Lauren had never gotten the chance to fight in a great war before – not as the red Samurai Ranger and the head of the Shiba Clan. Her time as a Samurai had been short when she knew she wasn't the true leader of the team, and the Sealing Symbol – the one thing guaranteed to rid the world of Xandred for good, failed. This was her chance to help her teammates save the world and protect their families. She could make it up to them with this one battle. Everything they had trained for. Everything they had fought for. Today, it was all going to be worth it.
But she found herself locked in a fierce battle against Dekker, which left her on her back with his foot pressing into his stomach. Troy was too hurt to help her out, and she needed him to come fast. Dekker raised his sword and Lauren closed her eyes. This was the end.
Suddenly, the weight of his foot disappeared from her stomach. She looked to where Troy had been and saw he was still there, and being helped to his feet by Serena and Emily. The girls looked tired, which Lauren had expected. Not only were they battling the Moogers, but they had to keep a large piece of rock above ground so the Rangers had a safe place to fight. That much Symbol Power was wearing.
"If Troy didn't stop him," Lauren said to herself and turned around. Gia and Dekker were locked in a fierce battle now.
"Go stop Octoroo!" Gia shouted as she blocked Dekker's Sword with her Tiger Claw. "I've got this jerk!"
"We'll stop the Moogers," Serena said to Lauren as the red Samurai joined her, Emily, and Troy, "It's about as much as we can handle."
"You and Emily, go," Lauren nodded her head and the girls ran back to the fight. Lauren looked at Troy, "How are you holding up?"
"Just give me a minute to catch my breath," Troy said. Lauren put her hand on his shoulder.
"Watch my back. I'll get this fight with Noodle-face started."
"He'll see you coming," Troy looked up to where Octoroo was watching the fight.
"There's a reason he's up on that rooftop," Lauren said. "Octoroo's a shitty fighter. Let him focus on me while you sneak in and get close."
"But Lauren…"
"That's how it's going to work," Lauren ordered. Troy saw his sensei wasn't messing around and gave her a little nod to show he would follow her command.
"Take cover," Lauren told him. Troy hurried off, away from the battle with the Moogers and away from Lauren. When he looked over his shoulder, he saw Lauren had her Samuraizer in hand and had started to trace a Japanese Kanji.
"The Sealing Symbol?" Octoroo called when he saw what Lauren was attempting. "You think that's going to be enough to hold me?"
"Lauren, you haven't practiced that Symbol in over a year!" Kevin called to her. He looked to Noah and saw the younger blue Ranger had the rain under control so he ran over to Lauren, "If you don't get it perfect…"
"Octoroo's got to go," Lauren said. She traced another stroke and powered down. The Sealing Symbol was draining, and Kevin was right to be concerned. If it was left incomplete it would never work, and if she got it wrong, even the tiniest bit, it could turn around and hurt her. It was a huge risk, but she needed to help Troy get close enough to Octoroo to fight him.
Troy saw the squid was distracted with Lauren and saw this was his time. He jumped off the rock platform and landed on top of a car below. The water level was rising very quickly at this point, likely because two whole cities were now suffering terribly.
Troy jumped from the roof of the car onto the roof of the garage. Octoroo was standing on the very top roof on the second story of this house. Troy needed to get up there.
He took out a card from his belt and activated it with his morpher. He felt himself getting lighter before he slowly started to rise.
A little ways off, Jake saw his chance to repay Mike a favour, and launched his Snake Axe. It was imbedded into the chest of a Mooger and the creature exploded before it could bring down its sword on the green Ranger. Mike turned around, saw what Jake had done and smiled. He swung his Forest Spear around which destroyed the rest of the Moogers in the area.
"Thanks for the help, kid."
"It was fun," Jake smiled. A wave of water suddenly splashed down from the sky and knocked the boys over while also washing away the bodies of the defeated Moogers. Jake got up from the puddle and turned to Noah. Though he couldn't see it because of the helmet, he knew his best friend was smirking.
"Oops," Noah teased, "Were you standing right there? Well, I guess that's payback for the water balloon!"
Mia drew a Symbol in the air and blew some Moogers away from the house, but it wasn't enough to stop them. Fortunately, Antonio and Robo-Knight came to help. Antonio moved too quickly for Mia to see, while Robo-Knight blasted at anything that moved that wasn't gold. Somehow, despite all the shots fired, none of them hit Antonio.
"You're good," Mia said to Robo-Knight. Antonio appeared beside the robot and gave him a pat on the back.
"The advantages of having a robot fighter."
"Yeah, advantage," Emma muttered. Robo-Knight turned to her and she rolled her eyes, "Alright, thanks for your help."
"Go look for your parents," Mia told the pink Ranger, and used a Symbol to help Emma fly into the second story window of the house. Emma landed safely on the floor inside and found herself in her room. There was no sign of the Morans.
"Joe? Vanessa?" she cried out as she ran from the room and down the hall to the Morans' bedroom. She knocked and then entered. There were still nowhere in sight, but she saw Mrs. Moran's nightstand drawer was open. It was where Mrs. Moran kept the morpher Emma had given them. It was the morpher Jordan had created for himself under the influence of the chip. She looked in the drawer to see if she could find it, but instead saw a note.
"Stay safe, girls. The news warned us this red water was bad so we got out of here."
Emma breathed a sigh of relief and dropped to her knees. She held the letter to her chest.
Back outside, Gia was still in a tough battle against Dekker, but she refused to let him win. She swiped at him with her Tiger Claw, but that only angered him. He grabbed her by the neck.
"You think you can defeat me? I am the greatest warrior to ever walk this planet! You are just a pathetic little girl."
Gia grabbed his wrist with her hands and then smirked, "Yeah, but I've got friends."
Dekker frowned at her response before he felt a sharp pain in his back. He let go of Gia and dropped to his knees. When he fell forward, Gia saw a large, black axe was stuck in his back. She powered down and smiled at Jake. He pulled the axe from Dekker's back and held it over his shoulder.
"I told you I'd never let anyone hurt you," he smiled. Gia nodded her head.
"Good timing."
"Is that a thank you?"
"It's the best you're going to get, Holling."
"Gia," Jake smirked. She sighed and then smiled back at him.
"Thank you, Jake."
A little ways off, Kevin found he had to hold Lauren up as she put the final touches on the Sealing Symbol. It wasn't long now before it was ready to be used. Kevin could only hope it was right, and that Lauren had enough energy to give it all the power she needed.
"We could have just destroyed him," Kevin told her. "Lauren, you didn't need to do this."
"Last time, I let you all down…"
"No one cares, Lauren!"
"I'm not disappointing this time," Lauren shook her head. She completed the Symbol and then without hesitating she shot it at Octoroo. The Symbol didn't make it very far. Octoroo laughed as it fell flat.
"You Rangers are out of practice!"
Lauren fell back into Kevin's arms, unconscious. Kevin held her gently and then called over his shoulder.
"Guys, we need everyone to attack Octoroo, NOW! Noah…"
Noah pointed his Bowgun at the squid. He felt a little silly for fighting a sea creature with water, but so far his attacks had proven to be very effective against the other creatures from the Netherworld. If he could get this shot, he was sure it would go a long way to weaken the squid.
But before he could fire the attack, he saw something walk up behind Octoroo. It was red, and Noah recognized it immediately. He lowered his Bowgun.
"Stop!" he cried out to the others as they aimed their weapons at Octoroo. That was when they noticed it too.
Octoroo saw the cease fire and laughed. He didn't think to look behind him until he saw a sword rest on his shoulder.
"The problem with having other people fight your battles is that you're never strong enough to rely on yourself," Troy said. Octoroo turned around.
"Red Ranger? But how did you…?"
Troy didn't give him the time to ask. He struck once, twice, thrice until Octoroo stepped off the edge of the roof and tumbled to the ground below.
"Avalanche!" Emily screamed. Suddenly, half the rock platform disappeared and seconds later boulders appeared in the air and buried Octoroo.
"That's got to kill him," Mike said with a smile and wrapped one arm around his wife. Emily shrugged.
"I wanted to say I killed someone," Emily chuckled. "Jayden killed Xandred and Dekker, Carrie killed Serrator, and you were there to help."
"I'll be sure the squid is dead," Robo-Knight promised the Rangers as he walked to the pile of boulders.
"I trust him for that much," Jake said to the rest of his team, who sometimes had their doubts Robo-Knight was on their side. "I think Octoroo's made himself into a big enough threat for Robo-Knight to want him dead."
"You think?" Noah rolled his eyes.
"The water's disappearing," Mia pointed out to the city. She was right. The water levels were starting to fall. "That's got to be a good sign."
"We should go back," Kevin took Lauren in his arms, "Before the others worry."
