Chapter 15
Jason lays on the ground, being as careful as he can to not move. He can't see through the thick smoke, though he can see Goldar's feet underneath it. Goldar is taking a few steps and then slamming his sword down, trying to draw Jason out. Goldar continues to walk around.
"Hiding is useless, Red Ranger." Goldar says. "Sooner or later, I will find you, and destroy you. The sooner you give yourself up, the sooner this will be over!"
Jason continues to lie on the ground. He looks around underneath the smoke, trying to see if he can find his morpher. Goldar stabs the ground again. He's getting closer to Jason. Finally, Jason sees his morpher, but it's on the other side of the caged in area. He's looks at Goldar's feet, and sees that Goldar has turned around and isn't facing him. Jason takes a deep breath, then pops up to his feet. He jumps towards Goldar and kicks him in the back, causing Goldar to stumble a bit.
"Finally decided to face me like a man?" Goldar says turning to Jason.
"Something like that." Jason says, and charges at Goldar again. He kicks the sword out of Goldar's hand. It lands right next Jason's morpher. Both Jason and Goldar charge towards that area. Jason dives on his morpher and grabs it with one hand. Before he can morph, though, Goldar steps on his arm pinning him to the ground. Jason tries to pull his arm out from underneath Goldar's foot, but is unable to.
"I told you, Jason, you can't defeat me." Goldar picks up his sword. "I've toyed with you long enough." Goldar goes to stab Jason, but Jason is able to swing his legs around and kick Goldar before the blade hits. This frees Jason's arm, but as Goldar loses his balance, he kicks Jason's morpher, and Jason can't find it again.
"You're beginning to annoy me, weakling." Goldar says. "You can't win. Why do you continue to fight."
"I don't need to win!" Jason shouts. "I just need to stay alive long enough for my friends to get me out of here!" Then quietly to himself, he says. "Come on, guys. I need really need you guys right now."
Tommy walks into Rita's palace. "My Queen, I sent Jason to the dark dimension over 4 hours ago, and yet Goldar hasn't finished him off yet. Clearly he is incapable of finishing the job." Tommy says.
"Jason is more resilient than we thought." Rita says. "But he won't last much longer."
"The other rangers are looking for Jason." Tommy says. "They can't be allowed to find him or this all would have been for nothing."
At that point Finster comes running in the room. "My queen, we have a bit of a situation."
"What is it, Finster?" Rita shouts.
"It's Scorpina, she's awoken." Finster says.
Scorpina was an ancient warrior who fought with Rita and her minions years ago. Goldar and her had grown very close during the time they fought together, and became and a formidable team. During her last battle, Goldar and her were fighting Zordon's former team of mighty warriors. Though Goldar had sworn to protect her, he had abandoned her during the fight, in an attempt to defeat one of Zordon's warriors. Though Scorpina was a skilled fighter, she was no match for the remainder of the warriors. She was thought to be destroyed, but Rita cast a spell on her, sealing her in a cocoon. The cocoon was not to reopen until Scorpina was back to full strength. It had taken over 10,000 years, but the cocoon had finally opened. Scorpina was back.
Rita's eyes widen with this news. "Are you sure?" She says. "If this is so, this could be exactly what we need to finish off the rangers."
"She's angry, my queen." Finster says. "She remembers and is demanding to see Goldar right away."
"We must have Scorpina on our side." Rita says. "Send Goldar to her right away. Green Ranger, go take his place in the dark dimension and finish what he has started."
Tommy nods, morphs into the Green Ranger, and disappears.
"My queen, are you sure Scorpina can be trusted?" Finster says.
"If Goldar can regain her trust, then she will join us." Rita says. "She was always loyal to him, not me, but Goldar was loyal to me. As long as he is on our side, she will be on our side."
Jason stands in a fighting stance staring at Goldar, breathing heavily. "You're getting tired, aren't you Jason?" Goldar says. "Your body can't take much more of this without a rest."
"I'll be fine, Goldar." Jason says. "No need to worry about that."
"We shall see." Goldar charges at Jason again, but Jason dives out of the way. Goldar turns toward him. Suddenly, a greenish-orange glow appears next to him, and the Green Ranger appears. Goldar looks at him. "What are you doing here?" He shouts.
"Rita has sent me with urgent news." The Green Ranger says. "Scorpina has awoken and is demanding to see you immediately. Rita is ordering you to go and is leaving me here to take care of the Red Ranger."
"Scorpina is alive?" Goldar says. "It has been fun Red Ranger, but a more pressing matter has come up." Goldar pulls his sword across his chest and leaves the dimension. Now, Jason is left alone with the Green Ranger.
"Hello, Jason." Tommy says. "Long time no see."
"No more hiding behind that mask." Jason shouts. "Who are you?!"
"You'll know soon enough." Tommy says. He pulls out the Sword of Darkness. "Take a good look at this sword Red Ranger. I want you to be familiar with the sword that will lead to your death."
"I'm not afraid of you." Jason shouts. "My friends will get me out of here."
"That's what you think." Tommy says, calmly. He charges at Jason. Jason is able to knock the sword of darkness out of Tommy's hands. "I've noticed a pattern, Jason." Tommy says. "First with Goldar, now with me, you like to disarm your opponent. No matter, I will defeat you without my sword."
"Don't be so sure!" Jason shouts. Tommy and Jason begin to fight each other. Using moves he learned in martial arts, Jason is able to match Tommy move for move. His fatigue starts to catch up with, and Jason slows down. Tommy kicks Jason in the chest, knocking him backward. Jason lands on the ground flat on his back. He stares at the Green Ranger, walking slowly towards him.
"You disappoint me." Tommy says. "I thought you'd put up a better fight than this." The Green Ranger then begins to laugh maniacally. "It's time to end this." Tommy walks over and grabs the Sword of Darkness. Jason breathes heavily. He knows this is likely his end.
Zack paces around the Command Center. "I can't take this anymore. Jason's in trouble, I just know it. What's going on with the computers? We need them up, now!"
"Calm down, Zack." Billy says. "Alpha and I are going as fast as we can."
"We all want to get Jason back, Zack." Trini says. "Until Alpha and Billy get the computers back online, we have to trust Jason will take care of himself."
"It's just not knowing what the situation he's in is killing me." Zack says. "I can't help but think of the worst case scenarios."
"I wonder where Tommy was heading?" Kim says, ignoring the rest of the conversation.
"What?" Trini asks.
"Tommy wasn't heading towards his house." Kim says. "He was just walking further into the park and in the wrong way if he was heading home."
"And…" Zack says. "What does that have to do with anything?"
"I was just thinking out loud." Kim shouts at him. "Until we get the computers back online, Tommy might be our best chance of finding Jason."
"We don't even know if he knows anything." Zack says. "We can't go searching for him, too. I had no problem asking him if he knew anything when he was around, but we aren't going to go looking for a guy who may or may not have information that can help us."
"Guys, quit fighting." Billy shouts. "You're distracting me. Anyway, I can't figure this out. The computers should be working right now. I have no idea what else to try."
"I have an idea." Alpha says. "Trini, can you hit 3-3-5 on that keyboard over there?"
Trini walks over to the keyboard and hits the combination. Suddenly the lights and computers in the Command Center come back on. "Hey, it worked!" Kim shouts
"I don't get it." Trini says. "How did hitting those numbers do anything if the computers were down?"
"It was the reset combination." Alpha says. "Everything looked like it should have been working, but they weren't turning on. Though I wasn't sure it would work, hitting that combination of numbers on the keypad causes a complete reboot of the system."
"I guess the computers just needed to be rebooted." Billy says. "I wish I'd thought of that."
"Well, then let's start searching for Jason." Zack says.
"Already underway." Alpha says, pressing a few buttons on the computer. I've begin searching all know dimension for any sign of Jason or his communicator. Now it's just a waiting game."
The rangers know watch the computers closely. They'll have to act quickly as soon as the computer finds any sign of Jason.
Goldar lands on Earth. He takes a few steps when he Scorpina step out from behind a rock. "Hello, old friend." She says, menacingly. She pulls out her crescent-shaped sword and points it at Goldar.
"So it's true." Goldar says. "You are alive. I thought you were gone forever."
"I'm not surprised." Scorpina says. "You left me to die in that battle."
"I had a shot to defeat one of Zordon's warrior." Goldar says. "I took it. Had I known I would be putting you in danger, I would never have left. Without you by my side, we lost the war quickly. Zordon defeated us and sealed us in a dumpster."
"You broke your promise." Scorpina says. She pulls her sword back and puts it away. "Abandoning me in battle? I never would have left you to fight alone. We were an unbeatable team. We swore to watch each others backs."
"I know." Goldar says. "I was an idiot. However, I need you now. Zordon's new team, the Power Rangers, have proven to be a formidable opponent. Together, we can defeat them and complete the mission we set out to all those years ago."
"Why should I trust you again?" Scorpina asks.
"If won't do it for me, do it for Empress Rita." Goldar says. "She needs your help to defeat the Rangers."
"Rita?" Scorpina says. "I thought you said she was not the rightful master of the palace and once he returned, you were done working for her. What happened?"
"Nothing has changed," Goldar says "but he is yet to return. I'm not sure if that day will ever come. Until then, I will serve Rita. Especially now that I know you are alive. It was Rita who placed you inside the cocoon when you were nearly destroyed. She saved your life."
"I never asked her to do that." Scorpina says. "I never fought for Rita. I fought on her side because of my allegiance to you. Like you, I wish to serve the true master of the palace."
"Scorpina, please." Goldar says. "Give me one chance. Fight by my side and help me defeat the Power Rangers."
Scorpina scoffs. She realizes Goldar is still loyal to her, even after all these years. "Rita doesn't deserve a loyal servant like you." She says. "Her foolishness was the reason we didn't destroy Zordon all those years ago. We don't need her to take over the Earth. We can do that, together. Let's destroy her, then take over the Earth on our own."
"It's not that simple." Goldar says. "While nothing would make me happier than to dispose of Rita and get the palace ready for the return of the rightful master, she has acquired a powerful ally. A mighty warrior who has powers similar to that of the Power Rangers. Defeating him would not be easy. I'm not saying we couldn't do it. He is strong, but cocky. However, it would serve us best to use him first. With his help, we could defeat the Power Rangers quickly."
"An interesting idea." Scorpina says. She begins to pace. "Let us see just how strong these Power Rangers are, first." She looks at Goldar and smiles. "Try to keep up." Then she darts towards the city of Angel Grove. Goldar follows quickly behind.
Billy and Alpha monitor the Command Center's computers. "We found anything on Jason yet?" Zack asks.
"As soon as we know anything, you'll know it." Billy says.
"Man, I wish Zordon was around. He'd know where to look." Trini says.
"Yeah, well he's not." Zack says. "We can start looking for Zordon's signal once we get Jason back, but Jason could be in more immediate danger."
"I've got a fix on Jason's communicator!" Billy shouts. "You were right Zack, he's in an alternate dimension. Rita had to have sent him there."
"Well what are you waiting for?" Zack says. "Teleport him back."
"I've got to get a lock on Jason's life force first. It'll just take a few moments." Billy says. He begins hitting multiple buttons on the computer."
"Hurry, Billy." Kim says.
Jason lies on his back staring at the Green Ranger who is walking towards him. "Why do you serve Rita!?" Jason shouts. "If you were truly a ranger, you'd fight on Zordon's side, not Rita's!"
Tommy shakes his head at Jason. "Zordon is nothing more than a memory." He says. "Soon the world will bow to Rita. You can't blame me for siding with a winning team."
Jason looks around and see his morpher lying on the ground. He rushes to his feet and dives toward the morpher. He is able to grab it. "We'll see how well you do in a fair fight." Jason says. He goes to morph, but Tommy aims the Sword of Darkness at him and Green Lightning begins to shock Jason.
"I'm not interested in a fair fight." Tommy says, walking over to Jason who is lying on the ground in agony, still clutching his morpher. "I'm interested in winning." He stops shooting the lighting and pulls his sword high over his head. "Bye forever, Red Ranger."
Billy hits a couple more buttons. "I've got a fix on him. He's teleporting now!" Billy shouts.
Tommy goes to stab Jason, but Jason begins to glow Red and teleports away, and Tommy's sword hits the ground. "What?! No!" Tommy shouts. He looks around the Dark Dimension, and realizes he's alone. He grabs the morpher on his belt and teleports back to Rita's palace.
Jason ends up on the floor of the Command Center. He looks around and starts breathing even more heavily. The other rangers rush over to his side. "Jason!" Zack shouts running to his side.
"Guys, that was way too close." Jason says. "The Green Ranger nearly sliced and diced me."
"What?" Kim asks.
"I've got a lot to fill you guys in on." Jason says. "I've spent about the last 5 hours fighting for my life. Last thing I remember, I was talking to Tommy. Then all of a sudden, I'm in Rita's Dark Dimension and Goldar's there. We fight for a while, then the Green Ranger shows up, and says there's some a 'Scorpina' or something like that, and Goldar leaves. Then me and the Green guy go at it. Green Ranger had me pinned down. 10 seconds later, and you would have gotten back at dead Jason."
"Thank God we found you when we did." Trini says.
"I knew you guys would find me." Jason says.
"Hold on a second rangers. Did you say Scorpina?" Alpha asks.
"Yeah." Jason says. "Goldar seemed shocked by that. Do you know what that is Alpha?"
"Unfortunately, yes." Alpha says. "Scorpina was one of Rita's warriors years ago. I thought our last team of warriors defeated her. Her and Goldar work as a team. If she is alive, we could be in serious trouble."
"Well then, how do we defeat her Zordon?" Jason says turning to Zordon's tube. He sees the empty tube. "What the hell? Where's Zordon?"
"This place got trashed." Zack says. "You should have seen it before he got it back together."
"Alpha says he thinks the Green Ranger is responsible." Trini says. "But he was deactivated before he could see for sure."
"That's crazy." Jason says. "Can we get Zordon back?"
"I hope so, Jason." Alpha says. "As soon as Billy got you back I recalibrated the search parameters to start searching for Zordon's signal."
All of a sudden the alarms start going off. "What now?" Kim says. They turn to the viewing globe. They see a woman blasting buildings from the roof of a buidling in downtown Angel Grove. Goldar comes up next to her. "Who the hell is that?" she asks.
"I'm guessing it's Scorpina." Jason says. "She's with Goldar."
"You're correct, Jason, that is Scorpina." Alpha says. "This is not good."
"She looks human, exact that bug-like exoskelton on her head." Billy says.
"Don't be fooled, rangers." Alpha says. "Her appearance may seem human, but she is really a powerful scorpion like creature. Please be careful around her."
"Alpha, keep looking for Zordon." Jason says. "We'll take care of Goldar and Scorpina. Ready guys? It's Morphin' Time."
The rangers pull out their morphers, morph, and teleport into battle.
Scorpina fires lasers from her sword, hitting a nearby building causing a small explosion.
"Where are the Power Rangers?" She asks, growing impatient.
"They will be here, Scorpina." Goldar says.
"Looking for us!" Jason shouts, as he and the other rangers run towards the monsters.
"Red Ranger?!" Goldar says. "But how!?"
"Surprised to see me, Goldar?" Jason says.
"How did you escape Rita's Dark Dimension?" Goldar shouts.
"Never underestimate the Power Rangers!" Jason yells back at him.
"Forget about that." Scorpina says. "Let's show them how strong we are!" Scorpina and Goldar attack the Rangers together. Their attacks work in unison, and their movements are nearly flawless.
Scorpina charges her sword up with energy and throws it at the rangers. Her sword acts as a boomerang, returning to her after hitting all the rangers. Goldar then charges in and hits the rangers when they are down. He swings his sword down on them but Zack manages to block it with the Power Axe. Billy uses the Power Lance the throw Goldar away from them. Goldar lands next to Scorpina. Kim takes out her Power Bow and fires it at Goldar, but Scorpina steps in the way and blocks the arrows with her sword.
"You're going to have to do better than if you want to defeat us!" Scorpina yells. Goldar gets back to his feet.
"Guys, I have an idea." Billy says. "Goldar and Scorpina work best as a pair. Let's split them up. 2 of us take on Goldar and 3 of us take on Scorpina. Maybe if we divide them up they won't be as strong."
"Sounds like a plan to me." Trini says.
"Let's do it!" Kim shouts.
"Alright, Zack, you're with me. We'll take Goldar." Jason says. "Billy, you and the girls deal with Scorpina." The rangers all nod in agreement. Zack and Jason charge at Goldar and begin attacking him. Through their attacks they draw him away from Scorpina. Goldar has to go on the defensive, trying to prevent either Zack or Jason from hitting him.
Meanwhile, the other rangers begin fighting Scoprina. Trini uses her Power Daggers and starts swiping at Scoprina. Kim and Billy each pull out their laser pistols and begin firing at her. Scorpina tries to defend the attacks but is unable to. After a few moments, sparks fly from her body as she is knocked to the ground.
"Scorpina!" Goldar shouts. He switches from defense to offense, firing lasers out his eyes at the two rangers attacking him. Jason and Zack go flying backwards and Goldar runs to Scorpina's side. "Are you alright?"
"I'll be fine." Scorpina says, slowly trying to get back to her feet.
"I just got you back. I'm not about to lose you." Goldar says. "Let us return to the palace. We will meet again, Rangers!" He and Scorpina then teleport away. The rangers exhale. They all run towards each other and meet in the middle of where they were fighting.
"Is everyone alright?" Jason asks.
"Yeah." Zack says. "But they were tough."
"Alpha was right." Trini says. "Scorpina and Goldar are strong when they work together."
"Divide and conquer seemed to work, at least for now." Billy says. "Let's get back to the Command Center and see if Alpha has had any luck locating Zordon. The rangers then teleport back to the Command Center.
Tommy, Scorpina, Goldar, and Finster all are in Rita palace, and Rita is yelling at them.
"I am surrounded by incompetent fools!" She shouts. She turns to Tommy. "You! You had the Red Ranger trapped in my dark dimension and let him escape."
"He was teleported out!" Tommy says. "I only had him for a few moments, Goldar had hours with him and was unable to finish the job."
Rita turns to Goldar. "You failed to dispose of the Red Ranger after I gave him to you as a prize, then initiated and attack on the rangers without my permission."
"I'm sorry, my Queen, it won't happen again." Goldar says, groveling. Scorpina scoffs at this, but tries to make sure Rita doesn't see.
"My plan is falling apart!" Rita shouts. "And none of you are helping it go smoothly."
"Not all is lost, my queen." Tommy says. "Zordon is still gone. Without their mentor, the rangers are not as much of a threat. Also, I have a plan to get you the Power Coins and to get rid of the rangers once and for all."
Tommy whispers his plan to Rita and her eyes widen. "That's Brilliant!" She shouts. "Soon, we shall see the end of the Power Rangers!"
END CHAPTER