Chapter Text
With the mutt-Pryce having fallen and no clear sign what kind of creature we should expect to face next, the seven of us and Alpha spent the next day sparring in the cave to keep in shape. Rue sat off to the side and watched us for the most part, but she still stepped in for an occasional sparring match when we could spare the time to keep her in practice. Liv had clearly been shaken by facing her former district partner in that kind of state, but it helped that we had all done our best to confirm that there was nothing any of us could do to cure him, and we had put him down as mercifully as possible in that situation.
The thing that surprised me that night, as we rested in our quarters in the ship to prepare for the next day, was that I found myself already thinking about how we could deal with the situation facing us. Obviously we had to hunt down the next monster or two that Zedd had sent against us, but I was also aware of our more personal mission. Zedd might be the bigger threat, but we couldn't afford to fully abandon the issue of our originally-planned revolution against the Capitol.
With that in mind, with Johanna choosing a location and Liv setting up communications, the six of us spent the morning making our way carefully through the outskirts of District Four before we made contact with Finnick Odair. He had been surprised to receive the message, but at least his casual manner suggested that he wasn't angry at us.
"Been busy recently, I see," the young Victor smiled when he met with us in the park in Four that had been chosen as our meeting point. Meeting in a District felt like a risk, but Finnick had assured us and Liv and Alpha had confirmed that there were no cameras in this particular location, so with our teleportation available it was easy to get to the area in time. Alpha had assured us in advance that he would be monitoring the cameras of the surrounding area in case it looked like any Peacekeepers might be coming our way, but it was strange to be in a position where we were both safe and in enemy territory.
"Is that about the monsters or me?" Johanna noted, her voice slightly lower than usual as she addressed her fellow Victor.
"Bit of both, really," Finnick nodded at her before turning to me. "Is the gender shift just to make it clear you got a new person in that suit?"
"Our new Green was felt to be the best candidate for the job," I said, even as I had to acknowledge that her gender had probably been a part of the final decision. "How are things going with you and your associates?"
"We're… keeping an eye on things," Finnick noted, the famous Victor looking briefly awkward. "Beetee in particular has been hearing a few things over communications about Snow getting concerned about your activities-"
"You can access the Capitol's networks?" Liv asked.
"More that we can discreetly listen in to a few; we can't actually make our own," Finnick clarified. "Anyway, that's still enough for us to get a few useful titbits, such as how we've been hearing a few stories that you've been fighting… things in other areas…"
"Monsters," Liv cut in.
"Monsters?"
"Created by an alien warlord who… has an interest in coming to this planet," I put in. I wasn't prepared to go into the full details regarding what Zedd was after, but Finnick at least deserved some additional details about what we were potentially up against.
"Alien," Finnick repeated, looking at the rest of us as though trying to see if we were lying or joking, only to let out a frustrated groan when he realised we were serious. "Well, that's just great…"
"We're not exactly happy about it either, for the record," Glimmer put in. "We recognise that Snow is a problem, but if we're going to deal with his control of this planet, we need to stop Zedd before he can take the planet for himself."
"Your enemy is called 'Zedd'?" Finnick looked at our group in surprise.
"Keep in mind that he's an alien; it may have more significance to his original culture than it seems," Liv noted. "The point is that we have a reliable source that confirms that Zedd will be a very dangerous threat if he came to Earth, so we have to deal with that before we can focus on Zedd."
"Fair enough," Finnick conceded, before he looked up as a faint buzzing sound reached our ears. "Huh…"
"You don't get insects like that around here?" Liv asked, looking over at the rest of us in a manner that made it clear we should be concerned even when we couldn't see her face.
"Not ones that loud, anyway…" Finnick began, before we all saw the source of the sound from above us. It seemed to be a particularly dark cloud at first, but then it became clear that it was a swarm of something flying closer to the ground when it passed in front of a tree, and then the sound became clearer as it approached.
"Tracker jackers?" Finnick said, which at least confirmed I wasn't making assumptions.
"In those numbers far from any recorded hive or outside an arena?" Liv noted, drawing her lance even if it was unlikely the weapon would do her much good. "These are something more."
"Quite so, Blue Ranger," declared a voice that seemed to be several people speaking at once, a mocking tone to its words as the swarm of insects seemed to gather above us.
"You can talk?" Thresh looked up at the swarm in shock before I could properly register that the insects were the source of that voice.
"Naturally," the multi-voiced swarm replied. "Consider me… the Tracker Ripper."
"Tracker Ripper?" Thresh repeated. "What kind of-?"
"I think it's a reference to one of the first serial killers in pre-Panem history," Liv observed.
"Oh, that's a comfort-" Glimmer began, before she had to duck down as the swam flew towards her. I briefly wondered if tracker jackers would even be able to penetrate our armour, but then I reminded myself that these tracker jackers had been specifically augmented by Lord Zedd to fight us, so it was probably best to assume that they could hurt us and try to stay away. Lost for any better ideas for what to do, I brandished my sword and slashed out at the swam as it charged towards me, but the swarm simply parted and I didn't think I'd even managed to kill one insect.
"This isn't working!" Peeta yelled, from where he was slashing desperately at another part of the swarm with his daggers, his blows passing through it with every desperate swipe. "They just… OK, I get that these things wouldn't play fair-!"
"Then stop complaining about it and just deal with it!" Glimmer yelled, firing a couple of arrows up at the nearest swarm. I wasn't sure what to expect from that attack, but was pleasantly surprised to see at least a couple of insects fall after Glimmer's attack struck the swarm, even if it didn't stop the whole swarm.
"I think that's working!" Thresh called out, drawing his own weapon and firing the axe-cannon at another swarm. Just like with Glimmer's attack, the blast didn't take down all of the swarm Thresh had fired at, but at least a few more insects had been taken down.
"You dare?" the Tracker Ripper declared in outrage, coming together in a larger swarm form with some kind of face on it.
"What, you came here to kill us and we're meant to just let you do it?" Glimmer noted sarcastically. "I get that you were created by an egomaniac, but he can't be that stupid!"
"Shut up!" the swarm-monster yelled, diving towards our group. Lost for better ideas, I lashed out with my sword, which at least seemed to disperse the swam before it could strike us. I couldn't see any fallen tracker jackers, but it was at least proof that I could do something about this problem.
"Keep it up!" Johanna called, jumping in to attack another dive-bombing swarm. The dagger might not be the most dangerous weapon, but it delivered enough damage that it sent a few more insects falling to the ground.
"Can't you just do something about this?" Finnick called, only for Thresh to dive over and push Finnick to the ground before a new wave of the insects nearly struck him.
"We're doing our best," the Black Ranger said as he glared at the older Victor. "We get that this isn't your kind of fight, but we're not doing this because we want to make things difficult!"
"Right, I get that, but-" Finnick began before Thresh wrapped his arms around the smaller man and rolled out of the way of another dive-bombed attack.
"You might as well face the facts, Rangers!" the multi-voiced monster said with a gleeful edge to its voice. "You cannot simply-!"
Refusing to listen to the monster, I leapt upwards, appreciating the physical powers offered by my status as a Ranger as I slashed out with my sword (I still missed being able to use a bow, but I was getting used to the new weapon). The blow only seemed to kill a few insects, but it was good to vent my anger with this situation by taking out something I could actually hit…
"Keep them busy!" Peeta called out, managing to knock a couple more insects down as a swarm charged at him. "We've got to take these things down!"
"Yeah, love the enthusiasm, but this is not going to be a practical strategy," Glimmer noted, firing a few of her arrows at the largest collection of tracker jackers. "I really hate these things…"
"Does anyone like them?" Johanna asked, her tone so frustrated I could almost hear her roll her eyes under the helmet. "OK, they make things dramatic for the Games, but nobody likes having to deal with these bugs, and now they've started talking…"
"Focus!" Thresh called out, firing another couple of shots at the swarm as though venting his frustration. The fight continued for a few more moments, each of us lashing out at the attacking swarm as we moved to keep Finnick safe from the attack, but it was clear that this wasn't making that much of an impression. We could hold the swarm off, and our armour at least seemed to protect us from any stings, but even I could see that this wasn't a practical strategy. So far Tracker Ripper at least only seemed to be trying to attack us rather than showing any sign that it was going to break out of the park, but we weren't going to stop it if we just kept hacking away at it like this…
"This isn't working!" Finnick looked at us in frustration, voicing what none of us wanted to openly acknowledge. "You can't just… keep swatting at bugs and hope you'll take them out that way!"
"And what makes you the tactical expert in dealing with aliens?" Johanna gave Finnick a pointed look as she knocked a new attack aside with a blast of energy from her dagger, even if I could tell she was just being defensive out of habit.
"The fact that these things are still coming?" Finnick waved a frustrated hand at the nearest swarm, which was weaving around Peeta's attempt to swipe at it with his own daggers. "If they were actually being hurt by this wouldn't they have stopped trying to attack us by now?"
"Quite," the monster's voice said, mockingly moving into a position above the park as my team gathered around Finnick. "If you feel that you wish to waste your efforts trying to kill me, you can persist with this effort, or you can accept the futility of resistance-"
Suddenly Liv leapt upwards, her arms outstretched as she seemed to be making a grab for something in the swarm above us. When she returned to the ground, I saw her hands held out in front of her, cupped as though they were holding something, a question that was swiftly answered when I heard a buzzing come from her hands.
"You grabbed one of the tracker jackers?" I looked at her in surprise.
"If we can't stop them in a fight, we need to find a more specialised weakness," Liv responded, an eager tone in her voice as she looked around at the group before giving a firm nod. "Red, Yellow, could you get me back to… headquarters… so we can look into this in a more… professional environment?"
"…Sure," I nodded at the Blue Ranger, once I had confirmed that Glimmer, Thresh and Johanna didn't have a problem with that division of labour. Our weapons might not be making that much of an impact, but Glimmer and Thresh's long-range blasts could at least take out a few swarms, and Johanna didn't strike me as the type to have the patience to just wait for whatever tests Liv might be about to carry out. I wasn't sure what kind of tests Liv thought she could carry out on a single insect, but I trusted the Blue Ranger to have some kind of plan.
"Hold the line," Peeta said to the rest, as he joined me in moving over to stand beside Liv. "We'll be back soon."
With that, Peeta and I placed our hands on Liv's shoulders and triggered the teleportation to take us back to the ship, even as I tried not to focus on the sight of the swarm diving towards the other three Rangers as we left.
I'm not abandoning the fight, I'm just helping the team come up with some new strategy for a difficult enemy…