Power Rangers Nexus
Chapter 48: Napalm and Silly Putty
The blinding green light faded, revealing the harsh, space-scarred surface of the asteroid.
"What just happened?" Mara asked.
"I think he transported us all outside," Terina replied shakily.
A focused pulse of green fire rained down from the sky, missing the Rangers but burning a deep trench into the rock in front of them. The group spun to see from whence it had come…and found themselves staring up at a massive, black, mechanical bull. The towering animal pawed at the ground with its hooves, snorting geysers of steam from its nose.
"Woah. That's a big bull," Terina said.
"His name is Torozord," came the voice of the Magna Defender. The mercenary stepped into sight from behind one of Torozord's hooves. "And it's been a while since he was fed."
The Torozord let out an aggressive grunt.
"Zord time?" Mara suggested.
"Zord time," Tommy agreed.
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Ashley let out an exasperated noise as she browsed the cupboards and cabinets in the biolab with the other Space Rangers. "It's no use. It isn't here."
"Lots of other viruses, though," Carlos said, reading off labels on a row of canisters marked with a biohazard symbol. "Triforian, fast acting, lethal…Mirinoan, fast acting, lethal…Edenite, slow acting, non-lethal…Lucky them…Aquitian, slow acting, lethal (water-borne)…man, there's one for every species I've ever heard of…and a lot I haven't."
"We should torch this lab, once we find the cure," TJ said.
"I don't think we'll find it here," Cassie sad. "I think we've pretty much ransacked this place."
She was, unfortunately, right…they had left no filing cabinet or chemical rack unturned. The entire research lab had been turned upside-down, and though there were many antidotes to various viruses on file, none of them had been the cure to the Coral Plague.
"Guys!"
The Space Rangers turned as Deacon ran into the room, skidding to a halt amongst the piles of research papers and broken containers that littered the room.
"We have a small problem." The Silver Ranger said.
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Tyrannosaurus let out a roar, rearing back its head and opening its mouth, the cannons in the back of its throat releasing a stream of liquid fire at Torozord.
The mechanical bull responded in kind, firing a beam of emerald green light from its mouth. The two destructive beams met halfway, shards of red and green energy splintering off and showering the landscape as the two beams fought against each other.
Mastodon stormed at Torozord from the side, its fierce tusks ramming into the bull's hull, knocking the other black-armored zord to the ground.
Torozord rolled over the rocky terrain, finally coming to a halt some distance away. It shook its head, then turned and glared at Mastodon malevolently.
Before Electra could react, Torozord was on its feet again, ramming its own horns into her Zord, the massive bull's golden headgear shredding through Mastodon's hull.
Triceratops rolled forward, preparing to fire its horn-chains at Torozord, but as it fired, Torozord gave a toss of its head, throwing the still-attached Mastodon through the air. Mastodon flew right into the path of Triceratops' chains, then into Triceratops itself. The two Dinozords went rolling with the impact, hopelessly entangled.
Saber-toothed Tiger leapt forward, sinking its formidable teeth into Torozord's hindquarters. The bull gave a panicked snort, steam shooting up from its nostrils, then took off, stampeding across the rocky surface of the asteroid, the Yellow Dinozord still attached by its jaws.
Tommy blinked as Torozord raced past, Saber-toothed Tiger latched firmly to its butt.
"Umm…Terina? Did you actually have a plan, or..?"
"Umm….sort of, but this wasn't it," the Yellow Ranger admitted over the comlink. Saber-toothed Tiger scratched fiercely with its foreclaws at Torozord's hindquarters.
This was too much for Torozord. It screeched to a halt, Saber-toothed Tiger flying forward, its jaws dislodging. The giant mechanical cat went flying, then came crashing to the ground, smashing comically headfirst into a jagged boulder.
"Ow," Terina's voice called weakly over the intercom.
Torozord pawed angrily at the ground with its hooves, preparing to rush headfirst at the dazed Yellow Ranger.
A rain of pink energy razed the ground in front of it, causing the mechanical bull to give a start and back off a few steps in surprise. It looked up as Pterodactyl swooped down at it, lances of pink light shooting down at it from the cannons mounted on the Pink Dinozord's wings.
Torozord opened its mouth, firing another river of green light up into the air. Pterodactyl looped and twisted, neatly dodging the ribbon of green flame, then fired another volley of laser bolts down at the asteroid's surface.
Torozord snorted, once again venting steam, then opened its mouth to try again…only to be knocked rolling into the dust by Tyrannosaur's tail.
As the bull pulled itself to its feet, glaring angrily at the Red Dinozord standing obstinately before it, Magna Defender appeared between its forehooves with a flash of green fire. He drew his sword and raised it above his head.
"Galwit Mysto Prifior!"
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"They're gone?" Cassie asked incredulously as she and the others stood in the loading bay.
"Well, no, they're not gone," Jareth replied. "They can't be gone. Everything has to be somewhere. We just….don't know where they are."
"That translates as 'gone' in my mind," TJ said, looking over the Gold Ranger's shoulder as he fiddled with a Turbo Navigator.
"Did you have Zord-1 send that?" Deacon asked.
"Didn't have to, there was one in every one of the Mega-Vs. Aaaah…. Here we go…"
An image appeared on the small screen, fuzzy at first, but clearer as Jareth tuned it in. Five mechanized dinosaurs, fighting a large mechanical bull.
"What are those?" Ashley asked.
"Dinozords," Deacon said. "Where are those?"
"Just outside the asteroid. Magna must have teleported them to the surface."
"We should go out and help them," Cassie said.
"How can we help fight a giant metal bull?" Carlos asked.
Deacon whipped out the Silver Wing's keycard, grinning beneath his helmet. "Well," he said. "I've got this…"
"The rest of us can take the Mega-Vs," Jareth said. "The others left the keycards in the ignition, I checked."
"That wasn't very bright of them," Deacon said.
"No, it wasn't, but it's lucky for us they did," TJ said.
"What about Mega V-1?" Ashley said. "We seem to be short a Red Ranger."
"And Jareth's short a space zord," Cassie observed. She turned to the Gold Ranger. "Can you drive that one?"
"Red's not really my color," the Gold Ranger replied. "But I can try."
The Rangers boarded the large vehicles, strapping themselves in and preparing the vehicles for takeoff.
"To infinity!" Jareth cried, as the ships began to lift off from the metal floor of the loading bay. 'And beyo-"
"No," Deacon said over the communicator. "Just…no."
Jareth let out a hmph. "I don't like you anymore."
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Torozord opened its mouth, releasing a thick stream of green light down onto the Magna Defender, who threw his head back and laughed as he bathed in the energy. As the power was absorbed into his armor, he rapidly began to grow, his armor changing slightly as he did. His cape vanished, its crimson color bleeding into other parts of his suit, until he was as red as he was black, standing nearly twice as tall as Torozord. His armor seemed less bulky now, more aerodynamic and mechanical now that he had grown.
Placing a hand on Torozord's shoulder, he swung his leg over and leapt aboard the massive bull, a golden, double-sided lance appearing in his hand.
"Tough as iron! Mythica Matador!" he cried.
"Megazord time," Tommy said.
"What?" Troy asked.
"These five make a Megazord?" Mara added.
Tommy blinked, recalling that this group had never had a Red Ranger, and thus, never had the Tyrannosaurus Zord. Of course, they wouldn't know about this combination.
"Yeah, they do," Tommy said. "And now's a good time."
One by one, the Rangers activated the Megazord combination systems within their individual zords.
Triceratops' tail rotated forward, snapping onto its back. Saber-toothed Tiger's tail did likewise, and it's legs folded down to its underbelly, lowering it to the same height as Triceratops.
As the Yellow and Blue Zords rolled backwards, Tyrannosaurus ran up behind them and bent down, allowing both rolling vehicles to lock onto its knees. Mastodon ran up to the assembly, unfolding into a large pair of arms, which snapped onto Tyrannosaur's back, both arms terminating in large energy cannons. Mastodon's head somehow fixed itself to Tyrannosaur's chestplate, and finally, Pterodactyl snapped onto the back, completing the structure.
"Umm…Tommy?" Terina asked. "This isn't a Megazord. This is a tank."
"We're halfway there," Tommy said, operating the Dinotank's controls and causing it to motor forwards towards the Magna Defender and Torozord.
Magna Defender (or the Mythica Matador…whatever he called himself now) raised his lance into the air. Despite the thin, insubstantial atmosphere, lightning somehow built up in the sky above him, striking the golden lance and charging it with power. The Magna Defender swung his lance, releasing a devastating arc of golden energy just as the Dinotank fired its cannons.
The two powerful forces collided halfway between the mechanized fighters, creating an explosion of blinding white-gold light that shattered the stone surface of the asteroid, filling the air with dust and debris.
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The six stellar vehicles raced through the thin, insubstantial atmosphere of the asteroid, trying to reach the battle before it could take a turn for the worse. Unfortunately, the Magna Defender had, probably deliberately, teleported to the very opposite side of the asteroid from the entrance to the loading bay, meaning that the others had to travel half the circumference of the giant spaceborne rock to get there.
An explosion suddenly rocked the side of Mega-V 4, sending Ashley spinning.
"Woah!" she cried, stabilizing her flight. "What was that?"
"Space mines," TJ said, startled. "The asteroid just released an entire cloud of them. Technically, they shouldn't work this close to a planetoid-"
"They seem to work just fine," Deacon said. "Anything we can do?"
"Don't hit them?" Jareth suggested helplessly. As it was, he couldn't even dodge. Mega-V 1 couldn't fly on its own; it was forced to ride the rocket that was Mega-V 3 like a surfboard.
"What would we do without you," TJ asked sarcastically, trying to steer the unwieldy missile through the cloud of floating orbs without striking any.
"I don't get it," Cassie said. "This cloud is way too dense. That one going off should have set off a chain reaction and detonated them all…"
"Yeah, so why didn't it?" Carlos asked, his small vehicle easily weaving through the potentially deadly obstacle course.
"Space mines are armored. They don't detonate unless their magnetic sensors detect a collision with something metallic," Jareth said.
"I don't want to know how you know these things," Deacon said.
"I have no life," the Gold Ranger declared proudly.
"That'll be true if I can't get us through this," TJ muttered.
"Wait a minute…they're fake!" Ashley said.
"What?" Carlos asked, double-checking his scanners. "My sensors say-"
"Yeah, yeah, so do mine," The Yellow Ranger interrupted. "But this Turbo-navigator-thingy is better than the scanners in the ships, and it says they're all fake. Only a few of them are real. Like, less than five percent of them."
"To make us think they all were," Deacon realized. "It's a trick, to slow us down."
"They should have used the real thing," TJ said, gunning his thrusters and tearing through the field at high-speed again, the 'mines' bouncing harmlessly off his ship.
"See, this is what happens when corporations cut corners," Deacon said. "Someone should really tell the person in charge of Serpentware."
"I'll be sure to let her know," Jareth muttered.
"Him," Ashley corrected.
"What?"
"Him. Gandris is a him."
"Oh, right. Of course. Him."
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"Megazord sequence has been initiated," a computerized voice declared.
"Eep," Terina said, as the tank began to assume a vertical stance. "It spoke."
The Dinotank pulled itself upward, Saber-toothed Tiger and Triceratops assuming the role of feet, while the cannons on the end of Mastodon's arms relocated to the back of the structure, Pterodactyl disengaging from the assembly and taking to the air.
Tyrannosaur's head retracted down into its chest, revealing a second, more humanoid head that had been concealed behind its reptilian face. As Pterodactyl circled around and latched onto the front of the Megazord, forming its chestplate, a pair of horns unfolded from the back of Tyrannosaur's head, taking their places at its sides.
"Megazord activated," the newly completed Megazord declared.
"That is beyond creepy," Mara said. 'Can we disable that for next time?"
"Let's focus on making sure there is a next time," Tommy suggested.
Magna Defender crossed his arms and looked the Dino Megazord up and down appraisingly.
"Not bad," he said. "Not bad at all." He produced his double-ended lance, breaking it halfway along its shaft into two large blades. "Let's see what it can do."
Leaping forward, the twin golden blades whirling, the Magna Defender slashed at the large, bulky Megazord's chestplate, sparks flying as enchanted metal ate through enchanted metal.
Megazord staggered back under the rain of blows, finally regaining its footing. Reaching back, it detached the twin thunder cannons from its back and brought them forward, releasing a barrage of energized bullets.
Magna Defender's golden blades whirled again, this time seeming to form a transparent but impenetrable barrier before him, deflecting each and every one of the Megazord's shots.
The blades flashed forward, slicing Megazord's guns in half, the useless pieces of metal falling to the rocky ground. Magna Defender recombined them into his lance again, swinging…but this time encountered resistance in the form of the Dino Megazord's colossal sword.
In the cockpit, Mara blinked in surprise. "Where did we get that?"
"Hammerspace?" Terina guessed.
Mara shrugged. "Well, I'm glad it's here."
The silver sword seemed to shimmer as Megazord swung, engaging the Magna Defender in a fierce swordfight. The mystical weapons released showers of magic each time they struck, small surges of energy strong enough to melt flesh.
Magna Defender swung low, attempting to sever the Megazord's legs at the knees, but the giant war machine performed a maneuver that no 40-ton machine should have ever been able to do, leaping up and over the smaller warrior and landing neatly on its feet behind him. Spinning around, the Megazord swung with its sword, aiming to remove the Magna Defender's head, but the Magna Defender raised his lance, intercepting the blow.
There was a deafening thunderclap as the golden lance shattered under the force of the blow, snapping in half, both twisted blades falling the ground, bent, broken, and useless. Magna Defender looked down at his empty hands in shock.
He looked back up just in time to see the Megazord rushing at him, sword held firmly in both hands, about to run him through. Acting quickly, he lurched forward just as the Megazord reached him, planting his hands on the Megazord's shoulders and flipping up over the rushing machine, landing in a crouch behind it.
Megazord found itself facedown in the dust. Pulling itself to its feet with the aid of the sword still clutched in its hand, it turned to face its adversary.
The smallish crown-horn in the center of its forehead began to glow, firing a focused pulse of light at the still reeling Magna Defender.
The Magna Defender's armor melted as the Dino Megazord's crown-laser struck him, burning through the protective black metal. He staggered back…and his hand fell against Torozord's flank.
Stopping, he slowly lifted his head back up at the Dino Megazord, seeming revitalized.
He lat out a sinister chuckle, exchanging glances with his bull, then leapt up into the air, higher than one would have though possible.
Torozord suddenly reared back, his hooves rotating and extending, hands emerging from his forelegs and his hind legs growing longer. The whole thing rose into the air and rotated, so that Torozord's back was facing the Dino Megazord rather than its underbelly. The top of the contraption opened up, swallowing the Magna Defender as he fell back to the asteroid, sealing around him like a suit of armor. Torozord's head moved in such a way as to reveal a hidden second face, a humanoid warrior's helmet.
"Oh, come ON," Mara said. "What do you call THAT?"
"The Defender Torozord," came the Magna Defender's voice. The new configuration produced a golden battleaxe, which it twirled deftly. "And it's a whole new game now."
Megazord barely had time to move as the Defender Torozord's axe flashed through the air, knocking the sword from its hand, slashing across its chestplate, delivering crushing blows to the construct's hull until its systems were all damaged and overloading.
Defender Torozord finished off his combo by clutching his battleaxe in both hands and ramming the handle against the short-circuited Megazord's chest, knocking it over. The colossal construct struck the jagged ground, space dust flying up into the air with the impact.
When the dust cleared, the Magna Defender had exited Torozord, standing beside the mechanical bull, one hand patting its side affectionately, the other clutching his (apparently reconstructed) golden lance.
Without preamble, he approached the fallen Megazord and raised his weapon, preparing to bring the barbed blade crashing down through its torso.
A flurry of laser bolts struck, small explosions blossoming all over the area. Magna Defender raised his arm in front of his faceplate protectively, then glanced around sharply, looking for the source of the attack.
"Hi, guys," Deacon's voice said. "Sorry we're late. Traffic was murder."
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The Silver Wing rose up from the surface of the asteroid, once again going through its transition from spaceship to humanoid robot, landing on its feet as the Mega Winger.
Magna Defender turned away from the fallen Dino Megazord, appraising this new rival, idly twirling his lance.
"Zhane? No. Not Zhane. You're not moving like Zhane," Magna Defender said. "So, he actually passed the reins of his precious zord to another."
"Yup. He did."
The bounty hunter's head tilted. "The Terran? My, but he must have taken a liking to you. I wonder how he'll react when he discovers that you've gone and wrecked his favorite toy."
Deacon whipped out the Mega Winger's bow-blaster and fired a volley of laser pulses at the Magna Defender, who rolled aside, splitting his lance in two. Green lightning arced between the blades as he released it at the Mega Winger, which staggered under the power of the blast.
A barrage of missiles struck the Magna Defender, exploding against his enchanted armor, a storm of minute but distracting wasp stings. The mercenary turned, now facing the other five stellar vehicles.
The red robot that had blasted him stepped forward, more missiles loading themselves into the twin missilebays on its shoulders, ready to fire again.
"One at a time, if you please," Magna Defender said, swiping his lance through the air before him.
A wall of simmering green light appeared between the Mega V-shuttles and the Magna Defender, cutting them off from him, the Mega Winger, and the still inert Megazord. The wall spread, arcing up and over, forming a dome encased them overhead, completely cutting them off from anything happening inside.
Jareth wasted a dozen or so of Mega V-1's missiles, testing the strength of the glowing green wall. "Too much for me," he said.
"There has to be something we can do," Cassie said, casting her eyes around the interior of her shuttle. Her eyes fell on something on her control console. "Hey," she asked. "What does the big red button do?"
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"Deacon?" Jareth's voice asked over the comlink.
"Yeah?" Deacon replied, as the Mega Winger blocked yet another blow from the Magna Defender's lance with its bow-blaster.
"Here, in my cockpit?"
"Uh-huh?"
"I see a big red button."
"You mean like the one-"
"Yah-huh."
"Maybe you should go ahead and push it," the Silver Ranger suggested.
"Okay!" Jareth said happily.
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"Okay, guys, listen up. You see the big red buttons on your consoles?"
There was a quick chorus of affirmative answers.
"Great. Everyone push them. Now."
Closing the comlink, the Gold Ranger grinned and slammed his hand down on his own button.
The five space shuttles drew closer together as their automatic systems took over. Each of them began to reconfigure, their mechanical parts shifting as they became various body parts.
Mega V-5 Split in half down the middle, the laser cannons on top and the ski-treads underneath folding down into its pink-and-white frame, forming a pair of feet. Mega V-4's yellow nose folded down, its inner frame extended out and unfolding from it's outer body, folding down to form a hollow torso with arms. Mega V-3 Split apart in various places, part of it forming the legs and another part forming the core of a body.
Mega V-1 contorted in on itself, its arms and legs vanishing as it became the unit that held all the other body parts together. As the pieces drew together, attracted by fields of powerful electromagnetic pulses, Mega V-2 released a large mechanical head from its rear section, which attached to the top of the construct, completing the Megazord.
"Mega Voyager," Ashley said curiously, reading from one of the screens in the Megazord's newly formed cockpit. "Not bad.
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The Mega Voyager landed with a heavy thud on the rocky surface of the asteroid.
"The Dino Megazord's pretty banged up," Deacon said over the com. "And Magna's been taking his vitamins. I could use a hand here."
Mega Voyager took a few steps forward, approaching the Magna Defender's force field. Making a massive fist, the Megazord landed a powerful punch on the smooth surface of the wall…with far more effect than Mega V-1's small missiles had. Minute cracks began to appear across the glowing green surface.
Two more punches, and the cracks widened. A powerful, spinning kick, and the entire wall shattered, deep fissures beginning at the point of impact and spreading across the entire dome, the small fragments vanishing as they fell to the ground below.
The giant mercenary had raised his lance, preparing to shove it through the Mega Winger's torso, but paused as his barrier vanished, looking up in confusion. The Mega Voyager strode over, reached out and tapped him on the shoulder.
Magna Defender spun around…and received a massive mechanical fist to the helmeted face, the power of the blow sending him flying in the weak gravity. His golden lances crashed to the rocks as his body collided with a rocky outcropping, the stone crumbling.
Mega Voyager reached down and helped the Winger to its feet, then started after the Defender…only to have its path blocked as Torozord charged into view, placing itself between the Megazord and its master.
"Can you guys handle this Megazord without me?" Jareth asked.
"I think so," TJ said. "Why?"
The Gold Ranger grinned. "I have an idea."
"Those are never reassuring words coming from you," Terina's voice declared.
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A glimmer of gold shot up from the Mega Voyager's head, then fell down to the surface of the asteroid. Jareth's lion-paw boots kicked up small clouds of spacedust as he landed, gracefully as a cat.
"Okay. Time to fight fire with…a bull." The Gold Ranger raised the small device fixed to his left gauntlet.
"Adamantium Bull!"
A powerful surge of energy flashed out of the Spirit Summoner on the Gold Ranger's arm, rushing forward into the air. As it flew, it expanded, lightning from the atmosphere being drawn into it, causing it to grow even larger. Finally, the energy began to take form, assuming the shape of a colossal mechanical bull.
Not as colossal as the one it had been brought forth to challenge, however. The Adamantium Bull was barely more than half the size of Torozord, who snorted, surprised at seeing another bull.
"His is bigger than yours," Deacon's voice said.
"It's not the size that counts," Jareth replied. "It's how you use it. Adamantium Bull! Charge!"
There was an earsplitting crash as the two massive metal bulls met head on, both being knocked back a considerable distance by the impact.
The Adamantium Bull staggered to its feet, snorting angrily. It began to paw at the ground, preparing to charge again. Torozord did likewise, glaring balefully at the smaller bovine.
The two raced forward once again, heads lowered…and this time, one of them won.
Torozord's golden horns shattered the smaller brown ones on the Adamantium Bull's head, driving themselves deeply into the ancient zord, one penetrating its head and the other spearing its chest, below the neck. Tossing its head, Torozord threw the other bull up into the air, then sprayed a blast of green fire from its mouth, blasting Adamantium Bull as it fell.
There was a loud metallic shriek as the Adamantium Bull shattered entirely, not into metal, but into shards of gray-brown energy that spiraled down and shrank, whirlpooling back down into the Spirit Summoner on Jareth's arm.
"Okay," the Gold Ranger said meekly. "Maybe it IS the size that counts."
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After what seemed like an eternity, the Dino Megazord bypassed its damaged systems and managed to regain its feet. The screens within the cockpit lit back up as the machinery regained power.
"Ah…much better," Mara said.
The situation rapidly became apparent…the super-sized Magna Defender was climbing to his feet nearby, Torozord was squaring off against the Mega Voyager and the Mega Winger not far off.
Magna Defender reclaimed his lance, then began striding across the asteroid's rocky surface towards his zord.
He stopped short as the Dino Megazord stepped between him and Torozord, raising its sword.
"Didn't I already break you?" he asked.
Megazord rushed forward, bringing its sword down in a crushing downward blow, but Magna Defender raised his lance and deflected the blow. Leaping into the air, the Magna Defender planted one foot on the Megazord's chest, simultaneously delivering a devastating kick and pushing himself into a backflip, landing some distance away from the staggering zord.
Raising his lance, the Magna Defender collective a large electric charge as lightning was drawn out of the air into the metal. Swinging the lance, he sprayed forth a blast of power directly at the Megazord.
The energy lanced across the small distance between the two titans, but instead of striking the Megazord's body, it struck the head of the Mastodon, which the Dino Megazord was suddenly holding out before it in its hand. The electrical energy was sucked up by the black metal of the shield, absorbed and redirected down the Mastodon's trunk, which delivered the blast right back to the Magna Defender.
As the Magna Defender staggered from the power of his own attack, the Dino Megazord raised its sword and performed the very same trick, lighting arcing down from the sky and charging the metal blade. Swinging the shining, energized sword, the Megazord delivered a power-slash, blasting the stunned mercenary.
The Magna Defender went flying, crashing down onto his back against the solid rock of the asteroid's surface. As arcs of static played over his armor, the Magna Defender shrank, returning to his original form, the red bleeding out of his armor and his cape reappearing.
His vision blurring, the Magna Defender went limp as consciousness left him, his last fleeting thought the vague hope that Torozord could manage without him for a while.
