Power Rangers: The Curse of the Dark Ranger\
By Dalton Cooper
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters in this fic that have previously been seen or mentioned in the Power Rangers show. I do own, however, all of the characters you haven't heard of before this fic.
Author's Note: This is my first shot at a Power Rangers fanfic, so please be gentle. D
"Mr. Scott?"
Jason whirled around to find an unusually tall balding suit flashing a toothy white smile at him. Annoyed that this man interrupted his after-teaching practice (a ritual that only Jason practiced) and by the fact that one of his students blew up in his face earlier, Jason greeted the man with an especially bitter tone. "What do you want?"
The man grinned and held out his palm, which, Jason noticed, was extremely hairy. Not only that, but the hair was a shade of black that he had never seen on a human before. Reluctantly, Jason shook the hand of this man who had already displayed oddness.
"I understand that you used to be a Power Ranger?"
Jason had to force his jaw to stay closed and he tried his best to keep his face from going completely white. Jason coughed, nervously shuffled his feet a bit, and just stared at the man.
Chuckling, the man said, "It's okay. I'm a friend of Zordon."
Jason paused and could feel his eyes become glassy at the mere mention of his former mentor. Zordon's death was still hard on him, as it was for every other person, alien, and Power Ranger that had acquainted with the powerful wizard. "Who are you?"
"Call me," the man put his hand on Jason's shoulder, "Burt."
Jason's mind flooded with curious thoughts. How did this man know Zordon…especially years after the sage's death? How did this man know who Jason was? The most mysterious of all of Jason's endless questions was what was this man's agenda?
After the tall man led Jason out of his dojo, the two disappeared in a brilliant red light.
---
Feeling the mesmerizing cool air of spring against his pale face, Luke Dawsing walked past the city park where he spotted a few thugs picking on a little boy.
"Hey! Leave him alone!" Luke threatened.
Turning to see who was ordering them around, the thugs pushed the little boy to the ground, who then ran off. The biggest thug grinned at Luke. "Well, looks like we've got a new runt to take care of."
Luke's eyes widened as he made a break for it, but the thugs were faster. One grabbed Luke by the back of his shirt and violently yanked him back. The thug trapped Luke in a headlock and roughly whispered in his ear, "Which finger do you value the most?"
Quickly, Luke slammed his elbow into the thug's gut, causing him to loosen his grip on Luke. With amazing grace and flawless footwork, Luke spun around the thug and executed a leg sweep which forced the thug hard onto his back.
Alarmed, the other two thugs jumped Luke and wrestled him to the ground. While one thug pinned down Luke's arms and sat on his chest, the other thug whipped out a switchblade, holding the point against Luke's neck.
"You wanna die, you little bitch?" the thug sitting on Luke asked with a mocking tone in his voice.
Using all the strength in his body, Luke tried to struggle against the thugs, but his attempts at escape were futile.
When Luke realized that he had no chance of forcing the thug off of him, he simply squeezed his eyes shut and waited for the blade that flirted with his throat to pierce through his skin.
Suddenly, the thug cursed and flew off of Luke and the blade quickly left his throat. Opening his eyes, Luke saw a curly haired boy about his age wearing a blue shirt and a blue vest taking a fighting stance against the thug with the knife.
"Why not even the odds?" the boy in blue asked with a slight grin on his face.
"You're going to regret getting into our business!" the thug threatened as he mimicked the boy's fighting stance.
The boy in blue's grin grew into a wide smile. "I really doubt it."
With a roar, the thug charged the boy, knife outstretched. Swiftly, the boy grabbed the thug by the wrist of the hand that was holding the knife. A quick twist forced the thug to drop the blade and the boy quickly followed up with a hard kick to the chest, sending the thug backwards onto his ass. Bewildered, the three thugs ran off, realizing they were no match for the boy.
Chuckling to himself, the boy reached out his hand towards Luke, which Luke graciously took. After one quick pull, Luke was back on his feet.
"My name's Camp," the boy said, his smile unwavering.
"I'm Luke."
After a few seconds of silence, Luke said, "Hey, thanks for---
Camp put up his hand and shook his head to interrupt Luke. "Don't mention it. Those creeps needed to be taught a lesson."
---
Slowly, Jason came to, his head pounding and his body feeling weak. The last thing he could remember was that Burt man leading him to the parking lot, and then, nothing.
The room that the former Red Ranger was in was pitch-black. Instead of panicking, Jason just stood still, trying to regain his strength incase he needed to defend himself against anything.
Suddenly, an extremely bright light flickered on, illuminating the small room, revealing to Jason that he was actually in some sort of cell. Spider webs were in every corner of the room and a large stone door looked like the only way in or out. Other than the aforementioned and the odd light bulb that hung over his head, the cell was bare.
The large door opened, revealing two large lizard-like creatures with full armor on, plus each had a spear in their hands. They didn't seem to notice Jason, or they just didn't care he was there, because they both took positions at each side of the door, staring straight past the former Red Ranger and at a wall.
Following right behind the two armored lizard creatures, was the Burt man that Jason met earlier. Burt smiled at Jason and rubbed his hands together excitedly.
"Where have you taken me, you bastard?!" Jason asked/yelled.
Laughing heavily, Burt's body suddenly became covered in dark black hair and his face change into a slight teal color. His body continued to shape and change until he looked exactly like Rita Repulsa's former henchman…Baboo!
Jason's jaw dropped. "What?! It can't be! Zordon's energy wave killed you!"
Nodding, Baboo began pacing back-and-forth in front of the door. "It is true that Zordon's energy wave killed me and most of my comrades, but the sand that we were diminished to was collected by a powerful wizard named Zeraton. Zeraton was able to revive us, and we now serve him faithfully!"
"I'm going to send you back where you belong, you vampire monkey freak!" Jason charged at Baboo, who was one of the Power Rangers' weaker foes. Baboo, however, didn't try to fight Jason one-on-one because he would obviously lose. Instead, the two armored lizard-creatures armed with spears simultaneously shouldered Jason, making him fall to the ground. The two creatures then put the points of their spears to Jason's throat.
Baboo laughed at Jason's attempt. "Stupid Ranger. When you're de-morphed, you're no match for master Zeraton's Langists! You're lucky the master wants you alive…"
Baboo and the Langists turned and left the cell, leaving Jason in darkness.
---
The next day at school, Luke was sitting in his chair during Algebra II, but he was too busy admiring his crush than to pay attention to what his teacher was saying. Luke had always found it hard to keep his eyes off the beautiful Sarah Favaster due to her gorgeous long brown hair, deep brown eyes, and brilliant smile. Sarah turned around and caught Luke's gaze. Embarrassed, Luke quickly looked away and pretended like he was staring at the floor. He saw Sarah giggle a bit before turning around to face the teacher again.
Blushing, Luke sunk into his chair.
---
After school, Luke and his new found friend, Camp, hung out at the park where they met.
"Hey, have you ever had any problems talking to a girl?" Luke asked as Camp slowly walked across a fence, showing off his amazing balance.
"Yup," Camp continued, "I think you should ask Sarah out."
Luke paused. "Wait! I didn't tell you I liked Sarah."
Camp laughed and hopped off of the fence, landing perfectly on both feet. "It's obvious you have a thing for her. Every time you see her, you get all weird."
"I do not!"
Putting his hand on Luke's shoulder, Camp advised, "Just ask her out, dude. She's right over there." Camp pointed to Sarah, who was sitting with her friend Ann, on a couple of swings.
Luke's face went pale and he tried to hide himself from Sarah's eyes. "Dude, what the hell! She never comes here!"
Camp shrugged. "Fate has a weird way of working things out."
Luke watched as the thug with the knife from the day before approached Sarah and Ann.
The thug held out his pudgy hand to Sarah. "Hello, miss. My name is Rob, and I will be your boyfriend for today!"
Sarah looked down at Rob's hand and palmed it away with her hand. "I don't think so."
Annoyed, Rob grabbed Sarah by her arm. "Listen to me, you little bitch!"
Luke began to run to Sarah's defense, but Camp stopped him. "Just watch, dude."
Sarah pushed Rob away and stomped onto his right foot. Rob groaned in pain as Sarah gave him a punch in the stomach and then slapped him across the face. Luke and Camp laughed as Rob angrily stormed off. However, Luke, Sarah, Camp, Ann, and Rob were suddenly enveloped in red, pink, blue, yellow, and black lights and disappeared.
---
Suddenly, the five teens were at a strange place; where the walls were mostly black with a ton of little lights blinking on them, making them somewhat resemble the sky at night. Control consoles were set up in a circle on a small platform in the middle of the room, and a strange globe was in the middle of the room, standing on a strange black stand.
"Where are we?" Ann asked, looking around the room.
A small red robot with a lightning bolt on his chest and a large saucer-like head approached the five. "Welcome, Rangers!"
" 'Rangers?' " Luke asked, eyeing the robot suspiciously.
"Aiye, yai, yai, yai, yai! I hate picking noobies," the robot said, shaking his large head feverishly.
Rob approached the robot and violently poked him. "What the hell are you?"
The robot swatted Rob's hand away angrily. "I am Alpha 12! And you are the newly chosen Power Rangers!"
The teens' eyes shifted uncomfortably at each other.
"Let me explain the situation to you. An evil wizard known as Zeraton has resurrected evil space aliens that were once defeated with the combined effort of the Power Rangers and my late friend Zordon's energy wave. Zeraton has kidnapped a former Ranger, Jason, and I haven't been able to get a hold of him since his disappearance. The world needs your help to defend it as the Power Rangers using these morphers and these Power Coins." Alpha handed out the morphers and the Power Coins…which were the original Power Coins!
"Years ago, these coins were deemed useless, but Zordon's energy wave had given their Powers back. All you need to do is put the Power Coin in your morpher, raise your morpher up, and summon the name of your specific dinosaur chosen to you."
"This…is stupid," Rob said, leaving the Command Center.
"What?!"
"I agree." Sarah and Ann followed closely behind Rob.
Luke and Camp also followed.
"Oh, no! I wish Zordon was still here…"
---
"Jesus that retarded robot thing is one crazy bastard," Rob commented as they walked through the sandy deserts surrounding Angel Grove.
Luke fingered his morpher as they walked, wondering what kind of powers Alpha was talking about. Maybe he should become a Power Ranger; after all, it would be saving the world…whatever it was.
Suddenly, a group of Langists appeared around the five teens! The Langists hissed and charged at the team.
Sarah gasped. "What are those things?!"
"I don't know, but they don't look too happy!" Ann said as she grabbed Sarah's arm.
Luke watched as the rest of the teens, even Rob, were overcome with fear and their faces went deathly pale as they turned to run away from the lizard monsters. This was his chance to show Sarah that he is brave and worth her while, it was also his chance to prove to everyone that he can be a great leader and wasn't to be taken lightly.
"It's morphin time!"
The other four teens stopped as Luke held his morpher out in front of him, ready to morph into a Power Ranger. "Tyrannosaurus!"
Suddenly, a red suit with a helmet that somewhat resembled the head of a T-Rex appeared on Luke's body. A holstered blaster hung at his hip and a red sword hung on his other hip.
"Whoa!" Camp said, bewildered. "Well, let's go everybody!"
"Mastodon!"
"Pterodactyl!"
"Triceratops!"
"Saber-Tooth Tiger!"
Rob, Sarah, Camp, and Ann all were donned suits of the colors, black, pink, blue, and yellow respectively. Rob's black suit resembled a prehistoric elephant with two tusks on the helmet, Sarah's pink suit had the body of a pterodactyl on the helmet, Camp's blue suit had a few horns on the helmet, and Ann's yellow suit had a helmet that resembled a tiger.
Luke charged at the already charging Langists, without even showing fear. Pulling out his blaster, Luke shot multiple lasers into the Langists, destroying a few in a couple brilliant explosions. One Langist tried to ram into Luke, but Luke swiftly side-stepped it, tripped it, and then stabbed it in the back with his sword.
Camp kicked a Langist in the jaw, causing it to fall into the spear of the Langist behind it, impaling itself. That Langist angrily dropped the spear with his ally on it and charged at Camp, but Camp quickly pulled out his blaster and shot the Langist in the face. Two mother Langists jumped at Camp, but Camp was able to call forth a weapon known as the Power Lance, which was basically a lance with three large points on the end. With one swing, Camp was able to cut the two Langists in half.
Sarah stood back, firing her bow and arrow into the crowd of Langists and picked off a few. One Langist got close to her, but Sarah slammed her bow into its gut, and then roundhouse kicked it to the ground. She then shot the Langist through the chest. Another Langist jump onto Sarah's back and forced her to the ground. "Help!" Luke hurried to Sarah and swung his sword into the Langist, destroying it.
"You okay?"
Sarah gave a thumbs-up.
Ann sliced Langist after Langist with her daggers, destroying at least ten after a few moments. One Langist stabbed at her with his spear, but she quickly ducked and leg swept the Langist to the ground. In the reflection of the Langist's armor, she could see two more running at her from behind. Quickly, she stabbed backwards with her daggers, making contact with both of them.
Rob, however, just watched all the action from afar.
After all of the Langists were defeated, a strange Ranger with a deep black suit, with dark red vein-like energy rushing all over it appeared on top of a rock. A bright red cape hung around his neck as he laughed at the Rangers.
"The worst is to come, Power Rangers! You will all die!" This Ranger, the Dark Ranger, then disappeared.
---
The team went back to the Command Center to celebrate their victory, but Alpha was extremely worried about the Dark Ranger.
"What's wrong, Alpha?" Ann asked.
"The Dark Ranger," Alpha began, "could possibly be Jason! It's very probable that Zeraton brainwashed him and is forcing him to do his dirty work, and in that case, we may not even stand a fighting chance…"