Power Rangers: Steam Force

Ch12: Knightly Arrival

A week after the battle between the largest force of Terrasoids that had been sent at Vicdon so far, the rangers lick their wounds after the bad news involving their leader.

Lloyd was still in a coma on his hospital bed. The doctors had done what they could to repair the spinal injury to the red ranger, but it was extremely unlikely that anything good would come of it in the end, the best the rangers could hope for right now is that he would wake up from his coma.

Alex sat in a chair at Lloyd's bedside. She sighed looking out of the open window as the curtains fluttered from the breeze coming in. 'With Lloyd down, I don't even know if we can keep fighting. He was leading us and trying to keep us all together. Now he's like this, what's to become of us?' She asked herself before carrying on her thought out loud in a low voice. "Kivo, I know you had no choice but why did you fight so hard, to end up doing this to someone?" Yet little did she know there was another listener at the other side of the window.

Balancing on the ledge and clinging to the wall was Kivo. He no longer wore a white collared shirt with a few buttons undone and the sleeves rolled up. He wore a pair of black jeans and black boots with suspenders over his shirt. 'The reason he ended up like this, it's all my fault. At the time, I intended to destroy him and all the other rangers, I'm sorry now, but I can't take back what I've done.' he explained before scaling back down the building and leaving the area.

Back within the hospital, TJ was on the phone with an unknown acquaintance. "You sure you can make it? With everything going on you might wanna stay put. That said, we're in a real bind right now and none of us know how to lead." He asked the other person on the line.

A teen with an obviously british accent responded. "Well seeing as we just wiped out a bunch of enemy forces the other day, I'd say we should be fine for the rest of the week. Anyway, the others can hold the line if it means aiding the rest of you. It'll take a good few hours but I should arrive." He finished, allowing the blue ranger to respond.

"Great, I'm sure the other rangers will be relieved there's another friendly face to help out." He finished, putting the phone back on the phone box.

TJ headed into Lloyd's hospital room shortly after, seeing the red ranger was still in the coma, he gave a sigh and took a seat before turning to Alex.

"So, how long did the doctors say he'd be in a coma?" The blue ranger asked, getting her attention as she turned her head away from the open window to face him.

"Oh, you're back. Well they said that they didn't know. Could be a week could be a year, maybe longer. Said all we could do is wait. But this' about more than that isn't it." Alex observed by how the blue ranger looked, he was tired and stressed.

"Yeah, been up all night thinking it over. I don't know if any of us can really lead you know. Called up a mutual friend of ours to help out with that. Seeing as Lloyd's down for god knows how long, one of us needs to step up and become a leader, otherwise we're gonna fall apart." He explained to her.

"Well I hope whoever you're calling up knows what they're doing, otherwise we're probably screwed." The white ranger commented, getting up and heading to the window. "What do you think of Kivo. I mean, he did all that stuff, beat us up badly and put Lloyd in here, but he didn't know right from wrong back then. He chose right in the end but couldn't he have joined us?"

"I was angry with him at the time and the others still are with all that he's done, and I don't ever think he can make amends for any of that, all he can do is try. But when he destroyed the morpher, I think he made it clear he was done with all this." TJ said, sharing his thoughts with her.

"You know, sometimes you know what you're saying, I'm surprised you don't wanna take a shot at being red ranger." Alex responded before heading to the door.

"You know how hard it is dealing with our misfit bunch on a daily basis. I really don't wanna be in charge of that." He smirked as the white ranger left the hospital room. He waited a few moments to make sure nobody was there before speaking up. "But the thing with Kivo is, I think we need him."

[Steam Force]

Within the Terrasoid hive's throne room, Queen Nyllia seethed, her anger radiating from her as she sat on her throne, her fists clenched. It was not long after, that Stinger approached the throne and knelt before the Queen.

"My Queen, we have located the traitor. He now lacks morphing ability and should be an easy target for one of your assassins. Shall we proceed?" Stinger asked Nyllia who stared at him with an angry expression.

"Kill the ungrateful child, he is of no use to me now and I don't want a disappointment and failure such as that opposing me any longer." She ordered, still angry that Kivo had defied her.

"Understood my Queen. I shall sent Ouroboro to deal with the boy immediately. He shall succeed or fall." Stinger bowed before leaving to prepare the latest of the Terrasoid champions for its mission.

Although Stinger was certain of this chosen champion's capabilities, he was still rather unsure of this next battle, it was if he sensed that not everything was as it seemed and this next fight would take an interesting turn. Yet only time could tell and the commander of the Terrasoid armies could only watch and see where this would lead for the time being.

[Steam Force]

Through the streets of Vicdon, Kivo strolled, his new clothing allowed him to blend in with the people in the city as he observed his surroundings. The young man soon found himself within the market district where he saw the multiples stores and market stalls dotting the area. For all he had seen of the world and people he was now a part of, he still felt like something was missing.

'I know it was the right thing to do, destroying the morpher to keep its power safe, and leaving the rangers so they can fight without me in the way. But I still feel like I should be helping and fighting the Terrasoids with them. Half of them want me to suffer while the other half believe they need me. I'm trying to find a purpose, but I've been fighting all my life, I don't even know where to start looking for something different. Maybe this' always been what I'm supposed to do.' He thought to himself as he looked around the market.

He saw a young man with dark brown hair buying a necklace that seemed to be for someone else and there were numerous others that also seemed to be buying gifts of goods, such as food and clothing, for themselves or their families.

Yet soon the peace here was short lived. A squadron of drones, carrying a Terrasoid champion, landed and swarmed the area, chasing off most everyone there. Only the aforementioned young man and Kivo stood in the now empty marketplace as the drones made way for the latest Terrasoid.

It was serpentlike in body, spouting long venomous fangs while having an agile body with slender arms and legs. "Kivo, I have finally found you, traitor! By order of the Queen, I Ouroboro have come to end your life." The Terrasoid declared.

"You may seem a little tougher with me stripped of any strength I have left, but that doesn't mean I won't fight if I have to!" Kivo said, standing strong.

The young man interjected, his accent and voice being the same one from the phone call TJ had made hours ago. "I'm guessing you're these Terrasoids I've heard about. If you think you're gonna harm anyone on my watch, be afraid, be very afraid." He threatened, Ouroboro turning to face him.

"And just who are you to say that?" The Terrasoid champion asked, unaware of what was about to happen.

The young man produced a small metalling handheld object and pressed down on a button on the object, causing the sides to flip up and change the object into a crossguard blade hilt. Slashing from left to right, then up and down an after glow of red energy was left in place,creating a red cross as this individual called out at the Terrasoid. "Templar Power, Activate!" He called, being enveloped by the red energy before it dissipated and burned away leaving him in in his ranger suit. The Templar Ranger had arrived in Vicdon.

"Element of Albion, Templar Ranger!" The ranger called out, cutting the air with his longsword.

"A new ranger? Nobody mentioned this to me!" Ouroboro cowered, hiding behind the Terrasoid footsoldiers. "Get him already you morons!" He ordered.

"Consider me on loan!" The ranger retorted as he charged in and sliced through the first drone quickly before bringing his fist around and slamming it into the face of another drone.

One of the drones swung at the templar ranger, but he dodged the attack quickly and easily, creating an open area to attack it. Running it through, the ranger was met with more resistance from drones as they wrestled with him all the while Kivo watched.

"The guy's pretty good I've gotta admit. I'm kinda surprised the rest of the rangers aren't here already though." He said to himself as the ranger threw off the last two drones and gave his longsword a twirl.

"Enough playing games." He muttered as his sword ignited with fire and he charged forward, bisecting two drones at once before advancing on Ouroboro.

"Maybe another time!" The Terrasoid cowered, fleeing from the scene as the five Steam Force rangers ran in.

"Wasn't there supposed to be a fight here?" Lucas asked, seeing no sign of any enemies.

"Look around, fight's already happened, but who beat us to it?" Ayana observed, looking at the destroyed and charred drones.

"Well whoever did this, he's standing right in front of us." Mia told the two who saw the ranger in silver and red staring at them.

"Looks like Kivo's here too." Alex added, unfortunately there were still some with disdain for Kivo.

Ayana's eyes lit up with anger as she tried to leap for Kivo, only to be held back by TJ. "Let me at him, you know he deserves it!" She protested.

"Cool it, he helped us last time, if he's really changed sides then we should make the effort to not try and kill him every time we see him, alright?" The blue ranger reasoned with her, letting her go after she gave a slow and reluctant nod.

"Clearly I've come at a bad time, I'll be taking my leave then." The ranger said getting their attention.

"Mind explaining who you are?" Alex asked, none of them recognising him with his new armour.

"Clearly you don't recognise me, I'm guessing it's something to do with my hair." He said sarcastically. "One second." He finished before demorphing in front of them, each of the rangers understanding as they went over to greet the ranger.

"Aaron! Great, you came by quickly didn't you? Thanks for coming by." TJ greeted as the Templar Ranger, Aaron Du Lac, was greeted by the others in their own ways.

"I told Lloyd if you ever needed me or any of the others to help, I'd come. But I must express my deepest condolences on the injury of Lloyd. He was a good leader, and now you guys need a new one. TJ asked me to come by and see if any of you can lead." He explained to them. "Now let's get out of here, place is a bit dreary don't you think?"

"Sure, back to the base it is." Ayana said, turning heel and leading the way.

"And what about your friend…" The ranger trailed off seeing no sign of Kivo anywhere. "Never mind." Aaron finished, following behind the others after seeing that Kivo had vanished.

[Steam Force]

All of the rangers had made it back safely to the operations station and were making themselves comfortable while Aaron talked with Alex and TJ.

"So our fight against the demons is really heating up now as we fight for these artifacts. We're doing good and thanks to the new suits and powers, we're doing even better. Enough about what's going on in Castelan though. Tell me what happened, the full story." He informed them.

"Well, over a week ago now, there was a new Terrasoid, unlike anything we've fought. A human who had been given Terrasoid powers and for whatever reason thought he was one of them. He beat us and primarily Lloyd over and over again, even defeating our megazord with an even stronger one. In the end he broke free of whatever they were using on him and joined us to fight off a massive way, but he destroyed the morpher and left. He was the person you saved earlier." Alex recounted.

"But now Lloyd is in a coma and he'll never walk again." TJ added as they finished explaining.

"A hard thing to forgive. But there's something hunting him, serpentlike and we need to stop it. I think one of you has the ability to take over and keep your team together, but we need to work out how we stop it first." Aaron explained to them both before they paused to take a long thought.

"We could use Kivo as bait, keep an eye on him till it shows up again. Then you lay in wait till it does and take him out. Easy right?" Alex suggested.

"Sounds easy enough but this seems like a two person job at most. The rest of your team can serve as backup right?" Aaron added to the plan.

"As long as you don't need us to save Kivo, things should be fine." TJ responded, giving the thoughts of the rest of the team.

"Then you and me Alex, let's save Kivo from this Ouroboro." Aaron finished, getting up and heading for the door with Alex.

[Steam Force]

Kivo walked down a dark alleyway as the sun was high in the sky Soon enough he was indeed ambushed by Ouroboro but Kivo wasn't afraid.

"You have a nasty habit of bumping into me, a similar nasty habit for bumping into rangers." The young man said as Aaron, already morphed, charged at the Terrasoid champion with his sword.

Ouroboro turned at the last second, startled by the ranger and slammed him into a wall causing the ranger to demorph with a groan. The Terrasoid smirked in pleasent surprise. "Looks like he wasn't as tough as first thought. And now traitor. There's nobody to protect you!" He laughed, drawing near and bearing its fangs in front of Kivo.

Before the Terrasoid could act, Alex charged in, morphed in her pipeblade and slashed at the monster in the defense of Kivo, knocking Ouroboro back as the white ranger advanced.

"In future I hope you Terrasoids keep away from him, if you know what's good for you. He may have done some wrong in his past, but he's trying to make up for it. I want to help him, I believe in him." She said as she cut down the Terrasoid assassin.

Aaron got up off of the ground and summoned his longsword, igniting it and pointing it at the helpless Terrasoid. "You're someone willing to forgive an enemy who's done wrong. You've proven that you have the strength to fight monsters and you have knowledge enough to make the right calls when you can. You might've not been the first choice for red, but you're the best the rest of the team's got right now." He said to Alex with a smirk.

"So I'm the new red ranger now? Wait was you're going down all a test?" She asked in surprise.

"Maybe it was. Here." He said, tossing her the red Steam Force morpher. "You're in charge now. Get your friend out of here, I'll deal with this guy." He finished, the new red ranger looking at him in surprise.

"You're not coming back then?" She asked as she went over to Kivo.

"Nah, you don't need me, besides, I gotta get back to Castelan before the last train leaves, otherwise Missy and Emlie are gonna kill me." He explained.

"Missy?" She asked, not aware of his sister.

"Long story. Now get going. If anything else happens, don't hesitate to call on us." He said before turning his attention to the Terrasoid as the two turned away.

"Thanks for your help today!" She called as she and Kivo left.

With one swift blow, the ignited sword was stabbed into the monster and it set alight, burning to a crisp. Not even the dark spores that would usually revitalise a fallen Terrasoid could escape the elemental fire and also burned, rendering this enemy completely defeated.

Aaron gave a sigh. "It's been fun, but I better get going before that train leaves. Otherwise I'll have to hitch a ride back with Welkin while he's still grounded at the airport, and after last time I'm pretty reluctant to travel air Stross again." He said to himself before dismissing his sword and leaving for the train station.

|Steam Force|

That is chapter 12. The chapter seemed to go quickly and I wanted it to go for more but as it stands it worked out and I can't really complain, it worked how I wanted it and I enjoyed writing it.

Now that Alex has become the second red ranger, her place on the team is open and they're still not at full strength, my answer to that however will be revealed in due time, but a couple of you already know where I'm going with it. But that's not for quite a bit yet, now it's time for a special two parter episode to finally close out the '6th ranger' arc and finally see where the action with Kivo and the rangers takes us.

It's been an interesting week and I'm happy to say I'm not sick anymore, that's good for me because I can catch up on some missed reading while I was sick and do some more writing. The next thing I'll be writing for is in fact Primal Protectors, I'm following up on my plan to get two chapters out a month, at least for this month, so I'll see you all then. Till then I'll talk to you all later.

Next Chapter: Gear Shift: Part 1

Synopsis: The Terrasoids unleash a darker plan to get rid of kivo and destroy the city, leaving the rangers to try and deal with this with only five members of their team. With news from Lohan regarding something that can stop the Terrasoid plans, the fate of the rangers and Vicdon now rests on the shoulders of Kivo. Next Time on Power Rangers: Steam Force.