Chapter 21: A Sheep in Wolf's Clothing
Catacombs…
Dylan Foutler…
"HA! HA! HA! HA! Now what are you rangers gonna do?!"
What indeed? I mean, it seems obvious on the surface right? Summon the MegaZord, beat up monster, save the day. It's a dance we've danced several times and probably would several more afterwards. But it wasn't that simple. I mean, we were indoors, not exactly an ideal battleground for a MegaZord battle, and that wasn't even taking into account that we currently had a guest. I recognized this "guest" as the small dragon I found tinkering on something back when we first arrived at the temple. Why he was here was a mystery known only to him. But in spite of his, well honestly, brazing display of sheer stupidity, I wasn't exactly willing to risk squishing him with the MegaZord.
That being said however, it wasn't like the monster had those same reservations, a point proven when he tried to smash us with one of his giant tentacles. We just barely managed to get out of the way as the giant limb slammed onto the ground. "What do we do?" asked Jess, "Can we risk the Mega Zord in a place like this?" she asked me.
Zenith did a double take, "Mega-what now?" he questioned. This told me that Zenith either didn't have a Zord of his own, or wasn't aware of it. The former would make sense, Spyro did consider his morpher a failure and probably wouldn't go through the trouble of making a Zord for a broken morpher.
"Our giant robot made of other smaller giant robots," Kevin explained.
This didn't seem to help Zenith as he was still clearly confused. But we kinda had bigger problems right now, both figuratively, and literally. Dammit, do we try to draw him out of the catacombs? I doubt he'd follow, he was guarding Cynder after all. But we can't fight him without Zords… not without getting squished.
"We're gonna have to risk it, We Need Dragon Zord power NOW!" I called. This was a bad idea, I knew it deep within my gut. But what other options did I have here? Sit here and wait to be flattened by a giant squid? However, the fact that our Zords smashed their way through the ceiling didn't exactly make me feel much better. God, this is gonna cause a cave in isn't it?
One by one we got in our respective Zords. Well, all of us minus Zenith who chose instead to try to keep our new dragon friend away from the action. "Dragon's Roar! Zords Combine!" I called out.
The Zords all clicked into place before finally forming the mighty Dragon's Roar MegaZord! A Zord that just barely fit into the catacombs. "Man, I don't know if we can fight like this, Dylan," Kevin said.
"If we have to we can break away into the individual Zords," I said, "But for now, we have a squid to take out," I said before the MegaZord slowly stepped towards the squid, carefully stepping around the platforms.
The squid seemed rather amused by this, "What's the matter rangers? Tight squeeze?" he asked with an amused giggle.
Our only reply to that was a giant metal fist right to his stupid face. "OW! That hurt!" whined the squid as it staggered back. Fighting in such tight quarters was going to be tough, but thankfully the squid himself was equally limited, as he couldn't seem to quite swing his tentacles effectively without them bouncing off platforms or rock formations.
Or maybe I spoke too soon, as suddenly the squid managed to entangle the MegaZord in its tentacles. "HA! Gotcha!" he laughed. "Lookie, I caught a big one!" It laughed before slamming us right into the side of the rocky wall. Dirt and rocks spilled all over the MegaZord as it fell to the ground with a mighty thud.
"Man, I don't know how many more of those we can take," said Dean.
"We've gotta hold strong guys, Cynder's counting on us!" I said. But in truth, I kinda knew Dean was right, fighting in such tight conditions like this wasn't exactly working out for us. If this kept up, well… Cynder's gonna be down four rescuers…
Zenith…
This wasn't good, the other rangers Zord thing wasn't exactly winning the fight. Their metal man wasn't nearly as limber as the squid was. Worse yet, the little dragon was getting restless. I was doing my best to keep him away from the titans that currently did battle, but it wasn't easy.
"Get out of my way!" snarled the dragon.
"Do you have a death wish?!" I asked him, "Do you not see the giants currently fighting in this room? Do you want to be squished?!" I snapped at him.
The dragon then suddenly hit me with what I think was a strong gust of wind, which sent me tumbling across the stone floor. The second I was able to regain my senses the little dragon was making a break for the next room! "You've got to be kidding me!" I growled in annoyance before giving chase. This idiot was going to get us both killed!
Things instantly got worse when the squid noticed the little dragon running by. "Hey! Where do you think you're going?" it asked before readying one of its tentacles to smash him. Thankfully however, the MegaZord blocked it with one of it's giant metal arms, allowing the young dragon to pass by safely.
"Zenith, go after him! We'll handle the squid!" instructed the voice of Dylan. I nodded and gave chase, I wasn't much help to the other rangers right now anyways.
I followed the dragon down a hallway that seemed to go on forever until eventually I had found him stopped in front of an army of men in robes. At the head of the pack was a black furred wolf in black armor. "Well well well, what do we have here?" he said to the dragon.
"Purple Dragon Saber!" I called out, summoning my saber to my paw. But doing this finally caused the wolf to notice me. And given the vicious snarl that came from his throat, he wasn't exactly pleased to see me. "What is this?!" he questioned. "No! NO! Four of you is bad enough already! I will not suffer a fifth!" he complained.
"If you don't want to suffer my blade, wolf, you'll tell me where you're keeping Cynder!" I demanded, getting into a fighting stance to show that I wasn't bluffing.
The wolf drew his own sword, "Please, you think you can cross swords with me? Scorn Dreadfang?" he said, as if I was supposed to know or care what he called himself. His name was meaningless to me, he was just another enemy to cut down.
"We Avalar Cheetahs fear no one," I said. "Especially not a mangy mutt like you." I added.
That last comment really set this "Scorn" character off. "I have been insulted enough for one day, you filthy Avalarian savage!" he roared before taking a swing at me, easily dodged.
"We are not savages!" I argued before slicing him right across the chest. "We are warriors!" I roared before slashing him again.
Scorn staggered back as his followers all stood in awe. "Call yourself whatever you like!" he snarled, "But when this is over, all you'll be is a cadaver!" he growled before taking more swings at me.
Each one easily dodged, this wolf was skilled, I'd give him that much. But he had no technique, no discipline. He relied too much on anger and strength, making him easy to counter. With one swift motion, I disarmed the wolf and sent him back to the ground. "Give up, you can't match my power," I said.
Scorn was visibly frustrated, his face scrunched into a wild snarl, he looked almost feral. "No! There is no swordsman better than I! NO ONE!" he roared before lunging at me, fangs and claws bared.
"Elemental Power! 500 Aether Slash! Final Attack!" I called before slashing into the wolf exactly five hundred times in the blink of an eye, catching him right in mid leap. So fast in fact that he didn't even react to it until I finished and struck my pose. The wolf fell to all fours in a parade of sparks.
"This battle is over," I said flatly before marching towards Scorn's followers, who out of fear, all stood aside and let me and the young dragon through… what an utter waste of my time...
Meanwhile…
Back with the Rangers…
Dylan Foutler…
Things weren't exactly improving here, it had become abundantly clear that I had jumped the gun in assuming the squid shared our tight quarters disadvantage. His noddle like tentacles had no problems maneuvering through the catacombs, while the Megazords giant bulging metal limbs could barely deliver so much as a solid punch.
"Guys, we need to think of something," said Kevin.
Come on, there's gotta be some way out of this, I refuse to let a freaking squid of all things be the one to finally kill us. But this was quite the bind we were in, I mean, how do we fight a giant squid in such tight quarters?
"It's no use!" said Jess, "We're just too big, we can't fight him in here," she said.
Then it hit me, something that, admittedly, I should have thought of before. "Then we make ourselves smaller, break off into individual zords!" I said.
"But the individual zords are weaker than the MegaZord, and he's already kicking our rears," said Kevin.
"What choice do we have?" said Dean, "We can't fight him like this," he added.
It was settled, we all hit our collective buttons and the MegaZord deconstructed back into its individual parts.
The squid, of course, wasn't intimidated. "Ha! You think that's gonna help you? I'll crush all of your stupid metal dragons!" the squid laughed before snatching Dean right out of the air with his tentacle.
"Crap! Guys, he's got me!" cried Dean.
Good job Foutler, not ten seconds into your little plan and it's already falling apart. But well… in for a penny in for a pound. "Keep your Zords moving and lay on some heat, he can't keep up with all four of us," I said.
It has been a long time since we've tried to fight anything in our individual Zords. So we were all more than a bit rusty. But it didn't really take long for things to start to click and the poor squid had no clue what to do.
First I managed to get Dean free by hitting the squid with my Zord's fire breath, causing him to lose his grip. Kevin quickly pounced on the squid's back, the Zord's teeth biting right into the squid's head, causing it to cry out and flail it's tentacles all around like it's hair was on fire.
Dean wasted no time getting back into the fight, having his Zord shoulder check the squid right into the wall with a painful crack. "Ha! With a hit like that, I'd kill it at LineBacker!" Dean laughed.
The squid however wasn't going down without a fight. It immediately slapped Dean away and ripped Kevin off it's head, slamming Kevin's Zord to the ground with so much force that it shook the ground beneath us. But I wasn't about to let this stupid squid make a comeback! I quickly smacked it across the face with my Zord's tail, sending it sliding across the ground.
Soon all four Zords joined side by side. "Alright guys, let's take it over the top guys," I said. "All together now!" I called out before each of us launched our Zord's breath attacks at the squid all at once.
The squid couldn't get out of the way in time and all four elements nailed him dead on. The sheer power of all four dragon elements was just too much for the squid, and he fell to the ground before exploding in a large fireball.
Victory was ours.
Meanwhile…
Zenith…
It took a moment to reach the center of the catacombs. I had to knock around a few cultists along the way, but we were so close now. I could see the center chamber coming up, she had to be in here… however, when we got there… well… I wasn't expecting this.
Cynder wasn't there, but there were a bunch of bloody and beaten cultists strewn about and a broken chain in the center of the room. I inspected the chain, it looked like something… melted it… like acid or something similar.
The little dragon looked around, sniffing at the air occasionally, "Wh-where is she? Where's mom?" he asked as he frantically searched the room for his mother, which I assumed was Cynder.
I began to piece it together, "She must have escaped on her own while we were busy with Scorn and his squid," I theorized. That certainly seemed to be the most likely scenario, and explained all the beaten cultists. But that begged the question… where did she go? How did we not run into her while moving through the catacombs?
"Cynder's pretty familiar with the catacombs," said my dragon spirit, "She probably found another exit," he theorized. Well… it's not how I expected the situation to be resolved, but I can hardly complain. After all, whether it was by her own claws or ours, she was free, she was safe, and our job was done here.
Well, I may have been fine with the result, but someone else wasn't. "NO! She was supposed to be here!" the little dragon yelled. "We were supposed to be reunited! Be a family again! Why? Why would she just leave?" he asked.
"Maybe because she didn't know we were down here and didn't want to remain captured by an evil cult?" I said dryly.
The little dragon didn't take kindly to that, "You may be okay with that, but I'm not!" he yelled. How old was this dragon? Fourteen? A little old to be that attached to his mother. "I'm sick of this! I'm sick of not having my parents! I'm sick of being stuck in that stupid temple with the guardians!" he said.
"Look," I growled before grabbing him by the chin, forcing him to look me in the eyes… well, visor to be more accurate, but you get the point. "She's free, she's away from Malefor and his order, I'm sorry you miss your parents, but it's better that than her being turned into the Terror of the Skies again or whatever else Malefor had planned for her," I said. Who even was this child? I didn't know Cynder had a child, and with who?
Just then, the other four ranges soon joined us in the room. They all seemed kind of shocked by all the bodies littered throughout the room. "Wow… someone had fun in here," Kevin commented.
"Where's Cynder?" asked Dean.
"It seems she escaped while we were busy dealing with The Order and that monster," I explained.
Kevin crossed his arms, "I guess Cynder's not the "damsel in distress" type," he joked. "So I guess we're done here?" he asked.
I looked at the small dragon, "Not yet," I said. "Who are you? And more importantly, why are you even here?" I asked. I wanted answers, and I wanted them now.
All five of us surrounded him, all of us wanted an explanation. He was reluctant at first, just angrily looking away from us before the impatient stares of five Power Rangers finally managed to break him. "My name is Sol," he said, "Cynder's my mother," he explained.
Well at least he had a name now. And it seems I was right in assuming he was Cynder's child. However that was only half of the story, and Kevin wanted to know the other half. "Cynder had a kid huh, and who's daddy?" he asked. A little more… "forward" than I would have been, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't curious about that myself.
Sol glared at Kevin, "Look at me, who do you think it is?" he asked. It was hard to tell to be honest, he certainly took after his mother more than his father. He had her markings, her scale color, the only real differences were his gold underbelly and red and gold head fins. Wait… those kind of looked like…
"Spyro had a son?" I questioned.
Everyone in the room was shocked. Most of all my dragon spirit "I had a son?" he questioned. Everyone stood silent in the temple chambers, not too sure how to react to this revelation. I mean, part of us should have assumed he was Spyro's son, Cynder and him were mates after all.
Sol sort of walked to the center of the room before sitting himself down where his mother was once held. "I never knew him, my dad," he said. "He vanished when I was too little to remember, mom was all I had until she vanished too," he explained. "Flame says it wasn't long after dad left, but he's wrong, it was a year, Unlike my dad… I do remember my mom…" he said before beginning to choke up, "I miss her so much… I just want her back… that's why I came here… I thought if I reached her first I could convince her to come home..." he said before he suddenly turned an angry eye towards us. "But you five had to come along and ruin everything! Just like you always do!" he yelled.
"Whoa! How is this our fault?!" asked Kevin.
"If it weren't for you, dad would have never left, and if dad never left, mom wouldn't have either!" Sol said before breaking down into tears. "I hate you! All of you! If it weren't for you stupid Power Rangers I'd have a family! A real family!" he yelled.
Dylan stepped forward, "Sol, that's not fair," he said, "We're just trying to protect people, we had no intention of taking away your family," he explained. Sol was young, emotional, he wanted his parents back and needed someone to blame for their disappearance, to put a face on his pain. For whatever reason, he chose us to be that face.
"Then give him back!" Sol snapped, "Give me back my dad! My mom! Let me have my family back!" he demanded.
This was an unwinnable situation, we all knew we couldn't give Sol what he wanted, Cynder was probably long gone by now and Spyro was needed where he was. "I thought so," Sol said before walking off, disappearing into the darkened halls.
Kevin stood next to me, "Man… I guess he didn't inherit his dad's sunny disposition," he commented. Ancestors Kevin… don't make me hit you.
Jess looked around, "Well, what do we do now?" she asked.
Dylan sighed, "Nothing else to do, Cynder rescued herself, so I guess we just leave," he said.
Dean hung his head low, "I know we technically won… but man does this feel like a loss," he commented.
I shook my head, "Nothing to be done about it now, we should head back and inform Flame of what happened," I said. I still found it odd though… how did she escape without us running into her? The mind boggles…
Meanwhile…
Cynder…
They had no idea I was there, just as I wanted it. I just sat there and watched them, using my shadow breath to hide in one of the walls where they couldn't see me. I didn't expect to see Sol down here… he's gotten so big since I last saw him… it broke my heart to see how upset he was that he didn't find me. But I wasn't ready to confront him or the Power Rangers yet.
It was… weird… seeing them in the flesh. Spyro always talked about them before he disappeared but I never thought I'd actually see them. I knew this meant Spyro was indeed alive, and that made me feel a little better, I won't lie. It was nice to know Spyro was still alive. But it was also bittersweet...
Malefor was back… ancestors… the thought still made me sick to my stomach. I needed to work on something to help Spyro defeat him… but I couldn't do that if the Power Rangers found me. I knew Spyro would demand they bring me to him… he was probably losing his mind right now.
We'll be reunited in due time my love… and I look forward to that day. But for now… I had other things that required my attention… things I needed to do… to create. We started this war together, Spyro and together we shall finish it.
With one little sigh, I vanished into the shadows…
Meanwhile…
Elsewhere in the Catacombs…
Scorn…
I limped through the halls of the catacombs. The pain from that Purple Ranger's attack still stung throughout my body, but that pain paled in comparison to the humiliation I felt right now.
He beat me so easily… he barely even tried and he still managed to completely humiliate me. Cynder's mocking words repeated in my mind on endless repeat…
"You think you're special?"
"Did he tell you that himself? Or is that what you tell yourself to make yourself feel important?"
"How long until Malefor gets tired of you and casts you away like he does all of his toys?"
I found myself collapsing to one knee, using my sword to keep myself from completely falling over. I inhaled sharply as I tried to withstand the pain. I was broken, both physically and mentally… when I entered this forsaken catacomb… I was Scorn Dreadfang… proud warrior mage… head of the Order of Malefor… I knew who I was.
But now? Now I was nothing… just a broken wolf brought to his knees by an Avalar Cheetah in purple tights! I was depressed… hurt… but most of all… I was angry. The more I thought about that purple ranger, the more I wanted him dead! He… he would pay for this humiliation… he will die for this… and it will be my my blade, and only my blade! All of them will! Every single Power Ranger in existence will fall broken before my feet! Of this… I swear!
But to do this… I need power… power… if they could enhance their abilities through magic, why can't I? I began to laugh to myself, images of broken and dead Power Rangers danced through my head, it was the most beautiful sight… Each image that passed made the laughter grow louder and louder.
Normally I'd fight the madness, but not this time… no… I welcomed it like an old friend. I let it's embrace take me, what else was a broken wolf to do? All that remained, all that I cared about now… was the end.
The end… of the Power Rangers.
A/N: Well, isn't that a happy thought? It seems Scorn has finally lost his marbles and has sworn bloody vengeance on all Power Rangers.
I know this chapter is short, but ending it here felt right, and with me being distracted by the NFL draft and all… I didn't want to end up staying up until midnight writing this again.
Don't worry, we haven't seen the last of Cynder, no we'll see her again soon enough.