Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Power Rangers used here; all are the property of Saban/Jetix/Disney (Who does own the rights to the series these days anyway?)
Feedback: Please do; I'd like to know I'm not wasting my time here
Dino Thunder: Generations
As they materialised in the high street of Angel Grove, Conner and Kira finally had the chance to study their new Ranger outfits, and, needless to say, they were very impressed.
Conner, the majority of the other Rangers noted (Kat being the sole exception; even Rocky, Aisha and Adam had seen the Green Ranger in action when Rita had created a clone of Tommy), was wearing an identical version of Tommy's original Green Ranger costume, complete with the Dragon Shield. Those on the right to see it could even make out the Dragon Dagger hanging by his hip, although that could have just been a copy rather than the actual Dagger; only when it was actually used would they know whether it could do everything the original had or not.
Kira's outfit was, at first glance, simply the Pink Ranger costume in a purple colour; even the helmet had a similar design about it. However, closer inspection revealed a key difference; for this helmet, while the Eagle's head still stretched between the middle of the visor, rather than its wings stretch round to the back of the head, for Kira's helmet, they came forward, surrounding the visor and approximately the front half of the head, leaving the back half of the helmet white apart from what seemed to be the eagle's tail-feathers.
However, none of the Rangers had the time to admire their new member's costumes; the issue of Zeltrax standing before them took priority over everything else. Even as they landed, Zeltrax was turning to look at the new arrivals, his eyes instantly falling on the White Ranger, prompting a slight chuckle from him.
"Well well…" he said, sounding like he would be grinning if he possessed the face for it as he stared at the White Ranger, flexing his fingers on his weapon as he raised it. "The one I've been waiting for has arrived at last…"
"What are we, chopped liver?" Conner asked, as he and Kira stepped forward hastily, blocking Tommy from the cyborg's view; the less chances Zeltrax had to fight Tommy right now, the better, as far as they were concerned. "You know, given that we're all only here because of you attacking us, I figure we're entitled to at least a bit of payback, right?"
For a moment, Zeltrax could only stare at the Green Ranger before him in confusion- evidently, he was wondering how there could be a Green Ranger in his present and a Green Ranger in this one, given that the White Ranger was active in this time as well and there'd never been any records of Green and White interacting at this time- but then he seemed to process the voice that had spoken and he nodded slightly in understanding.
"Ah, Conner McKnight, I presume?" he said, before looking over at the Purple Ranger standing beside the Green Ranger, tutting slightly as he did so. "And you'd be Kira Ford, mmm? So, you did acquire that little 'upgrade' from Ninjor; I have to admit, knowing you as well as I do, I had my doubts you would prove worthy-"
"What; because I wanted to quit the Ranger gig after my first couple of missions?" Conner retorted, glaring angrily at Zeltrax underneath his helmet. "A lot can change in a few months, Zeltrax; it's just too bad that you're not one of the things that can."
"On the contrary, McKnight," Zeltrax said, chuckling to himself as he stared at the Rangers before him, his fingers flexing on his weapon as he stared at his new adversaries. "Once I am done here, I shall have changed a great deal…"
Glancing over at each other, although they couldn't see each other's faces, Conner and Kira knew the same thought was going through their minds right now.
Oh crap.
When they'd gone into this fight, they'd been hoping that Zeltrax wouldn't know that the Tommy Oliver he knew in the future was the White Ranger of the present, and that they'd manage to minimise the amount of information they'd need to give the present team about their foe; Tommy would doubtless have wanted to know why a demented cyborg from the future had a mad-on for him in the present.
Unfortunately, it was clear that Zeltrax was well aware of Tommy's identity as the White Ranger; whether because he'd somehow found it out in the future, or because someone had told him it after the four of them arrived in the present, neither of them knew….
And, when you got down to it, it wasn't important; all that mattered was that he seemed to know who was under the White Ranger's helmet, and, given the intensity of the gaze he was directing in Tommy's direction, his intentions were far from being good ones.
Neither of them had any idea what would happen if Doctor O. was killed at this time of his life, but they knew for sure that the resulting changes to history could be nothing but seriously bad news for everyone on the side of good.
They had to stop Zeltrax now.
And this time, it had to be for good.
With that in mind, Conner and Kira made up their minds about their next action; it wasn't much of a choice, really.
Before Zeltrax could attack himself, the new Green and Purple Rangers had leapt towards the cyborg, their new 'Blade Blasters' drawn and in 'dagger' mode, and lashed out at their foe with two powerful slashes, sending Zeltrax staggering back in surprise.
"Leave. Them. Alone," Kira said, her voice as cold as ice as she stared at Zeltrax under her helmet. "This is between us; you don't need to involve them."
Zeltrax just chuckled.
"On the contrary, Miss Ford," he said, as he stared back at Earth's first Purple Ranger. "As you are about to find out, I have already involved them in ways you cannot imagine."
Before either of the Dino Thunder Rangers could reply, Zeltrax had brought up his 'axe'- or whatever he called his weapon; Conner and Kira were never entirely sure what it was-, forced them off to one side with one powerful blow, and then leapt onto the other Rangers, his gaze fixed on the White Ranger as his future foe brought Saba up to defend himself.
Instinctively, the other Rangers shifted into a combat stance, but before they could even try to strike their own blows, Zeltrax brought his weapon crashing down on the White Ranger's sword, sending up sparks that sent the White Ranger staggering back in shock.
"Whoa!" Tommy yelled, as he felt himself actually stagger slightly from the blow the 'cyborg' had just struck him with. In all his time as a Ranger, he'd never been hit that hard; not even Goldar had ever exerted that much raw strength against him…
"You think that was bad, Oliver?" 'Zeltrax' said, glaring at him through a face that made Tommy think of a bad metalwork project of some kind. "Trust me; you haven't even begun to feel pain!"
Before Tommy could stop to cope with the fact that this guy appeared to know who he was, Zeltrax had struck at him again, the axe hurtling towards him…
Only for a pair of red and black legs to suddenly leap over Tommy and strike Zeltrax in the chest, sending the demented cyborg staggering back as Adam and Rocky landed on either side of their friend, followed closely by the other five Rangers.
"How do you like that?" Rocky asked, glaring at Zeltrax as their foe regained his balance. "You may be able to last against five Rangers where you come from, but how do you think you'll manage when it comes to dealing with eight of us?"
Roaring in rage, Zeltrax raised his weapon once more and charged at the Rangers, each one of whom instantly leapt into action. As he lashed out at Kira and Kat, the Pink and Purple Rangers leapt over the weapon before lashing out at Zeltrax's back with two powerful kicks that sent the cyborg staggering forward, his weapon briefly lost from the shock, just in time to meet Billy and Aisha's fists in his face.
Reeling back from the dual punch, Zeltrax barely had any time to get his bearings before he was struck from both sides simultaneously, once again being hit by the Red and Black Rangers with such force that he was sent staggering back even further as the two of them took up combat positions in front of him.
Roaring in rage and frustration- this fight was not going quite as he'd planned; he'd been hoping to do more damage at this stage of the fight- Zeltrax lashed out with a desperate punch that sent the Black Ranger flying, taking advantage of the momentary lull in the attack from that side to dive out of Rocky's path and roll back towards where he'd dropped his axe when Kira and Kat had struck him. Grabbing the weapon, he spun around to fight once again…
Only to be met by two blades- one short and predominately green in colour, the other one long and predominately white- landing on the axe, the Green and White Rangers staring fixedly at the creature before them, Saba and the Dragon Dagger clutched in their hands as they fought back against their nemesis.
"Will you just stop this?" Tommy asked, looking at the creature before him, trying to remind himself that, no matter what it looked like now, it had been human once; there must be some way of reaching that humanity to make it see sense. "We don't want to have to kill you!"
"Too late for that, Oliver!" Zeltrax yelled at Tommy, once again leaving Tommy shaken and confused; how could this… man… know who he was under the helmet? "You should have- UGH!" he grunted, as Conner suddenly kicked out at zeltrax's chest underneath the 'axe'.
The blow didn't really do much damage to Zeltrax- Conner wasn't in a good position to gather the power to attack Zeltrax, even if it would have done much good to kick at sold metal- but it sent the cyborg staggering enough so that Tommy could quickly use Saba to knock the axe out of his hands, where it subsequently spun through the air before being grabbed by Aisha.
Studying the weapon she now held in her hands, the Yellow Ranger smiled as she glanced over at Zeltrax.
"Not bad," she said, as though she'd been given his weapon to assess it instead of having it kicked over to her. "Bit long for my liking, but to each their own, I guess."
"GIVE THAT BACK!" Zeltrax roared, lunging in Aisha's direction, only to be intercepted by a sudden kick from Conner, accompanied by a rapid slash from Conner's new weapon that sent the cyborg flying back once again, roaring in rage as his hide sparked from the recent attack.
"How do you like that?!" Conner said, a broad grin on his face under his helmet as he glared at Zeltrax. "Face facts, Zeltrax; you can't win this! You're not up against just any Rangers here; you're up against the ones who wrote the book on being Rangers! They've fought things Mes… uh… your boss… can only dream about being able to control! There's no way you can stop them!"
A noise off to his side prompted Conner to glance around, and he saw that the other Rangers had gathered around him as well, each of them glaring in Zeltrax's direction, their bodies radiating confidence in their skills.
"Conner does have a point, Zeltrax," Billy stated, his gaze fixed on the twisted mockery that had once been a human being before them. "After all the aliens and spells we've overcome in the past, what makes you think you'll have any chance against us?"
Zeltrax just chuckled as he looked at the eight Rangers before him, as though he couldn't care less about the problem facing him at present.
"For one thing, I'm not doing this alone… whoever you are," he said, as he tossed his weapon off to the side and raised one arm, revealing a deep red wrist-band that Conner and Kira didn't recall seeing there before. "I have some help."
Before any of the Rangers could stop him, Zeltrax had raised his hand to the sky, and, as a beam of red energy shot into the air, he yelled out two words none of the Rangers had expected or wanted to hear.
"Serpentera… activate!"
As the Rangers watched in horror, the skies suddenly darkened, as though someone had just flicked some switch for massive storms, and the large, dragon-like form of Lord Zedd's personal zord descended from the sky, its red eyes flashing maliciously as it roared at the Rangers before it.
"Oh my God…" Rocky whispered, before he lowered his gaze to stare at Zeltrax. "How could you get that thing working?"
Zeltrax shrugged dismissively.
"The copy of the White Dino Gem, of course," he said, as though it was so obvious he couldn't believe Rocky needed it explained to him. "It's not as good as the original would have been, of course, but it gets the job done; for the moment, at least, Serpentera is active."
Studying the Rangers before him, taking in their shocked expressions, Zeltrax chuckled once again; if his face had possessed the capacity for it, he would doubtless have been smiling broadly.
"And you don't have a single zord that can stop it," he said simply, before he tapped another control on the red 'wristband', turned into dark blue energy and zapped towards Serpentera, leaving the Rangers staring up at the zord before them in horror.
"Oh no…" Conner muttered to himself, as he stared at the nightmarish zord as it flew down towards them. "This isn't good…"
"Tell me about it; like not making major changes to history wasn't hard enough to do already…" Kira replied, taking care to keep her voice low as they stared at the sight before them.
"What?" Adam said, looking over at the two new Rangers in confusion.
"Oh… just… well, Serpentera's still got a part to play in our future, so you… kind of… can't just destroy it at the moment," Kira said, looking apologetically over at the other Rangers. Noting the suddenly anxious edge to their body language, Kira raised her hands reassuringly. "Don't worry; it won't do anything major to you guys- or anyone else, for that matter- when it comes back; it's just… well, its defeat was a prominent moment in Ranger history, so I just don't think it should be erased so easily."
"OK; we'll bear that in mind," Tommy said, nodding in understanding as he glanced briefly back at Serpentera before looking at the others. "Sounds like our main objective right now is to damage Serpentera just enough so that it can't keep going for the moment, but not so badly that it shuts down on us for good; one of us should probably try and get into the cockpit to destroy that 'Dino Gem' thing so it can't be used as a power source any more."
Glancing back at Serpentera once again, he swallowed slightly anxiously and then glanced back at the Blue Ranger. "Billy, can the Ninja and Shogun Zords be operated with only half of us in each other of them? You know, three in one, three in the other?"
Billy nodded thoughtfully.
"I… think so…" he said, as he studied the Rangers around him, before his eyes settled on Conner and Kira. "You two had-"
Kira shook her head.
"No need; Ninjor gave us a couple of zords as well," she said, smiling slightly at Conner before she looked back at the other Rangers. "He didn't actually say they could form a Megazord on their own, but it's worth a shot, right? They looked like they were the right size for it anyway; if nothing else, they'll be able to do some damage."
"Right now, any help we can get would be good!" Tommy said, taking one last look at Serpentera before he looked back at the other Rangers and nodded resolutely. "OK guys, let's do it!"
"Right!" the Rangers said, as all eight of them raised their hands to the sky- Conner and Kira included, and cried out the words that would summon the aid they now needed more than ever before.
"We need Ninjazord power, now!"
As soon as the words were out of their mouths, loud roars and screeches were heard from the distance, and then, from over the horizon came the eight Ninjazords, the Green Puma and Purple Eagle running and flying alongside the other zords as though they had always been there.
"Nice zords," Kat said, glancing over at Kira approvingly.
"Thanks," Kira said, as she glanced over at Conner and indicated the zords in question. "Shall we?"
"Let's do it," Conner said, nodding in agreement. Crouching down slightly, the two Rangers then leapt up into the air, teleporting into their zord cockpits mid-jump, and found themselves both sitting insmall cockpits that seemed to be located in the zord's heads. Kira noted, with some part of her mind, that the Eagle, unlike the pterodactyl, had actual controls rather than the 'thought command' system she'd grown used to, but, somehow, she instinctively already knew which buttons to press to make it do what she wanted…
"Hey, Kira!" Conner's voice called over the speakers. Glancing down, Kira saw the Green Puma running on the ground alongside her; the other Ninjazords had apparently fallen back, although Kira was pretty sure this was only because they were combining at the present. "Care to hook up?"
"Thought you'd never ask," Kira chuckled, as she reached over to activate the necessary controls.
As she watched, a screen flashed up a picture of the process going on for the two zords at present, as an 'automatic pilot' kind of system activated, taking control of the 'combination sequence'. As she watched the image on the screen, her zord's head folded down into its chest- revealing a head in a manner that reminded her of archive footage of Zeo Zord V- as its legs folded upwards, the wings remaining spread out at the back as it flew through the air. Meanwhile, the Green Puma had leapt up onto its hind legs and its head and front legs had 'folded' forward, the front legs opening up to reveal a space that would allow the Eagle to settle on the Puma, acting as a head and back as well as providing wings.
Actually, from what Kira could see of the diagram as she flew towards the Puma, it looked like the wings could not only serve as wings, but also fold over the chest to act as a kind of 'armour' and detach from the main zord to act as weapons…
Then, just as that thought crossed Kira's mind, her chair suddenly moved back, and, suddenly she found herself sitting in a control room in what seemed to be the head of the Puma- now serving as the zord's chest- with Conner sitting beside her.
Glancing in her direction, the new Green Ninja Ranger, despite the lack of mobile features on his helmet, seemed to almost smile.
"Ah, Miss Ford; welcome to the Ninja Warriorzord," he said, indicating the control room around them, as though he was just a salesman showing her a new car. "Ninjor included the name in my… uh, 'piloting lessons', I guess you could call it."
"Not bad," Kira said, looking at the cockpit before glancing back at Conner. "Anyway, shall we get on with putting Zeltrax down for good?"
"My pleasure," Conner said. His body demonstrating his anticipation, he tapped the required controls to turn the Warriorzord around, and soon, the two Rangers found themselves watching as Serpentera casually battered back the Ninja and Shogun Megazords. The two zords were large, of course- Conner had seem several buildings that were dwarfed by the zords of any era- but Serpentera was significantly greater, stretching up so high that its head almost seemed to be touching the clouds…
It was like the Empire State Building to the conventional skyscrapers of the other two zords.
"Hey…" Kira said, staring at the sight in confusion. "Where's the Falconzord?"
Glancing up, Conner smiled as he saw the white bird-like form of his future mentor's zord circling the skies above the other three zords, occasionally firing some kind of weapon in its wings at Serpentera when it could get a shot in.
"Doing what he does best," Conner said, before his eyes narrowed as he stared at the monster before them. "Now it's time for us to do the same thing."
Taking the controls, Conner and Kira sent their new zord charging forward, slamming into Serpenetera's leg and punching the thing for all they were worth. The attack didn't seem to have any significant impact, but the massive zord seemed to stagger slightly, and, right now, that was all Conner and Kira were after.
"Nice zord you've got there, guys," Rocky's voice said over the comlink; it was hard to be certain, but, assuming the comlinks were advanced enough to give a sense of direction- and it wasn't just a case of the speakers on one side being damaged already- it sounded like the Red Ranger was fighting in the Shogun Megazord- currently punching at the leg like they were- although who else was with him was unknown.
"Indeed; it's definitely impressive," Billy put in from what seemed like the other side; sticking with their original theory about how the comlinks worked, it sounded like he was in the Ninja Megazord,, which was currently 'stabbing' at the leg with the left, Wolf Ninjazord arm. "The colour scheme is a bit tricky to pull off in most cases, but Ninjor seems to have done pretty well with what he used nevertheless."
"Thanks; yours look good too," Conner said, smiling under his helmet before he turned back to look at the massive zord before him gritting his teeth resolutely as he watched their zord's best attacks not even leave a dent in Serpentera's legs. "Look, this isn't working out, and it is way too dangerous to leave Zeltrax active with what he knows about the future; is there any way we can get up to the cockpit and get Zeltrax- and maybe see about disconnecting that duplicate Dino Gem, come to that- out of this thing?"
"Not definitely; the cockpit's all the way up in the head, which is not exactly an easy thing to reach," Aisha said (She sounded like she was in the Ninja Megazord with Billy). "Tommy might be able to get you up there in the Falconzord- our teleportation system has a problem focusing on a destination unless you already have a clear idea of where you're going yourself- but I can't be sure that you'll be able to do anything once you're there; there's no way of knowing if that 'Zeltrax' sucker has more backup or not."
"Great…" Kira groaned, as she looked over at Conner. "And, no offence, but if push comes to shove, we both know you can't handle Zeltrax on your own in a fight when you've got the territory advantage; you're definitely going to have a problem when you're somewhere you don't know about, especially when you factor in possible backup."
"Exactly," Tommy's voice said, breaking through the comlink. "Which is why I'd be going in with you, Conner."
Conner could barely even open his mouth to protest before Tommy continued. "Don't try and talk me out of it, Conner; I'm a good fighter, I've probably handled anyone Zeltrax has in there as backup in the past, and I can set the Falconzord to operate on automatic pilot if I have to. It's risky, but it's not impossible for us to win this."
Conner swallowed slightly as he glanced back at Kira, almost seeking permission to go and deal with this; no matter how capable he knew she was, he hated the idea of leaving her alone, when they still hadn't had time to fully explore this new… relationship… between the two of them…
Kira nodded at him.
"Do it, Conner," she said, her voice grim as she looked at her boyfriend. "I'll keep things together down here until you get back."
Conner didn't bother to make any kind of protest; they both knew he wouldn't have meant it anyway. Nodding resolutely, he stood up and reached over to activate the comlink.
"OK, Tommy; let's do this," he said resolutely. "Beam me…"
"…up Scotty," he finished, as he suddenly found himself standing in what he presumed was the cockpit of the Falconzord, looking in surprise at the form of the White Ranger in front of him.
"Hi there," Tommy said, looking back at him briefly before turning back to the window in front of him- it seemed to be showing what John assumed were Serpentera's arms- before he pulled on some levers and sent the zord tearing up into the sky, at such a rapid speed Conner was surprised he didn't fall down (Some feature of the zord must have been able to compensate for changes in speed, even if it couldn't stop the machines from jolting when they were attacked).
Regardless of the how of it, in a matter of moments, the zord was circling Serpentera's head, staying just far enough away that the zord couldn't reach them; no matter how powerful it was, either Serpentera had limited long-range weapons or the pilots didn't want to risk using them and drain the Dino Gem's power too rapidly.
Besides, why worry about it? Conner mused to himself, as Tommy tapped a few buttons on the console in front of him and stood up. After all, we're not doing much to the sucker so far; why would they need to worry about destroying us at long ranges? All they've got to do is wait for us to run out of power and they're set…
He chuckled slightly at that thought.
They were definitely going to be in for a surprise…
"Ready?" Tommy asked, looking over at the future Red Ranger.
"As I'll ever be," Conner said, nodding in confirmation at his future mentor. "Let's do this."
Placing a hand on Conner's shoulder, Tommy tapped another button on the wall of the zord's cockpit…