Power Rangers Chronic Storm 1: The Axis of Power

Chapter 18: Sun

Queen Diane excused herself from the festivities to pay a visit to her prized war prisoner. General Axis had been locked up in a high priority, thickly layered cell inside Time Force HQ. Every corner and station had officers posted around the clock, constantly surveilling the captured criminal from within the silver-tinted walls.

Diane entered the cell where Axis resided and removed the covering that had been placed on his mouth.

"Ah! 'My Queen.' To what do I owe this... er, honor?"

Diane fiercely backhanded him across the face. "You should be burnt to ash for your crimes and the only reason you are still breathing is because I'm allowing it...! Now, you made a promise to my son that you had answers for us regarding your... brother." She shivered slightly at the thought. "If you prove lacking in the information department, I don't think you'll need to worry about him coming for you... because I would have long since finished the job."

Axis looked upon Diane's icy glare and smirked. "It burns you, doesn't it? To have me, here, captured, vulnerable, only to realize an even larger shadow is set to be cast across your kingdom for which you need the intel I can provide. The feeling must be incredible."

Diane's scowl grew sharper as she cocked back her hand again.

"Fret not, fret not. I plan very much to give you the answers you need. Getting rid of him once and for all has its own benefits to me. Constantly looking behind one's back does no favors for the neck."

"Triforians..." Diane slowly dropped her hand. "The things you're willing to do to your own kin sicken me."

Axis laughed heartily. "Now now, I don't believe that you can stand there and call me out for what I'm willing to do to my so-called kin. We both know why that makes you something of a hypocrite now don't we?"

Diane had no response.

"Sacrificing for power is the name of the game we both play, 'My Queen,' hehehe."

"Enough! You will speak no further! I will get the answers I need soon enough. But if your brother is as hell-bent on destroying you as you'd have us believe, you will make for a nice bartering piece, should we require it."

Diane left Axis' cell.

"And thank you for the accommodations! One of the finer places I've ever been locked up in." Axis continued to laugh while Time Force officers reapplied his mouth restraint.

Diane's heart raced throughout the exchange, only now slowing down to a normal pace. Axis must be lying. There's no possible way Axl could have returned... I'll figure out how much he really knows soon enough.

Just upstairs, Time Force prepared their time warp device to send the Ranger teams back to their own homes. The members of Chronic Storm collectively decided to stay for a little bit longer to spend time with each other before they parted ways. Ethan, Taylor, and Kendrix each exchanged pleasantries with the members of their original Ranger teams before they were sent back with the promise that they would all see each other again soon.

Carter found himself by himself throughout most of the farewells. He felt a strange emptiness seeing Ethan joke around with his team of Dino Thunder Rangers. Their liveliness reminded him of the "charm" of Joel Rawlings, the Lightspeed Rescue Green Ranger. He thought about what his team was doing now, if everything was okay. Just before he came to this time, they had helped the Time Force Power Rangers stop Vypra, an old nemesis of Lightspeed who somehow returned to the land of the living. Carter thought constantly about who else might have come back in his absence.

More than anything, he thought about Dana. He asked her out officially just before he left. They only hung out casually, free and any true labels, before then. He decided on a very old fashioned approach as well, formally asking for Captain Mitchell's permission beforehand. He remembered Dana's saddened expression most of all; the strong face she made to mask her sullenness when Carter went through his very first time portal... It had been so long. But he knew he couldn't go home just yet.