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Didn't Think We'd Do This, Did You?
"Pretty pink ranger," Richard said, as he dropped her to the ground and saw the pure fear come into her eyes as she realized where she was and what that might mean for her. She reached for her morpher and attempted to morph, but it didn't work and she was scared shitless about that. She was not protected from anything that he tried to do to her if she was not morphed. Why was the thing acting up now? Why wouldn't it let her morph? It had worked so well over the past few weeks, why would it decide to do this now? "Don't worry, Zeltrax wants to have fun with you today and that little morpher will not work too well inside of these walls. We wished to have this happen, easier on us, you see to deal with an unmorphed ranger."
"What?" Kim asked, as she had been preparing herself to fight Richard and had not really listened to anything else once she heard about Zeltrax.
When she saw the cyborg step into the room, she got the distinct feeling that this was going to be one of the worst beatings she had ever received in her life and she had been dealt some bad ones in the past by Goldar and others. She probably wouldn't be able to escape and would only be left with the choice of not ticking him off too much. She just prayed that she could somehow manage to do what she had to do to survive, long enough for Jason and Tommy to show up. They could take care of the rest once they showed up.
"Funny, it seems that Tommy has taught you nothing. I thought that was the very least he would do with you," Zeltrax said, as she scrambled to the opposite end of the room and tried to figure out if there was anyway that she could scale the walls, but she couldn't, without her powers.
She was far too short to be able to vault into the rafters and run as far from here as she could away from this monster. She was just going to have to take her chances on the ground. She didn't like those chances, but she knew that her husband was on his way and with any luck he would arrive in time to help her.
"He's taught me plenty," Kim said, as she dove out of the way of his first punch and then kicked him from behind, slamming him into a metal wall in the process. She headed towards the door, but found that it was locked, which meant she was pinned, in this room, alone with a maniac. She could only pray that they got there soon and were able to find the room that she was in quickly. She could hold him off, but it would only be for a little while.
"Obviously not enough, to go against me," Zeltrax said, as he grabbed her by the neck and slung her across the room and when she rose to her feet, she was gasping for air, and listening for any sound of oncoming help.
"What was that?" Kira asked as they heard a loud, boom upstairs and then heard the scrambling of feet. They knew this time was coming, but they only hoped they would be able to find them, soon. They had overheard a plan that had Elsa and Richard coming to kill them once the rangers arrived and they did not plan to be there to see that happen.
They had come up with a plan of their own while they had been left here to ponder on their importance for the last four days. They had decided that the rangers would need them when they finally got here and had began implementing their own plan, but it couldn't be done until they were sure that the rangers were there. They were still going to need their help to get out of there.
"I don't know, but are you ready for the jail break?" Ethan asked as he pulled out some of the tools he had been collecting over the last four days.
None of Lord Zedd's help was really careful about where they placed their tools and Ethan had been able to easily highjack them and hide them in their backpacks. The backpacks that they left with them did work to their advantage, although Lord Zedd had never thought that would be the case. He actually thought that the bookbags would be a nuisance to them when the time to leave came. The rangers, however, planned to ditch them as soon as they could. They could buy new schoolbooks if they had to do so. Right now, they were concerned about being able to get out of this place alive.
"Okay, Zedd. Where is she?" Tommy said, bursting into the room and taking them by slight surprise. They had known Tommy was coming, but this was not what they expected. He seemed ready to take on whatever got in his way, even if it was a rather dumb idea and they were up for encouraging dumb ideas at the moment.
Tommy was not wasting any time bull shitting around about the situation at hand. He could not afford to waste time on the simple fighting against the goons outside, either. That was what the other rangers had been called to do right now. He had to get to her and stop them from hurting her, if it was at all possible.
He could not deal with them having his wife. He had never been able to deal with it when they took her away and it was worse now that he had the picture of their child never knowing her mother. That was more motivation than he needed to go up against any type of monster, including Lord Zedd or Mesogogg right now. They did not want to make him any madder or they would be facing his wrath in a way that only Goldar and Zeltrax had ever faced before. The two of them weren't around to say how unwise it was to make him mad, but he was sure he could get the point across to them as well.
"Have I made the white Power Ranger mad at me?" Lord Zedd asked, tantalizingly, as Tommy jumped with his hands outreached for Lord Zedd's neck and Jason managed to catch him before he began fighting like the maniac that he now was.
He had, basically, dragged Jason to the place Alabaster had pointed them towards, in an attempt to get Kim back with him sooner. Jason knew it was only a matter of time before Tommy snapped and he wanted to hold that time off for a few more minutes. Tommy was not going to do Kim any good if he was unconscious because of fighting Lord Zedd, by himself. If that did happen and something happened to Kim, Tommy would never forgive himself, so he was going to do everything within his power to make sure that they would all be fine.
"No, you have pissed me off! I skipped being mad today!" Tommy yelled, as Jason continued to hold him back as Tommy fought for him to let him go, but Jason slackened his grip as he heard a blood-curdling scream from further within the castle. This could not be good and the glance that Tommy gave him let him know he was thinking the same thing. It was either Kim or the other rangers and they both had to get to whoever it was quickly; it was obvious that they were being tortured by someone.
Tommy, instead of going after Lord Zedd, as he had planned, headed in the direction of the scream, ignoring everything that was running through his mind that he wanted to do to him right now. He knew the voice of the screamer all too well and he didn't want to see what was happening to her. His imagination was doing a good enough job filling in the blanks and he could only pray that the reality was not as bad as he envisioned it to be.
"Billy, do you have a read on us?" Jason asked into his communicator as he ran after Tommy. Lord Zedd and Mesogogg made no attempt to stop them, it seemed that they were actually happy to get their attention turned to something else. He had only hung back long enough to see if Lord Zedd and Mesogogg were going to come after them, but decided they weren't.
Now he had the job of trying to catch up with Tommy, which was not going to be an easy task. He was running on all cylinders right now and his emotions were pushing him that much more, Jason might not be able to catch up with him, but he had to keep him in sight. Tommy was going to need help when he finally reached the room that the screams were being emitted from.
"Yeah, but we can't get to you right now. We have puddies that are attacking us from every direction. Hold out as long as you can and we'll leave if we have to," Billy said as Jason sighed then sped up so that he could reach Tommy in time to warn him that they had no back up right now. He hoped that would make Tommy not do anything crazy, but he doubted it right now. Tommy seemed to be sure it was Kim and he was going to have no luck of talking him out of anything that was on his mind.
"They're busy, Tommy," Jason said as Tommy turned to look back and then sprinted forward faster than before. Jason could have promised that Tommy's eyes turned green under his helmet and he knew what Tommy was going to do. He did not like what that was, either. It was just too much of a risk for all of them, but he was almost as certain as Tommy that it was Kim being tortured and he knew what that was doing to Tommy's insides right now.
"Great. We have absolutely no back up," Tommy said as he reached the door and heard the screams begin again, only they were much louder and shriller than before.
He tried to burst through the door without using any ammunition, but it wouldn't budge, so all he did was pull out his power blaster and pray she was far away from the door. He couldn't afford to waste time on the safe way, when she was being tortured, just on the other side of the door. He was too close to just let it continue without doing anything and by the way it sounded she was close to her breaking point. He knew that he wouldn't be able to live with himself if he didn't get in there in time, that was what let him make that decision. He just hoped that it was the right one.
"Let go of me!" Kim yelled, gasping for air, as Zeltrax held her against the wall by her throat and she felt herself going close to unconsciousness, as things around her became very fuzzy, but she tried to hold on for only a few more seconds.
She knew Tommy was outside the door, she had heard him, but there was always the chance that he would not get inside in time. She had tried fighting off Zeltrax, but he was too much for her unmorphed and every time she tried to morph, she had not been able to morph, it just was not working. It made no sense why it was not working, but it wasn't and she had lost hope that it would work now. She just didn't have the energy to try again and fail. She wouldn't try again, unless Tommy or Jason told her to do so. They would be asking her to do it for her own safety and she trusted their judgement more than her own judgement in situations like this one.
"I really suggest you do that, before I make you," Tommy said with a murderous glare as he walked into the room, after blasting the door off its hinges and Zeltrax gripped Kim's throat tighter than before, trying to cut off her remaining air supply. He knew how much it would hurt Tommy to watch him murder his wife in cold blood, but Tommy had no intentions of seeing that day come. She was going to die of old age, if he had it his way and he was pretty sure that he would get his way, somehow. "On the count of three morph, Kim. One, two, three."
"Pink ranger, power up," Kim managed to mutter in between strangled breaths.
She felt something hit her, but the relief was soon evident as Tommy threw Zeltrax away from her without a thought of what he was doing to the man. Zeltrax crashed into the steel wall across the room and was then blasted by Tommy again, for good measure. He wanted to make sure that Zeltrax would not stand between him and his wife for the next few moments. He knew that these moments would be what saved her or killed her and that was something he didn't like to deal with, but he knew that there was the possibility that anything could happen.
"Look at me. Come on, Kim, look at me," Tommy commanded as he reached out to pick her up and then noticed that she seemed really out of it, although he could not see her face behind the helmet. He knew that she had nearly been choked to death, but Zeltrax was gone, from what he could tell, and he wouldn't have to worry about him anymore. He had made sure it was a fatal injury this time, no matter what anyone else thought he would do. He had given up being nice, especially after seeing what Zeltrax was attempting to do. She was the only reason that he had not taken him out before, because she still believed in giving them some sort of benefit of the doubt. He didn't agree with her anymore and he was sure that she had changed her mind. "Okay, make it hard on me, then."
"Tommy, what's going on?" Jason asked as he caught up and saw the completely demolished room. Whatever had happened, had happened quickly, but it had also left the room in ruins.
Tommy was pulling Kim's helmet off of her head and then snatched his own off, when he saw her face and knew that she was not breathing. He began giving her mouth to mouth until she breathed on her own and began coughing up blood, which was not comforting to anyone in the room. That scared him and he was not sure if he wanted her to continue this mission, he had to make sure that she got home to their baby and the way things were looking, it seemed like there was a possibility of that not happening if she kept on going. He just knew it would be very hard to convince her to let them teleport her back to the safe haven of the ship, but he was going to try to convince her nonetheless.
"Go, Tommy. I'll be fine, I promise," Kim muttered as he gave her a hard look and then looked over at Jason. Tommy did not beileve Kim at all and Jason knew that Tommy couldn't leave her like this. He was silently asking him to go find Kira, Ethan, and Trent. They needed his help right now and he needed to turn his full attention to Kim. She was still barely able to focus on him, but she knew that he was there and that did give her some comfort. Nothing would happen to her while he was in this building as well.
"I'm staying here until you get back to normal. It's too much of a risk for me to leave with Lord Zedd and Mesogogg still roaming around. When you get stable we need to teleport you back to the ship," Tommy said as Kim looked at him and then shook her head.
She had managed to stop coughing, but she still felt short of breath and very dizzy, but it was not from her powers this time. Tommy could see the bruises creeping out from under the edge of her suit and he knew that if anyone hit her there during the rest of the day, she wouldn't be able to fight them. It would hurt her too much to fight after a blow to her already injured neck. She needed to go back to the ship.
"Listen to me. I can take care of myself; maybe they are worse off than I am. Go, Tommy. I'll be fine and I'll contact Billy if I need to go back to the ship," Kim ordered as she grabbed her helmet from him and placed it back over her head. She was going to have to get Tommy moving, one way or another and she just hoped that he was not looking for a lie from her, because she was lying. She was going to be fine, but she didn't know if she trusted herself to take care of herself just yet.
"Dr. O," Trent said, screeching to a halt as he saw the white, pink, and red rangers standing in a room, with Zeltrax lying on the floor obviously destroyed.
"You're all fine?" Tommy asked as they nodded their heads. They were a little bit hungry, but that did not seem to be a condition that they should mention. They were just happy to see some familiar faces in this place. It had been far too long since they had last seen the other rangers.
"Yeah, Richard and Elsa are knocked out back there, but Lord Zedd and Mesogogg are still roaming around this place, somewhere. Unless you took care of them already," Kira said taking a hard look at the red ranger and deciding it was Jason and not Conner. She honestly wondered how he was doing right now. She hadn't had anymore dreams about him and she could only hope that meant that he was fine.
"We didn't, but what about Goldar?" Kim asked, as she felt something grab her around the stomach and pull her away from Tommy. The only thought that crossed her mind was 'not again', as she had already been held hostage once today and she really didn't want that to happen again. She didn't know if she could stand it happening again.
"Funny you should ask," Goldar said, as Tommy's eyes widened and he grabbed Saba as quickly as he could, knowing the sword was his only hope, except for the fact that they could all turn invisible. It seemed that power had stayed with Tommy when he exchanged powers and he was happy that Kim and Jason could share his powers any time they wished. It was definitely going to help them this time.
"Invisashield up," Kim said as soon as she thought of the weapon. Goldar dropped her out of pure shock and Kim grabbed Jason, who could still be plainly seen by anyone who wandered by the room. The two of them had to find Lord Zedd and Mesogogg and begin the battle with them. Tommy could take care of Goldar on his own and they got the distinct feeling that was what he wanted to do. This was going to be the last time that Goldar ever crossed their path, if he had it his way. "Go help the others!"
"Okay," Trent said, as Kim seemed to think that they knew the way out of here. He didn't have the time to argue and he knew they'd be able to get out of this place, somehow. They would just follow the noise that was emitting from outside of the castle.
"Billy!" Trini yelled, as several puddies had overpowered her and were making it hard for her to continue to fight.
She wished she would have told Jason, but what could she really do about that now? She knew she had to get out of here, if she wanted to survive and she hoped that Billy would understand that request. It would leave them one ranger down, but it would save a life and that was something that they treasured more than anything else.
"Alpha, teleport her!" Billy yelled into his communicator. She disappeared in a flash of yellow light and landed on the ship, moments later. She powered down and upon doing so fainted in a heap on the kitchen floor.
"Billy, have they gotten to them?" Conner asked as the doors burst open and the three, trapped, rangers ran out into the dim light and refreshing air.
No one noticed the extra help, although they did notice there were fewer puddies around each ranger, which was a relief to them. They had been fighting them for far longer than they had ever fought them before and it was not looking good for them, but they had to keep trying. If they gave up, then the ones left inside had no hope of surviving and they were not comfortable with that fact. They were not going to lose any rangers on this mission.
"Conner! Watch out!" Kira yelled as a puddy was heading at him from the back and he was not concentrating on it at all.
He, however, didn't hear her in time and was plowed down by the overzealous puddy. It was not the first time that it had happened to him, but he was certainly starting to get annoyed by the fact that they continued to dive on him like this, they seemed to notice that he was not fully there. Oh well, it was the truth, but he was going to do everything he could do to stay on his feet.
"Kira?" Conner asked as he looked around and knew he had thrown the puddy several feet at the sound of her voice. He couldn't be imagining hearing her and he knew that she was out there somewhere or Lord Zedd was playing with his mind again. "Kira? Am I losing my mind?"
"No, you're not. I'm here," Kira said as she pushed a puddy away from him and saw him look at her, still wondering if she was really there.
She could only imagine the torture these last few days had been for him and she knew that he now knew how Dr. O felt when Kim was taken away. It was a horrible, empty feeling and they knew that they would never dare to mention the fact that Dr. O's soft spot was Kim again. Conner had found his own soft spot and he did not dare to mention it, he knew what might happen if he did. He didn't want to ever go through this again and he was sure that he would stop it next time, if he could.
"Kira, you're alright?" Conner asked giving her a hug and noticed another group of puddies coming towards them. He did not want to break apart from her, but he got the feeling that he was going to have to very soon. He didn't want her to be harmed and that would happen if they continued to hug for such a long period of time.
"You'll have time to reunite later! Fight now!" Zack yelled over to them, knowing that they didn't have time to do anything now, except fight. He didn't want them to get hurt and them to have more to worry about. They honestly had enough going on in their lives right now.
"Ow," Ashley muttered as she was hit on the side of the head by one of the puddies feet. She and Charlie had been trying to destroy the puddies, but it was proving to be a little bit harder than they expected.
This was not the sort of thing that they practiced on a daily basis at the dojo, but they hadn't expected it to be anything like the dojo. They were right, although this was not even what their wildest dreams had made it, it was much more complex than those mere dreams.
"You alright?" Charlie asked as he had heard her utterance and was a little bit worried about her. They were not used to this type of combat and he didn't want for her to be hurt. That would probably just make his fighting that much worse.
"Fine, but something just doesn't seem right," Ashley said as she fought off a puddy and looked at the building. There just seemed to be something radiating from within and she did not like the feeling that it gave her in the pit of her stomach. Something told her that they needed to go inside, that it was not going well for some of the others. "Maybe we should be getting inside to help them."
Goldar's Fight
Tommy looked over at the demented, winged creature known as Goldar and began trying to figure out some sort of strategy that would help him fight the beast. Goldar had always had this knack for pushing Jason and Tommy's buttons the most, but today was going to be the last time that happened. Tommy had to make sure of it, but he was not sure how he was going to do that, without any back up here. He knew what Jason and Kim were doing and he knew he needed to get to them quickly. Kim didn't need to fight, but she was and he knew that every minute he spent here was a minute she would be fighting and possibly being injured. He had to end all of this as soon as possible.
"Well, well, well. Tommy Oliver, here again, alone with me. I wonder what he wants to do?" Goldar taunted as he swung his sword at Tommy, but was blocked by Saba and then thrown in the other direction.
"You don't want to know what I want to happen to you Goldar. It would probably make you think that you were stronger than the rest of us," Tommy said, as he had no clue where the last sentence came from, it really made no sense to him at all. But it did seem to be the correct ammunition to use on the being, for some odd reason. He hadn't been a ranger for almost a decade for nothing.
"I am stronger than you, you weak Power Ranger. I wish you would have figured that out, then you would be out of the way already," Goldar said, again trying to strike Tommy, but this time finding himself thrown into a nearby wall and felt the cold steel on his face.
This was not the same ranger that he had fought over the last few weeks and he secretly wondered if Lord Zedd had gone too far by capturing Kim. It had seemed like a good plan, but now it seemed like an utter disaster. He knew that he should have warned Lord Zedd, but it probably would have gotten him zapped, but even that was better than the death that he was now facing. Tommy did not seem to be holding back in the slightest, for once in his life.
"I wish you would figure out that we will never quit. It's something that we pride ourselves in, but only a fellow ranger really understands us, come to think of it," Tommy said, as he struck Goldar and for the first time in ranger history, Goldar bled. It was not the crimson blood of a normal being, but rather a burnt yellow color. Goldar looked down at the piercing of his armor and stood there in shock. He had been warned, long ago, that if his armor was ever pierced he would be dead within minutes. He just hoped he would be able to take the white ranger with him to his grave.
For the next five minutes, he fought like the maniac he had been in the first years of Tommy's career. Tommy had a few narrow escapes, but he managed to hold Goldar off, as the blood continued to poor out of the cut. He didn't know how long Goldar could hold up, but it would surely not be much longer, he just had to hold him off until he fell.
Goldar began seeing the room fade in and out as he fought Tommy. He had not wanted to meet his end against this ranger, but that was exactly what had happened to him. He stumbled, one last time, and then laid down on the cold floor. He had given up and as death took him, he remembered one thing he had been told by the rangers. Good always triumphs over evil. He now believed that statement, but it was too late, even for him to save himself.
AN: I hope that you have enjoyed this chapter and please review. If there is anything you would like to see, I will take it into serious consideration for this story or another one. Until next time, enjoy the story!