Disclaimer: Power Rangers and all its related logos are property of Disney Entertainment and/or Saban Entertainment. I am using them without permission, but I do not expect to make a profit. If I do, I promise to split it 50/50 with the Disney people. I swear, I do. All original characters are mine, and I do have permission to use them.
A/N: This takes place a few years after Dino Thunder, and is loosely based in the "Future Imperfect" universe. Don't worry; you shouldn't have to read that one to understand this one.
Take a sec to review too, I live for those.
Utopian Mountains
The cave was cold and damp, and had very little light, making it difficult to see anything. The five of them walked cautiously through the cave, looking for an opening or clearing of any kind.
"Guys, I think I found something," TJ said, motioning for the others. They stopped in front of a line in the cave itself. "There's light coming from it, this might be a door or a hatch or something. I think there might be something behind this wall."
"And how are we supposed to get through the wall to see?"
"Let me take care of that," Jack said, as he walked over to the wall and simply stepped right through it.
"That's a nice trick, but what about the rest of us?" Hunter asked.
It was a clearing of some kind. Jack quickly noticed the Seal in the ground, and what was left of an old man lying beside it. He rushed over to the man to check his vitals, only to discover he was too late. Next, he examined the Seal itself, noticing bloodstains around the sides. "Guys, we're too late, it looks like they did the ritual," he said.
"Do you see a way in for the rest of us?"
Jack walked over to the wall, where there was a lever. He pulled the lever, and the wall opened up, allowing the others in. They hurried over to the Seal to get a look for themselves.
"This means the first is out and about, but where?" TJ asked.
"You need not concern yourself with my master. You will have your hands full with me," a voice said. They quickly turned around, where they say him.
"Hey, it's creepy hood and cloak guy, I was wondering when we were going to run into you," Kyle said.
TJ and Hunter charged in with a series of chops and punches, but the hooded figure was able to block each one of them. He went for a kick, but TJ did a back flip to avoid it. Before he could land, the mysterious figure grabbed him by the ankles, spinning him and throwing TJ up against the wall. Wes went to check on him while Kyle and Hunter went after the cloaked figure again. Kyle kicked, but the mysterious assailant caught his foot. Hunter tried for a chop, but he ducked, forcing Hunter to hit Kyle. Kyle fell to the floor, and before Hunter could make a move, the cloaked figure picked him up, throwing him onto the Seal itself. Tentacles of some kind began to slither through openings in the Seal, grabbing hold of Hunter and pinning him down.
"Guys, a little help here?"
Wes tried to make the save, but a group of Quantrons stormed in, swinging their blades at him. He managed to avoid them, but when one of them swung again, he caught the blade between his hands, and then kicked it away. Now, equipped with a blade, Wes rushed in, slicing one of them in half. Another grabbed him from behind, but quickly fell to the floor after Kyle blasted it with his disrupter. One of the Quantrons swung at Jack, but its hand went straight through him. Jack swung with an elbow, knocking the Quantron to the floor.
"That is ENOUGH!" the figure in the cloak screamed. "Surrender now, or your friend will be sucked into the void between worlds, where he will spend an eternity of pain and suffering."
One by one, the rangers stood down. The Quantrons overwhelmed them, pulling them towards the wall and putting their hands over their heads. Tentacles came out of the walls, trapping their wrists to the walls themselves, leaving them helpless. The cloaked figure waved his hand over the Seal, and the tentacles released Hunter, who gasped to catch his breath. The Quantrons then trapped him up against the wall as well.
"You won't get away with this!" Wes said.
"But I already have, ranger. It's over, and your last-ditch efforts to rescue your friends will be your undoing," it told him, disappearing.
"Jack, anytime you wanna do that thing where you pass through solid objects, it would be helpful," Kyle mentioned, struggling to get free.
"I can't, something is blocking my genetic power. I'm stuck here."
"Great, things just can't possibly get any worse," Hunter sighed.
At that moment, the tentacles coming from the seal inched their way over to the old man lying beside the seal and began to crawl into any opening of his body they could find. Soon, the tentacles had consumed every part of him and the old man stood up with an eerie green glow in his eyes.
"You just had to say something, didn't you?" Kyle groaned.
Jen waited patiently, pacing back and forth in their small cell. Based on the readings from her morpher, Alex was not only in the caves, but nearby. She knew it was only a matter of time before he showed up, but even then, without a plan to stop the First, all their efforts would have been for nothing.
The figure in the hood and cloak walked into the room again along with a group of Quantrons, each of them holding disrupter cannons. "Make no mistake, ranger, I have no qualms about destroying all of you here and now. You've served your purpose; the red rangers are here, so there is no more use for you. Attempt anything foolish, and you will pay with your lives." He waved his hand in front of the force field, and it disappeared. With it gone, he stepped inside, snatching Kimmy out of the arms of Princess Shayla.
"Princess, help me," she cried.
"Leave her alone. If you need someone, take me," Cassie said, stepping forward.
The figure didn't respond at all. It simply walked out of the cell and waved its hand again, reactivating the force field, then made its way out of the room, leaving the Quantrons to stand guard.
NASADA spaceport
"Perfect timing," she sighed as she broke through the Earth's atmosphere. The fuels cells were at one percent, giving her just enough power to get to her destination. She'd had to reroute power from other systems to keep the shuttle in the air, including taking energy from life support. As a result, the air in the shuttle was getting thin, making it difficult for her to breath.
Charlie looked at the control panel, confirming that the coordinates were correct, and according to the readings, she would touch down in less than thirty seconds. 'Any longer and I'd be dead before I got there,' she thought. The shuttle began to slow down, releasing the landing gear and touching down gently on the surface. There wasn't much impact, but it was enough to shake the shuttle slightly.
She quickly unstrapped herself, opening the hatch and stepping out of the shuttle. 'Air!' she thought, taking a deep breath.
She glanced around, getting a good look at her surroundings. "NASADA," she said, smiling slightly. The ranger's vehicles were still where they had left them, including the Silver Guardian truck, the Tsunami Cycles and… "The time ship."
With a smile on her face, she walked over to the time ship, looking for a way in. There were no hatches, at least none that she could see. She was about to give up, but there was a flash of light, and almost instantly, she was inside the ship. "What the f…" she paused. "I hate teleportation," she sighed, walking over to the controls and sitting down.
The controls themselves weren't too dissimilar to the ones used in SPD, but there were a few that were unfamiliar. Still, she hoped that the ship itself would be helpful. "Um, computer?" she called out.
There was no response.
"Oh come on, if the megaship can talk, why can't you?"
Still, no response.
"This works all the time on Star Trek. Come on, help me out here," she called out.
No response…
She sighed. "Fine," she looked around, hoping to find something that could help her. "Time circuits," she headed over to them, adjusting them to her desired destination. "I sure as hell hope this works."
'Time circuits engaged,' the computer announced.
"Oh, now you wanna get all chatty with me. Where were you when I needed you?"
The ship began to lift off, and Charlie hurried over to a seat, strapping herself in. She watched as the ship took off, and a temporal vortex opened in the sky. The ship inched towards the vortex, eventually going inside. "Okay, here we go…."
Utopian Mountains
Tommy and the others found themselves at a dead end, unsure of which way to go. "I am afraid we're lost," he sighed.
"It not your fault, every corridor in this place looks alike. For all we know we've been walking in circles the whole time," Leo mentioned.
"I have an idea," Alex reached for his morpher. "I'm going to try to use the tracking device in my morpher to find Jen. Chances are she's a prisoner with the others," he said. Within moments, his morpher began to beep. "We have to get through this wall."
"And how do you suggest we do that?" Rocky asked.
"Look." Cole pointed out slits along the wall. "This is an opening of some kind, we just need to know how to access it," he said.
"Wait, I believe I know a way." The red Psycho ranger approached the wall, opening a small panel in his arm and adjusted something inside. There was a humming sound, and almost instantly, the wall slid open, allowing them in. "When I was here, we were equipped with…"
Before he could finish his sentence, a creature attacked him.
"Hey guys, good to see you!" Kyle said.
Alex turned around only to see Kyle and the others trapped along the wall.
"What happened to…"
"Just beat the squid guy, we'll talk later."
Eric and Carter grabbed their disrupters and fired, but it only managed to slow the creature down. Next, Jason rushed in with a series of kick, forcing it to stumble back. It was Psycho Red who pulled a small device out of its chest and threw it at the creature. On impact, the device exploded, blowing the creature to pieces.
"Yuck, squid guts!" Jason groaned, trying to wipe what was left of the creature off of him.
"I see you guys found the Seal," Leo said.
"Yeah, but a lot of good it did us," Hunter sighed.
A wall slid open, and the mysterious figure in the hood and cloak appeared. "Welcome rangers. If you could be so kind as to take your places along the wall," it said coldly.
"If you think we're just going to…"
"Oh, you're going to, or your friends and family will tossed into the Seal," he said.
"You're bluffing!"
"Am I?" it asked, motioning upwards. They all glanced up to see there was a little girl dangling over the Seal from a chain, screaming.
"Who is… oh no, Kimmy! Don't worry honey, I'll get you down," Tommy screamed.
"I wanna go home, Daddy, help me!" she cried.
"I'm coming, sweetie."
"Do as I command, or she will be the first to be trapped inside the Seal," the mysterious figure warned. Quantrons entered the room as they forced the rangers up against the wall. Again, tentacles came out of the wall, trapping the rangers by their wrists. "My collection is almost complete. When the others arrive, it will be the end of your world and the beginning of mine!"
"I'm ready over here," Aurico announced.
With a heavy heart, Andros walked over the opposite control panel on the Astro megaship, standing in front of a series of controls. 'I barely got to know this ship,' he sighed, placing his hand on the panel. "D.E.C.A, initiate the auto-destruct sequence," he announced.
'Auto-destruct sequence is online. Please specify time limit so countdown can commence,' the computer responded.
He glanced over at Aurico. "Do you think twenty minutes is good?"
"It's as good a time as any," Aurico sighed.
Andros nodded. "Set countdown for twenty minutes," he instructed.
'Countdown is set for twenty minutes. Should I begin countdown now?'
"Yes, begin the countdown," he sighed.
'Countdown has begun. Auto-destruct will initiate in 19 minutes, 57 seconds,' the computer warned.
"I hope we're doing the right thing," Andros said.
"We are; it's for the greater good, right Conner?" he asked, turning to Conner, but he was nowhere to be found. "Conner?"
Andros turned around. "Oh no. Computer, where is Conner McKnight?"
'Conner McKnight is not on board the Astro-megaship.'
"You don't think he…"
"Of course he did. We should go after him, he's in no condition to be out there alone," Andros said.
"I will remain here with the ship. If the rangers are successful, someone will need to be here to de-activate the auto-destruct," he said.
"I will be back as soon as I can."
Conner had been wandering through the caves almost aimlessly. He knew where he wanted to go, but had no idea where it was. He wished he'd stood up for himself, that he'd gone with the others when they originally headed into the mountains, even though he knew Andros was right. His ribs were still sore, and he was in condition to be fighting, but he owed it to Krista to do whatever he could to save her.
He came to what appeared to be a dead end. There was no where else to go, so he turned to head back, but the way he had come was gone. 'The walls are shifting,' he thought to himself. Before he could do anything else, the walls began to close in on him. Judging by the speed and distance, he had a little less than three minutes to make his move. His first thought was to go down, but the ground was solid rock, so digging was out of the question. Next, he looked for an opening, something, anything he might have missed the first time. One of the walls had a light coming from it that appeared to be behind it, but there was no way to get around it to be sure.
He stepped as far back from the wall as he could, got a running start and rammed into the wall with his shoulder, hoping to knock it out of place, but nothing happened. "Yeah, great plan McKnight," he sighed, rubbing his shoulder. His only other option was to go up, but with nothing to hold onto, it seemed impossible to make it up there. He glanced around, hoping to find something to stand on, but there was nothing.
The walls were getting closer, and there was nowhere for him to go. The walls were inches from closing in on him.
"Is someone in there?" a voice asked.
His first thought it was it was more than likely an agent of the First, in which case it wouldn't be a good idea to say he was in there. 'But things can't really get any worse, can they?' he thought.
"Yes, I'm in here," he called out.
"Duck!" the voice instructed.
Following instructions, Conner ducked down as low as he could go, covering his head just in case. There was an explosion, and when he looked up, there was a ranger standing there with a weapon in hand. "Come on!"
Conner stepped out of the stone trap, getting a good look at the person who had saved him. "A ranger? A pink ranger? I thought this was a red ranger mission," he pointed out.
"Red? Pink? What's the difference really? POWER DOWN!" There was a flash of light, and the ranger was replaced by…
"Mrs. Oliver?"
"You look surprised."
"You were a… what are you…"
"There will be plenty of time to answer all your questions. Right now, we need to find the others," she said.
He nodded. "Right."
"From what I can tell, the walls are shifting, we're going to have to make our way through here as best we can," she told him.
"There's a light coming from this wall here. I think there's something behind it."
Kat walked over to the wall, observing the light coming from the edges. "It's a door, or an opening. If we work together, we should be able to get it open. You ready?" He nodded, and the two of them took a step back, hitting a double kick to the wall. "It moved, but it's not enough. Again!" they went back a second time, and a third, kicking the wall. On the fourth attempt, the entire wall fell. "Good work."
They walked into the opening, where they saw…
"Krista!" Conner exclaimed, rushing over to her, but was stopped by a force field. The impact was enough to knock him back, falling to the floor.
Kat walked over to him, helping him up. "You didn't see that coming?" She turned to the others. "Cassie, are you guys okay?"
Cassie walked as close to the field as she could. "Yes, we're fine, but we're trapped in here."
"Is anyone hurt?"
It was Jen who stepped forward. "No, but they came and took your daughter. We tried to stop them," she sighed.
Kat nodded. "The megaship is outside, we need to get all the non-rangers out of here."
"I can handle that." Jen turned to her morpher, opening a small panel. She removed a small chip, placing it on the force field. The field began to tremble, and eventually collapsed.
"How'd you do that?"
"It's the chip that filters the energy for my morpher. It stops too much energy from being released, otherwise we'd die from radiation poisoning from being exposed to the energy too long," Jen said.
"Impressive."
"If you could do that the whole time, why didn't you?" Ally asked.
"I didn't want to get us out of here with nowhere to go. You and the Princess aren't rangers, and we would have run the risk of getting you hurt, or worse," Jen told her.
"Does everyone here have their morphers?" Kat asked.
"I do," Kendricks said.
"So do I," Karone said.
"Me too," Cassie added.
"Good. Kendricks, I want you to take the Princess, Ally and Krista out of here. Head back to the megaship, tell Andros that we're going to try to stop the First. The rest of you come with me, we have friends to save," Kat instructed.
They all nodded in agreement, running their separate ways.
Aurico paced back and forth on board the ship, simply waiting; his nerves were getting the best of him. It had been a few minutes since Andros went after Conner, and he was becoming concerned. If the First had been released, not even the megaship being on auto destruct would be able to stop it.
"You look worried, my friend," a voice said.
He turned around to see her standing there.
"Delphine?" he asked.
"Yes my friend, it's me."
"But you're… I mean, you were…"
"I know. I'm here to warn you."
"About what?"
"This is a bad idea. The First is released, and sacrificing yourself by blowing up this ship will change nothing. It's not worth it, de-activate the sequence at once," she said.
"But that would…" he paused. "No, I won't."
"Don't be a fool. You'll destroy yourself, this mountain and anything within three miles of the explosion. Think of the innocent people here, do you really want to risk their lives in this futile attempt to stop what cannot be killed?"
"You want me to stop the sequence because it's a threat to you. If it weren't, you wouldn't have gone through the trouble of pretending to be Delphine and coming here to talk me out of this," he said.
"I'm here to help you, not trick you. There's nothing the rangers can do to stop me, you know that. All this technology is no match for me. Technology couldn't stop me then, and it won't help now," she said.
"That's right, it was some sort of spell that stopped you the last time, an amulet if I recall correctly," he said.
"The last time I attempted to break free, thousands died in an explosion and an entire city was destroyed. Do you want to run the risk of that happening here, on KO-35? Everyone here is so peaceful, so innocent. Could you live with their deaths on your conscience?"
"For the greater good, I will do what I must."
"You rangers and this grand idea of the greater good. What is that, anyway? Zordon destroyed his only link to this plane of existence for it, thinking he would wash away all the evil of the world. But what happened with that? Less than a year later, evil was back. Rangers have died thinking they were doing what was for the greater good, but what did it get them? They're gone, and evil is still here. Evil will always be here, Aurico, and your attempts to stop me here and now will do you no good. I will always exist."
"Exist all you want, but when you're back inside the Seal, you won't be able to cause any more trouble."
"Is that what you think? Even inside the Seal of Daphron, I have been able to influence every living being in the universe, so trapping me inside only prolongs the inevitable. My existence is necessary, it is eternal, and nothing you do here today will stop me."
'Auto-destruct will initiate in 10 minutes, 25 seconds,' the computer warned.
"We'll just see about that," Aurico sighed.
"Fine, have it your way. You and all those you cherish will be the first to die by my hands," Delphine said, disappearing into a flash of light.
Just then, Krista, Princess Shayla, Ally, Emily and Kendricks walked onto the bridge of the ship.
"Aurico," she said.
"Princess, you are safe," he said.
"Yes."
"But how…"
"It's a long story. Right now we need to get ready, whatever is going to happen, it's going to happen right now," Kendricks said.
"I have to get in there, to help the others," he said.
"You go, we'll stay here."
"But the auto-destruct is activated, the ship will blow up in less than ten minutes," he said.
"Then you'd better hurry up," Ally told him.
With a nod, he rushed off the bridge.
next time on Forever Red II: Now united, the red rangers will join forces with the pink rangers in their ultimate battle against The First