Power Rangers Nitro Force
Chapter 11: Queen's Gambit
"I'm boxed in, you think I'll just give up like this?" Karla said darkly.
"Uh, Karla?" Sam asked concerned.
"Oh no, no, I'm not the one in trouble here," Karla ignored the Blue ranger.
"Karla?" Naruto said disturbed.
"For the tides have turned here my worthy adversary." Karla cackled violently.
"Ok seriously girl," Rebecca insisted, somewhat frightened.
"With one simple move, it's all over." Karla said gaining the evil shadow look on her face.
"Are you listening to us?" Allen demanded.
"I got this." Alpha offered. The robot walked over and smacked the girl who was hunched over her laptop.
"Ow, what was that for?" She demanded, turning to the other rangers in the Cyber Garage.
"You were doing that thing when you turn into an evil dictator while playing your Player Vs Player Online Chess Game, again." Naruto said flatly.
"I'm not that bad," Karla said, getting up from her workstation. "Oh but really quick," She quickly returned to her game and clicked something. "CHECKMATE, I win yet again, ah a perfect score of 349 Straight wins."
"She meets my friend Shikamaru, that winning streak will be broken, I promise you that," Naruto said, disturbed. The others returned to their scans of the newest Fragment of the Amulet of Eternal Visions, which once again was in Meteor Falls.
"Girl we need your tech support here," Rebecca insisted. Ariel had actually left for the day, apparently on a lead for another coworker of hers. Hey, if she did find the guy, it would help find the remaining 8 fragments faster. Ricky was presently in the café, on inventory duty.
"Hold on, new challenger," Karla said, eagerly, seeing a new notice.
"Somebody take that thing away from her," Naruto ordered, as the rangers charged.
"Uh, guys, you might want to check this out," Karla said worried.
Deciding to humor the girl, the four rangers looked on. "Your alias in UndefeatedChampion23?" Naruto asked confused.
"Only because I couldn't get 777 ok, but look." Karla pointed at her challenger.
"PowerRangerCrusher?" Sam asked confused. "I'm sure you're worried about nothing,"
Karla opened the message attached. "Meet me in the park in 20 minutes yellow ranger, this game shall be your last."
"Ok, that actually scares me." Naruto said, slightly disturbed.
"Hey guys, in case any of you were wondering, I'm all done with inventory," Ricky said sarcastically, walking in.
"And we have a little problem with our part time job," Naruto pointed out, showing the message.
"My life was so much simpler before I met you Naruto, you know that right?" Ricky asked rhetorically.
"I have that effect on people." Naruto shrugged.
"Alright we divide and conquer, Naruto, go with Karla, but make sure you have your comms on full time." Ricky insisted, "The rest of you, upstairs lunch rush is coming."
"Aw man." Rebecca groaned annoyed.
"I usually work the dinner rush, you have nothing to complain about." Naruto reminded, equally annoyed. He and Karla made their way out the door, intent on seeing what this PowerRangerCrusher knew.
Naruto and Karla found their way towards the park where multiple public chess boards were placed. Strangely, nobody seemed to be at the park.
"Oddly quiet for a Saturday," Naruto pointed out.
"The least of your worries Rangers." Toximora said, revealing herself. Not far away was a large female chess themed monster. She was clad in a cloak similar to that of a white and black chess board with helmet crossed between a white knight's helmet and a black queen chess piece. On her shoulders were bishop pieces, left being black, white being her right. Her staff was a large hammer with two pawn pieces on it, the top being a rook piece. "Meet Madame Checkmate."
"Well, doesn't she look talkative," Naruto smirked.
"You have no idea, get them." Toximora smirked, turning to the monster of the week. Madam Checkmate slammed her hammer into the ground, opening a large portal beneath Karla and Naruto's feet.
"AW MAN!" Naruto bellowed horrified.
"This isn't going to end well." Karla agreed, trying to hold onto her skirt. When the two landed, they were greeted by a massive chess board, with Karla representing the black side, and Madame Checkmate representing white. In front of them were micro boards that represented their own pieces to control.
"The game is simple Yellow Ranger, beat my monster in chess, or don't and well." Toximora said with a sneer, revealing a holographic screen.
Back at the Pit Stop, Sam showed Rebecca and Allen a text he got from Alpha: Naruto and Karla gone AWOL from scanners.
"This is worse than I thought." Sam said nervously.
"Guys, big screen, now." Ricky said discreetly.
"Giant chess pieces have been placed throughout Meteor Falls in the most mysterious of places." Myra said, showing various chess pieces throughout the city. "One fact remains is each appears to be holding a bomb of some kind." This sentence more than freaked out the remaining rangers. "The blast radius is still unknown or what their purpose is.
"Um, go check with our tenant, and see what he thinks." Ricky said, nudging Sam, who got the message.
"Alpha, what's going on?" The blue ranger asked confused.
"You got me blue, but these bombs mean business." Alpha admitted. "Each one on its own can destroy the city." The robot typed in some commands. "But get this, they have timers on them, like a chess clock, and neither is active."
"You think we can pull off a little work with our zords and destroy them?" Sam suggested, hoping to end this before the bombs went off.
"The only way I can think of is to use Naruto's to freeze them." Alpha explained after a moment of silence. "The timers are actually temperature sensitive, that would give me the opening to remotely disable them."
"You do know I could drive it?" Sam suggested.
"Actually, I have a better idea." Alpha said, getting an idea. "We need Rebecca,"
"I can't do this, I can't do this!" Karla said panicking.
"You don't have a choice." Naruto said, trying to calm her down.
"Thanks for the vote of confidence, now I feel so much better." Karla said sarcastically. "If I don't take out certain pieces in time, those bombs go off." She pointed to the screen showing what the news reports showed.
"Yeah, but I think Toximora's bluffing." Naruto whispered quietly, getting the yellow ranger confused. "If these bombs can do the damage she claims, then they can't get the amulet fragment, or they could risk destroying it."
"This is an act to distract us from the search." Karla realized, trying to keep her voice down.
"Exactly." Naruto agreed. "Play your level best, and earn that 350th win."
"With pleasure." Karla said, approaching her control panel.
Madame Checkmate went first, moving a pawn from the edge of the board one square forward. She then pressed a button on top of the console, indicating a chess clock.
"Alright, here goes something," Karla gulped, moving a pawn two spaces forward. Naruto slowly reached for his morpher, intent on calling the others. Only for Toximora's blade now positioned at his neck.
"Don't even try it." The scorpion monster sneered.
"Trying to stall us, you know where the next fragment is, don't you?" Naruto said, getting Toximora to panic slightly. "I may not have my chakra, but I'm still a ninja and prankster at heart."
"What gave it away?" Toximora demanded, realizing she now owed Alucardic 1000 Space Bullion.
"Aside from the whole alternate dimension thing?" Naruto began with a wicked grin. "I was bluffing that time." He pivoted, and delivered a kick to knock away the stinger and kicked her midsection. Toximora swung her right arm, and attempted to slash Naruto, he blocked it by crossing his arms in an x-pattern.
"Now for this freakshow, NITRO FORCE!" He adjusted his left arm, and then punched Toximora in the face. Using the recoil, he hit the throttle with his free arm. "KICK IT UP!" In a flash of light, Naruto had switched over to the red ranger.
"Naruto, hang on, I'm." Karla began worried, going for her own morpher.
"Don't even think about it girl," Naruto ordered, dodging one of Toximora's strikes. "We can't risk those bombs going off, just hold the line best you can."
Karla was about to rebuttal, but she realized Naruto was right. "I'm on it." While confidant, Karla was downright horrified. This was a match to end them all.
Meanwhile, in an airport over in Minnesota, Dr. Ariel was looking over the news of the giant chess pieces throughout Meteor Falls. "Damn it, I can't go one day without having to worry about work, even when visiting friends." Ariel had found another member of the Dimensional Research team, but she didn't want to help out. Miranda was more frightened over her own family then her own safety. Sounded like the old girl, but hey what could you do?
Being that everyone was more focused on the TVs, Ariel was able to use her tablet without fear of any onlookers. "Alright rangers, what's been going on?" Using a special app, Ariel revealed that Naruto was the only ranger morphed, however neither he nor Karla appeared on Radar.
"This doesn't look good." Dr. Jones admitted, getting worried.
GNN headquarters was overflowing with news reports of all kinds. The new head reporter, Albert Smith, was dealing with a recurring headache, Angela Orlando. He was a tall African-American man with slightly greying hair. The security guards were presently holding her back as she desperately tried to make her way inside.
"For the last time," Albert began, massaging his temples. "The Power Rangers aren't responsible for this." He pointed to the chess bombs outside. "They're heroes, not the monsters."
"Do they have you under mind control or something?" Angela bellowed. "These power freaks are evil!"
"Maybe, if you were more focused on information than appearances, you wouldn't need a new job, now wouldn't you?" Albert replied angered at her insistence. As the guards pulled Angela out of the building, Albert turned to the windows.
"Come on Rangers, prove her wrong." He whispered hopefully. As if by magic, his prayer was answered in the strangest way possible: The Aero Armor Zord was lifting the Aqua Armor Zord into the sky. "Well I'll be damned." He laughed a bit.
"Alright Beccs, let's do this." Sam said, adjusting the controls of the sub.
"Don't call me Beccs." Rebecca groaned angered, adjusting the controls of her own zord. The Aqua Armor Zord fired a concentrated stream of an icy blue mist from its tanks. The attack froze the giant chess piece solid. The piece then shattered from the sheer cold after about a minute.
"One down, about six more to go." The Blue Ranger cheered.
"Don't get too cocky, we still don't know where Karla and Naruto are." The white ranger reminded.
"Rangers," Ariel said over the comms. "I've found Naruto and Karla."
"You're supposed to be on vacation." Allen said with a smile.
"Fair enough, but here's the bad news, we need to use one of our fragments to get them back." Dr. Jones said, not certain how the others would react.
"That depends, where do we have to use it?" Sam asked concerned.
"The same location they were taken from." Ariel admitted, getting concerned.
"I was afraid you'd say something like that." Sam admitted.
"Right, Allen, you go off and get our friends back, Sam and I will finish here." Rebecca said, getting an agreement from everyone on the line.
"Let's roll everybody." Alpha said, as Allen morphed into the green ranger. He got onto his Nitro Raider and headed out with an amulet container under his arm.
"Here goes everything." Allen said, arriving at the park. It was here, he was quickly surrounded by Oniknights. "I knew I shouldn't have said anything." He groaned, pulling his out his Accel Blade.
The green ranger charged, swinging his blade at a trio of oncoming Oniknights. One came in close and attempted to strike the green ranger. However he spun around and dodged. In doing so, Allen ducked, delivering a sweep kick to the stray.
"Well, I'm certainly getting a workout today." Allen chuckled victoriously. He pivoted once again, drawing his Accel Blaster. He fired a few rounds, knocking back a few more Oniknights.
"Oh man," Allen groaned, seeing a few more Oniknights show up.
Angela, meanwhile was walking by in hopes of getting her next job interview. Instead however, she saw the green power freak fighting over a yellow gem.
Ordinarily, Angela would be thrilled to have some footage of the rangers to alter. But her focus was on the massive rock he was fighting over.
"Hello money maker." Angela said, hiding in the bushes.
"Guys, several bombs have been defused, not from me either." Alpha said over the comms.
"Call me crazy, but I think red and yellow have this covered." Rebecca said with a smile.
"You mean the rangers right, not ketchup and mustard." Sam asked confused.
"Dude really?" Rebecca asked rhetorically.
"What I'm hungry." The blue ranger shrugged.
Back in the pocket dimension, Karla was on the ropes, left with only her King, Queen, and three pawns, one of which was one space away from her opponent's back row. Madame Checkmate had her King, both Knights, and a bishop left. Ordinarily, Karla could count this as a near win, but her king was boxed in, mere spaces away from a checkmate.
"Calm down girl, you can do this." She lied to herself. Unfortunately, this was a no castling game so she couldn't bring back one of her rooks to protect it.
"Take your time, really." Naruto called out, firing a round from his Accel Blaster at Toximora.
"I'm sorry, the freaking bombs are really distracting!" Karla shouted stressed out. Then she got an idea. "Here goes something." She placed the pawn in the final spot, and chose her bishop.
With a small smirk, Madame Checkmate moved her bishop piece to check, then the panel went red, indicating an illegal move.
"My bishop would be in direct line of your king honey, you lose." Karla said, with a smirk.
"And here's our exit plan." Naruto said, pointing to the newly opened portal. It began to suck the four in.
"Nitro Force, Kick it up!" Karla quickly grabbed her morpher, and activated it, uncertain of where it was going.
Both the red and yellow rangers landed roughly on top of the green, who was still fending off the Oniknights. Toximora and Madame Checkmate landed not too far away.
"Well, while it's marvelous to see you two again," Allen groaned in pain. "Do me a solid and get off me!"
"Yeah, sure." Naruto said, groaning in pain slightly. Karla did the same, then noticed the confused looking Oniknights.
"Um, charge?" She offered politely.
"Charge." Naruto confirmed. The remaining three rangers ran forward, blades extended.
"There are the other's let's open fire!" Rebecca declared, seeing the rangers fighting in the park.
"And risk hitting them, no way, we do enough property damage in our Megazord battles," Sam pointed out.
"Well, good point." Rebecca pointed out. They landed the zord configuration and ran out to help their friends.
"Coming through!" Rebecca declared, slashing Madame Checkmate with her claw. Sam followed with a shot from his double barreled blaster.
"I love this job some times." Sam said smiling under his helmet.
"I know right." Naruto said, as he dodged one of Toximora's blades. Madame Checkmate swung her hammer, directly targeting Karla.
"So, you don't like losing either huh?" Karla guessed, dodging the attack. The monster didn't respond, only swung her hammer again.
"I'll take that silence as a yes," Naruto said, rolling over Toximora.
"I'm your opponent, not her." Toximora said angered.
"Jealous she's better than you?" Naruto quipped.
"Oh that's it," Toximora bellowed. She swung her arm, intent on killing the red ranger.
"Take a joke girl, yeesh." Naruto said annoyed. He quickly jumped away, dodging the attacker.
Karla held out her twin katanas, and tried to block the hammer swings of her opponent. Rebecca quickly shot her claw out, pulling the weapon away a bit. This allowed Karla the opportunity to slash Madame Checkmate.
Allen meanwhile, rolled to the side, dodging the fire of the other Oniknights. He pulled out his crossbow, and fired a trio of blasts. The Oniknights were pushed back into a quartet of others.
"Hey guys, I know I don't normally pull the trigger, but do you guys mind?" Karla asked, holding up her weapons, while dodging more of Checkmate's swings.
"Here you go!" Naruto said, tossing her his freeze rifle. The others followed suit, tossing the blaster weapons at the yellow ranger.
"And for a quick bit of defense." Allen said, as the other rangers drew their Accel Blasters. The trio fired at Madame Checkmate, giving Karla enough time to assemble the weapons properly.
"Grand Prix Cannon!" Karla said, holding the blaster. The others quickly went over to support the yellow ranger. Lining up the sight, Karla had both Toximora and Madame Checkmate in her range of vision.
"I'm going to enjoy this more than I should." Karla admitted with a smile. She fired and released a powerful energy blast at the two. The resulting attack destroyed Madame Checkmate, while heavily injuring Toximora and pushing her away several feet. Recovering, she glared at the team of five.
"Well then rangers, it's time for this queen to crown you!" Toximora quickly tossed an energy sphere at her monster's remains. In a flash of light and a bolt of thunder, Madame Checkmate was reborn.
"Uh oh, guys, its zord time!" Naruto called into his morpher.
"Already on the way red," Ricky said from the Cyber Garage. He went over and hit a large red button. "I love watching this part." He walked over to the zord bay and watched as the zords were lined up in reverse numerical order.
One by one they shot out, launching through the energy portal. As the zords were launched out into the area, the rangers ran to their respective vehicles. As they did, Angela ran out and grabbed the amulet fragment.
"Well, well, well," Angela said with a wicked smile. "Those Power Monsters just paid my mortgage off."
"Thanks sergeant!" Naruto said over the link, as he and the other rangers were seated in their cockpits.
"My pleasure red, now crown that bitch." Ricky said with a smile.
"With pleasure." All five rangers said in union.
(Insert Go Go Power Rangers 2014 by Pellek)
The cannons on Naruto's firetruck shifted down and around as it folded in half at the middle, giving it the appearance of a torso. The cherry picker shifted to where the left shoulder should be. The front of the girls' zords flipped around, revealing connector ports. The yellow zord attached to the right side while the white attached to the left. The fronts became shoulders as they folded down. The rear ends shifted back revealing black hands. The bulldozer zord split down the middle vertically as the back shifted up, taking on the appearance of lower legs. These two portions went on the ends of the tank zords treads, as the claws shifted around, becoming shin guards. This configuration stood up, becoming the lower legs. The tank cannons folded up, and slipped into the ice cannons of the fire truck zord, becoming a full body. A head shifted out of the firetruck. It had a silver grill facemask with yellow colored eyes. It had a red sports car like helmet with two wheels on either side of its head. On the front of the helmet was a signal light going from left to right red, yellow, green.
"RACEWAY MEGAZORD!" The five rangers said in unison, while the mech took a fighting stance.
(End Song)
Madame Checkmate charged forward, hammer out, intent on destroying the machine. The megazord blocked the swing, raising its left arm.
"Here's one for you!" Sam said, as the Megazord delivered a kick to the beast, pushing her back a bit. Naruto then flipped a switch, summoning the Raceway Saber. With blade in hand, the Megazord clashed with Checkmate's hammer. The two titans back off, where Madame Checkmate slammed her hammer into the ground.
The small earthquake shook the megazord, dropping its weapon. Moving first, Madame Checkmate slammed her weapon into the rangers' weapon.
"Ok that does it," Karla said firmly.
"Care to do the honors?" Naruto offered with a smile.
"With pleasure, Burnout Beam, full power!" Karla ordered. The chest of the Raceway Megazord lit up with power and fired a concentrated energy beam. The attack nailed Madame Checkmate in the chest, ending her.
"Checkmate!" Karla said, snapping her fingers.
"Plus, it's just how we do it," Naruto began.
"Power Ranger Style!" The five met in the middle with a collective high five.
The rangers exited the Megazord to grab the Fragment container, only to find it missing. "What, where'd it go." Naruto asked confused.
"Guys, I think I might know," Karla said, grabbing a lipstick tube. "There's only one witch I know who wears this shade of red."
"Angela, she's got the fragment." Rebecca groaned annoyed.
"In our defense, we did have bombs and a giant monster to stop." Sam pointed out.
"Ranger's head back to the garage, Dimitria's here," Alpha said over the communicators.
"This should end well." Naruto said glumly.
The ranger's teleported in, revealing the glowing woman in question. "Rangers, do not fret over the loss of this fragment, for in defeat, we can find victory."
"Beg pardon?" Karla asked confused.
"Our scanners show that Angela's taking the fragment up north, to the same place the next one is." Ricky said, revealing the map. Sure enough, Angela was going to the next fragment.
"That swap meet right?" Allen asked his big brother. Ricky nodded, a massive multi-state Swap meet was scheduled to take place in the next day. One of the biggest vendors was a priceless jewelry collector.
"She must really be short on cash." Naruto commented, while Karla nodded in agreement.
"Now for my reason for coming," Dimitria said, getting all six human's attention. "You're battles as of late have become increasingly difficult, so I have an important task for the five you, one that must be a unanimous decision." Dimitria snapped her fingers and a large silver suitcase materialized. Naruto moved first and opened it. In the case was a brand new morpher. Unlike the other's this one was silver with a black sliding wheel connected to the back portion.
"You must find a sixth ranger."
Next time on Power Rangers Nitro Force: Greed with Envy: The rangers go off to the swap meet to get the two fragments where everyone seems to be buying everything in sight. Our heroes discover it's the work of the monster Gold Rush who's come to collect them too. As the hunt begins, Naruto learns of a shocking discovery.
And finally, here's chapter 11. Now before we begin, I have somethings I need to explain. No, Ricky's not going to be the silver ranger, and no he won't appear for another chapter or so. I have my reasons for this but in doing so, you will learn about what happened to Naruto when Hot Foot and Weed Wrecker showed up. That's all I'm going to say to avoid spoilers.