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Twice Chosen

Even after it had happened, I wasn't sure how to explain what we'd just gone through. One moment I was sure that my new team and I would be burnt to death in our zords, as we fell into the pit that was the only thing stopping Goldar and Rita from claiming the Zeo Crystal, and the next… it was as though the energy that had just been exploding around us was suddenly pouring through us, channelling into my zord and expanding into something new. I couldn't be sure when it actually changed, but suddenly I went from falling down into the pit in my solo zord to sitting in a new style of cockpit, looking out at District Eleven from a higher position.

"We… we're alive," I said, almost unable to believe what had just happened as I tried to look around myself, somehow already sure that I wasn't the only survivor. "Everyone, we're alive!"

"What the… oh my God…" Peeta said, his voice low as he took in what had happened. I was aware of parts settling into place around me, but right now my main focus was on the sheer scale of what we were now in control of.

"OK, missing the wings, but this is cool!" Glimmer affirmed. I was able to look around and see what looked like similar cockpits to my own positioned around the shoulders and thighs of this new zord, but my focus soon turned to how to work this thing. As far as I could tell, my actual control room hadn't changed much, but as for what I was actually controlling now…

"We're all in one big… Megazord!" Liv laughed with joy as I felt the newly named 'Megazord' stand up, facing Goldar directly. I wasn't sure how, but I could suddenly 'sense' that it had adopted a combat pose of some sort, ready to resume the fight that Goldar had tried to end just moments ago.

"HOW?!" Rita screamed, her voice clear even across our current distance from Goldar, the giant titan having apparently stepped back as we emerged in our new form. As I felt parts of the Megazord settle into place, I watched as Goldar bent down to allow Rita to walk onto its hand, subsequently raising her up so that she could lie back down and be somehow absorbed into its chest. I could just make out a green glow from Goldar that I assumed signified that Rita had become part of our foe, but right now there were more immediate concerns to deal with.

"Time to put this bitch down," Thresh said, sounding like he was grinning over the radio. "Let's do this!"

"Everyone, let's go!" I said, as I commanded the Megazord to move forward, only to find the new vehicle falling towards the ground. I could hear the others calling out various "Nos" as we fell, but my immediate priority was ensuring that we didn't hit the ground so hard that we damaged our new vehicle. I was aware that at least one hand was out in front to catch us before we hit the ground, but I couldn't be sure if I'd done that on purpose or if someone else had been in control of that limb.

"That… might have been me," Liv said apologetically.

"Don't worry about it; we all need to learn how to do this," I said quickly, studying a new control sequence that had appeared to my left; this was no time to blame anyone for not knowing how to use something this complicated. "OK, if I'm reading this right, Pink and Yellow have the arms, and Blue and Black control the legs; I'm keeping the body in sync, so we all have to move together. Got it?"

"Got it!" the others replied all at once.

"I'll lift us!" Glimmer said, as the Megazord rose back to its feet once again. For some reason, Rita hadn't attacked while we were off-balance, but I had a feeling she just wanted to enjoy our suffering rather than there being any sense of fair play behind her actions.

"All together, up on three," I said, hoping this would become more natural just like our ability to drive the original zords had been as Goldar began to advance towards us. "One, two… three."

"We've got this; let's get this bitch!" I heard Glimmer yell as we charged towards Goldar. The golden titan grabbed the Megazord's upper body before I could order us to deliver a punch, but I managed to pass on an instruction to Thresh to catch us before we fell too far. As the Megazord's upper body moved forward, Peeta was able to lash out with a punch that sent Goldar back, knocking something from his head even if it still looked the same when the arm stopped blocking my view of our opponent.

"Let's go again!" I yelled, managing to lean back to avoid another blow from Goldar. "Pink, throw a hook!"

"On it!" Glimmer yelled, as the left arm delivered its own blow to our enemy. Regaining its balance, Goldar landed another couple of punches to the head and chest (I wondered why it wasn't aiming more directly at our control sections, but I wasn't going to complain about not being targeted by something this big), but we were able to follow that up with a powerful kick to Goldar's chest that forced it away from us.

"Nice one, Blue!" I called down to Liv once I confirmed which leg had delivered that kick. However, the good mood quickly faded when a long golden sword emerged from Goldar's right arm, leaving me with a renewed sense of apprehension about what was about to happen to us.

"Do we have anything for that?" Thresh asked. For a moment I was lost for how to respond, mind racing over everything we'd learnt about combat in training for the Games and to become Rangers, until an idea came to me.

"Remember the pit?" I said.

"Oh yeah," Thresh said in satisfaction.

"Does it make a difference if I say I never liked that part of the training?" Liv asked, as Goldar began to advance again.

"We don't have time," I said, preparing the Megazord for what was to come. "Ready?"

Once I received positive responses from the others, I set the Megazord in motion, dodging to the side so that Goldar's charge with its new weapon completely missed us, following up by grabbing Goldar around the waist beneath the wings. Whether Goldar could have attacked us from this position would never be answered, as I sent the instructions out for us to lift the golden warrior up off its feet, adjusting our subsequent fall to slam Goldar into the ground head-first. Turning over, I saw that Goldar was still intact, but it let out a loud groan of what I chose to interpret as its equivalent of pain as it tried to get up.

"Pull back on the arms!" I said, as a new 'instruction' suddenly appeared in my mind. "I think… this thing does have swords."

"We do?" Thresh and Liv said in surprise.

"And that's what the wings are for like this!" Glimmer said, sounding very satisfied as the Pterodactyl's wings separated from the zord's main body to settle into its hands. Now properly armed, I raised the weapons above the Megazord's head and rammed them down as Goldar tried to deliver another punch. The counter-attack penetrated Goldar's chest and left our opponent pinned to the ground, but I had just removed one sword to deliver another blow when Rita burst from Goldar's chest with a loud scream.

Unsure what I expected to hear but somehow certain I had to hear this, I withdrew the other sword and adjusted the Megazord's position so that the head was almost directly above Rita as she looked up at us.

"Look at me!" Rita said, her voice trembling but firm. "You think you've won anything? Others will come for the Crystal, and you're trying to protect a species that would let their own young slaughter each other for sport! I would be doing the universe a favour wiping you out and sparing you what is to come! What you have… it can't last! You know I'm right!"

"I don't know that," I retorted, refusing to give Rita any sense that she might have been right about anything. "What I do know is that, right now, you are the greatest threat to this planet, and what our civilisation has become is a matter for another day."

"You think you can change anything?"

"I think we're going to try," I retorted, hoping that I wasn't going to say anything that might give away our identities by 'accident' if someone was listening in. "And right now, you're going to give us your staff and your coin, so we can take you to Zordon and let him be the judge of what to do with you."

"Zordon?" Rita spat indignantly, almost seeming to gain strength as she glared at us. "Judge me? Never! No matter what Zordon says, I know… I am worthy!"

Letting out a load roar, Rita leapt off Goldar's fallen form, her staff raised as though she seriously thought she could attack the Megazord on her own. I wasn't sure if she would be able to do any damage given the size difference, but I wasn't prepared to find out. Triggering the appropriate command, I watched in satisfaction as the right arm rose to strike Rita with such force that she was sent hurtling into the sky, leaving us to look up after her in satisfaction at such a decisive final blow. As she flew away, Goldar's body seemed to 'blow up' below us, collapsing back into small golden fragments that scattered around the District or simply lay on the ground, until the monster that had almost destroyed us had basically fallen apart.

"Red?" Glimmer's voice cut in, as the Megazord stood up and returned our zords to its back. "Did you just… slap her?"

"It seemed like the right call," I said, finding myself unable to stop a smile on my face before I turned to look at the District spread out before us. From my current position in the Megazord cockpit, it was easy to see how it could become so natural to treat people as 'lesser' when you were looking down on them like this, even as I knew that I would never let myself do that…

"You know," Glimmer's voice continued, "if we leave now, everyone's going to think we're just some secret weapon the Capitol sent out…"

"And what about the Crystal?" I asked, suddenly wanting to be sure everyone remembered our original purpose. "If we leave now-"

"The Crystal has already begun re-sealing itself; by the time you return it will be hidden once again," Alpha's voice cut in over the radio. "I'll explain more once you're back at base, but in the meantime… Zordon gives you permission to do one thing to affirm that you're not working for the Capitol."

"There's the Peacekeeper building right over there," Thresh said, raising one arm of the zord to point at a large white structure up against the edge of the main houses. "Shall we?"

"Maybe we just hit it as we're going out?" Peeta put in. "We don't want to look like bullies who just stopped Rita so that we can attack Panem ourselves, but Pink's right that we also don't want to give anyone here reason to seriously think we're working for the Capitol…"

Nodding in agreement, I set the Megazord to walk past the building, but took care to swing one arm in a direction that ensured it would strike the Peacekeeper building as we walked by. It just knocked a corner of the building away, and a glance back was enough to satisfy me that we hadn't killed anyone, but it was clear that we'd made an impression even before we deliberately walked through part of the wall around the District.

"Think that's enough?" I asked the rest of the team as the Megazord paused on the outskirts of Eleven.

"Nobody in the Capitol would do that kind of damage, and we took care not to hit anything that wasn't official Capitol property; I think we'll be OK," Glimmer grinned. "We should probably follow this up soon by making sure they know what we're about, but this should give us more time to work out something before the Capitol can paint themselves as the big heroes."

Even with my limited interest in the bigger picture, I could understand Glimmer's point; if the Capitol needed more time to find some way to explain the Megazord, that gave us more time to make our own preparations.

We've defeated Rita, but that just leaves the more local monsters to deal with