Cat: Hey all! Last chapter! I'm actually depressed! I've had so much fun writing this! However, I do have a few ideas for a sequel. If anyone is interested, leave me a note.
Disclaimer: Alas! Alas!
And then the response came.
Without a visible sign or audible command the entire army drew back. They collected together like dirt in a vacuum, with much commotion and movement.
None of the Rangers moved. Instead they looked at each other, everyone doing a mental head count. Kelsey was leaning heavily on Dana and Max appeared to be unconscious. No one had escaped uninjured, and some were more severely hurt then others. But everyone was there, and everyone was breathing.
And before them was Trent, his face unreadable behind the White Ranger mask. Finally, he spoke. "What did you call me?"
Conner repeated himself, though not in an intense shout this time. Kira and Ethan rushed behind him in support of their teammate.
"What makes you think I care?"
"Because, you think you're going to be respected? Are you crazy? Oh look at me. I'm Trent and I can order a bunch of mindless troops to kill people that I've never met before." He mocked. It was strange to hear the situation summed up in such a way, but that was the situation.
"You'll pay for that!" Trent lunged. He hit Conner hard before Kira and Ethan rushed forward and pushed the White Ranger backward using all their combined strength.
The other Rangers moved to help but Trent held up a hand. "Move, and they strike." He nodded backwards at his army. The Rangers stood stock still.
Trent moved his gaze back to the Dino Rangers. "Now, to deal with you." They took an impulsive step back, suddenly realizing what they had just gotten themselves in to.
"Oh shit." Conner said under his breath. "Sorry guys."
"No worries." Ethan dismissed his apology.
"Yeah. What he said."
"Prepare to be destroyed Rangers."
"Conner!" Cam shouted. "Catch!" A small silver clasp went flying through the air. For a moment it disappeared in the sunlight, but it reappeared just in time for Conner to catch it one handed. He glanced at it, and so did the other three Dino Ranges.
It only took a second for Conner to figure out where it went. His red dino Gem rested peacefully in a wide silver band. The gem was dull but flawless. It was slightly raised in a diamond shape that matched the shape of the metal object perfectly. He slammed the silver metal around the edge of the Gem. There was a crackle of energy as large sum of electrical power was fed directly into the jewel and it glowed a bright, angry red.
Like before there was no clear sign, but Trent's army resumed the attack as soon as Trent realized what Cam had just done. But that wouldn't be able to undo the damage.
"DinoThunder! Power up!"
"Yes!" Ethan shouted.
"All right!" Kira agreed and the Red Dino Ranger stood there, displayed in all his glory. His really, truly, amazingly, pissed off glory.
"Give it up Trent." Conner ordered. Then Trent laughed.
"You could never defeat me, even as the Red Ranger."
"Times change." Conner replied and rushed forward.
Conner managed to land three quick punches due to Trent's pure surprise. However, as soon as the other Ranger recovered he retaliated in full force. Conner took about twice as many hits as he had delivered and stumbled backwards a few feet.
Ethan and Kira glanced at each other and suddenly realized that they should be helping their teammate. When Conner rushed forward again they were right behind him. Blows were exchanged, sparks flew, and the two non-morphed Rangers were quickly thrown aside.
"Still bored?" Ethan asked.
"Not a chance." Kira replied, as both pulled themselves to their feet. They rose just in time to again catch Conner as the Red Ranger was tossed aside.
"That's it." He said furiously. "No more Mr. Nice Guy."
"Since when are you a nice guy?" Ethan wondered.
"Ha ha. Very funny." Conner responded before shouting, "Super Dino Mode!" There was a flash of bright light and Kira and Ethan both stepped back to avoid being lacerated by the excessively long and pointy spikes that sprouted from the Ranger's arms.
"Come on." Trent teased. "Show me something new. Super Dino Mode!"
"Copy cat." Conner accused, charging. He threw a punch that Trent caught casually, twisting his opponent's arm in a direction that human limbs are not designed to turn. Conner yelped and Kira and Ethan ran to his rescue, sending identical blows at Trent's head from either side. The White Ranger released Conner, ducking to avoid being hit by the others. His quick reaction left him open to grabbing both of their ankles at once and pulling, sending both of them crashing to the ground. He was back up fast enough to leap above a kick from Conner and deliver one of his own upon landing. The Red Ranger was sent spiraling off to regroup yet again with his partners. Trent, feeling very proud of himself, pulled out his weapon. Ethan briefly wondered why the ultimate Power Ranger had a feather as his ultimate weapon, and who had thought that it was even remotely threatening. However, he had to admit that right now was not only the most random battle to finally think about this, but also the most inappropriate, and so he pushed it from his mind.
He did so just in time to see Trent unleash his favorite move of all time. Ethan braced himself as the barrage of arrows found their target, though it did him very little good. There was a massive explosion behind the three of them, though it magically didn't touch any of them, or originate from any of the arrows or injure any of the other Power Rangers still locked in a pointless battle somewhere on the fringes of this story. Despite the act that the explosion remained a safe distance from the Dino Rangers, all three (A/N I am not counting Trent as a Dino Ranger at this point on the grounds that Conner, Ethan, and Kira would have excommunicated him in a heartbeat if they had considered it) went flying through the air, screaming in a combination of fear and pain, though mostly in pain.
When they landed, Conner was in intense pain. Ethan was in even more intense pain because he hadn't been morphed at the time. He could barely move, and when he did it hurt too much. So he just lay on the ground, deciding to take a few seconds--or possibly hours--for him to quietly recover. Kira was unconscious.
Conner fought to his feet. "You're gonna pay for that." He swore.
"Good guys always say that."
"Good guys always win, remember?"
"There's a first time for everything." Because he couldn't think of an answer, Conner decided to attack again. However, he only lasted twenty seconds before he was back on the ground beside his teammates. His Red Ranger morph was gone, though whether it was because he'd used up al the energy or because he was just getting that badly beat up Conner wasn't intelligent enough to judge.
Ethan and Kira (who had regained consciousness during those twenty seconds) helped pull Conner back to his feet wearily. They watched in total fear as Trent pulled out his feather-weapon again. A smart or powerful Ranger might have thought of dodging but the Dino Rangers were just too tired and they just stood there as their doom inched closer.
Trent laughed as he brandished his sword. "It's over Rangers." And then he fell over.
A surprisingly heavy shape disentangled itself from the Ranger before he could get seriously injured. Conner, Ethan, and Kira just stared. They had been saved.
"Did ya miss me?" Dr. O. asked brightly.
"Awesome timing dude." Conner said approvingly.
"Yeah. No lie, that was sweet." Ethan agreed.
"You're okay!" Kira observed.
"Not for long!" Trent swore, standing and facing the four Rangers. The Dino Rangers huddled together, though they attempted to look brave and threatening about it.
"It's not over yet, Trent." Dr. O. replied.
"Wanna bet, Rangers?" They met in combat yet again, though this time the four Rangers managed to somewhat hold their own.
"Anyone got a plan!" Conner asked desperately. Notice I said, 'somewhat.'
"Trying to think of a plan, trying to think of a plan." Kira chanted. "I got nothing."
"I might have one." Ethan offered.
"Perfect. What do we do?"
"Dr. O. I need you to keep him busy." Ethan instructed, and proceeded to outline the plan to the others. However, he somehow managed to do it in a way that prevented Trent from listening. Mostly he accomplished this by whispering whenever the tide of battle brought anyone close to him. Eventually though, he managed to explain it fully.
"What if we hit Dr. O.?" Kira asked.
"Try not to." Suggested Conner.
"Don't worry about me, just do it!" The science teacher ordered courageously. This in no way prevented the others from worrying, it was however, the correct thing to say, and the Rangers sprung into action.
Dr. O. took over the brunt of the physical hand to hand fighting, though Trent was clearly superior. This meant that Conner, Kira, and Ethan had exactly seven seconds to accomplish their goal. Spreading out they each took one corner of a triangle and pulled out their, until then, forgotten weapons. The Astroblasters. Kira had never liked Greg so much as she did at that moment. They aimed quickly.
"One." Conner shouted. "Two." Dr. O. dove out of the way, leaving Trent as the lone target. "Three!" It had never been decided whether they were all going to fire on 'three' or on the beat after it. By some miracle however, they all fired on three. At the same exact instant all three beams struck their target and Trent cried out.
His White Ranger transformation shattered into a billion tiny pieces. He staggered backward fearfully and in pain, and the Dino Rangers lowered their weapons.
"Give it up, Trent!" Conner shouted.
"You may think you've won!" He said warningly. In the sky, the Dracozord gave a shrill cry as it rushed to its master's aid. "But you haven't. I'll be back!" He promised manically. The other Rangers leapt back as the massive zord landed before them "I'll be back!" And he grabbed a hold of the zord's beak and it took to the sky.
Left leaderless, the entire army scattered back to their own separate corners of the universe, where, unknown to the Rangers, infighting would eventually destroy them fully, preventing anyone from ever accessing their combined powers again.
Back in the present, Dr. O. immediately turned to his communicator. "Haylie! We need zords!"
"On their way." She replied and two near identical shapes came spiraling out of the clouds.
"Eaglezord!" Taylor shouted happily.
"And Pterazord!" Kira ID-ed her zord as well.
"Magically working together after hating each other all this time?" Conner asked skeptically.
"No way." Ethan agreed. However, it was indeed to two flying yellow zords, former archenemies, that went speeding after the Dracozord. It took them a minute to catch up with the other, and the Rangers watched with baited breath as three shape engaged in a quick tussle in the skies. One fell and the other two squealed and flapped back over to the Rangers. The returning heroes were greeted with cheers from everyone present.
"So, any bets on whether or not Trent will actually be coming back?" Kira asked the Blue Ranger. Ethan shrugged.
"Even if he does, he'll be short something kinda important." Conner said, pointing to the White Dino Gem, which rested in the grass in three perfect pieces.
"Any idea how we're going to move those without turning evil?" Ethan asked.
"I'll get to work on that." Dr. O. said casually.
"Oh. Wow." Kira said.
"What?"
"I just realized something." Conner groaned. Kira hadn't realized anything good in ages. "We won."
"Hey! We did!" Conner said happily. "I never have to eat another pie again!"
"Pie?" Dr. O wondered.
"You seriously missed out, Dr. O." Ethan informed him.
"Obviously. But tell me about the pie."
"Oh snap." Conner said, a look of complete terror flashing across his face. His teammates paled and hesitated before turning to see what he was staring at.
"Do I wanna know?" wondered Kira.
"No." Ethan had finally gathered up the courage to turn and look. "You really don't." Dr. O turned, and his face crumpled into confusion.
"I don't get it." He admitted.
"We're so dead." Conner's face hadn't changed at all.
"Totally." Ethan agreed.
"Guys, you're overacting." Dr. Oliver said casually. "It's just your parents."
"WHAT?" Kira whirled around. Sure enough she saw her parents' blue Escalade roll to a stop in the grass next to a much smaller silver Corolla. Ethan's parents spilled out of the car, with Conner's mother storming out of the driver's seat. "No! They're supposed to be in the mountains! What're we gonna do?"
"No idea." Ethan admitted, fear driving all thoughts from his mind.
"We could run." Conner suggested.
"Too late." Kira whispered, trying to keep any of the adults from hearing. They were now mere inches from the teens, glaring daggers.
"Hello. How are you doing?" Dr. O. asked, trying to be amicable. He was completely ignored.
"Dr. O. Help!" Ethan whimpered.
"I'm trying." He hissed. To the parents he said, "I know you must have been a little worried but really everything is fine and—"
"Conner Daniels McKnight." His mother began. "You do not hang up on your mother, do you understand that?"
He nodded furiously. "Good. Now get in the car." He nodded again. Kira took one glace at her parents and dashed off after Conner. They slid quickly into the backseat of the Escalade and huddle together near the middle, staring out the windshield as their friend's fate was decided.
Ethan refused to look up from the ground, but that didn't stop him from quaking. "Get. In. The car. Now." His father ordered through teeth that might as well be stuck together with peanut butter.
"Yes, sir." Ethan said quickly and outright ran to rejoin his team.
"What are we gonna do?" Kira asked again. They were now all watching their parents interact with their teacher from the safety of the backseat.
Ethan glanced out the side windows and then back towards their parents. At last his gaze fell on the keys dangling tantalizingly from the ignition.
"No." Kira said the instant she realized what he was thinking.
"Yes!" Conner cheered. Kira swallowed and examined her options with as much calm as she could muster. She could either ride in a car with her angry parents and face their wrath when they arrived home, with a possible teaser on the way, or she could ride in a car with her possibly insane teammates, making her parents even angrier, and face their wrath later. It didn't take her long to decide.
"I know how to get to my family's mountain house." She offered. Conner leapt into action. Crawling over the seats he fell into the driver's seat, Kira following into the one beside it. She slammed her hand down on the locks just as Conner jammed the ignition. The engine burst into life and all the adults looked horror stricken as the three teens escaped into the dawn.
Cat: The end! Hope you all liked it! Now pretty please review for me!