Path of Ranger: Volume 1

by RJ

  No more words were needed. The big guy could sense their evil intentions. His worse expectations appeared to be true. From the very beginning JB knew it could go south, yet he tried to avoid it. He fixed all his instruments back to its places and made a few steps sideways, to find a drier spot.

  “What were you saying there about the truth, Josh?” JB addressed the colonel.

  “You’ve betrayed your own kind.”

  “Hm…” JB smirked. “No, I haven’t.”

  His hand laid on the knife’s handle behind the back.

  “I knew you would say so!”

  Just as the colonel wanted to reach for a taser, the mutant was ready to throw that knife. When, suddenly, an unexpected flash of pain struck through his body. All the muscles were affected instantly. The blade slipped out of his immobilized fingers to fall on the floor. He couldn’t move the head or any other body part. He even couldn’t fall down. His control was blocked completely. Just as JB tried to move the jaws to ask what had they done to him, he saw a small remote in Tina’s hand.

  Skyman walked ahead. He didn’t rush. Tasting each moment of his dominance.

  “You’re really one of a kind, JB. You’ve just taken out three dozen frolls using just a sword.”

  “Give me a medal…” slowly, through pain JB pushed out.

  “Are you still talking?” Josh gave Tina a look. “Increase the power.” The colonel watched another of the mutant’s spasms with pleasure. “Nanobots… There was enough of them just in one can, actually. But, you rangers, can’t live without that swill of yours, can you? And now, when you behave, we are going to have a real talk…”

  It was a white chamber, a bright one, not like most of the interiors in that station. The light was hurting JB’s eyes, even if they were closed. He opened them slowly.

  A headache was like on a bad hangover. His muscles hurt and his body was powerless. Even lying on that bed felt burdening. JB was strangled by his wrists, shoulders, ankles, thighs and neck. Yet, he felt so powerless, that he wasn’t sure if there was a chance for him to get up anyway. An intense illumination was coming from above, it looked like some fancy surgical equipment. Mobile stands with instruments were from the sides and a large mirror window in front of him. Just then, the mutant realized that he was fixed on a surgical table. He couldn’t move his head, but he could feel slight bumps on the ribs. His mouth was shut by something and he wasn’t able to hear anything. There was no way to tell for how long he lay there.

  “I can’t figure out how to remove this thing!” Fred fussed around nervously trying to unlock JB’s vest. He threw away the screwdriver and stepped back.

  The agent breathed out heavily and stretched his back. He seemed tired. Then the man returned to work. When looking for another instrument to use, he noticed that JB’s eyes had opened.

  “He’s up, Josh!”

  A whiteout view got broken by a man’s silhouettes emergence in front of the lamps. The mutant recognized Skyman in it. The colonel removed the earplugs from the prisoner’s ears, then took off his mask to free the mouth and changed the bed’s position to half vertical way.

  JB was able to see his kidnappers now. He also noticed the sleeves of his pilot suit were cut off and tubes coming from his bare forearms. There were a few blood vessels hanging aside. It explained why Bridgers felt so tired.

  “How interesting. And we had lost the hope already,” the colonel spoke.

  The ranger moved his lips, trying to say something, but all there was just a dry rattle.

  “W-w-ater,” he mumbled from the second try.

  El looked at the leader questioning, he nodded to let her. The woman stepped closer to the captive mutant. She looked worried, startled even. Then El put a tube between his lips and stayed there to hold a canteen for him to drink from. Just in a few deep sips JB consumed the whole volume without a single breath.

  In next thirty seconds, his look changed from lifeless and pity to confident and somewhat angry.

  “So you did get my blood after all,” JB commented, his stare on those blood containers. “Don’t do that, Josh. You won’t be able to handle the consequences.”

  “It’s too late for talking, JB. You’ve been unconscious for the last fourteen hours. We started the rig approximately six point five hours ago. All we have to do now is to wait until it gets stabilized.”

  “Fucking idiots! You don’t know what you’ve done.”

  “Come on, stop it. The portal deal is over. Now we have to figure out the last question. You. Today we are going to find out the secret of your power.”

  Skyman nodded at Tina. The woman was wearing unusual surgical suit with lots of mechanical parts on it. JB got from the start that he wouldn’t like it.

  “First we’ll dissect you into small pieces, then we’ll study them and find out where your strength is coming from. And when it happens, we’ll make a biostimulator and produce thousands like you. Then the war will be over!”

  “Is she the one to do the surgery?” the ranger wondered. “Couldn’t you find a surgeon? Huh? It is a huge research center; I think a couple of those got to be around. Or have you killed them too?”

  “Commander Adamy insisted on clearing up the witnesses. And you shouldn’t doubt Tina’s performance. The neural coordinator will assist the brain in doing the job, it will make her moves as good as a surgeon’s,” Josh pointed at the small shining device fixed to the woman’s neck.

  “I can’t believe you’ve killed all these people. Thousands of employees. All because of me?” the ranger said disappointedly.

  But Skyman just arrogantly laughed.

  “You? Not because of you. To keep the secret.”

  The coldblooded acting of the colonel crossed all the lines. It wasn’t the same man whom JB used to know. The ranger noticed how the officer scratched his left wrist from time to time. Then he understood what was going on.

  “How many shots did you have to do this time, Josh? Three? Four doses? It had to take a lot for you to dare.” JB turned away. He couldn’t stand a look at those people anymore. “You can’t even kill without the drugs. What kind of agents are you?”

  Meanwhile, Fred was still trying to figure out how to remove that vest from the mutant’s body. Another several minutes were no good. The man got agitated.

  “That thing won’t ever go off!” he shouted in irritation.

  “Try a laser cutter,” Eugene suggested.

  “No! No lasers!” Skyman rejected. “We’re too close to the reactor.”

  The agents moved closer to their prisoner. Josh looked at Tina, who was already ready to perform. The scalpel in her hand shined with silver, symbolizing an upcoming ranger’s death.

  “She’s ready, JB. Come on, it’s over. The sooner we finish, the sooner your pain goes away. Tell us how to remove this vest,” the colonel began convincing the mutant.

  “The lock is on the back. Unlock the fetters, I’ll turn around for you…” the mutant said boldly, moving his brow up.

  He felt much better by that time. His enhanced regeneration of his was doing the job just fine. JB was confident that if he managed to get out, he could handle the five.

  “As you wish…” Skyman continued. “We don’t care how to dissect you: dead or alive.” Josh turned to the main agent of his. “Eugene.”

  Eugene instantly took out the gun out of the holster and was going to get to the prisoner. JB rushed to stop him.

  “Hey-hey! No need for any ‘Eugenes’ here… Okay, I’ll tell you how to remove it…” Bridgers went confessing.

  Skyman lifted his palm to stop the soldier.

  “That’s better!”

  “There is a force lock. The more strength you use to unlock it, the stronger it holds. The key is a crystal from the sack, which was on my belt.”

  Just hearing the right words the colonel spoke into the communicator to call for one of the guards. The rahtiong brought the belt in. He threw the piece on the nearest table and stood straight waiting for
the next order.

  “Take the crystal, private, and bring it to me!” Skyman said.

  The soldier got around it without questions. The rahtiong turned the belt in his shuffle-hands a few times until he found that old leather sack. Then he shook the crystal out on his open palm. A dark-vinous clot of gibsonium lay there, on the alien’s sandy red skin. The creature stood there motionless, being charmed by that artifact. He leaned down his massive head to take a closer look. It lasted for about a half a minute. The rock just lay there, radiating a dim glow and the soldier was watching it. Then, at one moment, his fingers snapped together, grabbing the crystal, and next second the rahtiong dropped down.

  That’s when a falling two hundred kilograms of alien weight hooked the table prepared by Tina. All her instruments got scattered around the room.

  “What’s wrong with him? Is he dead?” Fred wondered.

  After watching that lying body for a while, Skyman turned to the mutant impatiently.

  “The crystal is poisoned, isn’t it?”

  “Who asked you to touch it with your hands? It was sealed in that sack for a reason,” JB said showing quite a bit of self-satisfaction.

  “I can pick it up with the mechanical hand,” Tina suggested.

  The gloves of her surgical suit shined up with LED illumination. Then she moved her hand and the mechanical arm of the surgical rig went in motion. It came from the ceiling down to the floor to take the crystal out of the alien’s grip. When the fingers got removed from the artifact, it harmlessly fell to the ground.

  “Your tricks won’t hurt anybody anymore, ranger!” Eugene said. “Take it!”

  The three mechanical claws moved down and closed up instantly to fix a crystal in between them. The next second the whole arm was covered in emerging electrical charges. The light went shaking inside the room, then it went out entirely. A sonic wave came through, the equipment was bursting up in sparks, which were breaking the darkness.

  That madness was going on for about a half of a minute, but it felt much longer for the agents. They were scared and confused. Some of them thought that they heard a sound of the opening fetters, but it was hard to distinguish at the moment.

  Soon the backup lighting turned on. The agents looked at their prisoner right away. But all they saw was an empty surgical table. No JB, no belt, no gibsonium crystal. He even had taken one of the cut off sleeves with a communicator on it. The door opened up a couple of rahtiong guards looked inside. They looked confused as much as the agents.

  Skyman checked the darkness in the hallway, then he turned to his agents and got even more angry.

  “He escaped through the observing room! After him!”

  The group armed up and rushed after their twice lost prisoner.

  After taking advantage of the moment, JB found himself swiftly walking along the station’s hallway. He wasn’t able to run yet, his legs still felt sick. Besides, the ranger wasn’t sure where he was going. That part of the layout was new for him. A plan for the time being was to get away as far as he could. Then, at the first suitable moment, he had to check that data he had stolen earlier, to find the station’s blueprints in it.

  The agents just got out of that chamber. JB could hear their far voices. He programmed the communicator to search for the map. It was to take a while.

  Four rahtiong thugs came along with the group of agents. The mutant’s super hearing recognized the charging clicks with the very first tunes. JB had to start running while he still had that advantage. His mind still was in the process of getting around that when the feet already started doing their job. A firing sounded from behind. Those were real steel bullets. For the last five years, JB hadn’t encountered once the good old fire weapons. His chest got squeezed and he felt a sharp pain in the heart. Gibson’s bullet proof vest had activated.

  The mutant saw as the first bullets reached him were curving around his body hitting the walls and the ceiling. Now he felt ashamed that he had mocked Doc for that great invention.

  “Cease fire! We need him alive!” the colonel shouted after the first lines were released.

  Just as the shooting stopped the pressure of the vest went out as well. JB finally reached the turn, where he switched the armor piece to the lower voltage. He felt better right away. The breathing got much easier.

  “Well done, Gibson…” JB mumbled to himself. He stopped behind that corner to wait for his followers. “Okay, Skyman… Wanna play? Let’s play.”

  The communicator beeped. The ranger checked its screen, there was a detailed scheme of the building on it. All JB had was just a few seconds to study the map, then the firing went on again.

  The enemy group was close. The mutant’s right hand took out the sword from the sheath. He moved it up getting ready to hit the first opponent. His body tensed up and froze. JB gave in entirely to hearing, evaluating each step of the enemy.

  With the very first millimeter shown up out of the corner, the mutant went in. He arced the sword down slicing the soldier’s machine gun into two pieces. The bright sparks from the blown up bullet broke the darkness to illuminate the rahtiong’s red skin for a moment. Then the big guy shifted aside, picking the angle for the upcoming hit. The blade went through both forearms of the alien in a flash. Still being in that action, JB twisted on the spot to cut the soldier’s head. A simple combination of the ranger’s well-skilled moves made the first enemy fall in pieces.

  JB avoided the falling body of that creature to meet the next one. But an unexpected punch massively hit him in the face. The weight advantage of the next red soldier threw the mutant on the opposite wall. JB wasn’t in the best shape to fight, and apparently he had overestimated his strength. The following hit he suffered wasn’t with the fist, but with the rahtiong’s poisoned stinger. It stabbed JB into the loin, piercing his soft human flesh through. The spike didn’t go too deep, but enough for a stinging venom to be released. It had been a long time since the mutant felt such a strong pain. Everything felt burning inside, he couldn’t move. Now the nanobots seemed as just a walk in the park.

  “Give it up, Ranger! You’re paralyzed!” watching joyfully as the alien thugs put JB down, Skyman slowly walked around.

  “Hell, I will!” JB shouted.

  With an upcoming rage, a new strength had awakened inside the mutant. His body twisted up in an impulse letting him cut through both of rahtiongs at once. The pressure dropped, along with that unexpected strength. JB went down. He saw as Eugene’s hand was lifting up a grenade launcher, while falling. In the very last moment, the ranger’s left hand covered his face, and the right one turned the power on the vest to its maximum. The inner plates squeezed him so much, he felt as blood pumped into the head.

  First it was a click, then an explosion came through. The grenade’s trajectory got bent and it ended up in the wall, over the ranger's head. The concrete wreckage curved around the vest’s force field hitting the agents themselves. The nearest space got filled with a thick dust. It took a several seconds for the soldiers to snap back. By that time, JB managed to squeeze through the freshly made hole.

  “Tina, nanobots,” Skymen rattled, trying to get up.

  The last surviving rahtiong guard started battering the wall to make the hole bigger so he could go through. Fred had taken the least damage among all of the agents. He checked on the others. Skyman, Eugene, and El were getting up. Yet, Tina lay still. She had lost consciousness. A stream of blood coming from her forehead indicated that she had taken significant damage. The agent took her into his arms and rushed checking her with his personal diseaster.

  “Is she alive?” El asked worriedly.

  “Yes! I’ll take care of her!” Fred answered. His hands were already charging an injector with the right medicine. “I’ll take care of her! You get that bastard!”

  Hearing the last words, the other agents exchanged looks. They all were tired and angry. Skyman nodded to others.

  “Let’s go!”

  The agents went to the other
side of the wall, after the red soldier.

  Fighting the pain and growing muscle weakness, JB was walking along the hinged track. As it appeared, the chamber behind that wall was something that looked like a giant cylindrical reactor. It was high and bottomless. A particle current streamed up from the bottom. These small glowing dots were flying towards the top as little fireflies. And the bottom looked like a solid blue glow. The perimeter of the chamber had these circle tracks with lots of prison cells inside the walls. Something was blocking the sound there. A soft hum coming from the bottom.

  JB leaned over the railing to take a good look down. His wide sight caught hundreds of those cells. All of them were full. Lots of various creatures: from the local wild animals to the well-known alien species. The prisoners must’ve been held there for experiments, at least JB thought so. The ranger’s presence made some of the inmates agitated. They went howling, screaming, jumping around, hitting the bars and going crazy in that limited space of theirs. But it mostly was visual. The overall hum suppressed the noise.

  Suddenly, the mutant felt a vibration. Someone heavy just jumped on the track, one lever upper. JB had managed to go down by a few levels since he got into that hole. Now it looked like his enemies were following him. No time to stop. The poison, injected by the soldier, would take over soon and then the ranger would be completely immobilized. He had to finish the mission, to transfer the data to his ship.

  JB checked the communicator. Another surprise was waiting for him there. The screen was shattered by an explosion, as along with the projection lenses. He clutched the power button to get an overall feedback. The indicator blinked, so the device was still on. There was just one way left to use that communicator – voice control. But the hum wouldn’t let make that happen. Bridgers had to find a place quiet enough for his voice to be heard.

  There was nothing suitable around at first sight: just walls and walking tracks. His last hope was to get a few levels lower, to gain some time, and try one of the cells.