[TheFightingSpirit]

Incursion Twenty Three: Dome

The Cross Rangers stood at the centre of a domed, pitch black landscape of No-one’s creation with no way of contacting the outside.

“I’m sure the evac teams we had out there would have checked in with HQ by now,” said Yellow Cross. “Either they break us out or we find a weakness and do it ourselves. Yeah?”

White Cross took a few tentative steps forward to examine the manhole No-one had disappeared down. “Whatever we do we need to find No-one.”

“If he hasn’t escaped already,” added Blue Cross.

“I think there’s something a little more important to address…” Green Cross tightened his grip on his freshly summon land hammer. “Why the hell did he trap us here?”

“Why does he do anything?” said White Cross. “Let’s take a look around.”

Down the main road, they passed the cafe and stopped at the intersection where it crossed Paradise Street. From the tiny park on the corner of the two streets, they could see all the way to the far boundaries of the Black Water bubble.

At least the entire area was deserted. White Cross was glad she didn't have to worry about how many people could die from her missteps and hesitations. Still, she couldn't help but think back to the farce of the refugee camp. She had to trust Catherine’s people had done their job properly.

She wouldn't have doubted a few mistakes during a regime change after all.

Thankfully, as they probed further around the bubble’s interior, the area seemed devoid of people.

Blue Cross hung back as they started a sweep of the dome wall itself. He stared up into the parabolic curve, up and up to it’s apex. Though it seemed smooth and unbreakable, he wondered something.

“What if we just hit it with a Blitz? Brad and I have cleaned up Black Water that way before.”

The green ranger hefted his hammer on to his shoulder in a ready position. “Worth a go... Earthquake Blitz!”

He leaped forward with a baseball like swing and cracked the hammer against the bubble wall. Energy snaked and thundered away across the thick skin shaking walls and foundations… making not even a dent.

“I was thinking something water clan,” Blue Cross chuckled.

“Fine.” Green Cross pulled back and hauled the hammer back over his head.

“Riptide Blitz!” they roared in unison.

As Blue Cross pulled the blaster’s trigger, the green ranger swung his own weapon. Twin jets of fast moving water surged forward splashing against the wall. But rather than crack it began to ripple and seethe and roil.

“That’s different...”

“Did it... absorb the impact?”

A mass accumulated at the very centre of the disturbance.

At once, they figured out what was happening.

“Nope... hit the deck!” shouted Red Cross.

They hit the ground just as the mass roared through the air where they’d not long been standing.

The mass grew and bubbled up into a familiar humanoid shape, but instead of resolving into No-one the mass formed wings, a snout, and dagger claws. The monster looked like a cross between a bulky human male, a humongous bat, a wolf and a feline.

It’s howl chilled the rangers to the bone.

Green Cross shuddered. “Do you think maybe that’s why No-one trapped us?”

o0o

“Captain Moses,” said Cadet Ferris, calling Catherine’s attention to the war room’s central map. She added a representation of the dome. “Reports are coming in of a large dome of hardened Black Water across the intersection of Main and Paradise. The rangers are trapped inside.”

At that moment, Catherine decided to make a stand. “Cartwright. You’re in charge here until I get back.”

Ferris piped up with a small voice. “Ma’am?”

“You heard.” She could either give in to the paperwork or she could delegate and do what she was trained for. “I’m leading a team to the outer skin of the bubble, and we’re breaking in. No buts.”

o0o

The hybrid flapped it’s wings and leaped into the air.

It swooped, talons bared, aiming for Red Cross’ head. He ducked and the monster lifted itself back into the air.

“Oh come on now, not again...” Blue Cross lifted his blaster and took shots at it.

A pulse of water splashed across its wing. For a moment it looked like everything was over, but the hybrid pulled up out of the spiral and hovered just out of reach.

If ever a creature with the muzzle of a dog could smile, the beast did. It flapped its wings one and soared away over the rooftops on a well-placed warm updraft.

“We’ll split up,” said Yellow Cross.

The red ranger grabbed her arm and held her back. “That’s what it wants. It’ll pick us off one by one.”

“You think you know everything, don’t you Red,” she said. “But who’s the captain here? Who’s the new first officer?”

“That’s not what I meant...”

“Of course not. You, some kid who managed to get in on a military operation without all the hard work and training, you’d never be wrong, would you?”

White Cross stepped in between them and pushed them apart. “Now? You’re doing this now? Horrible timing! Get your heads in the game.”

o0o

Catherine and a specially selected team of demolition experts arrived at the outer perimeter of the bubble. Though it was smooth inside, a mess of looping strands of Black Water writhed and crawled and slithered across the outside.

“The damn thing’s alive,” one of the team said without thinking.

Captain Moses tilted her head. What if it was alive? The Black Water had proven it’s sentience in the past, even though it seemed about as inert as a virus otherwise. But was it truly sentient or did it only say and do what they expected of it? Absolute evil didn't exist. Nothing, not even the very worst of humanity, existed to rampage and destroy like No-one and his minions.

She shook the thought away and slipped into her role as commander. “Right. Johnson, set the charges.”

Johnson hauled a case from the APV they’d arrived in and set it down gently at the dome boundary. After a few minutes, and a couple of failed attempts when the dome had absorbed the explosive just as the two touched, he had ten charges of C4 rigged against the base.

And if this doesn't work, she thought. I just have to try myself.

They retreated a safe distance, and Johnson blew the explosives.

For a moment it looked as though the bubble couldn’t take it. It absorbed the energy and spat out the used husks of the C4 along with the wire.

“Okay then that’s enough.” Catherine patted him on the back and summoned her morpher. She shifted straight into her base form.

“Trinity Advent!” A multicoloured light surged from her and splashed across the bubble.

At first it continued to absorb, but as she pushed more and more of power into it the wall seemed to yield. The thick ropes of Black Water sunk back into the surface.

She frowned and shut off the energy wave. The dome remained in it’s inert state.

“Right, you lot stay here,” she said, tentatively putting one foot in front of the other. “Call for back up and surround this thing. I want it totally enclosed. Nothing in, nothing out.”

Even more curious, the dome bowed away from her as she approached. It stretched further and further inward until it burst and reformed behind her.

Johnson and the demo team looked at each other. How could they explain what had just happened?

o0o

Exactly as she’d expected the inside of the dome was black, and yet with each step the Black Water peeled back to reveal the natural road surface.

What the hell is going on here? It’s like it recognises me as a threat or something…

She took a deep breath and focused her power into one big burst. She held onto it as long as she could before releasing the final strand of magic. Like an elastic band it snapped away form her, desperate to return to the Earth. It spread in every direction searing away the black ichor, forming an island of normality.

We can use this. If we find the source, they're finished!

“Catherine! Hit the deck!”

Military instinct kicked in and she dropped to the ground. A large pair of talons sailed passed her head.

When she looked up the rangers had formed a protective circle around her. They faced outward with their eyes trained on the skies.

“Long story short,” said Red Cross. “No-one trapped us here. Then let loose some kind of freaky wolf-man-bat... thing.”

“Good to know.” She stood and joined the circle.

The Black Water still peeled away from her, no doubt due to the residual charge.

White Cross saw this but decided to keep comments to herself for now. She couldn't very well go disrupting the mission when she’d not long ago called Rob and Maria out on it.

CrossTrinity spun the roulette dial. When it slowed, it landed on white and her armour’s tribal lines shifted accordingly. “Allison. How ‘bout we join our friend in the air, hmm?”

The white ranger nodded. “That’ll even the score some.”

The other rangers let them from the circle, and watched as they focused their power beneath their feet. Two powerful gusts of wind threw White Cross and CrossTrinity into the air and held them aloft.

The hybrid swooped in around the corner of a building and made a dive straight for them. They split at the last second and rounded on the beast.

“Tornado Advent,” they said in unison.

A tearing wind ripped into the creatures wings and sent it tumbling to the ground not far from the rangers. It attempted to flap them, to get back in the air, but found it couldn’t.

The two rangers regrouped with the others.

“All-blitz?” Red Cross suggested.

CrossTrinity gave him the thumbs up, and they each readied their weapons.

White Cross slashed her swords, whipping up her trademark whirlwind. “Cyclone blitz.”

“Flare blitz.” Red Cross spun his spear above his head, and when he hurled it, it burst into a ball of flame.

“Sonic boom blitz.” With a swing of her tonfas, Yellow Cross loosed two loud blasts of sound.

Blue Cross charged as much energy as he could into his blaster, and unleashed a torrential jet of water. “Riptide Blitz!”

“Earthquake Blitz.” Green Cross slammed his hammer on the ground. The vibrations rumbled toward the hybrid, cracking the concrete as it went.

As each attack slammed into the monster, CrossTrinity felt out into the infinite well and drew in power.

The hybrid writhed on the floor under her teammate’s assault. For once, she wasn’t going to go easy. This time the bastards wouldn’t escape.

“Tri... force... blitz!” She threw her hands forward. The volatile stream of triple-coloured energy seared the air itself as it pummeled into the monster. It exploded and all around them the Black Water retreated, or rather, dissolved under the force of her magic.

The rangers looked at her aghast.

“I didn’t know you could do that,” said Green Cross.

“To be fair, I rarely know what I’m doing until it comes to me,” she admitted. They seemed taken aback that their commanding officer would say such a thing. “What? I’m not winging it. I’m not, I mean... the voices they…”

She trailed off realising how stupid she sounded.

The rangers began to laugh.

“You know, Cat,” said Red Cross. “We know exactly what you mean.”