Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters or situations presented here and am not making any profit off of them whatsoever.
Story Title: Implacable Resolve
Rated: PG-13
Word Count: 3,146
Focus: Carlos Valerte
Notes: This takes place in Power Rangers: Turbo, during Chase Into Space. Comments and criticism gratefully accepted.
Summary: Divatox and her crew will not stop their attack on the Power Chamber. The Power Rangers will not stop defending their base. Carlos watches the immovable object and the unstoppable force come together.

I wish I'd had nightmares like this. Maybe if he had, he would have been able to stare at the reality of Piranhatrons not just battering down the doors to the Power Chamber, but scaling their way into it from the top as well. Carlos had never dreamed, in any kind of way, that he and his friends would face this one day.

But in the space of one day, everything that they'd known had fallen apart. Dimitria and the Blue Senturion were gone, and there was no way to get in touch with any kind of help. God only knew where the Phantom Ranger was. If he's not needed now, then he never was!

They couldn't even call on Lightning Cruiser and Storm Blaster anymore. The Piranhatrons had netted them and dragged them out of sight. How that had worked when nothing ever had before was a mystery to him. Maybe T.J. or Justin could tell him something, but they didn't have the time to talk. Not now. Maybe not ever again.

Were they going to die today? It wasn't a thought that he'd ever had while being a Ranger. Sure, they'd faced defeat before. When Havoc had shown up, it had been virtually as depressing. Now was different. Now wasworse when he thought about it. Much, much worse.

If I'm going to die, I'm going to take some company with me! Carlos swore to himself as he punched and kicked at the tidal wave of Piranhatrons that was spilling into the room. Why hadn't there been more defenses? If there were, why hadn't they known about them? He didn't know which one he wanted to be true. If there were no defenses, it was stupid enough, but if there weren't any, then they should have been told about them.

There were few moments that he had to think those thoughts. Most of his mind and attention was taken up with everything he could do to keep himself and his friends alive. He swept at a Piranhatron's legs, ducked a crushing blow from Elgar that drove the mutant moron's fist into one of the consoles, and did his best to give himself enough room just tofight.

Unfortunately, there wasn't a great deal of space to do any of that in. Everywhere that he looked there was either one of Divatox's foot soldiers, a lackey, or the overwhelming laughter of the pirate queen herself. Even that took up space, and Carlos remembered the first time he'd seen her. He'd hated her even then, and it had only grown worse with every passing day.

What is it with her? Adam had told him that they ruined her wedding to Maligore, but why would she keep on trying to conquer Earth just for that? It didn't make any sense. But Divatox didn't appear to make sense no matter what. It was as if she went out of her way to avoid that.

He could see the others scattered all around, though trying to get to them would be the next thing to impossible. With all of those Piranhatrons in the way, they were just as inaccessible as if they'd been on the far side of the solar system. If not more, really.

For a brief moment, Carlos wondered if they could get to the teleportation system and get out of there. Retreat, regroup, try again to beat Divatox back another day, when they'd recovered some set of Zords and could do something against this monstrous horde that was so dead set on beating them today. Even as the thought formed, he could see Elgar placing explosives on the control panels. He doubted the idiot even knew which was which, but that wasn't the point.

There was no time at all to talk to anyone. The confession to Justin that he'd been scared had been some of the last peaceful speech he'd had. Hewanted to have the time to talk, to indulge in the playful banter that had marked almost every battle for the last few months.

God, had it only been a few months? Five, six, something like that. It had been August when they'd been given their powers, and now it was early February. They'd been looking forward toValentine's Day as the next holiday. Just a few days earlier, Cassie had been in the Youth Center with a smoothie and Ashley, and he'd heard them talking about that. She'd been wondering if the Phantom Ranger knew about the holiday and what she would have done if he were still around.

She had it so bad for him. Were they were ever going to see each other again? Carlos spotted a flash of pink as she struggled against a half dozen Piranhatrons and tried his best to get there, only to have his feet kicked out from under him. He rolled and bucked as hard as he could, more of the fishy fanatics piling on him. It was usually ease to breathe once they were morphed, no matter what, but now every breath was agony to take. Was it because of all the fish-stench in the air? Or would the pain in his ribs be the culprit?

This was all wrong. They werekids. They shouldn't have to fight for their lives or for the planet. There shouldn't even be people trying to conquer Earth! Alien life he could deal with. That was kind of cool. But when the only ones that wanted to come and talk were the ones that also wanted to crush all the defenses humanity could conjure and force it to join some kind of evil galactic empire…well, there was just a lot wrong with that.

But that didn't mean he was going to stop fighting. No, it just meant he was going to fight harder. There had to be a stop to it somewhere. He didn't know how or why or when but it was going to stop, and if that meant he was going to pour his blood out to do it, then he would do it!

He relaxed under the straining Piranhatrons just for a moment, doing his best to get them to be off guard. That was all he needed, just a second so he could get away from them. There had to be a thousand of them, and those were just the one on him. Whenever the pressure eased up just a little, he tried to get away, but they were still there, keeping him down and unable to move.

There were hands around his neck, and if he hadn't been morphed, they probably would have either snapped his spine or choked him to death. They were trying to do both of those at the same time anyway, and only the fact that hewas morphed was saving his life.

Something he'd seen tickled at his mind and he tried to remember what it was. There were just too many of the fishy things holding onto him for him to realize what it was right away. Every time the thought floated within reach, one of them slammed his head down and it was jarred out of there once again. It was an important thought, one that could very well mean the difference between life and death.

He held his breath as best that he could, gathered up all of his strength, and bucked with every bit of power that he could dredge up from the deepest depths of his soul. At least a few of the Piranhatrons were bounced off, and he managed to evade the grasping, clinging hands of the rest, just enough to get to his feet and take a few steps away. That was all he could do, before another wave of Piranhatrons was there, reaching for him just like the last batch had.

There was no end to this except one, and Carlos stared it in the face. He couldn't talk to his friends and teammates enough to know if he were the only one or not, but it was the truth regardless. Divatox had won this battle. She might not have won the entire Earth yet. Maybe the countries of the planet could actually settle down and work together long enough to defend themselves. He couldn't say he was all that hopeful about the matter. They couldn't even settle down long enough to agree on which way the wind was blowing, from what he recalled from seeing various news programs.

"Time to blow!" He heard Divatox's triumphant shout as if from very far away, and his heart sank. He knew what the thought was that he'd almost grasped before. He'd seen Elgar placing the explosives, and she had to have something to blow them with. They wouldn't be there just for decoration.

He had time enough to notice Elgar leaving, but the Piranhatrons didn't move. They were too busy holding onto any Ranger that they could. He wasn't surprised. The only life Divatox cared about was her own, after all.

He couldn't remember the explosion later, not completely. No matter how hard he tried, there was only the sensation of white fire, and then darkness that wrapped around him as if it were a warm and comforting cloak.

Carlos didn't want to wake up after that. He wanted, at least a little bit, for it to all be over with. But despite his pessimism, there was still that part which would never give up until life was ripped beating and bloody from his hands, and that hadn't happened yet. That was the part that made him a Power Ranger.

His eyes opened slowly, and the first thing he was truly aware of was that there weren't any Piranhatrons around him. He took a few deep breaths, but didn't try to move. There were noises a short distance away, and his instincts declared that it would be a very good move to just stay where he was at the moment. It was too dark for him to see more an a faint inch or two around him, and he could hear the faint sound of sand…at least he thought it was sand…falling here and there.

It was official now. Divatox had won. She'd done what none of the other enemies of Earth had ever pulled off: she'd beaten the Power Rangers. Thick bile boiled up within him just at the thought. How could he look any of the older Rangers in the face again after this? They'd been trusted with the planet's safety and they'd failed, completely and utterly failed.

He realized somewhere in there that his helmet was gone. A faint moving of his fingers showed him that the glove were still there, which meant that everything else was probably still there as well. He hurt in a lot of places, more than he could count at the moment. Normally it was the next thing to impossible to actuallyhurt a Power Ranger. The Power protected them like that.

Is it…gone? That would make sense, he guessed. Or at least so drained that they might as well not have it in the first place.

There were voices coming closer to him. A shot of joy flowed through his veins. Was it is his friends? Then he recognized one of those voices, and winced. No. That was not a friend. That was Elgar. And then he recognized Divatox. This was growing even worse by the second, and he hadn't even thought that was possible. It can always get worse, he reminded himself. If any of them were caught, they'd have even less ways to defend themselves than they normally did.

He closed his eyes again, knowing it was stupid. If he couldn't see them, then they could still see him. But maybe he could hear them coming quicker and find a way out in the nick of time. Yeah, right. Or he could play dead and they'd leave him alone…unless Divatox was in the mood to make certain of her enemies and take trophies…like their heads.

He swallowed a little, his throat dry and parched. He wanted a drink. He didn't care what kind. Just something wet past his lips. The thought of everything he'd ever drunk at home or in the Youth Center or even at a water fountain in school passed through his mind teasingly. It was a nightmare just to remember all of that, a sweet kind of nightmare that he treasured just for the memory of it.

Then a voice he didn't recognize began to speak, and he tried to listen, curious in some small part of him as to who had arrived. He wasn't certain of who this 'Dark Spectre' was, but if he could make Divatox jump to attention, then Carlos was certain he wanted to know more. Everything he heard only confused him even more. Eltar fallen? Zordon captured? A meeting at the Cimmerian planet? Hardly any of it made a bit of sense, but one thing grew astonishingly clear.

Earth didn't need them anymore. Divatox was going to be leaving. So that left them with one clear goal: to go into space after her and do everything they could to help Zordon. Carlos had only met him once, and he didn't think the others had met him any other times beyond that as well, but that didn'tmatter. What mattered was that a great mentor and teacher was in danger, and they might possibly be able to do something about it. What they could do without any powers and without a way to go into space at the moment he didn't know. But that also didn't matter.

When Divatox and her troops left, he waited until he couldn't hear anything else going on. He wanted to be certain that they were really gone, and that she hadn't left any Piranhatrons to stand guard. As the minutes ticked by, he grew more and more certain that she hadn't, and he squirmed his way out of what proved to be a pile of debris that he almost recognized as part of one of the walls. Now it was just a load of junk like everything else.

Once he was out in the open, he took a long look around. Everything was destroyed. There wasnothing that could help them anywhere here. If he'd had Divatox's throat between his hands at the moment, he would've squeezed until there was nothing left. How could she do all of this? How could anyone be that evil?

But…this Dark Spectre looked to be more of a threat, to the universe at large instead of one planet. Maybe it was time that the Power Rangers of Earth went beyond their planet. From hints he'd heard dropped before and from things he'd seen on news reports in the past, he knew that people from other worlds had helped out earlier incarnations of the Rangers. Time to repay that.

Then something else caught his attention and he growled under his breath before bounding up the piles of rubble to reach where Divatox's flag flapped insultingly in the breeze. How dare she! He scrambled up there as quickly as he could, somewhat aware that the others were gathering below. He'd go to them once he got this out of the way.

For a second he just stared at it, truly unable to believe what had happened, even with all the raw evidence around him. He really wanted to wake up and find that it was somehow a dream. The thought of having to leave everything he knew behind was more than a little terrifying, even in comparison to what had already happened that day.

That flag was the symbol of that battle lost. Taking it down wouldn't undo her victory. But there would at least be one less bit of evidence for it. He grabbed it and threw it down with all of his might, and wished his blaster worked at the moment just so he could use it to set the repulsive thing on fire, completely and utterly destroy it once and for all.

Then he worked his way down to the others, glad at heart to see that they were all right. They were as beaten and torn up as he was, and he suspected what they all wanted underneath the things theyneeded to do was a hot bath, a good hot meal, and the chance to sleep for a few days. But any Power Ranger learned very quickly that what you wanted to do had to take a back seat to what you needed to do at times.

Even as they drew closer together, a light flashed, and when it faded, they were in their normal clothes once again. Carlos winced slightly as the pain of a dozen injuries he hadn't even noticed yet flared through him in addition to the ones he'd already felt. The others were having much the same problem, he noticed. How could any of this be explained to their parents? He wouldn't normally have thought about it. His parents hadn't noticed a single thing different about him since he'd taken the morpher from Adam.

Maybe that wasn't such a bad thing, then. He loved them, and he was certain they loved him, but if he could leave and they wouldn't notice…no, they would. He was sure of it. But all of that was something to work out for another time.

"We need to go to the Cimmerian planet. We've got to save Zordon," Carlos didn't expect arguments from it. They had to have figured out the same things that he had. "We can't just leave him there."

"What about what we promised Dimitria?" Cassie wondered, glancing around with a slight glassy look of shock in her eyes. He wondered if she really meant that or if was just because of everything that had happened.

"That doesn't matter anymore," he pointed out. "Divatox is leaving Earth anyway. She got what she wanted. She beat us." The words tasted foul on his tongue, but they had to be said anyway. "But we're still alive, and we can do something about Zordon if we go there."

None of them asked what they could do. But the question still remained of how they could get up there and how could they even find the Cimmerian planet if they did. The galaxy was huge, and none of them had even left Earth itself yet. Maybe Alpha could help, or they could run into the Phantom Ranger or the Gold Ranger or someone else who would be willing to give them a hand.

They had to do something. Just sitting here, shrugging and deciding to be normal kids who'd just lost a playground fight, wasn't in any of their natures. He could see some indecision in Justin, but he knew why: the situation with his father. That was something the Blue Ranger was going to have to deal with on his own. But as a team, they had one goal: finding a way into space. Everything else would come after that.

They were the Power Rangers, with or without their powers, and they would not be stopped.

The End