A/N: And now we have a new chapter for the Power Rangers: Astro Force. We've learned so many things from the last chapter, Pidge is a girl, the powers of the element blasters were unlocked, and so was the Mega-Zord. Now that new powers and secrets were revealed, let's see what lies in store for our Rangers shall we? Enjoy!
All the other rangers inside the command center was asleep, except for Shiro. The black ranger was doing push-ups in the center of the room, sweat trickling down his forehead and he was gritting his teeth. All night long he had nightmares, bad memories replaying over and over in his head. He heard the voices of Pidge's brother and father calling out for him to help them when he was strapped to a table while his robotic arm was just being installed to replace the one they had cut off. They also shouted words like 'It's all your fault' and 'Why didn't you save us'? Even, 'They're all going to fail because of you!'. That last one really made Shiro feel guilty.
"Shiro?" a voice broke his concentration, and Shiro looked to see Pidge standing in the doorway wearing only a tank top, and black sweat-pants, her hair slightly messed up and fuzzy, and a toothbrush held tightly in her hand.
"Pidge? What are you doing here?" Shiro asked, now standing up and looking towards his fellow ranger.
"I was just on my way to take a shower. I figured the other guys would be trying to hog the bathroom when the woke up, so I set my alarm for an early start to try and get some of the warm water before Keith, Hunk, and Lance used it all up" Pidge explained.
"Oh. Well, you mind if I talk to you about something before you go in the bathroom?" asked Shiro. Pidge just sat on Shiro's bed and patted on the mattress space to her left to signal him to sit down next to her. The black ranger did exactly that and Pidge was waiting to listen to what Shiro had to say.
"I've been having nightmares. Nightmares about Matt and your father. They keep saying I failed them, but I was literally too weak to do anything to stop them from being taken. I feel like... well, like I failed them, and now I'm starting to feel like I failed you" Shiro explained. Pidge just placed a comforting arm over Shiro's shoulder.
"You didn't fail me, and it wasn't your fault. They took your arm and made you their own personal real life 'Operation' game. I never blamed you for what happened to them. I blame Zarkon and Zarkon alone" Pidge reassured him.
"I was the captain of the Kerberos mission, Matt and your father were my responsibility. It was my job to make sure nothing happened to them, and for one minute I left my guard down and then just like that we were taken" Shiro said, now shaking and clutching his knees.
"Shiro, how many times do I have to tell you that you're not the one to blame for what happened?" Pidge asked, but Shiro didn't answer.
"Well, I'll leave you alone for now. I swear that hot shower is calling my name" Pidge said before leaving the bedroom, and Shiro was alone in his room, thinking deeply about what the green ranger had told him.
-At Galra Central Command-
Haggar had entered the laboratory along with Zarkon right by her side. Sitting on one of the table was a small raptor-like creature strapped to it with black straps.
"My emperor, the last champion we sent was a failure. He could not finish what he started with the black ranger. But now, I have a feeling this new creation of mine will put the rangers down for good" Haggar said.
"Elaborate, witch" Zarkon politely demanded. Haggar then pressed a button and revealed a hologram of a creature with the head of an angler fish, and long wide arms with several circles on it, as well as a red Galra chest guard on it, spikes on the shoulder and a green circular light in the middle.
"I call it Drazil. After I apply my magics to his chemistry, he can fire multiple laser beams out of his eyes, arms, and chest as well. The rangers will be too distracted dodging whatever Drazil fires at them to even bother attacking" Haggar explained. Zarkon gave a cruel and wicked smile at the thought of this.
"You have done well, Haggar. You may proceed with your experiments. Let me know when it will be ready to be sent into battle when we spot the rangers again" Zarkon ordered before he left the laboratory. Haggar then took out of one of the sleeves of her robe, a glowing green potion in the shape of a small squirt bottle and approached the baby Drazil on the table.
"We may begin now, my pet" Haggar said before applying a needle to the top of the bottle and injecting it into Drazil's neck which made it screech like a dog with a limping paw. Haggar smiled, not caring she was hurting the creature, only thinking about the downfall of the Power Rangers.
-Back on Earth-
Carter was standing in front of the rangers who had just eaten breakfast, and taken showers when they woke up.
"The creature you faced on that ship was only the beginning. I have a feeling there may be more" Carter began.
"You think someone is making them?" Keith asked.
"Yes, without a doubt in my mind it's Haggar, the witch who corrupted Zarkon's mind and taught him dark magic" Carter said nodding in agreement with Keith's statement.
"I say bring them on. We can blow their sorry butts to pieces when we bust out the Mega-Zord and a few slashes of our swords, especially a few blasts from the element blasters. Pow pow pow!" Lance said, making gun sound effects, which made Hunk, Pidge, Keith, and Allura all face-palm themselves.
"It takes more than power swords, element blasters, and a giant robot to take down the Galra empire. The weapons are only as good as the one who wields them" Allura piped in.
"Allura is right. The weapons are not what make the Power Rangers, it's he who possesses the powers who do. Power is nothing without teamwork and virtuous hearts" Carter told them, he had a good point and the other rangers agreed with him.
"He's got a point, guys. We won that last fight only because we put our brains together and planned out everything. Next time we may not be as lucky as we were with our last mission" Shiro said to the others.
"Which is why if you are to fight more effectively as rangers, you're going to need a leader" Carter told them. Lance immediately began jumping up and down and raising his hand like a little kid in school, begging to be called on by his teacher to give an answer.
"Ohh ohh! Me! Me! I call dibs! I wanna be the leader!" Lance shouted. Hunk groaned, Pidge face-palmed herself, Keith growled in irritation, and Shiro just rolled his eyes at the blue ranger's childish behavior.
"I object! Lance is just gonna make us do all the hard work for him while he gets to do all the easy stuff!" Pidge exclaimed. Lance gasped in shock and got all up in her face.
"What!? No I don't!" Lance denied.
"Uh, yeah you do" Hunk said, in defense of Pidge's statement.
"Name one time!" Lance ordered.
"The eight-hundred word essay on flight safety last month. Hunk and I wrote the paper and the bibliography while you were too busy picking up girls on social media" Pidge said.
"Okay, then name another time" Lance said.
"You don't even pay attention when we're in the flight simulator. Hunk and I are operating everything while you kick your feet up onto the dashboard and crash into something every five seconds" Hunk added.
"All in favor of someone else being the leader, raise your hand" Carter said before raising up his own hand. Allura, Coran, Keith, Pidge, Shiro, and Hunk raised their hands.
"All in favor of Lance being the leader?" Carter then added before everyone lowering their arms and Lance raising his smiling nervously.
"Sorry Lance, the people have voted" Pidge said.
"What!? No fair! I want a do-over vote!" Lance demanded to Carter.
"You do realize that there are no such thing as do-over votes right?" Keith asked, pointing out the blue ranger's stupidity.
"What about Shiro?" Hunk asked. Shiro jumped in surprise at what the yellow ranger said.
"I agree, I think he's definitely leader material" Allura said with a gentle smile.
"He did know about the weaknesses of the monster we fought on that ship. He even knew all about the ship's hallways and architecture inside and out. If anyone should be leading the rangers, it should be Shiro" Pidge said smiling.
"I'm sorry, but I can't" Shiro said looking down to his boots in a somber tone.
"WHAT!?" they all exclaimed.
"I'm not cut out to be a leader. What happened with Pidge's family back on Kerberos proves that. I lost one crew and I swear I'm not gonna lose another" Shiro told them, looking away from his friends.
"Who said you were going to lose us? We're Power Rangers, we can handle ourselves in battle" Lance said.
"Just let Keith be the leader. He's the red ranger, and last I checked the red ranger was always the leader" Shiro told them.
"Not always the case. The pink ranger lead the Time Force rangers, the red ranger was the second in command" Pidge pointed out, the others staring at her.
"What? I may or may not have been studying past ranger incarnations before I go to bed. And I gotta admit, I like those 'Jungle Fury' rangers a lot, especially the purple wolf ranger" Pidge said raising her arms up in defense.
"Shiro, I get that you're feeling guilty over what happened years ago and that you feel like you're not ready to be a leader again, but your teammates say otherwise. Besides, they look up to you, and say you know the Galra empire better than anyone" Carter said, trying to persuade him.
"Carter's right, Shiro, you're the best shot we have at beating the Galra since you know all about their weapons and tactics better than any of us" Keith said, joining Carter in trying to get Shiro to realize that he's the best choice of being their leader.
"I'm sorry you guys, but like I said, I'm not cut out to be a leader. It's too much responsibility" Shiro said. The master computer began going off and the others ran up to it. Carter pulled up an image showing a large planet with sinkholes, caverns, and Galra sentries and posts all over the place.
"Looks like the Galra have just turned a Balmera into their own personal mining facility" Coran said.
"And there are hardly any crystals growing around it, the Galra are killing it" Allura added.
"So the longer they harvest and abuse the planet, it'll be destroyed?" Keith asked.
"Most likely" Carter said before prepping the wormhole generator to take them to the coordinates.
"Alright. Man up, rangers! It's mission time!" Keith said before Pidge stopped them.
"Wait! There's something I need to tell you, and I feel like this may change the way that you think about me. I can't 'Man Up', I'm a girl. Well, technically I CAN man up, but it's just actually a figure of speech, I don't have to actually be a man to..." Lance, who was in shock from the confession interrupted and shouted.
"What!? You're a girl!?" he asked, making Pidge jump where she stood. Shiro walked up to her with a small smile and his robot hand on her shoulder.
"I'm proud of you, and I'm glad that you told us. This will bring us closer together as a team now that you've let it out" Shiro told her, making her smile and nod to him.
"Alright, now that we've gotten that out of the way, let's go save a planet!" Hunk said before running in through the portal first and the others following behind them. Once the wormhole closed, it was just Carter, Allura, and Coran in the control room together.
"Carter, are you sure Shiro will come to his senses and lead the other rangers?" Coran asked.
"I know he will. Some rangers take a while before they realize they're leaders" Carter said before taking out a book and opening it to reveal a golden bird surrounded by flames sitting on a mountain.
"What are you doing?" Allura asked, peeking over Carter's shoulder, which made him jump in surprise from his seat and shut the book.
"Nothing, just something I'm reading for fun" Carter said before putting it away and going back to the computer to try and communicate with the other rangers. Allura left it alone, but wondered why Carter was so protective of that book, and why he was looking at that page specifically for a long time, from how she noticed how he stared deeply into the illustration. But she figured that for now it was best to leave it alone and not bug Carter about it, and maybe in time he would reveal why he was.
A/N: Whoo! What an update am I right?. Pidge has finally revealed her true gender and Shiro is denying to lead the others. Now, it's time for a quest to a Balmera to prevent it's destruction and to save it's people. I wanted to reference 'Jungle Fury' because that was personally my favorite Power Rangers season, and the theme song to that is catchy too. More to come in the next update! Please review, thanks!
