Chapter 11 – Mr. Roboto
Previously - "That's correct green ranger", he replied with a robotic voice. "Vengeance shall be mine", he added but there was no passion behind his words and his eyes looked devoid of any life. Goldar raised his right arm and a missile appeared from the armour. It was pointing directly at the blue and green rangers.
"I don't remember Goldar being able to do that before", Rocky stated.
"Say goodbye rangers", Goldar called out as he charged up the missile. All the two rangers could do now is hope they could duck quickly enough.
Goldar fired his missile but at exactly the same time, his arm when struck by a flying disk. The blow was enough to deflect the projectile away from Rocky and Adam and it exploded safely in the sky. The two boys turned to face their saviours and saw a morphed Kat and Tanya running towards them. The pink ranger retrieved her power disk and knelt next to her friends, "Are you guys ok?"
"Yeah we're fine but Goldar nearly blew us to pieces", Adam replied.
"Goldar? Where?" Kat asked slightly puzzled, "All I see is a freakishly big golden...", she paused and looked at the war machine a little closer, "robotic Goldar".
"I thought Goldar was a monkey lion creature", Tanya added, "not the terminator over there".
Rocky got to his feet, "Looks like Mondo gave him an upgrade", he and Adam flicked their wrists to summon their zeonisers, "and now it's time for us to return the favour. It's morphin' time".
"Zeo Ranger III Blue"
"Zeo Ranger IV Green"
The rangers summoned their special weapons and charged towards Robo-Goldar. The two boys used their hand-held weapons but they just bounced straight off the extremely strong exoskeleton. Tanya's power clubs also had little effect on Goldar's armour, her spin attack barely scuffed the shiny golden armour. Goldar charged up his right hand with a blue energy attack. Almost dismissively he backhanded them into the trees on the edge of their battleground. The four teens hit the trees with a solid thud and collapsed to the floor.
"This isn't working", Tanya cried.
"We just need to slow him down until Tommy can join us", Rocky added as he slowly got to his feet.
"If we last that long", Adam muttered.
Back with Tommy and the others, they were still trying to figure out a way of pulling Heather up from the cliff. She was clinging for dear life to a rock about fifteen feet below the ledge. She had hurt one of her arms in her initial tumble and she was slowly beginning to lose her grip.
The red ranger looked down over the edge, trying desperately to think of a solution. Suddenly something came to mind, "Quickly take off your coats, we can tie them together to form a rope".
"Do think that'll work?" Jason replied.
"Unless someone has an actual rope on them then it's the best we've got", Tommy stated.
"Did someone say rope?" they heard Kim's voice call out. They turned around and saw Kim and Trini wading through some deep snow with a rope.
"We heard Adam's call to the others and thought we could help up here", Trini stated.
Tommy smiled, "Great this is just what we need", he looked around to see if they could anchor the rope to something. Unfortunately the nearest tree was too far away from the edge. "There's nothing to tie this to", he began, "We'll just have to use our own body weight to keep it secure".
Jason grabbed one end of the rope from the girls, "I'm the heaviest, I'll take the strain at the back".
"Great bro, I'll stand at the front so everyone else line up between me and Jason".
As instructed Zack, Trini, Billy and Kim lined up in between Tommy and Jason. They slowly lowered the rope off the cliff face and down to Heather. Periodically Tommy called out to the skier below partially to see if she how close the end of the rope was to her but also just to make sure she was still there. Finally, just as it looked like they would run out of rope, she called up to confirm that she had taken hold of the rope.
"OK everyone ready to pull", Tommy said to the others.
"Sure are", Zack replied, "just like old times isn't it", he added. Everyone realised he was right, for the first time in a while, the six original power rangers were helping out someone in danger.
With a mighty heave, the six teens began to slowly drag Heather back up to the top of the cliff. The heavy snow meant that it was hard to get a firm grip with their feet. The champion skier was nearly at the top when the rope began to slip, threatening to send her plummeting to the ground below. The teens nearly went over with her but Jason dug his heels in to slow the slide and this gave the others the opportunity to do the same. Once they had the rope under control again, they resumed the rescue mission.
With one final pull Heather was pulled back up on to the cliff, landing on top of Tommy. She smiled and hugged him tightly to show her gratitude, much to the consternation of Kim. The former pink ranger glared at the pretty skier with jealousy. "Thank you Tommy", Heather stated breathlessly as she gazed into his eyes. Kim coughed to interrupt the moment, "and Tommy's friends".
"You, err, better get your arm seen to", Tommy stated as he slowly rolled Heather off him.
"We'll take care of that", Jason stated, "why don't you see if you can find a staff member to report the incident to", he added pointing at his wrists.
Tommy nodded in response, "Good idea, I'll see you all back at the lodge".
He quickly ran towards the trees where Rocky and Adam had ventured into several minutes ago. When he was out of sight of the others he quickly morphed and followed the footprints deeper into the woods. Eventually the sounds of battle reached him through his helmet and he followed them toward an area where the trees weren't as dense. When he arrived he found the other four rangers lying on the ground with a giant golden robot looming over them. It was only on closer inspection that he noticed the face on the robot looked a lot like Goldar.
With Robo-Goldar looking poised to strike, Tommy pulled out his zeo laser pistol and took aim at the only weak spot on the creature, the head. With a single burst he struck the robot on the side of the head, causing it to lumber around before slumping to the ground. Using this momentary distraction, he raced over to check on his team mates, "Guys are you ok, can you stand?"
"Oh yeah we're fine, just taking a break", Rocky replied with heavy sarcasm.
"Are the machine empire running low on ideas", the red ranger began, "that war machine looks a lot like Goldar".
"It is Goldar", Adam stated, "he's been on a course of steroids or something".
Tommy turned around and saw Goldar slowly rise back to his feet. His shot from the laser had smashed Goldar's helmet, exposing the head underneath. The red ranger nearly recoiled with disgust when he saw a number of wires running directly from the robotic suit and straight into Goldar's skull. The creature was a merciless warrior but even he didn't deserve this.
Robo-Goldar produced a sword and pointed it at Tommy, "We will duel now red ranger", he stated with a monotone voice, "and I shall win".
Tommy called on his zeo power sword and blocked a swing from Goldar. Due to the robotic upgrades he was much stronger than before and the red ranger was nearly knocked to the floor. Taking a firmer grip on his sword he ducked the next swing and sliced at Goldar's side. The sword was slightly more effective than the other rangers weapons, leaving a thick scratch in the armour. Tommy was much quicker than his opponent and he used this to his advantage. He slashed several more times at Robo-Goldar, leaving a number of deep cuts in his golden armour.
After dodging another swing, Tommy slid between Robo-Goldar's legs and saw a hydraulic tube on the backs of his legs. With a mighty swing of his sword he sliced through the pipes, severing them completely. Robo-Goldar roared with pain as a red liquid dripped out of the tubes. Tommy wasn't sure if it was blood or some sort of hydraulic liquid. If he was honest he didn't really want to know the answer.
Robo-Goldar staggered and slumped to his knees. With the hydraulic lines severed, he wouldn't be able to operate his lower legs. Tommy rolled out of the way and turned to face one of his greatest foes, literally brought to his knees. In a moment of compassion he addressed Robo-Goldar, "It's not too late Goldar", he began, "let us help you. We can try and reverse whatever the Machine Empire has done to you".
Robo-Goldar turned his head towards Tommy, seemingly to think about what the red ranger had offered him. After a few moments, he delivered his simple response, "Vengeance". With a swing of his right hand, he swiped Tommy away with a strong blow. The red ranger landed in a heap next to his friends.
He slowly got to his feet, with a little assistance from his friends. Giving Robo-Goldar another look he raised his zeo power sword up and pointed it at the robotic creature, "I'm sorry Goldar but you leave us no choice". He then address his fellow rangers, "Alright guys let's give him the Zeo blaster".
The rangers assembled the Zeo blaster and got into position behind Tommy. They braced themselves as the red ranger fired the weapon and they put every ounce of energy into the blast. The shot hit its target and knocked Robo-Goldar flat on his back. The rangers slumped to their knees, completely exhausted from the effort they put into that shot.
As they were trying to catch their breath, they heard the sound of whirring mechanical parts and hissing hydraulics. They turned their attention to Robo-Goldar who, to their disbelief, had survived the shot from the Zeo blaster. The blast had smashed a hole straight through Robo-Goldar's chest, exposing various pieces of machinery and electronics, but it hadn't been enough to deliver a fatal blow.
"Man Mondo really build this guy tough", Adam exclaimed.
"We can't fight him in our state", Kat added.
Tommy struggled to get to his feet, "You're right Kat, let's regroup at the Power Chamber. Maybe Zordon will have an idea to defeat Robo-Goldar".
The other rangers agreed and quickly teleported away from the battlefield and back to the Power Chamber.
Power Chamber
The rangers landed and immediately removed their helmets, placing them on top of the nearest console. To their surprise, the five former rangers were already in the Power Chamber. "Hey what are you guys doing here?" Tanya stated.
"After we dropped Heather off at the resorts medical center, Billy and Trini wanted come back here", Jason began. "We decided to come as well to see if there was anything we could do".
"How is she?" Tommy asked.
"A bit bruised", Billy replied, "she may have broken her arm the doctor said. She wasn't too bothered about that though".
Zack laughed, "Yeah all she said was 'again'".
The other teens laughed before the atmosphere turned most serious, "We saw the entire battle from here", Jason began, "man the Machine Empire have gone too far this time".
"For all we know Goldar may have requested his upgrade", Tanya replied.
Trini shook her head, "You don't know Goldar as well as we do", she stated to her successor. "He's a warrior that craves power that's for sure but whatever they've done to him seems to have taken his mind and free will away".
"Yeah I don't think even monkey brains is stupid enough to agree to that", Kim added.
Tommy sighed, "We through everything we had at him and he was still too strong".
"Now would be a good time for one of those last minute weapon upgrades of yours Billy", Rocky added.
"Funny you should say that", Billy replied. He pushed a button on the console and a table appeared to the side of the room. On top of the table sat a long cylindrical weapon, "I took my original designs for the power cannon and I modified them to create the Zeo cannon. I found that the original power cannon was too cumbersome and the recoil was terrible. This", he patted the top of the cannon, "has eliminated all of those problems".
The other rangers inspected Billy handiwork, "I have to say Billy, you've done it again".
"Yeah with this we're sure to kick Goldar's robotic backside next time", Tanya added.
"I'm not so sure about that rangers", Zordon's voice boomed out across the Power Chamber. Everyone in the room stopped and gave the wise old sage a glance. It was unlike Zordon to be so negative with their chances in battle. "According to our scans, the power Robo-Goldar is giving off is far in excess of anything you've encountered before".
"He's giving off more energy than Rita, Lord Zedd, Rito Revolto, Scorpina, Hydro Hog and Master Vile", Alpha added, listing off all the major villains that the rangers had beaten in the last few years.
"But the power of the zeo crystal defeated Master Vile", Billy began, "Now that's it's been harnessed into ranger powers surely it'll be enough".
"It's borderline", Alpha replied, "particularly with the rangers in an already weakened state".
"That is why Alpha and I have been working on a special project", Zordon began. "It will need all of you to work together to defeat Robo-Goldar".
The five rangers nodded, "Don't worry Zordon we'll do whatever's needed to defeat that robotic goon".
"You misunderstand me Tommy", Zordon replied, "I don't just mean the five rangers", he eyes glanced over the other five teens in the room. "It will all of you in this room to defeat Robo-Goldar".
The five non-rangers looked at each other, not really sure what Goldar was getting at. Without powers they wouldn't be able to face the robotic menace that was now Goldar, unless Zordon had been able to perform a miracle. Almost instinctively they glanced over the glass chambers that housed their former power suits, awaiting Zordon to elaborate further.
TO BE CONTINUED
