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Chapter 15: Coming Undone
Kendall blinked as she lowered her hands and looked around but all she could see was darkness. A shiver ran down her spine as she became aware of something cold, wet and slimy sitting on her head and splattered across her face but she didn't dare to move. "Hello, is anyone there?" she called out. Silence followed but out of the corner of her eye she saw something shift in the darkness and screamed.
A bright light cut through the dark and she was forced to shield her eyes as she stumbled back almost tripping on a loose floorboard. "Kendall is that you?"
She looked up as the light moved away from her face and hit the ceiling, illuminating the room just enough for her to distinguish Katie using her morpher as a flashlight. "Katie?" another voice out as a second beam of light emerged, illuminating another familiar face. "Dana?"
"Where are we?" asked the blonde, fanning her phone around the room to get a better look, before turning it back on her to examine her sleeve, her face screwed up in disgust, "And is anyone else covered in gooey stuff?"
"Yeah, what's with that?" Katie echoed as she brushed the back of her hand against her cheek.
Kendall steadied her footing and took a deep breath before reaching up into her hair to pull out one of the chunks and got out her phone out to examine it closely "It's pumpkin."
"Pumpkin?" the other two echoed before Katie's light swung around illuminating the object that sat between them. "Is that a cauldron?"
At the Silver Guardians Headquarters, four guardians stood behind the gate, guns pointed at the large bulking dragon threatening to barge through. The creature's serpentine neck arched over them, heavy jaws opening and closing, revealing rows of pointed teeth as it roared, while a young woman with platinum blonde hair shouted down at them.
"Do you understand what she's saying?" asked the guardian closest to the gate.
"Not a clue," said the second as he adjusted his grip on his gun, "But someone really needs to get the Commanders out here."
"It sounds like Valyarian," the third said casually. "What? Don't you guys watch TV?" he added when his colleagues shot him a look.
The dragon roared and a loud bang followed as one of their colleagues fired a shot that nicked the dragon's neck before bouncing harmlessly to the side. The woman screamed and pointed to the man, "Draca…"
The guardians blinked as they stared up at the sky, the dragon vanishing right before their eyes. They shared a look as they lowered their weapons but none of them said a word. A soft noise outside the gate caught their attention and they hesitated until the guardian closest to the gate slipped into the guardhouse to check the camera and feed and just stared. Blinking up at him was a teenage girl in a blue dress with a blonde wig falling off her head with a little kid in a dragon costume whimpering beside her.
"Back off," Jen growled as she pushed Frankenstein's monster back into the wall, but the resilient monster sprung back grabbing her neck and strangling her. "Only want master," it croaked as she struggled, looking around for help, but Andros was stuck keeping Max at bay while Circuit was trying to talk Cole away from the windows.
She tugged at the creatures as she was pushed against the railing and looked up into dark eyes filled wide with rage. Suddenly, the grip around her neck eased and the eyes she was staring into were filled with confusion as the hulking monster shrunk before her. "Jen?"
Jen blinked and stole the opportunity to pull out of his grasp completely, coughing as she turned around to find Andros and Max staring at each other, the former armed with a curtain rod. "Dude, did you just try to kill me?"
"Uh Jen… what's going on?"
She turned back to Joel who was staring at his hands as Circuit flew up to her. "They did it Jen," he chirped. "Everyone's back to normal."
"Yeah," she whispered as she checked her watch. "With time to spare."
"I'm going to find Trip."
Jen watched him fly off before turning around to the others , Andros dropped the rod he was holding as Max backed away while Cole and Alyssa just turned around in circles. She heard Joel call out to her again but she ignored him as she stared at her hands, a cry of relief escaping her lips when she saw the colour return to them and immediately patted down her face and checked her teeth. When she found everything in order she stopped moving and just closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
Officer Greene continued to stare up at the sky clutching her necklace long after the pillar of light had unravelled, the thought of how she had failed weighing her down, making it impossible to move. She knew her suspicions weren't wrong, yet she decided to do this on her own, this was her chance to prove she was ready to do more, to help bring justice. But she had failed and in doing so doomed this world.
"There you are."
She turned around as the red clad superhero appeared beside her. "We should…" he trailed off and blinked before taking a step back, the determination in his eyes turning to confusion as he stared at her for a moment, then turned around in his place. "How did I get here?" he asked as he pulled back his cowl and turned to her once again. "And who are you?"
She blinked at the dark haired man staring at her and pulled her head back. "Don't you remember? Commander Myers asked you to bring me here?"
"Eric? Eric hasn't even made it to the party yet. And why would he ask me to bring you to… a hospital? Again, who are you?"
But she ignored his questions as she stepped closer, looking straight into his eyes. "You remember who you are," she stated.
"Am I not supposed to?" he asked backing away. "Look are you a friend of Eric's or something? I can call him if you want."
But she had already turned away, once again looking up at the sky. "He did it," she whispered and checked her watch. "There's still time, I can still fix this."
She tugged at her necklace and held it out in her hand which was enveloped in a swirl of purple smoke which faded to reveal a thin crystal wand with an intricate silver handle.
Danny hovered back as Eric stepped forward with Taylor and Ashley at his side as they faced off against the three witches and the warlocks still in possession of the human bodies. "Silly mortals, do you really think you can stop us," Kazak goaded.
"We'll see about that," Ashley challenged as she tightened her grip across the batons and stepped forward but the red headed witch reacted immediately holding her hand out before swinging it to the side sending Ashley flying across the clearing. Danny's eyes widened as he watched Taylor rush in and knock the witch to the ground before quickly dodging a fireball. With the witches surrounding Taylor, the blond man launched himself at Eric who met him blow for blow.
Leaving his friends to take care of themselves the ghost flew over to where Ashley had fallen but as he got closer he found himself crashing to the ground. With a groan he pushed himself up, coughing out the dirt and grass that had made its way into his mouth. He heard a groan and looked up only to find everything blurred. He patted down his face and found his askew glasses. Once the world became cleared, the first thing he was was Ashley sitting up and scrambled over to her.
"What the… Danny?" she asked as he crawled up to her. He stared at her, red hair turned back to brown and a hint of colour returning to her pale cheeks, before placing hand against his heart and taking a deep breath. "Danny what's going on? Where are we?"
"Oh… you don't remember right," he stumbled as he helped her to her feet. "It's a long story and I'll explain later but right now there are bad guys to deal with and Taylor and Eric need our help."
"What are you…" she stopped short when she heard the fighting in the distance and nodded before taking after him.
They reached them just as Taylor was knocked on to the ground and immediately rushed to her side "Taylor!" he exclaimed. She grunted as she pushed herself to her feet but her eyes widened when she saw him. "They did it," he whispered.
"That explains where my strength suddenly went," she grunted as the witches closed in on them.
"So apparently I missed a lot," Ashley whispered as she joined her and slid into a fighting stance.
"Something like that," the blonde pointed out before nodding towards the batons in her hand. "You still know how to use those?"
"Not my weapon of choice, but they'll do," she admitted before turning back to the witches who had stopped advancing and just stared at them, before the blonde and blue-haired witch turned to the one in the middle.
In the meantime, Eric landed a clean uppercut to Kazak's jaw sending him stumbling back. He turned back to the others and his eyes widened when he saw Danny in the flesh and witches surrounding them. He fired a shot forcing the witches to jump back as he regrouped with the others giving their opponents a chance to do the same.
"Are you guys okay?"
"It looks like trusting the witches paid off. But we also lost our advantage," Taylor whispered as she flexed her fingers and curled them into fists."
"You never needed it," he whispered as he raised his weapon and pointed it at their opponents."
"Hmm… interesting," Kayn murmured as he joined the others, sparing a glance at his brother who was nursing his jaw before turning back to the rangers as he assessed Danny and the change in Ashley. "Well Callista it seems chaos will not rule this night. Your spell has been undone."
"Impossible," she mumbled.
"We're kind of used to doing the impossible," Danny declared. "So you might as well forget about whatever it is your planning."
Kazak grunted and Kayn smiled, stepping past the still stunned witches. "So you managed to undo a spell, I'll admit that for a race so ignorant of magic it is impressive but it has nothing to do with what we have planned. Come midnight, the mortals will take our discarded shells back to our prison and our powers will return, then nothing can stop us from showing you the true meaning of chaos."
"We're not going to let that happen," Eric stated as he stepped in front of the others and held up his morpher as he called out, Quantum Power!"
He emerged from a flash of light in his ranger form with his Quantum Defender at his side. The witches stepped back, a look of surprise on their faces but Kayn had a smile on his face his hand glowing a bright yellow as he stepped forward. "You just keep getting more interesting."
The light spiraled out of his hand taking the form of a sword. Kazak smiled as he joined his brother, mirroring his actions and conjuring a sword of his own. Eric immediately shifted his weapon into balde mode and leaped forward. Kayn met his blade head on while Kazak attacked from the side but he pulled back just in time and turned around him lashing out with a kick, before getting down on one knee to block Kayn's sword.
In the meantime, the witches once again gathered around the other three rangers who stood their ground. "What? No fancy light show or armour for you?" the fire-wielding witch teased as her fists once again burst into flames.
"We may not be able to morph," Ashley stated as she twirled the batons in her hands and tightened her grip on them.
"But we're still rangers," Taylor added as she steadied her stance and raised her fists.
"And we never give up," Danny finished off, slipping into a stance of his own.
"How touching," Callista mocked as she stepped forward but Ashley hurled a baton at her forcing her to use her powers to deflect it and giving Taylor the opportunity to rush her and knock her to the ground.
The blue-haired witch roared and aimed a burst of flames at her which she dodged before running ahead and closing the distance between them. The blonde witch on the other hand closed in on Danny, a grin on her face as she played with a lock of hair. "Looks like it's just you and me," she teased as she stepped closer. But before Danny could retort she vanished.
He stepped back and looked from side to side, looking for any sign of movement when he felt something strike his foot and he tripped forward. He stumbled forward but kept his footing and spun around before duck rolling to the side. A smile on his face as he watched the witch appear as she stumbled forward. "It's been a while since I've been in a fight but I still remember what my friend taught me."
A few feet away Ashley dodged fireballs as she tried to move in on her opponent. "I'm getting a strange sense of dejavu here," she mumbled as she dropped to the ground.
"This time I'm going to burn you to a crisp," the witch hollered as she held out her palms. Flames burned but quickly flickered out. Her eyes dropped to her hands and she threw them out, igniting them again before they fizzled out once more. Seizing the opportunity Ashley scrambled to her feet and lunged forward and knocked her back with the swing of her baton. "Looks like you're burned out."
In the meantime, Taylor had Callista on her back but the witch used her powers to lift a barrage of stones into the air and send them flying at her forcing her to duck and swerve but she still couldn't escape, ending up on one knee using her forearms to keep the stones from hitting her face. They both got to their feet and the same time but before the witch could raise her hands Taylor stepped in throwing a punch to her face followed a kick to her middle forcing her to double over. "You will pay for that," she grunted but Taylor just stepped forward.
"We'll see. I've dealt with a lot of weird tonight and you're by far the most normal. And guess what? I don't have to worry about hurting you."
She leaned forward and struck her again with a right hook but as she brought up her left fist Callista held out her hand and narrowed her eyes stopping it inched away from her face. Her face twisted in concentration and Taylor could feel the force against her hand, she pushed back but the witch wasn't giving way either. She dug her feet into the ground and raised her other fist when she felt a force push against her middle and was thrown back onto the ground.
"Do not test me mortal," the witch threatened as she stepped closer, throwing her hand out to her side. "And do not underestimate my power."
Taylor grunted as she tried to stand but the witch drew her hand back and before she realised what was happening the witch drew her hand back and another body crashed into her.
"Wha…"
"Danny?" she groaned, as she pushed against the wait crushing her.
"What's going on?" he grunted as he rolled away and took a deep breath.
Before Taylor could put together a response another body crashed into them as Ashley joined the party. She groaned and coughed as she rolled onto the grass and blinked as the three witches regrouped and grinned down at them. "Superpowers suck," she grumbled.
"Callico destroy them," Callista ordered.
The rangers looked up, each breathing heavily as the blue-haired witch stepped forward, her hand engulfed in flames. They cringed as she threw her arms forward, flames shooting out of her hands. But before it could hit them the wind stirred carrying a gentle whisper as they were surrounded by a dome of light that absorbed the flames.
They pushed themselves up into a sitting position and looked at each other but their attention was soon drawn to their right hands which began to glow. The dome fell, revealing three shocked witches but the rangers eyes were fixed on their hands as the glow faded leaving behind very familiar objects.
That's it for now. Hope you enjoyed the chapter. Please do review and share your thoughts.
For those of you who aren't familiar with Charmed. Piper has as second power that allows her to blow things up, which is essentially what Kendall did to the pumpkin.
Till next time...