Roses and Thorns
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Disclaimer: I don't own anything from Power Rangers, Ninja Storm or Power Rangers in Space, and I'm not making any money from this fic. I also don't own the original concepts of vampires and wizards
Replies to reviews:
garnetred: Well, that's the theory...
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Cally shot Andros a startled look, but grabbed one of the other bottles, and smashed it against the wall. A shard of glass ripped her arm open, but the violet light ranger didn't have time to register the pain.
The wizard's eyes rolled back in his head until only the whites were showing. He pointed a hand at Cally, the fingers hooked like claws, and the violet light ranger was thrown violently back.
Andros knocked the wizard to one side, and felt pain flash through his side as the wizard sent a stream of energy at him.
Cally tried to get to her feet, but being thrown into the wall must have caused more damage than she thought. She felt the blood run down from her sliced arm, but couldn't spare enough time to try and bandage it up.
Andros straightened, facing the wizard, breathing heavily. "We're not going to let you take over the worlds!" he exclaimed.
"You are a fool!" the wizard snapped. "Even with the two of you working together, you have no chance of beating me
The red space ranger was careful not to look in Cally's direction. While he distracted the wizard, the violet light ranger was lashing out at all of the bottles nearby, attempting to smash them. The wizard was apparently angry enough not to notice the gradual weakening of his powers as the spirits of the people he had taken the souls from were taken from him. Andros hoped that he wouldn't realise, but knew that that was a poor hope.
The wizard went very still, then whirled on the violet light ranger who was in the process of lifting a bottle with a navy-coloured mist inside to smash it.
"You fool!" the wizard screamed at Cally. "I still have the powers I was born with!" He muttered a few words, then clasped his hands together and pointed his two index fingers at the violet light ranger.
"LOOK OUT!" Andros yelled, flinging himself at the wizard. His action caused the wizard to jerk off-balance, and the killing wave of energy shot out at the wall, narrowly missing Cally's head.
Cally smashed the bottle on the ground while Andros grappled with the wizard. Tiny shards of glass got stuck in her body, causing innumerable cuts as the glass was sharp enough to pierce her Power Ranger suit.
The wizard slipped his hands around Andros' neck and started trying to strangle the red space ranger. However, Andros bucked his knees, and flung the wizard off him.
The wizard sent a wave of fire at Andros. The red space ranger ducked to the side, and the fire caught one of the shelves and quickly spread, causing the few remaining bottles to explode.
Cally was staring transfixed at the flames. She couldn't move. She was sure that if she did, she would be burned. But it was getting so hot...
The wizard shot Andros and Cally a murderous look, then clapped his hands once and just vanished.
Andros raced towards Cally, and grabbed the arm that had been sliced by the glass. Ignoring the wet feeling on his fingers, he dragged her out of the hut and away.
It was just in time, because the hut exploded behind them.
Andros stood with his hands on his hips, staring at the ruin of the hut. "Well, something tells me that we haven't seen the last of that wizard," the red space ranger commented.
Cally gave a soft groan as her arm suddenly started hurting now that adrenaline wasn't rushing through her body.
Andros turned to look at Cally, demorphing as he did so, and looked at the violet light ranger with concern. "Are you all right?" he asked.
Cally also demorphed. "My arm..." she answered.
"Let me see." Andros reached for the girl's arm, and let out his breath in a hiss as he saw the long slash. He pressed on the wound in order to slow the bleeding, and felt Cally wince slightly. "How'd this happen?"
"It was when I smashed one of the first bottles," Cally explained. "I think that one of the shards of glass caught my arm and ripped it open. I didn't notice it right away because of fighting the wizard."
Andros nodded slowly. "That's not surprising," he said. "You'd better press on the wound until it stops bleeding. We don't have any clean bandages with us, and there could be quite a high risk of infection if we used some of our clothes."
Cally nodded, moving her hand to where Andros' had been. "Some other shards of glass cut me as well," she told him. "But they aren't very serious."
"Let me see." It wasn't a question.
Still keeping her hand over the cut, Cally stretched out her arms, showing the tiny cuts on her skin.
The unicorns had come over, but neither Andros or Cally had registered their presence until Andros asked them, "Is there a stream nearby? Cal's wounds need to be cleaned."
"Yes, there is one," Andros' unicorn responded. "If you like, we can take you to it."
"We'd like," Andros replied firmly.
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Hunter stepped back and away from the silver silk ranger, his hands going to his forehead. "What... Where am I?" the crimson thunder ranger asked with obvious confusion.
Cam blinked beneath his mask, and shot Faye, who was trying to keep a couple of the other vampires, including Kelly, from biting her neck, a look.
It looks like Hunter's no longer a vampire, Cam thought to himself. He didn't have time to do much else, though, because he was trying to help Tori defend herself against vampire Blake.
Hunter staggered away from the fight, clearly out of it. As well he might be. He'd been a vampire for some time, and had apparently only just come to his senses.
Lila blocked a punch from Peter. She had pretty much decided that she wasn't going to hold back with her brother. It tore her inside to hurt him, but she'd much rather fight him than be turned into a vampire herself.
Lila didn't really register the fact that Hunter had stopped fighting her. Peter was a pretty good fighter, and he was keeping her on her toes.
One of Peter's punches connected with Lila's shoulder. The silver silk ranger was knocked back a couple of paces, and Peter's lips parted to reveal incredibly sharp fangs. He lunged for Lila, his hands moving to her shoulders.
Lila pulled back, causing her brother to lose his balance. She helped him fall by using her hip to let him go over it. As soon as he landed on the ground, she grabbed his arm and pinned it to his back.
Lila had been looking very closely at Peter, so she knew precisely what happened next. A brown mist drifted into her brother's body, and then Peter went limp beneath her.
"Peter?" Lila asked softly.
The brown silk ranger drew in a deep breath. "I'm fine," he muttered. He stood up, and then grabbed his sister's wrist. "Come on!"
Lila glanced quickly at the other Power Rangers, then allowed herself to be dragged off.
Cam's morpher suddenly went off, and the green samurai ranger twisted to one side to avoid a punch from the navy thunder ranger as he muttered, "Yeah?"
"You told me to let you know if the screen changed at all," the voice of CyberCam said clearly. "It's changed. There's a fight going on, and there are some bottles being smashed."
Bottles? Cam thought fuzzily. Then, Bottles! Could the bottles Faye and I saw have been holding the people's souls?
Blake started to lash out at Cam, and then he paused, an expression of intense confusion coming over his face as his fangs shortened and became normal teeth again.
"Tori?" the navy thunder ranger murmured.
"Blake, are you yourself?" Tori asked worriedly.
The navy thunder ranger blinked in some confusion, then hugged the blue wind ranger tightly to him.
All around them, people seemed to be coming round. They were looking around in apparent confusion, clearly not remembering what had just happened.
"Cam? Something's happened to the screen. It's got all of these grey lines on it, and there's a funny noise coming from it. I think that the helmet that girl is wearing has overloaded or something."
As soon as he heard those words, Cam looked around for Faye.
The orange light ranger was already gone.
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Cally winced as Andros pulled out the tiny pieces of glass embedded in her skin, and sank her teeth into her bottom lip to stop herself from crying out.
Andros tore a strip of material off his shirt, and soaked it in the lake he and Cally were sitting beside. Having cleaned all of the smaller cuts and pulled the glass out of them, he started cleaning the larger cut.
The violet light ranger gave a slight whimper, and tried to pull her arm out of the red space ranger's grasp.
"Stop it," Andros warned without looking up. "It has to be cleaned, Cally. Do you want the wound to become infected?"
Cally quieted down at those words, and just sat there, wincing every now and then.
Andros tied another strip of material around the long slash, and then straightened. "There. That's the best I can do, unfortunately."
"Thanks," Cally mumbled.
"Don't mention it," Andros responded. He looked at the two unicorns, who had been standing quietly to one side throughout the entire process of cleaning Cally up. "Do you think it would be possible to rest here for a while?" he asked with a slight trace of sarcasm in his voice. "Or is that not allowed?"
Both unicorns looked down. "It is allowed," Cally's unicorn answered.
"We may also tell you that there is only one task left for you to do," Andros' unicorn added. "Once that is completed, you will be able to leave."
Finally," Andros muttered. "I was starting to get sick of this place."
"Me too," Cally agreed. "I'd probably do anything to get out of here."
Andros nodded.
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