Power Rangers: Steam Force

Ch11: Humanity

Previously on Power Rangers Steam Force: The evil clockwork ranger Kivo confronted the rangers for the very first time, wiping the floor with them in the first battle. The red ranger Lloyd was consumed by anger and was driven to chase after the evil ranger when he showed up. In their second battle, Kivo activated the Watchtower Megazord, disguised at Vicdon's clock tower all this time. The Steam Titan Megazord was defeated swiftly by this powerful new foe and on the ground, Kivo dealt serious damage to the rangers, ready to finish them off before something inside told him enough…

Kivo was frozen, time seemed to slow as something told him to stop. 'This is wrong' He thought as he turned away, holstering the clockwork rifle and turning away, demorphing as he did. 'These humans, full of fear back there… Maybe they aren't as heartless as I was led to believe. He thought to himself as he left the area.

The rangers struggled to get up, collapsing to the floor every time they tried, some of them only looked to have minor wounds, however others had more serious wounds. The red ranger seemed to be unconscious having taken the full impact of the blast being closest to it.

'He had us dead in his sights… He could've finished us off if he had pulled that trigger back there, so why didn't he? Why'd he leave without a word?' Alex asked as her vision became blurry, seeing the silhouettes of military vehicles diving up before everything faded to black.

[Steam Force]

At the operations station, a day after the battle, the rangers were being treated for their injuries, Vicdon's top medical staff had been brought in, just in case any had suffered any serious injuries and to ensure a speedy recovery for the rangers.

A doctor approached Lohan who was nearby with a concerned expression on his face. It was his job to make sure they were ready for anything, including the enemy using more powerful technology against them. He felt like he had failed them in this respect.

"Sir, most all of them are gonna be fine. We cleaned up their wounds, popped a few shoulders back in and gave them a mild sedative for good measure. They should be up in a few hours. But there's a matter I need to discuss with you in private." The doctor informed him, Lohan gave a nod and gestured for the doctor to follow him.

Once in Lohan's office and the door was closed, the doctor had an expression on his face that you'd see when someone is giving bad news. "It's about Lloyd. He took the full impact and was sent off his feet slamming into the ground. When we looked at him… Well We believe that his spine is broken in several places, we're not sure as to the extent of the damage, but if it's also injured or severed his spinal chord, then he won't walk again. We'd like to take him in and see what we can do, however it's your choice general."

To think, the red ranger is down, after all they've been through as a team. Struggling to accept each other and fighting together despite all of their differences. For the one person who kept them together to potentially be permanently out of it, at the best out of the fight for a little while, was a strong blow dealt to both the team and the city they protected.

"I-I see… Do what you must. I'm sorry, I'd like to be alone for now." Lohan informed the doctor, clearly shaken by the news.

"I understand sir. We'll have Lloyd taken to the hospital immediately, we're going to do everything we can." He said before leaving the General to himself.

"I've never planned for a ranger going down like this…" Lohan sighed. "What do I do now?" He asked himself, clearly distraught, he'd taught them everything they knew and made a bond with them, one between mentor and student, to have one ripped away in an instant like that. It brought back similar feelings to when Aham was lost, however this time, he was gifted with the luxury of bereavement.

[Steam Force]

On the streets of Vicdon, Kivo walked, shrouded by his cloak, looking inconspicuous as he blended into the crowd of people on the streets. Looking around, he saw a playground full of children playing, smiling, being happy. Even in all the chaos and suffering caused by the Terrasoids, there was still joy in the city.

Kivo watched as they played, smirking under the hood he wore. It reminded him of the time he was just a child, wanting to play without a care in the world. Before his mother had transformed him into the monster he is. 'Why is this so? I was taught that the humans were monsters. Yet they look like me, these young ones act as I acted, even the rangers protected their own, asked why I was fighting for the Terrasoids. Could it be that I've been lied to this whole time?' He asked himself, beginning his walk again, the humans looked so peaceful, unlike the Terrasoids who had been bred for war.

The warrior kept walking until he reached the park that he had attacked a mere day ago, yet even now, the people there were happy, enjoying the day and perhaps even life to the best of their ability. He saw parents and children playing together. 'Why couldn't I have this?' He asked himself, ready to move onto another part of the city before he heard civilians screaming in terror as a platoon of drones descended from the sky, along with what appeared to be a kind of mothman.

"Kivo, we've been looking for you everywhere!" The Terrasoid champion spoke. "I am Bollowth, sent here to return you to the hive." He explained to Kivo.

It had been long enough now for his body to begin rejecting the Terrasoid chemicals now, seeing as he had not used his ranger form extensively enough, it would degrade at a slower rate. However Kivo didn't know that, and even by observing , he had doubts that the humans were evil, especially as the drones headed to attack the screaming civilians.

"No…" Kivo said, throwing off his cloak to reveal his armour.

"What did you say?" Bollowth asked, surprised with what Kivo just said.

"You're hurting people that don't deserve it. Who just want to live in peace. I'm doubting everything my mother taught me, including that I'm a Terrasoid." Kivo said defiantly.

Bollowth stood there, shocked at what he was hearing. "Nonsense, of course you're one of us!" The mothman bargained.

"If you want me back. Make me! Clockwork Power!" He called, transforming into the clockwork ranger and levelling his rifle at the mothman.

"Last chance Kivo!" Bollowth told him hesitantly.

"I've made my choice." The Clockwork ranger told the Terrasoid champion before firing into Bollowth, blasting him to the floor.

The ranger proceeded to switch his rifle to bladed mode before tackling the drones and cutting them down with his weapon. As he wrestled with and then cut through the drones attacking a family he stopped and looked at them.

"You need to get to safety now!" He told them, charging into another group of the drones.

"Thank you." The father of the family said as the Clockwork ranger carried on attacking the drones.

He brung his bladed rifle around for another attack, slashing a large group of drones all at once before switching back to rifle mode and blasting them to dust.

Bollowth rose up and grunted as he came around to face Kivo. "I thought you'd come quietly, but it's a good job that you're almost out of time!" The Terrasoid laughed.

"Not a chance." Kivo said, leveling his rifle at Bollowth. However the Terrasoid champion was not bluffing.

The ranger felt a sharp pain as he dropped his rifle and put his hands on his head, demorphing before dropping to his knees. It was more serious now, his pupil fluctuating between between the bright yellow of the Terrasoids and a soft shade of green.

He let out an even more excruciating scream than before, then his vision went dark, dropping to the floor unconscious.

"Phew! I got lucky there, otherwise I'd be worm food. But Queen Nyllia won't be pleased with him acting like this." Bollowth sighed as he hauled Kivo over his shoulder and spread his wings, taking to the skies to return to the hive.

[Steam Force]

In the operations Station, TJ awoke with a grunt as he got up, noticing he had bruises over much of his body. He was the last to get up, and all of the other rangers, save Lloyd were over in the seating area, each of them with a grim look on their face.

The blue ranger shuffled over to the others and slumped down in a free space. "I feel like I've been hit with a crowbar." He groaned as the others just sat there in despair.

"I'd make a joke about how I was hit with one by a supposed friend, but there's something you need to know." Lucas told him with a monotone voice.

"It's Lloyd, he's been injured bad. The medical team took him away, and Lohan won't say what's happened to him." Ayana explained to TJ.

"It's that evil ranger's fault. The reason we're all hurt. And we can't do a thing." Mia despaired.

"Lohan told me to get Lloyd's things and take them over to the hospital, leave them in his room. Hopefully everything's fine though. I don't think we could get by without him holding the team together." Alex added. "I'm gonna go do that now." She finished, getting up and heading over to the red ranger's bunk.

"I think for now, all we can do is recover. That evil ranger wiped us out quickly. I don't know how we can hold on after this. Maybe there's someone who could help us out with this." He told them, thinking back to something the rangers were told not too long since.

[Steam Force]

Within the Terrasoid hive, Queen Nyllia and Stinger presided within the golden pool chamber along with a full compliment of the crablike elite guards. In the Queen's hand was the Clockwork morpher.

A few minutes past before the liquid bubbled and Kivo rose up out of it, Nyllia approaching the restrained warrior. She had been informed of his rebellion and had the liquid modified to try and control him. Once again his eyes were lit up with the bright yellow of the Terrasoids.

"Now, Kivo. Are you ready to serve me again?" She asked, his face was full of anger.

"Am I human?" The warrior asked, a serious tone to his voice.

"You are, however the Terrasoid genes run through your veins with each time you enter the pool, it lasts for so long, but you are as much one of us as you are one of them. So what will you be? Human or Terrasoid?" She asked, strapping the morpher to his arm. "Keep in mind, you have no choice, with the added pheromones you obey me. You are a Terrasoid. Do you understand?" She asked, confident that he was under her control once more.

"I understand." He told her as his eyes began to flicker. "I am a human!" He declared, knocking off one of the elite guard and slamming his hand down on the morpher. Clockwork Power!" He called, morphing into the Clockwork ranger.

"Impossible! That formula worked on every other human, how could he have defied it?" Queen Nyllia asked in disbelief.

Kivo drew his clockwork rifle and blasted the two elite guard to pieces before looking at Nyllia who was stunned from such a turn of events. "Be thankful I can't destroy you too." He told Nyllia before dashing out of the room and down the corridors of the hive, blasting his way through to the exit and making his escape.

"Stinger, get him back!" The Queen ordered, raising her voice.

Stinger nodded "I'll get Bollowth after him, he proved instrumental in Kivo's retrieval last time, he will do so again in the boy's capture."

[Steam Force]

Not long after his escape, Kivo was now on the streets of Vicdon, being chased by a horde of Drones led by Bollowth. Every few moments he'd take cover and fire, taking some of the minions down, however there were just too many and Kivo couldn't keep this up forever.

He turned to run again, however this time he saw five rangers stood side by side, all with angry/distraught faces as they saw the Clockwork ranger.

"You hurt our friend, now he'll never walk again!" TJ called out to Kivo.

The Clockwork ranger walked up to them. "I was under the influence of the Terrasoids, they lied to me, told me I was one of them when I was human. I am deeply sorry but they're here to take me and use me against my own kind again. We should stop them now, for all our sake." He explained to them.

"It's too late for that now. Our friend may never walk again now!" Ayana yelled at him, infuriated.

"Wait. Maybe we should. If the Terrasoids did all that to him and he didn't know any better, he's just another victim, we have to help him." Alex protested.

"The enemy of my enemy is my friend. I don't have to like the guy, but as long as we have the same goal, I think we'd benefit from working with him." Lucas added to the debate.

"Fine. Just don't get in our way." TJ told the other ranger as the five of them held out their arms and pushed the levers forward.

"Full Steam Ahead!" They called, morphing, ready for battle. It felt weird fighting without a red ranger, and even weirder to fight with a former enemy, but the rangers would have to get used to it as they summoned their weapons and charged into the lines of drones.

Kivo stayed where he was, crouching down and aiming his rifle steadily, shooting down drones at the back and taking out any that got too close to the other rangers and would likely swarm them in the process.

Ayana and TJ had their pipeblades out and were stood back to back in the middle of the declining horde of drones. TJ kicked one back before sending his pipeblade smashing into the head of another, sending it quickly to the floor. Ayana punched one in the face and swung her pipeblade into the drone sending it flying into a large group of drones and knocking them all down.

"Batter up!" She remarked with a laugh.

Lucas and Mia were blasting away at the drones that came too close as Alex, who had summoned both weapons and configured them into the Steam Flamer, advanced, burning down the drones as they cut through the small army.

It was not long until all of the drones were wiped out, leaving only Bollowth to fight the rangers. He looked at them hesitantly as they advanced, the Clockwork ranger walking just behind them too, shouldering his rifle as they approached the monster.

"Now now rangers. No need for any violence. Just give me Kivo and I'll be on our way." The Terrasoid bargained.

"And make him your slave again? Not a chance! You're gonna have to go through us bug brain!" Alex declared as the rangers stood strong.

Behind them the Clockwork ranger aimed his rifle at Bollowth. "Get out of here now. Yell your Queen that I'm done being her puppet. If you don't, then I'll just finish you off right here." He told Bollowth who gulped.

"Okay, Okay! I'm off, you don't need to tell me again!" The Terrasoid champion cowered before spreading his wings and flying off.

Then the rangers turned around to Kivo who holstered his rifle and demorphed. "I thank you for your help rangers. May we meet again, perhaps under better circumstances. But there's a reason that they're after me, and they'll try it again with someone else if I don't stop it." He told them, unstrapping the Clockwork morpher and throwing in on the ground, surprising the rangers.

"What are you doing?" TJ asked, as the rangers demorphed wondering what exactly Kivo was about to do.

"I'm doing the only thing I can to keep them from destroying this city and the peace and happiness that resides within it." He told them before he lifted his foot up and stomped upon the morpher repeatedly, shattering it into multiple pieces and breaking it so no other could use it. "Goodbye for now rangers." Kivo told them before turning and leaving, eventually disappearing into the city while the rangers just stood there wondering why he would reject being a ranger and choose to destroy the morpher rather than choosing to direct its power to fight against the Terrasoids.

[Steam Force]

A few days later, at a cafe in the upper class district of the city, A man in his early twenties was sat down inside, a to-go cup of coffee on the table and his face obscured by a newspaper in his hands.

"Young man by the name of 'Lloyd Moon' hospitalized after being severely injured in an attack by the Terrasoid menace, one of the numerous victims since the attacks began." The man read aloud. 'After all this time, could it be? Lloyd, He's here.' The man thought to himself as he took a drink from the coffee cup.

Little did he know of the events that would unfold in the next few weeks. The threat of the Clockwork ranger was over and the morpher was destroyed, but now the plans of the Terrasoids would only grow more dangerous and it was up to the rangers to stop each of these plans, even when their team was more fractured than ever…

|Steam Force|

That is chapter 11 finished. Kivo found his humanity, rebelling against the Terrasoids and fighting with the rangers to drive off a force sent to take him. However he destroyed the morpher and disappeared into the city, but will he return? Lloyd is in intensive care and he may never recover, which brings us to the purpose of the next chapter, before that however, who is this mysterious man who knows Lloyd? See if you can guess it.

Aside from all that, I plan on doing a Mythos chapter tomorrow, another Steam Force chapter on friday and a Primal Protectors chapter on Sunday and some time early next week too. That's all for me from now and I'll talk to you all later.

Next Chapter: Knightly Arrival

Synopsis: A Special Guest arrives in Vicdon as the rangers have time to rest in the wake of the loss of their red ranger, debating whether or not to choose a new one and who to choose. Can this guest ease the transition? How will Kivo go on now he is severed from the Terrasoids? Find out next time on Power Rangers: Steam Force