I've always been a pretty heavy sleeper. Once, Damon had to pour a glass of water on me to get me up for a mission when I'd fallen asleep on the guys' couch. So it makes sense that Maya and Kendrix have to turn on the lights and shake me madly to wake me up.
"Whattt." My mumble honestly sounds more like gibberish to my ears, but before I can turn back around, Maya grabs my shoulder, stopping me.
"Come on. I think something's happening."
"Something's always happening-" Kendrix and Maya each grab one of my arms and haul me out of bed, starting to drag me towards the boys' room.
Kai answers the door, a near mirror image of my own exhausted form. "What's up?"
"I had a dream," Maya announces, and I can't help but raise an eyebrow.
"Well then, why didn't you just keep having it?" I grumble.
"I had a dream, too," Damon mutters, sitting up, "'Till someone woke me up." He flops back down, something I wish I could do at the moment.
"Dream? What dream?" Leo questions, but Maya shushes him and steps into the room.
"There." At first, I can't see them, but when they float into view, I'm forced to shield my eyes. "The Lights of Orion are back."
I slide into my old seat in the Megaship as easily as if I'd never left it. "Accelerators ready to go." Damon claps my shoulder and I grin.
"Have I ever told you how nice it is to have someone who knows what they're doing onboard?"
"Uh, yeah. The first time we met." We chuckle, and he returns to his station, readying the engines to blast us off at full throttle. If we don't catch up to those lights, Scorpius will, and we really, really can't have that. The memories of Angel Grove in ruins come back to me like a spike-tipped boomerang, and a shiver of sadness passes down the link between Leo and I.
We won't let that happen, my first-in-command assures, and I pause for a moment to think. Then, instead of a responding thought, I send a mental image of the prettiest sunset I'd ever seen. It'd been many different colors, and many different shades of those colors, but the most prevalent one was pink. For eternal gratitude.
"There! Right in front of us," Maya announces, snapping me back into the present, and I push the accelerators faster, hoping they're okay to be going at this speed.
"I've got a lock on them," Kendrix replies.
"Don't let them get away," Leo orders, but before Damon can give us more speed with the engines, the Megaship rocks, sparks flying off our walls.
"We're under attack!" Kai reports from his station at the ship's optical controls.
"Shields going up," Damon replies, and as the shaking subsides, Scorpius' ship slithers into our viewing screen.
"The Scorpion Stinger, Scorpius is after the Lights, too!"
"He's coming around, guys, hold on!" Where are the Galaxy Gliders when you need them? Unfortunately, all I can do is grip the side of my control panel as we're hit straight on.
"Engines offline." Ugh. Of course, just what we need.
"Now," Damon starts, "I'm awake."
"The Lights," Kendrix reminds, "We're losing them!" We fall silent then, and I can almost hear the gears in Leo's head spinning.
"The Jammers!" Perfect. Despite Leo's solid idea, a twinge of nostalgia strikes a chord in my memories as I reminisce on my Glider, but I follow my team into the hangar anyway. One adjustment of my controls later, and we're zooming out into the black expanse of space towards Scorpius. We've made it quite a ways away when our scanners go off, and I frown.
"Stingwingers," Maya reports, and I run another quick check of my laser cannons in preparation for the upcoming fight.
"Go Leo, we'll hold them off!" Kai thinks quickly, and Leo nods.
"Okay, I'll go after the Lights."
"Let's go!" I order, and my brother and I spin back around, facing the Stingwingers head on. One of the creatures flies towards me at full speed, so I wait until the very last second, just before it can reach me… with a quick maneuver, I duck beneath it and pull my Jammer around in a hairpin turn, firing my laser and exterminating it. The others have all taken care of their own foes, so I zoom ahead, catching up with them.
"The Lights are headed towards Terra Venture," Leo announces, "Let's go."
It's windy as hell when we arrive back to Terra Venture, and I'm willing to bet it's because of the sheer power the Lights emit. Leaves whip up off the path, blocking my visor as I try my best to keep my focus on Destruxo. When none of our slashing seems to be doing the trick, Leo leaps into the air, flame spiraling from his weapons in an attack stronger than I've ever seen from him.
The new and improved technique does absolutely nothing besides hurl him back onto the grass, and we run to his defense.
"Beta Bow!" Maya, Kendrix, and I summon our Trans Daggers.
"Trans Blasters!" Destruxo lets out a cry, and I can only hope that he won't get back up out of that smoke… and I hoped too soon. I don't even have time to concentrate enough to use my telekinesis, because his black energy slashes into us, and we fall.
"Farewell, losers!" The Lights. He's going for them. The legitimate, one hundred percent real Lights of Orion. He can't get his hands on them. I roll onto my hands and knees, willing my body to just get up, damn it, but the cuts that Destruxo's attacks left burn agonizingly. I can't do much more than watch pitifully as he captures the Lights in an ornate jar. "I've done it! I've finally captured the Lights of Orion!"
After a bit of struggling, we finally manage to chase down Destruxo as he emerges from behind a waterfall carrying the Lights of Orion.
"I'm so glad to see you could make it." He begins to lift the jar, and my stomach starts to drop to my knees.
"Guys?"
"Now my powers will be unsurpassable! Lights of Orion, activate!" When Destruxo yanks open the lid of the jar, I almost expect to be immediately vaporized. Instead, they float out of their confines and into the open air again.
"He's taking the Lights' power," Kai murmurs.
"This is awful," Maya replies, and as our enemy strengthens right before our eyes, I'm pretty sure she's right.
"Now Rangers, I believe we have some unfinished business."
The amount of energy rippling out from Destruxo is unlike nothing I've felt while on Terra Venture. The last time I'd felt power like this was when Karone was still Astronoma, and we were no match for her. (Last time I checked, I still wasn't, even when she turned good. Woman is a beast.)
"I really hate to admit it, guys, but I think we're in trouble this time around," Leo spits out, and his rage comes barreling down the link at full speed. He's bitter, feeling as if he can't do much of anything in the situation. And honestly, he might be right. Even with my experience, if my team isn't up for it, there's next to nothing I can do about the threat we face.
"If by trouble you mean deep shit, you're right," Damon retorts.
"I can feel the power. You haven't got a chance against me now!" The sword Destruxo unsheaths is definitely larger than his original one, and no doubt twice as strong. "Let's turn up the heat a bit, shall we?"
"Get out of the way!" I scream as he drags his newly formed claw along his blade, but the blast of fire it lets off is too huge to avoid. My skin burns beneath my suit as we get knocked back, and I feel my suit leaving my body as we roll down the hill.
"Guys, you okay?" Leo's question is the first thing I hear as I slowly regain consciousness, and I stagger to my feet, head pounding. I'd probably smacked it against the ground when we hit the bottom of the hill. Hopefully I don't have a concussion.
"I think so," Damon mutters. There's no time to recover, though, since a swarm of Stingwingers charges at us from the other side of the clearing. A good amount of distance sits between us and our oncoming enemies, so I shut my eyes, slow my breathing, and focus my attention on that space.
When I use my telekinesis, even with my eyes closed, it's like I have a perfect sense of space between the object I want to move, and my own vantage point. So as soon as the first wave of Stingwingers comes within reach of my abilities, I open my eyes and sweep out a hand. They go down like bowling pins, but not without completely draining me of my energy. I stumble to the side, Maya catching me before I hit the ground, and I thank her.
"Think you could do that again?" Leo asks, and I shake my head.
"No way, Red. That was the most I've ever used my abilities in one go. The rest is up to brute strength." Which, as it turns out, isn't much. After everything we'd just experienced, our stamina, energy, and most importantly strength, are all massively depleted. My punches and kicks don't do much more than just work to deflect the Stingwingers' attacks, and soon they've got us outnumbered and on the ground. As if things can't get any worse (or more painful), another blast of fire comes down the mountain, scorching us once more.
The haze of my vision and ringing in my ears clear just enough that I can hear Leo's warning, see the orange flames zooming towards us. So, just in the nick of time, I morph alongside the others and charge through the fire towards Destruxo. A risky maneuver, but it's only stupid if it doesn't work.
"That's far enough!"
"Back for more? Don't you know by now that you can't defeat me?"
"We'll never give up! And you won't defeat us, even with your new power." Destruxo drags his claw over his blade once more, and I brace for the attack. It doesn't make it hurt less, I realize as I hit the ground.
"Say goodbye, Rangers." As if. We'd honestly chanced it, seeing as how the first attacks were enough to make us demorph. But now that we've got our suits and powers back, I can already feel my injuries healing quicker than normal, my energy quickly rising back up.
"Quasar Launchers, lock on! Energy launch!" Just as I expected, though, the energy blasts don't even stop Destruxo from continuing forward.
"Don't make me laugh. Your pathetic weapons can't touch me now."
I'm scared, Kara. The thought Leo sends down the link is so drastically different from how he looks right now, leading us right into the thick of battle, that it almost startles me.
We're not done yet, my friend. It's only over when it's over. He pauses, and so do I as I wait for his next instruction.
Then, a picture of a sunset flashes down the bond. Eternal gratitude, yeah? Strength washes through me, and when I look at my teammates, I see that we're each glowing our respective colors.
"Okay guys, we've got one last shot. Full power!" To my utter relief, our attacks work, if your definition of "work" includes making the enemy trip. Then, as quickly as it'd come, the energy surrounding us vanishes, and this time I stumble down to one knee.
"Now to finish you off." Destruxo lifts his sword once more, but when he does, the snake charm around his wrist begins to spray some sort of black venom into his face. I can't help the flash of pride that goes through me at the sight. That's what you get when you mess with a snake. "What's happening?" Soon, he's mirroring us, reduced to kneeling on the floor as the venom takes effect. "I've been tricked!"
"That's right, Destruxo," a new female voice echoes out from the trees, and I crane my sore neck up to look.
"Impostra! I should have known that it was you."
"But you didn't. You were merely a pawn in the master plan. I'd like to thank you for getting the Lights of Orion for me."
"For you?" For once, I find myself agreeing with a monster. I'd never seen the new monster before, "But I'm the one with the power of the Lights!" My wounds ache in response to that. Right again, which is weird.
"You mean, you had the power."
"What are you talking about?"
"I'm taking them back."
"Never." Hah! Now he knows how it feels to be on the losing side.
"Well, you have no choice-" Impostra lets out a confused shout as something explodes, and we dash over, only to find our good ol' pal Magna Defender there. With a single shot from his blaster, he knocks Impostra clean off of her perch, but I don't dare to speak a word. For all I know, our presence will just make this shitstorm worse. "Don't think you've won yet. I'll be back!" The blue-haired monster's gone in a flash, and so the Defender turns his sights on Destruxo. I won't ever admit this again, but I'm kind of glad he's fighting our battles for us this time around.
"Don't you know you haven't got a chance of beating me?"
"You may have more power than I do, but power alone won't be enough. You're pathetic. Let's get this over with." Their fight takes them into another clearing, and we follow at a distance in time to see the Lights float up and out of Destruxo's body.
"The Lights are free again!" Leo cheers, but our happiness doesn't last long.
"Don't get in my way, Red Ranger," the Magna Defender growls, sword at the ready.
"You can't have them!"
"How many times do I need to tell you? The Lights of Orion will be mine."
"We won't let that happen." At Leo's words, I brace myself, ready to take the lasers from his blaster head on, "You have too much anger inside of you."
"You leave me no choice." The Magna Defender reloads his blaster, and I inhale deeply, preparing for the worst, "Out of my way. Now!" His attack sends me flying backwards a bit, and I groan as I hit the ground for the billionth time today. "Lights of Orion, your power will give me revenge. At last!"
"We can't let him get the Lights," Kai groans as he stands.
"He'll destroy anything, even us, to get his revenge," Maya adds.
"We'll have to destroy the Lights!" Kendrix speaks what's been on all of our minds since this whole thing began: if we want to keep the Defender from getting the Lights, we might just have to make it so no one can.
"Quasar Launchers, lock on!"
"Don't make me destroy you first!" The moment that the Magna Defender turns to face us, the Lights begin to blink in a strobe-like pattern.
"Something's happening, guys. Hold your fire," I order carefully. Thankfully, my command's doing us well, since the Lights fly down towards us, stopping just in front of our faces.
"What's happening?" The Magna Defender questions.
"The Lights are shining over us!" Kendrix gasps.
"They're amazing," Kai breathes.
"They seem to be…" Damon observes.
"Choosing us," Leo and I echo. At this proximity the glittering orb of light sends out waves of warmth, and I close my eyes, letting it sink into my bones.
"I can't believe it. The Lights of Orion… are choosing the Rangers!"
"I think I know what's happening. The Lights of Orion can only be used for good!" Leo remarks, glancing around at each of us, "So they're going to give us their power!"
"Amazing," Kendrix murmurs, and I grin.
"Only one way to find out." We circle around the Lights, and I peek over at Leo, waiting for his instruction.
"Well. Here goes nothing." He reaches upwards, towards the Lights, and we follow his lead. If I'd felt warm just being in its presence, now I feel like I've just stepped into a hot tub after a long day of skiing, or like I'd just had the best sleep of my entire life. Lightning crackles all around us, and I can literally feel the limits of my power growing, expanding beyond what I'd thought I could handle. New armor encircles my wrists, biceps, and belt, and my Quasar Saber grows. And the best part? Now we've all got weapons that look like my Galaxy Gauntlets, but this new one feels so much stronger, like it will pack way more punch than my Trans Daggers can.
"Impossible!" Destruxo snarls, and we turn to him, swords at the ready.
"Better get used to it."
"I want my powers back! Give them to me!" Sounds just like a kid throwing a temper tantrum. It's kind of funny.
"Power up mode!" Leo orders, and I press a button on my gauntlet, allowing it to expand out. "Rangers, power up!" Then, we charge towards Destruxo together, taking him down in the blink of an eye. The moment that our opponent finally falls, we demorph, and the Lights float out of us and into our morphers, which glitter prettily for a moment. The looks we share are one of triumph and wonder, and we place our fists together, admiring the power that flows between us now.
I'm proud of you, Leo.
I hope you know that I couldn't do this without you or the others by my side, K.