[TheFightingSpirit]

Happy 2014 to all!
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Incursion Five: No-one.

"I am No-one." He raised his oversized arm over his head. "And soon you will be no-one too."

The Red Cross Ranger looked at his two friends and smirked. "I don't know about you guys but I was getting used to being a someone. Oh well…"

As he turned back to No-one he swung his hand out and called, "Flame Advent!"

A cone of fire roared towards the worryingly calm mutant. It veered off at the last second and incinerated a group of grunts.

He grinned maliciously, mouth splitting open from ear to ear to revealed rows of sharpened teeth. "Your attacks are … nothing."

Red Cross threw another flame advent, and again, it shot off to the side, roasting another swath of pitch-coloured grunts.

"Damn…" Blue Cross said, and then swore under his breath.

A pool of Black Water spread from No-one's leg and a fresh batch grunts hauled themselves out of it.

"They are nothing too," said No-one. "Replaceable."

A hail of bullets, coursing with living shadow, pummelled into the horde felling yet more of the grunts.

The rangers turned to see the culprit. Standing on top a nearby building was a black ranger, the owner of the shadow-spewing gun.

He somersaulted off the roof and dove toward No-one. He tucked and rolled on impact, and flung the mutant into a lamp post with deft precision.

"I didn't know there were more of us…" said Red Cross in disbelief.

He saw now that the symbol on the black ranger's helmet was that of the Air clan and a moon—which he took to signify the dark clan that Lt. Moses told them about earlier.

No-one growled and ordered the grunts forward to attack the rangers.

White Cross opened up straight away with a tornado advent, blasting their feet out from under them. Her attack was followed by one of her brother's storm advent attacks, turning the grunts to an inert mush.

While White and Blue dealt with the small fry, Red Cross joined the black ranger in grappling with No-one. No matter what they did, no matter how far or hard they threw or burnt him, he sprung back again.

"It's no use, magi," No-one taunted. "You won't defeat me that way."

Indeed any attack that did hit was quickly swallowed up by Black Water. His wounds seemed to heal by the same process, explaining his appearance.

"Turn back now, Red. Or I'll force you myself," the black ranger spoke. "This one is mine."

"Are you serious?"

Without taking his eyes off No-one, Black pointed his shadow gun at Red Cross and fired.

"Of course I'm serious."

As he fell, Robert's armour dissolved back into the morpher on the back of his hand.

Despite having their hands full, White Cross and Blue Cross fought their way over to him to protect him from further damage. The blue ranger brandished a crackling palm full of storm advent lightning at the Black ranger, while White kept a close eye on No-one.

"You okay?" she asked.

Robert clutched frantically at his wounds, but found he had none. His suit had taken the brunt of the damage, leaving him with little more than a nasty bruise.

"Funnily enough…" He glared at the back of the Black ranger's helmet.

"This one… is mine," the mystery ranger repeated.

They helped Robert to his feet and took him to a safe distance.

The Black ranger meanwhile laid into No-one with all he had. His shadow-based attacks had as little effect as most so far, but he had slightly more success with his own brand of tornado advent.

He blew the mutant back down the street, as far away from the grunts as he could.

White Cross saw this and was taken aback by it. "I think… in his own way… he's trying to help us."

"Anyone who shoots at me isn't helping," Robert wheezed. He attempted to morph again, but found the energy in his mixed clan gem depleted.

The remaining grunts, twelve strong at least, saw their targets and refocused. Ones at the far back of the group launch globs of Black Water at the trio, which White Cross deflected with her winds.

Robert shook his morpher, and grunted. "Looks like I'm out of the fight guys."

"Don't worry," Blue Cross replied. "We'll take care of this."

"Just stay out of trouble, you maniac."

Robert could hear from the sound of her voice alone that the white ranger had just winked at him.

Blue Cross leaped forward and tried out a new attack his genetic instinct had informed him of. "Flood advent."

A tsunami of water poured from his open palms washing the grunt away in one.

White Cross mopped up the stragglers with a new attack of her own. "Blinding Advent," she shouted.

An intense golden light boiled the Black Water the grunts where they stood, quickly evaporating them and the rest of the inert remains. They had, after all, been ordered to ensure the people of the city didn't get infected through the drinking water.

They regrouped with Robert, and took off down the street after No-one and the black ranger.

Surprisingly the mutant had taken every tornado advent without retaliation until he was backed up against the glass frontage of the library atrium.

"Your efforts are nothing."

"So you're stubborn! What do I care?" Rage clung to the black ranger's voice like an insidious venom.

"Your efforts are nothing," No-one repeated.

"Shadow Advent!" the black ranger roared.

A seething ball of shadow formed around his fist, and No-one caught the punch in the stomach. For a moment, the attack had no effect whatsoever. But soon the mutant began to melt back into Black Water.

The black ranger took a step back and folded his arm in victory.

As he melted, not a word passed No-one's grinning maw and soon he was gone. That only seemed to enrage the ranger more.

"Cocky… invincible… little SH-"

"You owe us an explanation," Robert said, interrupting him.

"I owe you nothing."

"We're all magi here, dude. We're all up against mutants like that guy. So what's the damn problem?" Robert, even without his armour, was about ready to punch the mystery ranger.

The black ranger unholstered his gun. "Do I need to shoot you some more?"

White Cross cut in. "You don't have to do that."

"Can you think of one single way that you are qualified for this fight?" The ranger waved his gun around like an extension of his body, "Leave town."

Thinks he's better than us… I'll show him! Robert snapped a hurled his feet at the black ranger. Blue and White caught his arm in time. The other ranger didn't flinch.

He chuckled, "You're friends are sensible."

The sun crept upward into the sky, first bathing the world in long shadows then in its golden glow. He took a step back and disappeared into the darkness.

It was only then that the Cross Rangers realised how long they'd been awake for. The sun was setting when the infected elk first broke through the quarantine wall and a night and a day had come and gone since the Agency had picked them up.

The Powel siblings demorphed to match Robert, now the threat had passed with a somewhat unsatisfying ending.

Ken looked down at himself. "I need a shower, a comfy bed and a fresh change of clothes.

"Amen to that." Robert nodded.

o0o

Lt. Moses and the helicarrier airlifted them shortly, but back at base they had debriefings to attend to.

The trio, accompanied by their sponsor, converged on General Bryant's office, but not before swinging by the base store's and asking the quartermaster if they could borrow some training uniforms as a stopgap.

The General was waiting for them, standing stock still behind his desk.

Lt. Moses saluted but the rangers didn't know whether they were supposed to or not. Ken hedged his bets and did so, earning him a glare from Allison and Robert.

"I've just been sent a report of your skirmish." Bryant got down to business quickly. "I can confirm the city's water supply is safe."

Lt. Moses lowered her hand. "Sir, the grunts didn't appear from the sewers."

"Oh?"

"They were led by a man… a mutant sorry… calling himself No-one. He could produce them at will from his-" She paused, unsure how to explain further.

The General wave her off, absolving her of the need to report. "I get the picture, lieutenant."

"There's something else, sir."

He sighed. "Do tell." Bryant looked as though he wanted to go home and rest as much as they did.

"A fourth ranger was the one to force No-one into retreat. A black cross ranger."

"Thank you for informing me." Bryant sat calmly and spun his chair to face the picture wall to the rear of his office. "For now, we'll keep an eye on him. If the situation gets out of hand, we bring him in for questioning."

"One more thing, General Bryant, sir." Lt. Moses hated having to talk so much in front of her CO, Robert could tell. "We need to talk about the Cross Rangers, themselves."

Bryant spun back around to face them, and place his hands firmly on the desk. "Yes we do. In fact, while you were away I drew up a plan. It occurs to me how foolish it is to concentrate their abilities on this city and this section of the quarantine wall alone. As it stands there's over 400 miles worth of unprotected terrain along the wall, and a goodly portion of that is heavily populated."

He handed Lt. Moses a file from atop the desk. "This folder contains all the details of your new assignment." He turned to peer at the rangers. "If you are to be a part of this Agency then you will follow my orders, and that includes saluting superior officers."

Ken grinned at his sister, but a look was all it took to wipe it from his face.

The General continued: "I am relocating you to nearby Fort Lowsdale. There you will take the guise of civilians, friends living together in an apartment, and will resume a normal life—in jobs specified in the mission folder—until called upon to do your duty. Your families will be informed of this… to some extent. They will be lead to believe you have enlisted and are on an secret island training retreat paid for by us. Under no circumstances are you to divulge the true nature of this mission. Is that clear?"

He waited for his words to sink in, and just as Lt. Moses was about to confirm she understood he interrupted her. "You're dismissed."

She closed her mouth and saluted, urging the rangers to do the same. "Yes, sir."

o0o

Lt. Moses left the rangers to their thoughts. They needed rest and she needed some time out, so she meandered toward the officer's mess to grab something to eat.

She'd hardly sat down at the end of one of the mess's long canteen tables, when a female officer sat down across from her with her own tray.

"Catherine."

The lieutenant looked up. "Yes, Captain Austin?"

"I just wanted to congratulate you on getting a command."

The woman had her auburn hair down. Catherine wondered how long it would take for someone to point out such a nonstandard application of Agency dress code. But she'd known the Captain long enough to realise no one but the General would pull her up on it.

"Thanks Maria, but I'd hardly call it a command."

"Shut up, I call it how I see it." Maria paused to take a bite of mystery meat. She pushed the tray away not long after. "I brought the rangers in, you know, I found them in the streets in a bust up with some poor mutant deer. I don't mind saying, they looked pretty damn awesome. Guess the almighty Bryant doesn't like me enough though…"

"Hey, you can have the project if you want it. You do outrank me."

Captain Austin laughed, almost snorting her water. "Be that as it may… I don't have the patience to take on a second command. My squads and I do just fine."

Deep down Lt. Catherine Moses knew she was the right one for the job, but she felt the situation getting more and more complicated as time ran on.

What would she be ordered to do next?