While chaos ensued on the football field and stands, the football team was oblivious to it all. They just assumed that it is part of the halftime show. Once the football team settled on the benches to be talked to by the coaches about the adjustments. Scourge and a monstrous figure in a football uniform. The football players and coaches did not know how to react to the sudden appearance of monstrous figures. Some cowered, some got ready to fight against them, some sat paralyzed. 'So that's what they did with the mannequin, they made a monster out of it...' Sabin thought. "Everybody, get out of here!" Sabin shouted, throwing a large jug of gatorade at Scourge and tackled him unmorphed.
The football players scrambled to escape from the locker room but the monster appeared in the doorway. "You aren't going anywhere!" The monster's eyes glowed red and an aura surrounded the football team and coaches turning them into footballs. The monster roared with laughter as a bunch of footballs fell to the locker room floor.
Scourge recovered from Sabin's gatorade jug attack and tackle. He was not too happy with the red ranger's attack. His hand shot out and took the teen by the throat, slamming him against a locker. "You are a thorn in my side... I should crush you right now..."
"Take your hands off my son!" Coach Park roared at the dark knight. Scourge snapped his fingers and a group of four necros appeared. Two necros appeared behind the coach and grabbed his arms and held him in place. The other two necros held Sabin against the locker firmly restraining his arms.
"Now then... We can get down to business... Demonback, I believe the power rangers are on the football field. I suggest you give them a game. I can handle these two."
Demonback nodded and vanished to face off with the power rangers.
The rangers were trying their best to keep the necros away from the people who are evacuating the premesis. They have been dispatching necros left and right by severing their tails. The necro squadron went from twenty to a mere ten. The ten remaining necros assembled themselves together to face the rangers. Then a monster in a football jersey appeared right behind them. "Power Rangers! I am Demonback and I am about to blow you out!" A football with a demonic face on it appeared in the monster's hand. Demonback threw his arm back and then forward releasing the football towards the rangers. The football fell to the ground right at the rangers' feet.
"You missed!" Chaice and Alex called out to taunt the monster. The football glowed red for a brief second and an explosion erupted from it, blasting the rangers backwards several yards. The blast caught them off guard and they were all sprawled on the ground with the wind knocked out of them. It took a few seconds for the four of them to get back up.
"Man that was not fun!" Alex mused to himself.
"How was that, Rangers? Here's something else!" Demonback looked like he was steaming and he began charging at the rangers knocking each one down with sparks flying with each contact. He turned around to charge through them again. The rangers were ready for him this time. The four of them all at once stuck their feet into the ground and pushed against him. The rangers and Demonback were at a standstill for a few moments, neither side giving an inch. There was back and forth shoving between the two parties. Demonback had enough of the pushing battle and he balled his hands into fists and landed punches to the chests of the blue and green rangers and then pushing over the purple and yellow rangers. Demonback pounded his chest like a gorilla full of exhilaration from winning the battle (though it was through unfair means).
Scourge turned to Coach Park and an urn appeared in his hands. Sabin thought out loud. "What in the world is that?"
Scourge was amused by Sabin's curiosity. "You'll find out in a moment. Once I'm through with your father, you will have a taste of it yourself." Scourge turned back to the coach. "It looks like you are all washed up, coach. You came so close to beating your rivals and now your team is nothing but a bunch of footballs." Scourge added a taunting laugh. "And now... your son..." Scourge took great delight in seeing Sabin angrily struggle against the necros holding him. "Your son is giving up the game of football. He doesn't want to play for you anymore. He is done. You have nothing to be proud of now."
"No... Dad!" Sabin saw the pained look on his father's face as he looked at him with disappointment. Sabin averted his gaze. He can't bear to see his father's disappointment in him for making his decision.
The urn in Scourge's hand glowed black and Coach Park started crying out in agony as some sort of beam escaped from Coach Park's body going right into the urn. After a long few seconds the beam was finished and he slipped into unconsciousness.
"No! Dad!" Sabin tried harder to break free from the hold of the necros to no avail.
Scourge produced a second urn and pointed it directly at Sabin. "Tell me, Red Ranger... how does it feel to let down your own father and your own teammates with your decision? Doesn't it make you feel miserable? And I can only imagine how your school and this city is going to hate you for it. You have let everyone down. You are a disappointment."
Misery began to overtake Sabin. As Scourge spoke he envisioned the disappointment on every face of his football team, the coaches, the school, and the city. The urn glowed black and it felt like his energy is being sucked out while misery remained. Sabin was crying in agony. The pain was indescribable. It wasn't physical pain, it was a lot of emotional pain and something he doesn't know how to describe. Maybe spiritual pain? Bearing the disappointments of his father, his teammates, his friends on the team, the school, and the city shouldn't even hurt this much but it does. He is feeling the weight of every person he perceives disappointed in him crushing him. He sees all the looks of disappointment and he somehow feels each disappointed look burning like a hot fire in every single bone of his body.
Scourge was enjoying Sabin's agony and was laughing sadistically at the red ranger's unimaginable pain. "You are so weak, Red Ranger. You shouldn't even be fit to lead your Rangers team. They would be better without the likes of you leading them to their destruction. We will destroy them either way, but I bet they would stand a better chance without you, Red Ranger." The beam coming from the red ranger into the urn kept coming and coming. 'It didn't even take that long to collect the coach's misery and the red ranger has a lot of misery. If I can just collect more, we could awaken Hexavex and set him free. This is too easy!' Scourge noticed the beam slowing down and he was not satisfied with what he has already collected. 'I've got to add more fuel to his fire. I want him to hurt more! Let's see... where can I hit him the most... I've got it!' Scourge chuckled menacingly. "And your dear little brother... I can only imagine how he looks up to you like a hero. He undoubtedly hero worships you and you are taking it away from him. He is going to hate you so much for that. How can you live with yourself crushing a little boy's hero worship like that?" Scourge watched Sabin expectantly. 'That should finish him off. There probably will not be anything left of the red ranger after this blow.'
When Scourge mentioned Mason, Sabin imagined Mason's face. He figured Mason would be extremely disappointed in him at first but he then remembered the heart to heart talk the brothers had the previous night. He remembered opening up to Mason about him wanting to retire from football to do what is more important. And that more important thing is being a power ranger and protecting this world from the evil Court of Darkness. Sabin then remembered Mason's words of support: 'You are my big brother; I could never think any less of you for anything.' The thought of Mason's unconditional love for him whether he plays football or not brought a couple tears in his eyes and then his lips cracked into a small smile.
"What is this?!" Scourge is taken aback by Sabin's sudden smile. The urn stopped glowing black and the beam started to return to Sabin. "NO!" Scourge did all he could to stem the flow of Sabin's energy from returning to the red ranger. A lid to the urn materialized in Scourge's free hand and he quickly shoved it onto the urn. By that time, most of Sabin's energy escaped from the urn and returned to its rightful owner.
Sabin's power crystal appeared in his hand as if by magic. He looked over at his father still unconscious and his face cracked into a happy grin. Now is his chance to turn the tables. "Red holy power!" He felt his strength returning to him as the red crystal merged into his body and red armor materialized all over his body. His crystal sword appeared in his right hand and he quickly dispatched the necros that once held him captive. He gestured to the other necros to come at him with his free hand. They obliged and leapt at him.
Something was different about Sabin, it looked like the necros were moving in slow motion as they leapt towards him. He looked at Scourge who appeared to still be in shock of what just happened. Sabin swung his crystal sword, slashing through the necros causing them to disappear in puffs of smoke. "The tide has turned, Scourge. Get ready to lose!"
Scourge scowled at the red ranger's rejuvenated energy. It is like the red ranger is stronger than he was before. "I'd love to take you on and knock you down a few pegs, Red Ranger, but my time is up. You may have this small victory, but your friends are being pounded by Demonback and he will have the honor of defeating you. Goodbye, Red Ranger..." With that said, Scourge disappeared in a dark flame.
"Hang on guys, help is on the way!" Sabin knelt down to check his father. 'He's still alive... good.' Coach Park moaned as he began to come around. "Sir, your son went to get some help. Please stay here. There is a monster on the football field that we must destroy." Sabin didn't waste another second before teleporting in a red flash to join the other rangers in battle.
Demonback continued to throttle the rangers with his charging attack. The rangers did all they could to stop him from charging right through them but the rangers began to show signs of debilitating fatigue after the monster's first couple of charging attacks. They were so fatigued they could not enter into another pushing battle to stave off the monster's attacks. "This is the end for you, Rangers! Time for you to hit the showers!" The monster prepared for another charging attack as the rangers were in the process of getting back on their feet. He took off towards the rangers before they had a chance to catch their wind.
As Demonback charged against the rangers, a red flash appeared on the football field and a streak shot out at the monster, sideswiping it. Demonback was caught completely by surprise by the sudden attack and he was knocked to the ground. The red ranger appeared where the streak ended. He looked over to his friends and jogged right over to them. "Are you guys okay?"
"So glad to see you, mate!" Alex said with genuine gladness.
"We were about to be done for!" Erika added knowing that they could not survive another charging attack from Demonback.
"You came just in time" Kaila stated. A few seconds later would have been too late.
"It's about time you showed up to the party! You are late, man!" Chaice finished with a little tongue-in-cheek humor. He truly was glad that Sabin showed up so the team will be all together to take this monster down.
Demonback was already back on his feet and showed great irritation about the red ranger's side-tackle that knocked him off his trajectory. "You'll pay for that, red ranger!" Demonic-faced footballs materialized in Demonback's hands and he threw perfect spirals right at the red ranger. Sabin charged at the monster cutting to the left and the right dodging both footballs that made explosions just seconds after they hit the turf. Demonback threw more footballs his way as Sabin got closer. Sabin closed the gap to a couple yards, his crystal sword materializing in his hand. Demonback threw one last football to nail the red ranger right in the chest. Sabin read the signs of Demonback pulling his hand back to release the football. He readied his sword to swat the football right back at him. The football was released and Sabin swung his sword, swatting the monster right in the stomach. A few seconds passed and then the explosion came catching both Demonback and Sabin in the blast, blowing them a good ten yards apart from each other.
Sabin was the first to recover. He was soon joined by the other rangers. "It's time for a come from behind win for the Rangers! Crystal blasters ready, everyone! On the count of three, we fire! 1, 2,3...FIRE!" All five rangers aimed their blasters at the monster slowly getting up. The five beams of energy made their way towards the monster.
Before the beams of energy could reach Demonback, an arrow came out of nowhere and struck Demonback in the back. Demonback began to glow black and grew to gargantuan size towering over the rangers. "It is overtime and I am about to close you out, Power Rangers!"
The five rangers raised their arms high and called out "We call on the crystal zords!". The massive crystalline zords appeared and the rangers disappeared into their zord cockpits.
"Let's bring them together, guys!" Sabin called to the other rangers and pressing the merge button on his console as the rangers followed suit. The zords began to reshape themselves to form the different parts of the megazord. As the crystal megazord formed together, the rangers teleported to the main cockpit area. "Alright, let's get him!"
"I'm not scared of you and your contraption! I am going to crush you all!" Demonback began a charge at the megazord, tackling it to the ground. While the megazord was still lying on the ground Demonback proceeded to deliver punch after punch at the torso of the megazord. With each punch delivered, the main cockpit that contained the rangers rumbled and sparked.
"We've got to do something, quick!" Kaila called out reading the gauges that record the damage to the megazord. They were still in acceptable standing, but if the beatings continued, they will enter the danger zone.
"I've got an idea!" Chaice answered Kaila's concern. He pressed a button on his console hoping it will produce a positive result. As he pressed the button, the wolf arm of the megazord's fingers turned into the wolf's head. Demonback threw another punch which was intercepted by the wolf's jaws.
"Ow! Ow! Bad wolf!" Demonback cried out in a mixture of surprise and pain. Demonback got distracted trying to release his fist from the wolf's jaws with his other hand.
Alex pressed a button on his console. Like the arm turned into the wolf, the legs of the crystal megazord transformed back into a kangaroo's legs. Both legs kicked out at Demonback. The moment the legs made contact with Demonback's midsection, the wolf released Demonback's fist and the monster went flying a good distance. Alex and Chaice pressed the buttons again to resume the crystal megazord limb formations.
The crystal megazord took advantage of the opportunity to get up and engage with Demonback again. Demonback is already on his feet with the demonic footballs appearing in his hands. He threw the footballs at the megazord.
"I got this one!" Erika called out pressing a button on her console. The wings of her butterfly zord that were stored on the megazord's back formed a shield to deflect the footballs from hitting the megazord. "I wonder what this one does." Erika pressed another button and strong gusts of wind erupted from the 'spots' on the shield. The footballs hit the gusts of wind and flew right back at Demonback making explosions on impact with him.
"I've had enough of you, Rangers! Time for a last second field goal and I will win!" Demonback prepared to charge at the crystal megazord.
"Let's end this! Holy Joust Charge! Ready when you are, Kaila!" Sabin called out to Kaila to call on her horse zord for the finishing move. "Let's block this field goal!"
"Right!" Kaila pressed a button on her consol and the horse zord came galloping up to the crystal megazord. The crystal megazord jumped onto the horse zord's back. All five rangers pressed a familiar button with a javelin symbol on it and the javelin appeared in the megazord's hand.
Demonback charged at the crystal megazord while the mounted crystal megazord charged at the monster with the javelin poised to pierce through him. The distance between the two closed and the javelin pierced through and impaled Demonback as the crystal megazord rushed past Demonback who was stopped in his tracks. Demonback fell to the ground resulting in an explosion signifying his defeat.
"Holy Knights get the victory!" The rangers called out in a unified victory shout. After their victory shout, the rangers teleported back to the ground and they watched their zords vanish to where they came from. With the defeat of Demonback everyone that was turned into a football turned back to normal.
"Oh man, I've got to go back to the locker room! See you guys later!" Sabin teleported in a red flash. He appeared in a deserted bathroom in the gym unmorphed and still in his football jersey. He heard someone announce that the threat has been removed thanks to the power rangers. Sabin smiled to himself as everyone that fled to the gym celebrated before they went back to the stands to watch the second half of the delayed football game.
Sabin entered the locker room to see his father giving a fiery halftime speech to fire up the players to finish this game. He dismissed the players. He caught Sabin before Sabin joined the group. Sabin didn't know what to expect. "So this is your final game? Let's end your career on a high note with a big win, shall we? Let's do it!" Sabin was caught by total surprise by his father's support. He just smiled and nodded before donning his helmet and joining the team for the halftime stretches.
The game between Crescent City and Dune City turned into a wild one with score after score. The game came to the last minute with Dune City leading Crescent City 48-41. The Crusaders were at midfield with 20 seconds remaining and just one timeout left in the game. The ball was snapped and threw a downfield shot to Sabin at the 20 yard line. He was tackled immediately in the open field causing the players to hurry up to spike the ball. Instead of spiking the ball, Coach Park called a time out. Coach Park took Sabin and Ethan Hays aside. "Hook and lateral and on the right side. Ready?" Sabin and Ethan eyed each other and nodded to one another and to the coach.
The offense lined up again with 12 second left. Ethan was on the far right and Sabin was on the inside right. The ball was snapped and Sabin went 10 yards and curled back to snag the reception. He was about to be tackled when he saw Ethan right behind him. The defender began to wrap up a tackle on him at his waist. Sabin threw a backwards pass right into Ethan's arms and Ethan turned on his jets and raced past the stunned Dune City defense into the endzone for a touchdown as time expired.
An extra point will tie the game up, but Coach Park decided to go for two. Win or lose, the game will end after the two point conversion attempt. Coach Park recommended the end-around using Sabin to take the handoff from the Quarterback and using his speed to get through the defenders on the right side of the field. Sabin took the inside left Wide Receiver spot on the field. The ball was snapped and Sabin took off towards the Quarterback while another Wide Receiver ran the opposite way to throw the defense off a bit. The football hit him in the chest and he cradled it with his right arm using his left arm to stiff arm a defender trying to tackle him. He found a hole and he cut in to get through it. He was hit from behind by a defender that knocked his helmet off. He felt body after body piling on top of him. It felt like he had about 600 pounds laying on top of him and he doesn't even know that he made it across the goal line. Body after body was shed to determine the ball spot. The referee signaled with his arms raised straight up and the home crowd erupted into a deafening cheer as the scoreboard read Crescent City - 49 Dune City - 48 Final.
Sabin was a little shaken up by the multiple hits, but he was picked up by his teammates and they carried him and Ethan Hays on their shoulders to the middle of the football field and then to the sideline. The players put Sabin down in front of Coach Park. Coach Park beamed at his son and pulled him into a tight hug. "I'm extremely proud of you, son. You sure ended your football career on a high note. I'll let everyone know that you are retiring to pursue greater things on Monday." Coach Park whispered in Sabin's ear before giving him another tight hug.
The media cameramen were snapping away at Coach and son and they posed for a couple pictures while some players dumped a couple jugs of gatorade on them. There were nothing but grins on every face of the Crescent City football team and coaching staff, but no grin compared to the grin of Coach Park's. Sabin saw his friends from the stands and they all gave him a thumbs up. He gave them a thumbs up with his free hand and a great grin on his face. He feels a release from the pressure of being a gifted athlete and he can now fully focus on being a power ranger and fighting the forces of evil to protect this world.