Chapter 24 - A Rocky Conundrum
Mab was a creature of convenience. She followed whoever would lead her to the most destruction and devastation. She'd thought it was herself, but Thana had always held her back. She had considered it might be Arcanon, but he'd proven himself useless when he'd lost the Silver Energem.
She had simply offered her allegiance to Arcanon so that she could split from her weaker counterpart, wanting to be free as Kerberos had become. By that point, she already knew what she was going to do next, and it only took a few whispered words to form an alliance with Poisandra and the others.
Thana had bumped into Sledge shortly after his ship had crash-landed on Earth. He was injured, but alive, staggering out of the wreckage carrying a bag under his arm when he'd seen her. At first he'd assumed - like all the others - that she was a weak human. She'd quickly proven him wrong.
Now he'd returned, just in time to finish Arcanon off and claim the Dark Energem for his own. And not just the Dark Energem, but the young man who'd touched it and destroyed Conductro and Screech with one attack before passing out.
Now, Mab followed Sledge, knowing him to be far more powerful than Arcanon could ever hope to be. Even if he let his fiancée shove him around, furious that he'd faked his own death. Unaware that they were being watched in the distance, the group gathered in the clearing by Sledge's ship, and he was furious that it was still on the ground and in disarray.
"If you're quite done," Mab rolled her four eyes as Sledge quietly sang to himself and Poisandra fumed. "We still have a lot to do if we're going to destroy those brats," she pointed out.
"Wrench, how are the ship's fuel cells?" Sledge turned to his loyal robotic minion.
"We're using all the power we have left to cloak the ship from SPD and the Rangers!" Wrench explained, hoping that the explanation would appease Sledge since he still hadn't finished repairing the ship. Any power that wasn't being used to cloak the ship was diverted into the Reanimator so that Thana, Mab and Arcanon could continue to throw monsters at the Rangers.
"We need to get this ship in the air," Sledge growled, not accepting the excuse.
"I hardly think that power is an issue for us, now that we have this," Mab tossed the Dark Energem in the air and caught it. She then held it up, admiring the unnerving glow of the gemstone. "With the power of the Dark Energem, we can easily get the ship up and running again," she said with a grin.
"You're right," Sledge agreed. "And speaking of the Dark Energem, how is our new friend doing?" Sledge asked.
"Still asleep, Master Sledge," Fury was the one to respond, having been keeping an eye on the young human that had touched the Dark Energem and absorbed its power. After Sledge had destroyed Arcanon and they'd claimed the Dark Energem for themselves, they'd decided to take him as well to see just what the effects had been. After all, unlike Teddie, he hadn't developed a new self.
"Finally, our plan is in place," Sledge smirked as he turned to his ship. "And the Dark Energem is going to make it all possible!" he declared, which encouraged the rest to laugh.
In the bushes nearby, Mack and James exchanged worried looks. They'd heard the entire conversation, and knew now that not only was Sledge alive and well, but had the Dark Energem in his possession.
"We need to warn the others," James whispered to his friend. Mack nodded, knowing that the danger was far from over.
When James and Mack returned to the Ranger base, they were joined by Philip, who had been called in as well. When they got there, the other Rangers smiled, greeting them.
"Hey dad!" Tyler hugged Mack tightly, glad to see him again. The former Red Ranger smiled, just as happy to be reunited with his son. While he trusted Tyler could handle things without him around, there was still a lot he had to make up for.
"What the…?" Mack realised there was cream behind Tyler's ear, and wiped it away. Tyler laughed, embarrassed as Kendall glared at him and most of the other Rangers giggled. "Do I want to know?" Mack asked.
"No," Kendall said shortly. The giggles intensified, and Kendall turned a glare at them as even Spencer had to suppress a smile.
"Welcome, Power Rangers," they turned serious as Keeper appeared to them, walking towards the group with a fond smile. "Although we have all twelve Energems, and Arcanon has been defeated, we still face a great threat," Keeper warned the group.
"And thanks to James and Mack, we finally have an upper hand," Kendall said as they all turned to the pair.
"We've discovered the monsters' base. Their spaceship crashed, but wasn't destroyed," James explained, laying out the map to point out where they had finally located Sledge's ship. It had taken months of exploring, but they'd finally gotten lucky. "It was cloaked. From what I can tell, they used all their remaining power to keep it hidden," he added.
"That would be why we couldn't find it, even with SPD's help," Riley considered as he glanced at Spencer. The Gold SPD Ranger wasn't impressed that their tech couldn't breach the cloaking field on the ship, and was already making a mental note to drag Kayden and Bridge off to improve their systems.
"That's where the Dark Energem will be," Mack added.
"That's great," Shelby smiled, glad to finally get some good news. The location of the Dark Energem and the ship was knowledge that would give them an upper hand, so they weren't just reacting to monster attacks all the time.
"It's not all great," James warned carefully. He looked grim. "Mab has a new partner…Sledge," he watched as the name brought out a reaction in the rest of the Rangers.
"He survived?" Olivia breathed, feeling like she was going to be sick.
"Why would Teddie and Mab work with Sledge?" Chase wondered. His hands were clenched tightly as he wondered just what was going on with his sister, and the helpless feeling returned to him. It was only when Olivia reached out and gently took his hand that he was able to take a breath.
"Maybe that's why Teddie helped you guys?" Riley suggested. "She clearly wasn't working with Arcanon, so maybe it was a way to thwart his plan?" he wondered. Chase didn't speak, not wanting to accept that Teddie would only help them because she was working with Sledge.
"Wonder what happened to Singe and those two robed freaks…" Jeremy said quietly, thinking about how Conductro and Screech had escaped. Singe hadn't been seen since Arcanon's defeat either.
"Maybe Sledge getting hold of the Dark Energem was what made your powers go crazy," Arianna suggested gently to Heckyl, who hadn't spoken. He looked thoughtful, and shrugged as James and Philip both looked concerned at the idea of him losing control of his powers.
"The White Energem was in close proximity to the Dark Energem for a while," Ari spoke up, having been thinking about it for a while. "Perhaps it's given you a link of sorts, one that makes you aware of its power?" she considered aloud.
"A link to the Dark Energem. Wonderful," Heckyl muttered. "Right now I'm more concerned about Sledge surviving his ship's crash," he said, bringing them back to the matter at hand.
"And he working with Mab now?" Koda shivered. "This…very bad," he said, not liking the idea of Sledge working with Teddie's other self.
"Indeed. We had trouble defeating him before, and now he has the Dark Energem," Philip thought back to their last battle against Sledge, who had completely overpowered and outmatched them with the Purple Energem in his control. It was a fight that still gave them all nightmares.
"Whatever do we do now?" Ivan wondered quietly.
"I say we hit them with everything we've got," Chase's determined words made them all turn to him. "Every Megazord. We destroy the monsters, the spaceship, the Dark Energem, and save Ted," he was tired, ready to finish it now that they had the upper hand. Most of the team nodded, agreeing with his plan. Shelby, however, looked far less convinced, and Heckyl noticed this.
"Shelby?" he called her name, pulling her from her thoughts and diverting the attention to the Pink Ranger. "What are you thinking?" Heckyl asked, having had doubts of his own regarding Chase's plan.
"That might work, but…" Shelby trailed off for a moment, unsure. She rarely gave ideas or suggestions to the team, and while what she had suggested in the past had always been well-received and helpful, she still felt self-conscious about it. It wasn't until Tyler took her hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze that she looked up again. "But there's no way to be sure we destroyed the Dark Energem," she pointed out. Even Chase had to agree with this. After all, they'd used the power of their UltraZord against Arcanon, and the Dark Energem had survived that attack.
"Do you have a plan, Shelbs?" Jeremy asked, arms folded. Shelby nodded.
"We sneak onto Sledge's ship and crush the Dark Energem. A surprise attack," her suggestion wasn't what the team expected, but none of them could deny how effective it sounded.
"We've been on the ship before," Tyler pointed out as he saw the looks shared by the rest of the team. A sneak attack was good while they had the advantage, but it was still risky. "We know our way around," he reminded them.
"It's the only way to make sure we've destroyed the Dark Energem," Shelby explained, knowing that while their Zords were more powerful, the Dark Energem was so small they risked it falling into someone else's hands again.
"I agree," she was surprised when Heckyl backed her up. "We were careless when we defeated Arcanon, and it ended up in Sledge's hands because of it. If we sneak in and take care of it there, we can be sure it doesn't happen again," he said, and Shelby nodded thankfully for the backup.
"If we do it that way, we can get to Teddie as well," Chase considered.
"Okay, no Megazords," Kendall decided as the others all seemed to agree with Shelby's plan. "We go on foot, and we infiltrate them quietly," she told them, and her eyebrows furrowed. "And we do this together. Nobody runs off alone," the Purple Ranger warned.
"When have we ever done that?" Tyler asked innocently. Ari snorted and Kendall rolled her eyes.
What the Rangers hadn't taken into consideration, was that Sledge and his crew might have set up hidden sensors to alert them to intruders in the forest. While James and Mack had managed to slip past them without realising, the group of twelve was just too big to do the same.
None of the team spoke as they moved. James was leading the way while Koda moved with him. The caveman's senses were the best of anyone in the team, and so he kept to the front to watch out for anyone approaching. Chase was at the back to make sure that nobody tried to ambush them from behind as he used his ninja senses to stay alert.
To their dismay, Koda sped up to stop James, but that was as much warning as he was able to give before Vivix were on them. While the fight originally went in their favour, it quickly turned sour when the monster Badusa showed up, and Jeremy had only just turned and looked at the amulet Badusa was holding when he was turned to stone.
Soon, only Shelby, James, Heckyl and Philip were the only ones left, and Shelby pulled them behind a tree to hide as she realised just what was happening. Heckyl cursed as they heard Badusa taunting them, wandering around. They couldn't just run away and leave their friends, but one look at the amulet and they'd go the same way.
"I haven't had this much fun since I destroyed the Kyoryuger Galaxy!" Badusa laughed gleefully, and Heckyl's breath caught. It was too similar to Arcanon; his mockery and enjoyment in taking lives and destroying planets. He couldn't just hide there.
"I'll handle this," he whispered, grabbing his goggles from his side where they usually swung, and pulled them over his head. Instantly the tinted lenses clouded everything in a sepia tone, and he stepped out from behind the tree.
"Heckyl!" Shelby hissed as she grabbed for him, but he dodged her.
"Don't do it," James pleaded, but couldn't move from their hiding place without risking turning to stone himself. Badusa just laughed as he saw Heckyl approaching with his hand starting to glow blue.
"A volunteer? How fun!" Badusa taunted, dodging the energy thrown at him. He was faster than he looked, managing to land a punch that knocked Heckyl back several paces. "I'll rip those stupid things off your face!" he warned, but as he started to move again, something golden hit from behind. Heckyl's eyes went wide as he saw the golden ball of energy explode, and Badusa staggered forwards. "Who was that?!" he snarled, whirling around.
"What…" Heckyl breathed, now fully aware of Teddie's presence lingering at the edges of his senses. Another ball of light flew down from the treeline, and Badusa cursed as it hit him and exploded, knocking him to the ground.
"Who's there?" the monster snarled as he pushed himself back up. Seeing an opportunity, Heckyl threw out a hand, blasting Badusa with his powers and making him roar in pain. "Give it up, Ranger!" Badusa then threw out his arms and broke free of the energy. In a flash, he fled, leaving them with eight petrified friends.
"Are you okay?" Shelby asked as she, Philip and James ran over. Heckyl pulled his goggles back down to hang around his neck, not responding as he scanned the treeline for any sign of Teddie. However, as Badusa had fled, she'd vanished too.
"Heckyl?" James called gently, and he snapped out of his thoughts.
"I'm fine," he nodded, before looking over at their friends. "They however, aren't," Heckyl considered as Shelby walked over to where Tyler was standing, petrified in a fighting stance.
"This is all my fault…" Shelby whispered, tears in her eyes as guilt made her stomach churn. She looked up at her boyfriend, blaming herself for everything.
"We've got to get them out of here," Philip warned as he looked around. They were sitting ducks for another attack.
"But how? They're solid stone," Heckyl wondered as he examined Jeremy's statue. The Silver Ranger's confused expression was captured perfectly.
"I can help with that," he jumped as Ari appeared beside him. Heckyl shot her an irritated look, annoyed that she always managed to sneak up on him. Despite the situation, she grinned. "Back to the base we go," Ari snapped her fingers, and they all vanished in a flash of golden light.
Shelby had fallen silent when they had reappeared back in the base. She didn't even complain about how disorientated the teleportation spell left her, and instead sat down with her head bowed.
"Ari, do you have a way to fix them?" James asked hopefully as Philip walked around, studying their friends' frozen forms. The woman hummed as she stood in front of Chase, looking over her son carefully.
"Petrification magic is notoriously difficult to break. I've seen it before and it's usually nasty," she said, but her hands lit up with golden magic anyway as she tried to work through the spells she knew. Chase's statue lit up with the same golden light, but nothing happened. Ari winced as she felt her magic bouncing off the stone harmlessly. "Finishio," she tried, but even that was useless. "Worth a shot…" she muttered.
"Anything?" Philip asked as he walked back over.
"Nothing. Like I said, petrification magic is a pain. When I experienced it in the past, the only way to break the spell was to destroy the focus of the magic," Ari explained.
"Then we must destroy Badusa's amulet," Philip realised. "That way they should return to normal," he said, and James nodded. Mack approached slowly, looking at his own son's statue with a pained look.
"I think I finally understand how my dad felt…" he muttered, and Ari raised an eyebrow at him.
"Took you long enough," she replied, and he went blushed.
"But how do we fight him without turning to stone ourselves?" James wondered, turning to Heckyl. "What about your goggles?" he asked, and Heckyl blinked, seeming to have been in thought before James addressed him.
"My goggles only work for me because I see things in different ways to humans. They wouldn't work for you," he answered with a shrug. Both James and Philip sighed. "If we could get him away from the amulet, we can destroy it. But he shrugged off my powers. The only reason I was able to hit him was because…" he trailed off, and looked over at Ari. "Because of Teddie," he finished, and her eyes widened.
"Teddie helped you?" Spencer asked, having been watching from near the computers. Heckyl nodded. "Okay, it kind of made sense when it was against Arcanon, but why would she help against someone that Sledge sent against you?" he pushed his glasses up to pinch the bridge of his nose.
"Your guess is as good as mine," Heckyl shrugged, frustrated at the lack of answers regarding the young woman who had been helping from the shadows.
"We can work on that afterwards," they were surprised by Ari's decision. Both went to argue, but they saw her expression, and Spencer didn't miss how tightly her fists were clenched. She hated that she had to say it, but there were other things to worry about. "Heckyl can't take Badusa by himself, and I don't particularly like the idea of sending one Ranger in alone regardless," she said.
"It appears only acceptable when it's you," Philip said without thinking, and instantly blushed crimson when Ari turned to him and raised an eyebrow. Arianna giggled. "My apologies," he said quietly, not missing Ari's faint smile.
"But just how do we fight Badusa when we can't look at him?" James wondered.
"We could destroy him with the Megazord. We'd be safe in the cockpit," Philip suggested, trying to quickly move past his slip as Arianna patted his arm sympathetically.
"As good an idea as that is, the Zords belonging to the petrified Rangers won't respond," Ari warned them, and they groaned.
"None of our Zords have cockpits," James realised. All of them turned to Spencer in hopes that he could help, but he just offered an apologetic smile.
"I'd love to help, but our SWAT Zords are currently getting a tune-up after a giant robot attack," he explained.
"Then what do we do?" Heckyl shrugged as his frustration grew with every suggestion shot down. "Build a new Zord?" he asked, and saw Ari's eyes light up. "I was kidding," he said quickly, raising his hands. "I have no idea where to even start with that!" he protested, looking over at Spencer.
"First off, I have no clue how to build a Zord, and second…I'm not allowed to work with tech bigger than a toaster for the next month," Spencer gave a weak chuckle, and they all looked confused. "Bridge and I set another fire trying to incorporate a pancake maker into his computer," he admitted, blushing himself. "I wasn't sure who was going to kill us first, Sky or Annie," he muttered.
"Luckily for both of you," Ari spoke, shooting her son a strange look as she wondered just where his technical behaviour had come from. "I had someone else in mind," she declared, pulling her phone from her pocket.
"Any idea what she's doing?" James whispered to the others.
"I've given up trying to guess at this point," Heckyl replied.
"Hey, Dr. O!" Ari greeted cheerfully as someone picked up on the other end. "I was wondering, you've built Zords before, right? I'm thinking of the Dino Thunder ones in particular," she said, smiling as someone else spoke on the other end.
"Dr. O?" James wondered aloud.
"Tommy Oliver," Spencer answered. James inhaled in shock. They'd all heard about the legendary Ranger who had Ari beat in terms of infamy. "He was mum's science teacher in Reefside High, and their Dino Thunder Black Ranger," he explained, as if reading their thoughts on just why Ari called him Dr. O.
"She can't be suggesting that we really build a Zord," Heckyl rubbed his temples at the very idea.
"It was your idea," Arianna pointed out, giggling when he turned a droll stare on her.
"Awesome!" they turned back at Ari's exclamation. "Then you can teach Shelby all about how to make a Zord from scratch!" Shelby's tear-filled eyes went wide as she lifted her head quickly.
"Oh boy," James gave a weary sigh.
"This team gets more ridiculous by the day," Heckyl muttered.
This is one of my favourite episodes, and both times I've written it has been a lot of fun.
I hope you liked it!
Please review!