Disclaimer: Still don't own Power Rangers.
A/N: This is probably the last
chapter I'll be able to put up until mid January, sorry y'all! It's
gonna be crazy when I get back home, but I may be able to sneak a
chapter or two out there. We'll see. Thanks again for the reviews!
"Brilliant!!! Brilliant!!!" Zedd was screaming at the top of his lungs, watching the scene below. "The Green Ranger is one of us once more!!! Excellent work!!!"
Goldar and Finster both exchanged glances, trying to figure out what was going on. It was Goldar who finally spoke up. "Uh...my lord...we didn't do anything."
"What?" Zedd asked, confused. "Then why is he ATTACKING the Power Rangers!?"
"Lord Zedd...there are no evil energies of any sort cast around him," Finster tried to explain the situation, but he was very confused as well.
"So...he's acting on his own?" Zedd asked, looking to Finster, who nodded. This just caused Zedd to explode with laughter once more. "Perfect! Oh, I never even imagined this day! This will be fantastic with our plans as well! Soon the Rangers will be defeated! All of them!!!" Zedd exploded into another fit of laughter.
The Thunder Megazord charged forwards again, slamming it's shoulder into the Screaming Squid with enough force to knock it back a good distance. The monster was on its feet in a heartbeat, however, and once again unleashed a fury of blows with its many arms that the Thunder Megazord tried to block, but with so many arms attacking it so fast, it wasn't doing a very good job.
"Heavy damage! We can't keep this up!" Billy yelled.
"We're losing power, fast!" Trini yelled at about the same time.
"Tommy! Where are you!?" Kimberly instinctively screamed into the dashboard as she tried to make contact with him, but received no answer. This really wasn't a good time for him to be the fashionably late hero.
"Keep it steady! I'm working on it!" Jason yelled, struggling with the tight controls.
The Thunder Megazord grabbed hold of two arms finally, and ripped the monster almost off it's feet, pulling it straight toward them. As the monster got closer, the Megazord gave it a massive head butt as it released the arms, sending it rolling away. The giant squid was on it's feet in no time though, and faced off with the Rangers once more, but before they could go after it, a loud, obnoxious siren began blaring behind Trini.
"Incoming enemy missiles!!!" Trini screamed as she slammed the button to turn off the siren.
"Missiles!? It's a squid!" Jason yelled back, and he had his eyes on the monster anyway, how was it firing missiles?
"Four o'clock!" Zack yelled as he tracked the source, but it was too late, the Thunder Megazord took a hard impact from it's back right side, knocking it forwards, looking up, Zack was a bit relieved to see missiles hitting the Screaming Squid, too, preventing it from attacking them.
"What the hell is shooting at us back there!?" Jason yelled out in rage as he tried to steady the Megazord.
"There's not supposed to be anything back there but the Dragonzord!" Billy yelled back, confused.
A moment of silence filled the cockpit. Zack was finally the one who spoke. "David's shooting at us!"
Trini furiously shook her head. "No, it must have been a mistake!" she yelled out, but as soon as she finished that siren went off again.
"Well, he's doing it again!" Zack called out, looking down at his control panels as Trini turned off the siren again. "Six o'clock this time!!!"
There was nothing they could do, still. The backside of the Thunder Megazord was lit up by the missiles, sending it stumbling forwards. Jason was beyond angry now, but he knew what needed to be done first. "Kimberly! Open up communication with David! Explain to him the differences between giant mutant squids and giant samurai robots! After that, find out where the hell Tommy is! The rest of us, we're taking this monster down, now! Full power! Emergency boosters and everything!"
"Right!" Kimberly yelled, and turned her seat to begin messing with all the communication controls.
"What about Dragonzord!?" Billy asked, not really believing Kimberly was going to be able to do any good with David. He was shocked that David would attack them, but it clearly wasn't an accident. It had to have something to do with Zedd, then.
"Forget Dragonzord for two minutes!" Jason yelled out, hoping Kimberly would be able to distract David long enough for them to finish off this monster. Hopefully that would give him enough time to figure out just what the hell he was going to do. They were under attack by one of their own! He wanted to blame Zedd for this, but something told him that it wasn't that simple this time around.
The Thunder Megazord charged forwards, throwing several powerful punches into the Screaming Squid, not giving it a second of breathing room. As it stumbled backwards, the giant robot quickly pulled out it's Thunder Saber, charging it to full power. With a powerful slash, the Screaming Squid exploded into nothing, and the Thunder Megazord turned to face off against the Dragonzord, which was standing there, almost like it was waiting.
"He's not answering." Kimberly said, not having to yell anymore, since an eerie silence had fallen over the team.
"There. There he is." Trini said, pointing to a rooftop. David was standing there, watching them. He wasn't playing the Dragon Dagger anymore, either. He seemed to be waiting for something.
Jason's mind was going absolutely nuts. It was very possible that they would be fighting the Dragonzord before the day ended. Tommy was missing, and he had a horrible feeling about that. They needed to find him, and someone needed to confront David. He looked around at the team, they were looking at him, wondering what the battle plan was. Jason knew that he needed to leave as many people as possible in the Megazord, but they were looking at a crew of three, here, and it was extremely difficult to pilot any Megazord with only three people. But there were three that had done it before...
"Zack, Billy, Trini." Jason began, looking back out at the Dragonzord. "Stay here. Take command of the Megazord, and stay on the defensive. If Dragonzord attacks, fight back. Other than that, wait."
"But..." Billy started. Sure, the three of them had been able to control Dragonzord's battle mode back in the day, but this was different. The Thunder Megazord took a lot for effort to pilot.
"Just do it." Jason firmly said, making it clear that he didn't like this situation either, but there was no other choice. "Kimberly, forget the battle. Find Tommy, where ever he is. If he's hurt, get him out of here."
"Right." Kimberly quickly nodded, filled with worry. He certainly wouldn't have to tell her that again.
"I'm going to talk to David. Maybe this is a big misunderstanding." Jason finished up, not even believing himself. The team nodded silently. Jason and Kimberly got up from their seats, heading out the back exit. Zack moved into Jason's pilot seat, while Trini took Zack's usual seat, and the waiting began.
David smiled as the Red Ranger leaped from the Thunder Megazord, coming right for him. He knew Jason would be the one to come after him, because Jason hated him more than anyone else in the world. David smiled underneath his helmet as he raised the Dragon Dagger, pointing it right at Jason. Two Rangers this fast? It was just too easy. Before he could the button to release the energy beam, however, Jason had his blade blaster out, and fired several shots that sent David rolling away. Jason landed on the rooftop, facing off against David as he stumbled to his feet.
"What the hell's going on, David!?" Jason demanded, not daring to put away his pistol.
"I'm doing things my own way from now on! I live by my own rules and follow orders from just one person! ME!" David yelled right back.
So you're crazy. Jason thought, before he spoke up once again. "Where's Tommy!?"
"You should thank me! Without him, you're in charge, right?" David sneered. He really wished he could see the look on Jason's face right now.
"Where's Tommy!?" Jason demanded once again, this time a lot angrier.
"I don't know." David replied with a mocking voice. "But I'll be seeing you later, Red Ranger. And I'll teach you to respect the Green Ranger!" David finished up, quickly playing a tune on the Dragon Dagger before teleporting out. The Dragonzord turned and headed back out to sea. The battle was over...for now.
Jason shook his head, not wasting anytime as he raised his right wrist, turning on his communicator. "Kim! Did you find Tommy!?" he asked into it, worried about his friend.
"Jason." Zordon's voice replied through it. "Tommy and Kimberly are at the Command Center. Tommy is in critical condition, report here with the other Rangers at once."
"You got it." Jason answered, looking up as the Thunder Megazord approached the building. Jason quickly started waving his right arm, directing them to get out of here. "Disengage! Back to the Command Center! Now!!!" he screamed, and as soon as he did the Zords began to disassemble, and he saw three colored streaks leave the Zords. He nodded and teleported out himself.
The four of them appeared in the Command Center and unmorphed instantly. Alpha was busy running around, messing with all the controls, and an unconscious Tommy was lying on the makeshift bed that he spent so much of his time as the Green Ranger on, with Kimberly hovering right over him.
"Zordon, what's Lord Zedd up to now!?" Trini cried out, feeling her eyes start to water up, but she fought it back. She couldn't cry, not here, not now.
"Trini, I'm afraid Lord Zedd had nothing to do with this one. David is acting entirely on his own." Zordon solemnly replied.
To hell with what she had just thought, Trini burst out in tears, and Billy quickly pulled her into a hug, holding her there, unable to believe this himself. "Are you sure?" he choked out.
"Look, Rangers." Alpha said, holding up several sheets of paper. "There are no evil energies of any kind afflicting him. This is his own doing."
"Why, Zordon! Why is he doing this!?" Zack yelled out in frustration.
"He didn't even make sense when he was talking to me. He's insane, Zordon!" Jason said right after Zack finished.
"Rangers, I fear I have let you all down." Zordon spoke up once again. "I was eager to add a seventh Ranger to the team, and did not do any research on him like I did with you." Everyone looked up at Zordon, not believing this new knowledge. "It is true. I studied you for quite some time before I selected you to become the Power Rangers. I did not have time to study Tommy, and had no choice but to add him. He turned out to be a good man, but it appears our luck ran out this time. I am deeply sorry, Power Rangers." Zordon finished, the regret in his voice was more than apparent.
"Don't apologize, Zordon." Zack shook his head. "No one could have seen this coming."
Jason shook his head and walked over to Kimberly, wrapping his arm around her. "How is he?"
"He was thrown off the building, and hit by a car before he landed. I got to him just before they pulled his helmet off, but he's in really bad shape." Kimberly slowly said, holding in her own tears.
"We do not have the means or the time to fully heal him here." Zordon suddenly said, causing Kimberly to jump a little, and Jason pulled her closer. "You will need to take him to a hospital to recover."
Everyone nodded after a small silence. "J-man, we'll take him in." Zack said. "We'll call it a dirt bike accident."
Billy sighed. "That would be best, the injuries won't match up completely, but just say it was a freak accident."
"I'll go see if I can talk to David. He might listen to me." Trini added on, her tears gone for now.
"No." Jason said as firmly as he could. "Absolutely not, Trini."
Trini pulled herself away from Billy, looking to Jason. "Jason, please! Let me do this, I can talk some sense into him." she pleaded with him.
"David is insane! There's no telling what he'll do when he sees you!" Jason started yelling now, without realizing it. He just wasn't going to lose someone else.
"But he's not!!!" Trini screamed, tears forming in her eyes once again. "Jason, please! Give him another chance!"
"Trini! He nearly killed Tommy!!!" Jason's deep voice echoed throughout the Command Center as he was yelling. He didn't understand why Trini was so adamant about avoiding the obvious. David had betrayed them, he was dangerous. Trini collapsed to her knees right there, sobbing uncontrollably. Jason was usually one of the comforting voices, but he wasn't going to have it now. "Stay away from David. That's an order. Come on, Zack." Jason finished, and he and Zack teleported out with Tommy, leaving Kimberly and Billy to comfort Trini.
Eleven o'clock that night, Trini stood at David's front door. She didn't care what Jason had told her. David was a good person, she had seen it with her own eyes. She could talk to him and work this out. There didn't need to be any more violence. No one else needed to get hurt. "I can do this..." she whispered to herself as she rang his doorbell.
David answered the door, and was genuinely surprised to see her. He figured he had been branded as the enemy by now. "Trini..." he slowly said.
"David...We need to talk." Trini said hesitantly.
David looked around, trying to see if the other Rangers were waiting in ambush, then he looked back at Trini, satisfied that she was alone. "Yea...yea, come on in."
Trini nodded, and stepped inside the house, and David closed the door behind them.
A/N: Yep, I'm leaving you with a cliffhanger. Have a good Christmas and New Years everyone!