POWER RANGERS: OMEGA
Episode 2: Connections
Lion Heart tears through the meat with his fangs, blood staining his ample facial hair. Silver Guardian looks up from his meal, the look of disgust masked behind his helmet.
"If you insist on eating in such a manner, I refuse to eat lunch with you again." Lion Heart's predilection for eating in such a way often left Silver unable to complete his meal, something Lion Heart did purposely. But due to the hunger ravishing his stomach from three days of not eating, the crimson stains in his companions beard and on his talons did not deter him this time as he begins shoveling food through his mouthpiece. Lion Heart growls in annoyance, but says nothing as spatters of blood and bits of masticated food from his voracious consumption land near, but never on Silver's plate.
Maurice looks up from his monitor and leans back in his chair. Blinking his eyes several times, he glances at his watch, noting the early, or in his case, late hour of six thirty. Yawning deeply, he resumes keying in the upgrade commands he had begun working on five hours earlier.
Trini flawlessly demonstrates her martial arts prowess as once again she engages in a Praying Mantis kata routine. Tommy, his body not quite as awake as his mind, opts to simply observe her from the weight bench, leaning forward against a barbell with five hundred pounds attached to it. At the conclusion of her set, she stretches and Tommy claps approvingly.
"Have I ever told you how great you look, I mean are," he smiles at his intentional slip of the tongue.
"Too much if you ask me," she replies with a smile. Grabbing a towel from the rack in the corner, she heads towards the shower. Turning she says with as much innocence as she can conjure up, "You wanna watch?" The 16-year-old boy nearly hits his head against the bar at the request. "Just teasing." She walks in and closes the door behind her. Moments later, her bra lands in his lap and Tommy is left with an unusual feeling in his pants.
Omega casts his dark eyes upon the holographic representation of the remaining cities in the world. More than twenty of the areas he personally destroyed were emerging from their tombs and bustling with, albeit small, populaces.
"In five years time I nearly conquered the entire planet and killed 30 Power Rangers along the way. Now, 16 years later, I cannot defeat two children pretending to be Power Rangers. Unacceptable!" His rage manifests itself into the shaking of his inner sanctum. As his anger subsides, so do the tremors that most likely threw more than one of his minions off balance. Turning to face a monitor, his gaze falls upon the super imposed images of the Black and Green Rangers. Below them, all data compiled from previous encounters scrolled continuously up and down in four separate columns. "Useless." He dismisses the monitor in a more subdued voice as his devious mind formulates yet another method that hopefully would not fail him.
A small alarm chimes just above Maurice's head, signifying that another hour had passed. Kimberly regularly served breakfast, whether a five-course affair that made even him more sociable, or a bowl of cereal, at seven forty. Estimating that even a partial diagnosis of his current status would take at least ten minutes, he prepares himself to miss breakfast.
Although the sun is now up, the brisk autumn wind sends chills through the thin jacket Tommy is wearing. Standing atop the same roof he had the previous day, he looks down upon the gentle waves rolling across the surface of the water. Holding the dagger to his side, he sits cross-legged and sets it down. Now Dragon Zord, lend me your spiritual guidance.
A lightning quick sidekick slams a soldier into a wall. A backhand brings another soldier to his knees and a knee to the jaw crumples him. Silver, garbed in a charcoal gray dogi maneuvers around a punch and slams one of his own into the gut of that soldier. A right cross to the temple sends the fully armored soldier crashing to the ground. Driving his knee into yet another soldier's sternum, he brings his elbow down across his neck.
"Enough!" yells Charles Scott, brandishing his firearm. As the leader of the human strike force, Silver's use of his men as sentient punching bags regularly upset him.
"How else do you expect me to hone my skills?" Silver asks, retrieving his towel from a hook on the wall where one of the soldiers still lay imbedded and unconscious.
"Why not use those mutants of Cornelius?"
"He doesn't have enough." Silver disappears from the room, leaving the frustrated Charles to wake his men.
Two hours have come and gone, yet Tommy is no closer to achieving his goal. Finally, he uncrosses his legs and stretches them out. Perhaps out of frustration, he pockets the dagger and types in the frequency for the house.
"Trini, do you two need me for anything for the next hour?"
"Nothing I can think of."
"Well, I'm gonna go do a little unwinding. See you at lunchtime." He cuts the connection and stands to leave, giving a final look to the waters.
"Silver!" the booming baritone rattles the windowpanes of Silver's room. Once again seeking solace in his darkened corner, he ignores the incessant blaring.
"Blast you Silver!" Omega slams his clenched fist down, breaking off his armrest. "I give him too much leeway. Cornelius, dispatch one of your creations to attack Silver. He will be made to respect me."
Cornelius mutters an indiscernible reply and turns to face his stasis chambers. Committing the serial numbers on four of the chambers to memory, he turns to his computer and extracts the files corresponding to them.
"You will do splendidly." The display showcases a female covered in white fur and black markings. With those exceptions and a tail, she resembles a human female. His genetic experiments rarely did more than just augment physical abilities. In extreme cases such as Tigress and Lion Heart, some resemblance to the animal's DNA utilized occurred, such as fur.
"Morning doctor." She purrs and stretches her body similar to that of a cat. "What do you desire of me today?" Slinking up to him sensually, she wraps her tail around his wrist.
"Nothing of that sort. I need you to track Omega's lap dog and when the proper time arises, attack him."
"Of course master," she replies, her tails' grip loosening, but not completely uncurling. The doctor leans forward.
"Perhaps there is a little time before you leave." He kisses her and the grip tightens again.
Keisha looks down upon her lesson plan, scouring it for inconsistencies. Her students, ranging from 6 – 12, are engaged in a vocabulary-matching puzzle. Suddenly, she shivers, as if a cold draft wafted in through an open window. However, no windows were open. Wonder why, she asks herself, suddenly realizing she had not been as intent on finding errors as she had convinced herself she had. On the paper in front of her, somehow unbeknownst to her, she had scrawled Maurice's name several times.
"Are you going to stay cooped down here all day?" queries Tommy, slurping up the last remaining drops of melted milk shake.
"Not my first choice of leisure activity, but, it passes the time." Maurice rolls himself from beneath the Black Dragon Zord's belly. "Anything happen today that I should know about?"
"Nothing of significance, nope." Tommy takes a seat on an empty portion of the marble table adjacent to the service elevator. "When are you gonna arrange your stuff?" He looks around at the tables, chairs, benches, tools, and other assorted items and furniture in disarray.
"Aesthetics were never my strong point." He wipes the cleansing fluids from his hand. "So, you get Dragon Zord to respond to your flute yet?"
"Nope," he responds, his face conveying his disappointment. "I thought it was just a matter of technology, but it's something more. Something I can't get a hold of just yet."
"Keep at it. If anyone can unlock that secret, it's you." Tommy is surprised by the rare show of support from Maurice, but smiles nonetheless.
"Where are you going?" Silver hears the animalistic voice of Lion Heart over his shoulder.
"None of your concern," he responds, not turning to face his interrogator.
"Omega disapproves of your conduct as of late."
"If he doesn't like it, he can fire me." Silver fades away through the doorway in a brilliant flash of light.
"I hate when he does that."
"Maurice, Tommy, come here please." The two of them exit the kitchen in response to Trini's request. "Check this out." On the monitor, Silver watches nonchalantly across the street, cars swerving to avoid hitting him and colliding with one another. Before him is the apartment complex that Keisha lives in. Maurice, morphers on his wrists, morphs and teleports before anyone can protest.
"Lock on to his signature and follow him!" Kimberly commands.
Nodding, Tommy yells "Dragon Zord!" After morphing, his morpher locks onto Maurice's and instantly he is transported to the location.
Green Ranger looks around, finding the streets completely deserted. Moments later, an intertwined Black Ranger and Silver Guardian explode through a window three stories up. Black Ranger's fall is cushioned by Silver Guardian's body and he proceeds to hammer punch after punch into his adversary's body. The last punch, aimed for his head, misses, causing Black Ranger's fist to imbed itself into the concrete. Seizing the opportunity, Silver slams his fist into Black Ranger's jaw and pushes him from atop him. Flipping onto his feet, he kicks the fallen Ranger in the ribs.
"No time to play with you today," he remarks, drawing his saber and training it on Maurice. Sensing a disturbance, he snaps his left arm back in a slight arc, his metallic knuckles catching the airborne Green Ranger in the sternum. "Now, where were we?" His answer comes in the form of a leg scissors that brings him to his knees. Still on his back, Black Ranger spins, slamming his heel into Silver's head. Rolling back to his feet, he turns his attention back to the apartment. Green Ranger lands a dropkick to Silver's face, sending the warrior back to the concrete as Black Ranger races up the stairs, skipping as many as possible without slowing his speed.
Kicking open Keisha's door, he is stunned at the oddly attractive humanoid feline shouldering Keisha's unconscious body. She licks her lips seductively before crashing through the window with Keisha in tow. Without further hesitation, Maurice dives straight down after them in pursuit.
The feline woman lands on her feet and begins running. Maurice tucks his body and somersaults with inches to spare. Before he realizes that Silver had clothes lined him, Maurice wonders why his throat hurts and why he is on the laid flat upon the pavement. Looking up, the glint of something metallic blinds him momentarily and an intense pain shoots through his shoulder.
Green Ranger crawls over to him just as Silver vanishes.
"You okay?" concern strong in his voice.
"I can't move my left arm." Green Ranger helps his ally to his feet and teleports the two of them back.
"What could possibly be so special about this woman that Silver would risk incurring Omega's wrath?" ponders Cornelius, as Tigress lays the motionless form of Keisha across a gurney.
"Who knows or cares for that matter. I want a crack at that Black Ranger."
"Then have at him my pet, if that is your desire. Just save something for me to alter when you're done."
"Of course doctor." She smiles sinisterly, licks his face, and then leaps inside one of the tunnels that would transport her back to the scene of the abduction.
"Now my beauty, let's see why he went through all the fuss of retrieving you." Cornelius begins stripping off her clothes.
"Where are you going?" Kimberly yells, as Maurice, shoulder bandaged, attempts to morph.
"Where do you think?" he replies, knowing how much she despises answering a question with a question.
"Damn it! Look at yourself, you're still bleeding." A small crimson stain is visible through the white bandage.
"I don't care."
"What happened out there? Why won't you tell me?"
"I told you before. What I do on my own time is none of your concern." Concentrating, Maurice crosses his arms over his chest. "Black Dragon!" he growls through gritted teeth, the powerful transformation restoring full use to his arm, but not ridding it of the excruciating pain still surging through it. Teleporting again, he leaves the former Pink Ranger fuming.
"So, you came back. I was expecting you." The beautiful Tigress uncurls herself from the couch, the only piece of furniture not over turned.
"How unfortunate, for you." Maurice races forward. Tigress leaps from the ground and executes a perfect high side somersault over him. Dropping to a crouch, she lashes out, twice scratching his chest with her claws. A third attempt ends with her wrists being caught and a size 14 boot shoved into her midsection. She whimpers, and pushes off with both feet, freeing herself only momentarily. Maurice quickly follows up with a spin kick to the face and a kick to her ribs. Hooking his arms around her waist, he lifts and spins her over his head before slamming her against the floor with such force that a visible crack appears in the tiled floor. Jerking her up by the neck in a grip that could easily crush a normal person's windpipe, he hurls her into a wall. She slides down the wall, barely conscious only to have his iron grip wrapped around her powerful, but still very vulnerable neck. Lifting her to eye level, he retracts his visor.
"Where is she?" He shakes her to instill in her how serious his inquiry is and what repercussions awaited her if not answered to his liking.
"Omega has her!" she screams, coughing up blood. With a twist of his wrist, he flings her onto the couch.
"You disgust me. Go back to your master and tell him I'm coming for him." Maurice turns to leave, teleporting before his second step strikes the floor. Tigress blinks back the spots swirling about her eyes then lies down for a nap before returning.
Tommy sits at the kitchen table, rubbing his bruised ribs with his right hand, and holding the Dragon Dagger with his left. A moment passes, and he looks up to find Maurice sitting in the opposite chair still morphed.
"Looks like you've been through hell." No response. "Maurice?" He shakes his partner twice, then jumps up and lifts the heavier man. Moving as fast as possible he props him on the couch and calls Trini.
Trini arrives moments later with a diagnosis.
"He passed out?" The astonishment prevalent in Tommy's voice reveals to Trini the high regard in which the teen held his surrogate father.
"Yep. Although he was able to push his body beyond any normal extent of physical activity, eventually his body reacted to his pain the only way it knew how, knocking him unconscious."
"I see. So what do we do from here?"
"Let him rest." Tommy takes a seat on the coffee table and watches over his partner as Trini reverses the morphing process and covers the young man in a blanket.
"Why must you test me so?" inquires Omega, his unblinking eyes focused on Silver's.
"I'm like a child in your eyes, so I thought like most children, I'd test my limits." An optic blast knocks him back a few steps. "Okay, my apologies Omega. Won't happen again. I promise."
"See to it that it does not. You are my best man and as much as I'd hate to see your talent wasted, I have no qualms about ending your existence. Am I making myself clear?"
"Crystal." He about-faces and exits the chamber.
"No mutations, no enhanced abilities. She's worthless as she is now." Cornelius reassesses his test results, finding nothing physically extraordinary with the young woman. Stroking her forehead, he kisses her lips gently. "How would you like to be my new pet? We could splice you with a panther." He moves his hand across her naked thighs. "I know I'd like it very much."
"And here I was thinking your intellect prevent you from engaging in such overt sexual acts." The doctor looks up from Keisha to find Silver standing in the doorway with his arms folded menacingly and a scowl adorning his helmet-less face.
"Why did you bring her here then if not for my research."
"I never intended to bring her here. You kitty did that. I had my own agenda. And it didn't involve her being nude. Now dress her before I have to report to Omega that he will need a new geneticist."
Tommy watches from afar as his father flawlessly performs the melody that countless times before awakened the sleeping beast. The peaceful waters bubble, then churn violently before parting way, revealing the crest of Dragon Zord's head. An awed smile graces the six- year-old's face as the massive giant emerges and takes its first steps upon the shoreline.
"Hopefully my son, you will never need to see my friend here engaged in battle."
Tommy bolts up straight, finding himself still seated upon the table and his friend still unconscious.
"I will unlock your secrets Dragon Zord and I will use them to put Omega down for good."
THE END, For Now
Next Time On Power Rangers: Omega – As Maurice recovers, Trini suggests that Tommy begin an odyssey to seek out new Rangers to aid in the effort. Will he succeed before Omega releases his new robotic soldier upon New Hope? Find out next time in the upcoming mini-series "Femme Fatales"