Power Rangers: The Rise
Can we change the course of our destinies or are we simply delaying the inevitable?
Time after time, this question has been asked. Some believe we write our own destinies and shape the course of our lives. Others believe they are predetermined and that we play our roles like actors on a stage.
Throughout history, great and powerful individuals have risen to fight and created lasting legacies.
Heroes.
Villains.
Conquerors
Saviours.
One such villain and conqueror was the Monarch Zyberius, a tyrannical overlord that sought to enslave humanity. He brought his army to Earth, seeking to dominate the world.
It was a time of darkness and fury and when all seemed bleak, there were those who dared to oppose him. They were warriors known as the Power Rangers, bestowed with superhuman powers by the warrior princess Kaileena. After countless battles, it all came to one final clash between the Rangers and the Monarch. As Earth was turned into a battleground between men and monsters, they fought for the freedom of mankind. Victory seemed at hand. But the power of the Monarch was not so easily undone.
With hope lost and the Rangers nearing the edge of destruction, the Silver Ranger, the leader of the Rangers and the Monarch locked horns in single combat. In the end, Zyberius was defeated. The Silver Ranger made the ultimate sacrifice. The Rangers won, mankind was freed, purged from the great evil that had long plagued them.
Humanity began to rebuild itself and the Rangers quietly continued to watch over mankind.
Time marched on, and a new enemy suddenly appeared known as the Dark King Arulo. One by one, he drew them out and challenged them. At the apex of this, our story begins.
Prologue
The Green Ranger cautiously entered the inner sanctum and surveyed his surroundings, taking note of the arcane glyphs on the walls that illuminated the otherwise pitch-black cul-de-sac. His footsteps loudly echoed throughout the entire room, essentially robbing him of the means to make his entrance a stealthy and quiet one. Though he had been compromised in that aspect, he fearlessly pressed on with the matter at hand. Suspicion and paranoia flooded his mind as he remained on guard. This was the perfect place to have sentries or to set up a booby trap or an ambush but instead there was nothing here at all, all except for a calm stillness and a deathly silent room. The Green Ranger heard a voice, and his adversary, the Dark King Arulo revealed himself from the shadows as he welcomed the hero in a calm and sardonic tone.
"The actor arrives on stage for his final performance, tardy and later than I had hoped. How disappointing…"
The Dark King's voice was articulate and well-spoken yet laced with a sinister, guttural quality to it that could send shivers even the bravest of men's spines.
Without hesitation, the green ranger activated the inbuilt scanners in his helmet to try and locate Arulo via detecting his vital signs. He surveyed the inner sanctum once again, more thoroughly this time round, the scanners beeped several times as they detected his quarry.
"How much longer are you going to keep hiding in the shadows? Come out and show yourself Arulo!" The Green Ranger demanded, having grown tired of this prolonged and twisted game of hide and seek. As if on cue, the arcane glyphs on the walls flared up and radiated an eerie light until finally the entire room was lit up fully revealing the inner sanctum. The sight that lay before the hero's eyes was a truly horrifying one.
Before him were the bodies of monsters and men littering the ground, a berth of dying foes had been left here to slowly perish in various painful ways. For the ones that had long been murdered and had already decomposed to skeletons, they were the lucky ones.
The monsters that remained alive had been sliced and diced, riddled with blaster and bullet holes, blood, tissue and sinew poured out of them or quite simply blown to pieces with their limbs laying merely inches away from. The men on the other hand that remained here had suffered equally cruel fates. Some had been mangled and eaten, what little scraps of them that remained had been tossed aside like rag dolls. Others had been crudely impaled on pikes, held up as war trophies for decorations whilst there were some that had been repeatedly slashed, stabbed, shot, burned, crushed and beaten beyond the point of recognition and yet with some cruel whim, they had been kept alive via healing magic. The sounds of their choked and dying breaths reached his ears.
There were those from both races who could not even muster the ability to breathe or choke or even a small whimper, a cry or a gasp thanks to their windpipes being cut and the ones that retained their ability to speak begged for their lives, for death, for their loved ones. And there were even those that had had their tongues cut out or burned off, leaving them mute, fully aware and fully in pain.
The sickening sight made him gag and as he forced himself to swallow down the vile taste of his own vomit at this very sight, the hero soon regained his composure, doing his best to ignore the feelings of panic and dread that now swam around his body.
It was then that a cancerous, malignant presence made itself known, as the one responsible for this massacre exposed himself to the hero.
"Vae Victis." Arulo said coldly. And there, waiting at the far end of the sanctum and sitting on a throne of skulls, was the Dark King himself. He was clad in a long, tattered brown cloak that covered his body and a metallic mask obscured his face completely. Adorned at his side and mere millimetres away from Arulo's grasp was a sword tucked away in its sheathe and scattered around him were the bodies of the Green Ranger's comrades, each of them brutally murdered. "As you can clearly tell, they did not put up much of a fight, let alone a challenge. But nevertheless, they stood their ground and fought valiantly. And pardon the cliche but I suppose that you could say that they dropped like flies." Arulo mused softly and casually.
Without hesitation, the Green Ranger summoned his weapon, the Roar Cannon and opened fire on Arulo. A barrier of light formed in front of the villain, blocking the shots and shielding him from harm but the gunman refused to let up his attack and increased the number of blaster rounds. The hero's gunshots suddenly started to bounce off the barrier and do damage to the inner sanctum, causing the inner sanctum to be set ablaze by the furious assault.
Smoke filled the air and as the thick clouds of smoke swirled around the inner sanctum, the barrier shielding the Dark King began to weaken. In that moment, the Green Ranger saw the opportunity he was looking for. Yes! I can see it now!
This was his chance! The gunman took point and adjusted his aim, seeing the barrier's weak point. Instead of firing off a barrage of blaster shots as he had done, he began to charge his Roar Cannon up, waves of green energy bubbled around the barrel.
"Roar Cannon! FULL THROTTLE!" A massive wave of pure energy shot out of his weapon towards Arulo, shattering the barrier and swallowing him whole in the blast. A huge explosion drowned the Dark King in a fury of light and sound.
Smoke fumed everywhere, leaving the green ranger blinded. Soon, the wind carried it away. A massive crater was left in the blast's wake, along with the remnants of what had been the decadent throne of skulls. A shadowy silhouette could be seen standing motionlessly in the middle of it all, and as the dust settled, Arulo was revealed to be unharmed.
The Green Ranger gasped in surprise and beneath his helmet, his eyes widened in horror. "What? How?" The words came tumbling out of his mouth in disbelief.
"Tell me, what can you hope to do with that child's toy you call a weapon?" The calm voice of Arulo questioned as he tossed his cloak to one side, revealing his appearance to be that of a warrior in sleek white armour.
Then suddenly he vanished and reappeared in front of the Green Ranger, forcibly lowering the Roar Cannon and propelling his opponent back by a blast of telekinetic energy, hurling him through the air and viciously slamming him through a wall.
"AAARGH!" A fierce scream escaped the Green Ranger as the pain tore through him. Relentlessly, he pulled himself out of the rubble, panting vigorously for breath as he pushed himself up to his knees.
Immediately without fail or pause, Arulo teleported once again and reappeared, standing over his fallen foe. As the green ranger attempted to raise his weapon, Arulo plunged his right hand straight into his chest, impaling him with the clawed fingers on his hand gauntlet. Tearing his hand out from the hero's chest, Arulo turned his back and walked away as the Green Ranger's body collapsed to the ground.
"Coward! Don't walk away from me… We're not…" The Green Ranger called out weakly as he felt the life drain out of him. "Finished yet…!" His vision started to fade to black. He felt blood gush freely out of him, that attack had forced him to de-morph, leaving him powerless. In the distance, he could faintly hear Arulo's icy voice speak to him, getting further and further away.
"Your bravado serves you no good. If you can still move in that condition, then I would advise you to give up and flee while you can. If not, then stay here and perish, among the wreckage of all that remains of you and your comrades."
As his consciousness faded and his life quickly began to ebb away, thoughts, feelings and memories flooded the fallen hero's mind. His mentor, his family, his friends and allies who he had fought alongside now lay dead by his side at the hands of this monster and more so, his own life and of his will to fight.
"I can't give up now! I can't give up! NO! I WON'T GIVE UP! NOT WHEN I'VE COME SO DAMN FAR!" his mind screamed at him as a mixture of suicidal determination and willpower overwhelmed his entire being. With what little strength he had left, he brought his mouth to his morpher and quietly uttered one thing, "Potentium!" Power and energy surged through his body, as he forced his morpher to activate, the wound knitted back up and he defiantly got back up to his feet, morphed and ready to fight again.
"I'm not giving up! And if you think I ever would give up then I gotta ask… WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK I AM?!"
Though his opponent had risen back up, Arulo did not halt his stride but rather he carried on and returned to his now desecrated throne, propping one leg on top of the other and slouching apathetically in his throne.
"I was hoping that you would be able to spur my interest a little more than your friends did but sadly I'm beginning to lose interest in you, my little friend. Perhaps I should take it upon myself to motivate you a little more.
Suddenly, a body descended from the ceiling, revealing it to be that of the body of a bloodied and battered blonde woman in celestial robes, a chain wrapped around her neck as an impromptu noose. Using his telekinesis, Arulo forcefully pulled the woman's body towards him, lowering her onto her knees, her head bowed in submission. In one fell swoop, he swiftly severed her head with his sword. He then picked up the decapitated head of the woman, holding it playfully in his hand.
"I remember her… She put up quite a fight," he reflected, a lustful tone etched into his cold and articulate voice as he brought the skull closer to his face, tightening his grip as he held it longingly. "This woman was your mentor, correct? She had such beautiful eyes. They were so fair, fiery and full of life. After I had defeated your friends, your little mentor here made the error of stepping in. It was truly a pity to see the life dwindle away from those beautiful eyes… I think I may keep them as a memento."
Before he could continue, the Green Ranger launched himself furiously at him, attacking the Dark King, only to be repelled back by an energy barrier, hurling him across the room.
"Foolish boy…" Arulo chided. "Since you refuse to take up my offer to run away, then that leaves me with no other choice. "I'll indulge you in your ostentatious compulsion for violence." Without a word, Arulo rose from his throne and began to approach his enemy, casually but menacingly.
For the first time since this conflict began, the Dark King drew his sword and held it up in front of himself, saluting his adversary. The atmosphere around them suddenly became heavy. The ground trembled beneath them like a volcano about to erupt and a powerful aura of white energy surrounded the masked swordsman.
"I am the bearer of light. The darkness shall be extinguished in the fires of destruction. By my blade, the conquered shall receive no benediction and you shall repent through death."
Arulo ran straight at the Green Ranger with lightning speed the instant he finished reciting his personal creed effortlessly swatting incoming blaster bolts to one side with his blade and lunged at the Green Ranger, scraping his blade off his chest and drawing a shower of sparks as the Green Ranger roared in agony. With the gunman temporarily stunned, Arulo took advantage of his new opportunity and closed in the gap, savagely thrusting his blade towards his opponent's face, cutting him rapidly from left to right, causing sparks to fly from his helmet until at long last the Green Ranger regained his composure and managed to block the blade and force it away from him.
In an instant the Green Ranger somersaulted away to try and create a distance and to get away from the tip of Arulo's sword. Relentlessly Arulo pursued him, dragging his sword along the ground and slashing wildly, narrowly missing the green gunman's throat by inches. Igniting the tip of his blade with magic, Arulo swung his weapon toward his enemy's face once more, shattering the helmet's visor and blinding his foe. As his foe stumbled backwards, Arulo dashed forward, slamming his elbow and then his sword's handle into his opponent's gut, winding him and then rapidly followed it up by grabbing his throat and lifting him off as his feet before letting go and slamming him with his shoulder, sending the hero across the room.
Unwilling to give his enemy time to recover, Arulo reeled the lone hero back towards him with his telekinesis and launching him into the air with a powerful uppercut before teleporting up in the air and reappearing above the hero and sent him sprawling back down to the ground below with a vertical slash.
He teleported down to the ground again and as the lone hero was still in mid-air and about to land, the masked swordsman quickly dashed past him swinging his sword in a horizontal motion, unleashing a flurry of slashes that were too quick for the eye to see before sheathing his sword, the slashes taking effect the second he sheathed his weapon. The Green Ranger's body plummeted to the ground at last as the force of the dark warrior's attacks took effect.
The brunt of Arulo's vicious attacks barely gave him time to react, let alone recover or attempt to retaliate. As he struggled to get back up, he was kicked harshly in the stomach and sent crumbling back down to the ground. Spitting out blood and coughing violently as he struggled to breathe, the lone hero well and truly tasted the dirt as he found it difficult to move. He was down in the dirt a second time and he heard the advancing footsteps coming closer towards him. Oh shit! Get up! As his mind screamed at him to get back on his feet, his body failed to follow through as it was still reeling from the barrage of attacks that had been unleashed on him only moments ago. Damn it... He's too fast! And that goddamn telekinesis of his makes a lot harder to try and fight back properly! Shit! Shit! SHIT!
Dread filled him as Arulo had closed in on him and now stood above him but rather than letting the hero get back up, Arulo ensured that he stayed lying on the ground by stamping on his head with right foot several times before swapping to his left and the speed of the stamps increased rapidly and with one last stamp, he began to grind his foot on top of the Green Ranger's now damaged helmet before booting him away like garbage.
Without a care in the world, Arulo forcefully pulled his enemy back to his feet with his telekinesis. What was beyond both surprising and terrifying was that rather than pummelling him with another barrage of vicious attacks, he healed him and allowed regain his bearings and what not.
"What is this? Why did he heal me?" The thoughts scattered through his mind as he attempted to find an answer or two behind the dark warrior's motives for doing so. He wasn't going to win this fight. He knew that for a fact and Arulo had made it poignantly clear through his actions. What was he going to do? Run? Hide? Surrender? Out of the question. At the very least, he could now hopefully fend off his attacker and hold him off for a little while longer. His enemy wasn't invincible, and he had indeed picked up a few new tricks. Outmatched, outclassed and out of his league completely, but he was still determined with an iron will to go down fighting and to use everything he had to try and beat Arulo.
With renewed vigour, he prepared himself for battle once more.
"You're trembling." Arulo observed. "What are you so afraid of?"
Taunts and insults were common in battle. Merely no more than feckless utterances designed to rile someone up. It was unlike Arulo to taunt his foes in battle and in all the times that the Green Ranger and his teammates had crossed paths with the Dark King, this was the first time he had been so brazen and sadistic. Arulo was trying to divert his attention and the Green Ranger paid no heed to his words.
"Sorry. I didn't catch all that." The Green Ranger remarked sarcastically as he cocked his head. "Let's do this, you masked bitch!"
"You refuse to give up in the face of adversity and your will is unparalleled. For that, you have earned my respect. Why don't you show me your so-called justice?"
The battle commenced. The Green Ranger's size and strength may have given him an advantage, but Arulo's quick strikes and his pragmatic nature proved to be a formidable combo. Using firearms was little more than useless as Arulo opted for deflecting them with his sword or carefully weaving between the shots. Attempting to maintain a distance also proved ineffective as the Dark King would either give pursuit and attack without pause or he would force the gap shut with the use of his telekinesis.
"I'll show you… THE POWER OF A RANGER!" The Green Ranger cried, as his Roar Cannon changed shape into a sword made of pure energy. He brought his weapon down, finding his weapon being met blow for blow by Arulo's own blade. Their weapons clashed furiously and as the two combatants locked weapons, a series of massive shock waves generated from the force of their attacks, blowing the roof of the inner sanctum clean off. A mighty thunderstorm raged on as the battle between the Dark King and the Green Ranger intensified.
In one swift movement, Arulo broke the lock of weapons and disarmed the hero and ran the Green Ranger through. But he didn't stop there. Pulling the sword out from the hero's abdomen, the swordsman furiously tore into him, slashing him various times whilst simultaneously summoning a series of phantom blades of light. With one last horizontal slash, Arulo turned his back on his foe who stood there seemingly transfixed in time.
"Vae Victis." Arulo's distinctive battle cry was uttered coldly and quietly as he sheathed his sword. At that precise moment, the phantom swords rained down upon the hero mercilessly skewering him. The Green Ranger choked and gasped as he was knocked out of his morphed form with that final fatal attack. The Green Ranger is defeated, his powers gone and as he staggers back, he is suddenly propelled back by another telekinetic blast. He slammed down to the ground below with bone shattering force. As the thunder roared, the Dark King closed in the final gap between himself and his fallen foe. The Green Ranger was grabbed by the throat and pulled upwards, hanging helplessly at the whims of his archenemy, who glared at him, from beneath his metallic mask, Arulo's serene expression that had remained throughout the entire fight turned to one of disgust and his red eyes glowed maliciously.
"I renounce you." Arulo whispered with cold finality.
A pillar of light surrounded them for a few moments and when the pillar dispersed the swordsman immediately dropped the gunman to the ground and turned his back on him, walking away from the battlefield. As he does this, a hunchbacked sorcerer scurries in through the doorway of the inner sanctum.
"Ruthless as always my Master… Very impressive!" The sorcerer remarked. His shrill and high-pitched voice filled with glee at the destruction left behind by the masked swordsman. The sorcerer shuffled further in with small, hurried steps, taking a glance at the de-powered hero who lay bloodied and beaten, yet still clinging to the last remaining inches of his life. "My, my, still alive? "The sorcerer exclaimed before turning to the dark swordsman who approached him. Could it be that you're losing your touch my ma-"
Arulo said naught a word, but rather he removed his mask and faced the snivelling sorcerer and looked him dead in the eye; but soon, though Arulo did not move his hand to his weapon, the sorcerer cowered away as if struck by a blow.
He looked back and spared a glance at the hero that had valiantly opposed him. The malice that burned in his red eyes was no longer there and instead it was replaced by a sorrowful look that resembled pity. Silently, he placed the mask back on his face and walked away without so much as a backward glance or a break in stride, with the sorcerer Palantir in tow, leaving the Green Ranger bloodied, battered, broken and ultimately beaten…