Chapter 36
Sorry this took so long, I just got a new puppy.
I thought it would be best if I took a break from searching for dad, if I didn't then I would probably lash out at everyone like before, so in a rare occurrence, I spent the day with my team mates. Carlos invited Sylvie along; she had delightfully accepted and was now chatting happily with him and Cassie. All of them seemed to not have a care in the world.
I stared down at my Chinese food lunch and smiled bitterly. Peaceful? What a laugh. It was far from peaceful for my father and for me. I picked at my orange chicken moodily and felt the familiar feeling of sadness and frustration creep up.
It's the reality that you are in right now, and there is no escaping it. Over time, it becomes all that you know; you start to think that you will never get out of this living nightmare that your life has become. Peaceful life? Normalcy? Ha! Those two things that people take for granted nowadays seem like a faraway dream. Sure you get out of your living nightmare for a while but it's just only so you can have a little breathing room for the next nightmare that awaits you. You desperately want to escape from this life…..but things keep happening and you wonder; will you ever escape? Is this going to be happening for the rest of your life? Just one nightmare after another? I poked at my chow mien; scooping some up with my fork I put some in my mouth without really tasting it. I thought of my friends and my bitterness grew, even though they deserved normal lives, with nothing to fear or worry about except getting to their job on time or paying the bills.
What about me? Huh? I deserve a normal life after everything that I've been through; I deserve to be out of this…..this nightmare. This nightmare that I put myself in. I let out a sigh; I would do anything to be carefree again; with no blood on my hands, no worries, no nightmares about my old master; a chance to warn my fifteen year old self about that bargain that she was going to make. Moodily I speared a piece of broccoli with meat and brought it to my mouth, I chewed and thought: about how I should have thanked my lucky stars that I was never given any food during my imprisonment in Zedd's castle. I jumped slightly when I heard TJ chuckle beside me, I glancing past him to see what was so funny; I saw that Cassie was trying to teach Andros how to eat with chopsticks, I smiled slightly as Andros struggled to hold on to the chopsticks, only for them to slip out of his fingers and clatter to the table. Cassie reached over and grabbed them.
"Like this Andros." Grabbing his hand she showed him how to hold them. A feeling of longing surfaced within me; I remembered during one of our dates, Dex and I, had gone to an Italian restaurant and were both laughing about the size of the plates, they had given us way too much food. After a while he had gotten quiet, I didn't even ask what he was thinking about. He was thinking about his people on Edenio who were suffering, being starved and beaten; while he, the prince, was down on Earth relaxing, having a good time, eating large amounts of food that his people could only dream about. He would see me watching him and try to not put a damper on our evening. Not all of our dates were like that though; we would have a lot of fun, talking about our childhoods, our embarrassing moments and generally, acting like two carefree teenagers in love. Looking back, it seemed incredible that we were like that, despite the enemies that we had to face, the battles that we had to fight in, the nightmares that we had to endure. It was as if, we wanted to forget who we really were, we wanted to forget that both of us were warriors fighting to save our people and planet. Resentment went through me as I looked around at all the people chatting, walking, relaxed and carefree. They may think that everything is calm and peaceful now, but underneath that calm, a storm's brewing, ready to unleash itself on the city of Angel Grove and its people. Andros and Carlos had both stood up, saying that they were going to get more Chinese food.
Not too long afterward, my computer began to beep rapidly and at the same time I sensed heat. Placing my hands on the table, and giving myself a push mixed with a bit of telekinesis, I propelled myself backwards; all the while at the same time levitated the table and used it as a shield. TJ had been thrown to safety while the others had leapt to their feet crying out as Tengu Warriors swooped from the sky and surrounded us, the others started to battle but they became distracted by the sounds of screaming. Turning, I was surprised to see people that had been enjoying the day shopping or walking around, now flee in terror of something. I started to run toward them, forgetting for a split second that I was surrounded by enemies. Goldar appeared before me and before I could do as much as blink; I had been entrapped in a cage made entirely of fire that rotated and spun.
"Did you forget me?" He cackled. While I struggled to break the cage around me, TJ and Cassie had morphed and were now trying to fight Goldar, but he easily deflected their blows and sent them flying.
A high pitched shriek sounded behind the TJ and Cassie, they instinctively turned. Goldar lifted one hand and blasted them away, right into the path of the monster. The monster stopped, startled for a second; then he cackled.
"Nice for you to join me Rangers." Cassie and TJ struggled to their feet, only to be showered in a red beam that the monster shot out of its head, the both of them vanished right before my eyes!
"TJ! Cassie!" Goldar only smirked.
"Finally, that takes care of them." He turned toward me, raised his hand and began to close his fist, the cage began to shrink. I gasped and put out my hands to stop the walls, only to snatch them back with a cry of pain. Soon my hands glowed, healing themselves. I stretched out my arms a bit, careful to not touch the burning walls; I managed to slow it down a bit, but I couldn't expand the cage any more. The cage began to close around me once again, I raised my heard and looked at Goldar straight in the eye, and he glared back at me. The cage expanded more; but ever so slightly. Goldar closed his fist tighter and the cage shrank. I was breathing hard, fear was making me lose my concentration, the cage shrank even smaller, I started to curl into a ball but I forced myself to straighten up. The top of my head was inches from the ceiling, and some of my hair began to burn, shaking my head to shake out any flames, I continued to stare at Goldar and concentrate. Sweat began to roll down my face. The flames seemed to grow brighter and roar stronger so that I felt as if I was in the middle of a raging inferno. My clothes were beginning to singe, and the smell of burning hair reached my nostrils. I remained steady; staring at Goldar, who stared back at me with the same look of determination that I had. Both of us are more alike then I realized. I thought with a jolt.
Goldar was determined to get his revenge for his fallen master, while I was also determined for getting my revenge on my father being put in that prison. If I don't save him, he'll die in there, without ever seeing me, my friends or earth, the planet that he tried so hard to protect again. Even worse, he'll never even walk me down the aisle. I let out a small gasp. Dad, you don't even know that Dex and I…..I began to struggle to push back the walls, they gave about an inch. Groaning and grunting I continued to spread my arms out, the walls began to move further and further away from me. Dad, I'll tell you everything, everything that went on after you left. There is so much that you don't know, it isn't fair that you were left in the dark for so long about what went on in our lives after you left. You should know that Tommy's heart was broken but is being healed by Kat, Adam and Rocky; they finally found people to love in their lives. Kimberly, she's moving on with her life and fulfilling her dream. The rookies; are turning into fine Rangers, we met a friend of yours, Andros; he's helping us search for you. The walls were still expanding; sweat was streaming down my face and my entire body now as I continued to fight. My arms were trembling from the effort.
Dad, I haven't yet redeemed myself of all my sins, of all the horrible things that I did to you and to my friends but most of all….I will tell you in person, Dad about my wedding day; you're going to walk me down the aisle and you are going to be able to hold your grandchild in your arms and watch him/her grow up; but it'll be different, you won't be trapped in a freaking tube, you'll be there; in person and not watching from far away. Goldar tighten his hold on the cage and tried to shrink once more even though he could feel me resisting.
"You won't win!" He suddenly shouted in fury. "I won't let you! I'll make you pay for betraying Lord Zedd and killing him!" He concentrated even harder. The walls began to shrink again.
"No!" I shouted. "Get back!" I let out a yell as I focused my mind and all the strength that I had. Keep on concentrating. Push them back, you can do it. Give me strength. Give me strength please. In an instant the cage shrank even further, I cried out as I felt the heat close in on my body. My eyes shot open as I felt a searing pain start on my back. Oh no! I began to struggle to push the pain away. I've got to stay focused, got to stay…. Goldar laughed as he directed part of the fire toward my back and ankle.
"Let's see if you can push this away!" he shouted as he sent a wave of fire toward my back and ankle. He smiled as I let out a high pitched scream; I forgot about the cage and lost my concentration.
Hearing a whoosh I looked up, only to see the flames close around me, screaming I put out my hands to hold them back, but the flames on my back and ankle! Shrieking and with my mind too pain filled to even think about putting up a shield, the cage closed around me Goldar saw that my hair and my clothes had caught on fire, he laughed as I tried to beat out the flames with my hands while the cage finally closed itself on me. The Tengu Warriors all let out cheers as a piece of my clothing fluttered to the ground. Goldar took a step forward, crouched down and picked up the small piece. He had the faint hope that he had finally did it, but he reminded himself that I had gotten out of much tougher situations before. He stood up and looked around.
Where are you? He closed his eyes and concentrated, a split second later he opened them and looked down, the Tengus all looked down as well but before they could do anything; the pavement around and beneath them began to crack and splinter. The Tengu all looked at each other uneasily; all of them were thinking of taking off, before they could open their wings however, the ground exploded beneath them. Goldar was already up in the air and watched as his Tengu army was flung screaming into the heavens. From the ground came a series of yellow energy blasts that struck the Tengus, screaming they were flung even further way and without further ado, they took off. Goldar looked down, even though all he could see was dust, he knew I was there. Come on! Come get me! I know you're there. You wouldn't want to keep me waiting. The dust cleared, he scanned below in confusion. He saw the hole that I had made to fire that energy blast and he also saw the crater that I had created to try to catch them all by surprise, but he couldn't see me. He looked around, something made him look up.
In a flash I had materialized and was shooting toward him, my arm pulled back. He raised both of hands and fired directly at me, I swerved out of the way, in an instant he vanished as well and reappeared in front of me, I froze for a split second in astonishment Holy….. He slashed at me with his sword I cried out as the blood flowed freely from my cheek. He slashed at me again, I ducked and made to punch him in the stomach, but instead he grabbed my arm and twisted it. I cried out and pointed my hand at him to blast him in the face but he had already brought up his sword. I let out another scream as he sliced open my arm; blood spilled and flew into my eyes. I turned my head away and instantly thought Idiot! I felt my other arm being released and was punched hard in the stomach, I doubled over and received a downward kick to the back, I flew toward the ground but managed to stop my descent, I turned quickly and dodged another of Goldar's attacks but as soon as I had dodged that one, he appeared behind me and blasted me in the back. Letting out a pained filled yell, I was shot upward, Goldar followed me, and shooting past he doubled back and rammed into me, then served me with a kick to the face. I felt the blood flowing from my mouth down my chin. He was below me in an instant and punched me in the stomach and kneed me on the chin. Raising his arms and interlocking his hands he sent me hurtling toward the ground. Before I slammed into the pavement and turned into a pancake, I felt hands grab me, stopping my descent.
At first I thought that it was my friends, but when I opened my eyes I was staring into the blood red eyes of Goldar. He laughed as he looked me over.
"You not even putting up much of a fight half ling. I'm actually a bit disappointed, I was hoping for something more out of you." To his slight surprise, a smile came onto my face.
"You want me to put up a fight Goldar?" I rasped. I closed my eyes, summoned energy and power stolen from Goldar himself, I blasted him back. He let out a grunt as he flew backward through some windows of several buildings. I levitated upward until I was a good few feet in the air. I rotated my neck and shoulders. I could have used a lot more power but I don't think my body could have taken any more beatings. I kept my eyes open as I healed myself and looked around for Goldar wondering if he was going to use the same tactic that I had used. I doubt it, it actually took all of my concentration to disguise my power wave, and yet he still knew when and how I was going to attack. But that wasn't surprising, I hadn't been concentrating hard enough and some of my power wave leaked out, making me noticeable. I made a mental note to practice more after this fight was over. I turned my head when I sensed Goldar. He was hovering a few feet away from me, and he had an impressed look on his face.
"Impressive. You managed to hide your power so that I was unable to sense you. Most impressive."
"Thanks, I'll work more on that later." He didn't even make a move to attack me. What's the deal? What is he waiting for? As if reading my thoughts he laughed.
"Don't you see? Look around you Karmer, look and listen." He paused and watched as I looked around and realized with a start that there was no one around. At first I had assumed that everyone had gone to take cover but….something about the silence that seemed to press on me from all sides….was eerie….it was almost too quiet…. Almost as if…..I turned back to Goldar, who was laughing and nodding. Above us, the Tengu Warriors, who had returned were returned; now made a ring around Goldar and I.
"What did you do? Where are all the people?" I demanded.
"Please. Do you really think that I would kidnap people only to keep them alive? I thought you knew me better. No, this here; is the work of Astronema and one of her weakling monsters. Frankly, I don't know why she would do such a foolish thing, if it were up to me; I would have killed them all by now. But on the other hand….she has your team mates." A chilling grin came on his face.
"And where they are at, they can't morph, which means that they won't be able to protect Sylvie if something bad where to happen to her." My blood ran cold; spinning around, I starting to break the circle of Tengu Warriors that were around us. The Astro Mega Ship. I have to get up there; maybe A-6 knows where that monster sent them. The Tengu closed ranks around me; I started to blast them apart when Goldar appeared before me and grabbed both of my wrists. With his other hand he grabbed my chin and forced me to look at him.
"I am not someone to push aside Karmer, I am more dangerous that all those weakling that are Astronema's subordinates, I am stronger than all of them put together! Do you hear me?" he shouted as he grabbed my head and blasted me back, I screamed in pain as I flew back and smashed into the side of a building. I looked up to see Goldar racing at me. I struggled to dig myself out of hole that I was in, too late; Goldar had appeared in a flash of flames and was punching me over and over again.
"I've dedicated my life to becoming stronger than anyone, even you! Traitor!" he screamed as he yanked me, grabbed my arm, flipped me over so that I was on my back, placed one foot in the center of my back and pulled. I screamed as he pulled my arm out of its socket. It seemed to infuriate him even more.
"SHUT UP! TRAITOR! FILTHY HALF LING!" he screamed as he raised both fist and brought them down on my face with enough force to break my nose. I went crashing into the cement, he didn't even wait for me to get up, and he shot down toward me and began to punch, kick and blast me further and further into the ground. All the while he was beating me I kept on thinking Sylvie, the others. I have to get to them. But Goldar…he seems angrier than usual, almost to the point of psychotic. Forcing my mind to turn to the battle at hand, I raised a hand and grabbed one of Goldar's fists; a look of surprise crossed his face. I summoned energy, raising my other hand and pressing it against his chest. He looked down, the armor on his chest glowed and seemed to streak underneath his armor and go down his entire body. What the?
"Release! Energy Blast!" I shouted. Goldar screamed in pain and in anger as the force of the blast shot him backwards and into a building, the force of the impact made a hole through the wall. I staggered to my feet and pulled myself out of my hole, dusting myself off of the gravel that was on my clothes and in my hair, I breathed a small sigh. Another tricky move. Good thing that I've been practicing all of these new attacks. I wiped blood off of my forehead. They do need a little more work though. I looked up at the ring of Tengu Warriors who were looking down at me.
"Anyone else want to see what new tricks I have up my sleeve?" I called up to them. The Tengu looked at each other, then at me; turned tail and took off. I smirked. Turkeys. I looked toward the building with the Goldar sized hole; I had heard something. I rotated my shoulders. Looks like we are going for round two ladies and gentlemen. Summoning my sword, I powered up; only then did I notice that I wasn't in my Ranger suit. Knew I forgot something. I gave a shrug of my shoulders, I preferred fighting him this way anyway, fighting Goldar; especially Goldar, in my Astro Ranger suit, felt…..strange. I heard the sounds of movement again coming from the hole, and braced myself for anything. Like a black bullet he cam flying out of the hole and slammed into me, I cried out at his strength, then I began to gag, one of his hands was around my throat. I struggled to loosen his grip around my throat but it was vice-like, plus I couldn't even fight back or summon power because we kept going through the walls of the buildings around us. I caught brief glimpse of the insides; a clothing store, a shoe store, a bakery and a comic book store. Taking one hand and balling it into a fist, I managed to punch Goldar in the face, luckily he didn't see the move since he was so intent in watching my face contort in pain as wall after wall struck my back. The move caught him off guard and we slowed down, but only for a split second. Concentrating, I managed to flip ourselves over so that now it was I,that was ramming him through the walls of the shopping center. I released him, while giving him a hard shove him through another wall; raising my arms and pointing my hands toward him, I sent a powerful blast of energy and flew backward as it destroyed half of the building.
Landing outside in the center of the shopping mall, I leaned against a potted plant panting, it only took me a while to look around and take in the full damage of what this battle had done to the shopping mall. Most of the buildings had been destroyed, windows had been blown out; glass littered the ground, there were also scorch marks and several craters. I'll fix it up later. I thought vaguely. I turned back to the building and watched with a small shudder as the roof collapse on itself and crashed to the ground, crushing the walls that had remained standing, and hopefully crushing Goldar. Clouds of dust rose up out of the wreckage, shielding my face with my hand I coughed and blinked back tears as the dust blew toward me. Clearing the dust with a small wave of my hand, I stared at the remains of the building. I breathed a small sigh; thinking with, false hope, that it was over, I turned away to being the search for my team mates. Until a ripple of incredible power made me turn back. Through the rubble I could see streams of black power shooting toward the sky. Oh, great. I thought in some annoyance, half of it I thought in some fear. My mind raced, I struggled to think of a plan but none came. The remains of the buildings suddenly shot upward into the air as Goldar unleash his power and fury; without another word he shot toward me, eyes blazing with hatred.
"YOU'RE MINE!" My heart suddenly raced in fear as he shot toward me, but this was no time to run.
I met him head on. The explosion that followed after; destroyed most of the other buildings had sent the both of us hurtling through the air. I landed on the floor and skidded for few feet. There was no time to rest, or to heal my injuries. I struggled to my feet and looked up to see a black streak coming toward me at lighting speed. Concentrating, I shot toward it. We met in mid air, as soon as he came close enough, I preformed a half flip, kicking him underneath the chin; flipping back onto my feet, I shot downward then upward punching him in the stomach with both fists, I remained underneath him while shooting upward and at the same time dodging his fists and feet by morphing and materializing. I concentrated; my entire body glowing yellow, Goldar saw what I was going to do and he wouldn't have it.
"NO YOU DON'T!" He shouted as he concentrated as well, I cried out as he managed to fire at me, I had to release him to dodge it. He pulled back both of his hands, heels touching and fired at me a high powered energy blast. I fired back at him. The two blasts met in mid air but they didn't explode, instead they struggled to push the other back toward its owner. I let out a grunt as I felt myself slid toward the ground; I struggled to focus on summoning more power. I felt myself slid down even more and Goldar's beam was pushing itself slowly toward me.Images of my friends, my team mates and the people of Angel Grove kept running through my mind. I struggled to push them away but it was they were there in real life, surrounding me, yelling at me, pointing their fingers at me, accusing me of not doing enough to protect; to save them. I lost my concentration for a minute and Goldar's beam leaped toward me, I cried out as I stopped it, but barely. Come on Karmer! You can do it! Fight you stupid….! Concentrate! Focus! I heard Goldar give out a yell as he sent more power to his beam, it was nearly on top of me!
"No!" I shouted as I struggled to push everything that I would miss if I died at the hands of this monster, from my mind. The beam stopped just a few feet away from me, I could feel its incredible power radiating from it, the very air could feel it, for it was rippling all around us, the very air was heated up, and I could actually feel it, sweat rolled down my back, stinging my scars. I winced, but kept my stance, but I still kept sliding and my power beam was being slowly pushed back, I heard Goldar's triumphant laughter. Anger and rage suddenly filled me, that laugh. I hate that laugh, all of those times that he was hurting me, he was laughing. Him, Lord Zedd and Rito, all of them were laughing whenever they beat me, whenever they whipped me, they laughed when they took my life. I thought of Justin and my rage grew. I remembered how the poor guy looked. Gray in the face, looking over his shoulder, unable to sleep; convinced that we wouldn't be able to protect his dad since we couldn't protect him. He had lost all faith in the Power Rangers. I'm sorry Justin. I'll make it up to you; I swear it, starting today! Pulling my hands back, I summoned everything that I had, screaming I unleashed it! My beam shot upward; it was pushing Goldar's beam back toward him! Goldar's eyes widen as he watched both beams flying toward him, completely stunned.I-It's too big to dodge! He thought to himself. He turned and took off, trying to out-fly it but it caught up with him. He was blasted away until he was nothing but a speck in the distance.
I sank slowly toward the ground, completely exhausted; now that was what I call a work out. I laughed to myself but had to stop because it hurt to laugh. I was a bit startled to release that I had put away my sword without even realizing it. Figures. I began to pull myself to a standing position but my knees were too shaky and I sank to the ground again. I laughed again. I'm surprised that Goldar is not the big boss of this entire outfit, he would definitely give Dark Specter a run for is money. I rubbed my shoulder and winced in pain, I had only managed to heal half of my injuries. He certainly is powerful enough. Even though my body was bruised and beaten and every part of it screamed for rest, I groped for my computer pulled it out; and after a couple of tries(my fingers were shaking too badly) I teleporting to the Astro Mega Ship.