[TheFightingSpirit]

Incursion Twenty: Royal Trinity, Part Two.

White Cross saw it happen.

She saw Black Cross’ ambush and Lt. Moses’ transformation into CrossTrinity. You couldn’t just pass on a magi heritage like that, could you?

Guess I missed the part where Catherine was a royal all along; or she’s been lying to us...

The Shapeshifter transformed its arms into huge spikes of black ichor and lunged at White Cross. She caught one under her arm and blocked the other with her opposite forearm. It swung it’s arm again, raining blows down upon her, trying to break her grip.

She threw the ‘shifter into the path of a landslide advent from Green Cross. It lost it’s balance, caught it’s foot on a jagged outcrop of rock and crumpled to the floor.

“Ken?” said Green Cross. “Let’s do it properly this time.”

They concentrated and formed the image in their mind, just as Manuarii had taught them. Their weapons leaped to them in streaks of energy from across the scrubland.

Blue Cross pointed his blaster at the mutant, and Green Cross hoisted the hammer over his head.

“Riptide Blitz!” they roared.

Trigger pulled and hammer swung, two of their fastest torrents of water slammed down on the shapeshifter and tore away chunks of the Black Water that made up it’s body.

o0o

CrossTrinity’s roulette dial clicked over to white, and her suit shifted away from black and blue to black and white. The air blade gauntlets formed out of the energy that was the fire staff.

“Air versus air.”

“Whatever you say.” Black Cross shrugged, and launched a gust of wind from his palm. It was no stronger than a half-hearted shove in the shoulder.

CrossTrinity didn’t know what he was up to and frankly she didn’t care. “Hurricane blitz!”

A slash of her blade ripped the air itself in two. It rushed back to fill the void with a thundering boom that disoriented Black Cross. With her hand outstretched, the whirling vortex of wind sped toward him.

The vortex unwound itself at Black Cross’s command.

“I control air, you control air…” As he spun his hand in the air, wind swirled around it. “How did you ever think this would work?“

“Funny thing that.” She snapped her still extended hand back, and a wall of air crashed into his back.

She watched him writhe on the ground, but took no pleasure from it. He was still the man who’d trained her, given her all the chances at promotion she could have wished for, a fast track to success.

“You’ve always been full of yourself General, but I’ve never had the courage to say it to your face. I could use any element I want against you and win, because you care more about yourself and your problems than you do about justice.”

“Talk, talk, talk!” He leaped to his feet. Shadow shrouded him. He full body tackled her. The shadow energy sparked against her armour. “And your problem, Lieutenant? You only became a full magi minutes ago, I’ve been one since the very first day.”

She struggled to her knees and mimed spitting at his feet. “Should that matter?”

“Experience, kid. It’s all a matter of experience.”

CrossTrinity scoffed. “I’ve experienced plenty. Just because these powers are new to me, doesn’t mean I’m weak.”

She uncovered her wrist just as the roulette dial clicked over to red. She jumped up and grabbed him by the hand, where his morpher hid beneath his gloves, and squeezed as hard as she could. Flame licked around her hand and along his forearm.

Black Cross flinched back. The heat bit into him, sparking up the magic in his armour, but CrossTrinity didn’t let up. With these powers she felt stronger than she ever had.

He pulled against her. “What are you... doing?!”

“When that great man over there died, he passed on more than the power of a magi. He passed on a legacy. I’m no longer just any magi warrior. I’m the empress.” Something shattered beneath his glove, but not just the bones in his hand. “It’s my great pleasure to remove from you your magic.”

“You, you can’t do that. Can you?” His power guttered and his armour began to flicker in and out of existence. Each time it did, he saw the shattered, discoloured gem barely hanging onto his morpher.

“I really didn’t want to do this… I wanted us to find a common ground. I wanted us to work together to defeat the Black Water but...” She let go of his hand and he dropped to his knees. His armour shattered out right, gone forever. “This is my real power, General.”

“You have no right. You’ve doomed us all!”

“No, sir, you have no right. You lost your right to command the moment you betrayed those under you. You sent us all away and kept a skeleton crew you knew wouldn’t turn on you… probably… but here’s the truth Bryant...” As she bent down to his level her armour also dissolved. “You’ve become a cancer killing our great nation from the inside out.”

“I only wanted to strengthen our-” He cut himself off and swung a punch.

Catherine caught it and pushed him away. “Go now, General. I’m not going to fight you like this. This is what mercy feels like.”

She stood and walked way, back towards the Cross rangers, no her fellow rangers, and their battle against the Shapeshifter. Her armour reappeared in it’s base form.

The enemy had reformed twelve metres away from whatever material it could find lying around. Without the Black Water the riptide blitz had taken from it, it resigned itself to using cacti and rock to complete itself.

CrossTrinity spun the roulette dial, but didn’t wait for it’s decision. She threw a punch before it could fully recover.

“Catherine!” Yellow Cross shouted. “Is it over? If Bryant done for?”

The punch connected, staggering the shapeshifter.

“I sure hope so,” she said. “I hope he can find a way to see what’s right.”

It tried to swing its tail at her only to find Red Cross had hold of it. The red ranger hauled the creature around and covered his fist in flame. “This is for killing, Manu.” He hit it dead between the eyes. It’s face deformed from the blow.

“And this is for everyone else you murdered on your way.” White Cross thrust her twin blades through it’s gut. It began to melt into it’s constituent parts.

Red and White Cross stepped back.

“We don’t want your kind here,” said CrossTrinity. “Trinity Advent!”

The roulette dial spun faster. The tribal lines on her armour cycled through red to white to blue to red… like a tricolour rainbow. Her fist’s glittered with pure magi energy. She clapped her palms together once and a tricoloured wave of power burst around the Shapeshifter, blowing it apart.

o0o

Later, when they got back to the apartment, Catherine lay on the couch. She had visible bags under her eyes.

“You don’t look so good,” said Maria.

She smiled. “I’m fine. I guess I’m just not strong enough to pull off an advent like that.”

Robert placed his hand on her shoulder. “Not strong enough yet.”

Catherine chuckled. “Yeah, Rob. I’ll get the hang of it.”

“Good.” Ken returned from the kitchen with a tray of drinks - a mixture of alcohol, tea and soft drink. “Because that attack was something else! Poor bugger didn’t stand a chance.”

“Guys, listen,” she said, interrupting their celebration. “Bryant still has what’s left of the Agency behind him. He may not be Black Cross anymore, but he can still throw a spanner in the works. We'll have to go after him one way or another.”

o0o

General Bryant stumbled back into his office. A junior lieutenant stood in the doorway wondering whether or not he should offer to help.

“What are you waiting for, boy?” the general roared.

“I, I just -”

“You just what?”

The look he got from General Bryant could have damn near killed him, never mind sour milk. The lieutenant bowed, multiple times, and backed out of the office.

“That’s better…”

He slumped into his chair and tried to summon his morpher. Instead a jolt of pain struck through his temples. “Damn it!”

Of all the people to finally do what they’d threatened, and it was Moses. Little, insignificant Moses. If anyone he would have expected Austin. Stupid, magi worshipping Austin. Always looking to do what’s right. He spat.

“Pathetic!”

From the shadows at the very back of his large office stepped a man. No, not a man, a monster, missing a leg, bandaged from head to toe, huge overgrown arm, with a black third-eye on his forehead.

“I have the answers you seek,” the monster said.

Bryant leaped to his feet, grabbing the pistol he kept taped to the underside of his desk. “Who are and what are you doing here?”

“I am no-one.” The mutant stepped closer and offered the general a open hand. In it sat a wriggling glob of Black Water not unlike a large magic bean. “This is your answer. Take it and you’ll once more have power. This is my promise to you.”

In a daze, the General took the lump of black water. As No-one lead him back into the shadows, the wriggling glob wormed its way beneath his skin.

“I’m sorry for letting you think you were making your own decisions, but you’ve done well following my orders, General,” No-one said. “Now you must meet your destiny.”