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 Three: Harmony
A/N: Hey guys! I finally, finally finsihed this chapter. Wasn't nearly as productive this week as I'd hoped to be. But I'd di get this done so there's that. Hope you guys enjoy it!
"Music expresses that which cannot be said and which it is impossible to be silent." -Victor Hugo
Chris knocked on Leo's door. "Leo!" she said. "Quinn needs us to help find the demon." She went in and found the red ranger sitting at her keyboard, which wasn't strange. What was strange though, was the fact that she was just staring at it and not playing. "Leo? Is everything ok?"
Leo shrugged. "I don't know."
"Why?" Chris asked, walking closer. She watched as the red ranger slowly lifted her hands and started playing. She played slowly, so slowly, making it hard for Chris to figure out what song she was playing. Normally she didn't always know what songs Leo was playing, but she found she did recognize this one. "Um...Leo?"
"Yeah?"
"Do you feel ok?"
"I'm not sure."
Chris reached out and put her hand on her friend's forehead. "Are you sure you're not sick?"
"Why?"
"Because you're playing an Eminem song. I didn't even think you knew Eminem exsisted."
Leo smiled. "I didn't until twenty minutes ago." She stopped suddenly and went back to staring at the keyboard.
"What's wrong?" Chris asked, putting a hand on her shoulder. "You were doing really good."
"I don't know. Do you ever feel...like...maybe...things are much different than they thought you were? Or maybe that...the people who were always trying to help you might not actually be helping you?"
"How so?"
"Like...your family. Do you ever think that they were trying to help you, but in doing so they're not...allowing you to grow?"
Chris considered it for a moment. "Not really I guess. Why, what brought this on?"
"A song Austin made me listen to."
"Of course Austin is involved. If he's giving you life advice Leo, I wouldn't take it."
"It's not that he was giving me life advice. The music just...spoke to me."
"It spoke to you?"
"Yeah. And I didn't like that. I'm not supposed to like hat kind of music."
"Not supposed to as in...not allowed?"
"Yes. And because I'm a prodigy. My talent is better served focusing on...music that ain't so trivial."
Chris furrowed her eyebrows. "Do you really think that?"
"Isn't that what I'm supposed to think?"
The blue ranger sighed. "You know Leo, you don't always have to think what everyone wants you to think."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean...how do I put this? You are your own person. And you have the right to think what you want. No one has the right to dictate who you should be but you."
"But...if I'm not who they want me to be, then who I am?"
Chris sighed. "Unfortunately that's something you'll have to figure out for yourself. Come on," she squeezed the red ranger's shoulder. "We have to go down to the city and scout for the monster."
"Alright, let's go!" Leo stood up, suddenly looking more sure of herself. She left he room and Chris followed close behind. The two of them went down to the basement and found the boys were already waiting for them. "What're we doing?"
"I've narrowed the demon's location down to two locations," Quinn explained. "I need you guys to check them out in order to find him."
"Got it. Let's go guys." The Rangers followed Leo over to their storm chasers. "Quinn, can you send us the coordinates?"
"Already done."
"Alright, good." Leo got on her bike and looked at her morpher. "Chris, take Jasper and Andy to the location by Winter Street. Austin and I will take the one by Kordeen Plaza."
"You got it Leo," Chris nodded. The Rangers started their bikes and drove out, teleporting out to the city.
Upstairs, Z was heading for the basement to help the Rangers. He quickly out in the code that unlocked the door, but frowned when it didn't. He put it in again, but the light stayed red. "That's not right," he muttered to himself. He tried a third time, but got nowhere. He realized that he had no way to try and tell Quinn that the lock was broken. He sighed gently tapped his fist against his forehead. "Love my life."
-Thunder Strike-
Once they were in the city, Leo realized how awkward it was being alone with Austin. The green ranger hadn't said anything to her, and she widened if he was angry with her. "Austin-" she began but her cut her off.
"I think we should morph," he said simply.
"Uh...yeah. Let's do that." They stopped momentarily to turn the sides if their morphers and push the faces.
"THUNDER STRIKE, STORM WARNING!" the two of them yelled. They drive off again as soon as they were able, finishing their morphs in their process.
They drove through the streets, looking for any signs of the demon. Leo cleared her throat. "I feel as though the lack of people out in the streets is a sure sign of the demon's presence here."
Austin nodded. "Yeah...seems like it."
Leo was about to say something when she heard people screaming. She took off towards the noise with Austin right behind her. They turned a corner, stopping when they saw the demon. Leo immediately shot forward on her bike, shooting the demon from it. The blasts hit him in the chest and he stumbled back.
"Rangers!" Canditor hissed. "Draklings, descend!"
Austin found himself surrounded by Darklings and growled. I'm so not in the mood to deal with you today. He revved the throttle and shot through them, turning back around to face them again.
Leo quickly pushed the communication button on her morpher. "Chris! We found the demon!"
"Ok!" Chris replied. "We'll be right there." The blue ranger looked at the black and white. "We have to go. Leo and Austin found the demon."
"Let's go then!" Jasper replied. The three of them were about to leave when something shot out of nowhere and hit Chris in the foot.
"Ah!" she yelled falling on the ground.
"Chris!" Jasper and Andy shouted, getting off their bikes. They went to help the blue ranger, who was now pinned beneath her storm chaser. Chris struggled to get out, but the pain in her ankle and foot was making it hard. She looked at something behind the boys and went rigid.
"Guys look out!"
Jasper and Andy spun around, taking their blasters out as they did. They immediately dove to the sides, causing another blast to hit Chris' bike. The two boys got up, keeping their blasters trained on the gold ranger walking towards them. Her blasters were both aimed at the three Rangers.
"Who are you?!" Jasper demanded. "What do you want?!"
"I'm the Sun Storm Ranger," the gold ranger replied, her voice distorted. "I want to destroy you."
"Why do you want to destroy us?" Andy asked her. "We're all Rangers, we're on the same side!"
"No, we're not! You stand against the Chaotic Storm Empire, while I stand with it. You are a rebellious force intent on destroying Emperor Stormicon, so I was created to destroy you!"
Jasper and Andy didn't move, but merely tighter their grips on their blasters. It was evident to them that this gold ranger wasn't an ally. Chris sat forward and pushed her bike off of her foot. She slid it out and stood up carefully behind the boys. The gold ranger put the end of her blaster into the other blaster. She pointed the now longer weapon at the Rangers. Jasper glanced down at his morpher and saw that his meter was reading high levels of chaotic energy. He quickly grabbed his dog tag and quickly inserted it into his morpher.
Sun Storm Ranger saw this and pointed her weapon at him. She shot at him, but he activated his super storm tag. "Super storm, upgrade!" he shouted. "Cloud storm defender!" Andy slipped behind the black ranger as he raised his shield. The blast from the gold ranger was absorbed by his cloud defender. He stumbled back from the force of it and feel. Chris quickly caught him and helped him stand up right.
"Scatter!" the blue ranger said. The three of them split up, spreading themselves around their adversary. She looked around at them as Andy and Chris trained their blasters on her.
She started chuckling. "You really think you can take me?" she inquired, a tone of amusement making Jasper tighten his grip on his shield.
"Three on one?" Andy asked. "I like those odds."
Sun Storm laughed. "I don't care about the odds." She took her blasters apart and flipped one around. She threw them in the air and held her hand out. "Solar disc!" She caught the golden frisbee and spun, throwing it at Chris.
Meanwhile, across town, Leo was blasted backwards by Canditor. She picked herself up and grabbed her weapons tag off her back. "Rain sticks!" she twirled the tricks in her fingers, tightening her grip on them as she ran at the demon. She hit him once, but he grabbed her other stick as she swung it at him. She jerked her weapon free and swiped at his neck with them. He stepped back and raised his hands again. He caught the red ranger's weapons again and wrapped his hands around them. He lifted his arms, picking Leo up off the ground. He threw her into a car. She hit the hood, feeling it crumple beneath her body, and rolled off on the other side.
"Leo!" Austin yelled. He kicked the last Darkling in the chest and shot it in the chest. He took out his weapons tag and inserted it into his blaster. "Lightning hammers!" he shouted, summoning his weapons. He ran at Canditor, swinging his weapons. "Don't! Touch! Her!" He hit the demon with each word. Canditor caught his hammer on the last hit and swung the green ranger into a wall. Austin hit it with so much force he felt it crack behind him. He cried out in pain and de-morphed.
"Austin!" Leo yelled. She fused her rain sticks together and jumped back into the car. She ran and jumped at Canditor, swinging her weapon at his head. He caught the weapon and swung her into the same wall he'd just swung Austin into previously.
"Ah!" She landed next to him, gritting her teeth. She forced herself to focus anywhere but the pain coursing through her body. "Austin, you ok?"
"Uh huh," he grunted. "He's...fucking...strong."
Canditor laughed as he looked at them. "The truth is the strongest force in existence! It's also the most painful!" Leo sighed inwardly. It worked in an annoyingly, poetic way. She used her rain stick to push herself to her feet. She ran at Canditor, who chuckled as he caught her again. He twisted Leo around and wrenched he rain stick out of her hands. She suddenly found herself trapped as he put her weapon against her throat. She struggled as he pulled it harder, cutting off her air. "You're a terrible ranger, you know that? You're weak. All of you r angers are weak!"
Leo struggled and grabbed at the weapon, trying to get free. He's right, she thought. I've been at this for how many months? And I can't even beat this one demon by myself. I'm supposed to be the leader! Unfortunately that wasn't the only voice in her head.
"Good girls don't fight Leonna."
"Good girls don't fight," she whispered.
"Don't worry, you can't fight," Canditor sneered.
"Don't...don't listen to him Leo!" Austin yelled, trying to get to his feet. He used the wall to help himself stand up.
"Tell me, red ranger, would the ones who told you that be proud of why a you're doing now?"
"No!" Leo gasped, still trying to get herself free. Curse this truth spell!
"I thought not!"
"Shut the fuck up!" Austin snapped. "Leo, he might tell the truth, but it's a bunch of shit! You're an awesome ranger! It doesn't...it doesn't matter what your family would think of you! You're a badass! You just...you have to accept that!"
Leo clawed at her rain stick, trying to free herself. She closed her eyes and tried to focus herself. She moved her hands away from her throat and wrapped them around the ends of her weapon. If I want to be a good ranger, then I need to accept the fact that I am one, she told herself. Keep acting in the face of fear. She released the rain stick and spun around on her heel. She drove her elbow into Canditor's side and he stumbled back. She kicked him in the chin, snapping his head up roughly. She jumped up and flipped over him, grabbing her rain stick out of his hands. She landed behind him and immediately stabbed him with me end of her weapon.
Austin grinned as Canditor jumped in surprise. He pushed the communication Hutton in his morpher. "Yo, Andy! Where the hell are you guys?"
"Uh...ah! We got a little sidetracked," Andy's voice replied through the morphers. "Just keep holding him off! We'll be there as soon as we can!"
Austin rolled his eyes and pushed himself to his feet. He watched as Leo spun and ducker under the arms of the demon that were attempting to snatch her stick again. He grinned. Well I can't let her have all the fun. "THUNDER STRIKE, STORM WARNING!"
On the other side of town, Chris heard Jasper cried out in pain. She lifted her head and saw the black ranger had been hit with the solar disc. He struggled to push himself to his feet again. He took a deep breath and heaved himself up. He st,bed a little but, kept his footing. Chris copied him, doing her best to keep her feet under her. The Sun Storm ranger sighed and looked around at them.
"You Rangers just don't stay down," she observed. "Interesting."
"Interesting? How?" Andy asked.
She shrugged. Her disc started glowing and she threw it in the air again. "Heat wave!" she shouted, jumping in the air. She kicked the frisbee and it zoomed in a circle around her. It hit all three Rangers, Chris first, then Jasper, and finally Andy. They were all thrown backwards and de-morphed from the force of the blast. Chris winced when she felt the burned skin on her stomach. She lifted her head and watched the gold ranger catch the disc. She sighed. "Times up. Again. You Rangers get to live to see another day." With that she disappeared in a flash of golden light.
Jasper groaned as he slowly pushed himself up onto his knees. "Is everyone ok?" he asked, slightly out of breath.
"What's your definition of ok?" Andy replied, attempting to push himself up. He cried out in pain and dropped back down to the ground. He carefully lifted his hands and saw that his palms were covered in severe sunburn. "Forget it, I'm not ok."
"She's powerful," Chris observed, slowly getting to her feet. She looked down and saw the red skin of a sunburn on her chest.
"Tell me about it," Jasper agreed. He got himself the rest of the way up and they went over to Andy.
"She really kicked or butts. Hard," Andy said as his friends stooped done and grabbed his arms.
"We noticed."
"Nothing we can do about it now," Chris told them. "Come on, lest go help Leo and Austin."
Andy and Jasper nodded as the three of them headed for their bikes.
Back with Canditor, Leo was finally gaining the upper hand in their battle. She spun and struck him down again with a hit across the chest. He got to his feet and she grabbed her super storm tag. "Super storm," the red ranger yelled, inserting it, "upgrade! Rain storm crosser!" She pointed her crossbow at him and started firing. She hit him twice in the chest, and he ran at her. She jumped up and flipped over him, shooting him from above as she did, then quickly shot him in the back as well. "Downpour Strike!" She ran at the demon and hit him with her crossbow, then shot him in the face. He stumbled back in pain, groaning.
"Stupid Ranger!" he yelled. "You'll pay for that!"
"Not so fast!" Chris shouted as she, Andy, and Jasper drove onto the scene. She stopped next to Leo and dismounted. "You ok?"
Leo nodded. "I'm good." She saw Jasper and Andy helping Austin to his feet. The team regrouped and Canditor faced them.
"You Rangers can't be me! It's the truth and you better believe it!" he shouted.
"Super storm upgrade!" Chris, Andy, and Austin shouted, morphing into their super storm modes.
"Rain storm crosser!"
"Cloud storm claw!"
"Lightning storm axe!"
"Ice storm striker!"
"Cloud storm defender!"
"Super Storm Strker!" the five Rangers chorused together. Leo felt her friends' hands on her shoulders, followed quickly by their energy. She focused her attention on the demon and pulled the trigger. "Fire!"
Canditor reached his hands out and tried to catch the shot of multiple lights spiraling around each other. Unfortunately for him it was much more powerful than their ordinary weapons. It went straight through his hands and into his body, making him stumble back. "How could you beat me?! How?!" he demanded as he exploded.
"Finally!" Austin sighed. "Now we just need him to grow back-" Before he could even finish his sentence the giant funnel cloud descended and resurrected Canditor.
"You Rangers are going to be sorry you messed with me! And that's the truth!"
"Thunder zords, online!" the five Rangers yelled, activating their zords. "Thunder Strike Megazord!"
Canditor laughed as he caught the first fist the Megazord threw at him. It quickly followed up with the other fist. It hit him, but didn't seem to faze him much. Canditor simply laughed again and pushed the Megazord back. It dug it's feet not the ground, trying to resist, only resulting in tearing up some of the street. It then quickly fired two blasts, one from each hand, at Canditor. He simply caught both of them and sent them back at the zords. It stumbled back under the it's own fire, knocking the Rangers around.
"Should we fire again?" Andy asked.
"Why?! So that he can throw them at us again?!" Austin demanded.
"Call the storm chasers!" Leo ordered.
"Storm Chasers, online!" the five Rangers shouted in unison. "Storm Chaser Megazord!"
Now armed with a weapon, the Megazord swung it's tire spear at the demon. Canditor dodged it easily, being more agile than the Megazord, and blasted it with one of his truth rays. Not being organic, it didn't have the spell effect, it merely damaged the zords. The Megazord spun around and managed to hit Cnaditor in the head. He cried out and stumbled, giving the Megazord a chance to make the wheels on its spear spin. It blasted Canditor back when it hit him, but he simply returned fire on the Rangers. The Megazord managed to hit a couple of the blasts away with its spear, but most of the blasts hit the Megazord. The Rangers quickly tried to simultaneously stabilize themselves and block the shots being fired at them.
"We need more fire power!" Austin shouted.
"Gee, you think?" Chris asked, rolling her eyes. "I say we call an extra zord?"
"Extra zord?" Jasper asked, "Is that what we're calling them?"
"Let's focus on the fight!" Leo reminded them. She braced whereof against her controls as they were hit again.
"Leo, we need a plan, now!"
"I...uh...um..." The red ranger sighed. She still wasn't used to fact that when things went south, which they did far too often in her opinion, everyone looked to her for what to do. She clenched her fists and closed her eyes. I need to focus! They're counting on me! She opened her eyes and saw Austin arguing with Andy about whether or not they should start pushing random buttons. Despite the situation, she smiled. The green ranger always gave her support. He believed in her without any hesitation. She clenched her fists even more. Why can't I just accept this role?! Why is it so hard for me to be the red ranger everyone needs me to be?! She sighed because deep down, she knew the reason. Because she was still that quiet girl who didn't want to disappoint her parents. I am the red ranger. I can't a change that. No matter what they would think, or what anyone would think, I'm a power ranger now. And I need to be a good power ranger. Better than good, I have to be the prodigy I was born to be. I can't allow the perceptions of other people to stop me!
"Whoa Leo!" Andy smiled, pointing at the red ranger. Everyone else looked at her, causing them to be bombarded again now that they were looking away from their controls. Leo looked down at herself and saw that she was covered in a glowing red outline.
"There!" Austin shouted, pointing at the sky. The glowing crack had appeared in the sky, and a burst of golden light. Out of the golden light appeared a new zord that Leo didn't quite recognize.
"What is it?" she asked, analyzing the red feline like animal.
"A cougar!" Andy replied excitedly. "Very fierce."
"Yeah...a definite quality I associate with Leo," Chris replied affectionately.
The cougar landed in front of the Megazord and snarled at Canditor. It pounced at him, digging its claws into his chest and raking them down to his abdomen. He stumbled back and it jumped off him. Leo held out her hand and the cougar jumped up towards the Megazord. The storm chaser parts literally just jumped off the Megazord. The cougar stretched out its legs and the Megazord caught it in the abdomen and held it like a staff.
"Rain cougar Megazord!" they yelled.
Canditor blasted them with his truth spells again, but is time the Megazord hit the spells back at him with ease. It swung the spear and the claws at the end scratched him. He stumbled back and the Megazord advanced on him quickly. It swung the staff around and hit him again with the top end, and then with the back end. It stabbed the staff into Canditor's stomach, following it quickly with anther uppercut hit. It then slashed at his neck with the staff and he put his arms up to try and grab the weapon. The Megazord took a step back and brought the staff down faster and harder than he could catch it and he nearly fell when he stumbled back.
"Let's finish him!" Leo told them.
"Rain Cougar Strike!" they yelled. They all flipped the third switch and the Megazord flew up into the air. It started spinning the staff weapon around and flew down at the demon. He held out his hands, but the weapon went straight through them and through him.
"No!" he yelled. "There's no way you could've beaten me! No way!"
"The storm has passed!" Leo shouted in victory. She high-fived Chris and Austin and smiled. "Woo!"
-Thunder Strike-
Later that day, Quinn sighed and shook her head as she examined the lock on the basement door. "I don't know what you think happened earlier, but this lock isn't broken."
"But it wouldn't let me in!" Z objected.
"You must've been putting the access code in wrong."
"I wasn't! Maybe the code doesn't woke anymore."
"Hey! I take offense to that! I designed this lock specifically for that code. Or may be it was vice versa...anyways, there's nothing wrong with it!"
"Don't let the fact that you're the creator stop you from seeing the very obvious flaws."
"Actually I think you're the flaw."
"Hey!"
Meanwhile, upstairs, Austin took a deep breath before he knocked on Leo's door. He heard the music within stop; then came her voice, "Come in." He walked in and saw that Leo was at her keyboard. He approached her cautiously, sitting down next to her.
"Hey," he said at last.
"Hey," she replied softly. "Austin I'm really sorry-"
"Don't. You don't have to apologize."
"But I should! I shouldn't have-"
"I've been treated a lot worse than being semi-politely asked to leave a room."
"But that the thing! I shouldn't have been so mean to you. I just want you to know that it wasn't because I was angry with you or anything like that."
"You weren't?"
"No. I was...overwhelmed." Austin gave her a 'go on' motion and she looked at her keyboard. "I know everyone probably thinks that being...a prodigy makes life easier. That...having an outstanding skill will make everything easy. But it's not easy. Being good at music doesn't make me good at math or English. It makes everyone expect a lot from you. I want to be the perfect daughter that my par nets want me to be. To be good at all the right things in all the right ways."
"Well that's fucked up. No offense. You shouldn't have to be anyone but the person you want to be. Regardless of what they want for you, they should respect what you want for you."
"It's not really that easy."
"I know it's not."
"But I also understand what you're saying. I think...I feel like maybe I can try to...be my own person. Figure who I really am underneath who I'm supposed to be."
"That's good. Although I can tell you from personal experience that it's not that easy to discover who you are. It takes time and a lot of patience."
"I've always considered myself to be someone who has plenty of patience."
"I'd say so, there's no other way you could possibly put up with me."
Leo giggled. "Austin?"
"Yeah?"
"Thank you. For always believing in me."
"Hey what goes around comes around as they say. So what were you playing when I came in?"
"Oh just...something I've been writing."
"You compose? Don't look so surprised I know big words. Can I hear some of it?"
Leo grinned and started simply playing.
-Thunder Strike-
Next Time on Power Rangers Thunder Strike: Japser accuses Austin of stealing from him, even though the green ranger denies the accusations. If only someone would believe him.
