Disclaimer: I do not own Power Rangers.
Dissension within the Ranks
Chapter 19
Sky clenched his teeth as he tried to desperately hold up his force field. Morgana, Giganis, and Gruumm were relentless with their attacks. Sky decided he wasn't going to get anywhere by staying on the defensive the whole time, so he rushed towards his attackers with force field raised.
"Not this time you don't," Morgana said flipping through the air and landing behind Sky.
She sent out energy blasts from her daggers. Sky instinctively let down his force field and spun around to defend himself from Morgana's attacks by putting up a force field. However, that left him wide open to be attacked from behind. Gruumm fired his staff while Giganis shot his sniper. The attacks connected and caused Sky to fly high into the air only to land hard on his side.
"Sky!" LeAnn shouted rushing over to check on him.
Giganis aimed his sniper at LeAnn and fired. Sky tried to get up to save her, but his body wouldn't cooperate with him. His ribs that he had landed on were at least cracked if not broken. Sky watched in horror as the shot from Giganis' sniper hit LeAnn full force. LeAnn fell to the ground in a heap.
"LeAnn!" Sky screamed reaching his hand out to her.
Morgana, Giganis, and Gruumm let out an evil laugh. Giganis had particularly enjoyed causing Sky so much pain. He caused him not only physical pain, but emotional as well.
"Now to finish you off old friend," Giganis said aiming his sniper at Sky.
Giganis was knocked to the ground. Sky saw that Cruger had struck Giganis down with his Shadow Saber. He saw the other rangers had arrived as well.
"S.P.D. We order you to freeze!" Jack said.
Gruumm let out an evil laugh before levitating Jack with his telekinesis. Jack tried to kick and squirm his way free, but it was no good. He couldn't move.
"Put him down!" Z shouted.
Gruumm did as he was asked by hurling Jack at her, Bridge, and Syd knocking them all down. Sky still wasn't able to stand on his feet, but he was able to drag himself over to LeAnn. He checked for a pulse and his heart sank when he couldn't find one. Sky couldn't believe this was happening. So many people he cared about were getting killed. First there was William his butler, and now LeAnn.
"Omega Morpher Electro Mode!" Sam shouted punching Morgana causing her to fly backwards several feet before landing flat on her back.
Giganis had his sniper pointed at Sam, but Cruger slashed him in the back with his Shadow Saber. Giganis fell first to his knees, then face first on the ground. Cruger turned around only to get blasted by Gruumm's staff. Cruger flew backwards into a wall. Jack threw a bone into the air.
"Canine Cannon!" Jack, Bridge, Z, and Syd shouted. "Fire!"
Gruumm stopped the attack in its tracks with his telekinesis before throwing it right back where it came from. The deflected attack created an explosion that sent the red, yellow, pink, and green rangers soaring into the air. They demorphed as soon as they hit the ground.
"Omega Morpher Hyper Mode!" Sam shouted.
Gruumm used his staff to block each and every attack and then shot Sam with his staff at point blank range. Sam flew backwards and crashed through a wall. Gruumm, Morgana, and Giganis turned their attention to Cruger. Gruumm fired his staff, Giganis shot his sniper, and Morgana sent energy blasts from her daggers. Cruger leapt high into the air to avoid the attacks. On his way down he connected with a powerful slash to Giganis. Gruumm caught Cruger with his telekinesis and held him while he and Morgana blasted at him. Cruger could only take so much before he too fell to the ground demorphed.
"LeAnn please don't do this to me! Wake up!" Sky frantically pleaded.
Then he realized that Morgana, Giganis, and Gruumm were targeting him. They fired at him. Sky threw up a force field.
"Do you really think that's going to work? You tried that before and it didn't succeed," Giganis said.
Morgana flipped through the air and landed behind Sky. Sky wasn't going to fall for that one though. Morgana fired energy blasts from her daggers at Sky. Sky reached down and grabbed Marcus with one hand and used him to shield him from Morgana's attacks while using his other hand to hold up his force field. Sky felt Marcus' body go limp, which probably meant that he had just died. He let down his force field and dove out of the way in one swift motion. Morgana was nailed by Gruumm and Giganis and Gruumm and Giganis was nailed by Morgana.
"Sky, catch!" Cruger shouted throwing Sky his blue morpher.
Sky caught it and gave Cruger a puzzled look. Cruger gave Sky a nod.
"S.P.D. Emergency!" Sky shouted.
Gruumm, Giganis, and Morgana picked themselves off the ground and saw that Sky was in ranger form.
"Ranger form or not, you still can't take the three of us!" Morgana boasted.
Sky looked over at the fallen body of LeAnn and then over at Broodwing's dead body.
"That's where you're wrong. You three are going to pay for what you did!" Sky shouted.
Sky formed his Delta Max Striker and blasted the ceiling causing it to collapse on top of Gruumm. Giganis fired his sniper. Sky ran up a wall and back flipped over the blast and nailed Giganis with his Delta Max Striker while in midair. Morgana shot energy blasts at Sky only to have Sky deflect them using his weapon. Morgana leapt into the air and tried a jump kick. Sky caught her leg and swung her around a couple of times before flinging her into Giganis who had just stood back up on his feet. The two of them fell to the ground. Gruumm emerged from the rubble.
"You'll pay for that blue ranger!" Gruumm warned.
He fired his staff at Sky. Sky rolled out of the way and fired his weapon. Gruumm deflected the attack. Just then, Gruumm was nailed by the civilian blasters from Jack, Syd, Z, and Bridge.
"You may have won this battle rangers, but the war is far from over!" Morgana said before she, Giganis, and Gruumm teleported away.
Sky powered down and fell to one knee clutching his injured ribs in pain. Jack, Syd, Bridge, and Z were instantly at Sky's side.
"Sky, are you ok?" Z asked.
Sky nodded his head yes, but the rangers weren't buying it.
"If you are ok, then why are you holding your ribs?" Syd asked.
Sky sighed. He was more worried about how many people he cared about had died to be concerned about his injured ribs.
"Good work cadet," Cruger said patting Sky on the shoulder.
Sam climbed out from the wall and joined the other rangers.
"So, what did I miss?" Sam asked.
Syd and Z helped Sky to his feet. Everyone could see the pained expression on Sky's face. They knew of Sky's physical pain, but they couldn't begin to comprehend his emotional pain.
"Come on Sky. Let's get you back to the Academy. Chris and Simone will be thrilled to see you," Jack said.
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"When's Sky coming back?" Simone asked.
Kat rolled her eyes. They had asked that question too many times to count ever since she had been babysitting them. She couldn't believe she was stuck babysitting. She worked in the S.P.D. lab not some daycare.
"Yeah we want Sky!" Chris shouted.
Kat was developing a headache. Was shouting really necessary? Being a feline alien, she had better hearing than humans as it was. Kat never looked forward to seeing Sky more than she was now.
"He'll probably be back soon," Kat answered.
Chris and Simone started jumping up and down out of excitement upon hearing that. They couldn't wait.
"Good because you're boring," Chris commented.
"The red guy was funner than you!" Simone added.
Kat was so close to bailing on the two little brats and leaving them unsupervised. She thought she liked kids and got along well with children, but apparently not. It's not like she didn't want to be elsewhere either. Kat much rather be looking through a microscope examining things on a Petri dish than baby-sit Chris and Simone.
"Do you like ice cream?" Kat asked walking over to the food replicator.
Chris and Simone bobbed their heads up and down. Kat punched a few buttons on the food replicator and handed them each an ice cream cone with two scoops of chocolate ice cream.
"Ice cream!" Chris and Simone shouted.
Kat thought at least they couldn't whine, complain, and talk if they were too busy eating ice cream.
XXXXXXXXXX
The rangers pulled up to the parking facility of the Academy.
"Commander?" Sky said.
Cruger looked over at Sky. Did Sky just call him Commander? Were his ears deceiving him?
"What is it cadet?" Cruger replied.
"Why did you give me my morpher back? Does that mean…" Sky started to ask before Cruger put a hand up to stop him.
The other rangers looked at Cruger as well. They too were interested in hearing his answer. They were glad to have Sky back on their team though. It just didn't seem like they were a team without him.
"I've been doing some thinking. I came to the conclusion that I was just afraid of losing my job which was why I thought it was ok that you lost yours. However, I decided that I'm going to fight this. I'm going to defend you and tell Birdy exactly what happened. When that is all said and done, if I lose my job, so be it, but at least Birdie will know the truth. We're a team and that means you too. What happened wasn't your fault. Your mind was being controlled. That's all behind us now. Just now, you saved all of us. You came through when we needed you to. There is nobody else who deserves that morpher more than you," Cruger said.
Sky's eyes started to water and if the other rangers didn't know better, they'd say Sky was going to cry.
"Thank you sir," Sky said while saluting.
XXXXXXXXXX
Over in Gruumm's ship, Gruumm and company were stewing over their recent defeat at the hands of the blue ranger. They were not anticipating Cruger giving him his morpher back.
"I can't believe we were defeated by the blue ranger! Maybe we should lower our standards and go after another ranger. A ranger that is easier to destroy," Morgana said.
Gruumm's eyes glowed red as he glared at Morgana. He let out a growl.
"No! Our plan was to destroy the blue ranger and that is exactly what we are going to do! That pesky blue ranger may have won this round, but I can assure you he won't win the next!" Gruumm exclaimed.
In another part of the ship, Giganis was beside himself. He was absolutely livid. He could not believe that his former best friend had gotten the best of not only him, but Morgana and Gruumm as well. His hatred towards the blue ranger grew even stronger. Giganis was going to see to it that Sky knew that he, not Sky, was the better fighter of the two.
To Be Continued…
A/N: Whew! I finally finished this chapter! Usually I am able to type up an entire chapter in one sitting, but this chapter just wouldn't follow that trend. Needless to say, I stared at a flashing cursor a whole lot while trying to finish this chapter. With that being said, I don't know how good it will turn out. I had originally intended to get this chapter up much earlier in the day, but as you can see, that didn't happen. I want to give a huge thanks to everyone who has read my fic and an even bigger thanks to everyone who has reviewed my fic. I hope you continue to review and tell me what you think. Remember though, no flames.