and the others couldn't see Mack battling Flurious -- there were too many Chillers in the way, no matter how many they cut down -- but there was no missing the sound of the fight, all energy blasts and bone-rattling crashes of ice on metal. It wasn't until the Chillers suddenly fell back that they saw what was going on. Flurious had staggered, weakened, but not defeated -- but as he got back to his feet, the Chillers attacked again and they were too busy to watch.
Mack stood with his feet planted, mere inches from Flurious, whose staff was parrying a powerful overhand blow from the Sentinel Sword; both of them were straining for all they were worth to break the deadlock. It was, Mack knew, a stalemate.
And he knew there was only one way to break it.
"What are you doing?" Flurious screeched, bewildered, as Mack's suit began to glow.
Flurious couldn't see it behind the helmet, but Mack was smiling: the same calm, peaceful smile he'd graced his friends with an hour or two earlier. "Giving it all the power I've got," he said, and closed his eyes.
[OOC: This was supposed to have gone up in parts over the past few days, but I am made of Fail and Tiredness. Some scenes and dialogue adapted from the Power Rangers Operation Overdrive finale, "Crown and Punishment," otherwise tweaked and padded out by me. NFI and NFB of course, but OOC welcome. There will be one more post from this journal tomorrow.]
It had taken them all night to patch up cuts and bruises, and the manor was still strewn with the wreckage of the fight. Mack tried not to look too hard at the splinters of the pool table, the shattered statuary and broken glass, or -- worst of all in his estimation -- the books scattered everywhere as he picked his way toward the study.
"Rose and the others are trying to get a location on Flurious now, but they think he's using the Corona Aurora's power to scramble the signal somehow," he said, rubbing at his neck where it was chafed raw from the grip Flurious had had on his collar the night before, though he'd refused to let Ronny and Spencer bandage it. "Why'd you do it? Why'd you give him the jewels? Everything we fought so hard for . . ."
"I told you," Andrew Hartford said wearily, setting aside the stack of papers he'd been trying to put back in some semblance of order. "I couldn't make that sacrifice. Yes, we fought hard, but giving up the jewels was worth it if it meant I could have one more day . . . one more hour with you. I missed you while you were gone -- and I love you."
A few months ago, Mack would have dismissed that statement as a bunch of empty words, but everything he'd learned -- everything Claire and Savannah and Tori and Piper and Phoebe and his friends had said -- told him differently now. He didn't hesitate to circle the desk and wrap Mr. Hartford . . . no, his father in a tight hug.
"I love you too, Dad," he said, and was surprised at how effortless the words were.
The hug lasted a long time and yet not long enough at all before Andrew let go. "Get the others," he said, the old intrepid spirit in his voice. "This is not over yet."
Mack looked at him, grinned broadly, and sprinted for the elevator to the Command Center.
Monday Morning, In the Sky, Somewhere Over Africa
They were cruising just below the clouds at subsonic speed, and Ronny slammed her palm against the steering yoke in frustration. "I hate going so slow!"
Even the usually calm (odd description for a Mercurian) Tyzonn was fidgeting in the passenger cabin, fingers running back and forth over the catch release as if he expected to be able to jump into action at any given moment. "We've been chasing him all over the world and back for a day now. He's got to wear out sometime, right?"
Rose shook her head grimly. "As long as he's got the Corona Aurora? He has unlimited energy reserves. Especially now that the Crown's been fully restored. It . . . is called the Crown of the Gods for a reason. But even the Crown can only go so long before it burns out."
"That's so what I wanted to hear." Unsurprisingly, Dax was more restless than Tyzonn, and he unbuckled his crash belt to step forward into the cockpit and peer down at the growing swath of ice below. "And if we don't try and stop him soon, he's going to turn the Earth into the third ice cube from the sun."
From the copilot's chair, Will spoke up grimly. "Let's just hope we can corner him somewhere away from civilization before we run out of energy."
"Yeah," Ronny muttered. "If he hasn't frozen all of civilization by then."
Mack, in his own seat, was silent . . . but he'd heard every word.
Tuesday Evening, Still In the Sky, Over the Pacific
No one knew how many times they'd circled the globe by now, and nobody cared any more. They'd been sleeping in shifts -- unsuccessfully -- since sometime past midnight, and for all they could tell from looking through the windows they might as well have been in Siberia; even the ocean out here in the middle of the Ring of Fire had been turned to ice.
Mack gripped the steering yoke with damp palms and kept an eye on where he was going. A wire ran from the console up his sleeve, plugging him directly into the navigation system, but so far they hadn't gotten a lock on Flurious. He'd always wanted to pilot the S.H.A.R.C., but now that he finally had his chance he wasn't enjoying it. He wondered what Claire was doing now, and hoped she wasn't frantic over that email he'd sent. He glanced back over his shoulder quickly, and everyone else was at least pretending to sleep. That wasn't a problem. He didn't mind the quiet; it was better than Rose working them all into more of a despondent haze by babbling on about the effects of hypothermia and what it would take to save the people on the frozen planet below. Grimly, he kept flying -- and it was well past dawn the next day before he finally got a lock on their quarry.
The Elk Valley Hills Outside San Angeles, Wednesday Midday
"It figures," grumbled Will as they all staggered out of the S.H.A.R.C., exhausted and half numb from the interminable hours in flight, "that he'd make us chase him all over the world and end up right back where we started from."
Mack glanced back out toward the city; he didn't need Will's enhanced vision to know that San Angeles was a preternaturally silent, glittering ice tomb right now. Ordinarily, one would say it was a miracle that snow was falling in Southern California, but the thing was, nobody in Southern California was alive enough to say so. "Save it for later," he said tersely. "Right now we have a planet to save."
Flurious had been hideous enough before, but now, as they stalked toward him across the barren expanse of the rocky canyon -- the last patch of the planet left unfrozen -- he looked to Mack like some grotesque idol from one of his father's adventures. After so much silence, the cacaphony of hundreds of Chillers, all of them lining the canyon walls, was deafening. It was, had any of them bothered to voice the thought, terrifying, but they had nothing left to lose. In a single practiced motion, Mack, Ronny, Rose, Dax, Will, and Tyzonn charged into the fight.
It was long and brutal, and all of them were exhausted, but somehow they managed to battle Flurious's army to a temporary standstill.
And then -- as they stood unmorphed and trying desperately to catch their breath, their vision blurring from fatigue and the effort of remaining upright almost too much to ask -- then it was time for the obligatory taunting. "Don't you idiots know how to give up?" Flurious howled as the Chillers began to advance again. "Don't you get it? Now that I have the Crown no human can defeat me."
"Guys," Mack said, "you know what to do. Take care of the Chillers; I'll handle Flurious. We get the Corona Aurora, we use its power to restore the Earth." And hope it has enough power left to do that much.
"Mack!" Rose blurted out. "Are you sure?"
Mack turned to look at his teammates, his friends, the only family he'd ever known in his three short years of existence, and his smile was calm and peaceful as he unholstered his Overdrive Tracker and spun it in his hand. "You heard him. But I'm not human." He drew himself upright, keying the beginning of his morphing command into the Tracker's keypad, and began to walk toward Flurious. "I'm just fine with that."
Canyon in the Elk Valley Hills, A Short While Later
Ronny and the others couldn't see Mack battling Flurious -- there were too many Chillers in the way, no matter how many they cut down -- but there was no missing the sound of the fight, all energy blasts and bone-rattling crashes of ice on metal. It wasn't until the Chillers suddenly fell back that they saw what was going on. Flurious had staggered, weakened, but not defeated -- but as he got back to his feet, the Chillers attacked again and they were too busy to watch.
Mack stood with his feet planted, mere inches from Flurious, whose staff was parrying a powerful overhand blow from the Sentinel Sword; both of them were straining for all they were worth to break the deadlock. It was, Mack knew, a stalemate.
And he knew there was only one way to break it.
"What are you doing?" Flurious screeched, bewildered, as Mack's suit began to glow.
Flurious couldn't see it behind the helmet, but Mack was smiling: the same calm, peaceful smile he'd graced his friends with an hour or two earlier. "Giving it all the power I've got," he said, and closed his eyes.
[OOC: This was supposed to have gone up in parts over the past few days, but I am made of Fail and Tiredness. Some scenes and dialogue adapted from the Power Rangers Operation Overdrive finale, "Crown and Punishment," otherwise tweaked and padded out by me. NFI and NFB of course, but OOC welcome. There will be one more post from this journal tomorrow.]