Disclaimer: I do now own Power Rangers.
Chapter 46 – Turbo Up
The official return of Astronema brought the inner Ranger family into the battle properly. They'd always kept an eye on things, ready to step in, but they'd let the others handle it, not having to ever step in thanks to Kira and Connor. While they still had no intention of joining in for any kind of battle, Karone's arrival as her evil self meant that the others were on alert. No matter where they were in the world, or what city in California they now called home, they all returned to Angel Grove in preparation for their own battles, save for the Olivers who remained in Reefside thanks to Mesogog, though were only a teleportation beam away if needed. The Command Centre once again became a hub of activity like it hadn't seen in many years and Alpha and Billy, along with genius Justin's help, were kept busy ensuring all the Turbo, Zeo and Original Ranger powers, and the Zords, were in tip top shape. All three of them also gave power upgrades to those Ranger powers, taking a leaf out of what Justin and Mrs. Rawlings had done for Lightspeed, Justin still working there as a top tech expert, below only Mrs. Rawlings. Everything looked the same, and even worked the same, no new morphing call or some such thing was created, but the power held within those old weapons was greatly increased.
As they waited for Divatox to show up, knowing it would be the space pirate next, they all kept an eye on the Space Rangers, and more importantly, on Dalia and Bren, whom both Astronema and Dark Spector wanted to get their hands on. One good thing that had come of future battles against the Queen of Evil, she still called herself that even with Dark Spector alive once more, was that they learned Dark Spector's hold on Karone wasn't as strong as she'd led them to believe during their first battle. At that time, she'd given Zhane a choice, join her or die, and seemed quite content to destroy him if he didn't join her, but that was not actually true. Just like Astronema wanted her children close to her and safe from those that would hurt them, so too did she want her husband, even going so far as destroying Psycho Silver herself when he'd gotten the drop on Zhane and come very close to destroying him. It was the first Psycho Ranger to be truly destroyed this time round and the news had been brought to them by Ecliptor who had kept to his word and informed them of Astronema's plans and helped wherever possible. His last visit, which had been to inform them of Psycho Silver's destruction, was also the visit that told them of the weaker hold on Karone for Ecliptor was convinced that Astronema knew what he was up to, that he was helping the Rangers, and yet he was still alive and had not been handed over to Dark Spector for any kind of brainwashing or re-programing.
It was mid March when Divatox finally showed up. She announced her arrival in only a way Divatox could, by making a big spectacle of attacking the city while using the attack as a distraction to allow some Piranhatrons to plant one of her signature detonators.
"Why is she still using those things?" Justin asked as he, Tanya, Kat, TJ and Carlos, who'd been recalled from the Astro Megaship to fill their roles as Red and Green Turbo Rangers, along with Kira and Connor, who were just always there whenever a villain was revived, all gathered in the Command Centre. "They never worked before, what makes her think they'll work now?"
"And you're complaining why exactly?" Tanya asked. "Like you said it's never worked before, makes our job easier."
"Come on, we've got to stop her." Said Kat.
"You guys go after the detonator." Kira said. "Connor and I will handle Divatox." Although they intended to protest, Kira had seen something on the Viewing Globe they had not and merely pointed to it, the Turbo Rangers taking another look and seeing that it wasn't merely a few Piranhatrons that were handling the detonator, but a rather large group of them, along with one of Divatox's monsters. There was no way that they'd be able to handle the large group, working on whatever time scale the detonator gave them, if they split up.
"Alright fine." Said TJ. "But be careful."
"Aren't we always?" Kira asked earning six scoffs from all six of the other Rangers in the room.
"No." Carlos said as if it was obvious. With another small laugh the Turbo Rangers teleported out to deal with the detonator, ready to fight as a team for the first time in more years then they cared to count. Kira and Connor too teleported out, landing right downtown in the middle of the carnage, much to Divatox's shock.
"Who the hell are you supposed to be?" She demanded, not knowing these two at all, though the petite woman looked a fair bit like the first Pink Turbo Ranger. Whoever they were, they hadn't been what she'd been expecting. Having decided to lead the decoy attack herself, she'd been sure that all the Turbo Rangers would come running, leaving her detonator to go off as planned.
"You don't recognize me Divatox?" Kira asked in mock shock. "I'm hurt."
"Well the last time she saw you, you were like, what? Two years old?" Connor joined in the act.
"Something like that." Kira agreed before turning back to the space pirate. "Figured it out yet?"
"You're the power brat of the first Pink and Red Turbo Rangers!" She returned after a moment, sounding highly offended at Kira's presence.
"There you go, I knew you weren't that stupid." Divatox snarled and turned to Elgar who was merely standing there.
"Well don't just stand there!" She screamed at him. "Get them!" Elgar jumped into action, knowing his aunt's temper well, as did the Piranhatrons he led. Kira and Connor shook their heads before launching on the attack, Kira quickly ploughing her way through anyone in her way as she headed towards Divatox.
"Guess I'll have to destroy you myself." She snarled, seeing her forces were practically useless against Kira, even if she'd just pushed them aside and not really destroyed them.
"You can try." The two engaged in battle, both using their own special powers, Divatox sending a blast of energy towards Kira while she herself called on her Ptera Scream followed by Nala. Both attacks served to piss Divatox off, and although she was probably one of the least terrifying villains the Rangers had fought, all of them having seen her as a kind of a joke, it could not be said that she wasn't powerful. In her civilian form, Kira did not have any extra kind of protection, her two offensive attacks being the only things and so she decided to piss Divatox off more and bring the Yellow Ranger into the picture. Sending a kick at the evil villain, Kira knocked her back long enough to allow her to pull out her Solar Morpher.
"Jungle Beast, Spirit Unleashed!" Divatox's face contorted into a whole new kind of angry and ugly expression seeing that the one she remembered as a baby was now a Ranger herself.
"With the Speed of the Cheetah, Jungle Fury Yellow Ranger!" Kira struck her pose just to add further insult and was fully prepared for when Divatox charged her in anger. While anger could be used as a weapon and could make a person more powerful, it had to be used in the right way and not without thought. She didn't even have to call on much of her strength and power that being in her morphed state gave her for Divatox's attacks were clumsy and predictable. After a few minutes, Kira was joined by Connor, who had not seen fit to morph, as Elgar joined his aunt, the two booking it out of there seeing that their Piranhatrons were gone and Divatox knowing it was going to take a bigger power to destroy this child of two Rangers.
"Idiot!" She cried, slapping Elgar over the head. "This is all your fault!"
"But Auntie D-"
"Shut up!" The two then disappeared, no doubt retreating to their submarine that Alpha informed them upon their arrival was once again untraceable, though they knew that she'd still be somewhere in a body of water close to Angel Grove. The two waited for the Turbo Rangers to finish off their battle and destroy the detonator, watching on the Viewing Globe as that happened and the Rangers teleported out of wherever they'd been, reappearing moments later in the Command Centre.
"Man that's still weird to not return to being a kid after de-morphing." Justin said. He'd morphed once, maybe twice, since The Countdown and so was by no means used to it yet.
"You get used to it." Kira assured him, knowing exactly how he felt, though she'd morphed frequently ever since she'd become a Ranger at age ten, continuing to morph as she grew and once she was grown. "Though I gotta admit, I kinda miss the body The Power gave me when I morphed as a kid."
"Yeah, The Power thought she'd be taller then she actually is so gave her a taller body then she has now." Connor laughed. Kira smacked him on the shoulder, ironically proving his point by being unable to reach his head without at least standing on her tiptoes, but otherwise let his comment go.
"So is this what's it gonna be like from now on until they're all destroyed?" Tanya asked. "Diffusing detonators every time?"
"Whatever formula of attack they used before they're using now as well." Carlos confirmed. "At least Astronema is."
"And Dai Shi and Mesogog." Kira also confirmed, earning groans from the three Turbo Rangers who had just joined the battle today. Like every other Ranger out there they'd kept up with what was going on, and how each Ranger team was faring, but not with how each specific battle went.
"Do not worry, Rangers." Alpha said. "I have faith you shall succeed."
"Thanks Alpha." Kat said with a smile.
"I have also updated your Turbo Navigators." The robot informed them, walking over to the consoles, the Turbo Rangers following close behind. "Their navigational frequency has been increased by 72.78%, as has the power output. They shall be able to locate any detonators far more quickly and precisely then before." He clarified without being asked, knowing, after all these years, that the technical talk really only made sense to Justin, Billy, and to a certain extent, Kat, having helped him and Billy out for many years, as well as being married to Billy to this day.
"That's awesome, Alpha!" Cried TJ happily. "You're the best!"
"Oh, aye yai yai!" He replied, evidently quite embarrassed; the inner Ranger family had gotten good at interpreting the various 'aye yai yais' that came from their beloved friend.
"So now we wait until she attacks again, right?" Asked Carlos as Alpha went back to doing whatever it had been that he was doing, none of them truly knew, or rather Justin probably did, but it obviously wasn't something that absolutely needed to be shared.
"Right." TJ agreed.
"Hey I got a question." Justin said, before anyone could decide to disband until needed.
"What's that Justin?" Kat asked.
"We heard Divatox wasn't destroyed by Zordon, but was actually turned good again, meaning she originally was, well, good."
"Yeah…" Said Tanya, wondering where he was going with this.
"Well, I'm just wondering who she really is. Like her real self, not the one trying to kill us." He admitted. "We don't really know anything about her, we probably know the least about her compared to the others who were originally good. I mean, Rita was the Mystic Mother, and Zedd was some emperor somewhere, Astronema is Karone, Ransik turned evil cause he hated humans so much, Adler was a scientist who chose to become Master Org, Lothor is Sensei's brother, Mesogog is Anton, Elsa is…a not evil Elsa, Koragg is Leanbow, Dai Shi is Jarrod and Camille is…a not evil Camille. We either know them personally, or know who they are, or were. But not Divatox."
"He's right." Kira said. "Like usual. We don't really know anything about her."
"Alpha, is there anything in the archives about who Divatox used to be before she was evil?" Kat asked, coming up beside him as the others crowded around again.
"Let me see…" He punched in a few buttons and read whatever information the screen fed him. "Not much of anything is known about her." He replied finally. "It says here that she is of the planet Inquiris, but who she was before becoming Divatox is unknown to us."
"Inquiris?" Said TJ. "Isn't that…?"
"Where Dimitria's from." Justin finished. They all remembered back to the one who had served as their mentor once Zordon had left, for two of them, she'd served as their only mentor for Zordon had left when they'd first become Rangers. Over the years they'd kept in touch with Dimitria, but hadn't actually seen her since she left to try and locate Zordon when he was captured just before the Power Chamber was destroyed.
"It can't hurt to ask can it?" Tanya wondered. Finding nothing wrong with asking, the Rangers got Alpha to try and contact Dimitria. They were in luck and Alpha succeeded, bringing the image of Dimitria up on the Viewing Globe as the connection went through.
"Rangers!" She greeted happily.
"Dimitria!" They cried back just as happily.
"It's so good to see you!" Kat added.
"And you as well. How fares your battle against Thrax and his forces?"
"Ours has just started." Said TJ. "Divatox showed up only today. Before now it's been other past villains. They're apparently appearing in reverse chronological order."
"I see. Is there in any way I can be of assistance in your fight against Divatox?"
"We hope so, that's why we called." Said Tanya. "We know Divatox used to be good, she wasn't destroyed by Zordon's energy, but was turned good again. But we know nothing about her."
"Our archives tell us that she's from your planet, from Inquiris. Do you know anything about her?" Asked Carlos.
"Indeed I do." Dimitria finally said, after a moment's hesitation.
"Well who is she?" Justin asked. "How do you know her?"
"And why haven't you said anything before?" Asked TJ.
"Before she was Divatox, while she was good, her name was Divinia, and she was my big sister."
"Your sister?!" The Rangers cried.
"Yes." Here Dimitria took a deep breath. "Like with Rita and Zedd, Dark Spector had turned his sights on my family, on powerful beings whom he wanted to fight for his darkness rather then for goodness. My mother and sister protected me from him, but at the cost of their own goodness. I did not mention this before, for I believed, for many, many years, that they had willingly become evil. As I believed that to be the case, that they had betrayed the light, I cut all ties with them, and so our fight against Divatox those many years ago was not, to me, a fight against my sister."
"But then she turned out to have been turned evil against her will." Said Kira, Dimitria nodded, knowing the two other Rangers there by name and appearance, though not on any more of a personal level.
"Exactly. When Divinia, or Diva as I called her, and my mother returned to Inquiris after Zordon's energy cleansed them, I spent years trying to make it up to them for believing the worst of them. Then, a few months ago, Thrax came for Diva, and I knew it would only be a matter of time until she began her fight against you once more."
"Well, at least we know who she is now." Tanya muttered after a moment.
"Dimitria we promise we will get her back." Kat said. "She will be good again."
"I know you will." She said, and they could tell by the kindness in her eyes that she was smiling under her veil. "I have never doubted you, Rangers. I have faith you will succeed. And if there is anything else I can do, please, do not hesitate to ask."
"We won't." Said TJ. "And thank you." Dimitria nodded and the connection was cut, leaving the Rangers with just that much more pressure; it seemed that most villains they fought were someone's loved ones, they couldn't let anyone fall through the cracks. Just as they were contemplating this fact, the alarms sounded throughout the Command Centre and the Viewing Globe lit up once more, this time automatically as the monitoring system kicked in and the city wide surveillance came up to show yet more Piranhatrons planted yet another detonator.
"Not again." Justin groaned. "We did this already today. There should be a rule that says she can only plant one detonator per day."
"I think it's worse then just a regular detonator." Said Carlos, who hadn't taken his eyes off the screen. The small device the Piranhatron Justin had seen holding was apparently not the detonator, but a remote, and the actual detonator, a huge one, was being hauled by three more Piranhatrons, right into the city centre.
"They're upping their game if they've got a remote." Said Tanya.
"We have to block that signal!" Said Justin, his brain working a mile a minute. "A timer's one thing, but a remote is another thing entirely. They could set it off at any moment!"
"And being in the centre of the city it's gonna cause a whole lot of damage." TJ concluded.
"Alpha, can you recalibrate one of the Turbo Navigators?" Justin asked.
"In what way?"
"As a frequency blocker. If I take one of the Turbo Navigators and get close enough to tap into the remote's frequency, do you think you'll be able to recalibrate another Navigator to block it? You said the power output has been increased right? It shouldn't be too hard to recalibrate a navigational frequency into a frequency blocker, and with the increased power output, you should be able to block it from here."
"Yes, I should be able to." He answered.
"Connor and I will stay and help Alpha in any way we can." Kira said.
"Um…shouldn't we be calling Ethan or Hayley for this?" Her mate asked, slightly scared. "Neither of us are great with technology."
"Just because you can't set the oven timer…" Kira trailed off with a smirk while nodding for the others to get going. They did just that and teleported downtown, arriving in time to see the Piranhatrons, at Elgar's direction, finish setting up the detonator.
"Elgar!" TJ called, as the five Rangers fell into a line.
"It's too late to stop us, Rangers!" He cackled.
"We'll see about that. Ready?" TJ called the morph as a Red Ranger for the first time in many years. If you didn't count earlier that day when they'd all just morphed without it actually being called, the last time he'd morphed into the Red Turbo Ranger being during the 'Red Mission.'
"Ready!"
"Shift into Turbo!"
"Mountain Blaster Turbo Power!"
"Dune Star Turbo Power!"
"Dessert Thunder Turbo Power!"
"Wind Chaser Turbo Power!"
"Red Lighting Turbo Power!"
It wasn't only TJ who hadn't morphed into their Ranger form for awhile, in fact most of them hadn't, earlier that day notwithstanding.
"Red Lightning Turbo Power Turbo Up!"
"Desert Thunder Turbo Power Turbo Up!"
"Mountain Blaster Turbo Power Turbo Up!"
"Desert Thunder Turbo Power Turbo Up!"
"Wind Chaser Turbo Power Turbo Up!"
"Power Rangers Turbo!"
The Rangers immediately launched on the attack, knowing that they didn't have much time, both by the timer on the detonator, and by the fact that Elgar now held the remote and could detonate whenever he wanted; they only hoped that he didn't chose now to smarten up but would instead be his usual bumbling self and would wait until Alpha had gotten the readings from Justin and neutralized the remote. While the Rangers fought the Piranhatrons, Justin did exactly what he said he'd do and pulled out his Turbo Navigator, flipping it on and getting as close to Elgar as possible. Thankfully, he as still as oblivious as ever, and so Justin was able to not only sneak up on him, but give Alpha more then enough time to get the readings he needed before Elgar noticed the Blue Ranger and began to attack him, the constant movement and jarring of the Navigator disrupting the signal.
"Got it!" They finally heard Alpha cry over the comm system. "Remote has been neutralized."
"Excellent!" They all yelled, now really getting into the battle instead of just trying to hold them off to buy Justin and Alpha time.
"Turbo Lighting Sword!"
"Turbo Hand Blasters!"
"Turbo Star Chargers!"
"Turbo Thunder Canon!"
"Turbo Wind Fire!" They called on the hardware and pointed them directly at the group of Piranhatrons that they'd grouped together exactly for this purpose.
"Fire!" Each firing their weapons at the same time, the foot soldiers were quickly dealt with, leaving only Elgar, who chose that moment to use the remote.
"Say goodbye Rangers!" He dramatically lifted the remote and pushed the button, waiting for the large explosion, which given his proximity would have destroyed him as well, though he was oblivious to that fact, that never came. "Huh? Why won't you work?" Elgar continued to press the button again and again, hoping that the outcome would change.
"It's not gonna work Elgar!" Cried Kat. "You should know by now that we don't leave anything to chance!"
"Ohh!" The minion growled, throwing the remote down in a fit of anger. "I'll get you for this Rangers! Auntie D's not gonna be pleased…" He muttered before disappearing. With one threat gone, the Rangers turned to the detonator which was still running its timer. Justin wasted no time in going over and diffusing it, the others leaving him to it for they knew they'd only get in the way unless he asked for help.
"Detonator diffused!" Their Blue Ranger cried happily some moments later.
"And Lightspeed is on the way to cart it off." Kira added through the comm. "With something that big we don't wanna run the risk of anyone getting their hands on it."
"Agreed." The Rangers said. They waited around just long enough for Lightspeed to show up and for Justin to brief the tech team, his tech team, they'd brought to deal with it before teleporting back to the Command Centre.
"Well we're back in action." Said Tanya. "Can't say I've missed it. Not with having kids this time around."
"I don't know how Tommy and Kim did it." Kat said, turning to her niece. "They were Rangers for years after having you, and then Tommy was an active Ranger when Eric was born as well…it's been one day and I'm already terrified that Divatox will set her sights on the children."
"She won't." Kira assured them. "Not after the ass kicking mom gave her when she got her hands on me."
"Not to mention Kira and I are here this time." Added Connor. "We've told Thrax time and time again that if any of his disciples go after any of the children, we'll come and destroy him without hesitating."
"And since he knows you guys are, well, you, he took the threat seriously." Carlos surmised.
"Basically yeah."
"Well, as much as we all don't want you to ever use that power." Kat said as she and Tanya collaborated on their best face to stress that point. "Thank you for watching out for our kids."
"They're my cousins." Kira said simply. "Anyone goes after them and they're gonna get creamed."
"Just don't go overboard." Alpha begged, getting in on the conversation, this particular topic being one he felt very strongly on; it was the topic that had brought about some of the first human emotion that the robot had felt. "I would miss you too much if anything happened to you. Either of you." He amended for Connor.
"Oh Alpha!" Kira cried, rushing forward and wrapping him in a hug.
"Oh…aye yai yai!" Laughter erupted throughout the Command Centre. This scene was typical and had been seen many times over the years, for various reasons. Although things were certainly different now, the normalcy brought about a sense of nostalgia for their days as active Rangers, and knowing how those days had ended, after trial and tribulation but with an ultimately happy ending, they were all hopeful that this battle would end in a similar manner.
A/N - I wanted to have Kira face off against Divatox, why I don't exactly know, but I did, though I don't think I did it justice.
We're getting there! Four more chapters to go!
Review please!