Martial Strike

Disconnected

Disclaimer: I don't own power rangers or the concepts and a thanks to decode9 for the use of the true legend war story concept. The following has over time devolved into a ridiculously over the top sort of parody of many things, as a warning, comedy is one of the main themes and focuses here, so if you were expecting something serious, you've come to the wrong place. With that light warning out out the way, enjoy.

From his office, the Corporate King watched as two of his Corporate Cops dragged in a man, beaten to a pulp and laughing hysterically. The door to his office swung open once more as Oily Bill and a man accompanying him entered.

"Bill, what the hell's going on, why's there a poor person in my office?" The Corporate King demanded to know as he pressed his hands tightly against his desk.

"Well Boss, the Chief here's got a story to tell!" He gestured to the man that had entered with him.

He was an aging, rough looking man with greying auburn hair. His strong features and muscular body gave him a frightening aura and the uniform he wore was similar to that of the Corporate Cops slightly ahead of him, though unlike the others, he was absent of a helmet.

"We caught this employee shouting crazy this morning when he came into work, that's not all he did though. He'd smuggled in a jerrycan of fuel and tried setting his office ablaze while shouting nonsense. My men caught him and interrogated him for an hour before calling me, that's when I alerted you sir." The man, who seemed to be in charge of the Corporate Police Force, recounted the events not so long ago.

As he finished, the beaten employee gave a low chuckle only to be met with a strong right punch to the stomach from one of the Cops holding him. As the wind was visibly knocked out of him, the man in charge moved to place a hand on the Cop's shoulder.

"That's enough, let the boss decide what we do with him." He halted any further abuse to the prisoner.

"U-Understood Chief Savage."

"Hmm…" The Corporate King scratched his chin as a wicked grin spread across his face. "Take him down to our monster lab and tell them about what he did. Tell them that they should know what I want making." He gave a worrying laugh as the Chief tensed up.

"What should we do with him then sir?"

"Just leave the scum there, he'll get what's coming to him!" He added giving another much louder and much more maniacal laugh as the Cops departed with the Chief and the imprisoned worker.

Oily Bill stepped toward the desk. "Nice thinking boss, a monster that sets things on fire should give them rangers a run for their money. Oh I almost forgot to mention, I managed to get some help with that problem too. It's a surprise but you can bet that if beating the rangers this time doesn't go well, they'll not be a problem for much longer."

"Great! If you're right, then you're a genius Bill. If not you're just an idiot and I might have to fire you too!" The Corporate King casually threatened, even though for Oily Bill, the threat of losing his job was real and it worried him.

[Martial Strike]

Uptown Novaton was, unlike most areas of the city, quite a vibrant place. Meant to be the jewel of the Corporate King's plans for the City, when he did invest money into it at least, the stores and homes there were quite lavish, but it was clearly a place only the hip, socially elite and rich could afford to live in. For that reason, none of the rangers could stand to be there too long if at all while roaming the City. Because of the scarce chance that she might run into her other teammates here, Alyssa had ventured here so that at least for today, she might be alone.

Sitting at a small table in the tacky chain coffee shop Corpa Coffee, she fidgeted with a necklace with an N shaped pendant as she stared off through a window toward the cloudy sky.

She was soon brought back to reality however as she heard the yelling of a young woman from the counter. "Outrageous! What do you mean no refunds!? You got my order completely wrong! I asked for a Quad venti half caf breve no foam with whip two splenda stirred skinny three pump peppermint mocha! What I got was a plain latte! Honestly, what a rip off…" She groaned as she turned away from the counter an headed toward the shop exit before stopping for a moment. "I still need my coffee fix… I guess it couldn't hurt to try something this plain." She said as she took a sip from the cup, only to spit it out as soon as she tasted it. "What kind of an excuse for coffee is that? Someone should call the health department on this place." The young woman added, as she began looking for a place to set the cup down.

When she saw Alyssa, she stopped for a moment and her features softened. "Huh, you alright girl? You look down." She asked, getting Alyssa's attention.

The black ranger looked at the young woman stood near her. She looked young, maybe a couple years older than Alyssa herself. The young woman also appeared tall, while aided by her high heels and her figure was quite shapely. She wore a black and white one piece dress and had long wavy bleach blonde hair and brown eyes. A pair of large framed sunglasses sat on her head. By Alyssa's first guess, she was probably the 'valley girl' type, with how high class she appeared and had acted toward the staff.

Tucking the necklace away, she spoke up. "Not really but I don't get why you'd be interested." Alyssa tried to get the girl to leave. As she said that though, the girl in question set down the drink she had spat out only moments ago and took a seat at the same table.

"Well I saw you looking down and thought I'd see what's up. Us girls gotta look out for each other, right? So, what is it, boyfriend dumped you?" She quickly moved onto the subject of Alyssa's woes.

"No, nothing like that. Look, I'm not too comfortable with opening up to things like this, especially to strangers and I don't even know your name." The black ranger brushed off the girl's questions.

"Well I guess that's fine. Don't you have friends to talk to though, help you through whatever you're feeling, instead of well… sitting in a place like this." She suggested to Alyssa as she rose from the seat. "Listen, I'll be hanging in Novaton for a while because of work. I just moved here honestly and already the Coffee's bad and I don't have any friends to hang with. I bet you're pretty cool behind all that moping so if you wanna hang out some time, here's my number." She said, taking a small piece of paper from the black designer handbag hanging from her shoulder and placing it on the table. "My friends call me Callie." She said before opening the glass door leading out the shop. "Oh and if you're gonna stay here, just don't buy their Coffee." She grinned before finally leaving.

Looking at the piece of paper with Callie's number, she thought about what Callie had said for a moment before taking it from the table and cracking a small smile. "I guess she's right, I do have friends for this kind of thing now, don't I?" As she made her way out of Corpa Coffee, her morpher's communicator pinged. Unlocking the device from the harness, she brought it to her face. "Yeah?"

Orika's voice came through. "Alyssa, wherever you are, get yourself over to the City Centre. The rangers are fighting the Corporate King's latest monster there and could use some backup." She explained.

"Okay, I'm on my way." She said before breaking out into a sprint toward the fight. Unfortunately, telling the other rangers about what was on her mind today would have to wait until they beat this foe.

[Martial Strike]

The Novaton City Centre was once again a deserted white bricked plaza with a fountain as its centrepiece. As the Civilians had quickly cleared out, the rangers minus Alyssa now fought a new monster. It was humanoid, a deep green colour with a large face covering its entire body. Two large yellow bloodshot eyes bulged out and a gaping open mouth showing gangrenous yellow teeth and a long tongue sticking out. One of its hands was a red jerry can with a pump funnel while the other hand was a large lighter.

"You better watch out rangers, Big Oil's here to burn your lives down!" The monster dubbed Big Oil announced as the rangers ran in, morphed and wielding their individual weapons.

"Big Oil? These monster names keep getting worse and worse." Trouble said, ducking under the monster's nozzle weapon and counter attacking with a piercing attack from her dual sais.

Jumping back, the blue ranger tagged the pink ranger in to follow up as Ella planted her bo staff into the ground and vaulted at her enemy landing a two footed kick into the dead centre of her foe's face. As she repelled from her enemy back to the ground, Big Oil's lighter attachment ignited, sending out a flamethrower spray, hitting the pink ranger with full force and knocking her back several feet.

"Damn." Ella grunted. "That fire's no joke."

"Then we'll do our best to keep outta the flames." Dan piped up as he and Sora charged in with their weapons.

Firing his grappling hook, Sora aimed for the lighter attachment. The cable zipped through the area and quickly wrapped itself tightly around the weapon. Reeling the cable in, Sora used his strength to force Big Oil's arm to the side as Dan came in close with his nunchucks. Swinging them several times, sparks flew from the monster as the red ranger wore the monster down while the white ranger used all his strength to keep the lighter arm under control and away from his teammate. After several more swings, Dan wrapped his nunchucks around the jerry can arm and held it in place at the side, completely exposing Big Oil's body to a direct attack.

"Now Mizuki!" Dan called out as he wrestled with the arm that was fighting back.

The orange ranger soon came into range with her tonfa in blaster mode and aimed at her foe. "Alright Big Oil, time to say adios." She said as she charged up her blasters. "Carnival Finish!" She called as she pulled the trigger and sent two bolts of orange energy spiralling toward Big Oil.

"Oh no you don't, Big Oil's here to stay!" The monster proclaimed as he unleashed a tremendous amount of strength, pulling Sora and Dan to the ground at his feet. As the spiralling energy came closer, the nozzle weapon began to secrete gasoline as his lighter hand ignited and caused an explosion that engulfed all three present, just in time to absorb Mizuki's attack.

"No! Sora, Dan!" The orange ranger cried out as she and the other two rangers ran over to the explosion. When it began to die down, they saw both Dan and Sora, in tact but their ranger suits were scorched and try as they might they could get up. While they were injured however, the monster stood unscathed and bearing that sick toothy grin.

"Wow, two in one, my lucky day!"

"Grr, you'll pay for that one Big Oil." Trouble gritted her teeth behind her helmet as she gripped her sais tightly and charged at the monster.

"Wait a minute Trouble!" Ella called out to her, but it was too late. The monster pointed its nozzle at her and doused gasoline over her ranger suit. As the blue ranger failed to stop herself before reaching her foe, her eyes went wide as she came close and Big Oil ignited his lighter, causing another explosion that sent the ranger flying through the air, hitting the ground hard once she landed.

The two remaining rangers looked back at their third teammate to be downed with worry, like the red and white rangers, her suit was scorched and she looked to be out of the fight.

While they looked on, Big Oil giggled with glee and jogged over to the last of the rangers. Taking the opportunity while Mizuki and Ella were distracted, he doused them in gasoline too as he brought his lighter to them. They quickly turned around once they felt the gasoline make contact with their ranger suits, but by then it was already too late. Or so they thought.

"Hey ugly, what do you think you're doing with my friends?" Alyssa asked as she charged in with her scythe at the ready and already in her ranger suit. Swinging her weapon, she caught Big Oil's lighter weapon and knocked it back before following up with a side thrusting kick, knocking the monster backwards. "Heard you guys could use a hand."

"Nice timing Alyssa, thanks for the save. Now let's finish this guy. Mizuki, we'll hold him off while you ready a finisher." The pink ranger took charge whilst their remaining teammates were incapacitated.

Mizuki made an okay sign with her hand. "On it E." She said as she began lining up her shot and charging.

"Okay, let's take this creep out." Alyssa nodded as the two rangers sprinted at their foe charging their own weapons with energy to perform power attacks.

Alyssa moved first, oblivious to the the tactic the monster had used against her downed teammates. As soon as she came close, Big Oil unleashed a spray of flames. Ella managed to keep up and knocked the black ranger out of the way. While the pink ranger rose quickly to try and distract their foe, Alyssa stared wide eyed, frozen in place as she watched the pink ranger vault over the flames.

"Alright, this time he's going down!" Mizuki declared as she pressed her fingers against her tonfa blasters. "Carnival Finish!"

The pink ranger quickly leapt backwards out of the way, leaving Big Oil to feel the full force of Mizuki's attack. "Uh-oh, I'm almost out of fuel! I'll be back rangers!" The monster realised as it poured the last of its gasoline supply on the ground and ignited it, causing yet another explosion. When it subsided, Big Oil had fled the area.

Regrouping, Ella and Mizuki went over to the black ranger, still frozen in place. "Alyssa, you okay?" The orange ranger asked first, getting no response.

"Hey Alyssa!" Ella shouted brashly, startling the black ranger. "What gives, you totally froze up there, we had to deal with the thing ourselves.

"S-Sorry… I just… The f-fire." She stuttered as she rose to her feet and looked the the ground.

"Well whatever it is can wait, we've gotta get the others back to the Dojo, you can at least help with that, right?" She asked, sounding more than a little annoyed with her teammate.

"Right." Alyssa confirmed, more than a little shaken up if her voice was anything to go by.

[Martial Strike]

Having returned to the Dojo, the rangers injured in the fight sat on the couch resting as Orika and Mizuki tended to their injuries with bandages. The atmosphere in the room was tense. With Alyssa's late arrival and subsequently freezing up in the middle of a dangerous fight, the others were more than a little frustrated with the black ranger who sat fidgeting with the same necklace she had in the coffee shop, in a chair opposite the other rangers.

"So, mind telling us what that was all about?" Ella interrogated her teammate, clearly the most frustrated at the moment, given how she had to put herself into further harm's way to beat back the monster.

"I wanna know why the hell she was late too, where'd you go Alyssa." Trouble added, sounding almost as pissed as her teammate in pink.

"Well…" The black ranger started, seeming a little reluctant. "I was gonna tell you all about this anyway, but I guess now's a good a time as any. I used to live in a small house in the countryside not too far from Novaton. It was pretty dull and it was just me and my older sister Nina."

"You two didn't have a falling out did you? I've never heard you mention a sister before." Sora asked.

Alyssa shook her head. "That's because she died." She said while focusing her gaze on the necklace in her hands. "I was ten when it happened. One day a fire started in the house, or more accurately someone started it. When I finally managed to alert the authorities, they came, put out the fire and investigated. For whatever reason, someone decided to burn down our house."

"Wow, that's horrible. What kind of a person would do that?" Mizuki said, sitting down amongst the others, who had started to calm down hearing all this.

"So what happened with the fire?" Dan asked, curious as to where this was going and how this related to her freeze up earlier.

"We were caught in the blaze and Nina… She managed to throw me out of the burning house just before…" She paused for a moment as she looked to be holding back tears. "Sorry, having to remember all this is a little hard on me. A support beam collapsed on her, along with a chunk of the ceiling. I tried getting back in, but the fire was just too much and her screams…" She paused again, wiping a stray tear from her eye. "After that I ran to get help, while she burned alive. She was already gone for a while when I got back. Since that day, I've always been afraid of fire and I guess, I just wanted to be alone today, since today marks eight years since then."

"So that's why you completely froze against Big Oil." Ella deduced. "Listen Alyssa, I'm sorry for what I said earlier. Going off at you like that wasn't right. I was just agitated that we'd nearly lost to that monster and was looking for someone to blame I guess. You just seemed like the right person for it."

"It's okay. I guess someone reminded me today that I do have friends I can talk through all this with after all. I just never considered that and thought best to keep this from you. Sorry I didn't realise that sooner everyone. So, now you guys know all that, could you all help me with something."

"Whatever you need Alyssa." Dan nodded, giving her a reassuring smile as the other rangers nodded in agreement with their leader.

"Could you all… Come with me to where my home used to be. I've always been afraid to go back there after what happened. But I've been meaning to go back, pay my respects to Nina and maybe move forward with things, instead of holding onto those bad memories."

"I think you know everyone's answer already Alyssa." Trouble smirked as she and the others stood up.

"Lead the way Alyssa." Dan added as the group prepared to embark on the short journey out of the City and to the former site of Alyssa's home.

|Martial Strike|

That's chapter 18 done with. As is pretty custom whenever I post one of these, sorry for the wait. There were a couple of things here I was having a hard time working in but that's past me now this' out. So this was going to be one chapter but I'm splitting it into 2 for a couple of reasons but I'll think you'll all enjoy what I do with the next one.

So this chapter revealed Alyssa to have a fear of fire due to her past along with the rangers almost losing to the comically named Big Oil which I had a lot of fun making because I designed it to be like an evil gremlin, just to reflect those big oil companies, lol. I may end up doing more 'Big' monsters in the future, based on things like the tobacco and pharmaceuticals industries for fun but we'll see. Finally it introduced two new recurring characters. First, Chief Savage, the head of corporate security, but you'll see how he plays in later. Secondly, Callie, she's going to be an interesting character, while the coffee tantrum was fun to do given how overly complex her order was, there's more to her than that don't you worry. So thanks for reading and I'll have the next one out soon since I'm in the mood to getting the next one of these out as quick as I can. Until then, here's your preview.

Next Chapter: Confidants

Synopsis: Reassured by her teammates, Alyssa journeys back to the former site of her home alongside her friends for the first time in eight years to pay her respects to her sister. When they get there however, what they find shocks them as the ones responsible for the arson of her house are revealed and Big Oil returns to finish the rangers off. Will they manage to defeat the Corporate King's latest creation? What's become of Alyssa's former home? Find out next time on Power Rangers: Martial Strike.