POWER RANGERS: BREAKDOWN - Part 11: Fight!
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: The chapter's title should be pretty self-explanatory; here's where the fun begins. Enjoy and don't forget to leave me a review when you're done... enjoy.
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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 conviction, 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 Lord Zedd, holding his signature Z-edged staff that had been instrumental in many dark spells and attacks. Jason knew that Zedd was a strong opponent physically and his magic attacks made things much more difficult, but Jason also remembered what Zedd had done to Thomas less than two years ago. That victory made Zedd cocky, so Jason could use that to his advantage.
He still had the power coin Rocky gave him on hand and thought of morphing, but knowing what happened with Adam and the black Power Coin, he didn't want to take the chance. He positioned himself in a offensive-minded stance, his right hand clutching onto the d'tagh knife. On the other side, Zedd also assumed fighting position, holding his patented staff with both hands firmly.
"You're hopelessly outmatched, ex-Ranger," Zedd taunted, "Remember that it was I who've beaten your friend into a bloody pull no more than a year ago. I just hope that you will provide more of a challenge that I won't take pity on you."
Jason smiled. "Then I'll try not to disappoint, Zedd."
The two warriors dashed at each other and soon the fight was on. Zedd blocked each of Jason's many kicks with his staff, but each attack was causing him to recoil a step back. The two would make their way up a flight of stairs connected to one of the elevated platforms in the chamber. Occasionally, Jason would attack with the knife, which Zedd would block, but each knife shot blocked was causing damage to the staff. This occurred for several seconds until Zedd was nearing the edge of the platform. Noticing that the fleshman was cornered, Jason unleashed a hard sidekick to the side of Zedd's face with enough momentum to knock Zedd off the platform and crashing down on the main floor. Zedd quickly got back on his feet, only to get knocked back by a flying Jason's tornado kick attack.
Jason stepped in for another attack, but the fleshman quickly struck the former Red Ranger's stomach, disarming the Ranger of his knife. Jason stepped back and clutched his stomach area in pain while Zedd looked on, ready to take advantage of his stunned adversary. Before Jason knew it, he felt the full brunt of Zedd's fist across the jaw that would have been enough to dislocate it. Jason managed to recover quickly to block another punch from Zedd and counter with an uppercut that caused the dark lord to stagger back several paces. Jason quickly grabbed the knife and tossed at Zedd, who managed drop to the floor so that the knife would impale itself into the wall behind him.
"Come on, Zedd!" Jason called out as the fleshman slowly recovered, "Where's your bag of tricks?"
"Foolish human," Zedd growled, "That can easily be arranged..."
---
Even in the guise of Zeo Ranger IV, Adam found himself leaping around the room avoiding the pounding blows and energy bolts of the mutant Rangerbeast. He would occasionally fire quick shots with his Zeo Pistol, but the shots did more to aggravate the beast than to harm it. The mutant caught Adam on mid-jump with a fierce uppercut that sent him crashing through a close-by shelf, shattering most of the test tubes stored. Adam was laying down for a moment to fight off the grogginess, and slowly lifted his head to see the mutant staying put on the other side of the room. Adam looked around to find any other surprises, then noticed several test tubes still intact. He noticed these tubes were filled with a greenish chemical, an idea popped to mind and he quickly jumped to his feet.
"Hey, ugly!" Adam cried out, "It's pick-on-the-frog day!!"
It was a lousy one-liner and not one of his best either, but it enraged the Rangerbeast enough to leap at Adam. The first part of his plan accomplished, Adam went to step two. He grabbed the two test tubes of chemical that had managed to survive the battle and tossed them at the mutant. The tubes shattered on impact and the greenish chemical splashed over the mutant, crashing on the floor. Adam was lucky to have moved out of the way in time, or he would have been squashed by the mutant. The room shook, but because Adam was still in the air, he didn't feel much of the effect. Landing gracefully on the other side, he immediately powered down, causing the uniform of Zeo Ranger IV to disappear. From his jacket pocket, Adam pulled out a palm-sized silver sphere and held on to it as the mutant regained its footing.
"This is it," Adam told himself, "It's now or never."
With a quick overhand toss, Adam lunged the silver sphere at the mutant, who continued to dash at Adam. When the sphere made contact with the mutant, it immediately shot out several bolts of electricity at the mutant, whose agonizing growls were deafening. A minute would pass before the lightshow finished and the mutant was incinerated, leaving behind a pile of dust and pieces of burnt clay flew all over the room. Adam almost felt sorry for the creature... almost.
Adam glanced back to the metal door as it began to slowly creak open. Adam left the creature's remains behind and walked through the door, which slammed shut behind him and disappeared. Adam found himself in a narrow hallway, with no markings to indicate his current whereabouts. He began his search for the main hall, where he was supposed to meet the others.
---
Scorpina looked on as Kimberly fought against the rock putties for the past several minutes. She hadn't expected the girl to last this long without the use of her morphing powers, believing that the girl had improved since she last saw her, but she comforted herself in the thought that it wouldn't be long. Kimberly did a couple of backflips to increase distance between herself and the putties, but the five would catch up with her. She pulled out one of her orbs and tossed it to the putties, causing a small explosion to knock the five down. Kimberly pulled out the short sword from its holder slung on her back and held it firmly with both hands as the putties dashed at them.
With the sword in hand, Kimberly had a much easier time with the putties, blocking their every move like clockwork. Even so, she will still outnumbered and her foes were still much more powerful than she was. At that moment, Kim tossed the sword pulled a rusted object out of her back pocket and gripped it firmly, an object that Scorpina instantly recognized. It was the original Power Morpher, having suffered some rust and damage over years of inactivity. Scorpina was amused by the sight.
"Please," the assassin scoffed, "You know your morphing powers are gone. I'd hate to see you have delusions of grandeur over being able to morph."
Kimberly allowed herself a devious smirk. "Who said anything about morphing?"
With her other hand, she pulled the coin out of its holding place and gripped on it firmly. Tossing aside the rusted object, the fist holding the coin began to glow with pink energy, which soon enveloped the rest of Kim's body. A rock putty close by made the unfortunate mistake of striking at Kim, as he was met with a swinging backhand from the former Ranger that resulted in the shattering of the putty. Scorpina looked ahead with horror as Kimberly jumped at the second closest putty and shattered that one with a diving fist. Kim took a quick glance at her closed fist and smiled wickedly as she felt the rush of power flowing through her body.
Billy was right about the coins, she thought, I could get used to this.
A third rock putty leapt at Kimberly, who immediately noticed the flying target. Instinctively, she extended her closed fist at the putty. As soon as she opened her hand up, the putty, who was still a distance away from Kim, was knocked back and impacted the farthest tree, where it shattered into several rocks. The two remaining putties dashed at her with fists extended overhead. Kim looked on unrattled and place her two hands together, where a small, but growing ball of pink energy formed. When the putties were close enough and the balls had reached a desirable size, Kimberly launched the energy ball at the putties, whom turned away and ran. The ball overcame the two footsoldiers and completely destroyed them.
All that remained was Scorpina, who was in absolute shock over what has just happened. She saw the former Pink Ranger's body continually bleed off pinkish energy to the ground. She was somehow able to hide her fear from Kim, who slowly turned to face the scorpion woman. A devilish smile crept up the face of Kimberly, whose eyes were now glowing white with a pink tint.
"Come on, Scorpy," she taunted, "Or are you scared I might break you into itty bitty pieces like I did your table scrap?"
An enraged Scorpina launched herself at Kimberly, but the former Pink Ranger executed a backflip to avoid the scorpion woman's attack and give herself enough distance between herself and her enemy. Kim did a full three-sixty degree spin slowly and methodically and when she finished the turn, several throwing knives were suddenly shot at Scorpina. The first few were deflected with her sword, but one caught her arm, cutting an open wound as it flew by. Scorpina held her wound, letting out a whelp of pain, giving the opportunity Kimberly needed to finish this quickly. Suddenly, Kim felt an emmence pain all over and dropped to her knees, as she felt the rush of power suddenly leave her body. Scorpina, still clutching her wound, saw Kim suddenly crumbled to the grown in agony and smiled.
"So the tide has turned," the assassin told herself, "I'll make this as quick and painless as possible."
---
Shortly after Rocky, he was teleported to the Astro Megaship, the Space Rangers' base of operations and home for the past year. While on board, he looked around and noticed the extensive battle damage the ship had suffered. Several decks were deemed off-limits because of hull breaches, several open panels exposing burnt circuits were common, and pieces of debris and destroyed stretches of wall was evident in the lower decks, where the Megaship stored its zord transformation units.
After a brief conversation with the Space Rangers over their current situation and receiving an emergency signal from another world, it was decided that Rocky would be loaned the Megashuttle, the secondary vehicle of the Space Rangers, which was just a regular NASADA shuttle upgraded with Eltarian technology such as weapons, shielding, and transporters. It took an hour for Andros to teach Rocky all that he needed to know about basic flight controls and other functions.
"You sure you want to do this?" Rocky asked the Red Ranger.
"It's better off," Andros said, "It'll be a while before we're able to repair the Megazord processors on the Astro Megaship, so we won't be needing the shuttle until they get fixed. So you're better off taking it."
"But you'll be defenseless! If what TJ says is true, you don't have any-." Rocky stopped talking when Andros raised his hand.
"This is the best thing we could do," the Kerovan said, "Your friends need you to be on alert and we need to check this situation on Rigel Ten out. In any case, the Megaship isn't going to be any better off whether we have a shuttle or not."
After some thought and reluctance on Rocky's part, he nodded in agreement. He took a brief look around the Megashuttle before turning to face Andros, extending his hand to the Kerovan. Andros grabbed it and gave a firm shake.
"Good luck," he told Rocky.
Rocky nodded. "You too."
---
What the hell is going on, Kimberly thought as the excruciating pain began to overwhelm her. The power coin's effects are starting to wear off and she would be a sitting duck against a merciless Scorpina, who openly savored the opportunity to finish off this former Ranger once and for all. Slowly, she approached the fallen Ranger with sword in hand. Kimberly knew this and suddenly she felt less pain, quickly replaced with a resolve to finish this fight off quickly.
The she realized that she still had an explosive orb on her, so she pulled it out of her pocket and hid it from view. When Scorpina approached Kim and grabbed her, Kim turned and rolled away, tossing the orb to Scorpina's face. When Kim's roll was done, she recovered in time to see the orb explode right in front of Scorpina's face. The blast was suShe could hear the inhuman squeals and screams of pain as Scorpina desperately tried to regain some semblance of composure. Kim stood up slowly, her own pain present but no longer a handicap, and picked up the ninja blade she had dropped.
After a minute passed, Kim saw Scorpina lunged towards her, her once-beautiful visage burnt and peeling off to reveal a beastly face. In typical fashion, Kim felt like vomiting but fought the urge and held the blade over her head. Scorpina sped up a little faster, producing another curved sword in her hand and dashed at Kimberly. The two soon clashed swords together. Moves were either blocked or countered, neither one making much mistakes. But because of her inexperience with the use of a sword, Kimberly was fighting a losing battle and she knew it. It took a crucial mistake by Kim for Scorpina to knock the sword from her hand. Kim backflipped several times to avoid Scorpina's sword swipes. However, backflipping too many times had Kim staggering out of the forest area and close to the edge of a cliff, where there was only the roaring and violent tidal waves of the deep sea below.
Scorpina ran at Kim with her sword raised high. Instinctively, Kim ran towards Scorpina and executed a roundhouse kick that separated her opponent from the sword. She soon followed that up by quickly flipping upward on top Scorpina so she was in a handstand position while over Scorpina's head, dropping behind with both her arms wrapped around Scorpina's neck. As a result, Scorpina tumbled backwards along with Kim and both hit the ground hard. As they landed, Kimberly heard a loud cracking sound. She had a sore pain in the back of her head as a result of the whiplash, but didn't feel numb. She sighed in relief when she moved her arms and legs. She flipped upward and turned to see Scorpina laying on the ground motionless. Kim knelt closer, checking for a pulse, but she couldn't find one.
Her neck's broken, she thought, she's dead.
Exhausted, Kimberly dropped to her knees, breathing heavily. She then pulled out her power coin and stared at it for a moment, but her eyes blinked successively when she noticed that the coin, once rusted and on the verge of falling apart, was now whole and had a brighter shine than when she had first received it. The enormous charge the coin had produced early on, along with the pain, were gone; almost as if she never had it.
"Okay," she said as she slipped the coin into her pocket. "Now I've got to get out of here."
As she said that last statement, the cliff, sky, and forest slowly faded away, leaving Kimberly in a small room with green walls. The wall behind her opened up and Kim walked through it, bringing her to one of the castle's many hallways. She took a quick glance at Scorpina's fallen body before turning away as the wall closed. With that done, Kimberly began looking for the main hall, where they would supposed to be meeting.
---
For the past fifteen minutes, Jason had been on the defensive, narrowly blocking and dodging many of Lord Zedd's quick strikes and vicious blows. He was almost amazed that he was able to last this long considering Tommy was beaten in roughly half the time. Even Zedd was impressed and genuinely surprised that this human - this former Ranger - was able to last as long as he did, although the cold mask hid this from his opponent. After a crucial mistake by Zedd, Jason landed several palm strikes to Zedd's stomach and followed up with several kicks, but a mistimed roundhouse allowed Zedd to aim the edge of his staff at Jason. Before Jason could react, he was struck by lightning from the staff and knocked to the ground, his body smoking and aching in pain.
"And so it ends," Zedd proclaimed. "It's time to end this once and for all."
Zedd stood valiantly over the fallen Jason, who was trying to build enough strength just to get back on his feet but couldn't. Zedd held the staff over Jason's head momentarily to "take aim" then slowly swung it overhead as far back as he possibly could. Jason waited for the proper moment to block, but felt a surge of energy the likes of which he had never felt. His instinct was forcing him to extend his fist overhead for no reason as Zedd began to swing the staff down at his foe. As the staff made its way to Jason, Jason let out a warcry as he swung his closed fist at the staff, hoping to block the blow. When the staff was extended horizontally over the former Ranger, Zedd knew the end was near, but what followed was a loud sound of two metal weapons clashing against each other. Zedd looked on as Jason suddenly had a familiar sword in his hand and he thought it was a figment of his imagination, but it wasn't. It was real.
Zedd's staff clashed with the Power Sword, the weapon of the original Red Ranger. It was an enchanted weapon that was thought gone along with the powers of the original Rangers - something Zedd had personally seen to - and yet here it was in this human's hand. Zedd couldn't believe it... he wouldn't believe it. No words could describe the absolute shock of seeing this weapon again, the weapon that could destroy him in his weak state. Jason could hardly believe or understand it, but at this point, he didn't care. What matter was that the odds were now even.
With the fleshman stunned by the sudden appearance of the sword, Jason delivered a quick kick to the sternum that knocked Zedd back a couple steps and stood up. Zedd attempted another swing with his staff, but Jason blocked the attack and began his own series of sword swipes and kicks, all of which Zedd was able to block. Soon after, the attacks came out much faster and hit much harder, not giving Zedd any chance to strike back because he was busy blocking all the attacks with his staff and taking steps backward. Zedd was quickly being overwhelmed as the attacks of Jason were executed with more speed and ferocity than humanly possible, almost to the point where Zedd would see triple-images of Jason attacking and trying to counter all that was being thrown at him. After what seemed like eternity, a well-placed sword strike from Jason shattered Zedd's staff and the Red Ranger knocked down the fleshman with a fierce sidekick to the head, cracking the visor at the same time.
Jason looked down on his feet and saw the two staff pieces turn into a single serpent snake, roughly four feet in length. Slowly, it was slithering away from the Ranger and back to its master, who was lying against the wall with a cracked visor. Jason held the Power Sword downwards with both hands and in a split-second, drove the enchanted sword through the serpent. Both he and Zedd could hear the sickening squeals of the serpent as it gasped to retain whatever life was quickly leaving it. The snake tried to wiggle free but to no avail, and Jason twisted the sword around to cause more pain to the snake, as blue blood started gushing from the wound. Soon, the serpent was motionless and turned to dust; the source of Lord Zedd's power destroyed for the moment.
Jason slowly turned his attention to the fallen fleshman, who had gathered his bearings and stood up firmly. Jason extended the tip of the sword to Lord Zedd's neck, who did not put up much of a fight anymore and was breathing heavily. Jason's eyes were affixed to Zedd's visor and for a brief moment, both were silent as the two continued to stare back at one another.
"Where is he, Zedd?" Jason asked.
"If... If he's followed instructions," the fleshman stated, panting heavily, "he should... be in the... the main throne room."
Jason dropped the sword and took a long, hard look at Zedd before speaking, "Take this chance to leave this place and never come back."
Zedd huffed and stared at the man who had beaten him cleanly. He still hated him for what he was and what he had done, but then there was a new sensation hitting Zedd that replaced those feelings of hatred. Something he hadn't expected to feel towards anyone since his younger days, but something he couldn't properly identify with. But if he had to give this feeling towards Jason a name, he would have to call it respect.
"You've proven yourself to be a worthy opponent, Jason Scott," he said, "I just hope you're prepared for the war that awaits you in the coming days."
With that said, the defeated and humbled Zedd vanished in red lightning and smoke, leaving Jason alone in the large arena. Jason left through the main exit and proceed to search for the main hall that he was told about. However, the last bit that Zedd mention got to Jason.
War? he thought, What war?
To be continued...