AN: This probably won't follow PRDT continuity much, but the purpose of this is to develop my new character. Please review!
The Cyberspace was packed as usual. Haley and Trent were rushing to meet the demands of their young, borderline hostile patrons. Cassidy seemed to beckon every ten seconds or so, asking whether her overly complicated coffee was ready.
"If she wasn't a girl, I would smack her so hard…" Trent muttered under his breath.
Conner, Ethan, Kira, and Dr. Oliver stood at the far corner of the bar, casually chatting. Dr. Oliver was deep in thought while Kira was attempting to explain to Conner the finer points of respecting women, instead of treating them as objects or just something pretty to look at. Conner's mind of course drifted, as did his eyes, to a hot blonde sitting on the couch across the room.
"You know what, guys," Ethan interrupted, "Mesogog and his goons haven't shown their faces in a whole 72 hours."
"Now why would you go and say something like that?" Conner responded.
"What do you mean?"
"He means that every time you say something along those lines, people fall out of the sky, monsters appear, and several other things have happened. You're like a big jinx," explained Kira.
"No way! How many times has that actually happened?"
"Six," the others said in unison.
"Hey, one of those times saved your life, Kira."
"That was nothing but a coincidence, and you know it."
"Whatever. You know what? We've been talking about this for…like five minutes, and nothing's happened. I just debunked your theory," Ethan said with an overly confident expression on his face.
Kira opened her mouth to continue the argument with Ethan, but no sound came out. Only a gasp left her vocal chords when she saw Zeltrax and an unknown figure crash through the front windows, flying over several teenagers sitting on the couches by the window including Conner's new love interest. The two landed on the wooden floor near the center of the café, ripping up several planks as they skidded to a halt. The customers of the Cyberspace fled in a panic, all of the civilians had left excluding Haley of course, she ran across the bar to join the Rangers.
The stranger quickly leapt off of Zeltrax, standing at his side, looking down on him with disgust, rage shining bright in his eyes. Across the room, the Rangers were speechless, even Dr. Oliver. They couldn't fathom how a normal civilian such as the man standing over Zeltrax was capable of doing anything like this, especially incapacitating him. The closer they looked, however, the more they saw this man was in no way ordinary. The man snarled, exposing some of his teeth, his canines were inordinately long, almost like fangs. Zeltrax rolled over onto his stomach, about to attempt to stand after being tackled through the wall of glass. He grabbed Zeltrax by the back of his armor with one hand, then flung him up through the ceiling like it was nothing. Zeltrax created a second hole several feet from the other in the ceiling when he fell and landed on a table near the windows they entered through. The table easily collapsed from his weight and the sheer force to which he was thrown.
The man whipped around in order to face Zeltrax. He stood firm, his long black jacket swayed from the light breeze coming in through the once wall of glass. His hands were slightly away from his sides and the Rangers noticed that the man had abnormally pointed fingernails. When Zeltrax arose, like an instinct, the man's fingernails extended to form what seemed to be claws and he lightly crouched, like an animal ready to strike.
Zeltrax shot a bolt of lightning from his sword toward the animalistic stranger. "Look out!" Kira screamed. Though before her mouth opened, the man leaped and flipped backward, bringing his left hand to the ground, using his claws to bring him to a stop on all fours, leaving claw marks several feet long in the already damaged wood floor. The man let out a powerful, deafening roar that resembled that of a lion. The roar itself not only caused Zeltrax to freeze, but the jaws of the Rangers immediately dropped to the floor. They couldn't believe what just erupted from the stranger's mouth.
He then leapt forward with both arms extended, launching into a run on all fours. He drifted to the left toward the wall, then advanced onto it, taking two big leaps while marginally gaining height. He jumped from the wall to one of the holes he made in the ceiling, swung from it, then plunged down to Zeltrax, both arms raised to his right. As he came down, he slashed diagonally across Zeltrax's chest, causing him to blunder backward about ten feet. There were ten deep gashes visible in Zeltrax's armor, a few of which had obviously gotten through to whatever was really under there. Next, the man effortlessly leapt forward again with his arms straight out, but instead of starting into a run, he used his hands as leverage to flip and powerfully kick Zeltrax out of the café, landing once again on all fours. Zeltrax flew all the way out where the windows used to be, back to the wall opposite of the Cyberspace, cracking it significantly. An invisiportal quickly materialized and swallowed him, returning him to his precious master to report his failure.
The stranger nonchalantly rose to his feet once again. He retracted his claws, cracked his neck, and uttered a low growl. Through the entire battle, Zeltrax hadn't managed to leave a mark anywhere on him, a triumph in itself, even more so for a man who wasn't a Ranger. He wandered over to the bar and placed both hands on the counter, attempting to catch his breath. He glanced to his right and found an unopened soda bottle a few inches away. He used the claw on his left thumb to easily pry off the cap. The Rangers could do nothing but stare in awe. What could they possibly say to this man? If he was a man at all.
After chugging the entire bottle of soda, he set the bottle down with a loud thump. He sniffed the air, then smirked. His gaze shifted to his right for less than a second, then back forward. He began to twirl the empty glass bottle on the counter in a playful manner.
"You know, if you keep staring at me like that, Rangers, you'll end up like Zeltrax over there," he finally said, gesturing toward the alley, "probably worse," he added with another smirk. His voice was deep, and his tone suggested he was fully prepared to act upon his threat.
The fact that the stranger addressed the Rangers directly snapped them out of the trance they slipped into while watching the events of the past few minutes. "Wait a sec, how do you know we're Rangers?" Kira asked abruptly.
The man just simply chuckled and turned toward the group. "It's a bit obvious isn't it? With you wearing the Dino Gems out in the open on your wrists like that."
"How do you know so much about us and the gems?" Dr. Oliver interjected. The others had never seen Dr. Oliver this serious before.
"I know a lot of things, Dr. Oliver. You'd be surprised to learn how much." He swiftly turned around, jumped up toward the ceiling. He used his claws to attach himself to the ceiling so he had leverage to swing up and out of one of the holes. There was no sign of him after that.
"Who the hell was that?" Conner exclaimed.
"More like what was that…that guy couldn't have been human. What are you thinking, Dr. O? Do you think he has a gem? That might have been why he knew so much," Kira asked.
Dr. Oliver ran his fingers through his hair out of frustration and utter confusion. "I have no idea, Kira. He wasn't human, at least not fully. I'm not sure to whether if he has a gem. The gems give those who are chosen powers, sure, but I've never seen a gem cause a physical transformation like that before."
"Yeah, he had fangs, claws, the whole nine yards." Ethan was silent for a minute or so, then a eureka moment developed in his mind and showed on his face as if something surprised him. "I got it! I know what he is!"
"Had an epiphany there, did you?" Trent remarked sarcastically.
"Shut up and let me get this out there. A sabretooth tiger. It explains everything!"
"That's a pretty big conclusion to jump to, Ethan," Hayley replied.
"Look guys, stay with me here. The retractable claws, extra long canine teeth, always landing on all fours, the roaring. You can't tell me that he didn't sound like a lion or a tiger or something like that. It also explains his hair color and facial hair."
"What does his facial hair have to do with anything?" Kira inquired.
"Have you ever seen a picture of a sabretooth? On the side of their faces they have those tufts of extra hair, that on a man would like the mutton chop-like deal that guy has going on. Don't forget the color of his hair. It's a weird dirty blonde color, the same color as a sabretooth's would be, but that might just be a coincidence."
"Are you hearing this, Dr. O?" Conner asked. He was in as much disbelief as the others were. "This sounds completely insane, doesn't it?"
"I actually think Ethan is onto something. It makes perfect sense now that it's been put into perspective. If Ethan's theory is the case, and he does have a gem, then he'll show up on our scanners. He's way too powerful not to."
