Chapter Twelve. Inner Beasts.
Previously On Poké Rangers Genesis Overload...
As a homeless, powerless demon was attacked by the Cobra Rangers, a plan was put into motion to defeat the rangers. The crux being an annoyed Paige who spoke of her anger at still being a ghost. As she made a deal with a strange smokey figure, the implications and the cost became apparent when the rangers were unable to morph. Working out what had happened, the six rangers went to face the Cobra Rangers, while Paige went looking for the last demon, Erlainia. As she dealt the final blow to the demon, the powers returned to the rangers while she went back to being a ghost. As the Genesis Rangers morphed, the fight went to the Megazords. The Overload Megazord fighting the Silent Strike Megazord to a draw before the Cobras retreated. After the battle, Katie took it upon herself to have a go at Paige. The former pink ranger revealing that she could now at least affect the environment around her...
"So, what's the plan?" Duo asked, looking at all the useless pieces of machinery in the cabin in front of them. After Paige's little misadventure, Bill had made the choice that he needed to tidy out the cabins full of junk in the lower decks. "We dump it in the ocean then go for a break?"
"You can't dump it in the ocean," Katie protested, kicking over a pile of CD's. "This stuff could choke a Magikarp."
"Like we're going to care if we choke a few Magikarp," Luke commented, bending down to drag an old monitor out of the alcove where it was stored. "Not a great Pokémon, is it? Anyway, isn't that ring pulls off cans of stuff that choke them?"
"You'd know, since your family makes them," Nahir pointed out. "Huh?"
"Yeah, but we don't make them with the intention of strangling Magikarp," Luke protested. "That's not the proper and correct policy of use. We even print a warning on the back telling drinkers not to throw them on the ground, into oceans, forests and volcano's, etc."
"Do you?" Ryan asked. "Because I've drank a ton of Sunder-ade while in this region and..."
"Well, it's something that we should do," Luke retorted, folding his arms and cutting the green ranger off in mid sentence. "Speaking of Sunder-ade, I could do with a quick drink of it."
"I'm wondering, actually," Xavier said, speaking up from behind a shelf full of books. "If you make enough of a noise, can you get a free bottle or can of the stuff. Because your family makes it?"
"No, but in the long run, I get the money back."
Gen-esis Over-load.
Season logo appears. Lightning crackles in the background, followed by rain and then fire. The Psychic, Grass and Dark symbols appear behind them.
Poké Rangers! Go!
Cities and towns of Verger appear. Peace occurs throughout.
Coming together to fight the evil
G-Force rangers face Regli. SDI rangers face Queen Misteria.
They will always save the day.
Katie flips through the air, firing Heat Blasters. Other rangers pose with weapons.
Poké Rangers! Go!
The Overload Megazord falls through the air, battling Garbot.
But then they lost their edge!
Rangers fall to the ground, old costumes vanish away. Dogbots celebrate their victory.
Poké Rangers! No!
The Coppinger logo appears on the horizon. Shadows fall across the land.
Gen-esis Over-load
Lance appears with his Dragonite. Bill and the Silver Gyarados appears behind him.
It's time to battle...
The rangers arrive on Ragnar Island. Rock shows them to the temple.
Poke Rangers! Go!
Xavier picks up the Water Stone. Xavier Jackson. Blue Genesis Ranger. Created by Blazin' Saddles.
Power of the Eevee!
Ryan picks up the Leaf Stone. Ryan Leopard. Green Genesis Ranger. Created by Hotrod198.
Poké Rangers! Go!
Nahir picks up the Thunder Stone. Nahir Moon. Yellow Genesis Ranger. Created by Famousgirl01.
Power of the Eevee!
Katie picks up the Fire Stone. Katie Myers. Red Genesis Ranger. Created by Blue Bongo.
Genesis Overload!
Duo picks up the Dusk Stone. Duo Roronoa. Black Genesis Ranger. Created by JMB2NAMI.
Poké Rangers!
Luke picks up the Sun Shard. Luke Sunderland, Purple Genesis Ranger. Created by MakubeDaKiddX.
Genesis Overload!
Paige sticks her head through a wall, smiling. Paige Martinez. Created by Famousgirl01.
Power of the Eevee!
The six rangers morph on the Coppinger Aerial Platform. Dogbots attack, and lose the fight.
Poké Rangers! Go!
The Hover Chasers carry the rangers into battle. Explosions occur behind them.
Verger needs you!
Mal and Tim look around, inanely. Before being chased by Golbat.
To fight that evil!
Dennis, Arbok and other enemies appear. Dennis holds the Genesis Book up high.
And save the day!
Rangers search for artefact's. Dorlinda appears.
Poké Rangers! Go!
The six rangers transform into their Eevee forms. Then, they transform into their Zords.
Power of the Eevee!
The former rangers wave at the camera, before fading away.
Fight! Fight! Fight! Win!
The Overload Megazord begins to form. It fires the Genesis Blaster.
Power of the Eevee!
The Coppinger Aerial Platform crashes to the ground and explodes.
Poké Rangers! Go!
Camera pans out to show the rangers relaxing on the Silver Gyarados. Dorlinda watches over them.
Genesis Overload!
Poké Rangers Genesis Overload created by Blue Bongo. Verger region created by Blue Bongo. All other rights reserved.
Poké Rangers! Go!
"Here we go," Xavier groaned, finishing dragging the set of shelves up onto the main deck. Having done it with the help of Ryan and Luke. "Where do you want it?"
"Tell me it's not over the side," Luke gasped. "Because... Can't we just burn it?"
"Too much effort," Ryan said. "Can't we just leave it and let the ravages of time take over?"
"Actually, I never wanted this up here," Bill remarked, looking over at the shelves. "They were meant to stay down there. These are classic Ecruteak workmanship shelves, worth a stack of cash, especially since the place went out of business. You burn them and I'll be upset. If you're dragging valuable items like this up, I'll be going down to check on the progress of the others."
As he vanished away through the door towards the lower deck, Luke shook his head in dismay.
"All that effort," he said, disdainfully. "I think we should throw it over the side anyway."
"I'm game for that," Ryan remarked. "Because, he obviously valued it so much that he kept it down in the dark and forgot about it."
"Guys, no," Xavier said, quickly. "If this is as valuable as he said, then we probably shouldn't. Let's just get it back downstairs."
"Actually, I've got a better idea," Luke remarked. "You drag it back down and we'll go and grab you a drink from the closest city. Some Sunder-ade."
"Hey, what?" Xavier asked, the two rangers making a run for it. "Wait, get back here!"
"That's got to suck for the boss," Hawk remarked, sagely. "He has two plans in quick succession and they both bomb."
"He gave the order for the Cobras to be created," Jake said, not really having any sympathy for Dennis in his mind. "It's his problem. If they try to interfere with our plans, then we shall wipe them out. Do what he was unable to do."
"What is our next great plan?" Hawk asked. "Do we even have one? I thought that we're just making things up as we go along."
"Well, you thought wrong then, didn't you?" Jake retorted. "I've come by information of a most valuable nature. Valuable in the aspect that it could lead us to a Genesis artefact."
"Oh really?" Hawk said, his interest raised by the comment. "So, where do we go? What do we need to track down?"
"Either way," Jake said, ignoring the question. "We need to act fast. Very fast before either the rangers, or the other rangers get wind of what we're doing. There's apparently a message from the heavens engraved somewhere within the region that will lead us to one of the artefacts."
"Engraved somewhere within the region?" Hawk asked, incredulously. "That narrows it down to about eight billion possible locations."
"Yeah, but I don't like to hear about odds," Jake said, rolling his eyes. "I have already come up with a way to get past this."
"Really?" Hawk replied, as Jake walked on over towards a desk, pulling out a Poké Ball from a draw within the item. "And what would that be?"
Tapping the Poké Ball, Jake let a Xatu out from containment inside. The flying type Pokémon giving him a dirty look as it landed on the desk.
"Interesting," Hawk said. "Use this thing to see the future."
"Well, not exactly," Jake answered, bringing his hand up to place on the Xatu's head. The creature instantly bringing its beak back to peck him, he ignored the pain. A wave of black energy moving down across the feathered body of the Pokémon, the creature already transforming as the desk underneath collapsed. Stretching out its arms, the new monster stood up straight. Much to the surprise of Hawk, the Xatu had taken on characteristics made by a Weavile. While the body was still feathered, the down now mainly black with some white and green in there. The beak was still there, only now upon the face of a Weavile which the body had now become. The wings were still there, but a lot shorter than before. Looking at them, Hawk wouldn't have bet that they would be able to have carried the monster up off the ground. The feathered arms had huge claws at the end, while the creature didn't have a crest like most Weavile did.
"I am Claxtu. Seer of the future," he said. "What do you need?"
"I am Jake," Jake replied, folding his arms. "That is Hawk. We brought you here, because we need your help."
"Well, aren't you polite," Claxtu said. "Of course I can do what you need. I can find anything. But, I need some time to gather up my energy. To power up my Future Sight to the level that is required. Something that is powered by a bit of chaos."
"Go forth and wreak havoc!" Jake ordered. "It's the name of the game! If it'll help you."
"Well, aren't you a good person to work for," Claxtu replied. "Think I'm going to like it here."
With those words hanging in the air, he vanished away in a puff of feathers.
"Nice to get a polite one," Hawk commented. "You think he'll do anything?"
"We can hope."
"Ah, I love Sunder-ade!" Ryan exclaimed, as he and Luke came out of the convenience store. Both of them carrying bags full of the stuff down the street. "You think I can get a discount because I drank over a hundred cans of it in the last years?"
"Why would we give you a discount?" Luke asked. "Buy and drink a thousand cans a day, we might do it."
"Is that a challenge?" the green ranger wondered. "Because I will do it. Damn right, I'll do it. Come on, buy me a thousand cans and I'll drink them in a day."
"Might just drop you in one of the vats in the factory," Luke commented. "That'll do you."
"Hey hell yeah!" Ryan said, punching the air. "Name a place where and when you want and need me to do it and..."
"I wasn't being serious," Luke replied, before the sound of an explosion erupted out over the horizon. "But apparently whatever caused that is. Let's go check it out."
"Ever think that it might just be a natural explosion?" Ryan asked, dropping the bottles of Sunder-ade in the closest trashcan. "You're paying me back for them if it's not an emergency."
"Looks like I don't owe you a thing," Luke remarked, the two of them spotting Claxtu attacking the people of Sione Beach. "So, hard luck."
"Damn you," Ryan complained, as the monster threw a passing jogger against a wall. The woman yelling in pain, as she slid down to the ground.
"You get her," Luke said, making a break towards the monster. "I'm going to kick this big guy's ass."
"Sweet," Ryan commented. "Check on the girl. About time I got a sweeter than sweet task."
Watching the green ranger head on over towards her, Luke turned to head towards the monster. Claxtu having looked towards the sky, almost as if he was sucking something in from the night sky. His body starting to glow with a light blue energy.
"Come on then," Luke said, reaching out to grab the monster by the arm. Determined to drag it out of the state of whatever it was doing. "Let's be having you then..."
Cutting him off, the monster jerked his arm up to force Luke back. One of its claws cutting away into Luke's skin, the purple ranger instantly reacting as something shot across the surface of his brain. Almost as if he was watching the scene from above.
The first thing he heard been the sound of laughter. The second being a Meowth humanoid with an extremely large coin on his forehead who was dancing under a disco ball. A Machop-like creature wearing a black belt holding the pole up that the item was supported from. Next to him was a NineTales humanoid, a half Aggron/half Magnezone and a Sharpedo humanoid, all of them trying to move away as quickly as possible.
"With no Poké Rangers standing in our way," the Meowth monster laughed. "The Great Puree will make everyone bow down before Master BoneShaman!"
"You got your name wrong again, Purrie," the Sharpedo humanoid remarked, reaching over to tap Purrie on the shoulder.
"Damnit, SharpMariner!" Purrie complained. "Why does this keep happening to me? What's next? A different Green Ranger popping out of nowhere?"
Right on cue, a blast of energy burst out of nowhere, crashing into the disco ball above the Meowth monster. Causing it to crash down on top of his head, trapping it inside the giant shiny ball. A green clad figure striding over the horizon, his Defense Blaster out.
"The monsters they make these days are nothing compared to the demons I've faced ten years ago," the green SDI ranger remarked, at the scene in front of him.
Shaking it off his head, The Great Purrie shot a quick look over at his assailant. The mouth dropping open in shock.
"No!" he yelled. "It's another Green Ranger!"
Dropping the weapon back into its holster, the other Luke on the scene of battle brought out the Lugia Lancer.
"Time to see if I still got it."
Instantly jerking back out of the vision, Luke threw out a hand, pushing Claxtu back. His head swimming from what had just happened, coupled with the loss of blood from his wound meant that he wasn't sure what was real anymore. Doing his best to jump up, he hit the monster with a spinning roundhouse kick to the face, forcing it back.
"You're not worth it right now," Claxtu taunted. "I'll be back. Soon."
"And we'll be waiting," Ryan warned, as the monster vanished from view. His attention immediately turning towards the wounded purple ranger. "Awww, jeez, that's messy. Are you okay?"
"Little light headed," Luke admitted, slightly unsteady on his feet. "I'm fine though. Just... Maybe need a little medical attention."
"Hey," Bill said, glancing over as Luke walked into the room. "You bring back the Sunder-ade?"
"Sunder-ade?" Luke asked, looking a little puzzled. "Errr... No. I didn't. Forgot. Something strange just..."
"Are you feeling okay?" the PokéManiac asked. "Because..."
"On the contrary, I've never felt better," he replied. "I guess that..."
"Anyway, back to work then, if that's the case," Bill said, clapping his hands together. "Chop chop."
"Work?" Luke asked. "What are you...?"
"Clearing out my junk... ahem... I mean valuables," Bill said. "I think everyone's still working away like Bidoof down there. And where the heck is Ryan? Many hands make light work."
"So why aren't you helping then?" Luke asked. "You've got hands. Two of them."
"I'm supervising from afar," Bill said. "Lance is... What's the technical term. Helping."
"Guess I'll go down and 'help' then," the purple ranger said, making an air quote sign with his fingers. "For want of a better term."
"You sure that you're okay?" the PokéManiac asked. "Because you seem a little off."
"Never better."
"Hey," Luke said, walking out into the storage room that the rangers had been working on earlier. Finding it deserted. "Anyone here? Is this the right place?"
"Well, you wouldn't know, would you?" the sarcastic voice of Nahir called out, emerging from behind some shelves. "Since you've been doing your best to bail out of it for the last few hours."
"Nahir?" he asked. "You're in here? Of course, it's about that time."
"What half eleven?" she asked, glancing over at the clock in the corner. "Oh, wait a second..."
"That clock's broken," Luke muttered, under his breath. Not loud enough to be heard.
"That clock's broken," the yellow ranger said, coming out from where she had been. "That would explain why it's down here."
"It's good to see you again," he said, moving over to her. "Look at you. There's a..."
"Are you okay?" she asked. "You seem weirder than normal. Which is some pretty high standards to better."
"Funny," Luke replied. "That's all was been one of your... Not really funny but rather that bitingly sarcastic way. Especially where I'm concerned."
"Well, what can I say," she said. "I save it..."
"Exactly just for you," Luke replied, finishing the sentence for her. "Or me as it rather would have been. It's touching. Very touching."
"You're definitely crashed on something," she remarked. "Have you been taking morphine?"
"No..." he said. "I've not. Really. And why do people keep asking me if I'm okay?"
Moving over to her, he placed a hand on her arm. Smiling down at her.
"Not that I don't appreciate the concern. I can take it pretty much on the chin from Bill, but when you ask about me like that..."
He paused for breath, the smile growing even wider by the second. Leaning ever closer to her, his voice lowering an octave, he carried on speaking again.
"... I'm going to be honest. It really touches me deeply. Then again, you always did have that side to you."
His lips inches from hers, Nahir finally spoke up. A mixture of surprise and shock in her voice.
"What ARE you doing?"
Almost able to hear the capitals in her question, Luke took a step back. Running a hand through his hair in amazement.
"Wrong time," he muttered. "Damnit, almost screwed things up. Need to get out of here before something bad happens."
Without hesitating, he quickly took another step back away from her. Making to turn.
"Just forget all about this," he insisted, turning tail to run out of the door.
"Seriously, what's wrong with you?" Nahir demanded, calling out after him. "Just when I thought that you couldn't get any weirder. Next time I see you, you better start explaining things."
"Okay, I'm back," Luke announced, walking out into the bridge of the Silver Gyarados. Holding his bandaged hand up as an explanation. "Fine and dandy. Anyone miss me?"
Looking over to him, Nahir shot him a smile. Something that quickly vanished, as she strode towards him.
"I could have done with you staying gone," she snapped, bringing back her hand to slap him across the face. Much to his surprise.
"What was that for?" the purple ranger demanded, favouring his cheek. "Is that the stage we've got to now?"
"You know what it was for," Nahir snapped. "Jerk!"
"Seriously, what are you talking about?" Luke asked, before Paige walked over and slapped him. Much to his anger.
"Hey, what gives?"
"Sorry, Luke," Paige replied, shrugging her shoulders. "Thought it looked like fun. Plus, it's karma for all those ghost quips."
"Anyway, have you lost your short term memory now?" Nahir demanded. "Or are you blanking out what happened half an hour ago?"
"Nahir, I haven't seen you all morning," Luke said. "I've only just got back from having medical attention. I've been with Ryan all morning. Not apparently screwing around downstairs with ten legions of crap."
"Thanks for that, by the way," Bill called. "I do appreciate it."
"I still don't believe you," Nahir said. "Where is Ryan, anyway?"
"Last time I saw him," Luke replied, holding his bandaged hand up. "Well, it was when we came out of ER. He said that he had something to take care of, but if we needed him to kill some huge monster then call."
"Only one way to confirm it," Bill said, activating the communication console in front of him. "Let's find out where Ryan is."
Not much time passed before they heard the sound of the green ranger's voice on the other end of the line.
"Yeah?"
"Yeah, this is Bill," the PokéManiac said, glancing at the monitor. "Ryan, where are you?"
"Ah, I'm just in the middle of something," the green ranger said. "I'm currently... What's up?"
"Was Luke with you all morning?" Nahir asked. "Because if he wasn't, then he might end up..."
"Yeah, he had his hand hacked up by a monster," Ryan replied. "He was pretty out of it, so I went with to check that he didn't wander into the traffic by mistake."
"Is this some lie that the two of you came up with?" Nahir asked. "Because..."
"Just drop it okay!" Luke said. "Jeez."
"All of this would seem to add up to one thing," Duo remarked. "We have a huge problem."
"Oh crap," Bill said, shaking his head. "There's two Lukes on the loose."
"One with all his negative personality aspects..." Lance started to say, a gravely worried look on his face.
"And the clone of him," Nahir butted in, a smirk on her face. "I'm sorry, but how bad could it be?"
"Very funny," Luke said, glancing at her. "You should be on the stage. Preferably at the end of a noose. Which rhymes with loose. So back to the main point..."
"Wait, are you saying that I need hanging?" the yellow ranger asked. "Luke, for the love of Arceus, what's wrong with you."
"Never mind," Luke said, taking a step back away from the rest of the group. "I need to..."
"How do we even know that's the real Luke?" Xavier asked. "Because..."
"It's me, Xavier," Luke insisted. "I was with Ryan all morning."
"But how do we..."
"Is this really the important thing?" Katie asked. "Because there's a monster out there, as well as a possibly evil version of Luke. I think that they're possibly the biggest threats right now, rather than wondering about Luke."
"Thank you," the purple ranger replied.
"So, we need to split up," she continued. "Luke, go find your other self. If you were in this situation, where would you go? Follow your instinct. The rest of us need to go look for Claxtu."
"Catch you on the flip side," Luke said. "Oh, and if you see me again, and I don't yell something outrageous out, shoot me."
"Can be arranged," Xavier quipped. "I'm sure if we gave Nahir a blaster, she'd oblige greatly."
"Good morning, Mr. Sunderland," the receptionist said, as the purple ranger strode into the building. Looking up at him with a smile. "Very nice to see you again."
"Ah, good afternoon... Stacey," Luke replied, peering down at her name tag. "How's the kids?"
"I don't have any."
"Terrific," he said. "Listen, this might sound like an odd question, but have you seen me at all in the last few hours?"
"You went upstairs to your office half an hour ago," Stacey reported. "But, surely you knew that."
"Of course I did," he replied, masking what he was really feeling with a grin. "Just testing you. Testing that you're honest. If you weren't, you might have said no. Lied about it. Even given a shake of the head to try and be more convincing."
"Is there much more of this?" she asked. "Or can I get back to doing the job that your family's company pays me for?"
"Carry on, Stacey," he said. "Thanks for being honest."
Not hearing the last part as he moved towards the elevator, Luke moved a hand down to his wrist. Subconsciously readying the morpher for use with whatever went down upstairs.
Stepping out of the elevator into the corridor on the eleventh floor of the Sunderland office block, Luke's eyes immediately fell to the door at the end of the hallway. His home away from home. Although he hadn't been in for a few weeks, the place he came when not on ranger duty and did his bit for the family business.
"Here goes nothing," he muttered, his hand still on the morpher as he approached the door. Ignoring the strange looks that the employees gave him over the way he was creeping towards the door.
"Are you okay, sir?" someone asked, only to be ignored. "Sir?"
"Everything's fine," Luke said, barely paying attention. "If you hear anything in my office, just ignore it. It's just some business that might need attending to. Could be a violent meeting with..."
"Your business, Mr. Sunderland," the office worker replied. "Unless we hear screams, we won't..."
"Yeah, probably not a good idea," Luke said. "Even if it's me doing the screaming."
Pushing on down the corridor, he placed his hand on the door handle. Moving it open, he forced his way into the room. Shutting the door behind him...
... Only for something to come barreling into him from the left, tackling him down to the ground. Grunting in pain, Luke tried to force the figure off him. Bringing his knee up into the stomach of the figure, it immediately let out a yell of pain.
"Okay, I give!" the other version of Luke complained. "I'm not here to hurt you. Rather the opposite actually. Just give me a moment and listen..."
"So, you're a version of me from the future?" Luke asked, glancing at the other him. "Wait, how does that work?"
"As far as I can guess, when Claxtu scratched you, the impacts of the Future Sight created me," Future Luke replied. "Your appearance, but I'm sorta... mixed. I've got the memories of what you did this morning, but also what I was doing after the fight ended. About a decade's worth of memories jumbled in, and not in any real order. Just stuff that's relevant. I'm an anomaly in creation. There's probably a version of me in the future carrying on what I was doing which is a relief because I don't want to be responsible for crashing the whole thing. Which I don't know what, I don't remember what I was doing. It's kinda hazy. All I see is a Meowth monster and my SDI morpher."
"Wait a second..." Present Luke interrupted. "Do we win? Against the Coppingers?"
"It doesn't matter what I tell you because I don't know," Future Luke replied. "The future is a constantly shifting, changing, pulsating..."
"Do I end up saying things like that all the time in the future?" Present Luke asked, folding his arms. "Because, I think I'd probably kick my own ass if that was the case."
"What can I say," Future Luke said, shrugging. "I mellowed out a lot. Especially after..."
"After what?"
"Never mind," the future version of him asked. "All I'm going to say is that she's worth it."
"Huh?" Present Luke asked. "She? Are we thinking about the same person here?"
"Well, nobody knows your mind like you," Future Luke replied. "Except perhaps me. I made a slight calculation of error earlier and... Don't let it put you off. I wasn't quite sure where I was, I may have acted inappropriately... Apologise to Nahir for me."
"Apologise yourself," Present Luke retorted, holding up his morpher. "Your actions, your..."
"I'm not interfering any more," Future Luke replied. "Not a chance. I almost screwed the future up a few hours ago. It's not going to happen again."
"Okay then..." Present Luke said. "So, where do you go from here? I don't think that this place could handle two of us."
"That's true," Future Luke admitted. "We're like a powerful force of nature. As much as I hate to say it, I don't think my future looks very bright."
"We've got a read on Claxtu," Bill reported, looking up from his console. "He's just outside Sione Beach. Can't quite see what he's doing, but..."
"It's not important," Katie said. "As long as he's not building a massive energy weapon that can hit us from anywhere in the region..."
"Yeah, I doubt that's going to happen," Duo remarked. "I mean... There would be signs."
"Anyway then," Nahir offered. "No matter what it is, we should get going. No time to waste."
"Let's get going," Xavier said. "Bill, are you going to get in touch with Ryan and Luke for them to join us at some point."
"I'll get on it," the PokéManiac replied, as the four rangers brought their morphers up to activate.
"Genesis Overload!"
"Maybe if we spoke to Dorlinda..." Present Luke offered, suddenly breaking the silence. "Maybe he could come up with some sort of..."
"He'll just want to kill me," Future Luke muttered. "Something about me not being able to exist. I don't know what's going to happen to me. Maybe I'll just be waiting here and I'll pop out of existence. Without a trace. Or maybe my existence is linked to Claxtu. While he exists, I can also survive."
"Well, that's got to suck," Present Luke commented. "How the heck are you coping?"
"Surprisingly well," the future version of him replied. "Oh, and by the way, you're going to get a call from Bill in the next few moments."
Even as Present Luke was about to dispute the claim, the morpher went off. Bill's voice coming out into the room at the touch of a button.
"Luke, you there?" the PokéManiac asked. "We need you over to Sione Beach right now. The others are tracking Claxtu."
"Oh..." the purple ranger replied, sounding upset. "I'll be over as soon as possible."
"All right then," Bill said, before hanging up on the other end of the line.
"You have to go," Future Luke said. "Our friends depend on it. Don't worry about the consequences of what happens to me."
Nodding at the words, Present Luke got to his feet and brought his morpher up.
"Genesis Overload!"
Scratching away at the ground below him, Claxtu felt the end of his claws scrape against something. Something small and metallic, yet overflowing with power. Laughing wildly as he pulled it up out of the ground...
"It's mine! All mine!"
... Several shots rang out from behind him, crashing into his back and forcing him into dropping the small golden jewel. The item falling away into the long grass.
"No!" the mutant howled, turning around to see all six rangers levelling their sidearm weapons at him. Five Genesis Blasters and a pair of Heat Blasters.
"Put the jewel down!" Ryan warned. "Or we'll put you..."
"He already dropped it," Nahir pointed out. "So, it's an irrelevant threat."
"Gah!" Claxtu snarled, throwing a Poké Ball at them. The orb having been removed from somewhere on his person. "Dogbots, attack!"
As the metallic Houndour soldiers appeared from out of the item, the rangers took up fighting stances.
"These clowns are no match for us!" Duo remarked, shaking his head. "Experience."
"Let's get them!" Xavier yelled, the six rangers bringing out their weapons before leaping into the fray.
As Claxtu wandered away from the action, searching for the jewel, Duo hacked several Dogbots to pieces with his Shadow Sabre. The metal meeting metal with dangerous intent, he spun around on the spot and impaled a final one through the stomach. Dragging her Storm Staff up, Nahir managed to herd three of them all into a tight group with little room to move. Swinging the weapon forward, she sent a sharp zap of electricity through them, the three robotic soldiers all dropping down in a pile. Unable to continued. Across from them, Luke and Ryan struck out with their Psycho Spear and Fauna Hammer respectively, hacking and slashing their way through the relatively small hoardes of the machines. None of them able stand up against the onslaught, one barely managed to get away from the cull, before having its head removed by the Tidal Trident. Xavier's attack striking well and true. Bringing it back away, he swept it up against another behind him, the Dogbot flailing up into the air before it was shot by Katie with one of her Heat Blasters to finish the group off.
Regrouping, they all looked over at Claxtu, the mutant still searching for what he had dropped earlier. Seemingly in vain.
"You're done for, Claxtu!" Luke yelled. "Now, surrender!"
"Errr... How about no!" the monster shot back, unleashing a blast of dark type energy towards the six rangers. All of them thrown back by the blast, groaning in pain.
"Come on, rangers!" Katie shouted, using the two Heat Blasters to help herself up to her feet. The rest of her fellow rangers doing the same behind her. "We have to finish him off."
"Let's put them together!" Duo said, as he, Nahir, Luke, Ryan and Xavier slotted their weapons together to create the Pentasis Blaster. Meanwhile, Katie formed the Flareon Battle Rifle, the six rangers quickly levelling the two weapons at the mutant monster.
"You got any last words?" Luke asked, taking the weapon from Duo. "If there's anything that you pray to, then you might want to!"
"You can't stop me!" Claxtu roared, striding towards them. "Not even close!"
"Pentasis Blaster!" Luke shouted. "Fire!"
"Flareon Fury!" Katie yelled, both of them pulling the triggers of the weapons. Unleashing twin high powered beams of energy towards the monster, the blasts easily destroying him. His remains falling away to the ground, as the two rangers lowered their weapons.
"Is that it?" Duo asked. "His squawk was worse than his beak. Or something to that effect."
"Useless," Jake muttered, he and Hawk watching the action taking place in a half full bath of water in front of them. "Time to take it up a notch."
"I was hoping that you'd say that," Hawk said, rubbing his hands together in glee. "Woo!"
"Darkness rising," the Coppinger called, throwing a wave of black energy into the pool.
Instantly at the battle scene, the dark type energy erupted up out of the ground, surrounding the remains of Claxtu. The monster instantly reanimating up to his feet, growing to a giant size.
"This time, I'm going to win!" the mutant monster yelled, his voice growing to match his size.
"You're going down again, Claxtu!" Luke shouted. "Time to transform!"
At the order from the purple ranger, the six of them morphed into their Eevee forms. Luke speaking up again very quickly.
"Overload Zords! Megazord formation!"
Under the command, the six Zords turned into their robot forms and began to combine. The Vaporeon and Umbreon Zords laying down to the ground, their legs and tails retracting inside the bodies. Their heads went down to the ground, the rear part of their bodies raising up to form legs. Next, the Leafeon Zord came bounding down, its front and rear legs fusing together before joining with the top of the Vaporeon and Umbreon Zords. Next the Flareon Zord leaped down onto the top of the Leafeon Zord, its limbs and tail folding in, a humanoid head appearing out of the area where the tail had been. The Flareon head detached, forming a helmet around the top of the head. Finally, the Espeon and Jolteon Zords jumped up, attaching to the shoulders of the Megazord. Their bodies elongating out into a prone position, the heads formed the shoulders of the robot. The rear legs and the tail of the Espeon Zord formed the hand of the right arm, while the needle-like fur at the rear of the Jolteon Zord formed the hand of the left arm. The legs vanishing away into the robotic body. As the Megazord stood up straight, it stretched out its arms.
"You can't defeat Claxtu!" the monster said, moving over to strike the giant robot with a claw. Sparks racing up across the machine, as gashes were left across the surface of the body, the Megazord staggering back. In response, Katie directed the Overload Megazord into kicking the mutant in the stomach. Growling in anger, Claxtu hit back with a Night Slash. More scratches and dents rising up across the armour.
"Time for a different strategy," Luke yelled. "Shock you down to size! Genesis Blaster! Charge Beam!"
At the command, the giant robotic Overload Megazord reached down to the Vaporeon leg and removed the weapon from the compartment. Bringing it up, it pulled the trigger to unleash a powerful beam of electrical energy out into Claxtu. The monster screeching in pain as it staggered back away from the Overload Megazord.
"You don't like that, huh?" Xavier shouted. "Eat it, monster!"
Quickly moving back into the action, Claxtu launched several Peck attacks towards the face of the Megazord. The blows landing away with vicious intent, the dents cropping up across the surface of the head of the robot.
"Hey, hands off the face!" Katie shouted. "Genesis Staff!"
Again under the orders of the ranger, the weapon appeared in the hands of the Megazord. Instantly cutting away towards the body of the monster, Claxtu squawking in pain as the blade bit through the feathers.
"You're going down, Bird brain!" Luke yelled. "Element Overload!"
The weapon sweeping up into the air, the blade began to glow with energy. Sweeping down, it hit Claxtu with six different slashes, each slash glowing with red, black, blue, green, yellow and purple before exploding across the body of the monster. As he staggered back, Claxtu fell to the ground and exploded. The only remnant of his prior existence being the flames on the grass.
"Whew, he's gone," Katie said, leaning back in her seat. "That's a relief."
"Are we going to go and see what he was looking for?" Nahir asked. "I mean... It could be important."
"Guess we better go for it," Luke said, absentmindedly. His thoughts were elsewhere, rather back with his future self in the office and what had happened to him on the destruction of the thing that had created him.
Still sat in the office in the Sunderland building, Future Luke felt it. Somehow, he knew that Claxtu had been defeated. And that his time in existence was up. The anomaly that he was was about to become corrected, he thought with a small yet sad smile.
Something that was still on his face when he vanished away into nothing, moments later. Leaving no trace behind that he'd ever been there.
"This is what Claxtu was looking for," Luke said, reaching out with the power of his mind to pluck the small golden item up off the ground. Taking it in his palm, he held it up to the light, showing it to the other rangers. "Whatever it may..."
Completely cutting him off, the item in his hand began to glow with a powerful golden light. The force of the energy rushing out from the jewel, showering across the wet grass below them. Forming away into writing. Luminous golden letters, easily visible in the semi darkness.
"And I guess we now know why," Nahir commented, looking down at the writing. "This must be a clue to the next artefact. Same deal as before. Wheel Hang Evice North..."
"Bill?" Katie asked, speaking into her morpher. "Can you drag the satellite over our location and get some pictures of the writing on the ground. Seems like it's going to be so much easier than doing it from down here."
"Sure, will do," the PokéManiac replied. "If you leave now, I should have them by the time you get back to the Silver Gyarados."
"Well, I guess we'll be on our way then," Duo said, making to leave. "No time to lose."
"Hey."
Looking up to the entrance of his cabin aboard the Silver Gyarados, Luke saw Nahir sticking her head around the door. A look of concern on her face, possibly directed at him. He honestly didn't know.
"What's up?" he asked. "What's going on?"
"Just wanted to apologise from earlier," she said. "It wasn't you that I needed to slap. I made a mistake."
"It's okay," the purple ranger replied, holding his bandaged hand up to the light. "Hurt more when that happened."
"So... how much was the future version of you like you?" she asked. "Did you see much of yourself in there, or do you end up completely different?"
"I think we're more similar than anyone realises," Luke admitted. "I saw a lot of the current me in there. But, there was something else there. Something in that guys life that made it so much better."
"What was it? I mean, do you know?"
"I think I might," he replied, looking at her. "In fact, I've got a pretty good idea as to what that thing is."
"Then, why aren't you going for it?" she asked, turning to head out of the room. Leaving the purple ranger alone to digest over her words.
Author's Notes.
So... Two Luke's. And contrary to popular opinion, either of them turned out to be evil.
The title being a bit of a red herring. Actually, it was something different to start with, but I changed the plot halfway through.
Thanks so much to PikaFlash for the use of that little clip as Luke sees a sight of the future. Containing one of the most legendary Poké Ranger monsters of all time.
Also, no Cobras. And they probably won't be in the next one, either. I said probably. But they will definitely be in the one after that.
Anyway, thanks for the reviews. All appreciated.
The next one is entitled Dead In The Water. Preview below, up soon, etc.
Feel like I should include an ad for Sunder-ade here.
Anyway, thanks for reading.
Don't forget to review. It'll be Luke replying to them for this chapter. Okay.
Chapter Thirteen, Dead In The Water, preview.
Bill: Okay, we're docked up. Need some supplies.
Mitchell: We've got a lock on some morphing energy down at the docks.
Noland: Time to test something out. My ultimate Dogbot warrior.
Mitchell: Soon after they leave land, we'll activate them.
Bill: We've got activity down below.
Luke: There's a Dogbot on the ship.
Katie: What?
Duo: That's not a Dogbot!
Coming soon.
