Ainōryoku Sentai Nightmærangers! #23 (Patreon)

On the Madness Of Mountains, Part 10

Jas—or rather, Jaselle Alhambra, as she introduced herself—didn't have any clothes. According to her, she'd flown from Manila as superheated plasma, leaving behind a trail that was probably literally cold now.

"So, you can control heat?" Tammy asked excitedly as they flew, carried by Sanny as… something with wings. Bird wings, this time, since she complained it was a little too hot for insect wings, which seemed to be her preference. Multiple bird wings, to handle the weight of the four of them AND the rain, which was pouring down in earnest. Kim supposed all that vaporized lake water had to go somewhere. The four of them were stacked like a strange bracelet charm of beads, with Jas at the very bottom as a ball of volcanic glass that still glowed red with inner heat, Kim as a ball of pink stone connected to her—they'd grown rings that had snapped into each other's loop like a chain—Willy holding on to him as a ball of ice to prevent heat transfer, and Tammy at the very top being held by Sanny.

"Not directly," Jas said, a part of her lighting up with glowing plasma even as her obsidian vibrated so she could talk. "I could radiate heat, then somehow draw that heat back to myself, but I can't control it by beyond sending it out and drawing it back. And I can't draw in heat in general, only heat I've generated."

"Huh," Sanny commented. "That's… interesting. Is that why the fog? You pulled in a lot of heat out of the area?"

"Yes." Her initial nervousness at suddenly meeting the other girls had faded away, and while she was still getting the hand of making herself heard, vibrating using the cooled parts of her body seemed to be working for her than trying to talk by modulating arcs of plasma. "That was dangerous of me. I was too aggressive in my initial attack."

"Well, it was probably your first fight," Tammy said soothingly. "I think you did pretty good. I mean, you lived, right?"

"I hope you don't think I'm a reckless person," Jas said. "I'm usually much more level headed. But when I saw the news report about there being some creature at the volcano, I just… had a strong urge."

"Oh, one of those," Sanny said dismissively. "Been there. Just don't give in to the one about eating us all and we'll be fine."

"People are friends, not food," Tammy chirped.

"Exactly."

"Yes, I've been managing to keep that one suppressed," Jas said. There was a buzzing warble of plasma that could almost have been a sigh. "How do you deal with it?"

"Constant vigilance, like the one-eyed psycho says," Tammy said.

"What she said," Kim agreed. "Though I don't know who she's referencing. I'm guessing it a reference."

"You learn to pick which ones to ignore and which can be indulged," Sanny said. "It usually helps to have a good reason why not."

"Oh. I see."

A brief silence.

"Sorry we're not more helpful, but that's really all I can say," Kim said apologetically.

"In hindsight, I suppose it was foolish of me to expect our changes to be exactly similar," Jas said. Her voice sounded tired yet thoughtful.

"We can compare notes later, if you want," Sanny said. "I think we're almost at our destination. Kim, can you see the car? "

He grew a protrusion to one side to better see around Jas beneath him. "Yeah, I see it. Where are we going to change clothes, though?"

"Tammy, where's a good place of a bunch of bushes to spontaneously grow?"

"On it!"

They landed in the middle of a bare patch in the sudden and spontaneous bushes that had grown in an already obscured corner that quickly became even more obscured, and was probably going to baffle whoever was in charge of tending the plants around the gas station arcade mall… place his dad and brother had parked at. The drone that Sanny had sent ahead to get the backpack with their clothes came soon after. Or drones, rather, a small flock of the clearly unnatural things struggling with the pack before dropping into a field a long way off. A few minutes later, a single drone shaped like a large dog arrived at their hiding spot, the wet backpack incongruously on its back.

Several embarrassed minutes later where no one saw anything but it felt strangely intimate anyhow, Kim was walking towards the car, vines and a big leaf wrapped around his feet to look like sandals, an umbrella made from a length of bamboo and another leaf that Tammy had made in his hand. The girls followed after him, their feet similarly attired and carrying all-natural plant-grown umbrellas thanks to Tammy. Sanny had lent Jas her clothes, and the young woman had needed to fold up the hems of the jeans and tuck in the collared shirt to look presentable, the too-loose pants pulled back by subtly folding the waist and keeping the folds tucked in with wooden pegs like clothesline pins Tammy had also made. The latter was wearing the backpack on her front, the zipper partially undone.

The car was empty of course, but there was a fast food place nearby, and Kim could see his dad and brother there, eating lunch. He pointed towards them, and they diverted, leaving the umbrella plant things outside the door to drip dry. As soon as he got close, his dad got up and gave him a full-on man hug: both arms all the way around, patting him on the back and enough pressure to make Kim momentarily think of turning into stone.

"Hi dad," he said awkwardly. "We're back."

"You're all right," his dad sighed, relieved. He held on for one more second then, let go and stepped back. His brother was less man hug and more victory hug, like Kim had won a race or a contest or something, and his expression was less relieved and more awed. His dad turned to the girls. "You must be hungry. Why don't you all order something you can eat in the car, my treat." He reached into his wallet and handed a bill to Kim.

"Thank you sir," Tammy said politely. "Um, could we leave this bag here with you?"

"We'll watch it," Ryan said, then frowned, his gaze lingering on Jaselle. "Wait, didn't you leave with someone else?"

"Uh, dad, Ryan, this is Jaselle," Kim introduced. "We met her in Tagaytay."

Jas gave another awkward wave, though that was the only sign she might have been a little nervous. With her power off, she was a young woman of below average height, only an inch or two taller than Tammy. She had the sort of dark skin that indicated both natural skin tone and being out in the sun a lot, almost as dark as Sanny. "Hello, sir. Your son invited me to ride back with you to the city."

"Then where's Ate Sanny?" Ryan asked.

"In here," the backpack said, just barely loud enough to be heard.

His dad and Ryan stared at the partially open backpack as a small muzzle pocked out of the opening, followed by the head of a cute, golden puppy of indeterminate breed. It stared up at them with soulful brown eyes.

"Get me something too, okay?" the puppy said. "And tissues, in case it drips on me?"

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They went their separate ways almost anti-climactically, polite thanking Kim and his father for the ride and talking about how they should get together again next weekend since that day had been… busy. Tammy had apologetically asked if they could keep the drinks and snacks they'd bought in Kim's house for the next weekend, which was why Kim now had a stash of party food in his room. Jas had called for a taxi since she hadn't had her phone with her, and promised she'd come back to meet with everyone the following weekend. Sanny had asked for her clothes back by then.

Then the mildly awkward good byes had been exchanged one last time and… they were gone, with Sanny literally turning into a bird to fly away.

Dinner was quiet and awkward as Ryan and Kim moved the TV from the living room so they could watch the news over dinner, finally allowing him to catch up on what Sanny and Tammy had been doing. Naturally, since this was the Philippine news cycle, it was the same 3 sentences about how evacuees had been under attack by bees, 'the plant monster and the yellow monster' had arrived and started eating the bees while causing panic because they looked scary, they had left, and eventually the bees had stopped attacking. All this was interspersed with what seemed the grainiest cellphone video they could get off the internet, lots of barely intelligible interviews with evacuees who either cried about how they had to leave everything they owned because of the volcano, local government officials of the affected regions saying how they were 'doing everything they can' and asking for relief supplies from viewers, and eyewitnesses talking about how frightened they were when the plant monster and yellow monster had suddenly appeared.

They also talked about the eruption of the volcano itself, and Kim was surprised to see that someone had gotten part of his fight with the Lava horse on video. Sure, it was the same 'bottom of the grain barrel' quality, and there was only a pink glow and an orange glow, but that was definitely them. How suicidal had that person been? Kim distinctly remembered lava bombs falling from the sky many, many times.

After dinner, his father had called Kim to the guest room that doubled as his father's home office. What followed was what Kim could only call an intense debriefing, as his father sat him down and asked him to related everything that had happened after leaving the car in the middle of traffic. He repeated what he could remember, trying not to feel frustrated at father's insistence. He had to do it twice more, each time told to tell it in a different ay, before his father finally let him go back to his room.

His bed was tempting, but habit made Kim tiredly check his phone for messages. There were no more messages from Katherine—he supposed she'd gone to sleep already, or was otherwise busy, and he debated sending her something before deciding against it. He needed his rest. Unconsciously, his finger moved to check his email.

There was a message from Sanny waiting for him there, containing an invitation to join a chat group, and a user name and password. The username was 'Pink'.

For a moment, he stared at it, debating whether to click it or not. He made his decision when he saw it needed him to download an app for his phone that he didn't have.

Kim went to sleep, putting it off for the morning.

He dreamed of strange spaces and lost places and the bones of the earth…

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It was only in the late afternoon, after breakfast, going to church, lunch, and almost getting volunteered to help his mother do the groceries did Kim have time to follow up on Sanny's message. Fortunately, downloading the app to his phone didn't result in any hidden hellishness, and he was able to log in using the username and password.

Hey, someone labeled 'Yellow' answered almost immediately. Been waiting for you. You all right?

Yeah. Sorry, I dind't answer last night, my dad wanted to talk to me about what happened and it went on for a while.

Ah. I hope you didn't get in trouble? Did he ask you to stop associating with us?

Kim frowned. He didn't actually. He just asked me what happened.

Oh? How unexpected. Well, let's not trouble trouble until trouble troubles us, then How are youfeeling? Do you want to leave us? Is this goodbye?

For a long moment, Kim considered the question.

No. I'm staying.

Welcome aboard, then. Our name is almost certainly going to have the name 'ranger' in it now.

Kim raised an eyebrow as he typed. Why?

In response, a link appeared.

He clicked it.

Oh. That was why. They were still making that? Isn't that for kids?

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Over the week, the headlines continued. Scientists talked about the 'strangeness' of the Taal volcano eruption, and many foreign scientists and news media seemed to go out of their way to not mention the eruption had involved a giant horse made of molten lava running around. The few that did mention it did so almost perfunctorily, in an 'oh, and it was there too, we don't know enough to speculate if it had anything to do with it' sort of way, which… all right, was fair. Apparently, except for the one lunatic whose grainy video was making the rounds on all the news cycles, everyone else had the good sense to not try to take videos while exploding volcanic rocks were falling out of the sky.

After the rain and ash clud had cleared, they also got a lot of new mileage of the 'before-and-after' shot of Volcano Island. The island had become covered in a new surface layer of lava and ash, wiping out all the plant life and any structures that had been built prior. It was noticeably larger, even accounting for the fact a lot of the lake's water had evaporated, and the many new fissures and spots where the ground had exploded under them still smoked. A few were even still oozing lava. All of this was interrupted by craters and trenches where the ground had obviously melted, the very ground looking like splattered goop that had been pushed away. Because it had. People were speculating as to what had caused it, and all sort of scientists where being dragged out to try and explain away the features.

It was when the news had to report on the evacuation from the area, and the rather public and much-documented appearances of Sanny and Tammy that people were no longer able to keep from mentioning them. In addition to videos of the many-mouthed, many-tongued horror monstrosity Kim had seen Sanny become, and the plants that Tammy had made to handle the bees, there were also videos of people getting out of their cars—despite the bees, which obviously started attacking them—to try and 'scare off the monsters' using what weapons they could scavenged from the cars, like umbrellas, lug wrenches, sticks and kitchen knives, faces wrapped in shirts to try and protect themselves. Many hadn't even done that.

The plants had been trampled, soft stems and stalks and bells falling easily, but Sanny…

In truth, the various videos showed Sanny being almost gentle with the people attacking her, moving out of the way with quick, animalistic grace and tripping people in the ground, where they stayed down. All the videos ended the same way, however: with the grabbing the umbrella, snapping it open and resting on one shoulder as she cocked her hip to one side and rested her hand on the other as she said, in a bitchy tone exactly like how she had yelled at him, "Stop attacking me you idiots! I'm trying to help you!"

There was lively debate—his brother Ryan seemed to be actively researching the subject—about what they were, demands they come forward to explain themselves, to submit to examination so people could 'create a cure for the monster menace'. There were senate hearings, which of course didn't seem to reach any sort of result, and the president gave rambling speeches that only tangentially related to the matter.

The internet was, of course, going nuts. The videos about her, and the more limited ones with Tammy in her humanoid form, were being constantly reposted, and had led to other videos, of the giant mosquito being trapped UP, of Tammy fighting it in Quezon Circle, of the two of them and Willy fighting a giant dog in the middle of a street. They joined the videos about all the monsters that were running around the city—or in one case, holed up in a giant spider web nest—which was apparently being followed with morbid fascination all over the world, and DID include the early, initial footage of the Lava Horse that had caught their attention.

With this renewed interest, people seemingly finally that these were not isolated incidents but some sort of continuing phenomenon. The onslaught of monsters got slapped with the catchy moniker of 'The Philippine Nightmaer' in overseas news media, not the least of which because an American news channel had given the label its own fancy logo, and only seemed to realize afterwards that they had done so with a prominent typo. Despite the spelling being corrected, the typo apparently became a minor meme mocking the seeming lack of response to the fact that there were monsters appearing in the Philippines. Kim really couldn't blame them. Even from where he was standing, life didn't seem to have been impacted that much, and he'd fought one of those monsters last weekend! There were reports of the economy going down—again—as foreign investors pulled out, but the economy was always going down!

The week passed mostly peacefully as Kim struggled with the dissonance of going back to the mundane world of college and electrical engineering courses…

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The first thing Kim did when he woke up was to gather up the bits of himself that had fallen off the bed. Leaving them lying around was a bad habit to get into, so he didn't, even though he'd needed to leave a lot of bits behind in Taal because he'd been too emotionally spent to go get them. It wasn't like leaving them lying around did any harm, after all.

The drinks had been chilling in the fridge since last night, and the chips were none the worse for wear after spending the week in a corner of his now-huge room. While he'd gotten better at shapes and making rudimentary structures with his stone, he still hadn't gotten much better at maintaining his balance. At least dissolving into sand before he hit the ground saved on wear and tear on the floor.

When the doorbell rang, he hurried down, using small pieces of himself he'd embedded along the stairs to cheat his way from the top to the bottom by bending space. He did the same to get from the front door to the people gate, glad that the high walls around the property kept him from being seen. Heart filled with nervousness and excitement, he undid the latch and pulled the door open.

And they were all there. Willy stood quietly, standing behind Tammy as the shorter girl chatted easily with Katherine, who for some reason was wearing a pink shirt. She hated that color. Sanny looked as tall and basketball-capable as usual, wearing a black button down shirt with all the buttons done up and black slacks, the same backpack as last week over her shoulder. Another flat square yellow box of brownies were in her hands. She gave him a friendly smile. "Hey," she said. "New girl here yet?"

Kim shook his head. "Not yet. She said she'd be here though. Hey, Kat," he greeted his girlfriend.

Katherine gave a quick kiss. "Hey babe," she said. "New girl? Was this the one you met in the volcano?"

"Yeah. She said she'd be here today."

Katherine raised an eyebrow. "Is she hot? Should I be concerned?"

"Given that she can melt solid rock, yes, she's very hot," Sanny drawled.

Katherin nodded solemnly. "Well, I better meet her then, just in case."

Kim rolled his eyes. "Well, don't just stand there, come in, come in," he said. "Kat, can you take them to the sala, while I wait for—"

At that moment, a tall, American-brand pickup truck pulled up to the curb. It was one of the more expensive models, and the tinted windows to keep the sun out also kept anyone from seeing in. A moment later, no one had to as the door as one of the back doors opened and Jas stepped out. "Thanks for the ride uncle," she said.

"Bye, Jas!" more than one feminine voice called.

"Be careful, Jas," a man, likely the uncle in question, said. "Have fun in moderation, okay? And use a—"

Jas slammed the door with a sigh, cutting off the sentence. Wearing clothes that weren't several sizes too big for her, she looked like a girl from the provinces who'd come to Metro Manila to go to college and had put on something smart to interview at a part-time job for work credits. She impatiently waved the pickup to move along, and after a moment it did, and she waved it good bye before turning to everyone with hesitantly.

"Um, hi again," she said, giving the same small, awkward wave.

"Hey, Ate Jas!" Tamm replied cheerfully. "Glad you could make it!"

A small, hesitant smile. "I hope I'm not late?"

"No, you're right on time," Kim said, giving her a welcoming smile. "Everyone was just about to come in."

They all trooped inside, and he stayed behind long enough to close the gate behind them. Then with a step, he was out the front door, waiting with theatrical patience.

"Whoa, cool!" Tammy exclaimed, looking behind her as if to confirm he'd actually moved. "Was that a Flash Step or did you teleport?"

"I don't know what that first one is, so I can only say I didn't teleport," Kim said.

"He's been doing that all week," Katherine said, smiling indulgently.

"I have decided distance can go away and leave me alone," Kim confirmed. "At least in my own house."

"Damn," Sanny said enviously. "I wish I could do that to my commute. I could sleep in longer."

"I'm still working to connect the house to the campus," Kim admitted. "But I've cut the distance by half, so I should be fine by next week."

"Lucky you," Jas said, looking equally envious. "I can't fly to school. My bag wouldn't survive it, and I need my books."

Kim opened the door. "Well, we can talk about it inside, in the sala."

As they ntered, Kim asked, "So, have we got name yet?"

"Yup!" Tammy said. "After careful thought and consideration, we've decided to call ourselves the Nightmærangers!"

"Nightmare Rangers?" Jas repeated with the look of someone not sure she'd heard right.

"No, Nightmærangers," Tammy corrected. "One word. N-I-G-H-T-M-squashd-together-a-e-symbol-R-A-N-G-E-R-S."

Kim, fortunately, was used to excitable young professors who talked fast. "Why not just spell it with an 'ae'?"

"And why is it misspelled?" Jas said.

"Because it's cooler written down," Tammy said seriously.

"Should we vote on this?" Kim said.

"Tammy and I came up with it, and you know Willy is just going to vote whichever way Tammy goes," Sanny said.

"Wow, elections are rigged already," Jas said blandly.

"Unfortunately, Tammy and Willy are a solid voting bloc, so all they really need is one other person for a majority," Sanny shrugged.

"Don't worry, I will use my vote-rigging powers responsibly," Tammy said virtuously.

"That's all we can ask for," Kim said dryly. He tilted his head. "Still, I suppose it's not a bad name. I guess you've heard about the typo?"

"Yup. I'll admit, I got the idea from there."

"You realize we're missing at least one other word, right?" Sanny said lazily as they headed for the living room. "A proper name needs at least three words in it."

"It does?" Jas said, looking lost.

Sanny nodded with all seriousness. "Yes, a full proper name will go like 'Something Something Nightmærangers'. Though if we go with 'Something Sentai Nightmærangers', then we’d only have to think of one other word…"

"Don't worry," Kim said, giving her a sympathetic look as he reached over to close the door. "You get used to it."

The door closed behind them.