Power Rangers: Steam Force
Ch15: Fractured
Since Kivo's return as the Cog ranger, the team have divided based on their opinion of the new ranger, leading to them breaking apart for an indefinite amount of time. Now it is up to all of them to come together and set aside their differences if they are to keep Vicdon safe from the latest Terrasoid threat.
Alex seemed down in the dumps today as she sat curled up on the couch in their lounge area, usually she'd work on a piece of tech she was working on if there was something on her mind, but since her team divided, she hadn't worked on anything, just sitting there absently.
Nearby, Lucas was training with Kivo, the latter giving his teammate tips on how to improve when he's fighting. Having his specialist training from his upbringing, Kivo was a better hand to hand fighter overall so he was happy to share what he could while they tried to resolve the situation at hand.
As they did so, TJ entered the Operations Station for the fifth time today, he had been all over the city looking for the others, without much luck the previous times. He appeared exhausted as he shuffled over to where Alex was and slumped down into the couch.
"It took me a while, but I finally found Ayana. She's still angry about having to work with Kivo, but I think she's starting to cool down." He explained to the red ranger beside him.
"Any sign of Mia yet? None of us can find her anywhere, even the hospital hasn't seen her come in to visit Lloyd." Alex replied, noting the apparent disappearance of the black ranger.
"I've looked everywhere and there's no sign of her, she's just gone." The blue ranger told his leader, rubbing his eyes as he did so.
"Here's hoping everything's fine, I don't think we can afford losing another ranger so soon." Alex said, standing up. "I guess I'll go look, see if I can find her instead." She finished heading for the exit, despite the red ranger trying to stay optimistic, she had a bad feeling about it.
[Steam Force]
Inside an abandoned factory at the far edge of the work district, Mia awoke, propped up against a post, she felt groggy as she came around and found herself inside the warehouse. Looking around, she saw civilians in a similar situation that seemed to be tied up with some form of green gunk. Glancing down, Mia saw that she too was restrained by this gunk and no matter how much she struggled, she couldn't get out of the gunk trapping her.
A crazed laugh came from nearby as the latest grotesque Terrasoid Champion strolled into the black rangers view along with a small squadron of drones. The Terrasoid in question appeared as a large green toad-like humanoid, complete with large pulsing spherical glands of the slimy Gunk just below it's head which were obviously the source of the slime binding Mia to the post.
"We've got a tonne of humans ready for the Queen boys! But while there's still more Gunk ready to use, let's go capture some more, otherwise she'll have our hides." The croaking reptilian Terrasoid ordered to the drones before they left to continue whatever plan was brewing.
Despite the Gunk trapping Mia at this moment in time, she found that her legs were free to move about and decided to try and stand up. Though when she did so, the Gunk became more restrictive and seemed to grow around her legs, trapping her further due to her efforts to break free. "So much for that idea." The black ranger sighed, slumping into the ground as best she could.
[Steam Force]
Ayana Towers was pushing her way through the crowded midday streets of the Port district, she still wore an angry expression on her face as she mulled over everything that had happened in the past few weeks leading up to her going off on her own.
The yellow ranger was deep in thought that she didn't look where she was going and walked straight into a man in his mid-twenties. "Hey, watch where you're going!" The man scowled as he pushed past her after bumping into the ranger.
To Ayana, it came off as hostile and gave an annoyed snort followed by. "Sorry." In a sarcastic manner. Without a second glance at the rude encounter, she carried on walking where she heard civilians scream and flee from the area if they were lucky.
The yellow ranger watched to see the Toad themed Terrasoid hurl out large spheres of Gunk at Civilians, effectively trapping them before the monster scooped them up with his tongue and placed them inside his body before laughing in an almost childish manner.
Ayana made a tight fist as the Terrasoid noticed her and got ready to capture her too. "Bad timing swamp breath. I was already angry, now I'm really angry. You're not gonna like me when I'm really angry." She threatened as she held her arm forward, revealing her morpher, before placing her hand on the lever. "Full Steam Ahead!" The yellow ranger called, Morphing in a shroud of smoke before calling on her Pipeblade and charging forward at the Terrasoid Champion.
Swatting at the latest enemy, the yellow ranger couldn't seem to hit it at all as she was kicked back by the Toad that belched out another Gunk projectile, hitting her weapon before dropping down to the floor, disarming Ayana and leaving her vulnerable to further attack.
"Ha ha ranger! Don't underestimate the power of Toadshot! Now to catch you and hand you over to my Queen." The Terrasoid known as Toadshot enthused as he readied himself to fire off another round of Gunk at the yellow ranger.
Before Toadshot could entrap Ayana in it's strong Gunk, it was knocked back by a round of blasts, keeping the Terrasoid at bay momentarily. Looking around, the yellow ranger saw the remaining rangers, including Kivo run up by her.
"Any clue what this thing's after?" TJ asked as he drew his steam blaster and aimed it at Toadshot.
"I think he's kidnapping people. You guys didn't need to come though. I had this handled." She explained with a groan.
"It looked like you were about to get hit by that monster's attack, you're lucky Kivo fired at it with his rifle before that happened." Lucas commented, getting Ayana angrier than before, causing her to charge straight ahead without thinking first.
"Hey watch out!" Alex called as she ran after the yellow ranger, noticing Toadshot was about to fire out another round of the Gunk at Ayana. It was too late for her to stop what was coming though and the red ranger dived into her teammate, knocking her out of the way whilst becoming trapped in the strong substance.
TJ fired his steam blaster at Toadshot to provide cover fire as Lucas advanced with his Pipeblade, ready to swing it at the Terrasoid Champion in front of him. The two rangers were about to perform a simultaneous attack with their weapons, TJ squeezed the trigger on his blaster, only for it to jam, disallowing him to fire and getting him and Lucas into an unfortunate position.
"It's your turn next!" Toadshot laughed as he fired out more Gunk that hit the blue and green rangers, trapping them too. As they struggled to free themselves, Toadshot turned to the remaining rangers. "Three of you down and only too to go. Queen Nyllia is gonna be real pleased!"
"Think again, we're gonna stop you here and now, before you can take any more people!" Kivo declared as he aimed his Cog rifle at Toadshot and began to wind it up for a powerful attack.
"While you're stood there like that, I'll take out your friend in yellow here!" The Terrasoid Champion exclaimed while Kivo was powerless to do anything, but as the Toad-like foe turned to capture Ayana, he let out a screech as two shots from a steam blaster hit him in the eyes and temporarily blinded him.
Looking over, Kivo saw that it was the yellow ranger's doing as she stood with her steam blaster in her hand. "And that's why you don't mess with me." She said confidently as she got ready to attack Toadshot again.
Giving a cowardly croak, Toadshot scooped up the captured rangers with his tongue before fleeing up the side of the building. "I'll get you two next time!" The Terrasoid called as he went out of view.
Both of the remaining rangers demorphed after a few moments, with Kivo then turning to face Ayana. "He got away, now what?"
In response, she gave a groan. "Maybe if you'd have shot him sooner, I wouldn't've had to, maybe you're just stalling for time so he can take us all out." Ayana accused him, folding her arms.
"Seriously? You still think I'm with them. I'm done helping them, what's it gonna take to make you realise that?" Kvio asked, walking up to her.
"You're one of them, always will be. There's no changing who you are at heart. I bet when you were fighting us you enjoyed it, I bet you enjoy watching the other Terrasoids hurt my teammates too."
Kivo gritted his teeth and turned away. "By your logic you're always gonna be a bitter and angry person. Do what you want, I'm going after this guy. If you're coming along then stay out of my way." He told her as he walked off to find Toadshot before he could strike again.
[Steam Force]
While Kivo searched throughout the city for Toadshot, Ayana had slowly made her way into the Operations Station, grumbling to herself as she strolled in.
After making her way further into the building, the yellow ranger looked up to see Lohan watching her. "I sent the others out not too long ago, if you're here to make up with them, it's too late, you'll have to wait till they come back."
"Some Toad monster caught most of them, Kivo's gone after it, I'm not following him to fight that thing." She said, with anger still in her voice.
"After everything that's happened, you still don't trust him. I do admit at first I thought it was too convenient for him to defect like he did. But then I spoke with him. Maybe if you just sat down and you two tried to understand each other, you'd see you're not that much different from each other." Lohan suggested.
Ayana sighed. "Why should I? I don't owe him anything, especially after all the harm he did to our team."
"Because he's trying to make up for what he's done. You can't be angry at anyone who does something if they're willing to fix it, at the least you let them try. If you take the time to understand someone before judging them, you'll see you're more alike than you might think." Lohan finished as the ranger gritted her teeth and clenched her fist.
"Fine. I'll work with him, but if anything happens, I told you so." She let out a breath of air before turning around. "You know, you're pretty smart, for an old man." She finished before heading off to find Kivo and Toadshot before it was too late.
The general chuckled as he headed back to his office. "I like to think of myself as stubborn more than anything." He added as he entered the secluded office room.
[Steam Force]
Inside the same warehouse that Mia was being held, Toadshot's stomach erupted, releasing all of his captives. The other rangers landed by Mia, now unmorphed and powerless for the time being.
Toadshot gave a croaky laugh as he waddled his way over to the captive rangers with a pair of drone guards. "Alright, just two more rangers to go and we can finally get out of here and back to the hive."
While the Terrasoid Champion was distracted by his indefinite triumph, the morphed form of Kivo slipped through an open window and onto a walkway above the holding area where he readied his Cog rifle. Kivo fired off a few shots at the drones around the area, taking them down whilst the other drones scrambled to defensive positions.
In this time, Kivo switched positions to begin firing again, but when he stood on a set of wooden boards patching up a hole in the walkway, the Cog ranger fell straight through as they cracked and gave way. Crashing into a stack of cardboard boxes, he became quickly surrounded by drones. When he looked forward with a pained groan, he saw Toadshot nearing him, ready to capture him too.
"Now you'll get what's coming to you, traitor." The Terrasoid croaked as he readied another round of Gunk to fire off and capture Kivo. As Toadshot stood tall to deliver the entrapping Gunk, he became startled when two quick shots hit him in the side of the face.
Kivo and Toadshot looked over to see a morphed Ayana with her steam blaster aimed at the face of the Terrasoid Champion. As they watched her, she turned her head slightly to the Cog ranger. "You just gonna stand me or are you help me make this slimeball sing?" She asked as the Cog ranger got up and converted his rifle into blade mode and began fighting against Toadshot as the yellow ranger shot down the drone forces in the warehouse.
"Glad you finally came around." Kivo said from across the room, whacking Toadshot around the head with the butt of his weapon.
"Think yourself lucky!" The yellow ranger remarked.
Moments after saying so, Ayana hit a drone right between it's buggy eyes before calling on her Pipeblade and finishing off the drones by combining the two weapons into the Steam Flamer and incinerating the minions in a stream of fire. Quickly disconnecting the two weapons, Ayana holstered her blaster for the moment as she too tackled Toadshot head on.
Bringing the bladed edge of his melee format Cog rifle around, Kivo cut diagonally down the front of the Terrasoid, leaving a large gash in the monster. As Toadshot yelped at the sudden sense of pain coming from it's torso, Kivo jumped back and began converting his rifle back into its standard mode.
"Ayana, jam your Pipeblade in it's wound so it stays open!" Kivo ordered, the yellow ranger quickly nodded and thrust her weapon into the wound before prying it open, giving them a direct attack point. "Alright, nice going." The Cog ranger enthused as Ayana joined him and drew her steam blaster.
"Not bad, now we better finish this Toad and put him in a hole." Ayana asserted as they both readied their weapons to end Toadshot.
"Huh, almost forgot." Kivo said as he remembered a key weapon in his arsenal. Removing his belt buckle, causing a mechanical voice to activate.
"Cog mine armed!" the synthetic voice confirmed as Kivo lobbed it into Toadshot's chest cavity.
"High noon blast!" Kivo called, the bell on the clocktower ringing out after one final wind up of his rifle before firing into Toadshot, immediately followed by shots from Ayana's steam blaster.
As Toadshot went up in a fiery explosion, the two rangers turned around with Kivo also shouldering his weapon.
As the flames died down, dark spores from the remains of Toadshot rose to the sky and clustered together, reanimating the Terrasoid into a giant. Now facing another giant foe the two rangers looked at each other.
"The others are still out for now. Guess it's just us two." Kivo said, observing that his teammates were still trapped by the Gunk that didn't seem to dispel when he was destroyed.
"I've got an idea to give your megazord a bit more firepower, but I don't know if it's gonna work." Ayana informed the Cog ranger, who gave out a big sigh.
"So your plan is to hope for the best? If something goes horribly wrong, I'm pinning all the blame on you." Kivo said as he readied himself to call on his Megazord.
Though he couldn't see it, Ayana was smirking at him under her helmet. Though she'd be reluctant to admit it, she did seem to enjoy fighting alongside Kivo, at least in this fight anyway. "Alright, time to call my rail rider."
Soon enough the yellow bus rider made it's way over the warehouse and Ayana leapt into the zord as it made it's way around the city. "Yellow bus rider engaged!" She called as she made a pass around Toadshot.
"Watchtower Megazord Engage!" Kvio called out as he gave the gear shaped wheel on his morpher a spin, awakening Vicdon's Clocktower that then formed into the Cog ranger's Megazord.
From her small cockpit, the yellow ranger began aimlessly pushing buttons around the control panel. "Alright, I'm gonna try coupling my zord into your Megazord. I've only done this once with TJ's zord so bear with me."
Kvio grunted as from his cockpit he pushed back against Toadshot, with his Megazord following his movements. "Easy for you to say."
Ayana noticed a familiar button. "Hey it's this one!" She cheered as she pressed down on it as her bus rider split in two and attached to the knuckles of the Watchtower Megazord that then put aside its current weapon.
As this was done Ayana was transported to the cockpit of the Megazord. "Alright, Watchtower Megazord. Steam powered knuckle dusters. Let's do this!" She cheered once more as she readied herself go give Toadshot a taste of the two ranger's combined power.
"Knuckle dusters, really?" Kivo remarked, questioning her choice in name for the attachment.
"Give me a break, I'm not the one who usually comes up with names." She groaned, getting a shrug from the Cog ranger as they struck Toadshot with a heavy handed punch.
Before Toadshot could react another heavy hitting punch struck his face, followed by another, and another and another.
"Alright. Let's lay the beatdown on this slime bag!" Ayana exclaimed with questionable enthusiasm as they two rangers let out a flurry of punches which the Megazord followed, it's hands becoming a blur as it tore through Toadshot before he exploded for the final time today.
Lowering the Megazord's arms, the two gave sighs of relief that it was over for the time being. Looking over, the two rangers gave each other firm nods. Even though they started the fight on the opposite sides, they had both chosen to fight on the same side and were now allies. A lesson they would keep with them as this fight continued.
|Steam Force|
And that was chapter 15 everyone, hoped you all liked it. It feels good to get back to doing some more Steam force and having these two characters work over their differences. So Ayana finally made her peace with having Kivo on the team, which is an important step into bringing the team together and I really enjoyed doing this chapter because it really stood out for meaning something in my eyes and something I want to keep doing in later chapters. If you're wondering why Toadshot was gathering people in this chapter, stay tuned for next chapter where that gets revealed.
Now there have been some issues that have affected my updating in the past week or so, but things should be on track more now and the next week is one where I don't have any college work to do, so I might be able to get some more things out then There's only two more chapters that focus on Kivo and his relationships with the other rangers, it's been a long arc overall but I've got something special planned for when it's over. Other than that, I'm gonna be writing some more Primal Protectors soon, so look forward to that if you're a fan and until whatever I write next everyone.
Next Chapter: Teamwork
Synopsis: The Terrasoids are at it again, kidnapping more people than before. Following a Terrasoid Champion back to their holdout, they learn a shocking truth about the Terrasoids and what this could mean for everyone in Vicdon and perhaps even beyond. Can the rangers stop their enemy's plans? Find out next time on Power Rangers: Steam Force.
