Part 2 of what has been dubbed the 2012 Director’s Cut of my old 2004 fanfic thing.
Disclaimer: The author of this document would like to clarify that Power Rangers and its characters is owned by Saban Brands and not the author.
-o-
Unknown Spacecraft
Three Years Ago…
“You’re what?”
The first words out of the girl’s mouth after she was formally greeted by this slender woman – with a face not much older than her own, a head of long darkish-blonde hair, her heavy tan cloak covering more than the few rags of green barely visible underneath. Hanging around the woman’s neck was a gold coin, glowing faintly in shifting colors.
“My name is Dulcea,” the woman replied, “I am a master warrior from the planet Phaedos and I need your help.”
The girl paused for a moment; glancing at the woman in front of her before taking a long survey of her strange new surroundings. Metal walls, display monitors, and what look to be computer panels were the things she noticed, something out of science fiction fare. But it was the viewport behind that caught her attention; a starfield with Earth sitting below. She stopped short of letting out a gasp before her attention returned to the woman who identified herself as Dulcea.
“You’re a warrior woman,” replied the girl stoically. “From another planet?”
Dulcea nodded and paused for a moment before speaking again. “I can understand your skepticism. It is not something that your people are accustomed to.”
The girl stared intently at Dulcea, looking for… something… anything… before she finally answered. “I’ve heard wild stories before.” She paused for a moment before adding, “I’ve experienced things that…” Her voice drifted, her last words left unheard.
“I know.”
The girl cocked an eyebrow. “Do you?”
“I know more than you realize, Gillian.”
The girl tensed up slightly, but enough for the warrior to notice.
“I’m sorry,” Dulcea said, as soothing as she can be. “I shouldn’t have…”
“No,” the girl – Gillian – said, a hand raised. “It’s alright.”
Dulcea studied the girl intently in silence. She had expected a bit of a struggle in convincing this human, but there was something about Gillian that surprised the warrior. A maturity that she didn’t expect out of a human female at her age. Not quite trusting, but not willing to dismiss Dulcea’s words or the girl’s own surroundings. With a dry expression, Dulcea removed the necklace from around her neck and made her way over to her visitor. Unfastening the coin from the cord that held it, she then took Gillian’s hand and placed the coin on her palm.
Gillian stared at the glowing coin in her hand before looking up to Dulcea.
“What is this?” she asked.
Dulcea only smiled. “A relic.”
“Okay,” said Gillian. “Why are you giving this to me?”
Dulcea’s smile faded. “I have my reasons.”
“What reasons–?”
Gillian found herself enveloped in white light before she could finish the question. When the light faded, she found herself back in her own bedroom, just as it had been before her little adventure. She jerked her head around to check her surroundings… it is her place. Just as she left it before she was taken… she almost wondered if she was just out of her mind or if it was a sudden daydream.
But then she saw the coin that laid in her hand, its light growing bright for a moment before fading away. She studied the coin for a moment; particularly the strange but simplistic shape etched into the coin. Her attention shifted outside the window overlooking the night sky before affixing her eyes on the coin.
“What the hell am I supposed to do with this thing?” she asked herself, not really expecting an answer…
-o-
Angel Grove
Earth (Terra)
Present Day
This is beautiful, Tommy thought, Just beautiful.
Earlier today, the Power Rangers had been summoned to fight Pirantishead, who had been resurrected again along with two of Rita Repulsa’s old creations, Fang and King Sphinx. The battle was short and ended with the monsters destroyed and the Power Rangers victorious once again. Of course, that wasn’t the end of it.
For the second time today, the Power Rangers had been summoned into battle. This time, a peculiar monster calling himself “Coke-Master” was rampaging in Angel Grove park. When the Rangers found the monster, he had grown immediately thanks to one of Zedd’s growth bombs. As the Rangers summoned and combined the Thunderzords to battle Coke-Master, White Ranger battled the small nearby group of Putties led by Goldar. He managed to effectively clear the way of the putties, leaving only the deadly Titan in his path.
“If you have anything better to do, monkey-brain,” Tommy commanded, “I suggest you do it before I finish you.”
Goldar snarled. “Your arrogance will get the better of you, White Ranger!”
“Huh,” huffed White Ranger, “We’ll just see about that.”
While White Ranger battled Goldar, the Coke-Master fired several beams of energy at the Megazord, slowing it down somewhat. Coke-Master continued firing beams as the Megazord pulled out its saber and began to deflect the beams back at Coke-Master. All of the deflected beams struck the monster and momentarily stunned him.
“This guy simply doesn’t know any new tricks.” Red Ranger commented, “Let’s finish him off.”
Its eyes illuminating from the helmet, the Thunder Megazord held the saber forward. Energy crackled around the shining blade and when it was glowing at an almost blinding intensity, the Megazord swung at the Coke-Master, slashing across its chest. The monster almost whined in agony before it tumbled to the ground and exploded into nothingness.
-o-
On the moon, Lord Zedd looked on through his super vision as the battle on Earth progressed, where he just witnessed the Thunder Megazord’s victory over his Coke-Master monster. A devilish grin formed on Zedd’s face, but it wasn’t really visible thanks to the fleshman’s iron mask. Things were going better than he had anticipated.
“Now to activate Phase 2.”
-o-
She stepped out of the passenger train along with the rest of the riders onto Angel Grove Express after a long train ride. She surveyed her surroundings for a moment while waiting in line, taking a look in the distance at the cityscape before stepping into the arrival bay. When she met with the available clerk, she went through the usual procedures, presented the proper paperwork, and eventually, when all was cleared up, she stepped out of the train station to find herself a few miles away from the city. She peered towards the lineup of passengers at the nearest bus bay and turned back towards the long road.
Maybe I’ll walk, she thought, I could use the dose of fresh air.
-o-
Zordon surveyed the battle in progress, while trusted assistant Alpha 5 was frantically operating computer controls. The Rangers’ mentor seemed almost worried about recent events; ever since Lord Zedd and Rita Repulsa’s recent plot to swap Blue Rangers was thwarted, Zedd had been on an almost relentless streak of ambushes in the city that the Rangers had been able to, thus far, repel. He had the utmost confidence in his charges; they have challenged the biggest and baddest that the forces of darkness had thrown at them up to this point… but something about this latest strategy worried him. Could it be a way for Zedd to tire out the Rangers in preparation for some grander scheme?
As he was reflecting in deep thought, a sudden sensation overwhelmed Zordon, an inadvertent gasp shot out of the sage’s lips. Alpha did not seem to notice; his attention focused on the battle at hand. Zordon thought it best not to let Alpha know about… whatever he was feeling. A presence? A power? Anything?
He would need to gather his thoughts and reflect on the matter.
-o-
As with every other battle he’s had with the White Ranger, Goldar was seriously taking a beating. The quick reflexes of the former Green Ranger were too much for the Titan to handle. White Ranger continued his relentless assault until he managed to knock down the Titan. Before he could anything else, he was knocked back by an explosion that erupted out of nowhere. When Tommy recovered, he looked up to see a green-armored warrior, holding a broadsword in his hand.
“Too much for you, isn’t it, Ranger?” the warrior grunted.
Tommy responded with a grunt. “Not yet, ugly.”
“Tommy!”
He heard the call of the Pink Ranger from the distance as he saw the five Power Rangers emerging from the smoke. They kept their distance from the warrior and went into their battle stances.
“Is that the Dark Warrior?” Billy commented, “Zedd’s pulling all stops with Rita’s old monsters!”
Rocky shrugged and pulled out his Blade Blaster, setting it to maximum level. “Less talk, more shooting.”
The Rangers pulled out their blasters and fired several shots across Dark Warrior’s back. Unaffected by the attack, he Warrior turned his attention to the five Rangers and took them down with a running dash attack that involved striking all five Rangers with one sword slash. This maneuver left the Warrior to White Ranger, who pulled out Saba and fired beams from the saber’s eyes. The Warrior was momentarily stunned by the attack, but was soon flanked by a second Dark Warrior, who was armed with a chain. White Ranger noticed the chain flying at him and quickly grabbed ahold of it. Using the Warrior’s momentum, he yanked the chain so that the Warrior would crash onto the debris-filled street. White Ranger leapt over the two Dark Warriors and joined up with the other Rangers, who were quickly recovering from the attack. When all turned to face the two Dark Warriors, they noticed that a third Dark Warrior was present, this one holding a two-bladed sword.
“Ah man!” Rocky whelped, “Another one?!”
“Zedd must really be desperate to dig out Rita’s old monster rejects,” mused Kim, “Let alone copy them.”
“We have to fight them out, Rangers,” White Ranger called, “Let’s do it!”
The Rangers continued to attack the Dark Warriors head on. Even if they hadn’t fought a battle earlier on, they were still hard pressed to take on two fully-powered Dark Warriors. Eventually, the Rangers capitalized on a mistake by one of the warriors and managed to summon the Power Cannon to finish them off. Just as they had done so, a giant pighead wearing a Roman gladiator’s helmet leapt at the Rangers, who managed to avoid contact with the flying pig projectile. The Rangers reformed a second Power Cannon (as the first one was discarded when they jumped out of the pig’s way) and fired a concentrated shot at the pig, vaporizing it on contact.
“Great,” Pink Ranger mused, “Is Zedd desperate enough to pull Pudgy Pig out of mothballs?”
“Desperate enough to send one,” Blue Ranger said, pointing away from the Pudgy Pig before them, “let alone twenty more!!”
All the Rangers turned to find a small group of Pudgy Pigs, each of them holding green pitchforks and giant dinner knives. The Rangers found it obvious that they would get outnumbered real fast at the rate. Without much hesitation, shots flew from the Power Cannon like a pea-shooter, destroying a Pudgy Pig that would get replaced by two more. Soon, the Rangers found themselves not only fighting a growing army of mutant pigs, but they were also fighting off the growing fatigue that was diminishing their ability to defend themselves, as the constant development of Pudgy Pigs were wearing them down.
“We can’t keep up with this forever, Tommy,” Red Ranger yelled, “We have to withdraw!”
“No!” White Ranger countered, “We almost got ’em!”
The blasts being shot from the Power Cannon were slowly losing their strength, as it took two or three blasts to eliminate each Pudgy Pig, and it didn’t help matters that more were coming. Just when it seemed the Rangers were about to be overwhelmed, everyone was assaulted by a bright flash and loud shrieking sound. The Rangers dropped the cannon and held their heads to block out the shriek, while the remaining Pudgy Pigs were all destroyed. The shriek and flash died down and the Rangers found themselves alone in the middle of a battered town square, confused as to what just happened.
“Let’s get back to the Command Center,” White Ranger finally said, “Maybe Zordon can explain what’s going on.”
-o-
He saw the Rangers defeating the trio of Dark Warriors, he saw the Rangers being overwhelmed by a plethora of Pudgy Pigs, he saw the flash that had cleared the area of those hog monsters, and most of all, he felt an overwhelming surge of power that wasn’t like anything he had felt in recent times. Lord Zedd immediately believed a higher power was at work here, which didn’t bother him, but it wasn’t anything he was completely familiar with, which did bother him. And yet…
I feel as though I’ve felt this before, he thought, Something I haven’t felt in ages.
Zedd slowly marched past Goldar towards his throne, although the fleshman’s staggering march didn’t escape the Titan’s notice. He didn’t want to bring that up, much less upset his master. Instead, he opted to deliver news that were given to him by Finster.
“My lord, I have just received word from Rita,” Goldar reported, “She says she will be returning from Delmar Prime in one Earth week.”
Zedd nodded. “Leave me, Goldar. I have some thinking to do concerning the next step of my plan.”
-o-
It didn’t take long for the girl to find a place to stay for her brief visit to Angel Grove, renting herself a simple two-room apartment with a small bathroom at the closest inn. The girl couldn’t help but be impressed by her new abode; despite essentially being “low-rent” real estate, the place was in pretty good condition. Not like other cheap apartments where there were notable signs of distress, this was almost as good as any high-priced luxury suite. It lacked the space for such luxury, but it suited her needs just fine. She had business here and when that was taken care of, she would be long gone.
Slipping off the jacket, she dug through each of the pockets until she found a ball of wrappings. She slowly peeled away the layers of wrappings until the coin was plainly visible. The coin emitted a faint glow momentarily before it slowly began to glow brighter, shifting colors every second or two. She stared at the coin for a moment before setting it aside on a table. She then took a simple cord out of her pocket and proceeded to wrap the coin with it. With the coin secured, she took the two ends and tied them behind her neck, letting the coin hang.
The girl then took a look out the window and sighed heavily, absently fiddling with the coin on her neck. She noticed a puff of smoke in the distance, accompanied by loud noises. Eventually, there was an explosion and six beams of light shot into the sky.
Gillian looked on with utter amazement before asking herself…
“What am I even doing here?”
TO BE CONTINUED
