Newest arival

[summerrain]

((This is a fanfic based off Power Rangers. It's from one of the good ones, in my opinion. Yes, I like SPD. Get over it.))

Part 1

What was going on? The siren was sounding. It never sounded. She made her way quickly to the commander's room at the top of the base. Her ears were twitching every which way, and the noise was a bit overwhelming.

"Commander!" she said, entering the room. "What's-" She was cut off when something connected with the base. She fell forward, making her way quickly to her feet once the rumblings settled. "Want the runners?" she asked.

"We might need them," admitted the Commander. The woman turned to her assistant. "Call them."

"Rangers to the Command Center," the assistant said over the intercom. "This is not a drill. Repeat. This is not a drill. Everyone, to your stations. Prepare to engage. Repeat. Prepare to engage."

Within moments, the team was gathered. "You know what you need to do," the Commander said. "We are under attack. From none other than Grumm. I am going to try to get word out, and I need you to distract him long enough for us to get the new defence systems online." The team nodded, listening silently. "Layla."

"Yes Commander?" responded the team's leader, the one who arived before the call went out.

"You and your team are to get yourselves out if there is no option other than self-sacrifice," the Commander explained. "The Mystic branch of the SPD is too valuable to loose to someone like Grumm. If you have no other option, I want you to make your way to Earth. Commander Kruger will take you in there."

"Understood," Layla replied. She held up her right hand, bunched in a fist, and placed her left hand over the morpher strapped to her wrist. "Ready?" she called to her teammates.

"Ready!" they responded.

"SPD EMERGENCY!" they said simultaneously. They morphed into colors non-traditional to SPD, specific to their branch.

"Let's go team!" Layla called, headed to the chutes that lead directly outside.

"You aren't planning on continuing, are you?" asked her second in comand, a guy named Amadi. "If you are, you'll have to deal with us."

"Captain obvious, can you please wait until later for that?" asked Tani, one of the other girls on the team. "We've got butt to kick!" The five of them ran into the fray, defeating the multitude of weaker opponents. When there was no more, Grumm himself descended to meet them.

"Who are you to destroy my forces?" he asked, somewhat sarcastically.

"One! SPD, Mystic Phoenix ranger!" Layla said.

"Two! SPD Mystic Dragon ranger!" Amadi followed.

"Three! SPD Mystic Hydra ranger!" Tani responded.

"Four! SPD Mystic Griffin ranger!" called a guy named Leo.

"Five! SPD Mystic Harpy ranger!" said a girl named Tanya, Tani's twin sister.

"We are SPD, and you are under arrest for property damage, as well as multiple crimes against the SPD as a whole," Layla said, stepping in front of the others by a few strides. "We're here to bring you down." Or so she assumed...

The fight was terrible. They were easily outmatched, and quickly defeated.

"Get to the pods!" Layla ordered. "We must make it out alive!"

"No Layla," Tani said. "We'll stay here and fight. You're the one who needs to live on."

"I'm not leaving anyone behind!" Layla argued. "Either we all escape, or we die together!"

"No!" Amadi said sternly. "Only one of us needs to survive to rebuild the Mystic branch of SPD! And you're the only one who can do that!"

"Not on my own..." Layla muttered, eyes glued to Amadi. He approached the pod she had opened, putting his arms around her.

"Don't forget me once you establish yourself on Earth," he said. She watched him as the pod door lowered. "We won't let him take the Runners, either! We'll fight to the death, and he'll never get the secrets of the Mystic Division!" With thatm Amadi ran back into the fight. "If we win, then Layla can return!" he told the others. "Let's do this! For our leader!"

Goodbye, my love, Layla said silently, tears flowing down her cheeks. She waited until she couldn't see them before she began transmitting the message. However, the space ship that Grumm had come in on shot her pod down. She crashed back onto her plannet. It took her a moment to recover enough to send the transmission, but send it she did.

"This is Layla Starlight, from the Mystic division of SPD," she recorded. "The base is under attack, and the enemy is winning. We are falling. Few have lived as long during this fight as I and my team. Please. We need backup, or we risk the complete collapse of the Mystic Ranger division. This is an SOS from the Mystic Ranger division. I am Layla, the Phoenix ranger here at SPD Mystic base. Grumm himself has attacked us-" She was ut off by a strange sensation in her back, causing her to black out. She uttered a soft cry just before doing so.
__________

Footsteps. Pain. Voices. Wait... Those weren't voices of her team...

"I think I found one!" called one of the voices, from relatively nearby. A form knelt next to her. "If you can hear me, I want you to squeeze my finger." She felt a finger being pressed into her hand, and did as the voice instructed. It felt like her rangre suit... Her SOS must've gotten through to someone! She opened her eyes slowly.

"Jack, she's alive!" he called again. It was a ranger in green. A red ranger came into her field of vision.

"I think this is the one who sent the SOS transmission Kruger showed us," said the red ranger. Three more sets of feet approached.

"Find anything?" the red ranger asked the unknown people.

"Nothing," said a voice, definitely a girl's. "I found a few trinkets, but nothing super valuable survived the attack."

"Nothing on my end either," said another girl, this one's voice was rougher. "I found a few people that looked like they'd lived... Until I turned them over. Their wounds were so severe that they bled to death."

"I found something," said a final voice, this time male. "I found the other Mystic SPD rangers."

Layla's eyes shot wide open. She slowly moved, assessing any possible damage as she went along.

"Easy there!" said the ranger in the green suit. The three new ones wore pink, yellow, and blue, respectively.

"The Rangers from this base... Are they your team?" the one named Jack asked. Layla nodded slowly.

"Let... Let me see them," she requested. The green ranger helped her into a sitting position, and then looked to the blue ranger to assist in getting her to her feet. "Take me... to my team..." she told them. The blue ranger directed the other two to the spots, and the other three followed them.

"Amadi..." Layla said, coming up to the first body. It was on it's back, the skin pasty and the eyes lifeless. She looked around at the other people laying in the rubble, and realization hit her. "All of them... Dead...?" she looked pleadingly at the blue ranger.

"Seemed like it," he said quietly. "I'm really sorry..."

Tears sprang unbidden to Layla's eyes. She fell to her knees beside Amadi's body. "He was... We were..." She moved her left hand, and a silver ring was suddenly visible. A similar ring was on the left hand of the body before her. Realization hit the other rangers.

"He was your husband?" the pink ranger asked.

"If that is... what you humans call it... then yes..." Layla replied softly. "We were mates... We were waiting for peace to have children..." A hand absently went to her stomach, as if she was already expecting.

"Our ship is nearby," said the red ranger. "If you want, Sky will retrieve the morphers from your comrads before we leave." Layla nodded, not trusting herself to speak.

"Jack, help me get her there will ya?" asked the green ranger as the blue left to get the morphers from the other three fallen rangers.

"I got it," spoke up the yellow ranger suddenly. Layla felt a hand slipping her arm over the shoulder of someone else, and the same with her other arm. She slowly stood.

"I want... To give him... a propper burial," Layla said. "Worthy of a warrior..."

"We will come back for his body once you are safely inside the ship," the red ranger said. They showed her to a seat on the ship and helped strap her in before leaving again to get Amadi's body. "The... Runners..." she said suddenly. "We must return later... For the runners."

"We'll need you in top form to do that," the yellow ranger said, slipping into her seat. "Get some rest, if you can. We'll wake you when we get to the base." Layla nodded and, surprisingly, slipped quickly to sleep.

[summerrain]

Part 2

Layla woke in what looked like a hospital room. Had it all been a dream?

"Thank goodness," said a voice to her left. It wasn't one she was familliar with... It hadn't been a dream. This was reality. Her team, her base, her commander... Everyone, dead... "Easy. You're alright. You're alive, and you're on Earth."

"Earth..." Layla said quietly.

"Yes," said the voice again. A machine was beaping nearby. "This is SPD Earth base. You were from the SPD experimental Mystic base, if I understand correctly." Layla nodded slowly. "Well, I did some preliminary tests on you while you were asleep. Bloodwork and such. I noticed something very interesting. You seem to be related to Commander Kruger."

"What?" Layla asked slowly. Her? So related to someone of the Dog race that it was obvious? What happened there?

"I'm not sure how, but you are related." The speaker came into view. It was a young man, maybe in his twenties. "The morphers of your teammates were salvaged before you left. I can ask one of the technical staff to modify them to fit Earth standards, if you wish."

"Is... Is it... Necessary?" Layla asked softly.

"Not as far as I know, but you'll have to talk to the-" The young man stopped speaking as the door slid open. "Commander. Perfect timing."

"Is that so?" asked a new voice. This one had a slight growl to it, indicative of a canine-based species.

Impossible! Layla thought. All of that particular species were killed by Grumm, not long after the Mystic Base was created. She turned her head slightly, and saw what she had imagined. It was a full canine, and he looked... Familiar. That's it! He's the only one to survive... Anubis Kruger! She struggled into a sitting position, and her nearly-black hair fell away to reveal ears that were similar to Kruger's. "Commander... Kruger... My commander... told me... to find you," she said haltingly.

"Easy there," said the doctor. He looked over at the Commander after he'd helped Layla sit up. "Commander, there is a slight relation between yourself and this ranger. I haven't yet determined how close the relation is, but-"

"No need," Kruger said. "I can tell." He looked her over, his gaze lingering on her ears, and the tail hanging over the edge of the bed.

"You... You look like... My father... Isacc," Layla said suddenly. Recognition flashed through the Commander's eyes, and he looked away from her.

"Good to know that my brother managed to escape the massacre of Sirius," he said after a moment. Layla closed her eyes and looked away.

"Father... Sacrificed himself..." she told Kruger softly. "His life was SPD... And he gave it everything... Even his own daughter..." She laughed softly at the irony. She had lived, and he hadn't. "He died as he wanted to... Defending his family..."

"That's the way any ranger wants it," said the doctor. "An honorable death in battle is the best. Except maybe a painless death while asleep."

There was a pause. Then...

"Commander Kruger... I want... To rebuild my team."

"I understand," he replied. "Right now, though, you need to focus on yourself. Come see me when you are discharged, then we'll talk about the Mystic SPD." He left it at that, and the door slid shut behind him.
_______

"So... The ranger's father... Is your brother?" asked the male nurse.

"Yes," the Commander replied after a while. "He left to work on the Mystic Project. I'd thought he was dead..." The voices faded again.
______

A week later, Layla was able to leave the medical rooms. She was escorted directly to the Command Center shortly after changing into her new uniform.

"... It's a base about which little is known," said a voice. The Commander's. "You will NOT ask her anything regarding the Mystic Program. That information is classified at the highest level. Not even I am privy to it."

Apparently, someone else was about to speak when the door slid open. Layla stood in the doorway for a moment before walking into the Command Center. She looked around, amazed. Then she walked to the end of the line of rangers, taking a position of attention.

"Perfect timing," Kruger said. "Layla, this is the B Squad of the Earth SPD."

"I'm Jack," said the guy with red on his uniform. The Red Ranger. "That's Sky, Z, Bridge, and Sid." They were wearing blue, yellow, green, and pink uniforms, respectively.

"That one looks good on you," said the girl called Sid. Her curly blond hair fell to just past her shoulders.

Layla looked down at her uniform. It was a newer one made of earth materials, but with the same style as her old one. "Thank you," she said quietly. She took a position next to Jack.

"Take some time to get aquainted," Kruger said. Suddenly, an alarm went off. Layla turned quickly toward the monitors. Her features hardened when she saw the attackers. Her face took on a wilder appearance.

"Perfect," she said. "I can get them back for what they did to my people." She looked over at the assistant, a woman with the appearance of an earthling, but with cat ears. "Is my morpher fixed?" she asked.

"Not quite yet," spoke the woman.

"Rangers!" Kruger said. "You know what to do." He turned to Layla. "You are to stay here. You will train with them, but you will not fight in the field until your morpher has been reconfigured to earth standards."

"Understood," Layla replied. She watched the other rangers leave.

[summerrain]

Part 3

They had one. It had been a pitiful fight though. Layla found herself shaking her head watching the rangers from the monitor in the control room.

The next day, her morpher was in her hand.

"Can we see your ranger uniform?" Sid asked. The alarm went off, but this one was more serious than before.

"Look's like you'll get to," Layla replied as she darted off after Jack.

The six of them stopped before the attacker, and Layla's eyes widened. Her ears went back, and her tail began swishing. She growled, a canine growl unique to her race.

"Oh!" spoke the alien attacker. "It seems one of the puppies managed to get away." He laughed.

"Ready?" Jack called.

"Ready," they echoed.

"SPD EMERGENCY!"

Layla stood there in her flaming orange ranger suit, with gold-colored lines where the black ones were on the other rangers'. "You're going to pay for what you did to Amadi! For what you did to my team... You'll never be forgiven!" She reached for the twin blades on her back, bringing them up over her head. She slashed downward with both of them. "Phoenix wing!" she yelled. The alien attacker staggered back. She sheathed the twin swords, then held up a fist. Her morpher, unlike the norm, was strapped to her wrist in a unique shape. "Let me finish this one," she requested.

"Sure," Jack replied.

"You are charged with destruction of the SPD Mistic Base, as well as various minor crimes throughout the galaxy," she told the alien. "Judgement time." She pushed a button on her morpher, and it began clicking between a green circle and a red X. It stopped on the red X. "Guilty." She pointed the lens at the alien. "Confinement mode." She shone a light at the alien attacker, and he was confined to a card created specifically by the SPD. She picked it up and handed it to Jack.

She returned to her normal uniform, but didn't meet the team's eyes. "I got a little carried away..." she told them softly. "Sorry..."

"No big," Bridge said. "He was one of the ones that helped in the-" He was cut off by an elbow to the side, courtesy of Z.

"It's not an issue," Z told Layla. "As long as you don't do it on a regular basis."

"Besides, you looked so cool!" Sid confessed energetically.

"Gotta hand it to ya, you deserve to lead a team," Sky said.

"I've never seen a ranger with dualswords before," Jack told her. Layla was about to reply when Sky spoke up.

"Let's talk when we get back?" he suggested. They all agreed.
_______

They stood before the Commander, but Layla wouldn't meet his eyes. She knew he would've seen how se let her emotions control her in the battle...

"Hey Omega," Jack said suddenly. Layla looked up and saw a ranger in white and blue. He turned to her, then stopped, surprised. When he recovered, a moment later, he nodded at her, then turned to the Commander. The others swapped confused looks.
_______

"You're Layla?" Omega asked her later.

"Yes," she replied. "Why?"

"Just... Just making sure," he replied mysteriously.
_______

The Commander had called her in. Just her. Not the others. There was only one other person in the room with them, the feline.

"So... My father was your brother?"

"Yes," Kruger responded. "I'm surprised he never mentioned it to you..."

"My father died when I was very young," she said quietly. "I... I don't remember him too well... Mom always had the pictures that she showed me... There was even one with you and him together... One that he gave her... From before you two were rangers."

Kruger blinked. That had been so long ago. They hadn't even reached adolescence at that time.

[Ghost of Fire (Fëanáro)]

((Is there more coming? I like it.))

[summerrain]

Part 4

She'd been with them for a couple months when it happened.

"Rangers to the command center!" came Kat's voice over the intercom. Layla rushed there as fast as she could, but she was the last one there. Kruger didn't say anything about it, though.

"Early this morning an unknown spacecraft crashed in the forest ouside of the city. I want you to go investigate," he told the rangers. Kat pulled a visual on the monitor, and Layla gasped, slowly walking closer to it.

"Layla? You recognise this craft?" Kat asked.

"I... Yeah..." Layla said quietly, tail swishing back and forth slowly. She pointed at the symbol on the ship. "That's the symbol of the Sphinx. I... I thought he was lost forever..." She turned to Kruger. "The Sphinx Ranger was the tech expert of the Mystic Base, and he went missing about three years ago. I never thought that he might've gotten lost in space somewhere." She looked at the others.

"Very well then," Kruger said. "Your mission this time is to go examine the Sphinx craft, and bring any survivors back here. Understood?"

"Yes sir!" they all said before running out of the room.
________

The others approached warily, but Layla ran ahead. "Nathaniel! Nathaniel!" she called. She pointed her morpher at the ship and inputted some commands. A blue beam shot from the morpher and scanned the ship. "Life signs... There's at least a couple of survivors here!" she told the others. They ran up to assist her, when a nearby door, or at least what looked like one, moved.

"Jeez... Next time make sure the landing sequence gets inputted properly," the man muttered, a hand on his head.

"Nathaniel!" Layla cried, running to him. She helped move the debris off him, then helped him climb out. "I'm so glad you're alright."

"Layla?" he asked, pushing his brown hair out of his face. His eyes were silver, a color seen commonly in his species. He looked at her, then smiled. "It's good to see you again."

"You've been gone for three years and you show up on Earth... Well, we need to get you back to the base before you tell us your story," she told him, putting his arm over her shoulder so she could support him. "Jack! I found him!" Jack came over to help her.

"The rest of you keep looking. I'm gonna help her get this guy back to base for medical attention," he told them.
__________

"So... Mytsic Base is... Gone?"

"Yeah..." Layla had just broken the news to her teammate.

"Do you know about the others? Or your father?" Layla shook her head, avoiding his eyes. "I wouldn't be surprised if Grumm took at least one of them prizoner, you know. He's done that before."

"That's true," Layla agreed quietly. "But... He killed Amadi..."

Nathaniel took her hand. "You know he was always happy just to see you smile," he reminded her kindly. "I know he'll be happy as long as you are." Layla nodded softly.

"Am I interrupting?" asked a voice. Nathaniel let go of Layla's hand.

"Sorry sir," Layla said after a moment. "Of course not. I was simply updating Nathaniel on the events that took place since his disappearance three years ago."

"Ah. Very well then," Kruger said. "Your name's Nathaniel, right?"

"Yes sir, Commander," he responded. "Tech expert of what was the Mystic Base. I understand that my morpher needs reconfiguring to fit within Earth's limitations." He hadn't even had his morpher on, so he picked it up off the table next to the bed in the medical ward and handed it to Kruger. He noticed the resemblence between Layla and Kruger immediately; she had the same ears, and the same eyes.

"It's good to see that you are relatively unharmed by your unexpected crash landing," Kruger told Nathaniel. "Some of your crew weren't quite as lucky, but everyone survived." Nathaniel smiled slightly.

"That's good," he said. "It wouldn't do to have the Sphinx ship underprotected like that."

"True. It was always the Harpy that was meant for speed, while the Sphinx was more for defense," Layla agreed. "Though, she's going to need a number of repairs before she can fly again. If there's anything salvageable in that wreckage."

"That, Layla, is your next mission," Kruger interrupted. "You and the B-Squad are to go back to the Sphinx ship and salvage what you can from the wreckage. Understood?"

"Yes sir!" Layla responded, dashing out to meet the others.
__________

Another few months passed before anything really interesting happened.

"Rangers to the command center!"

"There was a strange pulsation in the time stream."

"Grumm again?" Jack asked.

"Unknown," Kruger replied. "The signal is similar, but not the same."

"Perhaps it's another group of Rangers coming here from the future, the same way Omega did?" Bridge suggested.

"That's what I believe," Kruger replied. "Kat, get us a visual."

Layla gasped loudly and moved closer to the monitor. The colors were all non-traditional colors, and there were four Rangers, with gold where the black was on traditional ranger suits. One was an ocean green color, another was a purple-black, a third was the dark brown of a lion's mane, and the last one was bright turquoise.

"Those... Those are the Mystic SPD!" she said quietly.

"What?"

"No way!"

"It's true... We have to talk to them!" She rushed out of the room before another word could be said.

"Well?" Kruger asked. "What are you waiting for?" The others quickly followed her.
__________

"So this is Earth?" asked the ocean-green ranger.

"Before Grumm decimated it," replied the purple-black ranger.

"Well, I just want to finish our mission here and go home," said the lion's-mane-brown ranger.

"I wanna explore a bit!" the turquoise ranger told the others. "We're just looking for the Phoenix and Sphinx, right? Why not have some fun while we're at it?"

"Stop where you are!"

They all turned, surprised.

"It's the Earth SPD," said the purple-black ranger.

"They're not the only ones here," Layla said, stepping out from behind Sky.

"You aren't forgetting about us, are you?" Nathaniel asked, coming around Jack.

The Mystic SPD looked at each other for a moment.

"You're Mystic SPD, right?" Layla asked.

"How did you know?" the turquoise ranger asked.

"Because..." Layla held up her right hand, as did Nathaniel. "We are from the original Mystic SPD." She turned to Nathaniel. "Ready?"

"Ready," he answered.

"SPD Emergency!" the pair called. Layla's flaming orange suit appeared, as did Nathaniel's sandy brown one.

"I am the Phoenix, and he is the Sphinx."

"The lost morphers!" the turquoise ranger said, surprised. "Guys, this is who we came here to find!"

"Wait..." Layla said quietly, realizing something. "If you're here, but the Phoenix and Sphinx morphers were supposedly lost sometime in this era, does that mean the other original Mystic SPD survived Grumm's attack?"

"We were never told the details of the original destruction," said the ocean-green ranger. "All we know is that, without a Phoenix, we are without a true leader."

"We come bringing a message," said the purple-black ranger. " 'Look to the sky for the answers you seek. Then you shall be reunited.' "

"We have completed our mission," said the brown ranger. "We must be returning to our own era, to our own planet." The four of them stepped back inside the ship, which rose from the ground and shot into the sky, vanishing in a ripple that shook the clouds.