Power Rangers: The First and Last Hope
Chapter 12: Green With Power, Part 3
The Scarlet Ranger found herself inside the familiar Command Room of the Mothership, staring at the giant, currently blank screen from beneath her helmet. In a moment, it suddenly came to life with vibrant blue light, and the strange, echoing voice of the Command spoke once again.
"Scarlet Ranger." Command began. "We have called you here to ask you what the progress is of the Green Ranger. Is she ready to eliminate the rest of the Power Rangers yet?"
"Not yet." the Scarlet Ranger replied. "Her powers are growing stronger and stronger with every minute she holds the Sword of Darkness in her grasp. She will be ready soon."
"Until then, why don't you let someone else have a try at them, Scarlet?"
The Scarlet Ranger turned her head to see Neresa, the tan-skinned, brown-haired young- well, young appearing at least- woman in the long black-and-gold gown.
"Princess?" Command questioned. "We do not understand why you wish to enter battle all of a sudden. That is the Warrior of your family's job."
"The Warrior of my family has proved herself to be quite the failure." Neresa said as she eyed the Scarlet Ranger, who only hissed in reply. "Besides, I have a plan."
"We're listening." said Command.
"Well, I've given the Black Ranger quite a long time to stew in rage since I killed his mother." Neresa grinned. "I have reason to believe his rage towards me will make him reckless and a danger to the other Rangers if he is to ever encounter me again."
"And you wish to test this theory, Princess?" Command asked.
"There's no time like the present." Neresa grinned. "Let's not forget that it only takes the death of one to destroy them all."
"Unlike some, we don't forget it." Command replied. "You have our approval to try your plan, Neresa. We wish you luck."
"Yeah, good luck, 'sis'." the Scarlet Ranger said dryly.
"I appreciate it, really, Scarlet." Neresa replied, dripping with fake sincerity, before turning and leaving the room. The Scarlet Ranger turned and left the Command Room through the opposite exit, as the screen of Command turned off behind them.
Neresa's heels created a loud clanging noise against the steel floor of the hallway she now walked across, a clear stride in her step and a smirk on her face. Suddenly, Araken appeared before her, teleporting in a flash of darkness, a similar smirk on his face.
"So how did things go, my love?" Araken asked her. "Did your 'sister' object to our plan?"
"Not at all, actually." Neresa said. "I don't think she minds having one of the Rangers distracted while she gets her Green Ranger up to full power."
"And does she realize that we know?"
"Not a clue." Neresa grinned as she moved in closer to Araken. "I still can't believe who she really is..."
"Believe it. I've done some digging, and you won't believe what else I've found." Araken said.
"Oh?"
"The one who she used to communicate with the Yellow Ranger telepathically? He appeared before the Red Ranger in a different form the other day."
"Do you know who it is?" Neresa asked.
"There's only one person I know with that kind of power over the mind, to create a visual form from so far away like that." Araken said.
"Who is it?"
"I don't want to say until I know for sure, I'm sorry my love." Araken said. "But I'm leaving to see him now. I should be back soon. In the meantime, take care of the Black Ranger."
"Oh believe me, I'll do just that." Neresa grinned, as she leaned upwards to kiss Araken. "Good luck."
"Same to you." Araken said as he broke her embrace before teleporting out.
"Time to have some fun." Neresa grinned before doing the same.
Jerrelle yawned as he stretched out on the floor next to Andrew's bed, trying to ignore the early sunlight now entering the room. Things had been quiet ever since they had beaten the Green Ranger, so Zordon finally told them to go home and get some rest instead of sleeping at the Command Center like they had been doing since all this started. The problem was, the only ones with homes really were Andrew and Michi. Jerrelle couldn't bear to go back into that empty apartment without his mother, while Tristan and Ada never even had a real home in the first place.
So Tristan and Ada went back with Michi and Trini, while Jerrelle ended up saying with Andrew and his dad Jason. Jerrelle never really liked Andrew all that much, but he figured it was worth it to finally get away from that annoying floating head and the even more annoying robot.
He looked around at the bedroom that looked so different from his own. Posters hung up on the blue walls of the room with what appeared to be characters from various Japanese animations.
So he's an anime nerd. Jerrelle thought to himself as he chuckled. And he likes some, uh, girly-looking shows.
Jerrelle saw a poster with what looked like three schoolgirls and some kind of weird white bun-shaped thing, with a title of Magic Knight Rayearth. Another poster had yet another schoolgirl that even Jerrelle thought looked annoying, and this poster had the title of Fushigi Yuugi.
Hasn't this guy ever heard of REAL girls! Jerrelle thought. No wonder why he thought his dad would think he's a geek. He sure as hell looks like one.
Jerrelle's thoughts turned back to his own room, that he hadn't seen in so long. Now he had some hot posters of REAL girls in there. Jerrelle smirked to himself just thinking about them. His mom would always tell him to take them down, and sometimes she'd even do it herself, but Jerrelle would just put them back up the next day anyway.
His mom...
Jerrelle's smirk was gone just as fast as it appeared.
It had always just been the two of them alone, Jerrelle and his mother. Things were simple. They looked out for each other, because they had to. Everything was so simple; just take care of the one you love...and then the Zarset Empire showed up.
But even then, at first, it was still simple. Jerrelle did what he had to do, working for the Zarset Empire, to protect his mom. At least they still had each other.
And then he had nothing. Thrust into a fight he barely bothered to care about, completely alone in the world.
All because of her.
All because of Neresa.
Jerrelle's fists clenched at the mere thought of the beautiful, almost goddess-like woman who took his mother away from him. How could something that beautiful be so cruel as to take away the one thing in his life that ever mattered to him? He asked himself this question everyday...and yet, he could never figure out an answer.
"Someday, Neresa..." Jerrelle trailed off.
"Someday? Well, why not today? Today works well for me, I don't know about you."
Jerrelle's eyes widened in shock before he turned his head to see Neresa standing outside Andrew's second-floor window, grinning at him.
"You look so cute in your pajamas, Black Ranger." Neresa teased. "Maybe we should go out on a date instead."
"You...you bitch." Jerrelle managed to get out. "How dare you tease me like this after what you did. The only thing you'll get from me...is your painful, painful death."
"Oh I'm shaking in fear here, really." Neresa said sarcastically. "Why don't you get out of your pajamas and into something a little less comfortable, and come out here and try to give me what I so richly deserve? Or can't you get revenge for your mother without your little buddies?"
"I can." Jerrelle said, glancing a quick look over at Andrew, who was somehow still sleeping peacefully in his bed through all this.
Dude can sleep through anything, apparently... Jerrelle thought, shaking his head.
"Aww, do you want me to wake little boy blue for you?" Neresa teased, seeing where Jerrelle was looking.
"I can do this on my own." Jerrelle replied.
"Oh we'll see about that." Neresa said. "Now come on, let's hear it!"
"It's morphin' time! Mastadon!" Jerrelle yelled out, quickly morphing into the Black Ranger and then diving right out the window onto the slanted roof of Andrew's home. By this time, Neresa had already hovered upwards into mid-air, her long gown blowing gently in the wind, a smirk on her face.
"Come on, you bitch, get back down here and fight me!" Jerrelle screamed up at her.
"Your wish is my command." Neresa grinned, and she came flying downwards at Jerrelle at an incredibly high speed. Jerrelle wasn't expecting it, and sparks flew as she soared past him, right arm out-stretched and revealing a hidden blade from within the collar of her black gown. She flew back upwards above him and fired off three shots of black energy down at him from within her hand as she turned around. Jerrelle managed to roll out of the way as the energy collided with the roof, and pulled out his Blade Blaster, firing on her and landing several direct hits into her chest! Sparks flew as she screamed in pain and almost seemed to fade away.
"Well, that was certainly easy..." Jerrelle muttered.
Suddenly, he felt several more shots of energy collide with his back, sparks flying as he fell onto his knees in pain. Jerrelle turned his helmet around to see Neresa...or more precisely Neresas! Three of them, to be more exact, each firing off a shot of black energy that struck him right in the back.
"What the hell..." Jerrelle managed to get out as his back throbbed in pain.
"Good job, Black Ranger, killing off one of my...copies." the Neresa in the middle grinned.
"It's a fun technique, isn't it?" the Neresa to the left of her added.
"It's certainly a blast at parties." the one on the right said.
"Enough of your games!" Jerrelle screamed as he got back onto his feet, turning to face the three of them. "I want the real Neresa, and I want her now!"
"Well, that's almost a turn-on." the one in the middle said. "Okay, maybe one of these Neresas are real!"
Suddenly, ten more Neresas appeared floating in the sky above Jerrelle, forming a complete circle above him. All thirteen of them laughed evilly.
"This isn't hard to guess, Neresa." Jerrelle shot back. "You must be the real one!"
He raised his Blade Blaster and fired at the middle one who had just spoken, but after the sparks flew she just faded out of view like the earlier one- and Jerrelle was met with the blasts of energy from the other twelve. He managed to narrowly dodge some of them, but was hit by most, and fell to the ground with smoke pouring from his chest.
"Hahaha, wrong again." one of them to the left of Jerrelle laughed.
"You can keep trying to take us out, one-by-one, but if we keep blasting you everytime, will you really last until you get the real one?" another one to the right taunted him.
"I don't think he will, girls." one behind him smirked.
"Why even give him another chance to fire on us?" a Neresa in front of him asked just as he was crawling back to his feet. "Let's just finish him off now!"
All twelve of the remaining Neresas laughed evilly in unison, as Jerrelle realized his odds of getting out of this one alive, let alone taking revenge for his mother's murder, were steadily decreasing...
Meanwhile, Mia, although now morphed, still remained in the empty furniture store, swiping at the air with her Sword of Darkness. She turned suddenly and held the curved sword out to her right side, and a blast of green energy fired from it, exploding a nearby lamp on contact. She laughed to herself, clearly impressed with its power.
"I don't understand why Scarlet insists that I not attack the Power Rangers yet." Mia whined to no one in particular. "I certainly feel strong enough to take them! This Sword...it's so strong."
Mia realized she could feel its power running through her, but then quickly realized that wasn't the only thing she could feel coming from the Sword of Darkness.
She could also feel its evil, she realized. The source of its power. It was almost nice...it had a certain cold kind of clarity to it that made Mia shiver with anticipation for what would come next. Because she realized the Sword would make her strong enough to kill each and every one of them...and her mind was purged of even the smallest amount of guilt or empathy she might have felt before.
"They're insignificant now." Mia realized. "They're just footnotes...in my history."
Still, Mia realized, she was getting pretty bored just slashing at the air and blowing up lamps.
Suddenly, she felt something. A strong power...as strong as one of the Rangers, if not stronger. And it was close.
I promised not to touch any of the Rangers until Scarlet gave me the word...but she didn't say anything about whatever it is I'm sensing. Mia thought to herself with a smirk. Whatever it is, I'm sure it'll be a great test for my new powers.
The Green Ranger took one last jumping swipe at the air with her new toy, laughing evilly as she did, then raised it up into the air and teleported out.
Back on Andrew's roof, the twelve Neresas let out more blasts of the black energy in unison, sparks flying even more freely now as Jerrelle hit the roof hard.
"This is getting rather pathetic." one of them said.
"Yes, perhaps it is time we finished this." another one agreed.
Suddenly, in a flash of green, the Green Ranger appeared in mid-air, Sword of Darkness out-stretched, and flew across the air towards one of the Neresas behind Jerrelle, slashing her across the stomach with her curved Sword. Sparks flew as both Mia and the Neresa fell to the ground, Mia landing on her feet while the Neresa landed on her back, hard. As smoke poured from the wound, the other eleven Neresas still in mid-air each faded out one-by-one.
"Green Ranger!" Jerrelle exclaimed as his mind finally took in what he had just saw. "What the hell are YOU doing here!"
"Should have figured the other energy source would have been one of you losers." Mia muttered. "Hey, I can't touch you guys right now, a promise is a promise, so back off. I'm just here to have some fun."
She motioned her head down towards Neresa, still in obvious pain from the slash wound.
"This is my fight, stay out of it you conceded little bitch!" Jerrelle shot back.
"Hey, uh, you were the one losing here, and YOU'RE the one getting all worked up over her intrusion!" Neresa asked in disbelief as she stood back to her feet. "And greenie, I don't know what the hell you think you're doing, but we're kind of on the same side here!"
"Speak for yourself." Mia said as she raised her Sword towards her. "You're probably a member of the Zarset Empire, aren't you?"
"Well, duh."
"Well then watch me not care while I kill you." Mia smirked beneath her helmet. "I'm not 'on your side', dumb-ass, I'm just here to kill the Power Rangers. I don't work for your little empire."
"Then why aren't you killing him!" Neresa exclaimed. "And more importantly why are you trying to kill ME!"
"Well, I kind of promised Scarlet I'd leave the poor little kids alone." Mia admitted sheepishly. "And I'm killing you 'cause I'm bored, pretty much. You're just in the wrong place, at the wrong time. And hey, while I'm on the subject, aren't you a little overdressed for combat, princess?"
"Well, at least you got one part of that right." Neresa said dryly as she started hovering above the Green Ranger's head. "I AM a princess...and just because you can see through my illusions, doesn't mean you can defeat me!"
"Well, okay then princess, let's see what you've got." Mia grinned.
"Hey, I'm the one with the personal grudge here, you two bitches!" Jerrelle exclaimed.
"SHUT UP!" they both screamed in unison.
"Now try this on for size!" Neresa said as she tossed several balls of black energy down towards the Green Ranger.
Mia, however, easily batted away the energy balls with her Sword of Darkness, sending them flying off into the distance.
"Is that really all you've got?" Mia taunted her. "Take this!"
Mia extended the Sword of Darkness out towards Neresa as it fired off a constant stream of green energy towards the princess. Neresa extended her left hand and almost seemed to be trying to catch the energy, as the energy seemed to be forming into a ball inside her hand. Her face showed the growing strain trying to stop the energy in this way was putting on her, however. Sweat began to pour down her beautiful face and her hand began to shake, until finally sparks flew from her hand as she could contain the energy no longer. She disappeared in a flash of darkness to escape the stream of energy, teleporting back in behind Mia. Mia quickly turned to face her and laughed.
"Couldn't contain my power, could you?" Mia asked her with another laugh.
"Don't underestimate me, greenie." Neresa shot back angrily as she held her hand in pain. "I'm not done just yet."
Meanwhile, Jerrelle was watching all of this, amazed at how quickly they had forgotten about him. As his wounds had begun to stop throbbing in pain, he pulled out his Blade Blaster and fired on the both of them. Sparks flew as they turned and once again acknowledged his presence.
"Don't forget about me you two bitches!" Jerrelle yelled at them in defiance.
"He sure does love to use that word a lot." Neresa muttered.
"Oh believe me, Black Ranger, I haven't forgotten about you." Mia said. "As soon as I get the word, you and all of your friends will die!"
"Well why don't you go back and wait for 'the word' then, don't just kill me!" Neresa shouted.
The Green Ranger turned to look back at Neresa and simply shrugged, before leaping into the air and slashing towards her chest. Neresa tried to dodge it, but still got caught on her right shoulder, sparks flying as she screamed out in pain. As Neresa continued to fly upwards, the Green Ranger released another stream of energy from the Sword of Darkness, narrowly missing her as she flew across the sky.
"Jerrelle, what the hell's going on?" came Andrew's voice from his bedroom window.
Well holy crap, I guess they finally made enough noise to wake Mr. Heavy Sleeper over here up. Jerrelle thought, shaking his head.
"Neresa attacked me." was Jerrelle's only reply.
"...why is the Green Ranger fighting her? Isn't she a bad guy?"
"Yeah, I don't know. She said something about not being allowed to fight us and being bored."
"Oh, well THAT explains it..." Andrew said, slapping his head.
"Could you two please keep it down over there!" Mia shouted at them as she shot off more green energy out of her sword, but kept missing Neresa.
"That Neresa can sure fly fast." Andrew said.
"Here greenie, let me give you a hand." Jerrelle said and took out his Blade Blaster, firing up at Neresa too.
Neresa wasn't able to dodge BOTH of their shots, and was hit in her left shoulder by Jerrelle's blaster fire. As she held her shoulder in pain, she was then struck directly in the chest by Mia's energy blast, and fell down to the roof, unable to maintain her flight.
"I didn't need your help, loser Ranger." Mia spat at him.
"Yeah dude why are you helping her anyway?" Andrew whispered to him.
"Well, Neresa kind of killed my mom if you forgot. Greenie's just a bitch." Jerrelle whispered back.
"Aww, that's so sweet." Mia said, apparently overhearing their conversation. "Maybe when I kill you I'll forgo ripping your eyes out of their sockets."
Andrew shuddered while Jerrelle simply rolled his eyes beneath his helmet. Neresa, for her part, was none amused as she struggled to stand up, holding her chest in pain where the Green Ranger's energy had struck her.
"Why don't you kill them NOW!" she hissed at her.
"I told you already, I'm not supposed to." Mia grinned beneath her helmet. "I'm a good girl."
"I bet..." Jerrelle muttered.
"Who told you not to?" Neresa asked. "It was that bitch Scarlet, wasn't it?"
"Good guess Princess." Mia replied. "Now can I get back to the whole killing you now?"
Neresa gritted her teeth. She knew she probably wasn't strong enough to beat the Green Ranger, especially since she had her new toy, and she definitely wasn't strong enough to beat her with the Black Ranger assisting her.
"You're a very stupid girl." Neresa said through clenched teeth. "And as for you, Black Ranger, I promise you, our second date won't get interrupted."
With that, Neresa disappeared in a flash of black. Mia just shrugged before looking back at the two Power Rangers who stood before her.
"Sounds like you got a girlfriend, not a mortal enemy, Black Ranger." Mia laughed.
"Mind your own business." Jerrelle snapped. "You said yourself you can't fight us, so just get out of here."
"Might as well." the Green Ranger shrugged. "I'll be seeing you both, and more specifically your internal organs, real soon!"
Mia laughed evilly as she raised the Sword of Darkness into the air and teleported out. Jerrelle demorphed and climbed back through Andrew's bedroom window, Andrew moving out of the way to let him in.
"What the hell was that?" Andrew demanded. "She said she wasn't allowed to fight us, so why didn't you just attack her! I would have morphed and helped you!"
"She might not have been 'allowed' to fight us, but I think if we went after her she'd still defend herself." Jerrelle muttered. "And she looks even stronger now with that weird new sword of hers, you really think the two of us could take her when it took all five of us just to wound her before?"
"Whatever, all I know is, if she kills any innocent people now, it's because YOU let her get away." Andrew said, crossing his arms.
"She won't." Jerrelle said, turning his head to look out at the morning sky. "I think I understand her."
"Oh really?"
"She came after Neresa because she said she was 'bored'." Jerrelle said. "She's obviously only interested in people who are powerful. She wants to test her powers out and prove how strong she is. That's why she went after Neresa...and that's why she wants to kill us."
"I don't know why you want to try and understand her." Andrew said, looking at Jerrelle like he had three heads. "She's evil, we should only worry about how to stop her."
"Man, whatever, keep thinking everything's that simple." Jerrelle said, walking past him to start picking up his stuff. "I'm gonna head back to the Command Center and see if Zordon's more interested in what I got to say than you are, Mr. Hero."
"You might want to get out of your PJs first, Mr. Shades of Gray." Andrew remarked with a slight laugh. "And maybe take a shower too."
"Uhh, yeah, that'd probably be a good idea." Jerrelle admitted, rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment, and causing Andrew to laugh much louder now.
The look on Zordon's face as Jerrelle recapped the morning's events was less than encouraging. All five of the Rangers- Jerrelle and Andrew mercifully out of their pajamas- had gathered back in the Command Center as Jerrelle told his story.
"If what you're telling me is true, we have much to prepare for, Rangers." Zordon admitted. "Turn to the..."
"Viewing globe, yeah yeah, already doing it." Ada said crankily, clearly not a morning person.
The globe came alive with old footage of the Green Ranger holding up the Sword of Darkness, then sticking it into the ground to blast the Power Rangers before him.
"This is the Sword of Darkness, a weapon of pure evil." Zordon spoke. "It was given to the original Green Ranger by an evil sorceress, intended to keep her evil spell on him forever. However, Andrew's father, the original Red Ranger, destroyed it, breaking her spell on him completely."
"So if it was destroyed, how does the current Green Ranger have it then?" Michi wondered aloud.
"I don't know." Zordon admitted. "I can only guess that the energy of the Green Ranger restored it, just as your collective energies restored your Power Weapons."
"Hey, can't I do what Jason did?" Andrew said. "Destroy that sword thingy and then the Green Ranger will be good again?"
"She's not under a spell, smart guy, remember?" Jerrelle remarked. "We don't even know if she was ever 'good' in the first place, so how will destroying her stupid sword make her 'good again'?"
"Both of you are right, somewhat." Zordon said. "As I said, the Sword of Darkness IS naturally evil, so it is affecting her. Destroying it should remove its influence on her mind. But since she's not under any sort of spell, simply destroying her sword won't be enough to get her to our side."
"But it's a good start!" Andrew remarked. "I say we do it!"
"Of course you do, 'cause that's what your daddy did." Ada said dryly.
"Oh hush Ada." Michi said. "Do you have any better ideas?"
"How about NOT fighting with the chick that almost killed us all BEFORE she had a super-powerful new weapon?" Ada shot back.
"Yeah, I'm with Ada." Jerrelle said.
"We're all shocked." Andrew muttered.
"Before she had Jason, and the Scarlet Ranger was attacking random cities and stuff." Jerrelle continued, ignoring Andrew. "I get why we fought her then. But why seek her out and attack her just to destroy her stupid sword, when we don't even know if it will do anything?"
"Or if we can even pull it off." Tristan finally said.
"Tristan!" Michi remarked, surprised.
"Sorry Michi, I'm with them on this one." Tristan said. "I don't want to fight her if I don't have to."
"And by my count that's three-to-two in favor of not attacking the Green Ranger." Ada grinned. "Thanks for being smart for once, bro!"
Andrew turned away from them, clearly angered at this turn of events. Silently, in his mind, he was wondering about Tristan's motivations. He had never backed down from a fight and sided with Ada and Jerrelle before...he didn't REALLY believe Mia was his sister, did he?
Neresa and the Scarlet Ranger both found themselves standing in front of the humming blue screen of Command once again.
"Scarlet's green bitch ruined my plan!" Neresa shouted in anger, still holding her chest wound in pain from where the Green Ranger had struck her. "Can't she control her own Ranger...or is that the point?"
"I didn't send the Green Ranger out to sabotage you, sis, if that's what you're getting at." the Scarlet Ranger replied in a dismissive tone. "The girl's just a little, well, anxious, and the fact that she attacked Neresa instead of those two Rangers proves that I CAN control her! She followed my order not to attack those Rangers, didn't she?"
"She has a point." Command admitted.
"What!" Neresa shouted, clearly outraged.
"Sorry, Neresa, but we will not blame Scarlet for the actions of a teenage girl. The Green Ranger is obviously a loose cannon, and Scarlet deserves no blame."
"But I...I'm a princess of the Zarset Empire and I was wounded! Surely SOMEONE must be blamed!"
"You agreed to go into battle even though you are royalty, Princess, no one forced you." Command replied. "We believe the only one who deserves the blame is yourself. Certainly not the Green Ranger, when she will soon be the one to bring about the death of the Power Rangers."
"Fine." Neresa replied, clearly seeing that she had lost this argument. "But when the Green Ranger's done doing her job, I want her head!"
"After the Green Ranger kills the pests, we will have no use for her." Command said simply.
"Glad to hear it." Neresa replied, and turned and left the Command Room, her long gown flowing behind her as she walked out in a huff.
"As for that, Scarlet, do you feel she's ready to put our plan into motion?" Command asked her.
"I believe she is almost there." the Scarlet Ranger nodded. "She seems to have mastered the Sword of Darkness quite well. Give her the day to rest from her battle with Neresa and practice some more, and by nightfall she'll be ready."
"Good. Then we shall put things in motion."
Suddenly, the bright blue screen began to glow even brighter, until the light shined out from the screen and slowly formed the image of a huge, red-and-black metallic beast, very similar to Drillago. His head was more slender, he had normal limbs rather than drills, and he was a little taller. When the bright light faded and the screen of Command returned to normal, he was still standing there, an evil grin on his metal face.
"We give you Burstonix, the Command Beast of fire." Command replied.
"Is he stronger than Drilliago?" the Scarlet Ranger asked.
"He should be more than capable of taking care of the first part of our plan." Command replied. "You are both dismissed."
"Alright." the Scarlet Ranger nodded as the blue screen of Command faded off. "Come Burstonix, and I'll fill you in."
Burstonix simply growled in response before following the Scarlet Ranger out of the Command Room.
You'd better be ready, Mia. the Scarlet Ranger thought to herself as she walked out into the hallway of the mothership. This is our only shot to save us both...from our destinies.