Hey guys, sorry I was a bit late with the chapter, I was working on the finale of my other story, Power Rangers: Data Surge, and I wrote the first chapter, and published my new story, Power Rangers: Guardians of the Galaxy, which is the story from the preview in the last chapter, so check it out! Hope you like it!
I also hope you like this chapter; enjoy!
Geo could see Vi very clearly held back in the cave ahead, stopped by not only a forcefield, but by Chimera standing guard at the mouth of the cave. He would just make a beeline for the cave, destroy the Chimera, and rescue Vi, but a monster was standing in front of him, growling.
It was Lioness, who was ready to pounce and try to destroy him. Lioness had already taken out the other rangers one by one, leaving only Geo left to fight her. Geo almost refused, seeing as he failed not only to protect his teammates, but Vi as well.
Maya laid on the ground behind him, a bit injured, but nothing too bad. She watched for him to make his decision.
"Well, ranger?" Lioness growled, getting into position to fight him. "What are you gonna do?"
Geo pulled his pendant off of his neck and stuck into his morpher. "Animal Guardians, Arise!" He called, a bit uncertainly. "Power of the Eagle!"
Lioness crouched down into a pouncing position and smirked at him. "Bad choice for you, good choice for me," She launched herself at him.
~Cue Opening 2~
Earlier
Tanzo and Kay watched the rangers spar in Ben's boxing studio, Tanzo smiling excitedly while Kay made a face.
"That's dangerous," Kay pointed out as Geo kicked Roger back onto the ground, making Cal get up and run back at him. "Is this really what we do with our free time?"
Tanzo nudged her, making her frown and move a bit away from him. "Come on, it's not that bad. Don't you think the monsters are gonna be worse? You didn't have a problem fighting them, obviously."
Kay rolled her eyes. "That's different, because it's not free time. If a monster attacks, it's our obligation and job to go fight it, not something we do for fun."
"And you're saying this isn't fun?" Tanzo chuckled, gesturing to the ring where Geo knocked both Roger and Cal down again.
Maya, who was watching them from the side of the ring, walked over to Tanzo and Kay. "Geo's obviously been practicing outside of our practice, because neither Roger or Cal has been able to keep up with him all day,"
"We probably won't be able to, either," Kay muttered. Tanzo nudged her again, making her shove him away. "Stop touching me," Kay growled.
Tanzo put his hands up in surrender. "I was only doing that to point out to you that maybe if you have a positive attitude, good things can come from it."
Kay chuckled humorlessly. "Yeah, I've tried that before, and it doesn't work. Maybe you can live in a fantasy world, but I won't."
The yellow ranger frowned at her, as did Maya. "That's rude," Maya commented. "I don't know if you've realized, Kay, but this is a team effort, and if you can't deal with being apart of a team, then I don't know what you're doing here."
Kay crossed her arms, and actually thought about leaving, though she knew she couldn't due to the fact that she was part of the team now. She was a ranger, and it was a bit too late to just throw in the towel and flat out refuse to work with the others, even if she did prefer to work and be alone most of the time.
"Okay," Was all she said in response as Alicia and Vi walked in, holding the tablets they used to track monster activity when they weren't at Ranger Ops.
"Hey guys!" Tanzo waved happily at them, making them walk over to the three.
Alicia waved the others over from the ring, and when they were all there, Alicia turned the tablet towards them. "We have some activity in three parts of the city," She told them. "I'll split you guys up into teams to check it out."
"There's five of us," Roger pointed out with a frown. "How are we gonna split into three teams?"
Alicia pushed Vi forwards with the rangers. "Vi is trained in martial arts, and will be going with Geo to city center. Roger and Tanzo will be going to Rivers Park, and Cal and Kay will be going to the Botanical Garden. Is that okay?"
The rangers nodded and left in their teams, Maya and Ben joined Alicia in watching them leave. "Are you sure it's safe for them to be splitting up already? They haven't even fought a monster on their own." Ben asked.
"Umm..." Maya scoffed. "More like, are you sure it's safe for Vi to be joining them? She's not a ranger."
"Yes, but she has enough training to go out and help," Alicia responded.
Maya gave her a look. "Then why isn't she a ranger too?"
Alicia turned to her. "You know that only those with the pendants can become rangers. Vi doesn't have a pendant, and I don't think she wants to be a ranger anyways. She likes her job as is."
"Well, I wish I was a ranger," Maya sighed. "I always imagined being the blue ranger, like Cal. I mean, it's cool training the rangers, and helping out, but sometimes I wish I was more involved. It's kinda like how everyone sees the actors on a TV show, rather than the producers. The actors are obviously more favorable."
Ben patted her on the shoulder. "Just because everyone else doesn't see us, doesn't mean the rangers don't. They appreciate everything we do for them, I know they do, and you should too."
Alicia watched them interact and sighed. She yearned to be a mother someday, and just watching any type of interact similar to this one was hard. She also knew, however, that Ben wasn't ready to be a father yet, and she didn't want to rush him into something he didn't want.
Ben looked over at Alicia and smiled sadly. He knew what she was thinking about, and while the idea of being a father scared him, he knew that Alicia was ready to be a mother. Not only that, but she deserved it.
~PRAG~
Roger and Tanzo walked carefully through the park, noticing immediately that there was almost no one there.
"Where is everyone?" Roger frowned, stopping to look around.
Tanzo shrugged, walking around, looking impatient. "I don't know, but this is boring. I think the real question is, where's the action at?"
Roger scoffed. "What did you expect? Every time we leave somewhere, someone's destroying the world?"
"Well, it's just boring waiting here. I hate waiting," Tanzo crossed his arms as he scuffed his feet in the grass. "I just wanna fight already!"
As Tanzo began to walk forward a little more, Roger stopped him. "I know you're not the serious type, but this is a serious situation. Who cares if it's boring? People could be dying right now, and we wouldn't know it."
Tanzo laughed. "If this is as serious as you think it is, then why is nobody here?"
"That might be exactly why it's serious," Roger rolled his eyes. While Roger did consider Tanzo a friend, his attitude about certain things could get irritating very quickly.
The yellow ranger, on the other hand, seemed more uncomfortable than Roger was irritated. He wasn't good at handling serious situations, and it was making him very uncomfortable. He didn't exactly know what to do, and Roger didn't seem like talking.
Suddenly, he was pulled out of his thoughts when he was pounced on by Lioness, the monster of the week. He cried out in shock and fear and Lioness growled in his face before grabbing him by the shoulder with her teeth. She dug her teeth in deep, making Tanzo exclaim in pain.
Roger saw this and ran forwards to help, but Lioness grabbed him with one of her paws and held him up by the neck, choking him until the pain Tanzo was in rendered him unconscious. She then stood up and slashed Roger across the chest a few times with her sharp claws before running off.
The black ranger was in an immense amount of pain, but managed to press the talk button on his morpher. "Yes?" Maya's voice came through.
"Help," He choked out before falling unconscious himself.
~PRAG~
"These gardens are so pretty," Cal commented as she and Kay walked through the abandoned garden. "I wish I could go here all the time. It's very calming."
Kay looked towards a bench in front of a group of rose bushes and sighed.
~Flashback~
A four year old Kay and her mother, Diane, walked along the path through the gardens, pointing out all of the nice flowers and plants as they passed them. Kay loved coming to the gardens - it was always a time when Kay felt close to both of her parents, even though her father was never around due to his job.
Diane gestured to a bench in front of a group of red rose bushes. "That's where your dad proposed to me, Kennedy."
The two went to sit on the bench, and Diane moved a flower closer so Kay could smell it. "It smells good!" Kay exclaimed.
"Yes, it does," Diane said fondly. "I remember your father took me here and sat me down on this exact bench when he asked me to marry him. I was pregnant with you at the time, and you kicked for the first time right when he asked." She put a hand on her stomach. "Now you and I get to sit here with your brother," She rubbed her abdomen with a smile.
Kay put a hand on her mother's stomach as well and laughed happily. "I can't wait to have a baby brother!" Kay exclaimed. "Once he gets here, we can come back with him, right mommy?"
Diana kissed her daughter's forehead. "Of course we can."
~End of Flashback~
Kay stared angrily at the bench. They never did come back. After her brother was born, her mother never spent time with Kay. She understood that Diane needed to do what she had to when he was younger, but even as he got older and more independent, she wouldn't break away from him long enough to even give Kay advice or help her with homework.
Kay learned how to give herself advice when she needed it, do her own homework every time it was assigned, make her own money, and basically how to live on her own. She often didn't even eat dinner with her family, not that she really felt it was much of one anyway.
"Are you okay?" Cal asked, noticing Kay lost in thought.
The pink ranger turned to her, startled at her question. "What do you mean?"
"Well, you seem upset. Is everything okay? You can talk to me if you need to," Cal told her, looking worried.
"I'm fine, let's just get this over with," Kay growled. She didn't understand why, all of a sudden, someone actually cared about what she was thinking. She didn't need anyone else's help with anything, and it almost offended her that Cal would even imply that she wanted, or needed, her help.
Cal grabbed Kay by the arm, making her spin around to face her, while ripping her arm out of Cal's grasp. Cal put her hands up in defense. "I'm sorry, I just know that you need to talk."
"What make you think that?" Kay crossed her arms.
"Because I know how you feel," Cal responded. "It's hard to tell other people what's going on because you don't want them to think badly about you if you do. I get it, but it helps to talk about, Kay. I know you may not want to, but when you're ready, I'll be here to listen."
Kay frowned. "You're not gonna try to make me talk about it?" Kay had often been attempted to be forced to talk about how she was feeling with her mother, as Diane didn't have enough time to wait for Kay to actually want to talk about it with her.
Cal shook her head, frowning as well. "No, why would I do that? I want you to be able to talk to me because you trust me, not because I forced you to talk about something you don't want to talk about."
"Really?" Kay had never had someone to really tell her problems to, and it meant a lot that Cal was willing to listen whenever she needed it.
"Of course," Cal smiled, putting a hand on her shoulder, and was a bit shocked when Kay didn't reject the contact.
Kay opened her mouth to speak with a roar interrupted them. "What was that?" Kay asked as Cal pulled her back from the direction the sound came from.
"I think the monster's here." Cal whispered.
The two went to grab their pendants when Cal was tackled by Lioness.
"Cal!" Kay cried as Cal was grabbed by the hair and had her head slammed hard into the ground, causing her to immediately fall unconscious.
Kay lunged forward, knocking Lioness off of Cal, but ended up getting grabbed and lifted up instead. "You think you're swift, ranger? I'll destroy you just like your friends!" Lioness growled.
Lioness threw Kay at the bench and the rose bushes, making her hit her chest hard on the bench, winding her, and her legs landed in the bushes, a multitude of thorns stabbing at her with the sharp ends.
She hissed in pain, gasping to regain her breath as she watched Lioness suddenly run off.
When she did regain her breath, she attempted to get up, but found herself unable to as she cried out and leaned hard against the bench as her vision blurred in and out. She pressed the button on her morpher.
"Help us," She gasped out before anyone on the other end could say anything. After she said so, however, she heard someone talking on the other end, but found it impossible to understand what they were saying as her vision blacked out around the edges.
After a few blinks to try and regain focus, she succumbed to unconsciousness.
~PRAG~
Vi and Geo were in the city square, surprised that there was nobody there on a Sunday, especially with all of the shops in sight. Then again, all of the shops seemed to be closed as well.
"What's going on here?" Vi asked, turning to Geo, who looked equally confused. "None of these stores should be closed. Not at this hour, and not on the busiest shopping day of the week besides Saturday."
Geo nodded. "Something's not right."
"No kidding," Maya's voice came through Geo's morpher, and she sounded very upset.
Vi frowned, grabbing Geo's arm and putting the morpher near her mouth to speak. "What's going on, Maya?"
"The others are injured, pretty badly." Maya told them. "Ben and I went to figure out why Roger sent us a distress call, and we found him and Tanzo beat up and bleeding bad, and Kay just sent us one now. Alicia and Ben are going to find them, but I assume they'll be just as bad."
"No way," Geo took his arm out of Vi's grasp. "How badly are they hurt?"
There was a pause. "Let's just say, they won't be fighting for a while."
Geo cursed under his breath. This wasn't good. "Do you know what happened? What kind of monster there was? Anything at all?"
"Not yet, but I'll be checking any kind of surveillance I can to figure it out. In the meantime, stay on your toes and stay safe. We can't have all of you injured." Maya told him before hanging up.
Vi and Geo exchanged worried looks. "This isn't good," Vi commented.
Geo nodded, a bit lost in thought. As the leader, it was his job to keep the team safe, however, all of his team members were injured. He had often told himself that failure wasn't an option, and it really wasn't. He had failed to keep his team safe. He then looked to Vi, who was still looking around to make sure no one was around. While Vi wasn't a member of the actual ranger team, she was a very vital piece of the process.
Without her, the rangers wouldn't be as far as they were now, and probably wouldn't have come together at all. Despite the fact that this situation was already a mess and a failure, he had to protect Vi.
It was his job, and while he really didn't feel like doing anything else than going back to Ranger Ops to read and think about what he's done, he knew had had to get his job done before anything else happened.
Then, all of a sudden, he was hit from the side with a large paw. He looked up to see Lioness standing over him with her claws out, ready to strike him now that he was down below her.
Vi quickly sprung to action, tackling the monster off of Geo. He watched, shocked, as Vi put up a pretty good fight against the alien, but was quickly struck down.
"Vi!" He yelled, trying to get up to get her when Lioness ran forward and grabbed her. "Don't you dare!" He yelled, seeing Vi, a bit disoriented, but frightened in Lioness' grasp.
Lioness laughed at him. "Goodbye, red ranger!" She ran off faster than he could get up, cursing himself and punching the ground hard in anger.
~PRAG~
"Vi's gone!" Geo exclaimed as she stormed into Ranger Ops, quickly locating Maya sitting in front of the monitors.
Maya's eyes widened. "What do you mean, 'gone?'" She rounded on him, standing up quickly. "What happened?"
"Lioness attacked us and had me on the ground. Vi got her off but was kidnapped in the process." He grabbed his head in his hands in utter horror. "How could I let this happen? I'm a horrible ranger, and friend!" Before Maya could respond, he spoke up again. "Where are the others?"
"In the infirmary," Maya responded. "It's pretty bad, but Alicia's working on it."
Geo and Maya walked over and looked through the window into the infirmary, shocked at what they saw. Each of the rangers were covered in bandages and were being attended rapidly by Alicia, Ginger, and Ben.
"What are we gonna tell their parents?" Geo asked, turning to her, not wanting to look at the damage any longer. "What can we do about this?"
Maya gestured to the beds. "Alicia made those beds. She said they had some kind of technology in them that can heal, I guess. It's a bit confusing.. well, that and I wasn't really paying attention, but still."
Geo sighed. "I'm gonna go for a walk. I need clear my head and figure out where Vi is."
Maya watched him leave before going to the monitor again. "Where could you be?" She whispered to herself as she searched for Vi's location.
Meanwhile, the rangers were beginning to wake up in the infirmary.
"Why does it feel like I got hit by a bus?" Roger groaned, pushing himself into a painful sitting position.
The others pushed themselves up as well, leaving the three adults to stand in front of them, looking worried. "You don't remember?" Ginger asked, frowning.
"I remember a monster," Kay told them, wincing in pain. "We were at the gardens."
Cal raised her eyebrows at them. "I honestly remember nothing."
Alicia nodded. "You have a pretty bad concussion, you shouldn't remember." She turned to Tanzo and Roger. "What about you two? You remember anything?"
Tanzo rubbed his injured shoulder. "I remember that Lion monster at the park. Tried to rip my shoulder off."
"I tried to help," Roger nodded in remembrance. "Got me with her claws."
"Well, at least you remember," Ben commented, making Alicia and Ginger nudge him. "Look, you guys will be fine. Alicia did something strange with the beds, so they'll heal you."
Kay frowned. "Then why do I still hurt?" She asked.
"For some reason, I messed up when I was making them, and it doesn't work as well when you're not conscious. You should be fine in a few hours or so, which means your families don't have to know." Alicia told them.
"Thank god," Roger muttered under his breath.
Tanzo raised his hand, and Alicia nodded at him to let him speak. "So, what are we gonna do now?"
"Actually, a better question would be, where's Geo and Vi?" Cal asked, looking around.
"From what I've heard," Alicia pursed her lips. "Vi got kidnapped by Lioness, and Geo's okay. He's going find her."
Roger frowned. "You're letting him go alone? That's extremely dangerous. Look at what she did to us!"
Ginger gave him a look. "Well we can't send you guys out there to fight. You're injured badly. Who else could we send?"
~PRAG~
Maya sighed as she watched Geo go into the boxing studio. Since the rangers needed to train, Ben had made them all keys to get in whenever they wanted to, and it seemed as though Geo felt the need to come here.
She had no idea why, though.
Maya walked towards the boxing studio, hoping he wouldn't see her, though he seemed much more invested in changing and boxing. When she got up to the window, she saw him inside, dressed in a red sleeveless shirt and black shorts as he savagely punched a punch bag.
She walked inside, and he didn't even notice her.
"You know, you're gonna break that if you hit it any harder," She commented, making him only raise his eyebrows in response. "Geo, stop. You're not gonna get anywhere by doing that."
Geo still didn't stop. "What exactly are you trying to accomplish?" She asked. "I get it, you're upset, but come on. Nobody's perfect."
Suddenly, Geo stopped and rounded on her. "Don't say that," He growled. "I can try."
"So, sitting here trying to rip that punching bag from the ceiling is trying to be 'perfect?'" She asked, crossing her arms.
"You don't understand. I lost." He scoffed, making a pained face. "I failed."
Maya frowned. "Everyone fails once in while. It's a part of life. There's no way around it."
Geo clenched his fists at his sides. "You could succeed. Losing sucks. No one likes a loser."
"What exactly do you consider a loss?" She asked. "Because you can succeed on different levels, you know."
He shook his head. "No, you can't. There's success and loss. That's it. There's no in between."
"How does it feel?" Maya asked.
"What do you mean? Losing?" Geo frowned.
"No," Maya shook her head. "Living in a false sense of reality." She rolled her eyes. "You can't live your life always expecting better, or even expecting to make everything that sucks better, because things are gonna suck, and there's nothing you can do about it. Yeah, Vi got kidnapped, but I didn't hear about you throwing her at the monster. Lioness kidnapped her, not you." Geo opened his mouth to speak, but Maya cut him off. "Before you say it, sure, you could've done better, but that's over now. You gotta move on and save her. You can't dwell on it, because nothing will get done if you do."
Geo crossed his arms. "You still don't get it." He whispered.
Maya put a hand on his shoulder. "I'm sorry, but we can't sit here and talk about it all day. Like I said, we have to save her."
"I don't even know where she is," Geo rubbed the back of his neck. "How am I gonna do it?"
"I know where she is," Maya smirked. "Let's go, and don't tell me that I can't come. Lioness is a strong opponent, and you're gonna need back up." Geo opened his mouth to refuse her when she gestured out. "We need to go, come on."
She ran out, and he sighed, following her to the location.
Now
"Bad choice for you, good choice for me," Lioness smirked before launching herself at him.
Geo quickly pulled out his Eagle Sword and swung it at her as she got near, making her growled and try to grab at his legs. He jumped up to avoid her arms and tried to stab at the ground where she was reaching.
He missed as she ducked out of the way and attempted to grab him on the way down. He jumped back and pointed his sword at her as she stood up above him, her claws raised.
"I guess that was a bad choice!" Geo exclaimed, forcing the sword forward.
Just when he thought it was over, Lioness flipped backwards and kicked the sword out of his hands, making him fall back in the process. Lioness walked up to him, chuckling from above.
"Was it really that bad?" She asked, walking around him, looking ready to strike at any moment on the downed red ranger.
Geo saw his sword near him and saw Lioness ignoring it. "You can do it Geo!" Maya yelled, drawing Lioness' attention. "I believe in you!"
When she was distracted, Geo lunged forward, grabbing his sword and plunging it through Lioness' middle.
Lioness screamed in pain and and fell forward as he pulled it out. She looked back at him. "I guess I really did make a bad choice."
She fell forward and exploded as Maya got up and ran to hug Geo. "You did it!" She exclaimed.
They heard something behind them and saw Vi, out from behind the forcefield, destroying the remaining Chimera, who went down like rocks. She walked over to them and joined them in a hug.
"You saved me!" She cried.
"I say this calls for a ranger dinner," Maya commented. "Vi and I will make you guys dinner outside of Ranger Ops, how does that sound?"
Geo smiled. "That sounds great."
~PRAG~
Up on her ship, Terra screamed in anger. "Lioness was beaten by those stupid rangers!" She yelled.
As if on cue, Valcon came into the room, holding a small vile of black-ish powder. "I have a solution to that problem right here," He held up the vile. "Just leave it to me. Those rangers won't know what hit them."
Next time on Power Rangers Animal Guardians: Kay wakes up in an unknown place where she has to face some of her biggest fears.
The last little part with Terra and Valcon is set up for the next five or so chapters, called the Fear Factor arc. All of the rangers will have to face their biggest fears to escape a dream-like reality and get back to the real world.
How do they get into this state? Find out in the next chapter!
Again, feel free to check out my new story, Power Rangers: Guardians of the Galaxy! The second chapter to that should be up ASAP!
© Copyrighted by Charlotte 'Charlie' Hartley