EPISODE 2: GAMBLING WITH DEATH

Predas' Base

The 5 members of the council of Karmakos' followers sat around their table. The villains sat around their table, in deep discussion about their new foes. "Power Rangers?" Onoxia questioned "How can that be? Zordon died ages ago, without him they shouldn't be here"

"You fool" Agony responded "Do you not remember that there were many other rangers after his death. Lost Galaxy, Wild Force, Megaforce" Onoxia looked confused. "*sigh* Idiot"

"Relax Agony" Predas ordered "It is clear that Arnas is the one responsible for the emergence of these new Power Rangers. Gorand did a pathetic job against those warriors, he may be a good fighter, but I say that we need to give them a challenge outside of brute force…." Onoxia's jaw dropped "…..Before the full invasion" Onoxia sighed.

Lust spoke out "I recommend Trickster"

"Trickster?" Carnos interrupted "He only gets involved if he has something to earn out of a gamble"

"I have something in mind. We need Trickster, he relies on illusions and, well tricks"

Predas looked on "Very well. If you are able to persuade him, he will serve us well"

Lust bowed, opened a portal and departed. "What do you think she has to offer him Agony?"

"I have my suspicions" He replied "But its nothing worth mentioning. Don't worry my lord, I'll find out"

Cue Theme Song

Arnas' Base

The teenagers stared in awe as 5 massive creatures, towered above. These weren't just any creatures they were….

"DRAGONS!" Rebecca shouted as they loomed closer. The 5 each had their own unique design to them. The red Dragon in the centre of the group represented a European Dragon, he was tall with sharp horns and massive wings. The blue was more serpent like Dragon, as you could imagine he had a rather long neck and tail that, despite having body to separated the two looked like one, he also had a row of gills on his neck. The green Dragon was the largest of all the creatures, with a large muscular physique and massive claws. The yellow Dragon was smaller than the rest, roughly the size of an Elephant, despite this she seemed to have a huge wingspan. And the pink Dragon in between the size of the Red and Yellow seemed to had horn, not to different to a Rhino's on the tip of her snout.

Arnas stepped forward "Rangers I would like to introduce you to Fire Storm, Tidal Wave, Rock Slide, Lightning Bolt and Whirl Wind"

Fire Storm came up front "So young, yet so brave. Step forth Warriors" They did as commanded. "I believe that Arnas has explained the situation" They nodded in unison.

"Well…." Reese blurted out. "…He didn't exactly tell us what it is exactly we're fighting. He told us that the Wyverns would return, but last time I checked Wyverns are similar to you Dragons"

"WE AND THE WYVERNS HAVE NOTHING IN COMMON!" Tidal Wave snarled in anger.

"Shut up Tidal Wave!" Fire Storm growled back. "My apologies, we haven't had a good relationship with them. But yes, they do share similarities in appearance"

"Allow me to explain" Lightning Bolt said "During the Wyverns reign, they gained some followers by offering them power. These followers were granted demonic forms, one of these was King Predas who was in command of a kingdom, that became a personal demon army for the Wyverns. Even though the Wyverns have been sealed away, these followers went undetected. We assume that these are your opponents"

Rock Slide barged towards through the others "They want to take the chosen one so that they can spill his blood into the Sacred Circle on his eighteenth birthday"

"The Sacred Circle?" Gwen questioned

"It's where the Wyverns are held on the moon" Whirl Wind responded.

"You mean that crater?"

"Precisely, it seems that I have an intelligent partner" Lightning Bolt replied. "I am quite pleased

"Excuse me?"

"Each of you has one of us for a partner. I think you can guess who's is who's" Lightning Bolt replied.

Aaron started to sweat "Hey is it hot in here"

Fire Storm looked back "The portal leads to our home of the sun. We must depart, but we will meet again" And with that the Dragons left for their realm and the rangers stood there.

"Well" Arnas arrived "Magnificent aren't they?"

"Magnificent is an understatement" Drake replied.

"Drake, it is time for your training to begin" Arnas claimed.

"You said that we were to train him, but we know nothing ourselves" Logan commented.

"And I said I would train you"

"But why don't you train him?" He asked.

"Because it would be to much of a task for a non ranger to find his element"

"How does that work?"

"Don't ask me. I didn't make the rules"

"So what can we teach him now?" Gwen asked.

"How to fight properly without the use of magic. You seemed to hold yourselves well in the last battle"

"What? Now? We gotta get home, our parents must be wondering where we are right now"

Arnas sighed "Very well, at what time would any of you be available?"

Reese stepped forward "I have a free period at the end of school tomorrow. I guess I could teach him a few moves if he's free that is"

Arnas looked at Drake who said "Good thing I end early too"

"Tomorrow it is then" Arnas opened a portal and sent the rangers off.

Trickster's Lair

Lust stood in front of the door, outstretching her hand twisting the knob. Inside was a sunny field of grass filled with flowers and small rabbits. "Take that illusion away Trickster, it disgusts me" The room suddenly blurred and the image changed into a dark room with cards and various other objects filling the room.

A being jumped down from above the above the greet her, his eyes were both card symbols, one eye an Ace and the other a Jack, other than that he was at an average physique wearing a red costume. "Lust, what brings you to my domain?"

"I am here on behalf of Lord Predas" She answered.

"Oh, so I imagine that it is rather urgent" He said. He sat himself on a chair in front of a small circular table, he gestured towards another chair opposite him. "Please, join me. We can discuss business here"

She sat down in the chair. "We have located the chosen one, but we are having trouble obtaining him"

Trickster smirked "That shouldn't be too hard. A few dozen souls will be big enough payment"

"Power Rangers" Trickster lifted his head curiously "He has Power Rangers protecting him"

"And you want to me to fight them. Well, it'll take more than a few souls to persuade me"

"I have noticed that you seem unsatisfied with any of your souls. I offer my own, if you succeed you can take me as your mate"

Trickster expected her body, thinking it over. He then lifted a coin. "Tails you deal with it yourselves and I sit this one out. Heads and you're mine my dear" He flipped the coin and it landed on heads. "Well, it looks like when I kill the Rangers, I'll be less lonely" He stood and left the room to do his business, while lust sat there deep in thought.

Sunrise City, Capital High School

Reese waited outside front doors as Drake walked up to him. "Are you ready for this?"

Drake nodded "Yes. Where exactly are we training?"

"I've got a small dojo in my garage, we can start there" The two boys headed off.

It didn't take them long to get there, but there was a slight problem. "Oh no" Reese said seeing a bunch of boys inside the garage playing on a first person shooter game "My brother Adrian must have invited his friends over to play games in the garage. We can't train when the TV is out, we might damage it"

A woman in her forties came through the front door. "Oh, hey honey your home early"

"I had a free period mom" Reese replied "This is Drake the new kid I told you about"

"Hello" They could hear the news music on the TV back in the house "Oh, come quickly there's something I want to show you"

They entered the house and sat on the sofa to watch a news anchorman talk "Yesterday at 6:00pm in Sunrise City a group of monsters arrived and started to destroy whatever was in site. They managed to wreck a couple of shops and freeze 2 police officers. But then a team of heroes showed up and these heroes were a group of Power Rangers. This footage shows that they are a completely never before seen team. I guess that Sunrise city can sleep peacefully tonight"

"What do you think? We have protectors of our own" Reese's mother asked.

"It's cool. But with protectors that means that there always a threat to protect us from" Reese said.

"True, but we should be grateful" She said. Reese nodded and secretly smiled.

Reese and Drake left "Why don't we just train at the gym?"

"It's closed" Reese said

A teenage boy approached them. "I overheard that you're looking for a quiet place to train, I assume by your physique that its martial arts" Reese nodded "I know a place in the forest. A small open field"

"Really? Where is it exactly?" Reese asked.

"I'm off home now and I pass the forest, I'll show you" He replied. The 3 boys set off into the woods.

Reese looked at him "I've never seen you around here"

"I'm new. Names Jack"

15 Minutes Later

While walking through the forest, Drake stopped to catch his breath. "How much farther is this place?" He asked

"Just through those trees" Jack said pointing to some trees with light peering through the gaps.

The group stepped through the trees to see a small opening with no branches or rocks to trip over, just grass. "It's perfect" Reese said.

"Yes it is" Jack said. All of a sudden the 3 boys looked up as the skies turned dark. Reese and Drake looked back at a smirking Jack, who suddenly changed into Trickster.

"Drake, get out of here!" Reese said. "I'll call the others" Drake ran off, but couldn't pass through the darkness. Reese couldn't contact the rangers with his morpher.

"Don't waste your time" Trickster laughed "You've lost all connections to everything outside this shadow orb"

"Well, I'll have to settle for what's inside" Reese yelled "MORPHING SEQUENCE INITIATE!" and thus Reese transformed "Red Dragon Ranger!"

Reese charged towards his opponent, his sword materializing. But as he slashed, Trickster disappeared. Reese was blasted from behind. "I'm over here now" Reese tried to retaliate, but Trickster teleported again "Are you even trying?" and he blasted Reese again. Reese pretended to be to weak to move and as Trickster moved in closer, Reese sprang a surprise attack, but wasn't quick enough as Trickster teleported again. "Three strikes and you're out" Reese was surrounded by 10 of Trickster clones. Reese shot at some with his fire breather blaster, but they only went through them.

"Ah, the old find the real one trick, how original" Reese said to himself, only to met by 10 blasts in unison. Reese collapsed to the floor in pain.

"REESE!" Drake ran over to his fallen friend, to help him up. "Are you ok?"

"Drake, here's a test. Be quiet" Drake was about to complain, but felt he should listen (in both ways). Drake closed his eyes and could only hear one set of footsteps.

Drake tracked the sound down to his right. "REESE, OVER THERE!" Reese lifted his blaster and shot at the one his left.

The real Trickster was hit and fell to the ground in pain. The shadow orb disappeared which meant that they were free. "Drake, good job. Now get out of here"

"Not without you" He replied.

Reese sighed and spoke into his morpher. "Rebecca, are you there?"

Capital High School, Dinner Hall

Rebecca and Gwen were sitting at a table eating their lunch. Aaron walked over to join them, carrying a big pizza. "Ah, pizza day. You want a slice Gwen?" Rebecca's morpher suddenly started beeping. Aaron banged his head on the table. "I finally get to the front of the row and claim my pizza. Now this happens" They left the hall, Aaron carrying his pizza, to answer the call.

"Rebecca, are you there?" Reese's voice came through.

"Reese, is that you?" She asked.

"Yes, I need your help. We've been attacked"

"What? What are you? Is Drake ok?" Gwen asked.

"He's fine. We're in a small clearing in the forest, I'm fighting some illusion monster"

"We'll teleport there as soon as we find Logan"

"Hurry"

The three went into the school to see Logan, sitting alone as usual. Finding him wasn't the hard part, but getting him to tag along was. Rebecca said "Logan, Reese needs our help"

"Well, I'm sure that fearless leader can handle it without me" He responded coldly.

Gwen shook her head and grabbed his hood pulling him outside. "Drake needs our help too" Logan gave up and when in a private area teleported to the forest.

The Clearing

Trickster regained his footing and stood up straight "Impressive, you truly possess remarkable skills. But, I'm the best there is, no more fooling around, you must die" But then he was met with another surprise as the Blue and Green Dragon Rangers appeared and blasted him.

Rebecca ran over to Reese and helped him to his feet, while Gwen helped Drake to escape. "Reese, are you ok?" Reese nodded and steadied himself.

Gwen stopped at the edge "Drake stay here"

"No, I can help"

"You're not ready yet, call if you get into any trouble.

Drake sighed "Thanks Gwen" The Yellow Ranger ran back into the battle. Drake smiled a little.

The five rangers surrounded Trickster, who suddenly took out a Dai and threw it, it landed on 3. "A card game, my favourite" Giant cards emerged from the ground and circled the team. "Its simple, shoot the right one and you win. Here's your clue. It means the best"

The Rangers looked Aaron shouted "Shoot the ace, it means number 1"

"No" Logan protested "It's obviously the king, you idiot. Highest in the hierarchy"

Reese looked around and thought to himself. He then shot Trickster and the cards disappeared. "Earlier he told me that he was the best there is"

Trickster lay on the floor and the rangers stood over him. "I have one more card up my sleeve", he stood up and revealed a card.

"Man that was bad" Aaron said. Trickster raised the card above his head and glowed. He then grew to an enormous size. The Rangers looked up. "Um guys ain't we supposed to have Zords or something?"

"Arnas said that he was unaware of any other Ranger teams, maybe he was unaware of Zords" Rebecca said.

But then a portal opened in the sky and the 5 Dragons flew through. They all attacked Trickster and with a combination of their element breaths, they destroyed Trickster. They then descended towards the Rangers, Drake ran over to join them. "You have done well Rangers" Fire Storm said "Especially you Reese, guiding Drake to listen to Tricksters footsteps was a genius move"

"We noticed you talking about Zords" Rock slide boomed.

"Yes, their robots" Gwen replied and realized "Oh, a robot is a mechanical being"

Fire Storm looked on "Do they look something like this?" And all of a sudden the Dragons transformed into robotic versions of themselves. The teens looked on in awe.

Not to far away, Lust walked over to where Trickster was destroyed. From the rubble she picked up the last card he used. "Consider the wedding cancelled"

Predas' base

Lust strided into the room, and Predas stood angered "Trickster has failed. What kind of a recommendation was that?"

"My lord, I knew perfectly well he would fail. I offered him my soul as his mate, but what I wanted was this" She showed them the card "It gives monsters the ability to grow in size, and even be reborn. This was my plan the whole time"

"I am pleased" Lord Predas responded "Leave me, all of you" They did as commanded.

Agony caught up to Lust. "How could you sell your soul to that freakshow?"

Lust turned to him "Don't worry Agony, I said I knew he was going to fail. You're the only one for me" Lust then kissed Agony, and left towards their private quarters. Agony stood on his own for a short while and then proceeded to follow her.

Next time, Rebecca gets some competition in the cheerleader tryouts. But this dancer isn't who she thinks she is. What will happen? Find out next time.