MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS
PLAGUE
Written by DTM666
Chapter Five
Originally Published On : May 2004 to August 2004
Disclaimer: The author would like to clarify that Power Rangers and its characters is owned by Saban Brands and not the author.
-o-
"Metal putties." Tommy scoffed, "Just what I needed."
The five bots all attacked at once, dividing the two Rangers. Blue Ranger managed to fend off three bots, but not necessarily land a successful blow. Tommy had two bots to deal with, but they weren't push overs. One attempted punch across the 'face' of one of the bots was Tommy to clutch his fist in agony. One of the bots took the opportunity to strike, but Tommy was able to dodge the attack... barely.
"You know, Tommy," Blue Ranger called out as he blocked a bot's overhead chop with his lance, "Morphin' Time was about a couple seconds ago!" That last comment was yelled in agitation.
In typical Tommy fashion, he had completely forgotten about morphing, as he got caught in the moment. Realizing that, Tommy managed to kick one of the bots back to a wall (the pain not as bad) and managed to toss another to the floor, giving himself space to pull out his morpher and make the call.
"Tigerzord!"
Now instantly morphed, White Ranger rushed towards another random bot close by. With several kicks followed by a quick Saba swipe, the bot flipped backward and crashed onto the surface, twitching for a few seconds before laying there motionless. He turned to see Blue Ranger forcibly thrust his Power Lance through another bot's chest and tossing it overhead across the room. Tommy looked in awe as the bot smashed onto the wall, breaking apart on impact.
With three bots remaining, both Blue and White Rangers looked them down. When the bots ran at them, both Rangers fired high-powered beams at them; Billy with his Blade Blaster and Tommy with Saba. The beams didn't do external damage, but they were enough to push them back. Suddenly, an idea crept up Blue Ranger's mind.
"Tommy," Billy called, "I got a plan."
Knowing what his friend had in mind, White Ranger managed to deliver blows to all three bots while Blue Ranger leapt to the small panel near the chamber. White Ranger quickly made a sprint towards his 'cell', with the three bots in pursuit. When he was in the 'cell', he gave the thumbs up to Blue Ranger, who pressed a series of commands. Almost instantaneously, the force field was re-activated, momentarily glowing a dim red that separated Tommy and the three approaching bots. Not surprisingly to White Ranger, the bots kept going and made contact with the force field, dissolving into thin air upon impact. With that done, Billy deactivated the force field and Tommy stepped out.
"Good job, man." White Ranger said, "But now that Argo guy's gone."
"We'll worry about him later, Tommy." Blue Ranger assured, "We need to find Jason."
-o-
The Red Ranger turned quickly as he saw the creature lunge at him with great speed, claws fully extended for the eventual kill. Not having any other option, Red Ranger did a couple of backflips to give some distance between himself and the creature. Plaghe continued his approach towards Jason, whom continued to back off slowly.
"Jason," he heard Billy's voice over the communicator, "I've found Tommy."
"Good," Red Ranger said as he narrowly avoided a claw swipe from Plaghe, "Now get your asses over here NOW!"
Red Ranger quickly launched from the floor and extended his fist at Plaghe, but the creature swatted the Ranger to a wall with incredible force. So much that the Ranger smashed through the closest metal wall into another room. Jason felt some stinging all over, but the sensation quickly faded. Red Ranger got back on his feet and saw the hole on the wall he had formed; the metal had completely shattered and at some points, some molten form of metal was seen dripping. From the other side of the wall, Red Ranger saw Plaghe emerge and looked on wide-eyed as the Druurg destroyed the rest of the wall with several claw swipes, the division of two rooms completely destroyed as the metal wall was either ripped apart or melted away.
Just as Plaghe was about to go for another attack on the Red Ranger, a shadowed figure lunged at the creature. The stiff kick was enough for Plaghe to get knocked back a couple steps. Red Ranger regained his bearings and took a close look at the figure. His mouth almost dropped when he realized who it was.
"Goldar?"
"I will deal with you later, Red Ranger!" the titan growled, "Right now, the Druurg is mine!"
Red Ranger stood there, breathing slowly as he watched Goldar battled Plaghe, countering every one of the creature's attacks with his own, which would quickly be blocked. However, Jason noticed that the sluggish movement in each of the Titan's blows, almost as if he wasn't fighting at full strength. His thought was confirmed when Plaghe struck down Goldar with a fierce-looking headbutt.
Goldar shook the dizziness off and jumped to his feet. Plaghe attempted another claw attack, but it missed and left him open. With Goldar keeping Plaghe busy, Red Ranger took a few seconds to summon another rarely-used item: the Pulse Blaster which was originally used to defeat Rita's super-putties a year ago. Holding the awkward weapon in his hand, Red Ranger aimed at the two dueling monsters.
"Get down!" he heard himself shout to the titan. God, did I just tell Goldar of all people to get out of the way?
Goldar, noticing the Red Ranger aiming his Pulse Blaster in his direction, stepped out of the way. With Plaghe in his sights, Red Ranger pulled the slinger back and let go, releasing a compacted burst of energy from the barrel and flying straight into the chest of Plaghe. To Jason's surprise, the blast did not have much of an effect on him. He tried another shot, which caused Plaghe to recoil back a step but wasn't enough to do much harm.
With not much going for him, Jason took the Blade Blaster and combined it with the Pulse Blaster so that it formed one weapon. Pulling the slinger of the blaster back, Red Ranger aimed the weapon at the creature again. After a second, he released the slinger and the barrels of the two merged blasters fired two laser bursts that combined into a single energy blast. The blast struck Plaghe with desirable results as the creature recoiled further towards the wall.
"If you want to finish him," he called to the Titan, "You're going to have to help me do it!"
Goldar thought for a moment and nodded. Having regained his strength, he stood to his feet and held his broadsword with both hands. Sliding his hand alongside the blade of the sword caused it to glow. When the blade had reached a prefered illuminating glow, Goldar extended the sword towards Plaghe, several bolts of fire flying from the blade and striking the creature at various points. This barrage of bolts, combined with energy blasts from Red Ranger's Pulse/Blade Blaster combination, did the damage as Plaghe cried out in pain and eventually slumped to the ground, losing consciousness almost immediately.
"It's dead." the Titan said to the Red Ranger, "It's going to stay that way for the moment."
Goldar took one last look at the fallen Plaghe and started to walk, but stopped when he heard the Ranger ask, "Why did you-?"
"Clear that thought from your head, Ranger." he spat, "I didn't come to save you, I came to get a sample of the Druurg's blood for the cure."
"You're infected too?"
"That is none of your concern." The titan said before disappearing into the darkness, leaving the Red Ranger alone with an unconscious Plaghe.
-o-
Ethan Kain observed the battle between Plaghe and the Red Ranger & Goldar through his monitors and shook his head in disappointment. He saw Goldar leave the Red Ranger alone. He saw the Ranger stand in the room for a moment before approaching Plaghe. Kain noticed the Ranger pull out a needle from his glove (that's what it looked like on screen) and slowly stabbed it into the Druurg's arm. After a minute, he pulled it out and slipped it back into his glove (again, that's what it looked liked on screen) before walking out of sight. With no one in the room, Kain inputted some commands into the computer system and watched as light surrounded Plaghe. The monitor soon shut off and the words "Transport Complete" flashed in a small but legible font.
"Excellent," he muttered to himself, "My transponder signal isn't being blocked by the radiation from above."
Kain set a few more commands into the computer and the word "Completed" was shown. Kain was about to input another set of controls when, by the corner of his eye, he noticed a fast projectile headed towards him. As fast as a man his age could, he leapt out of the way and collapsed on the floor as the projectile stabbed itself to the monitor, causing several sparks to fly out from the consoles. When Kain got up, he took a closer look at the projectile sticking out, which he recognized as a broadsword of familiar design. Just as he feared, he turned to see the owner of the weapon in question and shivered in fear.
"M-Master Goldar!"
Goldar marched towards Kain with intent and immediately grabbed the old man by the neck, applying enough strength to hold him firmly without choking him to death.
"You're going to tell me everything you know, worm!" he demanded.
Kain tried to give an answer, but Goldar's grip became much firmer that it practically seemed like a choke. Goldar smiled as he saw this weakling human, who claims to be serving the empress, was fighting to get a breath out.
"Leave him alone, warrior." a voice from behind said.
Goldar turned and smiled as he saw Argo walk into the room. He tossed Kain aside and approached the destroyed console, pulling his sword from the damaged monitor screen, prompting the screen to explode.
Argo stiffened as he walked towards the titan, "How are we doing today, Goldust?"
"It's Goldar, fool!" the Titan growled angrily, "If you're going to insult me, at least have the decency of getting my name right."
"Please," Argo scoffed, "we're in the villain business. There's no such thing as decency in our line of work."
Around this point, Red Ranger had caught up with Goldar and noticed that he wasn't alone, as he recognized the metahuman Argo and saw Kain. Just behind him, the White and Blue Rangers were also catching up. The skittering of footsteps was enough for the titan and metahuman to turn their attention towards the three Rangers.
"Goldar. Argo. And an old guy I've never seen before." Jason observed, "Doesn't look too tough."
Goldar took a step back from Argo and towards the Rangers, prompting White Ranger take a defensive stance. "Stay back, Goldar!" he warned
Goldar rolled his eyes as he stood by the Rangers' side. "Shut up, White Ranger."
Argo saw the four standing before him and thought of going for a long-range strike, when he noticed that Kain was slowly and calmly walking towards the furthest wall. "Kain, what are you doing? Get out of here!"
"Taking matters into my own hands." Kain answered smugly. "I'm initiating Plan B."
The three Rangers looked among each other with confused expressions while Goldar looked on, a determined facial expression hiding his obvious feelings of confusion. He quickly glanced at Argo, who stared aimlessly and blankly at his 'partner'.
Kain pushed a button on the panel and soon the wall behind him faded, revealing a slightly-elevated circular platform with the unconscious Plaghe laying in the middle. The old man made his way to the creature's fallen body and stood before it. His spectators watched as Kain began chanting in a foreign tongue unfamiliar to any of them. As he did, his body faintly glowed purple along with Plaghe's body and the creature slowly brought itself to its feet.
"I've been planning this ever since I've learned of Rita's famed biogenetic plague and its first carrier." Kain's voice boomed throughout the room, "I have to confess, Argo. I never sided with you so you could have a powerful weapon. I sided with you because I needed a mindless simpleton to handle outside interference while I prepared for my ultimate plan."
Enraged by the shot at him, Argo mindlessly dashed towards the Plaghe/Kain form, but the creature raised its hand and fired an energy beam that completely enveloped his former partner. The Rangers and Goldar looked in awe, hearing the screams of Argo before the beam faded, leaving a trail of dust and skeleton bones scattered about. Almost instantaneously, explosions and sparks erupted in the room as the combined Plaghe/Kain form vanished in purple mist. The Rangers and Goldar went for cover, but there was no way out. As if things weren't bad enough, the four looked up and saw that the room started to cave in...
TO BE CONTINUED...