The Perseverence of the Green Ranger
Part I: Self and Others
by MegaSilver
"Dragonzord, engage!" cried the Green Ranger.
Obeying its master, the gargantuan robot whirled its tail around and attempted to drill into the Capybarrel. The move did manage to injure the monster, but not before he could spit some TNT barrels onto the Zord. The Dragonzord and the Capybarrel both reeled backwards from, respectively the explosions and the piercing.
"Is that the best you can do?" squeaked the hideous robot as he struggled to his feet.
"You want to play with fire?" the Green Ranger growled. "There's more where that came from!" He held the Dragon Dagger up to his mouth. So-Do-Ti-Do-Fa-So…
The Dragonzord engaged its finger cannons and fired. The Capybarrel readied a few more TNT barrels but the Dragonzord's missiles hit him right as they left his mouth—and they exploded just yards away, close enough scorched his face.
"AAAAAAAAAAA!" came the piercingly shrill scream as the hideous creature tumbled backwards.
"Yeah! Now to finish you off!" jeered the Green Ranger. "I'm comin' aboard! HUUYAAA!" He leapt from his position on the side of the mountain onto the top of his faithful mechanical counterpart.
"All right, old friend," said the Green Ranger once in the cockpit. "Let's get this job done!"
"That monster's a useless weakling!" Zedd howled back on the moon.
"Well, DUH!" Rita snorted. "It's a rodent, you numbskull! The Dragonzord's a reptile. Reptiles eat rodents! You of all people with that snake of a staff ought to know that much! You'll never destroy a Dinozord with an overgrown hamster!"
"RRRR…" Zedd turned around to face his goons. "GOLDAR! SCORPINA! What are you doing just standing there? Get down to Earth now and cut the Green Ranger into quarters!"
"Yes, my lord!" agreed Goldar before the pair vanished.
The Dragonzord marched steadily toward the struggling Capybarrel and positioned itself to launch another drill attack into the menace's torso. But just then, two pairs of hands—one on each side—clamped down on the Zord and hurled it away from the monster. The Dragonzord broke its fall on a tall, boxy exurban structure.
"Whoa!" cried the Green Ranger from inside. "What happened?"
"I'm what happened, you traitor!" Goldar's voice thundered.
"Oh, man, Goldar!"
Before the Green Ranger could get the Zord back up, Goldar landed a nasty kick into its torso. "And now, for the moment of truth!" Goldar yanked the Zord up to its feet and tossed it several feet away.
Suddenly the Green Ranger was face-to-face with the arthropod form of Scorpina.
"Nice to see you again—NOT!" taunted the villainess as she shot powerful bolts of electricity from her claws.
Amidst the devastating current, as the Green Ranger struggled to keep the Dragonzord from losing footing, the Capybarrel took advantage of the moment to spit a few volatile barrels onto the exposed zord.
There was no avoiding it now. The thing was going down. The blow would be hard. The Green Ranger had to eject or risk head trauma.
He landed neatly on the ground and rolled to his feet. "Aww, man, this is too much!" All of a sudden, he heard a familiar beeping sound. "Huh? Zordon! I'm trying to fight Zedd's monsters! I can't ward them off!"
"Green Ranger, we are aware of the situation," Zordon explained. "You will need the other Rangers to help you. Where did the Wizard of Deception send them?"
"Back in time—Angel Grove, about 200 years ago!" Then, he remembered: "Zordon, I still have the Wizard's wand! I can go get them now! But—what about the monsters?"
"If you come back at exactly the moment you left from you'll be able to pick up where you left off," said Zordon.
"All right. See you in an instant, then!"
As the townsfolk—with the Rangers mingling among them—were fleeing a set of other overgrown rodents, flashes of green light suddenly penetrated the scene and green thunderbolts struck the assailants.
"Huh?" exclaimed Adam.
"What was that?" cried Marissa.
"Guys, look!" Billy pointed northwards to a powerful, familiar figure standing atop a platform.
All of the Rangers were stunned. Kimberly, in a trance, walked over to the figure to look up at him. "T—Tommy?"
"No time to explain, guys!" her green teammate stated authoritatively. "We gotta fry these rats here and then go deal with one of our own!"
Two hundred years after squashing the gargantuan rats wrecking havoc on their home town, the five core Rangers summoned the Thunder Megazord as the Green Ranger—Dragon Dagger in his right hand and the Wizard of Deception's wand in his left—attempted to revive the Dragonzord with his flute from the ground. But just as he was playing the tune, he felt a heavy blow send him sailing to the ground. Both the Dagger and the wand flew out of his clutches.
"No!" he cried.
"Oh, yes!" came a scratchy voice. It was Goldar. "I'll take that wand, traitor!"
"Never!" The Green Ranger left his Dagger on the ground to beat the beast to the prize, but just as he was about to reach the wand, Goldar charged his sword and struck it into the wand. At once, most of the structure was incinerated in a blast that sent the Green Ranger back onto the turf.
"And now, for the Dragon Dagger!" Goldar snatched up the new, stolen prize and began to play the tune to take control of the Green Ranger's mighty Zord. But before he could make even one blow to the Thunder Megazord, he felt the Green Ranger snatch the weapon right out of his clutches. "What?!"
"You should know better, Monkey Brain! I beat you and Turban Shell without my powers. I beat you again and again with them. Don't even try with me!"
"Oh, so you think that was you out there all that time?"
The Green Ranger did find that question just a bit puzzling, but he tried to shrug it off. "Ha ha! Who else would it have been?"
"No matter! The Power Rangers may win this battle, but it cost them the White Ranger and the Tigerzord! Now their defeat in the war is assured!"
With that, Goldar vanished.
Thereafter, it soon became apparent that the Capybarrel was no match for the combined power of the Dragonzord and the Thunder Megazord. Once they had incinerated the vermin, they quickly chased Scorpina away from the outskirts of Angel Grove and force her to retreat.
Back in the Command Center, Zordon and the Green Ranger, now demorphed, gave the Power Rangers a briefing on everything that had gone down—so far as they could piece it together.
Kimberly blinked a few times, looking her green-clad teammate up and down. "So… you're not actually Tommy?"
The Green Ranger flinched a bit. "Wait—yes, actually, I—"
Immediately, Zordon interrupted them. "Rangers, listen to me. Now that the Wizard of Deception's wand is gone, we will have to conduct the search for the White Ranger Tommy manually. Green Ranger, did the Wizard say where he sent the White Ranger to?"
The Green Ranger was confused, a bit taken aback by Kimberly's question and by Zordon's refusal to call him 'Tommy,' but he had never—not when under a spell, at least—questioned Zordon on a matter of personal significance before and he wasn't sure it would be wise to start just now. "He—he didn't say. It was supposed to be some sort of alternate dimension, but I have no idea how to reach it."
"This is very dire indeed. Without the White Power Coin, we cannot call forth Saba, and thus cannot power up and control the Tigerzord. Our chances of permanently warding off the combined powers of Zedd and Rita without the Thunder Ultrazord are very slim."
"But Zordon," said Billy, "didn't you and Alpha create the White Ranger powers more or less from scratch? How can the White Power Coin be our only hope of controlling the Tigerzord?"
"Ai-yi-yi! It was a one-shot!" exclaimed Alpha. "We had to optimize a large swath of the Command Center's computing and conductive power to save enough room to form a large enough connection to the Morphing Grid to charge a Power Coin. But I'm afraid there's no room left for energy conservation in here!"
"Alpha is correct," said Zordon. "Our only hope is to start searching—and recover the White Ranger."
Kimberly put a hand to the side of her face and stared blankly at the Command Center's computer consoles. "We have to find Tommy," she murmured.
Now that sentiment, thought the Green Ranger, is really not sitting right.
Kimberly shot a straight glance at Zordon. "Look, what can I do? I don't know nearly enough about science or technology to even begin to help Billy and Alpha, but we've got to use everything we've got!"
"Yes. Alpha will begin work on the search and we will ask for the Blue Ranger's and everyone else's help as it is necessary. In the meantime, the best thing for all of you to do is to carry on as valiantly as possible in the fight against Rita and Zedd.
"To that end, Pink Ranger, in the absence of the White Ranger, I ask you to assume the role of leader of the Power Rangers."
How—why—the hell can that be? How? WHY? "But ZORDON—" the Green Ranger began reflexively, wide-eyed, before Zordon cut him off.
"Pink Ranger, you are one of the most experienced Rangers here, you were closer to the White Ranger than anyone had been since Jason left and based on what I have observed, you are naturally leaderly and inspirational in your personal life. Will you accept this challenge?"
Kimberly glanced at her core teammates, then at the befuddled Green Ranger, then back up at Zordon. "I will," she said. "I won't disappoint you."
"Thank you, Pink Ranger. Now, Rangers, I need to speak with the Green Ranger privately about the present predicament. You all should go home and get as much rest as possible. I will ask you to congregate back here at 10:30 tomorrow morning to begin a strategic plan for the coming months. We can expect they will not be easy."
Once the others were gone, the Green Ranger let loose. "Zordon!" He had to force himself not to glare as he gazed up at his master. "Why didn't you let me explain I am Tommy? Why do we need Kimberly to lead?"
"Listen to me very carefully," said Zordon. "The combined threat from Rita and Zedd will undoubtedly necessitate the eventual use of the Thunder Ultrazord. We cannot simply pretend that the White Ranger Tommy no longer exists."
"But I didn't say we'd—"
"I know that. I know what happened. But neither could we in good faith have lied to the other Rangers about how this situation has come about. Moreover, I have observed human strengths and weaknesses for many centuries, and I am afraid there is no chance they would ever be able to accept the splitting of Tommy Oliver in two without assigning his proper identity to only one. And that, undoubtedly, would be the White Ranger Tommy."
The Green Ranger felt a bit hazy. All those memories, all those stories, all those tragedies and triumphs… and now—suddenly they weren't his?
His place as team leader—gone?
Kimberly—gone?
All of it just snatched out from him, just like that?
"Zordon… I…" The Green Ranger blinked a few times. "But I… I remember everything!" He heard his voice crack but he didn't care. "My whole life! You, and Rita, and Kimberly and Jason and losing my powers and piloting the Tigerzord and… and… my family! My parents! My brother and my sister! Don't I have a right to my own identity?"
"In a perfect universe, you would," agreed Zordon. "Unfortunately, in the real universe, many terrible things come about and many good people and great warriors fall victim. I am afraid it would not be wise for you to attempt to assert your right to your identity as Tommy Oliver. The consequences for the mission—and for the world, and ultimately for your person—would be disastrous."
Inside, the Green Ranger was fuming. Increasingly, he was having difficulty keeping himself from showing it on the outside, as well. After all he'd done, all he'd sacrificed… now he'd have to sacrifice his own personality for the team? "It's too much," he murmured. "Too much! Why should I even stay a Power Ranger, then?"
"I know how distressing this is for you," Zordon empathized. "If I could, I would release you from your duties and send you home so that you could at least have your place in your family.
"But the other Rangers, I am afraid, would then take to the defense of the White Ranger. I have little doubt they would attempt to prevent you from taking the place in the Oliver family that they would regard as rightfully his and not yours. One way or another, you would not be left alone."
Tears began to fall from the Green Ranger's cheeks.
It really is over. My life really is over.
Twice before he had lost his powers. Twice he had dreaded the permanent loss of everything he had loved about the life he had built around those powers and longed for nothing more than to be a Ranger yet again.
And now he was a Ranger again, only without anything that he had loved about the job.
Or anything outside of it.
"Where do I go?" the Green Ranger wondered aloud, almost in a whisper.
"For tonight, at least, and perhaps longer, I want you to stay right here," instructed Zordon. "I am worried for your physical and psychological condition in the wake of everything that has gone on and it would be very imprudent to let you be alone for the time being.
"Green Ranger, Tommy, listen to me. I believe you when you present yourself to me as Tommy. You are not an inferior copy. You did not ask for any of this to happen and it is not your fault. You have been a strong and courageous warrior, and your unhesitating, unflinching efforts today on behalf of Angel Grove and the Power Team once the spell wore off proved your valour once again.
"I know you took a risk when you joined the Power Rangers. I did not hide that from you, but I never once imagined something like this would come about."
"It's never happened before?"
"There have been a very few instances of presumed mind uploading in the history of the universe. In every known case, however, the copy was destroyed before it could be demonstrated that it was in fact a derivative of the same sentience, and it was believed to be something altogether different. Philosophers have discussed the matter, but with no real cases to debate, there has never been any attempt to form a consensus on how to deal with such a situation as yours.
"I cannot guarantee you anything, but I will do my best to help you find a place in this world, Tommy. But I will not be able to do that unless you resign yourself to leaving your former place and to shedding your identity as Tommy Oliver. I know how hard this must be."
"No, you don't," muttered the Green Ranger involuntarily.
Zordon seemed to take the remark in stride, though. "The consequences of not complying, however, will be disastrous for you, and nothing that is in my power to do will restrain the other Rangers."
The Green Ranger shuddered. His friends, his trusted friends… suddenly just cold-blooded predators ready to eat him alive!
"The risk of death I could deal with," the Green Ranger spoke softly. "I'd rather die than go through this."
"I know, and that is exactly why I am keeping you here: for your own sake."
TO BE CONTINUED…