Universe 19930828

Year 2000

Lightspeed Aquabase

Mariner Bay, California

When the Doom Slayer stepped through the blue portal, he was greeted by a familiar sight. Lights flickered, and alarms blared in the room. As he surveyed the area, a nearby window caught his attention. Peering through the reinforced glass, he determined he was once again in some sort of underwater facility.

He raised his left arm, looking at a red stone locked in his gauntlet. Its glow would intensify the closer and more powerful a malevolent entity was in his proximity. For his objective, he pressed onward.

Plasma rifle at the ready, he marched out the room and into the dim hallway. It didn't take long for him to hear light screeches, the flap of wings, and the tatter of footsteps. Just as he turned a corner, his gaze met those of a seemingly endless group of creatures.

They were bipedal. To the Slayer's estimation, it was another variety of imp. Its body was deep black. Like a bat, it adorned pointed ears and its respective wings. Its chest bore the golden symbol of a demonic tail. Beady yellow and red eyes looked at him in confusion and hesitation. Red claws, swords, and rifles soon raised swords to attack. Just as his gauntlet identified, the filthy vermin's last mistake was daring to point weapons at him.

A copper crucible attached to the focusing lens of the Plasma Rifle absorbed residual thermal energy from the weapon. Decisively, a secondary trigger was pulled. The Rifle transferred the heat to a borosilicate diffusion chamber, discharging it instantly. A heated pressure wave unleashed its fury An entire section of the army had been vaporized by the UAC D-93 Model Plasma Rifle, with the surrounding crowd knocked to the ground. Following their demise, the rest of the army converged on the lone man. It was hundreds against one, an uneven match... for them. Their measly attacks peppered his armor.

His right hand rained down high-intensity plasma while his left swiped at them with an extended arm blade. To his surprise, on the blade's first contact, sparks flew. Instead of usual blood and guts, the demon exploded in an array of fire and smoke. That was new. Another Batling ran up to him, only for it to take a punch to the gut, exploding it into more smoke. It must just be how demons are in this world.

As the Plasma Rifle's magazine emptied, he let it go, returning it to his warp pack. Pulling his right fist back, it hummed in red hellish energy. His arm shot forth faster than a lightning bolt's return to heaven. The sheer power behind the blood punch ignored their defense, ripping a twenty-foot cone ahead into pieces of ash and dust.

Now understanding the threat level of these imp demons, he raised both hands, and a combat shotgun dropped into place. His shoulder-mounted ordnance system fired an EYE-C40 gas canister in the middle of a group, detonating and flash-freeze the nearby targets. One shell spread was all it took to shatter the bodies to pieces. Not wasting time, the shoulder turret spun, shifting modes. A gout of fire breathed out, lighting a dozen of imps.

With the demons nice and seared, the Titanium Shotgun leveled for battle. After a moment of charging, the Argent Compression Reloader fired several high-velocity buck shots in rapid succession.

The song and dance continued on these lesser enemies until they were either liquefied or ashes throughout the corridor. With this brief pause to his slaughter, he moved to the next room. It was much larger than the last one. From what little screens were still active, he was probably in the archive section of the facility. From the gem in his gauntlet, he knew there were still bigger fish in the area, and he needed to know where. The Doom Slayer stopped when he came across a functioning terminal. After thinking for a moment, he reached into his warp-pack and pulled out a foreign device. After locating a data port, he held the object before it, and the metal was configured into a compatible connector.

A few seconds after inserting the device, a blue circular logo appeared on the screen. "Connection to the Fortress established. Beginning the search for relevant information now." Several images popped up on the screen: an ancient tomb, several demons of varying sizes, and schematics for weapons and vehicles. "According to the available database, this city of Mariner Bay was unintentionally built on an ancient demon burial ground." The Slayer's fists clenched in agitation. "It is said that the Demons ruled the land around Mariner Bay five thousand years ago, a real threat to early human civilization. Cave paintings depict what appears to be a powerful wizard who managed to seal all the Demons in a tomb. They remained imprisoned there for thousands of years until recently." His combat shotgun pumped, ready to purge.

"We are currently in the underwater base, designated as the Rescue Ops Center. Much like the Armored Response Coalition, the humans here prepared for the potential demonic invasion, designated as Operation Lightspeed. Water appears to be a natural deterrent for these demons. Unfortunately, like ARC, they are currently under invasion."

While Holy Water was useful against most demons, to hear that these were against water, in general, was a surprise. As much as he could flood the entire base to flush out the demons here, he would hold it off as a last resort. Suddenly, the entire base shook, and a small part of the reinforced glass cracked. The marine turned to the screen for an answer. "Warnings show that mechas designated as the Omega Megazord and Lifeforce Megazord have left the repair hangers, not by human hands."

Understanding what the enemy was up to, the Marine started marching out of the room, ready to clean house.

"The Omega Megazord has departed for the surface while the Lifeforce Megazord is the current hazard, now approaching the barracks dome number four. I recommend disabling the latter with minimal damage. It may prove beneficial to our mission. I will continue compiling the data and make contact with any survivors."

The Doom Marine simply nodded and searched for the nearest airlock. He disliked underwater combat, but it would not stop his blade.

Meanwhile

'When had it all started going wrong?' thoughtCaptain Mitchell. In their previous mission, the Omega Megazord had been damaged, adding to the list of the Rescuezord and Super Train Megazord. Only the Lifeforce Megazord is operational. In contrast, Queen Bansheera is still at full power, only a fraction of it used against them in the city. His only son risked his life to save them before getting captured. If the Queen is successful, she will resurrect ALL the demons from the Shadow World. It wasn't an easy decision, but Carter volunteered to go and save his son. Using the Mobile Armored Vehicle, Carter reached his target, the stormclouds connected to Skull Cavern.

While they waited for the Red Ranger's return, it was Ms. Fairweather who discovered the invasion force of Batlings. She locked the hanger as best she could, but it soon blasted open. The base had entered into Red Alert. Lockdown procedures had been initiated. The Batlings flooded across the base. In the Gallery, Joel and Dana, the Green and Pink Rangers, made first contact, engaging as many enemies as possible and soon morphing.

Evacuating Cadets and Technicians were left to the mercy of the remaining army. Batlings launched grenades and rockets in the narrow corridors, taking them down and out. To assist in the evacuation, the Lightspeed Riot Patrol Squad was deployed. Decked out in helmets, large shields, and heavy padding, their objective was to hold back the Batlings from the non-combatant's evacuation as the Rangers or other troops deployed, this case being Chad and Kelsey, the Blue and Yellow Rangers, respectively.

Suddenly, the entire base rocked seemingly by a quake, knocking many defenders to the floor. Pink & Green Lightspeed Rangers are knocked to the floor by this, as are most of the Batlings they were fighting. Those near a window looked out to see the source of the base quaking outside, stomping around the sea floor. It was the Lifeforce Megazord!

The Lifeforce Megazord, holding its red Lightspeed emblem Saber in hand, marched past the dome where the Galley is located. The rogue Megazord heads over to one of the supply towers and slashes its Saber into it. A piece of debris from that trashed tower slammed into one of the other Pods! The stray chunk is sent speeding into the Rescue Ops pod, again lowering their defensive line.

Mitchell raced to one of the main consoles with Ms. Fairweather, both entering commands as fast as they could. They bring up a display on the small monitors overhead of the Lifeforce Megazord slashing its Saber into the Aquabase and the Batlings inside the cockpit.

The Captain gasped, "It's the Megazord!"

Angela noted, "Pod Four is under attack!"

Mitchell stared at the small screen, watching silently as the Lifeforce Megazord whipped its sword around, readying another attack just as soon as the Batlings get the hang of things. Many personnel have been injured in the invasion so far.

Back with the Rangers, the rate of Batlings entering the base versus the amount the Rangers could take down was too much. The four rangers eventually regrouped and locked themselves in the Rescue Ops center. Reinforced metal doors held back the horde of angry Batlings off from Rescue Ops entirely.

Green asks Pink, "You okay, Dana?!"

She replies breathlessly, "Yeah, barely."

They both remove their helmets and nod at each other when Kelsey exclaims, "They're gonna hit us again!"

Dana & Joel turn their attention towards her, as outside, the Lifeforce Megazord prepares its Saber for attacking one of the main towers.

Kelsey and Chad stood next to Captain Mitchell and Ms. Fairweather. "Everybody, hold on!" They all braced for impact.

The Lifeforce Megazord raised its blade and brings it down. A dull shockwave and reverb washed over the control room, knocking over objects but surprisingly not a lot of damage.

Joel looked up from the floor. "That wasn't as bad as I thought it would be."

Doctor Fairweather was the first to look back at the monitors. "Pod Four... is still standing."

"What?! How?!" exclaimed Chad.

A closer look at the monitors showed that the Lifeforce Megazord was targeting something zipping through the water. Its sword flailed around in an attempt to strike while still out of reach of the base.

Those in Ops recover, gasping for air nervously. Captain Mitchell looks especially frightened yet hopeful.

Suddenly several monitors blinked out before displaying an unfamiliar blue logo. "Connection established. Greetings, Doctor Fairweather, Captain Mitchell."

Joel took a step back. "Uh, Ms. Fairweather. Is this one of your projects."

"No..." The good doctor began typing rapidly against her command console, determined to locate the source of the intruder. "Who are you?"

"Did you cause all this?" accused Captain Mitchell.

In a calm voice, the stranger answered. "I can assure you that I mean no harm. We both share the same objective: neutralizing the demonic threat. You may call me Vega."

The team looked at each other before looking back at the screen. Chad spoke up. "Okay, Vega. What do you want?"

"I wish to assist in your endeavors. At this time, your Omega Megazord has been commandeered by enemy forces and is making its way to the mainland.

The hearts of everyone sank at the news. "We need to stop it," exclaimed Joel.

Captain Mitchell grit his teeth. "We can't do anything without risking more of our personnel's safety with the Lifeforce Megazord stolen and the army behind our doors." He turned to the screen. "If you have a plan to get my people to safety and on the surface, I'm willing to listen."

Vega sounded pleased at the branch of cooperation. "I am currently mapping out the most efficient path to the Submarine bay and the Surface Access tunnels. My associate will give us time to prepare. He is engaging the Lifeforce Megazord as we speak."

The intelligence received several confused looks. "Who is?"

From a nearby window, there were several blue flashes of light and reverberations in the direction of said zord. "The Doom Marine."

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