Dillon's Dane-gerous Game
Disclaimer: I do not own Power Rangers in any way, shape or form.
Inside the domed city of Corinth, the weather a breezy and sunny. Everybody seemed as if they were in a good mood, even the birds flew around happily from tree to tree. It was a perfect day to relax and have some fun.
The five colorful rangers were all at The Garage. Dillon sat in a small chair with his feet propped up on a table in front of him with a yellow lollipop in his mouth and his sliver pocket watched in his hand. He just sat there listening to the music the watched played and staring at the watch itself. His thoughts drifted as he stared at the ticking device.
As for Scott, Flynn, Summer and Ziggy, the had their own activity in progress. The four surrounded a small table, which they were staring at intently. The looks on their faces were a mix of determination and seriousness. They all looked at one another, and then their eyes turned to Flynn.
"There's no way he does it…it just can't be." Ziggy said as he turned his glance back to the table.
Summer sucked air through her teeth in protest. "I don't know, he's gotten pretty good at this."
Dillon looked over at them from his chair. When he saw what they were doing he just rolled his eyes and focused again on the watch.
"Shh!!" Scott snipped at the others. "We need to let him concentrate. This is a very delicate procedure."
Ziggy and Summer nodded in agreement and did as they were told. Flynn stared with strong determination at the table, trying as hard as he could to focus on what lay before him. Scott, Summer and Ziggy all tensed up when they saw him move his hand in.
With that, Flynn gently pulled out a small wooden block out of the block tower, being as careful as he could be. He wasn't careful enough, however. The tower was already lacking the basic structure it needed to stand, and when Flynn removed the next block, the tower collapsed with a crash. The rangers groaned in disappointment as they looked at the scattered pieces on the table—the game was over.
"No! I lost! And I really thought I had it with that one too." Flynn said to the others sadly.
"That's the thing with this game," Summer said as she gathered the pieces, piling them back into the box, "you can lose at the last second." She grinned.
The team rose from the table and stretched a little.
"Same time tomorrow, team." Scott said with a smile as he pointed at them.
Ziggy grabbed a small book from his backpack that was on the floor and looked to Dillon. "Yeah, and maybe next time we'll be able to get Dillon to play with us."
When Dillon heard his name he looked over to the other rangers, plucking the candy from his mouth. "I still don't understand why you're playing kiddie games when we could be training." He said flipping the watch closed, ending the music. "Seems like a big waste of time to me."
Scott scoffed at the Black Rangers words and walked over to him. You could see the anger in his steps. "We've been training all day, we all deserve a break. It's okay to take a rest every now and again." He told him. "Our mental status is just as important as our physical."
"Must've missed that little gem when I was in school." Dillon retaliated with a smirk.
Summer held the game box and looked at her friends. "Don't bother with him, Scott. Dillon likes to brood about after he trains." She said with a light chuckle. "I'd say he'll be about another…oh, twenty minutes."
Dillon shot the Yellow Ranger a dirty, but in the same way playful look. She grinned back at him while placing the game box in a large trunk.
"Well, I smell trouble brewing, so if you don't mind," Flynn began, pulling a wrench from his back pocket, tossing it in the air and catching it, "I'm going to go work on my car." He said carefully as he slid out of the room.
Scott just continued glaring angrily at Dillon. "Don't you ever get tired of just moping around?" he asked him.
"Well, according to Summer, I don't mope," He said with a smart-alecky tone, placing the sucker back in his mouth, "I brood."
Scott just scoffed sharply and rolled his eyes. He turned and began to storm out of The Garage. "I'm going for a drive, Summer, you contact me if anything happens." He finished and was gone.
"Whatever." Dillon said coldly, flipping the watch back open, resuming the music.
"Oooookay." Ziggy said. "On that note, if you two are finished, I am going to read for a while." He told them, as he jumped and landed in a laying down position on the couch.
Dillon watched him with his eyebrows raised. "What book is that?" he asked.
"Oh, it's great!" Ziggy exclaimed looking at the cover. "It's called 'Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.' It's a great novel about how a man tries to save his mentally ill father and invents a antidote for him. But when he tests out the formula on himself, it causes him to develop another personality named Hyde." He explained. "It really shows how there is good and evil in all of us…or in your case good and…Venjix hardware." He trailed off.
Ziggy tossed the book to Dillon. When he caught it he examined the cover closely. It was two men's side profiles. They looked like the same person but different in a way. The man on the right was very clean cut and gallant looking in a suit and tie, whereas the man on the right had crazy hair and eyes that glowed a dark gold, topaz –like color. He barred a cane and a scowl on his face.
"Wow…" Dillon said, he was surprised that the cover actually looked interesting. "So this is the same guy?"
"Exactly!" Ziggy said excitedly. "The man on the left is Henry Jekyll—the heroic, doctor type, and the man on the right is Edward Hyde—the evil, trouble causing tyrant the he turns in to."
Dillon shook his head before he chucked the book back at Ziggy. "Whatever keeps you from bugging me, Green Boy."
Ziggy barely caught the novel that was thrown at him; he nearly fell off of the sofa. "Well, I like it." He told him sadly.
Dillon flipped is watched closed again and placed it in the pocket of his black jeans. "You know that's just fiction, right? Nobody really can change from good to evil back and forth; you're either one or the other. It's just a story someone made up." He said coldly.
"Those are the best ones." Summer interjected as she made her way across the room. Dillon had forgotten she was there, she figured she had ran after Scott in their little argument.
"Thank you, Summer." Ziggy said, glaring at Dillon as he spoke.
"You've read it too I take it?" Dillon asked her, folding his arms.
"Many times." Summer told him as she took a seat at one of the table's chairs. "I like how there's two sides to the character. He has his good moments and bad, but in the end, he wants the good to prevail. He's a lot like you." She said.
"Like me?" Dillon asked her back. Summer nodded and she looked over to Ziggy who nodded as well in agreement with her. "Okay!" Dillon said standing forcefully, "If you're all finished evaluating me—I have things to do." With that, he grabbed his leather jacket from the chair and stormed out.
"We can really get under his skin, huh?" Ziggy asked her.
"I'll say." She answered. She didn't think she was really evaluating him—she was trying to pay him a compliment really. She knew that Dillon had two sides to him and she's seen them both. He was all rough and brooding when she met with him in prison, but he showed the gentler side of himself that day in the park, when he opened up to her that he failed in saving someone dear to him. Sure, he was rough around the edges but she knew deep down there was a softer side to him, and hoped that side would show more in time.
Inside the Venjix barricades, General Crunch, General Shifter and Tenaya 7 all surrounded the master machine that was their boss. General Crunch seemed stood their all dopey, General Shifter wanted to get down to business, and Tenaya just wanted to be sent out to defeat the rangers.
"Well, my robotic underlings, "I have a mission proposition for one of you. It involves capturing a couple of the Power Rangers. It will be difficult—is anyone up to the task?" Venjix asked the three in his loud and booming voice.
Tenaya's eyes got wide with excitement—this is the moment she had been waiting for. She was already getting antsy just patrolling around the barricades; she wanted some action on the battlefield.
Before she could step forward, she saw Crunch beat her to it.
"I can handle it Master Venji—" Crunch began but slipped and fell on a broken shard of machinery. General Shifter and Tenaya gave him a look of disgust as he found his footing again. He dusted his bulky body off in embarrassment. He knew that this blew any chance he had of getting this mission. "I'm going to go, and uh…yeah." He trailed off in defeat as he sulked out of the room. General Crunch was never the sharpest knife in the drawer and he had just proved it.
"Incompetent fool." Venjix grumbled. "Tenaya!" he shouted out to her.
She could feel her face lighting up with confidence. "Yes, Master Venjix?" she said with a bow. Afterwards she stepped forward. "How can I be of assistance to you?" she asked.
"As you know, there are now five Power Rangers as opposed to the original two." Venjix began.
"I am aware of that fact." She said with an evil grin plastered on her face.
"Well, we need to make sure that these two 'newcomers' are handled. We can't risk the rangers having more power than we do." He told her.
Venjix's words made General Shifter step up in utter disgust. "And you want her to try and handle them? What about me? I'm far more efficient that she is!" he yelled at the machine.
"Do you want me to add you to the list of the people I 'handle'?" Tenaya asked him.
"Silence!" Venjix interrupted. "The both of you!" he then turned his attention back to Tenaya, and her to his. "Since these rangers are so new to the team it makes them somewhat of rookies, making not too difficult to deal with them—the Green one at least."
"And Ranger Black?" she asked cocking her head to the side.
"He may pose to be a problem, what with his super strength and speed. But I have something that will give you the upper hand." Venjix reassured her. He then took his long crane-like claw and reached in deep into the pit next to him. Tenaya followed it to where it moved. When the claw resurfaced, it was holding a strange weapon. It looked like a metal rod with five claw-like shards jutting out of one end of it.
Tenaya took the weapon proudly in her hands. "What shall I do with this, master?" she asked looking at the rod.
"If you use this on Ranger Black, it will shut down any of my hardware he has inside of him completely." Venjix said with an evil tone. "Rendering him defenseless."
"Are the effects permanent?" Tenaya asked him.
"No. It's only temporary." Venjix answered. "It only lasts about five hours, so you will have to act fast. Once you've defeated them, bring them back here so I can figure out what I want to do with them." He went on.
"It will be done immediately, sir." Tenaya answered simply with another small bow. She left the base with the weapon in her grip. After she was gone, General Shifter ran forward in fury.
"So you're just going to let her go alone?!" Shifter growled.
"You'll have your role of play in this General Shifter…believe me." Venjix assured him.
"That being?" Shifter asked with an annoyed tone.
"You will need to hold off the other rangers while Tenaya completes her task. It's either that or stay here and work with General Crunch. Take your pick." Venjix told him.
General Shifter balled his fists together. "Fine." He growled. When he left, he saw Tenaya right outside the base doors. "Just don't get in my way." He said evilly to her as he passed.
"Same to you." She sneered back at him with her evil grin on her face. She loved this. She got the mission that Shifter wanted. He had to hold off the other rangers while she handled the main tasks, and she knew that that drove him nuts.
Back inside of Venjix's chambers, he seemed pretty confident with his plan. They would completely ambush the rangers and capture one of their strongest teammates. If their physical strength wasn't affected by the loss of the two rangers, he knew that the emotional strength would be.
"This'll show the rangers who's in charge." He snickered evilly to himself.