POWER RANGERS: BREAKDOWN - Part 10: Face to Face
Written by DTM666
Disclaimer: The author would like to clarify that Power Rangers and its characters is owned by BVS Entertainment and not the author.
Note: Any reviews and comments (no flames) you may have would be greatly appreciated. Enjoy.
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It's been an hour since Thomas Oliver teleported to the castle via invitation from his clone, who had promised to settle the score with his original. In a barely-lit round room with a square table and two chairs facing each other on each side, Thomas walked around and awaited his host. He thought of leaving the room and running rampant through the castle to look for him, but he would wait him out. Because even if this was a trap, he wouldn't let anything get in the way.
"Welcome to my Palace, Red Ranger," the fleshman greeted, "Or is it White Ranger? Or just plain Tommy until you find another Ranger color to add to your repertoire? I hear Black is available these days."
Zedd stared into the cold eyes of the former Ranger and saw the rage that was about to burst at any moment. Almost immediately, Thomas went into an offensive-minded stance, which caused Zedd to shake his head in disbelief.
"There's no need for that, my old foe," Zedd said, "I am here simply to talk. Besides, I had already promised your clone I wouldn't lay a finger on you. So sit down and have some Kerovan Brandy." He lowered his voice to a whisper. "I'd advise you to not tell anyone about it. It's illegal."
Part of Thomas' gut was telling him that Zedd was lying and that he should attack. However, for some reason, Thomas had a distinct feeling that Zedd was being sincere. Reluctantly, Thomas pulled a chair and sat down. Zedd pulled a chair on the other side of the table and sat as well. Zedd extended his hand forward and in a flash of light, a clear bottle containing a blue beverage formed. Zedd then snapped his fingers of his free hand and two glasses appeared. Zedd poured the contents of the bottle into one glass and slid over to Thomas.
"It's been far too long since we've last met face to face, Tommy. Do you remember that last time?" He leaned closer to Thomas and his voice lowered. "Remember when I had beaten you within an inch of your life?"
Thomas took a sip of the brandy (a bit sour, he thought, but otherwise not bad) and smiled. "You could have killed me then, but you didn't. Sometimes, I almost wish you had."
Zedd lowered his head in shame, trying to come up. "Oh, Tommy, Tommy, Tommy. If I were to have killed you, what would I do for amusement?" He paused when he saw the disbelieving eyes of his old enemy. "After all, I want to cause you pain and misery throughout your limited lifespan. I want to see you suffer the same way you've made me suffer every time you've ruined another one of my glorious plots. That couldn't be done if you were dead."
"So you killed her?" Thomas spat out, the anger evident in his voice. "You planned all this just so you could screw around with me?! Is that all she's worth to you?!"
"No, my boy," Zedd answered calmly, "I didn't plan this whole Kat murder. Didn't it occur to you that if I were to have planned this, I would have committed to it the first chance I got? I want to rule worlds, my friend. You can't rule if all your subjects and slaves are all dead." Zedd set aside his near-empty glass and leaned closer to Thomas. "I can tell you two little pieces of information that could be of utmost importance. Now whether you take them as horrifying fact or cleverly concocted fiction is entirely up to you."
Thomas didn't say anything, but nodded. Zedd sighed and continued.
"First off, I haven't a clue as to who killed your girlfriend, although your clone is taking credit for it. Doing a damned fine job of messing around with your mind like that, it's almost amazing. He believes that if you were mentally incapacitated, it would be easy for him to kill you without much effort. He believes himself superior to you and who can blame him? He outlives you by several hundred years."
Thomas took a sip of his brandy and thought over Zedd's words, which were almost bleeding with sincerity. His meetings with the clone had never been physical battles, but rather attacks at his psyche. If this whole purpose was to rattle him, then he's done an exceptional job. No one had been able to out-psych Thomas as much as he's been able to.
"The second piece of news does not specifically concern you," Zedd continued, "but it does concern everyone and everything that dares to have a life. Do you know of the being known as Dark Specter?"
"Dark Specter?" Thomas repeated, although he HAD heard of the name of the Alliance's top boss. "What about him?"
"Dark Specter is planning a full-scale assault on the universe," Zedd said, "He's rallying all the Alliance warlords together and issuing battle plans on where to strike. Word is that he's chosen his pseudo-princess Astronema to oversee the execution of these plans."
Thomas heard Zedd's words and noticed a hint of uncertainty in his voice. "You don't sound like you have faith in Specter's plan."
"Please," the fleshman scoffed, "Dark Specter is Grand Monarch only because of politics; nothing more and nothing less. Unlike myself and other warlords, he lets his minions do all the work because he has little tactical knowledge and his power level is hardly enough to scratch the skin off a Putty. You'd think that he would have been easily taken down, but he was the one who orchestrated the 'great' Battle of Eltare."
Thomas almost squinted at the mention of his former mentor's planet. Zedd didn't notice.
"That one stroke of fortune is the only reason why he's still in charge and why he's so revered. Other than that one fluke, Specter has done less in his entire regime of twelve millennia than a Rugalian royal has done in a week. If Specter was truly an intimidating force, this rash planning would have come into fruition a long time ago when the Alliance was at its strongest and most unified. If that were the case, we wouldn't be sitting here having this conversation."
"Good point," Thomas admitted as he took a sip of his brandy, "but you know that a unified Alliance means greater numbers. The old saying has always been 'There's power in numbers.'"
Zedd nodded. "In the prime of the Alliance, this would be true, but these days, that simply isn't the case. Despite the capture of Zordon and the number of unified supporters, the Alliance is actually at its weakest. Surprise is its only true advantage because no one will be expecting such a grand-scale assault for the reason being that it's spreads too thin. The Alliance has Astronema, whose forces are capable of widespread construction of warships and troops, but it's a strain on resources, which the Alliance is severely lacking. I'll admit one good thing; if there's one thing this plan has going for it, it's timing."
"Timing?"
"The timing couldn't have been better for a brash plan because of the impending chaos that spread throughout the universe," Zedd commented, "Kerovan rebels are on the brink of destruction in their constant defeats against Alliance forces. The Machine Empire, under the command of a new Emperor, is fighting a civil war that makes them susceptible to Alliance attack. Most of the forces of good have dedicated most of their resources in searching for the old bag Zordon. Even your Ranger pals from Aquitar are spread too thin battling HydroHog's Aquatic armies.
"But like I said, I have no faith the plan will succeed, because the best Alliance forces were beaten and so they shall be again."
Thomas finished off the last of the brandy remaining in his glass, his eyes affixed to the fleshman's visor. He tried to find any hidden motive to these speeches and discussions over battle strategies, but he didn't find any. He tried to push back any notion that what Zedd might be saying is true, but no matter how much he fought that notion, he had no choice to accept the fact that he was telling the truth. Of course, how Zedd gotten his hands on this bit of information was a complete mystery, but Thomas didn't care for the details.
Zedd stood from his chair. "I really did enjoy this banter, my boy. And I enjoyed our battles together. In the meantime, I suggest you head for the throne room. You have an... old friend awaiting you there."
With those last words, he vanished in a trail of red lightning. A moment later, Thomas slowly got up and walked out the exit to make his way to the throne room.
---
Shortly after stepping through the portal, Adam found himself alone in a darkened room, with only two outer windows illuminating the room. He took a close look around, seeing various test tubes, chemical containers, and surgeon tools scattered about. There were stretcher beds, workstations covered in grime, and other oddities laying around that Adam couldn't recognize. Adam walked towards a white sign on the wall closest to him and instantly recognized the various BIOHAZARD symbols and warnings, despite the foreign text.
This must be some kind of lab, he thought, and a pretty messed-up one too.
Adam took a quick walk around the spacious lab in search of the exit. He eventually found a small metal door nearby, where light was escaping through the cracks. When Adam approached the door, however, he noticed that there was no opening mechanism on it and hence, no means of opening the door. Suddenly, Adam heard inhuman growls and was caught off-guard when the room began to shake lightly, as if a giant beast was approaching.
"What the hell?"
Adam turned to see the source of the growls and shaking in the form of a mutant beast that can only be described as a perverted amalgamation of the original Yellow and Pink Power Rangers. The helmet was more in common with the Pink Ranger's helmet, but with the addition of the two saber teeth. The body was a mishmash of yellow, pink, and white shades, and two sets of arms - one set yellow, one set pink - had gigantic gray crab claws. The belt buckle and boots were also a dark grey-color.
Just great, Adam thought, Just what I don't need right now.
With great strength, the mutant leapt at Adam, who was able to roll out of the way. When the mutant landed, it caused a momentary shaking of the room that made Adam nearly lose his balance as he got back to his feet. Adam dashed at the mutant and delivered a quick jab to the chest, but the mutant merely shrugged the blow and Adam found himself clutching onto his fist in pain. Before he could recover, the mutant grabbed Adam with all four arms and held him firmly. Adam felt the immense pain of the maneuver and almost thought his ribs were about to crack. The mutant then hurled Adam to the further wall, where the Ranger crashed onto a lab table with various test tubes and empty containers, shattering them all.
Adam slowly got to his feet, clutching his left arm in pain. He saw the mutant slowly and methodically walk towards him, letting out an aura of invincibility. Knowing that he wouldn't be able to face the creature in his current condition, Adam summoned the two pieces of Zeoniser, did the pose, and clutched them together as he made the call.
"Zeo Ranger IV! Green!"
At the sound of the call, green light enveloped Adam and replaced him with the form of the Green Zeo Ranger. The Mutant slowly crossed its four arms together and slowly built up energy. The creature soon opened its arms apart, shooting a cascade of pink and yellow energy that Adam managed to dodge quickly. He looked back to his position and saw that the beam had practically melted the wall.
This is going to be tougher than I thought.
---
She expected to brought to a cold dungeon, the throne room, a cavern, or even a death pit. But when Kimberly found herself outside standing before a long, dense strip of trees on a clear day, she had wondered what had gone wrong with the PortalCom. But that lasted for three seconds, before she took in the scope of her surroundings. Behind her was nothing but endless grassland, supposedly all flat with no hills or varied elevation. Looking back to the forest, Kim shook her head in disbelief, but decided to go ahead and venture into the forest.
The minute Kimberly stepped into the forest area, she momentarily felt a cold breeze blowing by her. Then she began to feel somewhat warmer, but nothing more than that. It was almost room temperature, prompting Kim to believe that all this was an illusion after all. That didn't change the fact that she had to find a way out of here and she continued onward. She was almost grateful of her petite size, because the trees were placed so close to each other she would have had a hard time squeezing through if she were any bigger. The environment was almost enough to make her claustrophobic.
After a half-hour of passing through narrow tree trunks, Kimberly finally found an open space where trees were scattered more openly. That allowed her to move a little faster. She had always kept in the same direction she had always gone because the trees on her left and right side almost seemed stuck together, as if it were a wall of logs with added tree branches.
After what seemed like an eternity of forest scavenging, Kimberly found an opening in the forest area, leading to the edge of a cliff. Standing in that opening was a human-looking female, clad in golden armor and holding an alien scimitar. Kim groaned as she recognized the person.
"Scorpina. You still alive?" Kim asked sarcastically.
"Funny," Scorpina said, "I was going to ask you the same question."
Kim shrugged. "I try."
Scorpina nodded and snapped her fingers. On cue, seven Rock-Armored Putties formed from the ground and quickly surrounded the former Pink Ranger, who went into a stance. From the distance, Scorpina watched as her minions were about to fight this intruder who had invaded her personal playpen.
---
Emerging from the randomized portal that quickly faded, Jason found himself in a large, open chamber that had sufficient lightning despite the absence of a light source or even an open window. The inward-dome ceiling of the chamber was considerably high and there were various scaffolds hanging above Jason, all of which looked as though they were about to fall at any given moment. Jason looked around and found the chamber to be completely empty, but he did have a feeling that he wasn't alone.
Shaking off his thoughts, he approached the sole opening in the chamber and walked towards it, but soon he took a few steps at a time and then completely stopped. He stared ahead at the doorway with convicted, hoping that the emerging obstacle was just an illusion created by his mind. But it wasn't; it was real and Jason soon found himself in a fighting stance.
Blocking the doorway, standing before Jason, was the master of this domain, Lord Zedd.
TO BE CONTINUED...