Project Red

Rancrew . Age: 23. Education Level: College dropout. Employment Status: Unemployed. Marital Status: Single. ESP: None. Physicality: Average.

In an untidy room, filled with clothes laying around on the floor, and under a bunch of them, someone was sleeping. All the curtains were closed, allowing only a slight ray of light inside, which illuminated all of the dust flying around. Despite that, the room was still pretty bright, because of the fact that the TV was playing in the corner.

“On today’s news, The recent monster attack was tragic.However, we are glad the rescue operations are proceeding smoothly, all thanks to help of Fighter Re-”

Despite not having lifted his face off the makeshift pillow, his hand reached the remote and turned off the TV, before sluggishly getting up to open the curtains.

The light that hit the room caused him to reflexively close his eyes and move away his face for a few seconds, but in just a few seconds he got used to it. He looked at the mess in the room, before sighing and making his way towards the kitchen, walking in between the sets of clothes, which were laid out almost like footprints in the snow.

He opened the fridge, which had a family picture on it, and looked at the mostly empty shelves, and after grabbing a small apple and beef jerky, went to the bathroom to take a shower, wiping himself with a towel with the figure from the TV earlier.

Despite most of the clothes laying dirty on the floor, there was a single set ironed up, and laid nicely on a small dresser into which he changed right after walking out of the bathroom, and after putting it on, sat nearby while checking the time on his phone, certain scenes flashing in his mind.

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rancrew , his father and his mother, watching a movie which was interrupted by national news

“We’re breaking the broadcast to show, a large object has entered earth’s atmosphere, please do not panic and stay inside”

“Dad, Mom what’s happening?”

But neither of them could say anything.

At a government mandated medical checkup.

“Your powers seem to have manifested pretty strongly, Mr. Arcland, however the same cannot be said for your son, I’m sorry…”

His father’s back as he was leaving their old house, him and his mother pleading

“Honey! Please think it through, there has to be another way!”

“Dad!”

“I’m sorry…I have to…”

—-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

He was so deep in thought that he hadn’t noticed it was already past the time he needed to leave, so he quickly rushed towards the door and left.

Though he didn’t necessarily sprint, he did have to jog for a little while, and had to squeeze himself between the cars as he crossed the road, earning him some dissatisfied and angry rants from the drivers, but in most cases he didn’t pay any attention to them as he was focusing on not getting hit by the next car coming.

He finally made his way to a cafe on a busy street, as he walked near one of the large windows, a man with a similar face to him smiled at him, but he didn’t return it and just went inside, before making his way towards the table, and sat down in front of the man, who was already sipping on a cup of coffee.

“I thought you’d be late”

“I woke up early, so I thought I might as well come on time.”

“I see.”

There was a little bit of awkward tension between them, which the older man broke.

“You’ve been eating well?”

“Same as usual, I guess, you?”

“Have seen better days. I think I miss Your Mother’s cooking…”

“I’m sure you could’ve had your fill everyday if you didn’t leave us to play hero.”

He didn’t have an answer to that.

“School going okay?”

“I dropped out 2 years ago”

“I see”

“Nothing else to say about that?”

“Not really, I trust your judgment”

Once again the conversation went dead.

“Is that all? If that’s all you wanted to know I could’ve just sent you an email, or maybe a letter. No need to bother to come here yourself.”

“You know, I think all the years I was gone have finally dawned on me and I wanted to repair them…”

“Don’t give me that shit, all these years you’ve disappeared for and you start caring just now? Me and Mom pleaded with you many times, but you didn’t care all this time, so stop pretending like you do now. All of a sudden you just feel like fixing things?“

He raised his voice quite a bit when he said that, and as he saw that everyone around was clearly staring in their direction.

“I’m leaving.”

He was able to get up and started walking towards the exit, but the voice of his father rang in his ears.

“I’ve got Cancer.”

He stopped and a rather sad expression came upon his face, before he made the turn back and sat in his chair. Though again neither of them spoke, and the only time sound was the stirring of the coffee. They must’ve sat like that for at least 2 minutes, but eventually he couldn’t handle the silence and tried to put up a nonchalant face as he asked his father:

“So, how long have you got left?”

“About a year, that’s what the doctors said.”

“Is that so… So, have you told anyone else? Other Rangers?”

“No, I got checked as a civilian, so you’re the first person.”

“First and only one, huh…”

“It’s funny isn’t it?”

“Is it? Doesn’t seem that way to me”

“I mean, I sacrificed all these years to save all these people, thousands of operations, I escaped death when it was grabbing me so many times, so the fact this is how it all caught up to me is ironic “

“Well, You’re not wrong, going out in a spark of glory would be more fitting for you…”

“Haha! Right? But I don’t think I can anymore, you know, I’ve barely been feeling like myself lately. My legs are not moving like I want them to, sometimes I’m even struggling to hold a cup of water”

“Are you planning on retiring?”

“I don’t think I have any other choice, I don’t want to drag the rest down. But there might be some complications… Still, I’m sure it will work out somehow”

“I see… I guess I am free for now, and for the foreseeable future, so If that’s all you want, then don’t mind spending some father-son time”- He was once again trying to act carefree, but the next words out of his mouth sounded more genuine - ” But… You know… This isn’t going to fix all the things from before, all these years can’t just be erased so easily…”

“Yeah, I understand… That’s okay with me, it’s just this is how I want to spend my last days ”

He was watching his father’s calm face, which quickly turned into a shocked one as he stared outside.

“Get down!” - He pushed his son’s head down hard enough that it slammed into the table, but it didn’t matter since just a split second after, the glass window they were sitting next to, and the surrounding bricks were completely destroyed filling the whole area with dust and debris, knocking him away.

After a small coughing fit he turned around to see his father dressed in the red suit, facing off against a giant monster whose hand was holding onto the broken side of the wall, while the other arm resembled something more akin to a crab claw. Rest of its body felt pretty alien and unnatural, but because of the shell it had and the claw, it overall gave an appearance of a crustacean.

“Dad!”

“I’m fine, just get away from here, now!”

His father signaled to him without even turning back, and instead focused on pushing the monster out. After getting up he looked around before running towards the entrance, grabbing a confused waitress’ hand along the way.

“Here!”

In just the few seconds it took him to get out the fight had already started and was going at full force. The monster’s heavy hits clashed with his father’s fists loud enough that they reverberated through the whole street, echoing between the buildings despite the screams of people trying to run away. With each hit, the streets beneath them would also slightly crumble from the pressure.

Rancrew would continue to run away from the fight, directing people to safety as he did, when then, as he looked back in the direction of the fight, he would see his father’s body freeze up and get smashed by the monster’s giant claw.

“Dad!”

He started running back, but soon after, the monster moved its claw back into the air, revealing that his father had actually rolled out of the way on the ground, which the boy breathed a sigh of relief to, before looking if there was anyone else to evacuate.

At this point, His father was slowly getting control of the right, and on the next missed hit of the monster, with a slice to its joint, was able to slice off its arm, causing it to writhe in pain, even if the wound was already slowly closing itself.

Rancrew saw a little girl, which seemed to have a leg trapped under some rock, and since his father was busy fighting off the monster, he had to have gotten closer to help get her out.

His father saw him approach with the corner of his eye, but when he noticed why, he didn’t say anything, however it was still enough of a distraction that the monster was able to land a hit on his face, but he still stood firm.

“It’s going to be okay” - Rancrew said as he lifted the stone off the girl’s leg, which despite being trapped seemed to still be functional - “Just keep running forward, I’ll be right, all right?”

She ran off, and

“That was everyone!”

“All right, now get away from here!”

He nodded to his father’s command, and started running. At the same time, his father called out to the monster to grab its attention

“Hey!”

Both of them were standing still, when he took a deep breath and started to prepare for an attack. The monster felt something was wrong, and started attacking, but all he did was dodge. His fist started to glow red, before erupting into flames, at which point he slammed it into the monster’s hand as they clashed.

The giant fan of flames spanned almost across the whole street and reached the top of the buildings. It was spread wide enough, that the Rancrew who was still running away had to duck and stop for a bit in order to not get a burn on his hair, but despite that, he didn’t seem mad.

“Always a show-off”

However it wasn’t over, even if the firepower of the attack was great it wasn’t enough to completely obliterate the monster, it did however char its skin quite a bit, and it was clearly standing on its last legs.

The monster started to grow in size, the parts of its burnt armor slowly falling off as its skin expanded. There was only one option he could come up with, his father ran under the monster, before slowly lifting it up, the bones in his legs cracking from the weight and his veins popping. Before tossing it up in the air with all the power he had.

It flew for less than 5 seconds before it exploded, right around the roofs of the buildings. Sending a shockwave all the way through the street, and shattering the rest of the windows nearby, scattering small pieces of debris which were laid out from the fight.

There was a brief moment of silence while everyone absorbed what just happened, before a wave of relief showed on their faces, Rancrew started walking towards his father, who seemed to have been barely standing, but then….

In the space where it exploded, something was floating, because of how small it was, and how high up it was flying they didn’t spot it.The Oval Sphere seemed to open some parts, before firing off thick lasers in all directions, cutting through the asphalt on the streets, left-over cars but most importantly, the remaining buildings which were standing.

Even if it opened just for a few seconds, because of the amount of lasers, the damage was pretty severe. Luckily no one was hit by the lasers themselves, and once again they thought the fight was over, which is when all of the buildings nearby started to collapse, as the walls supporting upper floors had been cut through by the lasers.

The two of them were pretty much between the sphere and had shot off the lasers, which meant no matter which direction they tried to run, the buildings would have most likely collapsed onto them, either way.

“Dad! Run!” - The voice of his son, desperate to get him out of the way, reached his ears.

Back in the day, rushing to grab his son and getting out of the way, or simply holding out the whole avalanche of falling debris would’ve been an easy task, but in his disease riddled body, tired after the intense fight, it was not possible. No matter how much he tried, his legs couldn’t move. Move . Even as his voice screamed at him from inside it didn’t matter.

The building right next to them started to fall next, the chunks of rocks large enough to crash a person whole started falling all at once. He pointed his finger at his son, before uttering something under his breath, and looked at him with a satisfied face. A crimson red bullet shot out of his finger and hit his son in the chest, right before the debris buried them both

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From under the debris, a person was trying to move. A large piece of rock covered his whole back, which he was only able to get off once pushed himself to the ground which took almost all of the power he had. The suit in which he was clad was ragged and ripped in most places, it clearly wasn’t able to protect him fully, as with the way he was walking, it seemed like his leg was broken, all other exposed patches of skin had scratches on them and were bleeding, but even despite that he continued to walk forward, not paying attention to anything.

He’d flip to the ground any pieces which were too close together to let him pass otherwise, would walk over larger ones, squeezing in where he could, before a bit of a smaller open area showed in his view, and in it, someone laying on the floor.

“Dad!”

The voice emanated from the red suit.

It didn’t take him more than two steps to see it, though his upper body was fine, everything below his waist was crushed under by debris, nevertheless it didn’t stop Rancrew from running over and try and lift it off.

“W-What are you doing…” - His voice was weak at this point

“Getting you out, what else!?”

“Don’t be stupid… just get out of here…”

“And leave you like this? Hell no!”

He watched his son’s back as he tried to move the pile of debris that trapped his father’s legs.

“I guess… This is what all these people saw, huh…”

“Don’t speak!”

He finally managed to lift one of the heavier rocks, but as he did so, the whole pile became unstable, and chunks which were lodged somewhere on the top of the pile were able to roll off and start falling down from right above them. But before they were able to crush them, Rancrew stood above his father and held all of the debris that fell on his back. The weight was clearly more than he could take, but he held on nonetheless.

“W-wait, You don’t have the suit!” - He only noticed just now.

“Yeah… I transferred it to you… “

“Why? If you’ve had it your legs wouldn’t get crushed like this…”

“It’s obvious isn’t it?...”

His father’s fist started glowing brighter, and emitted a light flame around itself, but even as he put it on Rancrew ’s chest, it didn’t hurt and instead it just had a familiar warmthness to it.

“Because you’re my son…”

His hand slowly dropped to the floor, and even though the fire on his hand started sizzling out, the smile on his face stayed the whole time.

Same could not be said for Rancrew , whose face started to fill up with tears.

“You can’t die now! Not after you promised to make things right!”

His legs were shaking more and more, and he was slowly losing his balance coming slowly to the floor, but there was no response from his father, causing him to become even more agitated.

“All the kids in school would laugh at me and say I’m lying whenever I’d say you were the red ranger!”

His legs became more and more bent, at this point he was on one knee.

“I’d watch Your operations on my birthdays, clenching my fist wishing you were where I was instead, instead of saving everyone else. I’d see Mom cry when you put yourself in danger, I hated that.”

He finally had to start supporting himself with both of his hands as well.

“But despite that…I was proud that you were my Dad.”

As he said this and looked upon his father’s face one last time, his strength has finally given out, and the overwhelming weight on his back had finally managed to crush both of them.

—-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In a relatively large hospital room, there was only a single bed, the rest of the room was relatively empty, with only drawers in one of the corners of the room.

Rancrew was still wearing the damaged suit, looking out of the window. Thanks to the holes in it, an IV could be attached to him. One of his legs was also in a cast lifted up in the air, but most importantly, the mask which covered his face was left on.

from outside the door he could hear people talk as they were coming closer.

“This is the room, right?”

“Yes, Chairman.”

“Good, you may leave”

The tone of the older man was firm, but the commanding tone didn't seem unfriendly.

Right after saying that, he seemed to have opened the door and walked into the room.

Rancrew looked up still through the mask, and the man upon seeing his injuries seemed to get a bit sad.

He picked up one of the chairs and sat near the bed.

“I can’t believe we didn’t notice anything in the area till it was too late. Did you manage to meet up with your son?”

“What happened with my dad?”

The older man seemed confused, but then Rancrew took the mask off from his face

“Wait, you’re not Arcland. What happened!? How do you have the suit!?” - He grabbed him by the arms

“A monster attacked the city… He stalled it while everyone else evacuated… Once people ran away the monster was about to self-destruct… I was still helping someone… when it destroyed most nearby buildings, about to crush us both, which is when he transferred it to me…”

The older man seemed to regain composure after hearing that, but you could still tell he was affected by the situation.

“Did they find him? My dad’s body?”

“There is still a rescue operation going in the area, so we’re not sure, I will try my best to find anything more, but for now… I’m sorry…”

“I see…”

“Still, I can’t believe you’ve managed to become the successor of all people.”

He didn’t ask why but he clearly wanted more elaboration from the chairman.

“Your father was the only ranger to not pass the suit on no matter what. We’ve tried it with everyone. We’ve gathered ESP prodigies from every field: Martial arts, Tactics, Science. But no matter how hard we tried, neither your father nor the suit would accept them. I can’t believe we’d miss a person as talented as you”

“Talented? Did he not mention that I never awaken to any powers?”

He seemed surprised for a second

“No…But I guess I could’ve expected it with how our conversations went.”

“Can’t I pass it on to someone else? I know I’m the person dad chose and all… But I don’t think I’m cut out for it. Not only don’t I have any powers, I’m also not the smartest, or the most athletic either”

“No… It won’t work like that. While we’re still working to find out the inner mechanics of the suits, however, we know it’s not possible to pass this one on straight away…”

“I see…”

“But… Maybe it’s lucky that it happened now…”

He was once again confused, and too tired to ask but through the look on his face he clearly wanted to know more about what the chairman was saying.

“Ever since the invasions first started, the rate at which humans develop ESPs and other supernatural powers has skyrocketed. The public was told the reason why the mandatory check-ups for all humans were done was in order to better get an understanding on how the general population is affected. You’ve heard that before, is that right?”

“Yeah.”

“Good. Another part of the reason why many countries put this in place was to identify potential successors to the suits. Though the suits themselves have some inherent protection and power, they act more as an amplifier of the person’s abilities. This is why, despite you not possessing any, the suit saved you, even if you didn’t go unscathed…”

“I did feel like there’s no way it’d be that weak, otherwise half of the rangers would be naked after every fight”

“Haha, maybe if I was younger I'd find that a bit more appealing, but now, I just want to make sure the world can be saved. But, let’s get back on track. After some failed attempts, with combined effort we have finally managed to start the project, we’ve selected the most talented young people we could find, and built a giant facility, deep away from everyone’s eyes. All of the rangers are currently participating in it too, though their teaching role shouldn’t be as prominent as yours.”

“So, you want me to choose the successor for the red suit while I teach some genius kids?”

“I think that’s our best option, I was planning to assign your father to that role soon anyway, hoping that if he’d have the freedom to teach someone personally, he’d finally be able to pass it on… But, there is one other condition.”

“And what is that”

“Please keep the fact that you’re Arcland’s son a secret, and that you’re the same ranger red that’s been protecting us this whole time.”

“Huh? There’s no way I can do that, there’s so much that could go wrong.”

“It’s a big risk, that’s true… But a part of me believes that if everyone knew the red ranger was powerless something worse would happen…”

He seemed deep in thought about the offer. Not only was there no other future for him at this point, all he had was that empty apartment of his, but most importantly, he felt like taking a part in finding a proper successor was something he wanted to do, in order to honor his father’s legacy. A small part of him also thought that if he didn’t agree, they’d probably try a less peaceful method.

“I’ll do it.”

“Great, I’ll get the preparations started straight away. For now, just rest back to health. ”

The chairman proceeded to leave the room. Rancrew seemed to still be tired after all that happened and with his drowsiness he fell asleep.

—-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1 Month Later

Above a vast forest, spanning as far as the eye can see, and above it, a relatively large helicopter flying.

“I can’t believe The Red Ranger turned out to be so young! I remember being your fan even when I was a little girl!” - The young woman in formal attire seemed pretty excited

“Haha.. Yeah…” - Rancrew seemed pretty uncomfortable but he was also nervous because of how close he was to the open door of the helicopter.

“Did you spot something?”

“Oh no, It’s just that, I’ve never really flown a helicopter before.”

“Oh! I guess someone like you would probably have an easier time going on foot! Anyway, we’re about to see it!”

After a few more seconds of flying, behind one of the hills which blocked the view a giant set of buildings came into view.

The main building was long and rectangular and it was at least twice the size of the other 2, which were positioned nearby in an irregular shape, making the whole complex look like an uneven triangle. Even if they were high up in the sky it was clear that the area made by the buildings was cut out and repurposed for some other cause.

“Woah…”

“Impressive, right? I can’t believe we managed to get everyone to sign off on this!” - The woman was speaking as if she’d managed to build the whole thing herself.

They slowly started the descent, which took quite a while, but it allowed Rancrew to appreciate how big the complex actually was, since it seemed to only get bigger and bigger as they got closer.

Once they landed, they quickly got out of the helicopter and were greeted by a couple of staff members, which awaited their arrival.

Rancrew was sitting from the opposite side so he had to walk around the helicopter in order to follow the woman sitting next to him. Once he did that, he saw the nervous looks of the staff member’s, but tried to ignore it.

As both him and the woman walked, some of the staff continued to stare at the two of them, while others started whispering between each other, though to him it wasn’t clear what they were saying.

“Let me show you to your room first!”

They landed near one of the smaller off-shot buildings, this one was the one furthest away from the remaining two. They walked inside after passing through an ID scan at the door. Though it was the woman scanning she mentioned that his ID card should work the same way if not better. There was a rather big open space which they needed to walk through first, before they got on the elevator, and pressed on the 2nd floor button. It was a surprisingly fast ascent, and it barely made any sound.

They soon walked out of it and reached the room at the end of the corridor, to which the woman asked him to use his keycard to open.

“This is Your room! Everyone has always been appreciative of your humbleness, so it’s a bit smaller than other ranger’s but I hope you don’t mind.”

It was still relatively spacious compared to his old apartment, so definitely an upgrade nonetheless, but it didn’t seem quite fit enough for a person who was supposed to be one of the key players in saving the world. Though he felt like his father would be satisfied with it, so he couldn’t complain. It was also mostly empty, other than for the bed, drawer, wardrobe and a desk, combined with the beige painting, made it seem pretty uncozy.

“You’re free to rearrange it in any way you see fit, just let us know! I’d love to give you some space to breathe, but because of the flight delay, I think we have to move on to the classroom straight away.”

“It’s fine, let me just get my things”

He put away some of the bags he was carrying, leaving them on the floor, only taking with himself a small backpack, after double checking for stationery inside.

He left the building, still with the woman leading him. They started walking towards the other small building.

“That was the staff quarters, they should have someone 24/7, so if you ever face any issues, let one of them know!”

“Sure”

He couldn’t match the woman’s enthusiasm.

The area looked good and well maintained, but it didn’t feel too used, but perhaps it was just the time of the day where no one was using the courtyard, so he didn’t pay it much attention.

From the helicopter the distance between the two buildings seemed farther than it was in reality, as they made it there faster than he thought they would.

The building itself seemed a bit older, but it didn’t feel flimsy, and the older style of architecture actually gave it a bit more of a homely feeling, which the staff quarters seemed to lack slightly.

Once they got inside, they started walking towards the classroom, still discussing some small details.

“Did the chairman fill you in on how the class system works?”

“No, I never discussed it with him.”

“Then let me explain!”

“The classes have been divided into the same system that’s currently separating the rangers themselves, with students being placed in classes which are best believed to suit their abilities. You, as the leader of Squad Sun, are now also the homeroom teacher of everyone that could potentially join Squad Sun in the future. Some staff members refer to the class as Squad Sun Beta. There are other facilities housing both Squad Moon and Squad Eclipse, but the contact between them has been limited in order to limit any chance of a leak happening.”

“I see.”

Despite the rather limited response from Rancrew the woman still seemed pretty happy to describe the whole system to him, most likely due to the fact she thought he really was the ranger she adored all this time. They walked a bit further in silence, until they finally reached the classroom

“We’re Here!”

“So, what am I meant to teach them? I was never too good at maths or languages, or sciences for that matter too.”

“Is this a rhetorical question? Of course it’s how to save the world!”

“Ah, right…”

He stood before the door for a while, still feeling the stare of the woman behind him. After taking a deep breath and throwing on a brave face, which didn’t really reflect his inside feelings, he opened the door and walked inside to greet the students.