Chapter 19

Prismatic Battle

Zedd looked down into a hole in the floor of the building. The humans had their buried their Zeo Crystal underground and encased it in concrete. It would not stop the Machine Empire.

Three rangers circled him. Pink and Yellow were more resilient than he had assumed, but teamwork was a crutch. That instinct needed to be beaten out of them. They needed Zedd's tutelage.

The Blue Ranger hadn't followed the battle. He stood outside, holding his head, his weapon at his feet. The boy was not fit to be a ranger.

"You want to save him," Zedd said walking toward Billy, "Well-intentioned, but naive." He stopped in front of him. "His mind is broken."

"He isn't broken!" Trini lashed out, but Kim closed the distance faster. She kicked Zedd in the abdomen, flipped over his counter attack, and landed three strikes on his back. She took a few steps back to regroup.

Trini reached him, but Zedd was ready despite Kim's attacks. He grabbed her and threw her away. She landed on her feet and readied herself to go at him again.

"Hold," Zedd demanded. Kim, Jason, and Trini held their weapons on him. Zedd stabbed his spear into the ground and crouched in front of Billy.

Billy looked up at the black and red of his visor.

"Pick it up."

Billy looked down at his lance and willed his hand to reach for it. His legs buckled and he fell to his knees.

Zedd stepped away, he had shown them all they needed to see. He pulled his spear out of the ground with a sharp jerk and looked up into the sky. "If you do not unleash your true potential, this world will burn. You have mere minutes."

Jason followed his gaze, remembering his encounter with the machines on the devastated world. Zedd was right. "Kim, Trini, get Billy out of here." Zedd was still looking at the sky. "And get the zords ready."

"What happened to 'Together, we are all strong'?" Trini asked, not believing what she was hearing.

"Something worse is coming."

Kim grabbed Billy and she and Trini teleported back to the ship.

"So," Zedd said once he and Jason were alone. "You are ready to unlock your true power?"

"No." Jason once again held his sword between him and Zedd. "We can beat them without it."

"Do you know how many rangers have died trying? Thousands. You cannot defeat them. Even if you are four."

"Why don't you add one more to that," Tommy said from behind Zedd. She was clad in perfect green armor and holding a rocket launcher in one hand as she strode up the street.

"Tommy, you've returned." Zedd took a wide stance and readied his spear. "Show me how powerful you've become."

Tommy pointed her Mk 153 at Zedd, bracing it against her hip. He was a nice wide target.

Jason ignited the green dagger. He didn't know what Tommy's game was, but she actually seemed to be aimed in the right direction. They would deal with her later, there were too many threats for Jason to deal with.

Zedd looked from one of his students to the other, obstinate and needlessly, uselessly, defiant. But, that was the quality that would save them. Delphine had never once challenged him. She endeavored to follow his orders to the letter. He had known she was worthless toward his goal when he had granted the Aquitarians their coins. The more control Zedd had to exert, the more useless they became. They would be able to protect their own planet, but had already reached the limit of their power. Jason fought him like an enemy. Tommy pulled herself out of the pit he threw her in. These two were, in fact, worthy.

"I cannot stop them alone," Zedd admitted. "And as you are, you are both less than nothing."

Jason didn't react, but Tommy had had enough. "Then here goes nothing." She fired her rocket-propelled grenade at Zedd's feet.

The force of the blast and shrapnel flying through the air were nothing to ranger armor. Zedd looked into the sky while a crater formed below his boots. More pointless defiance.

Tommy charged swinging the launcher. It bent when it struck Zedd's armor, but it didn't have any other effect on him.

Jason swung his sword like a bat and hit Zedd in the back. Sparks flew and Zedd had to take a step.

Zedd had tried reasoning with them. He should have known he would have to force the result he needed.

He kicked Jason's foot out from under him. He went to the ground and rolled away to get up.

Tommy avoided Zedd's spear, allowing Jason to come up from behind. Jason wrapped his arms around Zedd's waist and lifted. He didn't come off the ground.

Zedd grabbed Jason's shoulder and threw him off.

Tommy and Jason stood side by side. Zedd planted his spear into the ground. "The machines will-"

"Machines! Machines! It's always about the machines!" Tommy said. "This isn't about them, it's about you."

Zedd lunged at Tommy with his hand open. Jason leaped in front of her and Zedd grabbed him by the neck.

Jason released the sword and dagger. They fell right into Tommy's hands. She slashed Zedd with them, sparks shot off his armor where she was cutting. The shards of his armor began to glow from all the hits.

Zedd backed up, keeping Jason away from her assault as he endured it. When she finally saw it was no use, he knocked her over making the sword fly out of her hand, but she only gripped the dagger harder.

He took her by the throat and held his two charges in front of him. Jason tried to pry Zedd's fingers off and Tommy stabbed at his wrist uselessly.

Tommy had diminished her coin, rejecting the gift her had given her when she had received it. He thought of Rita, only the latest in a string of failures. Every ranger he had guided, failure after failure. He would not fail again.

Zedd reached into the grid for enough power to overload them. Their defiance would prove useful. He would pump power into them and they would fight him until they transformed into what he was, a shattered ranger.

They screamed, pushing the power down, holding it without dropping it. Zedd knew the pain well. "Do not fight this."

"Fuck you," Jason spat.

"I'm with him," Tommy said through her teeth.

Yes. Exactly. "So be it." Zedd pushed harder. They screamed again, he could feel it inside of them, the power building beyond an overload.

They were about to achieve their true forms when a bolt of plasma cut through void and time and blasted Zedd in the chest. He crashed back, losing his grip on Tommy and Jason. They overloaded and collapsed on the ground in their human forms.

Zack came out of nowhere and casually strode up to Zedd like he had been there the whole time.

"You." Zedd sighed, regarding his newest student. Zedd could see him in the Grid. The black ranger had abandoned his self to meld into his friends. He shared all of their strengths, but also their weaknesses. He had fully succumbed to Zordon's failure. "You may as well join the machines."

Zack chuckled and folded his gun back into an axe. "You only say that because you don't get it."

"I do understand. My mentor, Trey, once thought as you do, ten-thousand years ago. And Zordon before him. It is a failed philosophy." Zedd shook his head.

Zack shrugged. "Could hold you back."

Their time was short, but this one needed a lesson. He could only be a regrettable influence on the others. "Prove it." Zedd thrust his spear at Zack's chest.

Zack blocked it with his axe let it slide past him like Kim would.

Zedd swung wide at Zack, hard and fast. Zack channeled Trini and blocked every hit.

Tommy beat punch after punch into Zedd, not letting up. Jason came down with the sword in one big axe strike, knocking Zedd down. Trini kicked him away.

Zedd rose to his full height and studied Zack. He could channel his friends, but it still wasn't enough. Zedd was still much more powerful. He railed against Zack.

Zack let himself indulge in his identity. He smiled, dancing around Zedd's swings and thrusts in rhythm with a song in his head. He used that beat to let loose a few strikes of his own.

Zedd gripped his spear in frustration. "How are you doing this?"

Zack smirked at him. "I followed a failed philosophy." His friends were all with him. Jason, Kim, Tommy, Trini, and Billy.

"Then you have the perfect chance to test it." Zedd looked up into the sky. "They are here."

A dozen shadows passed over Angel Grove, space ships, the invading tendrils of the Machine Empire.

"Let's see if you can hold them back."

Everything was quiet and dark. Billy could think again. He let himself be there for however long he needed. When he felt better he raised his head.

"Billy," Trini said, from behind her helmet. "There's a bunch of robots attacking. We need to get into our zords."

Drive his zord and shoot at a bunch of robots, Billy could do that. They weren't alive or talking or anything. "Yeah, yeah." He nodded. "Cool."

Zack teleported into the cave holding Tommy and Jason limp over his shoulders.

"Zack!?" Trini stepped toward him. "Where did you go?"

He set Tommy and Jason down and smirked that dumb smirk at her. "I had to do stuff. But I'm here now."

Trini punched him in the chest. "Asshole." She turned back to Billy. "We need to go. Kim is already out there."

"We have to help her." Jason coughed, staggering to his shaking feet. He didn't know if he could morph, but he didn't care. He had a job to do.

Tommy sat up, letting the pain drain out of her blood.

"What happened to Zedd?" Billy asked.

"He wants to test us," Jason said climbing into his cockpit.

Trini stepped up to Tommy. "You're helping us, huh?"

Tommy looked up at her and smirked. "Yeah."

Trini didn't allow any emotion to show on her face. "Your zord is over there." She cocked her head to the left then walked to her tigerzord.

Tommy shook her head and got up. Her armor came back as she knew it would.

"Tommy," Alpha said. "Your zord is operational, but the left arm is still giving me some trouble. It might jam on you."

She looked up at her dragon, the most badass of all the zords. "I'll make it work."

It was much different being in the cockpit with her armor. She sat in the seat and it connected with her. All of the symbols and gauges on the console and lighting the HUD suddenly made perfect sense. She powered it up and gripped the controls.

The army fired rockets at the alien ships, but they had some kind of energy shield. Kim armed her plasma casters and shot at the closest one. After two strafing runs with concentrated fire, the shields failed and the armor melted. The ship exploded in a fireball. She weaved around it and put another in her sights.

One dropship managed to land. Drones poured out of it. Soldiers opened fire on them. The drones' armor deflected most of the damage. An ATV used a machine gun that was slightly more effective.

More landed before Trini charged the line, crushing one of the dropships with her claws and taking out a line of drones with her plasma casters. The others

Tommy's zord lumbered out of the cave well behind the others. She studied the console and found the power distribution system. She took power from weapons and fed it into mobility. Her speed doubled, but she still lagged behind. Her zord was built to be a heavily-armored juggernaut and there was nothing to be done about it.

Three large objects fell out of the sky and slammed into the ground. They unfurled to form massive guns that stood on three short legs.

"Those things are huge," Billy said.

Jason recognized the threat, they had to be taken out. "Kim and Trini, focus on the dropships," he said. "The rest of us will take the one closest to the Zeo Crystal."

An alarm blared in Kim's cockpit and her HUD flashed, indicating a threat above her. She pulled up and saw a fourth object falling from the sky. It swooped down, snaking through the air.

Kim flew at it. It got bigger and bigger and bigger, too big. "Guys, are you seeing this?" She was too in awe to look at the distance indicator as it fell into the ocean.

A dragon emerged from the water, climbing to the shallows, and braced itself on two legs. It was easily 25 stories tall, thoroughly dwarfing even the Megazord, and clad in shiny silver armor.

"Now, that's a dragonzord," Trini said.

"Serpenterra," Tommy's gaze hardened. "That's Zedd's zord."

"Focus on the aliens, guys," Jason said.

"One of them is getting closer to the crystal," Billy said.

"Let's hit it with everything we have."

Kim dove and unloaded her plasma batteries onto it. She pulled up at the last moment and took another run at the dropships.

Trini recognized that the others could handle it. While Kim engaged the dropships, Trini helped the army mop up the drones. Their firearms weren't very effective against them, but she could roll right through them.

Zack pulled up in front of the borg and charged the mastozord's beam. He took a breath, knowing it would be able to fire before he could, but he had something it didn't.

Tommy came from the side and uppercut the robot with her left cannon, slamming it up. Its shot went into the sky.

Jason slammed into the legs to expose the wide side and Zack took his shot. A beam of plasma cut through the side.

"Nice! Now let's take down the other two."

Serpenterra's claw ripped right through one of the remaining borgs. From the other side of town, the last borg turned it's main gun and fired at it.

The explosion on it's neck barely broke through the armor. Serpenterra registered the attack and charged the beam in its mouth. The beam tore a perfectly circular hole through it. It broke apart in a series of explosions.

Serpenterra stepped triumphantly through the shallow water of the bay toward the beach. "I have been fighting the machines for ten thousand years," Zedd bellowed, over the comms. "The only way to stop them is to seize true power."

"What's his problem?" Kim asked.

"He forgot who his enemy is," Zack said.

"Surround it," Jason said. "And keep it's fire off Tommy."

"Why me?" Tommy asked.

"That zord's slow but it packs a punch. Take the shot when you get it, Tommy."

Everyone broke apart and opened fire. Trini and Zack unleashed rapid firing plasma guns, Kim took shots at it from behind. Its armor absorbed the shots.

Tommy unloaded both barrels into it's center mass. The explosions made it step back, but only did superficial carbon-scoring.

Serpenterra plodded toward them, opening its mouth to fire a beam of white-hot plasma across the line of zords.

The ground the zords were standing on upended itself. Tommy's zord barely stepped back in time to avoid the worst of it. It took a direct hit on the right side, losing that cannon. The mastozord couldn't hold its ground and smashed into buildings further back. Billy managed to plant his zord to the ground and was still firing everything he had.

Serpenterra drew closer, focusing on the tricerazord, and charged another plasma attack to destroy it.

Tommy grit her teeth, trying to lift her zord's left arm. It wasn't responding after that last hit. She tilted her zord back but couldn't bring the arm up enough to make a difference.

Jason loaded his rail guns, aimed for the head, and fired two shots. The force of the impact knocked Serpenterra's head away from Billy, its beam shot over the horizon.

Trini climbed up a cliff overlooking the ocean. She targeted it and fired shots to get its attention. It tracked her with glowing red eyes getting in close. Trini jumped onto the dragon, her claws scraping the silver armor.

Tommy switched to her zord's shoulder batteries and began unloading them on Serpenterra's chest.

A bright light shot wildly from Serpenterra's mouth. It started whipping itself around in an attempt to throw Trini off itself and shoot Kim down at the same time.

"I could use some help here!" Trini pleaded.

"Billy, Zack, knock it down!" Jason ordered. "Hang on, Trini!"

"Ready, Billy?" Zack asked.

"Let's do this!" He shouted as they both charged full-speed into the Serpenterra's legs.

Jason charged from the side, clamping his jaws into one of the Zord's legs. The plating crushed the slightest bit before refusing to yield further. They were bugs waiting to be crushed.

"We need the Megazord!" Billy shouted.

"I don't even remember how we did it," Trini said.

"Keep it together, guys. We can win this," Jason said, though even he didn't believe it. He believed in his friends, and that was what mattered.

Serpenterra whipped around, throwing all the zords away from it. They scrambled to their feet. Kim flew a strafing run to distract it.

Serpenterra caught Kim with it's claw. She pulled away hard and managed to escape it's grasp, but she went down into the sand. It charged it's beam to finish her off.

"Everyone on Kim!" Jason ordered. Trini was already halfway there. Zack and Billy pulled up and they formed a tight cluster.

Tommy dumped all of her weapons power into mobility and bounded her zord toward Kim. She landed on top of the others. That shell on her back had to be good for something.

The other rangers came together as the beam slammed into them.