Learning to Dance

about the weakness of her human allies. And then there was
Taz.
“I'm going to shoot this metal bitch!”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, calm down there Taz!” he said,
casting a worried glance at the robot and reaching out to put
a hand on her shoulder. As nervous as the Megagirl unit
made him, that ambassador Junior said that she was part of
the team and he wouldn’t put it past Taz to follow through
on her threat. He wouldn’t be given a very good review on
his first mission back if he let one of his team members
shoot another. “She’s just telling jokes.”
When Taz and the robot continued to make threatening
gestures at each other, he gently turned his lieutenant in the
opposite direction. “Let’s all split up. Everybody look for
February by themselves – come on, Taz.”
He took her hand, almost without thinking, and the look
she gave him was full of confusion. She pulled hers away. It
felt a bit like a punch in the gut. Oh. Right. I can’t do that
anymore.
The odd-looking mammal encased in mucus should have
been their first indication that something seriously strange
was going down on this planet. But nobody was expecting
an overly large, maggot-like creature to burst from its
stomach – even Taz cried out in alarm as the Rangers
huddled together, zappers raised against the shadowy forms
that suddenly surrounded them.
They were giant bugs. Every last one of them, buzzing,
towering, slimy, deadly. And they were everywhere.
Dammit, dammit, dammit. This didn’t look good. Up
tried to keep the Rangers calm, ignoring Taz’s look of
exasperation. “Until we know these bugs mean business,
nobody shoot, dammit, nobody shoot!” He didn’t want any
of his Rangers’ blood shed without good cause.
“Kill, kill, kill.”