The Red Ranger

The room was illuminated only by the light passing through the small window. A group of three men, covered partly by soot and partly by mud, was sitting around the table playing poker.

“Raise,” - The man said, as if he were sure of his victory.

After his words the other two men seemed to tense up. The way they looked at their cards made it seem like their life was on the line. This lasted for a few seconds, before the smaller of the two men let out a sigh and dropped his cards onto the table.

“I fold, I’m not falling for this one again Arc”

The other man, the beefier of the two, was so focused on his cards he did not notice that he was the only person left to make a choice. As he thought harder and harder, the muscles on his face contracted with even more intensity.

“This time, for sure… I’m going all in!” - It was only after proclaiming this, that his face relaxed back to its natural state.

“I guess I’ll go all in too.” - Arcland, the man who raised the bet originally, did not seem fazed in the slightest. He did not pay attention to the man that was nearly burning a hole in Arcland’s cards with his stare.

“I’ll do the honors” - The man who folded initially, moved his hand and revealed the last card on the table, showing a 10 of diamonds.

“All right! Take this, a full house!”

The muscles which clenched so hard just a few seconds ago, were now clenching in the opposite direction, giving him an almost unnatural grin that erupted into laughter.

But the laughter did not last long. After feeling a hand on his shoulder, he looked up, seeing the skinnier man looking at him with pity. Only a few seconds later, he looked at the table where Arcland’s cards were spread out.

“Straight flush!? Nooo!”

“See, I told you it’s pointless Mark. Once Arcland goes all in you might as well give him all your money. As usual, lunch is on you this week”

“My savings…”

He was being consoled by the skinnier man, who actually seemed quite satisfied with the fact that he’ll be able to eat for free this week.

“You’ve got to teach us the trick at some point, Arcland, I’ve been trying to get a grasp for so long but I still can’t figure it out.”

“Beck, I already told you, it’s not a trick.”

“Right, right… If you’re so lucky, why not hit up a casino, I’m sure you’d get a great payout and wouldn’t be stuck with this job, it’s not like the pay is any good.”

“That’s right!” - The man who was in a slump quickly regained his mood - ”I know just the place, just tell me and we’ll get rich together!”

“Haha! Thanks for the offer, but I do really like this job.”

“You really are one weird guy…Anyway, up for another rou-” - A loud alarm interrupted him

“Everyone! There’s an emergency on 143 Armitage Road, get there as quickly as you can!”

The faces of the three men instantly tensed up. You would not be able to tell it was the same group laughing about their card game a few seconds ago.

They quickly grabbed the fire-protective suits and rushed downstairs. As they did so, they were grabbing equipment along the way, navigating where each part was placed like it was back of their hand.

It couldn’t have been more than a few minutes before the men made their way inside of the firetruck. Arcland quickly jumped behind the wheel, while Beck and Mark were finishing up putting on their seatbelts.

He looked at the two, receiving a nod in approval that they were ready

“Let’s move out!”

Arcland drove fast, with the signal on it was relatively easy to go around the city. In spite of that, by the time they made their way to the fire, the whole place was enveloped by flames. The smoke was masking the whole area. The men acted quickly, rushing out of the car straight into the building. Their faces did not show a single sign of fear.

“Hello! Is anyone there?” - The combined scream of the three men must’ve been heard through the whole building.

They repeated the screams as they walked deeper inside, not letting intensity of their voice get any lower even when the harsh smoke burned their throats.

A faint voice rang from underneath a cabinet. Drowned by the sound of fire around it.

“Uhm…”

The three of them instantly rushed to the place, lifting up the cabinet and revealing the woman underneath it.

“Her leg is broken, but she should be fine otherwise if we get her out of here quickly.”

It was Beck who made the quick diagnosis.

They lifted her up as a three and started to maneuver back out, at which point the building started to collapse even more. The support beams, parts of the ceiling and other debris were falling and blocking their way.

“Shit!” - Mark muttered under his nose, though with a loud voice it might’ve been taken as a scream.

It was clear they were losing composure as the road before them was getting narrower and narrower.

“We have to get out of here, now!”

Though it seemed like the obstacles on the way would slow them down, the men were swiftly maneuvering through them. Dodging the falling debris with help of Arcland, who seemed to steer them in between where it would fall.

It wasn’t long before they made it to the main entrance, where they saw that a giant pillar near the door had fallen down and was blocking their exit.

Arcland looked at the other two and they instantly nodded, knowing what he wanted them to do.

The two men lifted the pillar just enough for Arcland, who was now carrying the woman by himself, to squeeze through. Once he was through, Mark squeezed in below the pillar, resting its whole weight on his back, though the veins on his forehead were nearly popping there was still enough space between him and the ground allowing Beck to squeeze through underneath. Once there was no one left to go, he moved out of the way allowing the pillar to slam onto the ground.

WHAM!

The sound of it collapsing to the ground could be heard throughout the street. Together with the huge amount of smoke escaping from the building left the audience of people aghast.

Though it wasn’t long before they erupted into cheers, once the silhouettes of the men became visible.

“It’s not a show, everyone get to safety!” - Mark erupted.

“Just ignore them, we have bigger priorities” - Beck said with a concerned expression. Despite his suggestion, Mark still made his way to the crowd to try and stop people from getting closer.

“Anyway, how is she?”

“I think she just barely made it” - Arcland carefully placed her on the ground, before getting up and looking at the building that was still burning, now even more intensely than before. - “But she’ll be fine”

“That’s good. The medics should be close by now, it’d be best if we got this under control before it spreads even more.”

“... Not yet”

“Huh?”

Before Beck could realise what happened Arcland was already making his way back into the building that was on fire.

“Arc! Shit, he’s always like this”

Luckily for him, the pillar fell on one of the supports of the other side of the door, leaving a small gap beneath it and the floor, enough for Arcland to quickly slip underneath it.The instant he made it inside he pulled a small piece of cloth over his mouth and nose, though at that point it seemed like it would be ineffective. The smoke was now much more intense than before, it was unfeasible for someone to see anything in an environment like this, and yet Arcland seemed to navigate just fine.

“Not here.”

He murmured to himself as he checked every nook and cranny once again.

The fire’s heat was unbearable even with the protective suit, though he did not let that show on his face.

As he was walking down one hallway from another he paused for a brief moment. The stack of objects in the corner of his eye seemed a bit suspicious, which is why he hastily began pulling items from the top and tossing them to the side, and it wasn’t long before a small hand appeared before him, causing him to remove them at an even faster pace.

The little girl was in a much worse state than the woman before, but luckily the objects fell in such a way that her body was left with mainly just bruises as the weight was shifted everywhere else.

After picking her up he once again started making his way towards the exit, though this time much slower than before, ensuring she held onto him tightly.

Back outside the two men were arguing.

“Why didn’t you stop him!”

“He was already gone when I realised, you think I wouldn’t stop him if I could?!”

“You should’ve just rushed behin-”

Their argument was interrupted by an even louder bang than before, followed by smoke being blown by the windows and the main entrance of the building.

“Arc!”

The two men tensed up as they looked at the smoke filling the area. Despite the noises they couldn’t really hear anything, until they finally saw it.

A familiar figure walked out of the smoke, holding a small girl in his arms.

Mark sighed with relief, while Beck cheered loudly enough to wake up the woman on the stretcher, who was unconscious just a second ago.

“My..daughter i-inside…”

“Don’t worry miss, we’ve got her, though it would be more fair to say he did.”

Their anger dissipated as they saw him approaching with the little girl in his hands, and once he handed the daughter to the woman the three men walked a bit to the side.

“Never pull stuff like that again, understand!”

“That’s right! How are we gonna get rich otherwise?”

The three of them let out a small laugh, before going back to work to extinguish the fire.

By the time Arcland went back home it was deep into the night

He carefully opened the front door, making sure to make as little sound as possible. As he finished closing it, he turned around and saw a small figure standing in the middle of the room, slightly lit up by the light behind it.

“D-Dad?” - The boy said with a sleepy voice.

“Oh, Ran, did I wake you up?”

“No… I didn’t sleep…” - He said while yawning, and wiping his eyes. - “We were supposed to go…”

“The play? Oh that’s right, it was today wasn’t it…”

Arcland looked over at Rancrew to confirm whether he remembered, but upon making eye contact with  his son he quickly averted his gaze back towards the ground.

“I’m sorry… it was just something that happened at work, it took us a bit longer to deal with than I expected. But next time, I promise we’ll go next time”

“You always say that…” - At this point Ran was way too sleepy to continue and so after he made his final remark he headed back to his room - “Good night…”

Arcland stayed in the entrance in silence for a good minute, but after snapping back he got undressed and made his way to the kitchen. Inside the fridge, next to an empty meal prepped box was a bigger one, which he took out.

He put it in the microwave and set the timer. At the same time, he pulled out a pack of cigarettes and lit one up, after opening the window slightly and sat next to the counter. In front of a photo of himself, and a woman who seemed to resemble Rancrew.

With his cigarette, he lit the candle that was placed nearby and began talking to the picture.

“How many years has it been now…”

“He really grew into your face.”

“Time’s been going so fast, before I know he’s going to be as tall as me, haha. ”

He spoke all of those sentences under his breath, glancing at the picture occasionally for some sort of approval.

It looked like he was gathering courage to say something.

“I did it again, you know. I really did remember about the play. But I can’t just leave these people to die, they need me. I always think about putting that part behind me, but you always said that’s why you loved me. Seeing Rancrew’s face sometimes is just… I don’t know how to describe it. But I think it finally might be getting to me, I can’t save everyone, only the select few people. It’s a shame but that’s how life goes, I guess. If only you were here…”

He finished his cigarette.

“I think that’s it for tonight, sorry for rambling, but thank you for listening to me, like always…”

As he was leaving the kitchen, he realised he completely forgot about the meal he set in the microwave, at this point it was lukewarm at most. He quickly ate it in silence before going to bed.

Some time after that…

It was a warm day and both Rancrew and Arcland made use of it by finally going on a family trip, a hike to one of the mountains which offers a great view over the whole city. Although they arrived pretty early it took quite some time to arrive near the peak.

“Hey, don’t go too far!”

“I won’t!”

Although Rancrew screamed enthusiastically he quickly disappeared from Arcland’s sight, which did not annoy him and instead caused him to smile.

Only a couple of steps later they had finally made it to the top, the not so large field was covered by barriers, which Rancrew was hastily trying to look through in order to get a better look at the city. As he struggled to find a better view, he quickly found himself going up into the air.

“I told you not to get too far, what if you fell over the barriers.”

“But…”

“Here” - He said as he placed him upon his shoulders. - “It’s much better, right?”

Due to how long it took them to actually climb the mountain, partly due to enjoying themselves it was already dusk. The weather was pretty clear too, hence the whole view was basked in the golden sun rays.

“Wooaahhhh…”

“Haha! I knew you’d like it! We used to take you here quite often when you were young.”

“It looks great!”

Arcland smiled and they both watched the city in silence for a while. It seemed like Arcland wanted to say something, but the words kept getting stuck in his throat, eventually, after a deep sigh he began speaking.

“You know, your mother loved this city. I do too, all the memories, the good, the bad…“

Though he could not see his son’s face, he could tell there was a puzzled look on his face, and so as he spoke he awkwardly looked into the ground.

“It’s something I wanted to protect ever since I was young, the school where we first met and where you’d eventually go. The cornershop which was run by Miss Leila, who looks the same to this day… Doing this is who I am, but recently I’ve been thinking, maybe it’s just all an escape. No matter what I do, nothing will change. There’s only so much one person can change.”

He took a small pause, feeling a sharp pain in his head.

“Ah, it’s no use, I have a headache. But I guess what I’m trying to say is, you know, you're the most important person to me but…”

“Hey, dad?”

“Hm? What’s wrong?”

“Why is the city shining?”

He didn’t think much of the question at first. It was shining because of the sun illuminating it, wasn’t it?

And yet, as he looked over he understood what Rancrew meant, despite the sun falling behind the horizon, the city was getting shinier and shinier, and a feeling which Arcland had never felt before rushed through his body.

In an instant he jumped away from the barrier towards the ground, pulling Rancrew and protecting him with his body. A light beam devoured the city, sending a shockwave which burst the railings away, some of them scratching Arcland’s back as they flew past.

“Dad! What’s happening!”

“I don’t know! But we have to run!”

He got up with Rancrew still holding onto him, and they both began to rush down the hill. As they did so, Arcland stole a quick glance behind him, and above the city a giant spaceship seemed to be descending.

His eyes widened at the sight of it, and he began going down even faster. The run down the hill was much more intense than the climb. As they ran, he started to notice groups of people who stood in place, confused about the whole situation.

“Everyone! Get away!” - He ran screaming while running towards them.

And although some seemed to get the hint, others didn’t. As they got closer, he grabbed one of the men by the wrist. .

“Quickly! Go”

“R-right…” - The man looked at his wrist, which had a mark left where Arcland gripped it, before slowly following the rest of the group.

After giving him the command, Arcland stared at the surrounding area, it was only after Rancrew began speaking again did he seem to focus on escaping once again.

“Dad?”

“Y-Yeah, sorry I was just catching my breath”

By the time they reached the bottom it was already dark, although there still seemed to be some light source in the city, which was strong enough to reach even the sky here. The group of people from earlier was still packing their things in a hurry, taking things from one car to another across the car-park.

“Why can’t they just listen” - He said with a frustrated voice as he made his way towards the middle of the carpark where their car was.

“Listen, Ran, I’ll help these people pack and then we’ll go, all right”

“I can help too”

“No, just stay put”

He nodded silently in response.

Rancrew watched as Arcland helped the people pack things into their car, with his help it was going much faster than before.

Finally, they loaded the last piece of luggage that was left. 

“Quick, we don’t have much time”

“How do you know that?”

“It’s just… “ - Before he could explain himself the headache from earlier intensified. He instinctively pulled the man who he was talking to away from the car, which was then crushed by something that fell from the sky, knocking both of them on the ground.

Smoke and dust filled the area

“Ran!” - He screamed while squinting his eyes as he crawled towards him

Luckily, Rancrew seemed to be just fine, as the pods seemed to land far away from where he was, which caused Arcland to breathe with a sigh of relief, before he started to look at where the pods actually fell.

What seemed to be glass panels opened and fell to the ground, and from within them the creatures emerged. It was hard to describe their shape, as all of them varied quite a bit. Some seemed to stick more towards the ground. Nevertheless, a certain malice seeped through them.

The panic on people’s faces seemed to properly set in now, some abandoned the cars they were just packing, while others stood dumbfounded.

“Shit…” - He was already near Rancrew at this point - “Get under the car, and don’t come out…”

Once again he was met with a silent nod, as Arcland started moving towards the group of monsters.

The monsters slowly approached the group of people. One of the monsters stretched its hand and smacked a person away. He flew a decent distance, scraping himself across the ground, but ultimately seemed to be alive. Nevertheless, this caused the rest to panic and scream as they ran away.

The monsters were about to give them chase, when Arcland stood in their way. He held a small piece of metal he found lying on the floor, and pointed it at the enemy as if it was some sort of sword.

They stopped with their movement, but only for a few seconds. Eventually, the group of monsters ran past Arcland, leaving only one of them to face Arcland.

“That’s all I’m worth, huh…”

He clutched the rod tighter, and after a quick glance at the car where Rancrew was hiding he charged towards the monster.

Though he swung with a lot of force, enough that any grown man taking a hit would be knocked out instantly the monster seemed to dodge them easily, and even in some cases seemed to parry the hits as if they were nothing.

And yet, Arcland stood his ground. For what a man could do, he did not let the monster pass. As it tried to attack him with its tentacles, he slammed them with full force toward the ground or away from himself.

Nevertheless, he was still human, the injuries from the earlier explosion combined with all the swinging made him quite tired. With each strike, the monster’s attacks were getting closer and closer to actually hitting him. As it looked at him, its face twisted in a weird way, and its next strike was not directed at Arcland at all, but rather towards Rancrew who was peeking his head from underneath the car, watching the fight unfold.

Panic set onto Arcland’s face as he ran to take the blow, which pierced through him, before lifting him into the air and tossing him away into a different direction, towards one of the pods which was still closed.

“Dad!”

“Get away Ran!” - Though he tried to scream with all his might, blood in his throat seemed to block how loud it was.

Arcland lifted his neck slightly and saw that the monster was approaching him slowly.

He half-sat, crawling backwards while keeping an eye on the monster. It was only delaying the inevitable, once he felt the cold sensation on his back he knew there was no way out. He had no strength to even hold the metal rod, letting it drop to the ground as he rested on the pod behind him.

Though the monster was getting closer, he did not pay attention to it, instead his eyes looked at Rancrew who seemed to be slowly moving backwards to get out of the car from the opposite end.

That’s right, Ran… I’m sure you’ll make it… Just keep running

He thought to himself before finally taking a look at the monster which was just a few steps away from him.

I hate this, my headache is getting even worse now.

I never thought I’d get to see Aliens in my lifetime, let alone be killed by one.

The city, it’s all gone…

I guess that’s it.

Yet despite resigning himself to his fate, the fire in his eyes did not stop burning. And if anything, the monster seemed to think so too, so its next attack was aiming straight for Arcland’s heart.

Right as the sharp tentacle was about to reach Arcland’s heart the pod behind him seemed to smash open, releasing hot steam causing the monster to jump away. It was also loud enough for Rancrew to turn around to have a look.

The monster started to slash through the smoke frantically, but not a single drop of blood was spilled,. Instead the amount of tentacles it attacked with was getting smaller and smaller with each slash, until all of them seemed to disappear.

As it came down something different appeared, a figure clad in a red suit, which seemed to be holding onto the ripped appendages as it pondered something.

The creature left out a massive screech, causing the monsters nearby to return back into the parking lot and rush towards the red man.

And yet all their attacks seemed pointless. The few which managed to land bounced off him like nothing, with some even breaking their limbs trying to knock him down.

The figure did not stand for much longer, and in an instant began dashing from one monster to another, annihilating them with a single hit, splattering their unnatural blood around the area.

Eventually a small fire began to form around the fist of the man wearing the red suit, and when faced with the last invader, the punch itself erupted into a flaming explosion.

Dumbfounded, Rancrew stood and watched, no longer hiding. The Monsters were no more and the figure was slowly approaching him. He did not feel fear.

The person in the suit extended their arm, placing it on Rancrew’s shoulder and even through the synthetic material, he could feel the familiar touch.

Tonight was the night when the Red Ranger was born.