Disclaimer: I do not own Power Rangers.
Note: Apologies for the lateness.
Hello Darkness
"Who the hell was that?" Trini exclaimed while stomping into the bridge of the ship, the rest of the team following suit and finding their places.
"Whoever it was, dude was strong," Zack added, leaning onto the railing by the stairs.
"He was a ranger. The green ranger," Jason said, not really focusing on anyone. "Zordon," he stood up, "I thought the green coin was gone?"
"Apparently not," Zordon replied worriedly, "The coin must've fallen when Rita was thrown into the atmosphere."
"Dammit," Trini whispered. Kimberly walked up to her side and placed a supportive hand on her shoulder.
"The green coin is corrupted. It uses its host's life source to morph. It's why Rita was able to develop the green armor despite not morphing," Zordon paused, then turned his head slightly to the side, "Why she was able to morph when she fought us," he whispered mostly to himself. Then he looked back at the rangers, "We must find out who holds the green coin now before it eats their life source."
"How do we do that? Are we supposed to go up to everyone and ask if they've found a strange, green coin that gave them super powers?" Kimberly asked sarcastically.
"Wouldn't be a bad idea," Billy offered; Kimberly giving him a pointed look. He shrugged at her.
"No," Jason sighed, "We just have to keep our eyes open."
"Jason is right," Zordon said, "You all have to go about your lives as if things were normal. If this new green ranger were to realize you're looking for him, there's no telling what he'd do. The green coin is corrupted, it feeds off its host's life source and eventually off the mind."
"So, you're saying that this coin can make someone go insane?" Zack asked.
"Precisely."
"Well, that's just great."
"Zordon, is there anything we can do to save this person from the green coin?" Jason asked.
"To be honest," Zordon began, solemnly, "I'm not sure. Somehow the coin was corrupted with Rita and its energy imprint changed."
"Sir," Alpha pipped up, "What about the light cleanse?"
"The light cleanse?" Kimberly questioned, "What's that?"
"It's theorized that the power of five coins combined could cleanse a corrupted coin. But it's never been done before," Zordon explained, "I'm not sure if it'd work."
"It's worth a try," Jason asserted. He turned to the team, "Guys, whoever this person is, the coin is hurting them. We have to try and save them."
Zack stepped forward, "Look, man, I'm definitely down for saving people, but don't you think the coin chose them for a reason?"
"What do you mean?" Billy asked.
"What if this person was already a bad person? Why else would a corrupted coin choose someone?"
"Or maybe the coin just chooses someone it knows can handle it?" Kimberly offered, "I mean, it's not like we were the most moral kids around but ours still chose us."
"Exactly," Jason supported. "Look, Zack, I get what you're saying, but even if this person wasn't a good person, they don't deserve their life ruined by this coin."
Zack opened his mouth as if he was about to protest, but then closed it and nodded. "You're right, you're right. We've got to get that coin away from that dude."
Jason smiled at him in pride and in gratitude.
Then an alert came from a console. "Rangers," Alpha began, "Seems there's a stray putty down nearing the construction site. And there are a couple workers there."
"We'll take care of it," Jason started, "Then we'll come back and figure out a plan to get that coin and try to cleanse it." He paused, "Or destroy it." The rest of the team looked at him, silently agreeing. "Let's go guys." The team teleported out leaving Zordon and Alpha.
"Sir," Alpha began, "How should we plan this? Do you think the rangers could manage?"
"They've proven themselves a far better team than mine, I'm proud to say," Zordon said.
"Too bad we'll take them down," a voice surprised them.
Alpha turned around just as a teenage boy was walking down the steps, slowly.
"You must be the new wielder of the green coin," Zordon deduced. Alpha straightened himself, backing up and moving towards the side as the intruder continued walking forward.
"That I am," the intruder confirmed, "And I've got to say, you guys have a sweet hideout here. I'm a little jealous actually."
"Perhaps you can join us here, if you let us help you." Zordon stayed center of the wall, trying to keep himself from moving. He had to choose his words carefully in case he could reach out to the young man. He'd rather have things end a happy ending than for anyone else to get hurt. This new team of rangers taught him that.
"See, that's where you're wrong." The intruder stopped walking and leaned against the podium. Alpha continued his slow movements, trying to circle behind the intruder. "I really don't care about joining your little band of super friends. I don't even care about this place."
"Then why are you here?"
"To mess it up."
Alpha shot out his arms and wrapped them around the intruder, capturing him, "I have him, Master Zordon!" Alpha raised his arms bringing the intruder off the ground.
"Let me go!" screamed the intruder.
"Take him to the brig. We'll figure out what to do from there," Zordon ordered.
"Yes, S-" but Alpha never finished as his body started shaking and sparks began to fly out from his back. He dropped the intruder and leaned over, shutting down.
A female intruder stepped aside, a taser in hand, and took a step forward. "Always having to save you, shish dazha," she chastised.
The male intruder said nothing as he rose up and they both turned to look at Zordon.
"The coin chose two hosts?" Zordon questioned. In the history of power rangers, he had never heard of such an occurrence.
"Chose two heroes," the male intruder corrected.
The female intruder walked up to a panel and placed her hands on it. "Hey, shall we do what we came here to do?"
The male intruder smiled and walked to another panel.
"What are you doing?" Zordon asked, panic beginning to set in.
"Absolutely," the male intruder answered his partner.
"Please don't," Zordon pleaded, "You don't know this tech."
"On three;" the male said, "One-"
"Please, I'm begging you both!"
"Two-"
"Stop!"
"Three!"
Both intruders smashed their hands onto the panels and sparks and smoke shot out. Then they began to rip out wires and anything else they could. Zordon flickered and rolled his head as he groaned in pain before completely disappearing from the wall.
SSS
When the rangers returned to the ship's command center, what they found was a disaster. The control panels had been ripped out, the lights fluttered off and on, Alpha was non-functional, and Zordon was gone. It was a miracle the rangers had been able to teleport as it looked like whoever did this hadn't touched the morphing platform.
They were unmorphed and Kimberly leaned against Zack while they stayed to the side of Jason, who was shaking his leg with his arms crossed as he sat on the stairs leading to the platform, while Billy was checking circuit boards with Trini.
"Man, this is completely fried," Billy said, dropping the board he was holding.
"These wires were just ripped out," Trini observed, "I can't even figure out where each one went to."
The two rose and walked back to the group.
"Think that green ranger did this?" Kimberly asked, straightening herself.
"Had to have been," Jason answered, "It's too big of a coincidence."
Zack nodded in agreement, then groaned. "Dude was strong. He took on all of us and whooped our asses."
"We have to figure out who he is," Trini said, "And we have to do something about the command center."
"I can maybe try and reboot Alpha, but I need my laptop and some cables," Billy offered, "But I won't be able to get back here until tomorrow."
"I'll come back with you," Jason said, "And you three," he turned to Zack, Kimberly, and Trini, "You guys stay in town. See if you can find anyone suspicious."
"You want us to interrogate people?" Kimberly asked.
"No, just observe. I mean, Rita was pretty crazy already, but if the green coin helped, it would probably make whoever's got it kind of crazy too."
"So, we'll just people watch," Trini confirmed.
"Yeah. And we have to stay on guard. It's not just that green ranger out there. We have to worry about Goldar and Scorpina too." Jason paused, turned to the wall and sighed. "We don't have Zordon to guide us this time. We're on our own."
The rangers cleaned up what they could and put anything that wasn't salvageable to the side to be disposed of. Billy and Trini gently put Alpha's non-functional body to the side against a control panel, both afraid to cause more damage than was already apparent. The rangers left the command center and walked through the ship, checking if there was any damage or anything out of place. From what they could figure, everything else seemed normal. They returned to the platform and teleported out, landing right outside of the chasm before heading back to Kimberly's car.
SSS
Rita laughed maniacally as she spun in front of her viewing screen of her base. "This is better than I could have imagined!" She turned to Finster, "Your monsters are the perfect distraction while Tommy and his sister do so much damage. And eventually Goldar and Scorpina will find the Dragonzord and the zeo crystal will be mine!"
Finster nodded, but said nothing as he continued to sculpt his soldiers.
"Mistress Rita," came over the intercom, "This is Goldar."
Rita hit the communication channel, "Yes?"
"We believe we found the Dragonzord."
Rita waited for a moment before she impatiently huffed and said, "Where?"
"In the ocean, Mistress."
That was not where Rita expected it would be, but she shouldn't have been surprised. The ocean was her tomb for millions of years before she was resurrected. "We'll worry about retrieving it soon enough. Just make sure you keep the rangers busy."
SSS
After Kimberly dropped off the boys, she turned to Trini who sat in the passenger seat, "Do you want to spend the night? My dad is at a conference for the next couple days and my mom is working overnight tonight." Kimberly hated asking, but ever since she became a ranger, she never realized just how lonely she always was. Being an only child with relatives who lived kind of far and whose parents worked a lot did that. She loved her parents, but she always felt alone. Her parents loved her, that she knew because they showered her with gifts and compliments and encouragement, but she just wanted nothing more than to spend more time with them.
"Yeah, sure," Trini replied, "But can we stop at my place so I could get a change of clothes?"
"Of course."
The ride to Trini's house was silent, more silent than she was used to. Trini was always more reserved than the rest, but when she was alone with Kimberly, or Zack, she was more open and vocal. Kimberly kept glancing at her friend and wondered what was going on.
Once they got to Trini's house, Kimberly had waited in the car while Trini went inside. Kimberly tightened her grip on the steering wheel and shook her head. Someone had attacked their safe haven and attacked it badly. She was having trouble wrapping her head around the events of the night, to admit that they were cornered. Rita had not only lived, but grew a small army, brought back her biggest ally, gave him another golden partner, and got a trump card in the green ranger. Technically they weren't outnumbered, but they were definitely over powered because of them all being rookies. Jason was right, they were on their own until they could figure out how to get Zordon back.
Trini opening the door and falling into the seat startled Kimberly from her thoughts. "Sorry," Trini said, "Didn't mean to scare you."
Kimberly shook her head, "You didn't; just surprised me."
"You've got food at home or should we stop for something? Or should we order pizza?"
"Pizza sounds amazing."
Trini placed the order on her cell and they picked up the pizza on the way to Kimberly's. The drive was still quiet, almost deafening and it made Kimberly a little more antsy than she already was. They arrived and got inside the house, they quickly shed their jackets and kicked off their shoes. They settled in Kimberly's living room and ate and drank. It was a several moments before either spoke.
"Are you okay?" Trini asked bluntly.
"What?"
"Are you okay?" Trini repeated, slightly more slowly.
"Why wouldn't I be?"
"I dunno, maybe because you got ambushed by two of Rita's cronies while I was stuck in the warehouse with just one?"
And there it was, the reason Trini had been so quiet; well, quieter than usual. It never occurred to Kimberly that Trini was a bad partner. She shook her head and put her soda down, "Trini, I'm not blaming you. We got ambushed. It could have easily been me inside that warehouse while you fought Goldar and Scorpina if you went in front of me."
"I know, but I still feel bad. I should have had your back."
"I'm okay," Kimberly insisted, "And I know you have my back, just like I have yours."
Trini was silent before scoffing, "Stop being a sap," then took another bite of her pizza.
It made Kimberly smile before turning back to her food.
SSS
There had been smaller attacks of putties and another monster, a strange Pumpkin headed monster who taunted by shouting rhymes at them. Trini had taunted back that he was a horrible rapper. Despite the fact Trini was a horrible singer, she could rap pretty well so it was entertaining to watch that ridiculous, short rap battle. He was defeated, but Rita had shot down a beam to make that Pumpkin Rapper grow the size that Goldar was when they first fought him. They had been able to move the fight away from the town and minimized the damage, something that Trini and Kimberly had been adamant about.
The unfortunately side effect of these past couple days was that neither girl had too much time to see Tommy nor Tamsin, but it didn't matter much because the twins seemed to be pretty busy anyways. They were late returning texts, hadn't been to school, and just seemed short and dismissive when they did see them. It was strange the way the twins were acting, they didn't even mention their families anymore, which was a subject they loved to talk about. Now they just waved it off and went on bad mouthing the power rangers and talking down about the citizens of Angel Grove.
In truth, they had reason for their distaste of people, being two Native American teens who grew up on a reservation and had firsthand experience of how the government, and American citizens of all races, treated them. But it just seemed odd they'd become so spiteful to the point where they started to detest the general public. It was as if they became just angry with the world and glared at people simply walking. It was concerning and Kimberly and Trini only had each other to talk to about it.
Billy had been able to bring Alpha back online, but his memory drive was a bit scrambled and couldn't recall what had happened the past week. He had forgotten that Goldar was back and didn't remember who broke into the ship and destroyed the command center. He and Billy began to work tirelessly to bring Zordon back online, but it was taking a long time and they ran into many dead ends.
SSS
They were all gathered at the command center, not really doing anything except looking at Billy and Alpha work on the control panels. Trini felt pretty much useless decided to take a walk through the trails, just wanting to be alone for a bit. Things were looking pretty low. Her home life was pretty good, but everything else just took a nose dive. Prior to Tamsin's 180 turn, she had thought about introducing her to her parents, but now she wondered if this was how the other girl really was. She shook her head at the thought. It couldn't be. When they first met, Tamsin smiled such a bright and honest smile and during their first coffee date, she stared into Tamsin's eyes and saw who she was- and Trini was always a fantastic judge of character.
No, something happened and neither Tamsin nor Tommy wanted to talk about it. But then to make matters worse, Rita reared her ugly head and brought down so much mayhem and such a distraction that she couldn't even concentrate on what her girlfriend was going through. To top it off, now they had to deal with an evil green ranger.
Trini reached the pond and tossed a rock into the water and watched the ripples. She smiled softly before continuing her walk. She didn't get far before some kind of energy blast hit the tree in front of her. The shock wave from the blast made her fall back and dirt, bark, and rock rained over her. She covered her face to keep from getting anything in her eyes, but a little had and her contacts moved. Before she could open them, she felt a pull at her jacket and she was lifted. On instinct, she grabbed the arm, and felt the armor of a ranger now knowing it was the green ranger. She tried to kick at the green ranger, but it was in vain.
"Nice try," Green Ranger taunted. But the voice seemed different. Trini slowly opened her eyes, despite the blurriness from her out of place contacts, she could see that Green Ranger's stature was different. It was smaller; leaner. Then she was tossed back and landed flat on her ass, skidding back a bit, falling to her back. "Little Yellow all alone, just like that little robot friend of yours," Green Ranger said, taking slow steps forward. Trini rubbed her eyes, moving her contacts back in place then opened them. Sure enough, it was the green ranger, but this time she was female. How could there be two green rangers?
Trini got to her feet and clenched her fists, "How?" was all she could manage.
Green Ranger tilted her head, "How? How do I know you're the yellow ranger? I know who you are. I see you. Plus, I'm a power ranger too." Green Ranger laughed and shook her head. Then looked back up and tilted it, "Or do you mean, how am I the green ranger? How, when you fought a different one?" Trini refused to make any response. Green Ranger made a small chuckle, "Truthfully, we're not sure either. But hey, I'm not complaining. Now I have power to get shit done."
Trini took a deep breath then asked, "What do you want?"
"What I want is to make this world a better place. Better than it was to us."
"You and the other green ranger," Trini stated.
"That's right."
Green Ranger began to walk, circling Trini, which she made sure to keep her front to her. "You wear ranger armor but your loyalty is with Rita."
"I'm loyal to myself and my br-" Green Ranger paused and shook her head, "My tribe."
Trini's eye brow flicked up at that. It was an interesting choice of a word. "Why are you attacking us?"
"Because!" Green Ranger shouted aggressively, "You guys just don't care about everyone else! You throw debris and crap all over, not caring if bystanders get hurt!"
"We do!" Trini shouted back, "We're trying, okay? We're new at this hero stuff."
"You don't even know who you've hurt, do you?"
"I don't know what else I can say. You and your," Trini paused, waving her hand, "Partner, I guess, got hurt in the cross fire. I'm sorry. We're all sorry."
"You will be." Green Ranger paused then jumped into the air and came down directly at Trini.
Trini jumped to the side, rolling on the ground to her feet and reached to her back pocket for her morpher. It's morphin' time, she thought. She brought forward her morpher and morphed into her armor, then stood up and got into a defensive fighting stance. "I don't want to fight," she tried, putting her hands up in hopes of peace.
"I do."
Then Green Ranger ran forward and propelled herself into the air by side stepping onto a tree. Trini jumped and met her midair. They crashed into each other and Trini received an elbow to her head. They fell back down to the ground, Trini landing on her back and Green Ranger on her feet. Trini jumped back to her feet and brought her hands up. Green Ranger brought up her own hands and began to lightly jump on her feet, keeping herself moving. The stance looked familiar but Trini couldn't place it, not that she really had the time to think about it. Green Ranger kicked high towards Trini's head, which she ducked then swept a kick at Green Ranger's legs. It connected and Green Ranger went down, but without missing a beat, Green Ranger threw out a kick from the ground and it hit Trini in the shoulder causing her to roll to the side.
"That's it," Trini growled as she brought out her daggers and got back to her feet.
"I have mine too," Green Ranger said then stuck out an arm as some of the gold armor from her chest moved down her arm and grew into a staff. The black stone that was at the center of her shield was now at the center of the staff, much like how Rita had had the green coin in it before. The black stone shined and Green Ranger took a noticeably deep breath. "I feel it," she whispered, likely not intended for Trini to hear.
With a fast spin of her staff, Green Ranger moved forward and swung at Trini. Trini stepped back, narrowly avoiding getting hit, then she went forward, swiping her daggers, successfully slashing at Green Ranger. Sparks flew out from the contact and Green Ranger faltered back, then stabbed forward her staff. It hit Trini in the chest and more sparks flew out. Then she charged both of her daggers and threw one, which was blocked, then threw her second which landed dead center of Green Ranger's chest. Trini took the opportunity to run forward and did a flying kick to Green Ranger's chest. Green Ranger dropped her staff, but then surprised Trini with a hook punch to her side then grabbed her shoulders and brought her down and kneed her in the abdomen. It was a surprising move and Trini felt the air being knocked out of her as gasped for air as she went down.
"I'm sorry, Trini," Green Ranger said, leaning down and grabbing her, picking her up. She brought her close where their faces were mere inches from each other. With her free hand, she touched Trini's helmet where her cheek was. "You're so weak and small. I just," she paused, "I'm so, just," another pause, "I want to protect-"
Whatever Green Ranger was about to say, she didn't get to finish as a pink blast hit her, making her drop Trini as she hurdled to the side.
"Yellow!" Kim called out and she ran up to Trini and place her hand on her shoulder, "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, yeah, I'm okay. But Kim, she knows who we are."
"She?"
"I'll explain later. We've got to get out of here." Trini used Kim's arm and stood up and looked for Green Ranger, but she was nowhere to be found. "Where is she?"
"She's gone."
"We've got to get back to the command center."
They teleported and when they landed on their respected platforms, Jason jumped up to his feet. "What happened?" he asked.
Both Trini and Kim recalled their armor and Trini held her side. "Green Ranger found me. We exchanged some words," she answered.
"And some punches apparently," Billy added.
"Yeah," Trini groaned and sat at the steps. "Here's what's weird," she started, "Remember when we first fought green ranger, it was a guy right? Right now, I fought a girl."
"What?!" Zack exclaimed, "How?"
"Uh, Alpha," Billy said, "Can that happen?"
Alpha stepped forward with slower movements, his lights dimmer than usual, "Two people wielding the same coin? That's never happened in the history of power rangers. These two must be extremely close, not just genetically but also energy-ly, for the coin to choose both of them."
"Is that even a word?" Zack whispered.
Trini and everyone else shrugged in reply.
"So, like, they wouldn't be just friends or even siblings?" Kim asked.
"Not friends, no," Alpha started, "But siblings possibly. But they'd have to be close. Like close in age and connected in a way that regular siblings aren't."
A way that regular siblings aren't, Trini repeated in her head. What kind of siblings are closer than regular siblings? All she had to do was think of herself and her brothers. "Twins," she said.
"Exactly!" Alpha said excitedly, "But it's all just theory. It could be that the coin may have chosen a different host. That's actually more likely."
Trini wasn't convinced about Alpha's different theory given how the female green ranger spoke of the other one. However, there was an idea planted in Trini's head. She recognized that fighting stance of the female green ranger. She'd seen it enough times to know what fighting style it was. She didn't want to bring it up right away, but she wanted to talk to Kim about it first to see what she thought. After all, Kim was dating a twin also.
SSS
The punches they threw at each other were fast, strong, and hurt when they landed. They agreed it was best to not hold back against each other to better prepare themselves, especially since it seems only one could morph at a time. Still, it was good training, being able to spar against someone who was one's equal. Tommy threw a jab, Tamsin side stepped then threw a hook and landed it perfectly on Tommy's side. He huffed then stepped back and put his gloved hands up to signal a pause. They used kick boxing gloves to give little padding, but still a sting of a real hit.
He pulled off his gloves and grabbed their water bottles, tossing Tamsin hers, then taking a drink from his. "Your form is getting better," Tommy noted.
"Thanks," Tamsin replied then taking a long drink of water. "Yours too."
There was a heavy silence between the two as they took off the wraps from their hands. They both felt it, the strange feeling of fighting the girls they really cared for, but it wasn't anything too malicious, they thought. They were just trying to get across their points. Their friends were reckless and they needed to be reminded of that.
But then, things began to turn. Something else they felt. After so many stares and whispers and vandalism on their father's truck- a second one that occurred only a few days prior- they decided the town didn't need real protection from the rangers. It was coming to the point where they were beginning to think the town needed to be taught a lesson.
"So," Tamsin started, "When do you think we should make a ruckus again?"
Tommy smirked. "Not sure. Maybe tomorrow?"
Tamsin nodded, knowing that tomorrow was the day before the masquerade. Truthfully she looked forward to it, but not for any particular teenage reasons. More of just the pride she held in herself. She had a nice dress and her girlfriend was insanely hot- even if she was a power ranger- so she wanted to strut her stuff, per say. Tommy felt the same. He wanted to walk around with his head high. They both deserved it after living their entire lives on the outskirts of civilization. Or rather, their entire family line, their ancestors.
The entire town of Angel Grove deserved to be at their feet. And they would, the twins would make sure of it. And perhaps, if they brought the town down, they could continue and bring the entirety of society to its knees.