Chapter 21 – Dino Charge vs Megaforce (Part 2)
Dino Mansion
The Dino Charge and Megaforce rangers regrouped in the lab, giving Kiera a chance to inspect the damage to the Dinovolvers. The brief rest bite gave the two teams a chance to get to know each other, or in Jake's case stay as far away from Jason as possible. The teams laughed when he tried to use Gia as a human shield against the withering glare of the original red ranger. To Gia's credit she didn't back down and fired back with a stare of her own. "Don't you find it strange that you're not all the same age?" Emma asked the Dino rangers.
"Not really", Riley replied, "I'm clearly the mature one out of this lot". The others nodded in agreement all except Chase, who was smiling strangely at Emma.
"Hey", the black ranger began, "I got this for you", he reached behind his back and pulled out a red rose.
The pink Megaforce rangers looked at the item, "You tore a plant out of its natural habit?"
The other Megaforce rangers laughed, "Probably should've told you that Emma's a total enviro nut", Jake smiled.
"Hey that's not fair", Emma pouted.
"Yeah it is Em", Gia plucked the rose out of Chase's hand, "strike one Romeo".
"Hey don't touch that", they all heard Kiera shriek.
"Uh oh, I think Noah's in trouble", Shelby laughed, "I heard the rumour that the last person who touched something in Kiera's lab was never seen again".
Over at the main work station the fossilised Dinovolvers were lined up on a table. Kiera was trying to align a couple of lasers to analyse the damage, "All I'm saying is that you'll get a better reading if the laser was pointed in this direction", Noah protested.
"My lab, my rules", Kiera crossed her arms cross her chest.
"What are you five?" Noah cried. Kiera's gaze didn't stray from the blue Megaforce ranger as she pushed a button on the console. The main computer fired into life and began assessing the damaged caused.
"Alright according to this it's not the Dinovolvers that have been drained of their power, it's the Energems inside", Kiera stated. "Unfortunately with the morphers in their current state, I can't eject the loaded gems".
"Can I try something?" Noah pulled out his Legendary Morpher. When Kiera didn't protest he dialled a number, "Hey Tensou, could you teleport to our current location?" He didn't get a response but a few seconds later there was a flash of light and a small robot appeared in the lab.
"You called Noah", Tensou said.
"Can you take a look at the data coming off the Dino Charge rangers morphers", Noah replied, "perhaps you can see something we're missing".
As Tensou got to work, Kiera looked at the blue ranger with an open mouth, "You guys have a robotic assistant, I want a robot helper".
"You can keep Tensou if you want", Jake joked, earning him a glare from the rest of his team. Seeing he was out voted, he quickly changed the subject, "Any luck finding your gold ranger?"
Tyler shook his head, "Afraid not, Ivan has a habit of disappearing like this", he shook his communicator in his hand, "he also has a habit of turning off his communicator".
"Stupid modern junk he keeps calling it", Chase scoffed.
"Erm guys I don't want to alarm you but I'm picking up some fairly strong Deboss reading coming from the forest", Kiera stated and pointed at a map on the screen. There were four dots surrounding a small isolated cabin.
"That must be Vrak", Troy began before turning to his team's yellow ranger, "Gia you're with me, let's cut them off before they cause any major damage". As they teleported away, the Dino Rangers could only watch on helplessly.
The Cabin
Ivan Prushanov was in his element, out in the fresh air with the sun beating down on his skin. He had only been in the 21st Century for a few weeks but he was already sick of it. Everything was so loud and frantic, he found himself getting flustered just staying in the same place. He was already banned from the kitchen of the Dino Mansion after the incident with the waffle iron. He very nearly got himself banned from the local store after trying to leave without paying for his shopping. He didn't see the tills so he naturally assumed that people were loading up their trolley and taking away whatever they wanted. It took a visit from Jason to the store's manager to prevent him from going to prison. To prevent any further embarrassing mishaps he largely spent his days training out in the back yard but even that had gotten boring after a while. To relieve the boredom he had taken the Ptera Zord out for a few flights over the city. It was during one of those flights that he came across this cabin.
After speaking to the owner of the cabin, he discovered a kindred spirit in the man. Like Ivan he was seeking a return to the simple life that he had lost when he left his home. They had met up fairly regularly after this first meeting, manly to talk but Ivan also liked to help out the man with his home improvement projects. Today the gold ranger was helping him construct a small outhouse at the side of his cabin. The property's owner had dug the foundations personally, apparently he was really handy with a pick axe and shovel.
"Alright I think we deserve a break", the cabin's owner said as he grabbed a silver coloured jacket off a nearby tree stump. The man had short blonde hair and powerful looking shoulders.
"Giving up already Orion, you great poof", Ivan joked, "you told me you used to work much longer hours than this back home".
Orion, the Silver Super Megaforce Ranger, sighed. He hadn't told Ivan about his life back on his home planet, the poor guy would probably think that he was insane, "It was a much colder climate where I'm from", he stated simply.
"Obviously you've never been to St. Petersburg in winter", Ivan responded. He didn't mention that he had led Peter the Great's armies into the town that became St Petersburg in 1703, just a few months before his fateful meeting with General Fury.
As the two friends were talking, a round of laser fire slamming into the small building they had constructed, turning it into splinters. The pair faced the source of the laser fire and both of them were surprised to see the villainous quartet.
"Fury", Ivan spat.
"Vrak", Orion added, the pair turned to each other, stunned that the other knew the monsters.
"Hello gold ranger", Fury smiled, "and you've found the silver ranger, what good fortune for us".
Ivan and Orion continued to stare at each other. Orion pulled out his morpher as Ivan's Ptera Brace appeared on his arm, "No way, you're a ranger too", they said simultaneously.
"Touching", Fury began, "Vrak get them".
"You're not taking me this time Vrak", Orion inserted a key into his morpher, "It's morphin time, Super Mega Mode", he called.
"Ptera Brace, Dino Charge", Ivan added and in a flash of light both of them had morphed. Ivan pulled out his sword from its sheath and Orion summoned his Spear. The silver ranger spun his weapon in a wide arc before slamming it with tremendous velocity into ZomVrak. The monster flinched a little but that didn't stop him from trying to grab hold of Ivan.
The gold ranger sliced ZomVrak across the chest but his attack wasn't having much affect. He noted with curiosity the oversized gold necklace around ZomVrak's neck. Every time himself or Orion landed an attack on the creature, it seemed to pulsate with a rainbow of colours, "Orion, I'm going to try something but I need to let him grab me", Ivan said.
"Alright buddy, I hope you know what you're doing", the silver ranger replied. Ivan nodded and lowered his sword briefly, giving ZomVrak a chance to grab hold of him. The gold ranger screamed in pain as the creature touch seemed to burn every cell in his body. "Hold on Ivan", Orion cried and tried to attack with his spear but he was repelled by an invisible energy field around ZomVrak. "Perhaps I should try this", he touched his buckle and retrieved a ranger key. Inserting it into his morpher he called, "Gold Ranger Power" and in a flash, he changed into the Gold Zeo Ranger.
"Time for a Gold Rush", the top of the Golden Power Staff opened and ZomVrak was bombarded with a wave of golden energy. It penetrated his energy field and he temporarily lost his grip on Ivan. The gold Dino Charge ranger regained his senses and jammed his sword underneath ZomVrak's necklace.
"No don't touch that", Fury roared. Orion stuck the end of the Power Staff under the necklace as well and they were able to wrench it off the creature's body. Fury was glowing with anger as his sword crackled with lightning, "You'll pay for this", he cried and prepared to strike. He never got the chance though as a red and yellow flash of light announced the presence of the Red and Yellow Super Megaforce Rangers. They immediately called on their blasters and unleashed a barrage of shots on the four monsters present.
"You must be Ivan", Troy stated to the gold ranger, "good to finally meet you".
"So this is where you've been hiding Orion", Gia added, "nice place".
"Reminds me of home", the once again silver ranger replied. When they were confident that the quartet weren't about to get up for a while, Troy and Gia grabbed the two rangers and teleported them back to the Dino Mansion.
"They got away", General Sorrow cried.
"Well perhaps if you two actually did something then maybe they wouldn't have", Fury bellowed. "Not to worry though, they'll have a difficult time regaining their powers though". He chuckled to himself, all was not lost yet.
Command Center
After a quick stop off at the Dino Mansion, Tensou informed all the rangers that Gosei had requested their presence at the Command Center. The invite also extended to Kiera and Jason as well. The floor of the Command Center was large but it was a squeeze with all fourteen of them in one place. The Megaforce Rangers stood lined up next to the walls with all the ranger keys. They were the closest to Gosei. The Dino Charge rangers and Kiera were a little further back near the small pedestals with the viewing screens. Jason took a couple of paces forward and addressed Gosei directly, "Good to finally meet you Gosei", he began.
"Greetings Jason Lee Scott", Gosei's voice boomed, it unnerved Jason slightly as it reminded him a lot of how Zordon used to address him and the other past rangers. "I heard a lot about you from Zordon, he chose his initial leader wisely".
Jason nodded in appreciation, "Thank you that means a lot", he paused, "I still wish that Zordon was around though".
"He made the ultimate sacrifice for the good of humanity", Gosei replied, "his presence and wisdom are greatly missed by a lot of people".
"You said you had urgent news for us", Tyler asked.
"That I do Tyler", Gosei began, "I have found a way for you to finally defeat Vrak". A ball of light appeared in front of Troy and a small wooden box appeared in his hands, "This is the key to defeating Vrak", he continued.
Troy and the other Megaforce rangers looked inside the box and their jaws dropped in shock, "Where did you get these from?" Emma asked.
"I had Tensou create them a while ago, in case of an emergency situation like this", Gosei replied in his usual cryptic fashion.
"What about our powers", Koda began, "do you know how to unfreeze our morphers?"
"You will need a great source of power to be able to reverse the damage caused", Gosei replied, "unfortunately the Command Center lost most of its power during the Armada's invasion".
"Well what about this", Ivan held up the necklace he and Orion had wrenched from ZomVrak.
Kiera stepped forward and looked at the item in Ivan's hands. After inspecting it for a couple of moments, she smiled, "If I'm correct then this necklace contains all of your powers". She turned to the robot, "Tensou can you confirm that for me".
The robot quickly analysed the necklace, "You're correct Kiera, it corresponds to the Dino Ranger's powers".
"The question is, how do we get them from this trinket and back into our Energems?" Chase asked.
"Perhaps Zordon left something in his personal archive", Gosei announced, "I'll go and check", the lights on his statue went out, indicating that he had left the building.
Jason sighed, "Yup just like Zordon", he shook his head. He walked over to Troy and took a quick look inside the box. He laughed when he saw the contents of the box, "That old rogue", he laughed.
"Come on old man, share with the class", Tyler called out.
Jake snorted, "Old man".
"Hey I still haven't forgotten that soda incident Holling", Jason snapped, "took me ages to get those marks out".
Fortunately for the Green Super Megaforce ranger, he was saved from a further tongue lashing by the alarm in the Command Center. Tensou activated the viewing screens to show that ZomVrak and the other generals attacking in downtown Hunston Valley. The Megaforce rangers looked closely at the screens, "Why are the citizens glowing in a variety of different colours?" Gia asked.
"The Legion of Deboss like to harvest human emotions", Riley responded, "they're using it try and revive their Master".
"Well it looks like they're harvesting a lot from the residents of your town", Noah added.
"Then we'd better get out there and stop them", Troy said to his team. The others nodded and teleported away from the Command Center.
Ivan was about to follow them when Jason stopped him, "Wait here Ivan". The gold ranger looked at him with confusion, "Trust me, for Gosei's plan to work it needs to be the Megaforce rangers for now". Ivan grumbled in annoyance but respected the decision of the team's mentor. The other Dino Charge rangers hoped that Gosei came up with something soon, it was frustrating sitting idly on the sidelines.