Chapter 1 Before the Fall By Danroe79
This is the prequal leading up to the New Ranger series.
In the days after the fall of the old ranger replublic many rangers fled earth along with troops some took stands on their own home worlds, others joined the fight...
The forest Moon of Caladora
Daniel Hart held back along with his fellow ranger Jake Henderson, behind them was a troop of soldiers that had once served in the Galactic Republic, They stood on a presabis looking down into glacier canyon, it was called that because below where large Ice crystals that seemed to grow from everywhere, they watched silently as the dark rangers moved through the canyon below, two straight lines, two dark rangers leading with there warmachine androids behind them, each one heavily armed, these had been the republics downfall for what had been created to protect had now been twisted to destroy
The Green galactic rangers stomach twisted, he had never been afraid to go into battle, but with the events of the last three days and the fall of so many of his comrads he was now becoming hesitant.
"We are seriously outnumbered" He said looking down and mentally counting the numbers of the passing hoard.
"Numbers dont matter" General Sloan whispered as he checked his blaster rifle and then the weapons hanging on his armour
"We cant let them reach the capitol"
The Black RPM ranger Daniel Hart nodded his head, he knew that Sloan was right, if the capitol fell then they would loose Caladora and another planet would fall to the Dark Empire.
"Agreed, the Droids are an easy target, its the dark Rangers that we have to look out for, they will be the challange"
Daniel nodded as he looked at Jake and then back to Sloan "We will deal with the Dark rangers, you just take out the droids"
Sloan nodded
From behind them the troops checked their weapons and the whine of them powering up could be heard.
"Piece of cake" Sargent peters said from behind them as she snapped her riffle cartrigde into place
The Green galactic ranger raised his eyebrows and looked at the red head, she was young and impetious, but her spirit was strong, she would have made an awesome ranger if she had accepted the offer. Peters had ended up turning it down to serve in the marines, she didnt feel like studying for 3 years to learn how to fight when she already knew was something that she wanted to do.
"Easy for you to say" Jake responded looking down at his galaxy morpher, He had only become a ranger a week before the fall and had only seen combat once, but his nerves had gotten the best of him, Luckily Daniel had been there to save his ass before it had been blown off. He closed his eyes, he was going to survive this and he was going to fight, there was no time to be timid there was no time to hide, he had to protect this moon, this is what he had trained for, this is what he had worked for...
Sloan did one last check on his gatling rifle
"Ready?" He asked, they all nodded behind him, he then turned to the Daniel and Jake with an uncertain look on his face, for these two it was different, they had only recieved their ranger powers a few weeks before and hadnt seen real combat.
"You two alright?" Sloan asked
Daniel and Jake looked at each other and then looked at Sloan nodding back
"Then lets do this and may the power protect us" Sloan nodded to his troops who all pulled sonic grenades from their arms, each pulling the pin and then throwing them into the canyon below. Nothing was heard for a split second, then the ear shattering sound rang around them and ice and fire rose into the air as the grenads exploded with the ultra sonics...Sloan knew that they would have only a split second before they recovered and that it was now or never
"LETS GO...FOR THE REPUBLIC!" Sloan cried raising his blaster and jumping down the side of the mountain along with the rest of his troops, the whine of his gatling blaster now firing into the hoard
It was now or never, Daniel had been itching for some payback esp for what they had done to his family...
"Good Luck" He nodded towards jake powering up his Rpm morpher, he took a step back and then sprinted for the edge as he reached it he dived off it and towards the ground
"RPM GET IN GEAR!" he yelled as energy seemed to swirl around him and he became the black RPM ranger. Before Daniel hit the ground his suite seemed to glow so brightly that when he did finally hit, energy shockwaves exploded out in all directions striking the droids around him causing them to explode and rain debris around him. Jake watched him Daniel was one hell of a fighter and it seemed like he didnt have any fear, but in saying that he knew that at that point it was up to them, The ranger ranks had been decimated badly with rangers turning to the dark side, the ones who had stayed true to the lightside of the morphing grid had to fight and they had to win, they had to drive back the darkness...Evern if it ment sacraficing their own lives, that was what a rangers purpose was...to fight for those who couldnt fight for themselves...To protect!
"Here goes nothing!" He stepped back and then ran for the edge, he leapt forward, the air rushing passed his face was such an awesome feeling, his adrenaline pumping...
"GO GALACTIC!" He yelled as green lightning struck him from all sides as he became the Green Lost galaxy ranger he glided down and landed in the centre of the droids
"Quasar saber!" He annoucned as he pulled the saber from its holder, he spun quickly as one of the droids attacked him firing off a volley of torpedos which he deflected away, He raised the saber it arching with energy, he sliced downwards through the first droid, he then blocked the attack from another...
With Nitro sword in hand, Daniel continued to diflect the blasts from three droids that where advancing on him. Moving past them in a flash of speed he sliced through the centre of the two droids, each one arching and then exploding before him. He turned looking towards three troops had been cornered by three droids. He ran towards the troops launching himself into the air, spinning like a corckscrew and landed on one knee behind the droids, His nitro swords exploded with energy as he swung in a wide arc before him, the energy launched towards the droids like a crescent moon and slammed into them causing them to explode and rain debris around them. Daniel got up and looked at the troops
"You guys alright?" He asked
"Thanks to you" The dark haired troop said, Daniel knew him as Zack Adams, he was daniels age and just a bit taller then himself
"All in a days work" Daniel responded, He was about to turn around when a pink arrow that had a black energy outline slammed into his left shoulder, Daniel was sent spinning ended over end and slammed into a tree trunk falling to the ground.
"Open fire!" Zack yelled as he turned his Gatling blaster on the newcommer.. Multiple blasts of destructive energy raced towards her, The ranger pulled a weapon from the holster at her waste, touched the stud and changed it from a gun into a blade, Moving faster then anyone could have anticipated she deflected every single shot away from herself each one exploding behind her.
The dark ranger tilted her head and looked at the troops for an instant
"Pathetic" She hissed as in her right hand some sort of weapon appeared
"FLICKER WHIP!" she whispered, as she held the whip close to her chest, The tip of the whip seemed to slither out and then seek its target, it wrapped around Zack first lifting him into the air, The dark ranger flicked her wrist slightly and sent him carrening into a tree, it broke in half as he slid along the ground
"Puny human..." She hissed as she bent down before his body, blood dripped from his ears and nose, she picked him up by the the hair, Zack screaming in pain, She turned him around to face her helmet
"Did you really think your pathetic weapons could stop me?" She reached down and took hold of his gatling rifle in her left hand and crushed the barrel, dropping it to the ground.
"I am beyond you, and I will show you the real dark power of the morphing grid, the side Zordon was to afraid to embrace, the side that gives you ultimate power" She said looking into Zacks face, she drew back there was something different about this one, something that she had felt a long time ago...
Daniel felt like he had been run over by a shuttle craft, his whole body ached with pain, He tried to get to his feet but his shoulder felt so heavy he couldnt bring himself to get up off the ground. The sounds of the battle around him felt like faint echos in his head, an explosion went off beside him but he didnt move
"Daniel get up!" A voice echoed from so far away that Daniel couldnt see where it was comming from. He felt groggy, he turned to see the dark ranger holding Zack by the hair who was unconconcious.
"No Zack!" He cried, for some reason he felt like he had to protect him but he didnt know why, he was a fellow comrad and that was normal, but this was different, this was a deeper need to protect him, to keep him safe, He pushed his nitro sword into the ground and pushed himself to his feet. "ENGINE CELL!" he yelled as he slammed it into the blaster, it whined loudly as the power begun to build into the weapon, he took aim and then pulled the trigger, a blast of black energy exploded from the barrel. The dark ranger couldnt dodge the blast and it slammed into her chest causing her to drop Zack, but instead of falling to the ground, she slid backwards with her hand out holding the blast
"You are going to have to do better then that" She hissed as she raised the blast above her head and sent it blasting back to him with a bit of her own added power added to it.
Daniel watched as the blast approached him head on, the blast slammed into him throwing him back into the rockface that was located behind him, rocks and chunks of debris flew out in all directions. Daniel felt like his chest was on fire, he fell face first into the ground, his armour glowed brightly and then vanished
The dark ranger came walking towards him, the whip in her right hand snapping around her on the ground, like a snake ready to strike
"This is the best they have to offer..." She leaned over reaching out and wrapping her hands around his throat lifting him off his feet and into the air.
"You rangers...so weak, not even a challange and to think you are from my blood line..." She hissed the venom in her voice. Daniel felt the tight grip of her right hand around his throught, he looked down at her uniform, where it had once been pink and pure it was now tainted with black.
"Atleast I will have the please of snapping your neck, A pity I cant take your powers, but I will take your morpher as a trophy" She cacked. Daniel could feel the pressure of her fingers tighting around his throught
"Now black ranger..." She brought his face close to her own. Her helmet hissed as it seemed to crack and split apart revealing her face. No longer was it the beautiful young women that Daniel had known as his oldest sister, now she was nothing but a shell for evil, her face had changed, dark black vines ran the length of her cheeks and forhead, Her bluebrown eyes now replaced with red and her pink lips now black
"You will die..." She smiled
A giant tornado of white energy seemed to blast through the underbrush towards the dark ranger, but she wasnt quick enough to dodge the attack and slammed the dark ranger from behind throwing her head first into the ground, releasing Daniel who fell to the floor
"Dont touch him you evil bitch" A ranger dressed in white aquatar ranger armour stood holding a sword in one hand and a fan type weapon in the other stood before Daniel.
The Dark ranger stood up her eyes burning with hatred and rage, they seemed to glow brighter as her anger begun to consume her once again "Ahh if it isnt our little sister" The Female Dark ranger growled as she watched the White Ninja help up the black RPM ranger
The white rangers fan dissapeared back into the sword as she got back to her feet with the black rangers hand around her shoulder
"Kim how could you do this? you where once good and pure, you took the same sacred oath that we did to protect and serve the light, how could you let yourself succome to this evil?" Kayla yelled over the noise of the battle raging around them.
Kim smirked, she raised her dark bow, a black arrow that seemed to have dark energy writhing from it appeared in her hand
"Our Lord Kairon has shown us the way, the way to gain ultimate power" Kim said dangerously low
"The old ranger republic was weak, a figure head that allowed other worlds to dictate their actions" She huffed as she then lowered the bow the arrow dissapearing from it
"A group of weak minded old rangers who had lost their backbone" She looked around at the Carnage and destruction that was happening around her
"Do you not see that through death and destruction comes Order and Security" She said clenching her fist,
"This galaxy needs order and Lord Kairon will give it that stability that it needs, but in order to become stronge we must destroy the weak" her face softened as she unclenched her fist and extended it towards the two rangers
"Come with me, join us, we can be a family again, all of us together" She smiled sweetly as she moved closer to them "I dont want to destroy you, I love you, but you must embrace the darkness and become one with us, Lord Kairon will protect you from what is to come"
Kayla looked at Kim, the sincerity in her eyes was almost convincing, like she truely ment what she had said, but Kayla knew that she had already killed their two younger brothers who had both been rangers and for that there was no forgivness..Kayla's blood boiled there was no way that she was going to take the last member of her family. Daniel was severly hurt, his eye was swollen blood trickeled from his ears and nose, he was semi conconcious...
"You must be out of your mind to think that we would ever consider joining you" Kayla returned
Kim smirked darkly towards them and raised her bow pulling back on it a dark arrow appearing
"I was hopeing you would say that" She whispered her lip curled into an evil smile
"Time to die butterfly" She pulled back and let fly, the bow and arrow exploded from the weapon, Kayla was only expecting one arrow, but the arrow exploded into thousands of tiny arrows that slammed into them sending them sliding along the earth dust and debris flying around them.
White energy surged around Kayla as her morph faded away
"Kay...la" Daniel struggled to talk or move, his body racked with pain, He clothes torn and bloody, Kayla wasnt moving and she was oddly still A shadow loomed over them
"Its a shame to waste two potentially powerful rangers...but such is life..." Kim said from above them as she pulled her blaster from its holster and powered it up
Daniel couldnt move, tears formed in his eyes, it couldnt end like this...
"Kim... please you where once a good person who served the light..." he breathed. The dark ranger Kim seemed to tilt her head to one side
"The light...Pfft!" She hissed as her eyes glowed with red fire
"The light is Dead Ranger..." She smiled looking at hand, dark energy seemed to flow around it
"We have embraced the dark side of the morphing grid" She looked up at them again
"Zordon never told you about the power of the dark morphing grid...It has given us more strength and power then you can possibly imagine"
"One last chance " Kim smiled sweetly
"Join me and together we could rule the universe!" She smiled as she stopped her face softening
"I need my family beside me, embrace the darkness"
Behind them a green bolt of lighting slammed into the lower half of her back, and seemed to surge around her. Kim screamed as the lighting grew thicker and more powerful. Her body vibrated with such a force that it threw her off her feet and slammed her into a nearby tree stump. The stump seemed to explod in two as she came to rest.
Daniel looked up to see Jake standing before them his Qusar Saber in hand, the blade exploding with green energy, beside him Zack was standing there holding a blaster.
"Keep away from Them" Jake yelled the anger evident in his voice. He leaned down and put his fingers to Kaylas throat feeling for a pulse. Zack leaned down and placed his fingers on daniels they where alive...Barely.
Kayla seemed to come to looking around to see what was going on
"Can you walk?" Jake as keeping his eyes on the dark ranger that was still on the ground a ways away. Daniel tried to move but he couldnt. Kayla Gingerly got to her feet but had to lean against jake to keep her balance
"I take that as a no To Daniel" He turned back to see the dark Ranger getting back to her feet, her weapon in hand
Kims anger surged through her like wildfire, this imputent ranger, he would pay for what he had done, she rose to her feet, energy screamed around her like cut snakes as she levitated into the air, dark energy seemed to drip from her darkened form
"You dare..." She said in hushed but deadly tones
"I will destroy you!" She screamed as she sent beams of dark energy towards them. Zack jumped before them and hit a small button on his armour, a shield shimmered around them
"its not going to hold for long!" Zack yelled as the energy blasts struck the shield
"Now!" Sloan yelled from behind her. Five small devices where thrown into different positions around her.
"Active the field!" Sloan yelled again, One of his lt's beside him hit a switch on a small device that she was carrying, the devices hummed and then shot beams of blue energy into the air that intersected with each other and created a cage around Kim. She screamed
The beams of energy that had once been on coarse for the three rangers stopped and dissapated just before their target.
Kim thrashed around inside of the cage, dark energy exploding around her in all directions as she tried with all her powers to try and escape from the field
"You cant stop the oncomming storm!" She screamed out in rage
"We will destroy you all"
Sloan walked up to the side of the cage, looking at the still struggling dark ranger
"Not Today" He said quietlty as he made his way over to the two fallen rangers, Jake nodded to him
"All the others have been taken care of" He informed sloan who nodded. Sloan looked at his troops,
"And the other Dark Ranger?" He asked, Lt Qusarna stepped forward, she was an Aquatarian
"He dissapeared" She informed him, Sloan looked around
"Dont let your guard down, he could be anywhere" He told them all each one continuing to be on their guard, He looked at Daniel and Kayla
"We need a medic over here"
Jake touched his morpher, his armoured glowed brightly that seemed to explode outwards and then vanish leaving him standing in his normal gear
"What are we going to to with her" Zack asked walking up to the cage, Jake knew himself that as powerful that she was they wouldnt be able to keep her contained within the field for very long.
"For now we take her with us" Sloan returned, Jake raised his eyebrows
"Is that wise?" Zack asked from beside Sloan
"We have no choice" Sloan said as he looked at the group that had been assembled
"Lets round it up and move out" He ordered looking around, Sloan knew the dark ranger was still out there, but where was the question.
A dark ranger that used to be the black Astro Ranger was purched atop the crystal ice canyon watching the group below, Lady Rage had been captured just as they had planned, so far those cowards would fall for their trap, and once it was set, they would all be destroyed just as they had planned. The Dark Astro Ranger leaned against his dark Astro lance, it arched with dark energy
"Pathetic Ants, scurring around like you have a chance" He hissed. Then the voice inside of his head, it was Lord Kairon
'The Ranger council, Has fallen' The voice echoed, it was a voice that went out to all the dark Minions that served their lord and master
'All Warriors are to destroy all that remains of the old Ranger Regieme' The dark astro rangers lip curled in anticipation, he had been waiting for the order, the order to take out all that stood in his way, to totally erase all that remained of the old tired religion
'It will be done my lord' He mentally returned as he rose to his feet and turned walking away
Sloan led the group through the ice canyon towards the main Caladrian city of Calora, the city had once been a sacred site for the ancient morphing masters, according to the archeological records of the moon, the Morphing masters established the holy temple of Morphos and had trained Zordon and 9 other ancient ranger warriors.
One dark ranger had taken down to rangers, and that was only one of them, Imagine what a whole team of them could do. He looked at Zack, there was something different about him, he didnt want to seem to leave Daniels side.
"I dont like this" Jake said from beside Sloan
"Easy Jake, keep moving" Sloan ordered to the rest of them
Jake continued to walk beside them, but he kept his hand close to his morpher, the ice canyon gave him chills deep to his core. Jake was from Caladora, he had grown up playing around the ice canyons, he had been taught by his father to never fear the ice, but to embrace it and trust it, Now to him the ice was daunting and menacing and his mind was playing tricks on him, out of the corner of his eyes he swore he saw dancing shadows. Jake walked beside the cage where the dark ranger was still caged,
"Your pathetic to think that you will succeed, Kairon has already taken all major worlds, and many more Rangers have fallen" She hissed at him as they continued to walk
"Well we wont!" Jake responded as he continued to face fowards
"This was planned even before you recieved your puny powers. This was forseen by masters that where the true masters of the power, the morphing masters where afraid of what the true power of the morphing grid could do, that is why they never embraced the power" Kim continued, Jake knew that she was trying to temp him, to sway him to her side, but he would not faulter. The death and destruction that they had caused would not go unpunished
"Your words are meaning less to me and last time I checked I was not the one who was caged"
"It is a shame young one that you can not see the grand design, for in the end, all that oppose my lord will be destroyed" She laughed softly
"It must be nice to be so self deluded, but its a simple rule of the universe, that good triumphs over evil" Jake responded, Kim smiled wickedly as she ran her fingers up and down the electrostatic bars that made up her prison
"Self delusion is one thing that you and your pitiful band have in spades" She whispered back
Jake shook his head and turned to look at her, she no longer was the teacher he used to know, the bubbly fun loving young vibrant woman, her hair was notted and matted like it hadnt been brushed in so long and her breath smelled like something had died inside of her mouth
"Dont you have any feelings of shame or regret over what you have done" He asked her, she raised her eyebrows and smiled
"The weak will perish" She said simply
"Look what you have done to your own flesh and blood" He screamed, Kim raised her eyebrow and moved back from the cage sitting agains the other side. She raised her index finger to her mouth and licked her finger
"When I escape I will bathe in their blood, and then I will bathe in yours" She begun to laugh and cackle
Sloan looked at him and shook his head
"Save your breath Lad, her fate is already sealed, she has no regret for what she has done, the ranger council will decide her fate" Sloan said quietly
"So then I will be set free" Kim hissed with laughter, Sloan smiled and shook his head and walked up to the bars smiling
"Oh no my dear, yours shall be a fate worse then death" And with that he walked away from the bars and back to the lead of the troop
"Its a shame that you have turned against the light" Jake responded as they continued to walk towards Calora
"I wouldnt want to be in your shoes"
To be continued...