Rise Of The Black Ranger

Dillon was sleeping in the cave next to the pups in the fetal position his breathing matching their pace as he slowly breathed in and out the suns light peeked through the entrance and hit directly on the boy's face stirring him awake, after a moment he opened his eyes and stood up with a yawn.

Looking around, he saw that Ryka and the others were still asleep so he slowly tiptoed around everyone until he was at the entrance of the cave which he then usually walked out towards the lake.

When he looked around he saw that some wolves were awake but not a large amount it was safe to say possibly only four or five were out at the moment and they were at the lake drinking from it as Dillon stopped in front of the lake rubbing his eyes before going to knees and cupping some of the water in his hand and splashing it on his face.

After a moment he looked at the water again seeing his reflection in the water the boy looked at it in silence, “Dear God you need a haircut….”.

“Bout time you woke up, and what's wrong with my hair?” Dillon replied with a brow raised.

“What’s wron- look at it, its raggedy mess there’s even small twigs in it!” Jason yells causing Dillon to wince, “Please don’t yell it’s too early in the day for this….”.

Dillon could hear Jason scoff before he said, “Fine, but next time I'm in control I'm giving you a haircut”.

“Whatever you say, Jason,” Dillon said as he grabbed another handful of water and drank from it.

After a couple of hours, everyone in the lake was up and walking around the wolves walking through the multiple caves and talking amongst each other and the last ones to wake up were Axel and Ziggy who just walked out of the cave with yawns of their own before they saw Dillon laying in place in front of the lake.

They could see that he was awake but also that he wouldn’t move as they could see some pups running around him playing before the two walked up to him Dillon noticed the two as he said, “Oh hey guys, what’s up?”.

“Nothing much, when did you wake up?” Axel asked.

“In the morning pretty early too might I add,”

“Was Jason the one that woke you up?” He heard Ziggy ask.

“Nope, did that all on my own, even some of the pack were awake too” Dillon replied as he slowly sat himself up.

“What have you doing since then?” Axel asked.

“Since the morning I helped some of the pack members scavenge for some food, patrol around the area, and some other junk, other than that I’ve been laying over here for the past couple of hours” Dillon replied.

“You’ve been keeping yourself busy” Axel commented.

“Had nothing better to do,” Dillon admitted with a shrug.

The trio went silent for a moment, not knowing what to say before Axel asked, “You two want to spar for the time being?”.

Dillon and Ziggy look towards each other before nodding, “Sure let’s do it” Dillon jumped to his feet, the pups running somewhere else to play.

The trio makes so space away from the lake and takes out their weapons, 'Alright, I’ll be the opponent this time who’s going first?'.

Ziggy raised his hand, “Alright Ziggy you’re up then” Axel said waving him over as the two were five feet apart from one another, some of the pack members noticed the two and surrounded them before the two went into their respective stances with Ziggy having a wide stance and having his axe to his side, with Axle having his great sword above his head and pointed towards Ziggy.

“On three ok?” Axel said getting a nod from Ziggy, “Ok, one, two, three!” Axel shouted as Ziggy swung towards him, Axel jumped backward evading the slash as he saw Ziggy teleport in front of him to close the distance.

Taking the opportunity Axel ducked down and grabbed Ziggy by the arm and attempted to throw him away but Ziggy latched onto Axel’s arm that was holding his sword and wrapped his legs around the section with Axel’s elbow in an attempt to keep Axel from moving it.

“Got you!” Ziggy grunted out Axel struggled for a moment before smiling and dropping his sword, Ziggy noticed this before he felt Axel grip the hem of his shirt and his free hand’s index finger finish pressing onto a specific spot of his neck forcing the boy’s legs to go limp which led to Axel swinging Ziggy over his head and slamming him into the ground causing him to slide towards some pack members who moved out of the way.

“Ow….” Ziggy groaned out as he slowly pushed himself from the ground, “Just because you could keep my arm from doesn’t mean I couldn’t counter it, you forgot my other arm and left yourself open to that”.

“Yeah noted…” Ziggy replied rubbing his side before he suddenly caught his axe looking to Axel who had already picked his greatsword back up, “You're not giving up now are you?”.

Taking a breath he swung his axe again before smiling, “Nope” getting a nod from Axel, “Good now again”.

Ziggy just rushed down towards him as the two clashed again Ziggy picked up his speed and Axel matched that speed with little difficulty a resounding clang whenever the two’s weapons hit together while Dillon and the pack watched them spar and after many minutes had passed from the back and forth between the two Axel was the eventual victor with Ziggy on his back gathering his breath with sweat going down his face.

“Nice job Ziggy you lasted a good amount of time there, one thing I’d recommend doing for your teleportation is to use it when the opponent doesn’t expect like make them think you're going to slash them but teleport at the last second to throw them off”.

“Got it…” Ziggy replied still on the ground giving a thumbs up before Axel looked to Dillon, “Alright Dillon, your up”.

Dillon walked forward to Axel passing Ziggy before being face to face with Axel who smiled before stabbing his weapon to the floor, “Let’s do hand to hand first”.

“Alright” Dillon replied doing the same as he stabbed into the ground beside him before he and Axel went into their respective stances the two going quiet before they rushed towards each other.

The two shot their fists forward both their fists colliding causing Dillon to wince slightly from the action.

Axel who noticed then ducked down and sweep him from under the leg making him fall back to the ground.

In response to this action, Dillon reached his arm to the ground and used it to keep him from the ground and had him upside down he twisted his body launching a flurry of kicks toward Axel who blocked and dodged them before jumping away from him.

Dillon then pushed up from the ground causing him to jump back onto his feet, “Not bad right?” he said with a smile.

“Not bad at all,” Axel said with a smile of his own he and Dillon rushed towards each other again the two continuing to spar against each other until Axel grabbed Dillon by the arm and flipped him behind him launching him towards his great sword the boy grabbing onto it and causing the blade to drag into the ground as it stopped his momentum.

Dillon then looked up to Axel who was standing at Dillon’s sword before taking it out of the ground, “Let’s change things up shall we?”.

“Alright let’s do this!” Dillon shouted as he removed Axel’s greatsword from the ground hefting it over his shoulder with some difficulty but was successful.

The pack looked on in silence towards the two before Dillon threw the greatsword towards Axel like a spear Axel jumped up as it landed on the ground, Dillon rushed forward and grabbed onto it as he swung his arms up causing the greatsword toward Axel who blocked it with Dillon’s sword.

Grabbing onto the end of the blade Axel pushed forward launching himself towards Dillon and landing on him a plume of dust shrouding the two of them the pack watched in silence before they heard Dillon shout, “Ow ok, ok, uncle!” as they then saw Axel had pinned Dillon to the ground and restrained him with his arm on his back and his hand on Dillon’s head.

“Alright, that was good spar Dillon your getting better,” Axel said while getting off of Dillon who rubbed the arm that Axel had restrained.

“Thanks…” Dillon replied as he stood up from the ground as their weapons disappeared, “One word of advice Dillon don’t telegraph your move’s too much it lets the opponent know what your gonna do before you do it”.

“Got it” Dillon replied before the pack dispersed and after a few moments of them just standing there they saw Ryka walking up to them, “Boys I need you to do something for today”.

“What is it, mom?” Dillon asked.

“I need you three to go with some pack members to scavenge today some of them felt some unfamiliar presence around the forest I want you three to accompany them just in case so nothing awry happens”.

“Oh alright when are we going?” Ziggy asked before the boys saw her point to the side as they saw a group of six-pack members sitting there, “Does now work?”.

They nod to her, “Yeah now works” Axel then said as the pack members began to walk out into the forest with Ziggy quietly following behind them.

“We’ll be back in a little while then mom” Dillon said to Ryka who nodded as he and Axel ran into the forest to catch up with Ziggy and the others.

“Be careful you three!” They heard her shout.

“We will!” she then heard Dillon shout back, Ryka smiling in a nod before turning around and walking towards where the pups were.

Thirty minutes had passed as the boys helped their pack members scavenge for food in the Everfree with Ziggy and Dillon holding multiple berries and nut’s in a makeshift sack made out of leaves that Axel had made.

“Thanks for making these Axel,” Ziggy said to the older boy who nodded, “No problem it would have been more tedious if we didn’t have anything to hold those in”.

“True enough” They heard Dillon reply as they saw him pick some fruit from a nearby tree, “There are a lot of weird fruits in this forest”.

“Well the Everfree isn’t normal so I think that’s on brand for this place” Ziggy responded to Jason.

“True” Dillon replied as he tightened his bag shut so none of the food would out meanwhile the pack members they came with were dragging a piece of bark that had fresh meat laid on top of it.

“Seems they found their quota” Axel commented as he stepped out of their way so they can head back to the lake.

“We should probably head back with them, don’t want something bad to happen,” Axel said to his brothers who nodded to him before he began to follow the wolves.

“Understood Axel” Ziggy replied while he and Dillon walked behind him before Dillon stopped in place Ziggy noticed that his brother wasn’t next to him as he looked back to see him looking around.

“Dillon, what’s wrong?” Ziggy asked while Dillon continued to glance around cautiously.

“You ever get the feeling you're being watched?” He asked with narrowed eyes.

“Yeah sometimes” Ziggy replied,
“Let’s go I can’t shake this feeling and it’s bothering me” Dillon then said before moving again passing Ziggy who looked at him concerned

“A-alright” Ziggy replied as he jogged up to catch up to Dillon and Axel meanwhile something in the shadows was watching them a faint red glow coming from its eyes.

Over the next couple of days Dillon and the others just preoccupied themselves with stuff to keep themselves busy Ziggy mostly kept track of the food they scavenged so everyone could get their fair share so no one got more food than others.

Dillon mostly watched the pups along with Ryka when he didn’t help with scavenging and scouting out the area so no one would come in and hurt the pack since he was the one who was up the most at night.

And Axel just when he wasn’t helping the two just trained by himself or sparred with Dillon or Ziggy to keep their training up so they wouldn’t get sloppy and that they could be prepared to fight back against something if they needed to.

But over those days every time, the pack would scout around the area with the boys who accompanied them by the order of Ryka, With the feeling that Dillon had of being watched got worse as if there were more eyes on them before it bothered him greatly to the point that even if they weren’t inside the brush he could feel someone’s gaze on them, and that feeling scared him so much that he couldn’t sleep and just stayed out of the caves and looked to the forest.

This continued until the fifth day in the dead of night when Dillon was keeping a lookout since it was his turn again his eyes had bags under them and he looked to be dozing off every few seconds but would fight that feeling by dunking his head underwater as the only sounds that accompanied the silence were that of crickets

“Dillon you know to keep yourself awake like this isn’t good for you” He heard Jason say scoffing in response, “What do you suggest I do then I know you had that feeling just as much as I did Jason”.

“Yes I did but you shouldn’t be jeopardizing your health for this, whatever is watching us is gonna try and use that against you, you need to sleep”.

“N-no I can’t let what’s watching get the chance to get past I need to be prepared,” Dillon said before he let out a yawn.

“Dillon, sleep,” Jason said as Dillon immediately responded “No….”.

“You're being an idiot again….”

“I….don’t…care” Dillon responded nodding off slowly he attempted to splash water on his face but his arms or legs wouldn’t move before he suddenly closed his eyes the boy went quiet, low snores could be heard from him as he slumped to his side, he had fallen asleep.

The night had passed and Dillon slowly began to wake up his hearing beginning to fade in as he began to hear panicked comments from some of the pack members.

“None of our hunters came home last night!” One of them said as numerous others began to say the same with panicked comments having the boy open his eyes and push himself up from the ground, “What’s going on?”.

“Our hunters who went out last night didn’t return!” one of them shouted towards him.

“Wait what do you mean they didn’t come back, they shouldn’t have gone anywhere at all last night,” Dillon said.

“One of them said they wanted to scout out the area while scavenging for food they said they wouldn’t take long but they haven’t returned” the wolf replied.

“Oh no…” Dillon muttered standing himself up, “This can’t be happening!”

“What’s going on?” he heard Axel turning to see him and Ziggy walking towards the group, “The hunters in our pack decided to go out last night and haven’t returned yet”

“They shouldn’t have gone out at all last night!” Ziggy shouted.

“That’s what I said…” Dillon replied before his ear twitched hearing movement from a nearby bush as he and the others turned around to see movement in said bush before one of the hunters slowly limped out of it.

“It’s one of the hunters!” A wolf yelled.

“He’s hurt!”.

The boys run over to the wolf who collapsed once they got close, “What happened!?” Dillon shouted.

“W-we got ambushed by another pack they got the others one by one it happened so quickly I don’t know how I escaped”.

“Just be glad you got out of there,” Axel said to the wolf.

“Dillon I think this was related to that feeling you had, someone must have been watching the pack know when to strike and I think their starting now” He heard Jason say.
“Yeah I think so too” Dillon replied before shouting getting the attention of the pack, “Alright everyone we need to get preparations underway an unknown pack is attacking ours and went after our hunters and I feel it won’t be too long until they start coming after us!”.

The pack's reactions were just pure panic as a large majority of the pack members couldn’t fight as well as the ones in late pregnancy or were too young to fight.

“We're gonna die!” One of them shouted as all of them began to talk all over one another completely ignoring the boys who were trying to calm them down.

This went on for multiple minutes with the boys still trying to calm them down but to no avail until they heard Ryka shout, “QUIET” the pack then went to complete silence as they looked towards her.

“Dillons right we need to prepare for the worst if another pack is coming after us and panicking isn’t gonna help anything”.

“I’ll go get them ”They heard Dillon say as Ryka turned to him “Dillon no we don’t need to lose anyone else right now what we need to do is prepare for the worst”.

“I have to, If I didn’t fall asleep last night I could have stopped them from going out there, stop them from being in whatever condition they're in now, this is my fault….” Dillon replied his hands shaking.

“Dillon we need you here, I know you think you are at fault for this but you are not this was out of your control” Ryka tried to reassure him only for the boy to back away, “I'm sorry…” He said before he ran into the forest Axel and Ziggy attempted to stop him but he already disappeared into the brush.

“Dillon no!” He heard Ziggy shout as he continued to run through the forest their voices began to fade out as he went deeper and deeper until he couldn’t listen to them anymore as he took a breath.

“I knew you were an idiot but I didn’t expect it to be this bad” he heard Jason speak.

“Shut up Jason….”.

“No, because you're being unreasonable your not responsible for what the hunters did to get themselves ambushed and once you get that into your thick head of yours the quicker you can go back to the pack and help them prepare!”.

“Shut up!” Dillon shouted.

“No go back and help your family prepare you dumbass because if you don’t things are gonna get much worse and your gonna blame yourself for much more than some of your pack members being captured!”.

Dillon didn’t respond, Jason’s words not swaying him, “Dillon if your gonna do this at least go to Shade for help he’d be willing to help you!”.

“No, I have to do this alone….” Dillon replied causing Jason to scream at him, “YOU GODDAMN IDIOT IF YOU GO ALONE YOU’LL DIE YOU DON’T KNOW THEIR RANKS!”.

“I'm sorry Jason, I have to do this and I can’t let you stop me” Dillon replied as Jason's vision of the outside began to slowly close shut, “Dillon don’t do this, I swear to god if you do I’ll never forgive you!” he shouted his words falling on deaf ears as Dillon completely cut him off and walked forward.

The boy walked through the forest in silence for a few minutes as he carefully traversed through it, he then hopped over a nearby log before hearing nearby some movement as he sped up towards the noise before finding himself peeking over a bush.

His eyes widened once he saw wolves he didn’t recognize as he carefully scanned around the area before seeing the majority of the wolves congregating in the center of that area around what looked like the alpha but he looked different he looked like a hybrid-like Dillon.

Taking a breath he snuck around the brush and went to get a closer look and once he did he saw a glowing mark on the alpha’s shoulder but one thing, in particular, but once he backed away slightly the alpha immediately looked towards his direction the boy trying to not be seen.

Dillon held his breath but that didn’t help as he saw the alpha running towards him and grabbing him from the bush and hitting him in the stomach causing him to gasp out in pain as the hit caused him to go limp.

The alpha dragged the boy to the ground as Dillon’s vision blurred slightly seeing some of the hunters laid out in a line before he heard the alpha faintly speak towards a blurred figure he couldn’t make out any features, “Thank you, your reward will be sent to you soon” he heard the figure say before feeling him grab onto his neck as something was injected into his neck.

The boy’s vision began to blur again as he saw the alpha walk towards one of the hunters who let out a scream of fear as the boy saw him grab their head and bite into their ear before ripping it off as Dillon fell unconscious.

Ziggy and Axel were just at the lake with wide eyes, Axel just standing in place as Ziggy just paced back and forth, “Why did he just go and do that he may have fallen asleep last night but he wasn’t at fault for what the hunters did of their own choice, but why did he have to do this!?”.

For once Axel didn’t have an answer for Ziggy and just continued to stand in silence.

“What do we even do…..” Ziggy said with a mutter before looking to where Jason ran and beginning to walk towards it only being stopped by Axel who grabbed him by the arm, “What are you doing?”

“Going after my brother”.

“No, we need to stay here and help if we go out there we’ll just leave our pack members at a disadvantage!”.

“Axel let him go” they heard Ryka say to the two.

“What!?” Axel shouted, “We don’t need to lose access to anyone in this pack if I let him go there's a good possibility he’ll get captured!”.

“Dillon needs someone with him and if Ziggy finds him they’ll be able to watch out for each other” Ryka replied as Axel looked towards her in disbelief before letting his little brother go.

“Thank you,” Ziggy said to Ryka before running into the forest and disappearing into the brush.

“What now” She heard Axel ask as she replied, “We prepare” the two went silent as they had the more helpless members of the pack go into the caves for their safety.

Ziggy meanwhile was running through the everfree looking for Dillon his eyes quickly glancing around to find any clue to where Dillon went before seeing footprints and electing to follow them jogging forward.

After a couple of minutes, he stopped in place to see that the footprints didn’t anywhere they just stopped he looked around for a moment before hearing a twig snap behind and once he turned around something hit him on the head making him collapse to the ground as his vision saw someone standing over him as his vision then went dark.

A low ringing noise could be heard in a white room with Dillon and Ziggy bound against the walls, Ziggy’s eyes fluttering open before closing back shut from the bright light going into his face, “What, where am I, what is this?” Ziggy spoke.

“I see our newest acquisition has woken up. Welcome HU-RPM-G1,” A voice calmly said into the room, “We will begin with your introduction and preliminary tests once HU-RPM-B1 wakes up.”

“What..” Ziggy said confused before looking to the side to see Dillon limping hanging from where he was bound, “Dillon!” he shouted.

Dillon didn’t stir only staying still as Ziggy shouted again, “Dillon wake up!”

“HU-RPM-G1 please do not try to wake HU-RPM-B1. He will wake in due course.” the voice stated as Ziggy saw what looked to be human-like figures, with large metal plates covering their bodies walk into the
room wheeling what looked to be a tv screen into the room in front of him before it suddenly turned on
revealing an image familiar to Ziggy. The Den.

“No, no, no, this can’t be happening!” Ziggy shouted his thoughts immediately going to worst.

“We will begin soon for now please enjoy the show,” the voice stated again now sounding almost creepy, as Ziggy saw one of the figures approach Dillon with a needle in their hand before injecting him.

Not even a second later Ziggy saw Dillon’s body lurch forward as he let out a loud gasp Ziggy saw him let out loud breaths as he shook in place, “Dillon?” he heard Ziggy as he looked towards him, “Z-ziggy what are you doing here?” he stuttered out.

“I went after you but they, I think they knocked me out”

“They did the same for me when I was captured by that other pack's alpha…” Dillon grunted.

“Welcome back HU-RPM-B1,” the voice that had spoken to Ziggy calmly said cutting him off, “please look to the screen ahead of you both. The entertainment is about to begin.”

“Entertainment what are you-” Dillon said confused before seeing the den on the tv, “No” he then said in a whisper as what was on the screen played.

The two saw the opposing pack coming into the den with monsters alongside them with large cages as some of the wolves attempted to run away from them only to be pursued by the enemy wolves and made immobile from injuries made to their legs and the few that did fight laid onto the ground with grave injuries as some monsters and wolves could be seen beating down on them, Ryka could be seen fighting back and defending the pups but she was slowly overwhelmed by some of the others wolves and pinned down.

Axel thought he was fighting back alongside Ryka he didn’t fare any better he was piled up upon by the monsters and wolves leading him to be beaten to a bloody pulp as he was grabbed by the neck Axel’s body weakly trying to fight back before he was seen shocked causing his body to go limp.

“Mom, Axel no!” The boys screamed as they saw the monsters and wolves slowly grab onto each wolf and throw each of them into the cages some letting out yelps of pain as the boys heard the slam of each cage closing, the entire pack was captured by the cult.

“They captured them all…” Ziggy said with a whimper Dillon was completely silent as he shut his eyes with gritted teeth

“I hope you enjoyed the show. And don’t worry, you’ll them all again soon enough,” the voice responds as they see what looked to be a group of scientists walk into the room wheeling in a small table with multiple strange objects on it along with a large medical table as they stopped near Ziggy’s side.

“W-what are you doing get away from him” Dillon shouted the scientist not listening to him before his body seized up his fists tightly clenched before he changed to Jason’s red as he screamed, “Don’t you touch him damn it GET AWAY FROM HIM!”.

The scientists paused two of them stepping away from Ziggy and walking toward Jason, “That was a strange and must I say quick reaction HU-RPM-B1. I suppose we need to restart your training again all that time after your escape has given you a rebellious streak.”

“SCREW YOU BASTARD!” He shouted with a growled out struggling against his bindings.

“I wouldn’t do that if I was you,” the scientist calmly says, “I mean who knows what we would do to your friend here if you cause trouble again.”

Dillon then saw Ziggy before bound back in place on the medical table his limbs pulled wide preventing any movement while his head was bound in place.

“NO, Don’t you fucking dare you monsters!” Jason shouted.

“What’s happening?” Ziggy whimpered out fear in his voice.

“Don’t worry HU-RPM-G1. We’re just starting your first of many tests and changes,” the scientist said walking back towards him and turning the table for Jason to see Ziggy a lot more clearly.

“What the hell are you doing you monster!” Jason growled out anger in his voice as he heard them starting the boy struggled with his bindings again, as Ziggy whimpered, “Jason I'm scared” Jason tried to comfort him the best he could but not even a moment later noises could be heard ringing out as his screams could be heard from echoing in the room with Jason shouting, “Stop it, please!” his voice in complete desperation.

The scientists just ignored their screams sadistic smirks on all their faces as they continued, nobody in the rooms looking at the TV screen that was still running, all of them missing a single wolf emerge from the den. A wolf wearing a black metal dog collar.