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-
Abandoned District
Angel Grove, CA
Present Day
White Ranger tried everything he could think of to bring some semblance of life back into the motionless Tigerzord, but to no avail. Without Saba in the command port, nothing on the zord functioned. It wasn’t long before Goldar delivered a mighty kick across the Tigerzord’s chest, causing heavy damage to vital systems. The Titan continued his stomping, each blow causing massive explosions across the impact areas of the Tigerzord, but none of them could knock it out of its still state. After a minute of stomping, Goldar stopped and took a step back. He took his sword with both hands and raised it overhead, ready to deliver the killing blow.
“GOLDAR!”
Goldar dropped the sword as soon as he heard the voice of his master and looked up to find a translucent image of Lord Zedd in the blue Terran sky, looking over the Titan like a god. Goldar felt like trembling, but managed to maintain his composure before the fleshman lord.
“My emperor,” Goldar bowed, “I am close to triumphing over the White Ranger!”
Zedd growled. “FORGET THE WHITE RANGER, YOU FOOL! THE COIN BEARER IS GETTING AWAY!”
“But Master,” the Titan whimpered pleadingly. “This may be our only chance to finish off…”
“I said forget him! The Coin is all that matters now!” With that, Zedd’s ghostly image disappeared from the sky as quickly as it had appeared.
Goldar stared down at the Tigerzord and took a step back. “You are lucky that Zedd is interested in that coin, White Ranger. Because I would have destroy you right without restraint!” Upon saying those last words, the Titan vanished in a heap of flames.
Tommy let out a sigh of relief, but he was still stuck with a non-functioning Tigerzord. As his mind pondered to what else he could try out, he heard a familiar six-note tone from the comm system.
“Are you alright, Tommy?” Zordon asked over the communicator.
“Barely,” White Ranger replied, “Saba’s missing. One minute he’s in the command port and the next minute, he’s not there.”
“I know,” the sage replied nervously, though Tommy didn’t notice. “I cannot properly explain it other than that it has something to do with the Eighth Coin.”
Tommy decided to change the subject. “What about the others?”
“I am afraid the Rangers are not faring any better,” replied Zordon, his voice grim. “They are currently engaging the coinbearer, but I’m afraid things have escalated to a dangerous level.”
Tommy sighed, mouthing profanity without actually saying it. “I’m on my way, Zordon. But the Tigerzord’s a sitting duck without Saba. We need to haul it back somehow.”
“Alpha will take care of it,” Zordon stated, “Good luck, White Ranger.”
Tommy nodded and with a flick of his belt buckle, teleported out in a flash of white light.
-o-
What the hell just happened?
That was the question she had asked herself constantly. It was the only question she allowed herself to ask. It was also the only question where she knew the answer. It was the object that was in her bandaged hand. The thing that had been the source of her troubles ever since she arrived at Angel Grove. Or maybe even before that.
Gillian wasn’t sure what happened. Up until now, she had been acting on whatever instinct or impulse compelled her to act. Reacting to things that even at her peak, she didn’t think she should be able to react. Those instincts had been hers. She trusted those instincts. Those instincts had saved her hide more times than she could count.
And then the Rangers pulled out their magic cannon and launch a barrage her way, that she was somehow able to dodge. She recovered quickly from her landing, but then she felt something else. Another compulsion. This one different, this wasn’t instinct. This was something else entirely. This was possession… by whom? She couldn’t say. All she knew is that she had somehow managed to summon a mess of weapons in her hands, aimed it at the Rangers, and fired a barrage. The Rangers got out of dodge, but their cannon had exploded. She slowly approached the Blue Ranger and without a second thought, fired a stream of energy.
What seemed like an eternity was mere seconds. The beams roared their way towards the recovering Blue Ranger, who only managed to look up long enough to see the beam his way. All Gillian saw afterwards was a flash of pink light and flames sputtering about as that light crashed into the wall of the inn. Gillian froze momentarily, tossing aside the weapon that had been in her hand. She felt like retching. She had a gun in her hand. She hated guns. They took her parents away. And now here she was using a gun to take down a foe. The thought made her sick.
Gillian looked on as the Blue Ranger rushed towards her fallen friend. Things had gotten out of hand… but no sooner had the thought crossed her mind than a boot landed on her face, causing her to tumble to the ground. Gillian slowly got up to see the Yellow Ranger standing before her, holding daggers in both hands. She thought about apologizing, saying she hadn’t meant to do that, but would they believe her? Would she believe her own words?
At this point, it doesn’t matter. This fight wasn’t ending until one of them went down. It sure as hell wasn’t going to be her. She didn’t want to hurt them, but she couldn’t let them take the coin. No matter what the cost.
-o-
Rocky slowly gained his bearings and caught a bit of what had occurred from a distance. He saw the Rangers summoning the Power Cannon and launching a blast towards this girl with the coin, only for her to dodge it and summon her own Power Blaster to use against the others. He turned away to check on Adam, who was huffing, but no worse for wear. A loud bang snapped both Rangers into focus, as they looked on in horror to see Kimberly take a full-force blast. They turned their attention towards the girl, who tossed the blaster aside and stood there frozen.
“We’re getting our butts kicked, Rocko,” shouted Adam. “We need to take this lady down fast.”
Rocky raised a hand. “I don’t think that girl knows what she’s doing.”
Adam snorted, trying to catch whatever breath he could, looking up to catch Aisha jump and try to land blows on their adversary. The battle didn’t take long, as Aisha was taken down in a couple hits.
“Everything about this has gone pear shaped fast,” Rocky said, “We’ve been handling things really bad.”
“I know what you mean,” huffed Adam. “I don’t know what made us start shooting at her while she was distracted with those putties.”
Rocky slowly got to his feet, survey the scene, and summoned his Power Sword. “Cover me, Adam. I’m going in.”
He began his run towards the girl, who just noticed him rushing at her. She formed another one of her blades and deflected the first swing of his sword.
“Listen, lady, I don’t want to hurt you,” Rocky pleaded. “But after what you did to my friend…”
The girl leapt and lunged both feet into Rocky’s chest, giving her the push needed to clear some distance between the two.
“For what it’s worth,” she said, “I’m sorry about your friend.”
The Red Ranger kept his distance. “I know.”
“But I can’t let you or anyone else have this coin,” she insisted. “I warned you to leave me alone.”
“We can end this now.” Rocky tossed aside the Power Sword and removed his Blade Blaster from its holster, tossing that aside as well. “Come with us. Let’s help each other out.”
The girl considered his words, much to Rocky’s relief. That relief was followed by dread when her eyes glowed faintly. He took a closer look at her eyes; where there had been a hint of regret was now devoid of emotion. Her posture stiffened. Mouthing a silent apology, Rocky leapt towards his Blade Blaster and fired a few shots, none of which hit the girl. She extended her hand, which materialized a white saber with a familiar tiger’s head.
“No…”
He couldn’t believe it. He thought it was an illusion. But it wasn’t. Somehow, she was able to summon Saba. A loud bang in the distance urged Rocky to turn towards the sky, where he saw the Tigerzord still and unmoving, leaving it open to Goldar’s attack. The distraction had resulted in several sparks to burst from his suit; the result of beam blasts that burst from Saba’s eyes. The blast sent him hurtling towards the ground where he had tossed his Power Sword. Grabbing the sword, he broke into a mad dash towards the girl, frantically deflecting Saba’s beams with his own blade.
-o-
From a distance, Adam and Aisha had regrouped with Billy, who was tending to the fallen Kimberly. Both were shocked by the decrepit state of their friend.
“It’s not looking good, is it?” said Adam.
Billy shook his head. “We need to get out of here and fast.”
“But how do you stop her?” asked Aisha frantically. “She destroyed the Power Cannon!”
Billy looked in the distance as Rocky was dueling with the girl who had Saba in her hand. He also looked up to see the now immobile Tigerzord.
“Where’s Goldar?” he asked.
No sooner had Billy asked the question did he and the other two Rangers found themselves swarmed with Putty Patrollers. Billy pulled out his Blaster and managed to strike a couple Putties, but grew concerned when they kept coming. He continually fired his blaster towards the approaching Putties until he was able to pick off a couple at most. Meanwhile, Aisha and Adam were keeping the rest of the swarm at bay, picking off a couple here and there. From a distance, they could make out Rocky and the girl going at it for a bit before Goldar appeared from a distance.
“This is bad.” Aisha said.
Adam grunted, punching away a Putty. “Real bad.”
-o-
No sooner had Goldar dropped in did the battle between Rocky and the holder of the coin break off. The Titan ignored the Ranger and turned his attention towards the girl, who kept her distance and tossed Saba into the sky. Goldar soon found himself deflecting the saber’s eye beams feverishly with his sword before summoning his own eye beams to knock the saber out of the air and into the rubble. No sooner had he turned towards the coinbearer did he recoil due to a blow to his chest armor, upon which he looked down to see the smoldering blade of the Power Sword on the ground. No sooner had he turned to face the Red Ranger than Goldar found himself knocked to the ground with a fierce spinning kick across the jaw.
Rocky quickly recovered his Power Sword and turned to face the Titan, who was all the more willing to aim his barrage of eye beams in his direction. Nimbly dodging the beams, he leapt at Goldar and landed a flying fist across the Titan’s damaged chest armor, knocking Zedd’s high warrior to the ground once more. With Goldar down, Rocky turned to face the coinbearer, only to find that she was gone.
Where’d she go?
Rocky’s momentary lapse had given Goldar a free shot at the Red Ranger, who was struck with several eye beams from the Titan. Before Goldar could attack further, the White Ranger flew in and knocked Goldar down with a flying kick. Immediately, he rushed to Rocky, who was stood back up.
“You guys okay?” White Ranger asked.
“Oh yeah, we’re just fine.” Rocky answered sarcastically, “Always a good day to get our butts kicked by Goldar and his Putty brigade.”
“And what about that girl?”
“Bailed on us just as the party was heating up.” Rocky’s tone grew dark. “She took out Kim. I don’t know how bad, but she’s been out of it for a while.”
“I know,” Tommy snorted, trying his best to maintain his composure. “Listen, Rock. Zordon was able to clear through the grid interference. We’ll need to regroup quickly though so that we can get back to the Command Center.”
Rocky nodded in agreement, but before he could say anything else, he saw Tommy instinctively rushing at Goldar. As per usual, the two warriors fought while Rocky rejoined the other Rangers (sans Kimberly, who was still unconscious) in taking on the Putties. Each of them knew that they were essentially fighting a losing battle; not only because of the overwhelming odds, but because of the fatigue from two earlier conflicts. This was most evident in White Ranger’s attacks against the Titan, which were slow and sloppy as opposed the lightning-quick attacks he was accustomed to. Only adrenaline and desire to win were keeping him from collapsing from the massive drain.
The Black Ranger managed to eliminate several Putties, but more kept appearing and kept piling on top of him without end. The Yellow Ranger kept mostly airborne, taking out several Putties with her Blade Blaster. Despite being an effective strategy, it was taking a heavy toll on her and she knew she couldn’t keep up. The Red Ranger masterfully fended off against the Putties that attacked him, but he too was expending more energy than he could muster. The Blue Ranger had summoned his Power Lance to keep various putties at bay, clearing a path as he ran towards the White Ranger, who had successfully destroyed several Putties.
“I hate to say this, Tommy,” Blue Ranger shouted, “but we need to get out of here!”
“You’re right, Billy,” White Ranger replied begrudgingly, “Get Kim and tell Alpha to get us out of here-”
Tommy yelped when he felt his back explode with pain and slowly turned to find several monsters shooting energy beams of various colors. Tommy forcibly took Billy’s lance and started deflecting various shots, moving the long staff swiftly and with relative ease. Billy knew that Tommy had slightly more stamina left than the rest of them, but knew that the White Ranger’s power would not be enough to keep him here for long.
“Get the others and get out of here!” Tommy yelled, “I’ll cover you!”
“No!” Billy argued, “We have to stick together!”
“JUST GO!” White Ranger ordered as he continued to block energy beams.
Billy hesitantly left Tommy behind and managed to reach the side of the building where he kept the unconscious Kimberly out of harm’s way, clearing the way of putties as he got there. He looked behind his back as the other Rangers were trying to deal with the onslaught of putties, but knows the battle is growing futile as more monsters dropped in like flies. He peered to one more look at the battle-ravaged White Ranger, who dashed at the plethora of attacking monsters with intense ferocity. With no other options, Billy immediately reached for his wrist communicator and activated the comm switch.
“Alpha!” he cried frantically, “Get us out of here! NOW!”
On cue, Billy and the other five Rangers immediately vanished in colored light. Enraged that they had escaped his grasp, Goldar tossed his sword to the ground and growled a beastly roar, which was followed by a mass teleportation of all the soldiers back to their home base on the moon.
-o-
Gillian tended to the few wounds she had managed to suffer during the battle. Other than a few minor bruises, she didn’t feel much pain and almost rejuvenated after only coming back to her rest room at the inn just moments earlier. After some time, she took off the wrappings of her hand to reveal the coin that she hid on her person from the others. The coin let off a small hint of colored energy as Gillian’s eyes were affixed on the shifting of colored light caused by the coin.
Her mind quickly flashed back to the battles she has had since acquiring the coin. From the two guards she had slain at the temple to her recent battles with the Power Rangers, Gillian looked back at all the battles she had over the coin. However, her mind soon flashed to battles that does not directly involve her – a battle that she somehow knew was raging on right now. In her mind, she saw the White Ranger fight off against an army of monsters and was close to defeat. Of all the images her mind had produced over the past ninety seconds, Gillian was only able to sum up all she had seen in one word… or rather one name.
“Oliver…”
-o-
Over the mountain terrain and desert, six teleportation beams flew across the blue sky in a single direction towards an ominous structure in the background. The colored beams of light were consistent with each other, never veering off-course. This would quickly change when a quick energy projectile collided with the white teleport beam and soon the beam broke off course from the others and crashed onto the ground with a sickening thud.
From the fallen beam materialized the White Ranger, looking worse for wear as its suit suffered many scorch marks as a result of the ambush attack. Tommy slowly shook off the dizziness and regained his bearings when he got up and found himself surrounded by several monsters and twice as many Putty Patrollers of both the old types and Z-types. In a split-second, all the monsters fired energy beams that Tommy was able to dodge. One lucky shot struck him in the back, furthering damaging the back of his armor plate which had been struck by earlier barrages. Tommy leaped at one of the lizard creatures and tackled him to the ground, only to find several other monsters piling up over him.
From high above the mountains, Goldar smiled gleefully as he watched his greatest rival be defeated. Beside him, the fleshman lord Zedd materialized from red lightning and stood by the Titan, looking below as the battle raged.
“What’s going on?” Zedd roared, “They were supposed to be preparing for the assault on the Command Center.”
“One of the monsters shot down the White Ranger during teleportation,” the Titan reported proudly, “They are currently delivering the final death blows. In the meantime, we still have thousands of monsters standing read for assault.” He paused a moment before bringing up another point. “But sire, I do not understanding the reasoning behind an attack of this magnitude. I have seen this human fight the Rangers. It is quite obvious she had no allegiance with them.”
Zedd nodded. “True, my loyal fool. Bare in mind that the girl still retains the Eighth coin and its mere presence in such close proximity has caused an imbalance in the Morphing Grid. This means that the Command Center’s defenses are in the fritz and the Rangers’ powers are surely weakened from the battles that have come to pass earlier in the day. Zordon will suffer his greatest and final defeat, then I will rule this miserable planet with an iron fist and the bones of my enemies by my feet.”
-o-
In the Command Center, Alpha performed various checks on the fallen Kimberly, who was hooked up to a life-support bed. Things did not seem as critical as originally expected, but Alpha determined it would take some time before she regained consciousness. On another console, Billy performed a wide-spectrum scan for Tommy as well as any evidence of what would disrupt his teleport. On the side, Rocky, Adam, and Aisha each paced around the center, anxiously wondering what the next move would be. Their thoughts were immediately answered when the alert klaxons blared through the center.
“What’s going on, Zordon?” Rocky called out.
Zordon hesitated before replying. “Rangers, there is a great disturbance several klicks from the Command Center. Observe the viewing globe.”
All four Rangers turned their attention towards the viewing globe. All four Rangers’ jaws dropped at the sight of several monsters gathering beneath the shadow of the mountains. Billy frowned as the viewing globe shifted from one group of monsters to the next, with occasional images of an overview pan, which showed a moderately-sized army of enemy monsters positioned several kilometers from the main Command Center structure.
“There’s over a hundred unique monsters and five hundred putties approaching the Command Center,” Alpha commented, “And most of them are fully powered.”
“Damn,” Rocky spat, “We’d never fight them all off at full strength, let alone with two out of commission.”
“But there’s no way those monsters can get in the Command Center without a Power Coin,” Aisha pointed out uneasily, “Right?”
“Under normal circumstances, that would be the case.” Zordon bowed his head lightly, knowing that the Rangers won’t like what he has to say. “Unfortunately, the circumstances are anything but normal.”
“Then we can’t take any chances,” Adam warned. “We’ve got an army of monsters coming to our door step and there’s a good chance we can’t take the beating.”
“If the Command Center is defenseless,” Aisha cautioned. “If any one of those monsters get in here, who knows what could happen?”
“None of them are getting in here,” Rocky vowed, gripping onto his battered Power Sword, “Not if I have anything to say about it.”
To be continued…
