Vida, Madi, Chip, Xander and I walked through the woods, but not before I asked Udonna to look at Junky. She said he'd be fine, and that magical brooms heal just like humans do.
…..What the hell?
"I just can't wrap my head around it," Vida said, almost mournfully, "Nick's gone. Really gone,"
"Well, technically he's not really gone, just in another dimension," Chip reasoned, trying in vain to comfort Vida. We all gave him odd looks.
"Technically," He added uncomfortably.
"Even Udonna can't find a spell to bring him back," Xander said, kicking a stray rock in his path, "Nick's in big trouble this time,"
Suddenly, something jumped down in front of us, and in a flash of grey magic, my sword was in my hand. I immediately pointed it at the thing in front of us.
"Nick's in trouble?" The thing asked, and turned around to us, only to come face to face with my sword.
"Who are you?" I demanded, looking the thing in the eyes.
He chuckled nervously.
"I'm Phineas, the troblin," He explained, spreading his arms out to himself.
"Oh, Nick told us about you!" Chip exclaimed, and cautiously, I lowered my sword, but kept it in my hand, "He never said you were so…..freaky,"
"Oh, stop," Phineas exclaimed, "I'm blushing!"
I couldn't tell….
"Come here!" Phineas said with a smile on his face, opening his arms to hug Chip.
Chip stuttered for a moment, but held his hands up as Phineas tried to hug him.
"Oh, too soon?" The troblin asked, and turned to see Vida, Madi, and I.
"Oh, girls!" He exclaimed, apparently surprised at seeing us, "Gotta love 'em. Now what was the deal with Nick being in danger?"
I sighed, and answered him.
"Nick disrupted a dark seal, got sucked into it with Catastros the demon horse, and is now in an evil dimension that we can't get him out of,"
Phineas nodded his head naturally.
"I see," He said, like I had just told him the simplest thing in the world, "So, by moping around, you guys are really….helping Nick. Sorry, you know, I just get things confused sometimes,"
I looked at the troblin, my eyebrows raised and mouth agape slightly.
Holy shit, he's RIGHT. I'm not gonna help Nick by just standing around….
Without giving it a second thought, I turned on my heel and began to walk to root core.
"Where are you going?" Chip called to me, as I broke into a full sprint.
"I'm going to save Nick!" I yelled back, and continued to root core.
I'm not going to lose someone else. Not again….
I entered the main room of root core, and went directly to the large bookcase that held all of Udonna's spell books, filling up my arms and bring them to the oak table.
"Emma!" I heard Xander call, as the front door of root core opened and closed, "Emma, Udonna said that there were no spells to contact or bring back Nick,"
"She said that to get him back, we need to say the spell Koragg used backwards," Madi added on.
I looked up at the ranger's hopeless faces.
"Guys, do you really think that by doing nothing we're going to get Nick back?" I asked them, and paused, "I'm giving it a shot,"
I looked down at the spell book and began to flip through it again, searching for any signs of a spell to help Nick.
I was so engrossed in my search, that I didn't notice until later that the rangers had sat down, and begun to search with me. I smiled at that.
After what felt like hours, I opened my sixth spell book and my eye immediately caught on the first incantation.
A SPELL FOR TRANSFERRING MEMORIES
"Hey guys, check this out," I said, and they gathered around me, "A spell to transfer memories. I could transfer someone's memory of Koragg's spell into someone else's mind so that they could write it down or something,"
"It's brilliant!" Chip exclaimed with a bright smile, "But who's going to do it?"
"I am," I immediately spoke up, my voice steel. I needed them to know that I was not taking no for an answer.
"Me too," Xander said.
"So then who's saying the spell?" Chip asked, and I looked at Madi hopefully.
"Me?" She asked incredulously, pointing to herself.
"Madi, it's just a little spell, we'll get Nick back, and you work best with magic out of all of us," I said, looking at her pleadingly, "Please Madi,"
She seemed to be debating mentally for a moment, then sighed in defeat.
"Show me the spell," She said, and I stood up from my chair, and showed her the in the book. I walked over to stand next to Xander, and we both looked at each other nervously.
Madi raised her hands, and began the spell.
"Rembra Tero!" She said.
We waited for a moment, but nothing happened.
"It didn't work," Madi said, sounding like she was about to cry.
"Madi," I said, placing a hand on her shoulder, "You tried. We'll just have to find another way to get Nick back,"
She looked up at me, and a small smile stretched across her face, but before she had time to respond, the crystal ball began to show something.
"But right now, we need to go kick evil butt," I said, looking at the monster, and running out the door with the rest of the rangers. Almost immediately, Junky was flying alongside me and the rangers as we ran, and soon we stopped somewhere close to the new mall.
"Holy….." I mumbled, as I saw the thing before us. It looked like it was made out of rocks and boulders, but with a face slapped onto it.
Suddenly, my mind flashed back to when we battled Koragg, and how much easier it was to fight him when he wasn't in his giant zord mode.
Immediately, and without thinking, I ran at the monster, my sword appearing in my hand as I ran.
"Boulder blast!" The monster called out, and about ten boulders were sent my way, one of them catching me square in the stomach.
I flew backwards, and my sword sailed out of my hand as I hit the ground roughly.
I coughed and gasped for breath, as I quickly got to my feet.
Shit, I feel like I just got impaled by a 2 ton basketball….
Without even summoning it, my sword flew off the ground and into my hand again, and I looked at it weirdly, wondering why it had just done that. I didn't get to dwell on the idea, though, as the rock monster did indeed turn into a giant zord thing, and with the ranger's powers!
Immediately, the rangers went into their titan mode, and I jumped on Junky, sending my sword away for now. I flew up to in front of the rangers, but was pulled back by something.
"Hey!" I exclaimed, as Xander put me behind him.
"You better let us handle this one, mate," He said, and all the rangers charged at the rock monster.
The monster wasn't phased in the least bit by the ranger's attacks, but instead laughed at them and sent them all crashing backwards towards me, exerting no effort at all.
"Boulder blast!" He shouted, and I immediately flew in front of the rangers again.
"Sheildo!" I chanted, holding my hands out, and a giant grey wall of magic formed around the rangers and I.
I could feel, though, that as the more boulders pounded against the shield, the weaker it became, until finally the shield broke, and Junky and I flew backwards.
I let out a small squeak of pain as my back hit something hard, but instead of falling to the ground, something wrapped around me and held me up.
"Chip?" I asked, looking up and meeting a yellow bird zord thing.
"Who else?" He asked, and I could practically imagine the goofy grin on his face.
"Hey guys, I just remembered Koragg's spell!" Xander exclaimed suddenly, and I looked towards him, though it was kind of hard considering Chip still had his wings wrapped around me.
"Then say it backwards!" Vida exclaimed.
"Uh, oderfni ichilasab?" Xander said uncertainly, and suddenly a dark seal appeared on the ground, and out if it rode Nick on Catastros.
"Holy….." I heard Chip wonder, and my mouth hung open in shock.
Suddenly, a sharp pain ripped through my shoulder, and I choked back a scream of agony.
Why does it have to start working up NOW?
"Centaurus Phoenix Megazord!" Nick shouted, and in a flash of red light, he was in a megazord form similar to Koragg's, but his was red and black.
"He combined with Catastros!" I heard Vida exclaim.
"No way!" Xander shouted.
Now, in Nick's hand was a double ended sword like thing, with burning blades.
"I'm not afraid of you!" The monster shouted, charging at Nick.
"Bring it on!" Nick shouted back, blocking the monster's first strike, then the second one.
I immediately began to struggle out of Chip's wings, but he wouldn't let me go.
"Chip, let go! I need to get in there and help Nick!" I shouted up to him.
"Are you crazy?" He said back to me, tightening his wings around me, "You're gonna get killed! And you just barely made it last time!"
I frowned at his logic, unhappy at how true it was.
"Boulder blast!" I heard the monster yell, and my attention was drawn back to the fight.
Nick blocked all of the monster's boulders with…. a fiery mohawk? Then hit the monster himself with his burning hair of doom.
As the monster perished under the mighty hand of Nick's burning mohawk, the ranger's megazord powers were returned to them.
"Our megazord powers!" Madi exclaimed happily, as hers were returned to her.
Suddenly, the loud sound of neighing was heard, and Catastros reared, sending Nick falling off his back.
Catastros quickly trotted over to Koragg, and combined with him.
Looking at Koragg, my shoulder began to throb even more, and soon I was practically writhing in pain.
Coughing out a small noise of pain, nobody heard me, but Nick's head snapped up to look at me. Immediately, I tried to suck it up, and pretend nothing had happened, and focused again on Koragg.
"I don't know how you managed to combine with my mighty Catastros, but I promise you I will find out," Koragg said bitterly to Nick, "Something about you is troubling,"
Nick stood, and faced Koragg.
"I don't understand," He said, his head cocking to the side.
"We will meet again, red ranger," Koragg said, then stepped into a seal and disappeared.
"I don't understand," I heard Nick say quietly to himself.
Unexpectedly, the pain in my shoulder ceased all together, leaving only soreness in its wake.
That's really weird….
As the rangers morphed back into their normal selves, Chip set me on the ground, but didn't realize that his arms were still wrapped around me.
"Chip, you can let go of her now, mate," Xander said, and Chip immediately dropped his arms, not realizing that they were still around me.
"S-sorry Emma," Chip started, blushing and scratching the back of his head, "I j-just wanted to make sure you didn't, you know, run out into the battle and-"
"I know Chip," I cut off his bumbling, giving him a smile, "Thanks for looking out for me,"
Chip smiled back at me.
"We better get back to work," Vida said pointedly, "Or Toby's gonna wonder why we always disappear when the Power Rangers show up,"
Everyone agreed, and so began to walk back to work, but after a few moments of walking, I turned around, a wary look on my face.
"Junky," I said lowly, and my broom crept out from behind a mailbox towards me. I swear, if this broom had been a dog, his tail would've been tucked between his legs!
"Junky, go back to root core," I said softly, "I'll see you later, ok?"
Junky seemed to nod, and turned, then flew away, leaving nothing behind.
I sighed, and turned around, walking behind the others to work.
What am I going to do with him? ….. Or more so, what am I going to do with myself? I feel so useless. I hardly did anything in the last fight! Ugh, why can't-
"Ow," I said, as I ran into something hard, not noticing where I was going. Looking up, I came face to face with the very last person that I thought wanted to talk to me at the moment.
Looking up into his bright, green-blue eyes, I was at a loss for words, so settled on just walking around him and continuing to work.
"Hey, wait!" I heard him call after me, and grab my shoulder. Immediately, and upon instinct, I jerked away from him. Not because I didn't like him or anything, but because he placed his hand on my still sore shoulder.
"Yeah?" I asked, and faced him. He put his hands in his pockets, and looked at the ground for a moment before speaking.
"Are…. Are you ok?" He said, almost stumbling over his words, like it was the hardest thing in the world to ask.
I looked at him, my brow furrowed slightly.
"Why do you ask me out of every one else?" I countered, trying really hard not to raise my voice.
"You're the one who gets hurt the most," He said defensively, "Why is it such a big deal that I asked?"
I looked at him incredulously, struggling to keep my voice calm.
"For starters, you haven't talked more than necessary to me since my last battle with Koragg," I said, speaking aloud what had been bothering me for the past week or so.
Nick seemed to be struggling to say the right words, and I could tell right off the bat that he was trying to make up a lie. I held my hand out, in a 'stop' motion.
"Don't even," I said, "Either tell me the truth, or don't tell me anything at all. Just don't lie to me,"
Nick looked at me, obviously beaten.
"I heard what you said to Udonna," He started, after a moment of silence, "When you told her that you had told Koragg that you would beat him before the day you died,"
I looked at him, and waited for him to continue.
"What's so wrong with that?" I asked, after Nick didn't finish his sentence.
He sighed in frustration, and looked at the ground again.
"It was the fact that you jumped up off your death-bed, said you were fine, then decided to train to beat our arch enemy," Nick stated, and began to blush lightly, "It just made me mad that you didn't stop to make sure that you were okay, and threw yourself right back into the fray again,"
As his words and their meaning set in, my anger sizzled down considerably.
He was just trying to look out for me? Well, in his own guy-sort-of-way…
I smiled softly.
"Nick, I appreciate your concern, but I can take care of myself," I said, as he raised his eyes to meet mine, "But next time, tell me if you're pissed off at me, ok?"
Nick's face broke out into a smile, and he nodded.
"Sure, but you can't lie to me about being hurt anymore, alright?" He answered back, and I smiled wider.
"Promise," I said, and we pinkie-promised, "C'mon, we better get to work before Toby thinks we're cheating him, or something,"
We quickly walked back to the store, and took up our normal posts. Myself behind the counter, Chip in the comic section, Vida behind her DJ-ing tables, Madi around everywhere with her camera, Xander in the CDs section, lounging on a chair and reading a magazine, and Nick on the other side of the counter as me, and so settled down for another day at work.