Power Rangers: Steam Force

Ch10: Clockwork Power

It had been one week since the revelations inside the Hive and the death of Lloyd's father. The young red ranger was in a mix of emotions, anger, sorrow pain, despair. All of it was welling up and none of the rangers could get through to him,

All day when not in action, he was training, training for the one reason he believed he still existed for. To kill him. The others were worried, but had to put up with their leader and his aggression in his time of grief.

The five rangers were sat down in their usual spots while Lloyd worked himself relentlessly, they were discussing what they could do.

"He wants this guy done. I can't say I blame him. He watched helplessly as light died from the eyes of the last person he had left in this world. If anyone fixed this, they'd be a miracle worker." TJ said, offering up no ideas to help the red ranger out.

"Well, if nobody's gonna say it. We should help Lloyd do it. They're clearly not on our side. It helps us out when dealing with the Terrasoids and it gets Lloyd the revenge he needs." Ayana put bluntly, causing a slight conflict in the group.

"Maybe. But what if things are more complicated than that?" Alex suggested.

As they were about to discuss it some more, the alarm sounded and the rangers stood up as Lloyd rushed out to face the new threat. "I guess whatever we decide doesn't matter right now." Lucas added before the rangers ran out to face the threat too.

[Steam Force]

The Vicdon war memorial park was visited often by people of all classes to pay their respects to those who died fighting in World War II overseas and it was rather full as usual, until the Terrasoids attacked. Numerous groups of drones descended upon the people, terrorising them as they did, as chaos erupted all around him, Kivo walked through the park, observing as he did, thinking back to what his mother had said before his mission today.

'These are the sworn enemies of your people, the Terrasoids, they exist only to destroy us and lay waste to our world. They don't love and none of them are innocent. Your job is to go out and make them suffer, in the name of our people.'

Yet from the scouting he had done earlier and the looks of fear in their eyes as the Drones attacked and they attempted to flee, this was most certainly not the case.

"Could it be that mother lied?" He asked himself. But he shook his head. 'I cannot attack anyone who might be innocent. "Pull back for now!" He ordered to the drones, who complied with the same fearful respect that they showed their queen.

However relieved the civilians were, getting away from the drones, all was not settled yet. Kivo turned to see an enraged Lloyd opposite him, seething his anger.

"You." He growled. "You're gonna pay." He added before holding his arm out and pulling back on the lever on his morpher. "Full Steam Ahead!" He called out, morphing quickly and calling on his Pipeblade.

"So you're one of the rangers responsible for causing harm to my people. Finally what I came for." Kivo told the enraged red ranger before revealing his morpher. "Clockwork Power." He said as rotating gears shifted around his body before transforming him into the Clockwork Ranger.

Lloyd rushed at Kivo who pulled out his clockwork rifle. The evil ranger fired off two shots at the ground, but the red ranger kept advancing. Inches before Lloyd connected, Kivo converted the rifle so that the whole weapon became straight and a bayonet type weapon sprung from the side of the weapon, going all the way along it. As Lloyd struck, it was easily parried to the side by the second form of the rifle.

"You're gonna pay for what you did, you monster!" He screamed, striking his pipeblade against the bladed rifle in anger.

"If that is how it shall be, then so be it." Kivo said, understanding how this would end.

The Clockwork ranger's foot came up and kicked Lloyd in the gut, knocking him back a few feet and causing him to stagger. This gave Kivo time to convert his weapon back into a rifle and aim it at the ranger.

"Begone." Was all the evil ranger said before pulling the trigger and sending a blast at Lloyd, which his him square in the chest, sending him flying to the ground as an explosion occurred behind him.

The red ranger demorphed and groaned in pain. Kivo was about to finish him off when multiple shots fired off from behind Kivo, a few of them hitting the evil ranger, yet doing no real damage.

When turning around he saw the other five rangers standing there with their blasters at him, but they froze as soon as they saw the evil ranger.

"An evil ranger. How'd they even get the technology to do that?" Lucas asked, surprised by the ranger foe they were facing.

"He's probably the one who killed Lloyd's Dad." Mia suggested.

"I'd say they got him to fix it and that's what that device was that he took." Alex added, as they got their bearings back.

"Either way he hurt Lloyd. I'm guessing he's planning much worse. Let's take this guy down!" TJ Exclaimed as they switched out their weapons to pipeblades and charged in.

Ayana and Lucas attacked from opposite sides, but even when it was two against one, the rangers didn't seem much of a match. He blocked both with the bladed rifle and suckerpunched Lucas in the head, knocking him to the floor due the superior strength and power behind the punch due to Kivo's Terrasoid abilities. He proceeded to take Ayana down by sweeping her legs out from under her.

Alex and Mia took position a bit further back and switched out to their steam blasters before firing at the evil ranger who dodged them with superhuman agility. He then switched his weapon back into rifle mode before firing at the two rangers, taking them down to the ground.

TJ was now the only one in action as he and Kivo fought with their melee weapons. Using a quick and surprise maneuver, TJ managed to disarm Kivo and knock his rifle away from him. Yet the evil ranger didn't let up. He quickly grabbed ahold of TJ's arm and twisted it till he had him in an arm lock.

"We're gonna stop you, no matter what! We're not gonna let you hurt any more innocents." TJ growled in pain as he was kicked to the ground.

Kivo retrieved his rifle from the ground and targeted the blue ranger. "You don't get it. I only remove those who are a threat to my people, those who attack us openly and unprovoked, like you. Or have the potential to destroy us all, like the man I removed at the hive." He said as he charged up his rifle. "It may not be the best way to handle things, but I exist to protect my people and if that means-" He cut off, dropping his rifle and clasping his head with his hands.

TJ looked over at his injured teammates. 'We can't fight in this condition. Better off getting out of here while we have the chance' He thought, as he got up and began helping the other rangers to their feet before they retreated.

Kivo screamed in agony as he demorphed and collapsed to his knees. "What's happening to me!?" He yelled as his vision became dark and blurry, seeing two flying figures descend as his vision went black.

[Steam Force]

The injured rangers were recovering as TJ recounted what had happened in the fight with the Clockwork ranger to General Lohan.

"He was about to finish me and then the others off, saying we were a threat to his people. Then something happened. He dropped his rifle as he screamed out in agony. We managed to get out of there in time, but we don't know what happened after that." He explained.

Lohan thought over that and the other information he had been given. "All of the Terrasoids we've fought till now have been more or less insectoids. Then someone who looks human shows up, claiming to be a Terrasoid himself. He might believe it, but I don' controlled the Mythos rangers through spores, they could be doing something similar here. Maybe if he can be broken through to, or just kept out in the field long enough for whatever happened out there to be repeated, he could be free."

"It's a thought, but it sounded like being a Terrasoid is all he knows." TJ added, giving a sigh.

"If anything is gonna happen, it's down to him alone. Otherwise, you'll have to think of a way to stop him, permanently." Lohan said, hesitantly.

"I get it, there's some of us that already had that thought. But I hope we don't have to resort to that. From what I heard him say, he sound misguided." TJ finished heading for the exit.

"Sometimes a bit of hope is all we need." Lohan said as TJ departed from his office.

[Steam Force]

Back inside the Terrasoid hive, Queen Nyllia and Stinger were in another chamber. This was a large circular room with a large golden pool of liquid. The two were conversing as the pool simmered away in the centre.

"So Kivo is not like us then? Explain this to me more, my Queen." Stinger asked, to which Nyllia nodded.

"When he was created, it was done from pure human DNA. That was to make him the greatest infiltrator we have at our disposal. When needed, I will us him as such. He was subjected to this pool to combine the abilities of a Terrasoid with his body, but usage of those powers make him deteriorate and causes his body to reject the hivemind. With this he will need to be immersed again after so long. Although it pains me to say this. Our greatest weapon is not a true Terrasoid. But so as long as the boy believes that he is. I can manipulate him to attack the humans." She explained as the golden pool began to bubble.

"Devious, as expected from the mind of your eminence." Stinger praised.

The bubbles began to move towards the edge as Kivo emerged from under the surface of the pool. "I'm back, and ready to take on the rangers once more." He told Queen Nyllia who smirked.

"Then I have another, more important task for you." She informed him as he retrieved his armour.

[Steam Force]

After a day had passed, the rangers had recovered somewhat from the wounds inflicted upon them yesterday. As with today, it seemed like a routine cleanup of a squadron of Drones that were attacking the city. However nothing was ever so simple.

As the six of them finished off the last of the minions. They heard footsteps getting closer and coming from behind them. Upon turning around, they saw him. Kivo stood, hand to morpher.

"We meet again rangers." He said as they all took a defensive stance.

"You don't have to do this you know. I saw what happened earlier. I don't think you're a Terrasoid. They're controlling you. You're a human being, just like everyone else here. That's why you aren't as cold or ruthless as them, why you look exactly like us. You just need to see it." TJ told the evil ranger, trying to talk him down.

"I have my orders. I can't disobey my mother. Clockwork Power!" Kivo called, transforming into the Clockwork ranger once more.

"Then let's go, right here. You're gonna pay for everything!" Lloyd yelled, infuriated.

"I would destroy you now, but I have another mission, try to stop me. If you can." Kivo informed them as he raised the arm with his morpher on to the air. "Watchtower Engage!" He called as the ground shook underfoot.

The rangers, stumbled as the ground shook hard, like an earthquake that was just weak enough not to cause any damage. The six of them were mesmerised as something extraordinary happened. The clock tower, centerpiece of Vicdon began to move by itself. Rising up and beginning a transformation. The lower Half split in two and almost disconnected from the rest of it, then large portions at the base slid out to create legs and feet. From the Back of the Body of the tower folded out arms which slid out two fists from the end of it. The top of the clocktower slid up, revealing a head that was surrounded by gears and cogs turning. If one was high up enough, they would be able to see all the systems of gears turning inside the giant structure. The rod at the top of the tower head detached and through the turning of gears transformed into a sharp bladed clock hand melee weapon. The megazord was now ready as Kivo jumped up high and entered the Megazord.

The inside of the cockpit was pitch black, smoke swirled around the floor as floating gears turned and turned, moving from one side to another as the ticking of a clock kept going in the background. Aside from this,the cockpit was an open space for the Clockwork ranger to move around and fight in, currently he had his weapon in bladed mode.

"That's a…" Ayana said as they looked on at what was stood before them.

"A Megazord." Alex finished as the new Megazords eyes lit up with a red glow.

"Watchtower Megazord ready!" Kivo called from the clocktower themed megazord.

"It doesn't matter." Lloyd said. "No matter what he does, he's going down!" He declared, calling forth his express rider, the others following on shortly to create their own Megazord.

In comparison to the Steam Titan, the Watchtower Megazord was roughly the same size. However the top part gave it a slightly more menacing look that seemed to dwarf their megazord anyway.

The Steam Titan sent it's fist straight into the Watchtower Megazord, the latter sparked a little, but it proved ineffective.

"Okay then, take this!" TJ Called out as he rammed the speed rider foot into the enemy Megazord. Again, more sparks and it staggered the Megazord a slight bit, however, it did hardly anything as well.

"My turn." Kivo said as he thrust forward with his weapon inside the Megazord. The Watchtower did the same, thrusting the clock hand blade into the Steam Titan and causing it to spark and drop to its knees.

The ranger's megazord tried to stand up and fight back, but it was kicked to the ground by the Watchtower Megazord and sparked again. The weapon of the evil megazord transformed into a large version of the clockwork rifle and it was aimed at the chest of the Steam Titan as its foot held the megazord in place, trapping it. Pulling on the trigger, the rifle sent a blast into the chest of the Megazord that was shot apart as the rangers fell out of it and were sent to the ground as they demorphed.

Kivo shortly followed after them, jumping down from his Megazord and aiming the clockwork rifle at the cluster of fallen rangers. Five of them struggled, while Lloyd, who was at the center of where the blast hit, was out cold.

The rangers were in pain, and had a look of despair in their eyes. Then the clock in the Watchtower struck twelve and a bell began to ring inside it. "High noon blast!" Kivo called out as he charged up a shot and sent it towards the rangers. An explosion occurred behind them as they were sent flying and were scattered by the blast.

They were defeated, beaten, bloodied, all hope had gone from their eyes, their bodies ached with pain. Kivo was about to finish them all off for good. His finger was on the trigger and he was ready to pull it. But he noticed what their were going through. Looking into the white rangers, eyes, he saw fear,tears welling up. 'This is wrong.' That thought came into his head and stayed there as he froze up for a few seconds, then he took his finger off of the trigger and turned around, demorphing as he walked away from the rangers and the battlefield, disappearing into the city.

Queen Nyllia would not be pleased with his decision, however perhaps the rangers saw the humanity he displayed in that instant. How this would turn out? Only time would tell.

|Steam Force|

That is chapter 10. This was an interesting chapter for me to write, and some of the things in here were to play out a lot differently. But what's to come is something nobody will expect. So in this chapter, the rangers kept getting beat by Kivo, however learning about the kind of person he is. Queen Nyllia is keeping a big secret from him and the evil ranger disobeyed what he was ordered to do. Even though he shattered their chances with his Megazord, something in him has held him back and that's where the next chapter comes into play.

I got all my work finished in time, thankfully and now I can focus primarily on this since I've really got nothing to do till the next year starts, so expect everything to be back to normal now and I have to go catch up on some reading now, so here's the synopsis and I'll be back next week as usual.

Next Chapter: Humanity

Synopsis: After the devastating battle against Kivo, the rangers try to recover, however there is some unfortunate news regarding one of the rangers, putting more pressure on the others. Meanwhile, Kivo goes rogue and wanders the city, seeing for himself what humanity is truly like, before returning to the hive where he learns the truth about himself. How will this affect him? Can the rangers keep the fight going even after being defeated so easily? Find out next time on Power Rangers: Steam Force.