Power Rangers: Steam Force

Ch7: Filthy or Rich

On a relatively cool day, our six heroes were training hard in preparation for another attack from the Terrasoids. TJ and lucas were sparring, while Ayana and Mia sparred. Lloyd was sitting watching waiting for his turn while Alex was sat down tinkering with a watch. Lohan entered the room with a small note in his hand and headed over to the white ranger sat down.

"Alexandria, this note arrived earlier. I don't know who it's from or what it's about, but since it was addressed to you, perhaps you might be able to understand it better than me." He told her. Alex looked up and put the watch down on the table before taking the closed note from Lohan and looking at its contents.

Her eyes widened as she looked at the note. "No, not now!" She said, crumpling it up and then throwing the piece of paper to the ground.

After that she ran out of the building. The other rangers stopped what they were doing and walked over to where she had been. TJ knelt down and picked up the crumpled note.

"Any idea what that was about?" Ayana asked the others who shrugged.

"I think I know." TJ said, straightening out the piece of paper and looking at it. "It's the insignia of the Rhodes family. While they're less influential than my family, they one of the few notable upper class families in the city." He explained.

"Why would Alex be receiving a note from them with only their insignia?" Lloyd asked.

"Could it be that she's one of them?" Ayana theorised.

"You're right. While the rest of you don't know this, her full name is Alexandra Rhodes, only child of the current Mr and Mrs Rhodes. I don't know the full story, but some years ago she left her home, ended up in the work district fixing things. From there I know nothing." He explained to them.

"I remember hearing about something like this. A noble girl getting in a row and running away from home. The authorities eventually gave up but the parents always wanted to take her back home. my dad said it was about 'preserving the noble bloodline' something that I wouldn't understand according to him. Which I don't because all of it is just old traditions that are best left in the past." He told them.

"While we like you ranting about your folks most of the time, this is hardly the time for it. We need to find Alex. Any clue where to start?" Lloyd interrupted.

Everyone gave a blank look as they tried to think of something. The silence was broken as they heard footsteps and saw two people heading towards them.

One of them was a well dressed man in his early forties while the other was a woman in her late thirties. they had similar features to Alex. They approached the group with a curious look.

The man spoke up. "I heard I could find my daughter here, I heard this from a reliable source, yet she isn't here, I highly doubt that I was lied to, but where is Alexandria? Did you cretins do something to her?" He asked in a posh accent.

"Mr. Rhodes, all respect given, you aren't allowed to be here, this is a military operations center and it isn't open for any civilian to enter, no matter how influential they might be." Lohan told the upperclassman, attempting to convince him to leave. Ayana stifled a laugh.

"Please, don't give me that, you let civilian teenagers in here without a second thought. I doubt there is any pure blood in any of these fiends, so tell me where I can find my child now!" He mocked, ordering Lohan around.

Lloyd whispered to TJ. "We need to stall for time, can you do that?"

"Sure can, leave Ayana here as backup, the rest of you can go." He told the red ranger. TJ walked over to Ayana. "Listen I'm gonna stall them while the others go, your staying behind in case things get ugly." TJ said, she folded her arms.

"As long as I get to punch one aristocrat today, I'll be happy to." She said, cracking her knuckles.

TJ gulped at the premise as the two rangers walked towards Alex's parents as the other four rangers snuck out to find their friend.

"It's a pleasure to meet you Mr and Mrs Rhodes." TJ said in a formal manner. "I am... Tobias Jones." He introduced with his made up name.

[Steam Force]

Queen Nyllia stood in another part of the hive, an organic arena/pit of some sort. Once more, Kivo had aged, only by a couple of years yet all of that emotion he had before was now gone. His body was beaten, bruised, his clothing now ragged. Around him were a group of four bipedal crab like creatures, snapping their pincers.

Stinger was stood beside his queen. "Prove your worth Kivo! Defeat my elite soldiers with nothing but your weapon and the skills you have learned!" He challenged the boy.

Kivo nodded and had a focused look now. He flipped around his staff and charged at the first one. The creature opened its pincer and as the boy swung his staff, the creature caught it. Yet Kivo didn't flinch. He used is unnatural strength to pick up the crab-like creature using the staff and throw it into the others there. Kivo approached the fallen monster and lunged his staff into the face of the creature. It let out a horrifying shriek and went limp.

The other three got up and advanced on him. He charged forward and vaulted over them, swinging his staff around and connecting with its head, sending it into the arena wall. The remaining two span around to meet their opponent. Kivo ran at the one closest and vaulted into the air, as he descended, he readied to kick. The creature held up its arms in defence, but it was nothing. Kivo made impact and forced the monster to the ground, where it met the same fate as the other two.

The final crab monster was outraged and headed towards Kivo in fury. The boy was still focused, yet he held up no guard as the monster closed in on him. With the space between them becoming dangerously small, kivo stuck out his staff. The Monster stopped in its tracks as it became impaled on the weapon. Kivo stuck it in deeper as the monster struggled to keep on its feet. With one swift movement, Kivo tore it out of his opponent, who collapsed to the floor.

With all his opponents defeated, he turned his attention to Stinger and his mother above him. Queen Nyllia turned around and walked away. Stinger gave a nod to the boy before also walking away. Kivo's expression turned from neutral to angry rather quickly and he began to stab the corpse of his fallen enemy with his weapon in outrage.

[Steam Force]

While the other two rangers had gone to other parts of the city to look for their fellow ranger, Lloyd headed to the work district to see if he could find her. As he walked, he came across a garage where a group of burly mechanics were working on a rundown and beat up steam train while a loud radio played in the background.

Lloyd headed up to them as a large burly man came from around the back of the machine in the garage.

"Can I help you?" He asked, looking at the red ranger.

"Yeah, I'm looking for someone, a friend. Maybe you've seen her."Lloyd confirmed to the man.

"Give me a name and I might be able to help you." He told Lloyd, examining the young man.

"Alex Rhodes." He said, the man gave a smile.

"So you're one of the little bird's new teammates then. My name is Hawk, Alex was the boss here till this whole crisis began. I gave her the advice to make her own path and she took it. May I ask what your name is?"

"It's Lloyd, Lloyd Moon. Now that we have that out of the way, could you tell me where Alex is, she ran out after seeing a note that was from her parents. She looked distraught." He asked Hawk.

"Sure, While I don't know where she is, I have a good idea where she'll be. Ever since our boss before her died, almost two years ago now, every time she gets into an altercation with her parents, she heads to his grave. Usually they keep their distance though, but this time, it's different. Make sure you find her and help her, she should be able to spread her wings freely and not be chained down like her parents want." He informed the red ranger.

"I see, thanks Hawk, I'll try talk to her." He said waving as he went off.

After Lloyd did so, another mechanic came up to Hawk. "Hey boss, did you scare another one off with your bird analogies? You've really gotta stop doing that."

Hawk laughed. "There can never be enough bird analogies, right then, I think it's time to get back to work on revamping this train."

[Steam Force]

TJ's attempt at stalling was going well as he told them a very aristocratic story. "So then I said, get away from me and get a job you filthy beggar!" The two parents gave snooty laughs as he finished the joke, Ayana grumbled and TJ whispered to her. "Sorry about this, but these ARE the bad kind of rich people, I don't mean anything by what I say."

She whispered back. "You better not, otherwise I'm gonna be punching more than one dandy in the face when this is over." Ayana threatened.

[Steam Force]

Lloyd walked through the empty graveyard, scanning for Alex when he saw a female figure knelt down beside a grave with her head lowered.

He approached without her noticing, that was until he stepped on and snapped a twig which alerted the young woman to his presence. Alex turned her head to see Lloyd.

"oh, it's you. How'd you find me?" She asked, her voice monotone.

"One of your old friend's Hawk, he let me know that you come here after you talk with your family. Said it was a good place to start given the circumstances. So, care to explain everything?" He asked, sitting beside her.

Alex gave a sigh before turning to him. "Fine. I was born in the upper class district, I lived there most of my life. When I was growing up, I became interested in the technology and the machines used in the day to day runnings of the city. My parents didn't like this, they wanted to keep me at home, not learn anything and just look pretty so that when I came of age they could auction me off to the slimiest duke they found and be his trophy wife forever. Their ambitions we'ren't mine and I got tired of them telling me what I can and can't do. When I was thirteen, I ran away, any searches for me proved unsuccessful for a while. I was a smart girl and the lower classes look after each other,I convinced them to teach me what they knew and built up my skills. One day I met Griffin and he gave me a shot at fixing an old piece of equipment, kinda like an initiation. When I showed him what I could do, he let me into his crew of mechanics. The same one's you met earlier. He even gave me this tool belt, it's probably the only thing I'm never going to give up." She paused for breath.

"I see, well I'm glad Griffin was a nice guy, I doubt you could've stayed hidden for much longer." He said, she gave a nod.

"Even then I couldn't. Two years later, when I was fifteen, they found me. They wanted me to come back, said they had a whole line of suitors waiting for me. When I refused, they tried taking me back with them by force. Thankfully Griffin and Hawk stood up for me, and Hawk gave my dad a well deserved black eye. They tried to take legal action, but without my word that I was in fact their daughter, they were in the wrong, so we were fine for a while. Every so often I would try to make amends with them but it never ended well, then, almost two years ago,Griffin died of a heart attack. His last wishes were that I take over as boss with the others showing me the ropes of leading our little mechanic group. I tried to see them again but ended badly, they kept pressuring me to come back so they could marry me off since I was nearing eighteen. The last time I saw them was about a month before my birthday. Then they lost contact with me. Now they've found me, I already expect them to be at our base ready to cart me off." She frowned.

Lloyd took all of the information in and looked at her. "Don't worry, you're a ranger now and we stick up for each other right? If they even think about trying anything, we won't let it." He said.

"Thanks Lloyd, we better get back then. I'm done being nice with them, if they want to try and control my life again, well they're gonna get a piece of my mind!" She said, standing up.

"Wait, I didn't mean that you should do that!" He said, scrambling to get up and catch up to her.

When he caught up, she stopped in her tracks as she saw a large bloated fly monster in her way.

"Rangers! I've been looking for you, I'm Blugly and I'm gonna destroy you for my mistress!" The bloated and diseased monster told them.

Lloyd got into a combat stance. "We need to call the others." He told the white ranger.

"Leave this one to me!" She ordered him, he dropped his fists in surprise to his teammates newfound aggression.

"Full Steam ahead!" She called, being enveloped by a bright light as steam began to come from her.

1-0-1 … Shipping … Pipeblade … Arriving

Alex stood with her Pipeblade in hand and charged towards the overweight fly monster.

"Just one of you? This should be easy!" He boasted as the white ranger came closer.

Alex slashed the monster relentlessly without pausing for a second. "This is for making me have to deal with you too! This is because my parents are frustrating me and this one's because I hate Terrasoids!" She yelled as she struck him, every time she did, Blugly yelped in pain.

One her last strike, Blugly seeped out energy and exploded. When the fires settled, the dark spores hit the ground and revived a now giant Blugly.

Lloyd approached Alex. "Now can I get the other rangers to help?" He asked.

She shook her head. "Oh he is so dead!" She called. "White mono rider!" She called and her zord appeared overhead, which she jumped into as it passed.

"White mono rider engaged." She said as she piloted it towards the Terrasoid. "I'm coming for you, you overweight nuisance!"

The mono rider charged forward and began running circles around Blugly. "Hey stop it, you're gonna give me vertigo!" He complained.

"Okay, how about I do this instead!" She yelled, moving the switches around. The mono rider began coiling around blugly.

"Oww my organs!" He complained.

"Lose some weight fatty!" She yelled at the monster as the rider coiled even more and crushed Blugly, destroying him for good.

[Steam Force]

Alex and the others walked in to see TJ almost losing his patience with the two parents. Then they turned around to see their daughter among the rangers.

"Finally, you're here. Now that we've found you, please come along with us. We're getting older by the second and we won't start rich forever you know. We need you to marry into a very special family as soon as possible, you don't want us to end up on the street do you?" Her father told her. The other rangers eyes went wide.

"Really? Really! You haven't seen me in so long and the first thing you think about is your own well being?! What's wrong with you! I've had it up to here with both of your trying to dictate every single aspect of my life! I want to be my own person not some sort of prize some really rich ninny can parade around when he's out so he looks successful! You two need to leave right now before I let loose something you really won't like!" She yelled at them, clenching her fists.

"Nonsense! This time we're not leaving without you and you will accept it!" Her mother yelled back.

Lloyd stepped in front of Alex. "If you want to take her back, you'll have to go through us!" He said as Lucas and Mia backed him up.

"This is ridiculous! I'll have you all arrested for this!" Alex's father told them all.

TJ turned to Ayana. "You said you wanted to hit some rich people. They're all yours." Ayana grinned and clenched her fists.

"I've been waiting all day for this." She said as she swung full on at the unsuspecting man.

Her fist connected with his face and he fell to the floor, blood coming from his cheek where she hit him.

"Ooh that's gonna leave a mark." TJ chuckled.

"You scoundrel! You'll rue the day you assaulted me!" He said as the two parents ran out of the rangers based.

"And don't come back!" Ayana shouted as they scrambled out of the building.

Lloyd turned to Alex. "I'm sorry it didn't turn out too well, or how you expected it to go." He apologised.

"Are you kidding? That went better than expected!" She cheered. "Maybe they'll think twice about trying anything next time, thanks for helping me out everyone."

"What're friends for?" TJ said.

"Punching your parents in the face according to Ayana." Lucas joked as they laughed about the whole ordeal.

|Steam Force|

That is chapter seven of Steam force over and done with. This chapter emphasised that sometimes, things don't get resolved and the situation comes back later on. But you've always got your friends to count on to punch your problem in the face. The moral of the story here, at least from my point of view.

As for Kivo, he's becoming a strong and merciless warrior and a bit of a "My mother never loved me" psychopath attitude, that's all for now, and there isn't going to be a Steam Force episode in two weeks time. It is taking a 'break' of sorts but I have something very special planned in its place, which nobody knows about yet, till then.