Power Rangers: The Curse of the Dark Ranger
PART 2
By Dalton Cooper
Disclaimer: I do not own the concept of Power Rangers nor do I own some of the characters in this story. I do own, however, the characters in this story that haven't previously appeared in the Power Rangers universe.
Author's Note: Please review...your thoughts and comments would be very much appreciated.
Sighing heavily, Jason took a seat against the far wall of his cell. He couldn't see anything, but that didn't bother him, as there wasn't anything to look at inside of the cell, anyway.
Surprisingly, the door to his cell opened, and a single Baboo stepped in. The strange alien light bulb that hung off the ceiling switched on and the cell was suddenly filled with an almost blinding brightness. Even more surprisingly, Baboo didn't have a single Langist with him.
Quickly, Jason jumped to his feet and took a fighting stance against the space alien. "What do you want?"
Chuckling slightly, Baboo held out his hairy hand to motion for Jason to relax. "I'm not here to fight you, Jason. I'm simply here to talk."
Reluctantly, Jason dropped his stance and eyed Baboo suspiciously as the simian-vampire hybrid handed Jason a goblet of water. Instead of making his usual cracks against the Rangers and threatening Jason, Baboo simply crossed his arms and stared at the former Red Ranger. "Listen, I didn't put anything in the water, if that's what you're wondering."
After weighing his options of dehydration or drinking the water, Jason decided to take the risky way and gulped down the goblet full of water. He handed the stone goblet back to Baboo, who unexpectedly threw it against the wall in a fit of rage. The goblet broke into two and lay on the ground as Baboo punched the door.
A few seconds of silence lingered in the cell for a moment as Baboo leaned his head against the door, breathing heavily. "Master Zeraton sent Squatt into the field," Baboo finally said, removing his head from the door and facing Jason.
Oddly enough, Jason felt sympathy for the space alien. Jason knew that Baboo would have to of brought him to the moon regardless of whether he wanted to or not. Baboo wasn't the greatest fighter, and he would be totally incapable of defending himself against nearly anything. "Why? Squatt isn't the greatest fighter," Jason said, trying his hardest to show sympathy, but failing at it miserably.
Baboo let out a laugh. "Squatt is a horrible fighter. The Power Rangers will destroy him in seconds! Master Zeraton knows that Squatt won't be able to defend himself…I can't believe he sent him into the field…"
- - -
Rob Motnes laughed drunkenly as he watched his two friends have a race to see who can chug a bottle of vodka faster. Midway through the competition, one of his friends (Rob was too drunk to actually know) dropped the bottle to the ground began puking profusely all over the floor.
Suddenly, Rob's communicator beeped. Stupidly, Rob activated it in front of all the drunken teens. "What's up, robot man?"
All of the other drunks stared at Rob's communicator with their glazed eyes. "Dude…what in God's boat is that?" one of the drunks asked.
"This," Rob said, holding his wrist up, "is a communicator. I am a Super Ranger or something."
"Rob! There is a disturbance in the park! Your friends need you!" Alpha blared (as far as that would go for a little robot) through the communicator.
"Sorry robo-retard, but I still have some shots left!" Rob said, turning off his communicator and grabbing the nearest shot glass. "Who wants go against the king?"
- - -
"Wait a minute," Jason said, pacing his cell, "wouldn't Squatt just revert back to his sand state after the Rangers destroy him?"
"There is a chance of it, but the chances are five-percent. Master Zeraton promised me he would bring Squatt back if he is turned into sand," Baboo explained. Despite the extremely small chance of it, the number gave Baboo hope, and Jason could tell it in his less-depressed voice.
- - -
Luke, Camp, Sarah, and Ann materialized in the park where they found a short, fat, blue monster with a ton of warts, some poorly-crafted armor, and two small tusks coming out of its bottom jaw.
"Oh, no, Rangers!" the monster, Squatt, said, waving his arms wildly.
"What the hell is that thing?" Camp asked, cocking his head as he looked at Squatt.
"Gross!" Sarah commented, taking a step back.
Ann looked at her teammates. "It doesn't look too threatening…"
Suddenly, ten Langists materialized in front of Squatt. "Try to take these on, Rangers!" Squatt said, running to hide behind the nearest tree.
"Where's Rob at?" Ann asked.
Camp shook his head. "We don't need that creep! We can take these things without that so-called 'partner.' "
"It's morphin time!"
"Pterodactyl!"
"Triceratops!
"Saber-Toothed Tiger!"
"Tyrannosaurus!"
Quickly, Luke unsheathed his sword and took a defensive stance against the small crowd of Langists. The front Langist ran at Luke, spear outstretched, but Luke quickly sidestepped and cut the spear in half with his sword. With a quick spin, Luke slashed the Langist in the neck with his sword, destroying it.
The other nine Langists all charged simultaneously, forcing the Rangers to open fire with their blasters into the crowd randomly. They were able to pick off three, leaving six to fight.
One Langist stabbed at Camp, but Camp dodged and tripped the Langist with his Power Lance. Luke then shot the Langist in the back of the head with his blaster, destroying it. Luke and Camp high-fived each other just as two other Langists ran at them, spears outstretched. Luke and Camp ducked just in time and the Langists speared each other.
Two Langists jumped on Sarah, pinning her to the ground. Ann quickly did a flip over the Langists, holding her daggers out and destroying them both. Ann gave Sarah a thumbs-up, not noticing the Langist right behind her. Quickly, Sarah pulled out her bow and shot an arrow straight in the Langist's eye.
The four regrouped. "Now it's your turn, creep!" Camp warned Squatt, who was shaking behind the tree.
Pathetically, Squatt ran to the Rangers, but did not attack them. Instead, Squatt got onto his knees and began begging for mercy. "I don't want to fight you! Master Zeraton sent me here! I'm sorry!"
"Uh…what do we do, Luke?" Sarah asked.
"I…don't know. Alpha never briefed us about how to handle a monster who's pleading for his life," Luke replied, cocking his head at the distraught Squatt.
Stepping forward, Ann put her hand on Squatt's shoulder plate. "It's okay, creature. We won't destroy you."
Camp admired Ann's sympathy for the creature. Secretly, he had a major crush on the Yellow Ranger, but he would never tell anybody, especially Luke (mostly for giving him crap about Sarah). He found her pale features mesmerizing and her personality was amazing.
Without warning, the Dark Ranger materialized behind Squatt, holding two katana-like swords, except these swords were a rusty color with teeth like a saw. Quickly, the Dark Ranger plunged one of the swords through Squatt's back and heart. Suddenly, Squatt dematerialized into the sand form he was reverted to when Zordon's energy wave was spread across the universe. Squatt's sand began whirling around crazily and started a strange small sand twister of sorts. Then, the sand shot into the Dark Ranger's heart…The deep red liquid substance that resembled veins on the Dark Ranger's suit began glowing brightly. Turning his head to the sky, the Dark Ranger held out his arms as an energy wave emitted from his body, knocking the four Power Rangers to the ground.
"He absorbed that monster's energy!" Luke realized, astonished.
Angrily, Ann got up and approached the Dark Ranger, her two daggers ready in her hands. She took a fighting stance. "You're dead!"
"No, Ranger, you're dead," the Dark Ranger said mockingly as he aimed the tip of one of his swords at Ann. Suddenly, a large blast of black energy shot from the sword.
"No!" Camp yelled, pushing Ann out of the way of the blast, but in the process taking it all.
"Camp!" Luke and Sarah yelled simultaneously, running to their fallen friend. Ann just stood there in shock, gawking at the fallen Ranger who had saved her life.
Loudly, the Dark Ranger began laughing at his victory. "You Rangers are useless. I expected more of a challenge."
Frustrated, Luke stood up and aimed his blaster directly at the Dark Ranger. "You'll get your challenge!"
- - -
As Rob passed out on a couch, his communicator began beeping loudly. Rob, however, just simply rolled over.
- - -
Baboo backed away from the globe as he witnessed his friend Squatt's murder at the hands of the Dark Ranger. He turned to his master, Zeraton, who was sitting in an organic chair with black tubes all over it. Zeraton chuckled at Squatt's death.
"Why did you let him do that?!" Baboo asked/demanded.
Turning to face Baboo, Zeraton smiled. "I do not need a worthless baboon, no offense, in my army! I simply sent him to Earth just so my powerful Dark Ranger could absorb his energy."
"You…you…" Baboo charged at Zeraton, who simply held his hand up…reverting Baboo back into sand.
Zeraton turned his attention back the globe that sat in front of him, showing him the situation on Earth between the Rangers and the Dark Ranger. "The Dark Ranger can absorb you later."
- - -
Luke fired his blaster at the Dark Ranger, but the Dark Ranger swiftly blocked the blast with his swords, knocking the blast back at Luke. The blast connected with Luke's chest, sending him a few feet backwards.
"Ann, teleport Camp back to the Command Center. I'll help Luke out here," Sarah ordered, aiming her bow at the Dark Ranger as Luke got back onto his feet.
Nodding, Ann rushed to Camp's side and teleported herself and Camp back to the Command Center in two brilliant flashes of yellow and blue respectively.
Luke shot three blasts at the Dark Ranger, all three connecting him in the chest, but barely fazing him. Swinging his sword wildly, Luke was able to connect a couple of times, before Dark Ranger slashed Luke across the chest, causing Luke's suit to spark and sending Luke to the ground.
The Dark Ranger readied both his blades to end Luke, but Sarah quickly shot Dark Ranger with an arrow, giving Luke enough time to leg sweep the Dark Ranger, bringing him to the ground.
Quickly, Luke jumped to his feet and Sarah rushed to his side. They both aimed their blasters at the Dark Ranger's face, causing a small explosion. When the smoke cleared, the Red and Pink Ranger were both shocked to see that the Dark Ranger had virtually no wounds on him.
Suddenly, the Dark Ranger floated off of the ground and went extremely high into the air. Luke and Sarah looked up at the Dark Ranger, extremely shocked at this surprising new feat.
"I didn't know he could do that!" Luke exclaimed, staring in awe at the Dark Ranger.
Suddenly, two huge blasts of dark energy flew from the Dark Ranger's swords and landed directly in front of Luke and Sarah, creating a massive explosion which sent them flying at least fifty feet. Sarah landed hard, but besides a few scratches, she was fine. Luke's visor, on the other hand, was shattered upon impact.
The Dark Ranger glided to the area where Luke and Sarah had landed. He raised his two swords above Luke, but paused when he saw Luke's face. The Dark Ranger dropped the swords to the ground and his body began shaking violently. He de-morphed and fell to the ground on his back revealing…the boy that Luke saved from the thugs the day before!
Sarah and Luke hurried to the little boy, who was shaking violently and foaming from the mouth. His eyes were a blue color, but with every shake they flashed black, and his height (he was usually a relatively small boy) was varying as he flopped around on the ground.
"Whoa!" Luke proclaimed as he and Sarah stumbled over to the boy. Luke activated his communicator. "Alpha! The Dark Ranger is just a kid! We need to get him back to the Command Center, something's wrong with him!"
Suddenly, the boy, Luke, and Sarah disappeared in a flash of black, red, and pink light respectively.
- - -
Upon arriving at the Command Center, the first thing Luke noticed was Rob leaning against one of the consoles, a sour expression on his face like a spoiled child who was just told no.
Alpha hurried over to the boy with a syringe in his robotic hand. He quickly injected the boy with some sort of purple liquid which made the seizures stop immediately. Ann, meanwhile, was standing at Camp's side, who was lying on a blue sheeted bed positioned against one of the control consoles.
The boy sat up and faced the Rangers and Alpha. "I'm so sorry," he began, tears forming in his eyes. "The man said that I was going to be able to defend myself and repay you," the boy pointed at Luke, "for helping me. He took me to his palace on the moon and shot me with some sort of black thing. And that's all I remember!" The boy then began crying louder, but attempted to muffle his cries into his arms as he curled up into a ball.
"What man?" Luke asked, taking off his damaged helmet and putting a reassuring hand on the boy's shoulder.
"His name was Zeraton," the boy replied through muffled cries.
Once Camp came through, Alpha addressed the five teens and the young boy, who introduced himself as Alex to the rest of the group after he calmed down a bit. "Rangers, we now know that Jason wasn't the Dark Ranger, but I doubt that Zeraton will let us see the last of this abomination of a Ranger. I suspect that he will take the Dark Ranger powers to a new host since Alex was incapable of killing Luke. Rob," Alpha turned towards the Black Ranger, who was hung over, "I have to strip you of your Ranger powers. You chose another activity over defending the world and cost the other Rangers dearly. You also blatantly used your communicator in front of other people when it wasn't necessary at all. I've decided to give your powers to Alex."
Angrily, Rob slammed his morpher and his Power Coin onto a console and stormed out of the Command Center.
- - -
Jason got bored in his cell and began doing push-ups to pass the time. Just as he passed one hundred push-ups, the door his cell slid upon and Jason's jaw dropped.
"Did you miss me, Red Ranger?"
