Power Rangers: Steam Force
Ch5: Just a Poor Girl
It was a rather cold day in the city of Vicdon and the six rangers had just finished another training session in their HQ. Alex, as usual after training, was working on some gizmo that the other rangers didn't understand. TJ, Lloyd and Lucas we're playing one of the many FPS games they had for the entertainment system. Mia was working on a computer away from the other rangers, while Ayana was in deep thought on a particular matter.
Her train of thought broke as TJ let out a moan of defeat as the two others teamed up on him to kill his character. She had an annoyed expression on her face looking at the blue ranger. Then TJ got up and headed past Ayana, still angry with him. He gave a confused look as he went by. A few minutes passed and TJ had changed into his training clothes. Then he spoke up, gaining the attention of the rangers.
"Hey, anyone wanna spar for a bit? I got tired of that video game anyway." He asked them, just about all of them turned back to what they were doing. Ayana got up off of her chair and headed over.
"Sure, I'll fight you, got nothing better to do anyway." She told him, putting a pair of sparring gloves over her hands. They both got into ready stances while the others scrapped what they were doing to see how it would turn out.
TJ wasn't being serious about the fight, unluckily for him, Ayana was. She had a dark look to her as she ran at him. He managed to avoid her first punch but was caught off guard when her other hand came round and hit him square in the jaw. He staggered back from the shock of impact and was about to ready himself when she kicked him to the floor and twisted his arm behind his back, causing him to scream out in tremendous pain. The red and green rangers had to run in and pull her off when she wouldn't stop.
"What's wrong with you?" Lloyd asked her as they tried holding her down.
"I don't need to tell you guys anything." She said as she knocked the two off of her and stormed off. The other four looked on in confusion. TJ managed to get up a short time after with a bit of help.
"You okay TJ?" Lloyd asked, concerned about his teammate.
"I think she nearly broke my arm. What's up with her?" He managed to say, still wincing in pain from earlier.
"I think we better ask Lohan about this." Alex suggested to them. When TJ had recovered, they went over to their control room.
[Steam Force]
Queen Nyllia resided on her throne, currently regretting the decision to create Kivo in the first place. At this point in time, his accelerated growth had come to the point where he appeared to be a ten year old, able to talk walk and think just like one. Unfortunately the child was rather mischievous and was currently battering a group of drones with a big stick he had just found. The queen herself had become sick of it. Stinger gave out a furious roar as he was hit with the stick before the queen stood up and raised her voice.
"Kivo! Come here!" She called, the scamp then dropped the stick and ran over and wrapped his arms around her leg, clutching to hit. She gave an annoyed sigh as he did so. Then she knelt down and looked at the boy. "Kivo, do you like hitting my warriors?" She asked, in a lighter tone.
"Yes I do." The young boy nodded with a grin.
"Good, because I want you to train to fight now and get better, then I have something very special for you, so if you train hard every day till Stinger there says you're ready, I'll give you it." She told him giving a cruel smile to the wasp commander at the base of the organic throne.
"I want the present!" He exclaimed in a giddy voice before running to retrieve his stick.
"Good boy!" She reassured as the ten year old took the commander by surprise and began to beat the commander with it. She then lowered her head. "Now to find a creature to deal with those rangers." She said to herself as she watched her son mercilessly beat her commander.
[Steam Force]
The five stood in the room opposite Lohan, with the console between them. The old man gave a sigh before raising his head to them. Then he spoke up.
"I knew that this would happen eventually, just didn't know when." He told them.
"Wait, you knew she'd go berserk and didn't tell us!?" TJ asked, slightly outraged.
"I didn't know exactly. I knew that one of you would take off eventually, I just didn't know who, when or how. I suppose you all want an explanation." He informed them.
"Yeah, why else would we be standing here?" Alex confirmed. The rangers waited as the man took a breath in before telling them.
"Ayana is a really complicated young woman. Let me start by saying, we, the government, have extensive files on all of you, which were put together after your recruitment, these allowed me to understand each of you well. Now onto why. She and her family, like many others are working class and suffer from poverty, the government has intervened now and they are better off, yet it's where she comes from that is, key. Sorry, bear with me one moment." Lohan paused and walked over to the table.
He picked up and drank from a glass of water before turning around and addressing the rangers again. "Carrying on. She worked on the ports since she was very young, manual labour is all she's known. Her brother had an accident causing her to become overworked supporting all of her family. After a while it turned to bitter resentment for anyone in the upper class. Finding out that you, TJ, are of the upper class and had no threat from poverty etc., most likely set her off, and when you offered to spar, she took it as an opportunity to get her own back. She lost control and took it too far, then she stormed off." He explained to them. "Any questions?" He finished.
"Yeah, where do we find her?" Lloyd asked.
"I'd suggest you try her district, it's a big one so you might wanna spread out." He answered.
[Steam Force]
The teens spread out and separated to cover more ground in the port district. TJ had gone alone to the docks area of the district. The sun was blinding as TJ stared at the water, where he saw a figure sat down at the edge of the docks. As he walked further to the water's edge, the figure became clearer. When he reached the figure, he saw that it was in fact Ayana.
"Hey there. Mind if I sit down?" He asked her. She replied with an annoyed grunt and folded her arms when she noticed who it was. TJ proceeded to sit down and continued with what he was going to say.
"Listen, Lohan told us everything, about your struggle, that you hate anyone in the upper class. But I still don't get why you almost broke my arm yesterday." He told her.
Finally turning to him, she let out a sigh. "A few weeks ago, when we found out that you're part of the Anderson family, well, it brought up something I thought had stayed in the past, as the weeks passed, it got harder for me to keep my emotions in. Earlier all I could think about was injuring you, having a sparring session gave me the chance and I got too carried away." She explained.
"I see, but I still don't understand what happened to you that made you like this." He replied.
"I had an unemployment period shortly after my brother was injured, luckily some people took pity and we were kept fed till I got a job transporting goods between the boats and the docks. But in that time, I was always out on the streets, begging for anything that would help. There was this one day where we had torrential rain. I managed to take shelter underneath an overhanging sheet of cloth. Then a man, well dressed, holding a black umbrella over his head walked past. I knew he was a rich man by the look of him, and his posture, lording over everyone…" Her tone darkened as she trailed off.
TJ noticed this. "Umm, Ayana, you okay?" He asked, she snapped out it as he asked.
"Yeah, I was just remembering what he did." The yellow ranger told him, trying to keep focused.
"What happened then?" He asked as Ayana took a breath, ready to continue her account of the flashback.
"I asked him if he could help me and lend money to me and my family in the time of need, in his other hand, he carried a black cane, instead of helping, he proceeded to hit me in the side of the face with the handle of his cane. I went to the floor from shock when it hit my face, he then proceeded to drag me out into the rainy streets and leave me there, probably for dead." She finished.
TJ's eyes widened at hearing that. "That's horrible, how could someone do that to anyone!?" He burst out.
"You're actually outraged by that? I thought all you rich folks were the same, at least they are in my experience." She pondered.
"Did anything else happen that day?" TJ asked again, still shocked from what he had heard.
"Yeah, though it was a bit blurry after being struck. Someone, I don't know who, I think they were wearing a black- no a navy blue raincoat, his hood was up, whoever he was, he carried me through the rain and to a shelter where he paid for a bed for me, I woke up the next morning with a headache and that was it. Never heard from the guy again." She informed him, trying to remember anything else about her saviour.
TJ had a sense of Deja Vu about the whole thing. "I see. What happened to you… It was horrific, nobody should suffer such cruelty like that. Not everyone in the upper class is like him though, you may not believe me know, but let me show you. I want to make amends for what that guy did to you. It's the least I can do to help out, deal." He offered, hoping that she'd take him up on his offer.
"Sure." Ayana replied simply.
"Thanks for giving me the chance to help out, the damage that's been done, it isn't right. I just wanna rectify that." He told her, giving a sigh of relief.
The two got up off of the stone pier and turned around. Ayana turned to the blue ranger. "Thanks for listening to me, and understanding. I may not like aristocrats, but I'm glad I don't have to hate you, you seem sincere enough anyway, I was mad at someone else and shouldn't have been mad at you. I'm… Sorry I injured you earlier." She apologised, lowering her head.
"It's no big deal, I've had people want to do worse, at least you knew where your heart really was, most people just blamed me for others wrongdoings, especially my father. Now to go find the others, they're all over the district in an effort to find you. Up for a bit of a run-around?" He asked her, giving a joking smile.
"Not really, but they're likely lost without us." She replied, then they stood still and silent as they looked down the stone path to see a Centipede like monster facing them with its many limbed, wavy arms. A group of drones stood behind the creature.
"Seriously?" TJ said as the two rangers looked at it.
"You rangers are gonna get squashed!" It asserted, waving its arms around.
"Wanna bet on that ugly? TJ, you ready?" Ayana asked. The other ranger gave an affirmative nod to her.
"Full Steam Ahead!" They both called, pushing the lever on their morphers forwards. They were engulfed in bright white light which turned to steam, as it dissipated, the yellow and blue rangers stood ready, the blue ranger had summoned his pipeblade and Ayana had summoned her steam blaster, ready to deal with the group.
TJ took on the monster while Ayana dispatched the monsters, from separate areas of the district, the four remaining rangers heard the fighting and ran towards it, when they arrived, they saw that the drones had been defeated while the morphed yellow and blue rangers had regrouped, ready to destroy the monster.
0-7-3 … shipping … steam blaster … arriving
TJ held his steam blaster, pointed at the creature. "Ready." He said as Ayana followed suit.
"Aim!" She said as they both focused their weapons for a direct attack on the monster.
"Fire!" They called in unison, firing at the same time, their energy bolts intertwined and hit the monster directly causing tremendous damage and destroying the monster, yet also releasing dark spores. Then the monster rematerialized, growing to tremendous size.
TJ looked at the other rangers. "We'll be fine with this one, you guys stand and watch." He told them, and they did so, still confused as to how they were working together after earlier.
The blue speed rider and yellow bus rider hovered overhead as the rangers jumped into them.
"Blue speed rider engaged!"
"Yellow bus rider engaged!"
"Hey Ayana, how about we combine our Zords? Give him another taste of tag team power!" TJ suggested to her.
"Sure, let's link up!" She confirmed, getting the bus rider in place behind the speed rider before they coupled together. Inside the cockpit, TJ saw that the bus rider's cockpit was merging with his as Ayana appeared next to him.
"Glad to have you aboard" He told her.
"Likewise." She confirmed.
The linked riders circled the centipede, which was attempting to match the speed of the blue zord, which it failed to do. Then the speed rider turned and headed away from the battle, bus rider still linked to it.
"It's time for you to feel the full force!" TJ told the creature, which was exhausted from chasing the zords.
"Yeah, Speed Bus rider, combo strike!" Ayana carried on.
"Maximum impact!" They said in unison, pushing levers forward to increase the speed to its limits.
"No! This cannot happen to me!" The creature squealed as the train combo headed towards it.
The train combination was surrounded by blue and yellow energy as it reached maximum velocity. When it did, it hit the monster head on, tearing it to pieces and completely destroying it.
[Steam Force]
The yellow and blue rangers were having a pleasant conversation for once in the lounge area of their headquarters, while the others just looked on, still confused as to how there was such an abrupt change in how they acted towards one another, clearly, they must have had an eye opening conversation to go from one of them almost breaking the other's arm to being friendly with each other. A few of them were relieved that she wasn't as vengeful to the upper class anymore.
The others, except Lucas, sat down on the seats, exhausted from running around all day, trying to find their teammate. Then the green ranger came into the room, holding a stack of short cardboard boxes, on further inspection, they all had pictures of an Italian chef snapping his fingers.
"Who wants pizza?" He asked with a happy tone, bringing the stack in. He was met with cheering from the others as he set them down and they all dug in.
"A good meal for a rather exhausting day." Alex said, the others all agreed as they ate.
[Steam Force]
In a sleazy bar, in the Russian wilds, Many burly men cheered in merriment as a rather muscle bound man had his arm planted into the table and a rather suave man took a shot of his whiskey.
The man spoke with a German accent. "Anyone else up to it?" He asked in a mocking way, placing his glass back down. Nobody stood up to the challenge. "No? Ah well, let's just be merry then. Bartender, three more rounds!" He called, met with cheering from the drunken Russians.
One walked up to the man. "You sir are an inspiration! What's your name?" He asked in his strong Russian accent.
"The name is Welkin Stross my friend." Welkin told him as he received a pat on the back.
"Nice to meet you Mr. Stross!" He told him in a cheery tone.
Stross smirked as he took another drink. After a job well done, it was always nice to be merry in a bar and share out what he could spare of his pay check.
|Steam Force|
That is chapter 5 of Steam Force. It gave a lot of insight into Ayana's background and her motives, while building a friendlier relationship between TJ and Ayana. My main aim was to make it as real as I could, plus I left a really subtle hint of something that'll be brought to light later on. As for the ending, that ties into the next chapter. Thanks for reading as always
Next Chapter: The Amazing adventure of Welkin Stross
Synopsis: We leave Vicdon and the Steam Force rangers for a chapter and follow Welkin Stross on one of his adventures to see what he's doing when he isn't helping the rangers, less of a character focus and more of a funny chapter. Next time on Power Rangers: Steam Force!
