Disclaimer: I don't own Power Rangers, but I do own this team and their adventures.
*Italic indicates thought
Episode XV: In The Music
Chapter One: Dissonance
A/N: Hey readers! Sorry for the sudden hiatus. My life was really crazy. Again. But things have steel do own so it's time time to move on!
"Music expresses that which cannot be said and which it is impossible to be silent." -Victor Hugo
Jasper sighed as he picked himself up off the mats in the dojo.
"Again," Chris said, not letting up her stance.
"Do we really have to keep this up?" Jasper asked her as he took a stance of his own. They started circling each other. "We've been at it for hours." He attacked Chris, reaching out to punch her.
"You didn't fight that gold ranger." She deflected his blow and kicked him in the stomach. Jasper grabbed her foot and threw her off balance. Chris summersaulted back when she hit the floor. "She's good. Really good. And powerful."
"So you know if Quinn has made any progress in figuring out who the gold ranger is? Of where she came from?" He blocked Chris' punch and twisted her arm behind her back.
"Last I heard she was banging her head off the keyboard. She doesn't even know where the gold ranger's powers are coming from." Chris elbowed him in the ribs and spun on her heel. She kicked him away and backed up.
Leo poked her head on them. "Is Quinn in here?" she asked.
"Nope," Jasper replied as he blocked another kick. "Pretty sure she's still in her lab."
Leo sighed and left them. She went to the basement door and put in the unlock code. She closed the door behind her as she went down the stairs. She found Quinn sitting at her computers, staring at the screens like she was trying to set them on fire with laser vision. The red ranger approached her, but Quinn didn't look up. "When was the last time you slept?"
Quinn blinked and rubbed her eyes. "What day is it?"
"Thursday."
"Um...I slept for a couple hours on Tuesday."
Leo shook her head. "Come on, let's go." She grabbed Quinn's arm and pulled her out of her seat. "You need to sleep."
"I can't sleep," Quinn replied, pulling away. She wandered over to one of her work tables.
"You're not going to figure the gold ranger out by not sleeping."
"I can try." She felt Leo's hand on her shoulder and smiled at her. "I'll sleep in a little bit."
"Promise?"
"Promise." Leo nodded and left Quinn to her own devices. Quinn winced and put her elbows down on the table. She put her head in her hands. Her eyes clenched as pain spasmed across her skull. "Just an exhaustion headache." She stood up and went looking for where she'd stashed pain reliever.
-Thunder Strike-
Leo wandered upstairs to go practice. She walked into her bedroom and froze with her hand still on the door. "I...Uh..."
"Hey Holy Smackdown," Austin greeted from where he was perched on her bed. He hung upside down off the side, flipping through one of her music books.
"What exactly are you doing in here?"
"I dunno. I was bored, and Princess and Gutter Punk are being productive. Gross. Computer Q is on the spritz. Ace is hiding somewhere. Probably on the fourth floor. He likes to hide up in the billiard room up there. Did you know this place has a billiard room? So I decided to come visit you, but you weren't here."
"So you just...walked right in and...made yourself at home?"
"Yes." He set the book aside and picked up another from a small stack he had. "By the way, your music selections, are weird. It's all...classical."
"Actually only 54 of my books are classical. Most stem from baroque and romantic periods. Some modern, but only religious peices."
"I stand corrected. But you know what I mean. It's all...musicy."
"Musicy?" Leo asked, walking in more. She sat on her bed, not sitting too close to Austin. She was nervous enough about being alone with him in her room.
"Yeah you know. Proper and stuff. Where's the words?"
"Words?"
"Lyrics!"
"I know what words you're talking about. And I have plenty of hymns-"
"I don't mean your church music. I mean, not that there's anything wrong with it, but you never listen to normal music."
"Normal music?"
"Yeah. Some thing a little more...modern."
"I have quite a bit of jazz."
Austin looked at her, half-smirking. "Not exactly what I had in mind."
"What did you have in mind?"
The green ranger sat up and faced her. "You know...popular songs. Rap, hip-hop, Rock. Even some ridiculous, fluffy pop song. Disney music!"
Leo played with the edge of her skirt. "Disney songs are just so..."
"So what?"
"Simple." Austin gave her a look of confusion. "They have the same chord progression. With simple chords I could play when I was five."
"So...what's the point?"
"The point is-" Leo was cut off when their morphers started going off. She jumped up and Austin was right behind her. They pushed the teleport buttons and found themselves in the basement. "What's going on?"
"Demon attack," Quinn analyzed, studying the map of sensors. "There's...major spikes of chaotic energy."
"Has to be more than just Darklings then," Jasper said. He noticed Leo stiffen and she and Chris glanced at each other. They think Goldy will make an appearance.
"Let's go!" Leo told them. They went over to their bikes and started them up. They rode off; teleporting down to the city.
-Thunder Strike-
As soon as they arrived on the scene, Leo had to swerve to avoid a civilian. Why are there so many of them around? She immediately put her hand to her morpher, and the others followed suit.
"THUNDER STRIKE, STORM WARNING!" the five of them yelled. They morphed on their bikes and split up, putting themselves between the Darklings and the civilians.
Leo hopped off her bike, setting it as a barrier between the civilians and the demons. She took out her blaster and started shooting the Darklings. Only the first couple were the most unlucky, as most of them fanned out and tried to surround the red ranger. Leo started shooting them faster, taking them out as they got closer to her. She snatched her weapons tag off her neck and put it in her blaster. "Rain sticks!" She caught her sticks and swung them in opposite directions. She stabbed one of the Darklings with her left hand while she decapitated another with her right. She threw one of them and used her free hand to grab the wrist if a demon that tried to grab her. She kicked it in the chest and forced it back. The came back at her, but she held her hand out and her rain stick came back. It spun through the demon and she twirled as she caught it.
Another ground of civilians was pinned between a wall and the Darklings advancing on them. Chris put herself between the demons and the innocents without hesitation. She grabbed her blaster and started firing as she got off her storm chaser. The people behind her screamed as the demons advanced on them. "Stay behind me!" the blue ranger yelled to them. She inserted her weapons tag into her blaster and gripped her wind fans. She threw one at the Darklings as she jumped into the ground head first. She ducked under and arm and punched the demon in the chest. Her fan came back and she heard someone behind her scream. She spun around and saw a couple of demons had snuck past her. She immediately threw one of her fans and took them out. It got a little close to the civilians, not close enough to hurt them but close enough to give them hear attacks. She looked to the right and threw the right one as the left one cane back to her.
The right one took out a Darkling that had been sneaking up behind Andy. He nodded his thanks and spun around. He slashed three demons with his snow scrapers before they could raised their arms. A strong gust of wind suddenly hit him from the side and knocked him to the ground. He rolled and quickly pushed himself back to his feet. He swung his left weapon through the neck of a demon and scratched his right one off the chest of the next one. He stabbed both of them into another and sprinted forward, running through several more. He threw his right one; sending it spiraling through the head of two more demons. He felt one suddenly grab his arm and jerk him back. He fell on his back and held his hand out. His snow scraper came back and struck the demon in head as it advanced on the white ranger. Andy got to his feet and caught his weapon. He quickly blocked another arm again used his other weapon to hit the demon the stomach.
Austin smirked as he smashed through the demons with his hammers. He thew the right one, then hit another demon in the head. He smashed one, then continued through the whisp into the one behind it. His other hammer came back and he used the momentum to spin around and crank through the chests of the demons that he'd been attempting to surround him. He hit another one in the knee and then hit it over the head. Several hands suddenly grabbed him from behind and threw him with surprising strength. He flew into a mail box and groaned. He saw the demons going after the civilian's he'd been protecting. He snarled and threw both his hammers int their direction. The two weapons criss-crossed as they whipped through the air and flew through all the demons. The green ranger was right behind them, jumping up to grab his hammers again. He hit another through the back; then smashed his other hammer into the chest of another one coming up on him. He heard a sudden cry of pain and looked back.
Pain shot down Jasper's back as he threw himself forward to avoid the demons that were trying to get the jump on him. He grimaced at the feeling of the cement curb smashing into his spine. He gripped his cloud maces and swung one over his head as he got to his feet. He ran at the demons and brought his weapon down on two of their heads. He bashed another in the chest as he side-stepped the next. He swung the ball on his mace and hit the closest one to him. He felt several pairs of hands grab his other arm. Oh no! Not again! He pivoted on his heel as hard as he could and brought his weapon down on all of them. He stepped back and there both his weapons at the ones holding their hands out at him. The maces swung slightly awkwardly through the air and brought down the small group that had been raising their hands at him. He spotted something out of the concert of his eye. "Demon!"
"I see him!" Leo yelled back. She ran after the demon who was approaching some trapped civilians. One half of him was white, the other was black. The two halves met down the vertical plane of his body. His eyes were the opposite of his body. The one on his black side was white and the one on his white side was black. The red ranger flipped over the group and landed in front of them. She took a defensive stance, ready to protect them. "Go! Run!"
"Gah! Don't you dare!" the demon snapped. He raised his hand and it started glowing. Leo quickly fused her sticks together and jumped in front of the light tat shot out at the fleeing citizens. She hit it back at the demon, who jumped to the aide to avoid it. Unfortunately said blast hit Austin the back. He fell forward and Jasper had jump in to help him. "Meddlesome ranger!"
"Leave those people alone!"
"I don't have time to deal with you pests! Guess I'll have to keep you busy." He started lobbing blasts of black and white energy at her. Leo dodged them and hit them away with her rain stick. Unfortunately she couldn't stop all of them and one eventually hit her square in the chest. She stumbled back, putting her hand to her chest. She felt and a burning sensation speared through her body that made it hard to breathe.
"Leo!" Chris yelled. She ran to the red ranger and stepped between her and the demon. Said demon was chuckling. "What did you do to her?!"
"And Austin!" Jasper added as he helped the green ranger stand.
"I gave them a dose of my truth spell."
"Truth spell...?" Andy wondered aloud. "He doesn't mean...oh crap."
The demon laughed. "I'm Canditor and the truth is my business. While under my spell it's impossible to tell anything but the whole truth. That should keep you rangers out of my way for now. Have fun!"
"Get back here!" Chris yelled as she and Andy ran at him. The demon started laughing even more as he started glowing with black and white light respectively. The light got smaller and morphed together, then disappeared.
"He's gone," Andy sighed. Leo forward and took a deep breath. The burning sensation was gone and she could breathe again. Chris and Andy approached her caughtously. "Are you ok?"
"Yeah," Leo said.
Andy and Chris looked at each other. Leo was such a naturally honest person they weren't sure if the spell had taken effect yet. The three of them looked back at Jasper and Austin who were rejoining them. "You ok Austin?"
The green ranger nodded his head. "My chest still freaking hurts." He stopped. "That...wasn't what I wanted to tell you."
"What did you want to tell us?"
"Does it look like I'm facing ok?" His hands flew to his mouth, even though it was still covered by his helmet. "What the hell?!"
"Yup. The truth spell is working," Jasper nodded.
"We should head back in," Leo told them. "Quinn needs to track that demon."
"Already on it Leo!" Quinn quipped in her ear.
Jasper smiled as they went to collect their bikes. "What would we do without Quinn?"
"Die horrible, fiery deaths." Leo bit her lip. She tried to never be that pessimistic with the team.
Chris shook her own head as the five of them mounted their bikes. This is going to be a long day.
