Sector 10, Mega Mall
Metro City, Canada
May 21st, 2015
2:19 AM
"Riley Bishop"
I was surprised that Jenna didn't try to stop me from coming to the Mega Mall. She told me the bare bones version of what had happened to me and where the others had gone when I woke up.
I knew Silver would be furious with me, but I didn't care. Corrupted codec or not, I refuse to just sit back and watch the Renegade kill my friends. Especially when there's a chance that I can stop him.
"I have to admit," said the Renegade, "I didn't expect you to show up."
"I hope I'm not crashing the party," I said, "I wasn't sure if your invitation was for me as well."
"Well, you are a lap dog, aren't you?" asked the Renegade.
"Riley!" groaned Silver, "It's too dangerous!"
"I know the risks," I said, "Jenna told me."
"Tell me," said the Renegade, who had now started to circle me, "How does it feel, having a piece of me inside your codec?"
"I can hear it whispering to me," I said, "But it sounds like it's coming from the very farthest reaches of my mind."
"Just wait," said the Renegade, "In time, it'll get louder. Eventually, you won't be able to resist it. You saw how long it took for me to overpower Sawyer. He suffered for weeks, but, if you give in to it now, you won't have to suffer like he did."
"You just don't get, do you?" I asked, "You call me a lap dog because you think I'm too afraid to break rules. But the truth is that I'm afraid I'll turn into you! If I let this power go to my head and hurt people, that would be torture for me. That's when I would really be suffering."
"Inspiring," said the Renegade, "Hold on to that while you can. Once that small piece of me gets strong enough, you'll have a hard time distinguishing your thoughts from mine."
"That's why I'm giving my codec to Silver after I defeat you," I said, "If I don't wear it, you won't be able to control me."
"You'll never defeat me," said the Renegade, "Especially not all on your own, with a corrupted codec!"
"We'll see about that." I said.
"Fine then. Show me what you've got!" cackled the Renegade.
"CYBER POWER, ACTIVATE!" I shouted.
Morphing was painful this time. I wasn't expecting it at all. It felt like there was a small thorn stuck in my brain that I couldn't feel at all until I morphed. Now that I was in ranger form, the pain became much worse. It wasn't unbearable, but I could definitely feel it now.
I needed a plan. I needed to find a way to outsmart someone who was faster and stronger than me. But I needed to do it without telegraphing all my moves. This was going to be very hard. Everyone knows that I'm not the best fighter on the team. Then of course, there's the fact that until I powered down, I would be in constant pain.
"Download weapon!" I called.
The Renegade stuck his hand out to call his scythe towards him and was walking over to me very quickly. I raised my sword just like how he had raised his scythe. I started walking over to him now, ready to meet him in the middle.
He swung his scythe at me, and I ducked. As I came back up, I swung my sword at his knees. He jumped over it and whacked me in the back with the blunt end of his scythe. I got to my feet and swung from the elbow, aiming at his throat, he blocked it with his scythe and we locked our weapons together.
"Once the corruption sets in," said the Renegade, "You and I could be partners. We would rule this city through fear and respect. We'd never have to take orders from anyone ever again."
"That's the same offer you gave to Sawyer, isn't it?" I asked.
"Yeah," he said, "Only in his case, we'd be sharing his body. But by tomorrow, I'll be able to banish Sawyer from this body. Permanently and completely."
"Not if I can help it!" I snapped.
The Renegade punched me in the stomach, knocking the wind out of me. I tried to stand up, but he punched me in the back, and I crumpled to the ground.
"Riley... Can I call you Riley?" asked the Renegade, "Look at you. You can't even stand up. How do you expect to stop me?"
"I'll think of something," I said, "I always do."
"Oh yeah?" asked the Renegade, "Then what do you think about this!?"
The Renegade sped over and knocked me down. As he stood over me, he put one foot on my chest and stepped down, hard. That was where I had fractured my rib, it had healed, but it was still a little sore. Him stepping on it was making it really hurt. I grabbed his foot and twisted, causing him fall backwards.
He caught himself before he toppled over the railing. I got to my feet, and he sliced me across the chest with his scythe. The attack sent me flying, but when I stopped, I felt fine. I still had enough energy to keep fighting for a while.
"You just don't know when to quit do you?" said the Renegade.
"I'm not giving up," I said, "My friends need me!"
The Renegade sped over to me again and picked me up, but then he shrieked as if my suit had somehow burned his hands. He dropped me, and I gasped when I noticed that my suit was on fire. It didn't feel anything. In fact, I felt strong. The heat was soothing, like a hot shower.
The heat also seemed to be alleviating the pain the corruption was causing as it tried to gouge it's way deeper into my mind. But the fire went out quickly. The Renegade saw this and grabbed me by the throat, holding me above his head.
"If there's one thing I hate more than anything else, it's cheaters!" he said.
"You mean like how your superior speed and strength gives you an unfair advantage over us?" I wheezed, "Seems to me that if anyone is a cheater, it's you!"
"Shut up." he spat.
"Admit it," I sputtered, "You just hate it when your speed and strength aren't enough."
"Shut up!" he snarled.
"In the end," I said, even though I couldn't breathe at all anymore, "It doesn't matter how strong you are or how fast you are. Because there's still one thing that you'll never have... Friendship!"
My suit caught fire again, this time it was burning even hotter than ever. The fire spread from my suit to the Renegade's arm. It didn't hurt me at all, but it caused him severe pain until he managed to put it out.
"You'll pay for that!" roared the Renegade.
He ran over to the others and thought for a moment. He kicked Rachel in the head, knocking her out again, then he picked her up and brought her over to the walkway. He was holding her by the ankle, and if he dropped her, she would inevitably crack her head open on the floor three stories below.
"Let go of her!" I shouted.
"Okay." he said, releasing his grip.
My heart skipped a beat. There was no way I could make it to her in time. But then, time seemed to gradually slow down until everything was completely frozen. I saw an explosion of binary that mimicked the shape of an actual fiery explosion. Something began to materialize in the middle of the blast, something that let out an eerie, soothing wail. It was the Phoenix!
"You have done it, Riley." it said.
"Done what?" I asked.
"Your courage and unwavering determination have awakened me," said the Phoenix, "Can you feel that burning sensation in your heart?"
"The fire, on my suit," I said, "That was you?"
"Yes," said the Phoenix, "Thanks to you, I am now strong enough to hide myself from Trojan."
"Um, you're welcome, I guess?" I said.
"As a token of my gratitude, I have imbued you with some of my power," said the Phoenix, "You can access it with your Digitizer, which I have made a slight alteration to."
I looked down and saw that there was a lever on the side of my Digitizer that wasn't there before. It looked like an older kind of gear shift. The ones that protrude from the steering wheel, rather being near the console. I guess all I needed to do was pull it.
"What about Rachel?" I asked, "I can't fight the Renegade and save her at the same time."
"I will save her," said the Phoenix, "Do not worry."
"Thank you." I said.
The phoenix let out it's eerie wail again and time resumed to it's normal flow. I saw a burst of fire rocket past me and engulf Rachel. Then it soared back up and deposited her back where she was before the Renegade had grabbed her. I could see that the Renegade was looking around, trying to figure out how I had saved her without moving.
"Renegade," I said, "It's over."
"No, but it will be soon!" he snarled, running at me with his scythe over his shoulder.
I glared at him for a moment, and then held up my left wrist so that everyone could see that it looked different. The Renegade didn't seem to notice, he was still running at me. He wasn't super speeding though, maybe he was starting to run low on energy?
"PHOENIX ARMOUR, ACTIVATE!" I shouted, pulling the lever.
Upon pulling the lever, I saw the same burst of fire fly from out of my codec. It let out it's eerie wail and started to fly in circles around me, eventually it became a swirling tornado of fire. The tornado kept spinning even after the Phoenix stopped flying around in circles. Now it was hovering in front of me. Then it flew right through my chest. When it was gone, I noticed that I was now wearing a breast plate over top of my ranger suit. Then the Phoenix flew through my legs, and created matching armoured boots. Next it flew through my arms, creating matching pauldrons and gauntlets. After that it flew through my head and my helmet transformed to look a bit more like a bird. Finally, it flew into my sword, but didn't emerge on the other side. The sword became much longer and curved slightly before bursting into flames. I would definitely need two hands to use it now. When my sword caught fire, two large wings made up of fire sprouted from the back of my new breast plate. The fiery tornado vanished, and I could see the mall again.
"Holy shit, that's awesome!" said Oz, Marcus and Chloe together.
"So it does exist," said Silver, "Fascinating."
"Go, Riley! Kick his ass!" cheered Rachel.
She probably woke up when the Phoenix caught her. This power was amazing. I felt twice as powerful. Even the Renegade had stopped in his tracks.
"This is the end for you, Renegade," I said, "The power of the Phoenix has cleansed the corruption from my codec and it will do the same thing to you!"
"Am I supposed to scared!?" said the Renegade, "You're still no match for me!"
Now he used his super speed. I could tell he was running faster because I could see a trail behind him. Actually, I could see him too, probably because I could move just as fast, if not faster than him now.
He was trying to cut me in half by holding his scythe out as he ran past, but I swung at his scythe with my burning claymore, and it got cut in half. The two halves of the Renegade's scythe disintegrated, just like how a virus would. The heat from the fire must be really intense. I couldn't feel any heat whatsoever though, even though there were fiery wings protruding out of my back and a flaming sword in my hands.
The Renegade seemed to know it was hopeless now, but he refused to give up. He walked up in front of me and started punching and kicking, but each blow caused him pain, because the pieces of armour were just as hot as my sword or wings, even though they weren't on fire. After a while, he collapsed to his knees and started pounding the floor.
"I WAS SO CLOSE!" he exploded, "THIS BODY WOULD HAVE BEEN MINE!"
I felt pretty confident that there was a special attack to go with this armour. When I transformed, it wasn't like when I first became a ranger. No information was automatically downloaded into my brain, so I had no idea what I was doing. But I knew what I wanted to call my attack. So, I figured I would just wing it.
I swung my claymore in a full circle, and the ring of fire that it left behind lingered in the air for dramatic effect. I raised the sword high above my head and I could feel that it was charging up power.
"INFERNO STRIKE!" I shouted as I leapt into the air and brought the sword crashing down with me right on top of the Renegade.
It was a direct hit. The Renegade was hit not only by my burning sword, but also by the fiery explosion that the attack created. I sheathed my sword, which also extinguished my wings and stood back and watched as he remained engulfed in an orb of fire.
I could hear the Renegade screaming in agony, but then it suddenly stopped. The ranger suit disappeared, and underneath was Sawyer, who apart from being unconscious and a little banged up, was completely fine.
"Riley, quick!" said Silver, "Grab his codec now!"
I nodded at him and let out a sigh of relief. I could see that the others had all gotten to their feet and were making their way towards me.
"Power down." I said.
I felt so weak afterwards that it was hard to even stand up, but I knew this wasn't over until we could get Sawyer's codec back to Headquarters. I limped over to him and saw it clutched in his hand. I took it and then felt my knees give out, but somebody caught me. It was Rachel.
"You were incredible!" she sobbed, putting her arms around me.
And then I kissed her. She was crying, but probably happy tears because she was proud of me and happy that we won. Even if it was because I'm a lousy kisser, I didn't really care. I could taste her trademark vanilla lip gloss. I could smell her hair and even her perfume. I love the way all those things mixed together on her.
When we broke apart, she dried her eyes and grabbed my arm with both hands as the six of us stood together to teleport.
When we arrived back at Headquarters, it was very quiet. Silver carried the unconscious Sawyer over to a bed and gently placed him down on it, then he put the diamond codec back in it's box and took it over to the vault for safe keeping. We shouldn't need it anymore, now that Sawyer can join us.
"Did the fire hurt?" asked Chloe.
"No," I said, "It was actually relaxing, like a hot shower."
"Where did the armour come from?" asked Marcus.
"The Phoenix gave it to me," I said, "It said that I had woken it up and given it more power than it's had in a long time."
"I didn't see anything." said Marcus.
"Because it froze time to talk to me," I said, "Just like last time. In fact, it was actually the Phoenix that saved Rachel."
"Saved me? What do you mean?" asked Rachel.
"The Renegade was going to drop you off the walkway," I said, "But when the Phoenix resumed time, it flew down to save you while I fought the Renegade."
"You were unconscious." said Chloe.
"That would explain why I don't remember any of that." said Rachel.
"Riley," said Jenna, "I'd like to examine you if you don't mind."
"Go ahead," I said, "But why?"
"The Phoenix's power made you more than ten times stronger," said Jenna, "That's a lot of pressure to put on your body. I just want to make sure you're okay."
"Alright." I said.
Jenna's examination didn't take very long. I think she was expecting me to be in much worse shape than I was. But, other than just feeling really tired, I felt right as rain. The Phoenix probably healed any injuries that I would've sustained fighting against the Renegade.
"Okay," said Jenna, "You're fine. Thanks."
I put my shirt back on and went over to couch. I just wanted to lay back and relax. Rachel came and to sit with me and put her arm around me.
"So, Silver," said Oz, "When do the rest of us get armour like that?"
"I don't know that you will, Heath," said Silver, "The Phoenix can only bestow it's power to people that have leadership roles. And even if it could give it's power to anyone, there's no way that it would have enough power to give some to all five of you."
"Aw man," said Oz, "Bummer."
"Good news everyone," said Jenna, "Sawyer's codec has been completely cleansed."
She had taken the purple codec and plugged it in to the Mainframe.
"There's no trace of any corruption whatsoever." she said.
"Then if you don't mind," said Silver, "I'm going to take it and enter it's information into the tracking software."
I saw Sawyer's eyes open wide. He looked absolutely mortified.
"Guys," I said, "Sawyer is waking up."
"Where am I?" he asked.
"This is our Headquarters," said Jenna, "We brought you here."
"Jenna?" asked Sawyer, standing up and hugging her, "You're alive!"
"Of course," she said, "Why wouldn't I be?"
"The last thing I remember is being in the cabin with you," said Sawyer, "Then I was fighting with the Renegade and he won. That's when he locked me away in my own mind."
"So you never saw the others come in and rescue me?" asked Jenna.
"No," said Sawyer, "I thought for sure the Renegade would've killed you."
"Well, you don't have to worry about him ever again," I said, "He's gone."
"What?"
"I defeated him and now he's not inside your codec anymore." I said.
"Then it's over?" asked Sawyer.
"Yeah," said Chloe, "It's over."
"And..." said Silver, "This is for you."
He handed him what I could only assume was a Digitizer. It looked quite different from ours, but they did say they were going to have to make a special one that was strong enough to handle his larger codec.
The special Digitizer was still worn on the wrist, only it had less buttons and looked more like a wristband whereas ours looked more like watches.
"This was made especially for you," said Silver, "It has more safety features and is designed to handle a larger codec like yours."
"Let me show you how to use it," said Jenna, putting it on her wrist to demonstrate, "This piece here is called the clutch, and it's what starts the morphing process. We tested it using the silver codec and can safely say that it is physically impossible for you to morph if the clutch hasn't been activated."
The clutch was a mechanism that looked like a ring, and it was at the base of Digitizer.
"To use it, you pump it like on a shotgun," said Jenna, "Once you've pumped the clutch, you've essentially, shifted from neutral into drive."
Silver handed Jenna what looked like a normal USB key.
"And this is your key," said Jenna, "Once you've pumped the clutch, you have to put this key into the ignition slot that only opens after the clutch has been pumped. Then you turn the key and that will activate your codec and transform you."
"Cool," said Sawyer, "But, I don't think I'll be needing it."
"Of course you do," said Silver, "The Renegade might be gone, but because of how large your codec is, this Digitizer is the only thing that will make sure your codec doesn't start malfunctioning again."
"I don't want it." said Sawyer.
"You don't really have a choice," I said, "Either you take the Digitizer, or this nightmare will be able to start all over again."
"Fine then," said Sawyer, "Take my codec too. I don't want anything to do with it."
"But you're free now," said Marcus, "Don't you want to help us fight Trojan?"
"Guys," said Sawyer, "I've caused all of you so much pain. I appreciate all your help, but I just want to move on with my life."
"What about school?" asked Rachel, "You transferred to Sector 13 High School."
"Yeah, I did," said Sawyer, "But the tuition check I gave them will bounce. I only applied because I was trying to find out if the Power Rangers were students there."
"How many other schools did you try?" asked Oz.
"Look, it doesn't matter," said Sawyer, "The Renegade is gone and as long I keep myself far away from that codec, he will never come back."
"But, Sawyer..." said Chloe, "You can't just keep running for the rest of your life."
"I don't really have another choice," he said, "Besides, you'll all be much better off without me around."
"Don't punish yourself for what the Renegade did," I said, "You're not him."
"It's weird," said Sawyer, "But somehow that doesn't make me feel any better."
"Where will you go?" asked Jenna.
"I don't know." said Sawyer.
Oz and Marcus were standing in his way.
"Let him go," I said, "He's made up his mind."
They stood aside and let him pass.
"Thank you." said Sawyer.
And with that, he left. We watched him leave by going up the stairs until we couldn't see him anymore. A few seconds later, we heard the front door slam.