Volcano Storm chapter 20
"We're toast." Alexis deadpanned.
"Not the time." Danny replied. "How many you do you think there are?"
"At least 50 of the Manlays." Josh observed.
"The what?" Shane asked.
"Those big, wolf-type creatures. They don't have any special powers but there speed and strength is incredible. They can cut a man in half with one bite."
"Oh." Shane replied. "That's very comforting."
"Hello Rangers!" Kapri's voice boomed. "Did you miss us?"
"Like a toothache." Blake grumble from behind.
"We be here, and we gonna destroy the place." Ash-a-Trops rumbled.
The eight Power Rangers exchanged glances, all positioning in preparation of combat.
"Alexis, Shane, you're the leaders here. It's your call." Josh told them. Alexis almost wanted to call him out on his views on leadership, but decided it was neither the time nor situation. She looked at Shane, and an unspoken understanding passed between the two.
"Is there any place that's safe for the people who can't fight?" Alexis questioned.
"Yeah, room underneath one of the huts."
"All right, get everyone too young or unable to fight in there." Shane ordered.
"Everyone else, spread out and surround the village." Alexis told them.
"Keep those things out." Shane finished.
The villagers did as they were told, with most of them quickly spreading across the village boundaries. When Tori surveyed the area, she felt thankful for how the huts were built close together. But she also noticed a rift going though the sisters, alien, and island creatures. She could sense them preparing to attack. She and the others moved to join the inhabitants on the out rims of the village.
"Ready?" Shane and Alexis both asked.
"Ready." She, along with Hunter, Blake, Dustin, and Danny all replied. It felt unnatural not morphing directly after wards, but she was going to have to rely solely on her ninja powers for this fight.
"ATTACK!" Kapri screamed to her monsters. Almost immedietly, Tori found herself being closed in on by three different Manlays. Raising her hands, she shot streams of water up, effectively knocking back the first two. She then ducked and rolled to avoid the third one's leaping attack. Snapping back to her feet, she hit the third with a roundhouse kick to knock it off its legs. She turned and continued her attack on the coming forces.
Danny found himself in a similar position to Tori. He was jetting out streams of fire at the oncoming beasts. Around him he sensed various ninja using the elements to fend of the beasts. From his calculations there were about 35 natives helping in this fight, against more than 50 Manlays, with a possibility of more coming, add the fact that it was hard to get them down for good. Their best advantage was they could reason whereas these animals were incapable. He flattened himself for the second it took for a Manlay to sail over him, taking out another that would of leaped for his head. He set the heap on fire, a trick that would work best if the burning party was out cold. For a brief moment he surveyed what he could in effort to catch a glimpse of his friends.
Dustin had officially seen it all. Become a superhero, check. Fight in a giant robot, check. Smack down with aliens, check. Go to a seemingly 'lost' island floating in a different dimension which serves as a super-ninja prison? Check. He hadn't noticed the course of the others, instead choosing to go right for the sisters staying back, behind the action. Ash-a-Trops had somehow become occupied, because he wasn't near the villains-in-training. It was unfortunate, that for all their whining and complaining, the duo had actual training, and was actually able to hold their own in a fight. Dustin and Kapri met with element attacks, head on, ice versus earth. After wards, she brandished her sword and began pushing back at Dustin. He heard behind him what sounded like Marah, fighting against who knows who. Trying to end things with the pink-haired, ice-queen, he stomped his foot to send a bulge of earth, effectively knocking Kapri off her feet. He was just about to make a sarcastic remark when he was knocked to the ground. Above him stood the ugliest creature in existence. The Manlay stared down at him. Dustin became aware there was no trick in his ninja-database could get a creature of this weight of him. The Manlay opened it jaws, leaning down for the kill.
Dustin needed an extra second to process the Manlay had been blasted off him. It took a literal second for some invisible force to push the thing from its place over an at-time immobile Dustin. He jumped up from his position to see a teenager dressed in orange, holding out her staff that served as her smoking gun. She barely looked him in the eye for a second, but it was a long second to them both.
"Marah?" he asked confused at her actions. But, unlike normal, the younger sister composed her face like a mask, impossible for anybody to read any emotion off of. She had moved quickly to her knocked-down sister, helping the ice-ninja to her feet. She seemed about to turn back to him, but Kapri grabbed her by the forearm, and said something too quiet for Dustin to here. Before he could do anything about it, both girls disappeared into the forest.
"Man, these things just don't stay down." Hunter, remarked, after knocking out the same Manlay 5 times.
"Your telling me. They must of originally been some sort of defense system for the island." Shane replied as he blew back another animal." The boys continued fighting for a while before Shane spoke again.
"So, whats the deal with you and Alexis?"
"Dude, now really isn't the time."
"I'm serious. What happened when you snuck out?"
"You mean besides her brother bursting into the picture and spreading his wrath by nearly setting the forest on fire."
"Aww, dude, what'd he do to you? He seemed pretty pissed when he got back." Shane said as he quickly leaped from one tree to another.
"I'm more pissed because of what he did to Alexis. It's like he controls her." Hunter admitted before sending out a bolt of crimson lighting.
"Well, he is her older brother. He's probably used to her doing what he says. I mean, I would of thought you'd understand. Your always take charge with you and Blake."
"But I listen to him, I don't just dish orders."
Shane didn't reply, but he faced Hunter with a face that gave an impression of, `well...`.
Tori had taken out more Manlays then she could count. The animals just kept coming from the woods. Pulling water from the air and ground, she quickly learned they weren't fond of water. She combined the elemental attacks with her own fighting style, getting in closer to the animals before hitting them in joints or nerves, rendering them immobile. Admittedly, though tiring, it was getting easier. She was just beginning to enjoy the fight when the voice of one of her friends called a warning. "Tori!"
Turning, she found a posse of Manlays all coming straight for her. She couldn't risk getting close to so many opponents, and they were moving to fast to be taken out with the limited amount of liquid at her disposal. She inhaled in fear, deciding the best course of action would be to try and avoid them. Just as she was about to move, the sky directly above darkened, and the biggest bolt of lighting she had ever seen shot down to fry every one of them in a flash of navy. It hit the ground so hard, she lost her balance and fell onto her hip.
"What the heck...?" she said as she began to pick herself up. She was stopped by a hand reaching out to help her. Following up the arm, to the head, she saw Blake smiling sheepishly a her, with a tint of worry in his eyes. "Hey." she said, smiling just as he was.
"You okay?" he asked.
"Yeah, thanks to you." She said as she took his hand. When he'd pulled her to her feet, then just kind of stood there for a second.
"Anytime." he replied.
"I'll remember that." Another second went by before they realized there was still a battle going on around them, and they were still connected at the hand.
"Uhmm." Blake began, cutely ackward.
"We should probably.."
"Yeah." Blake agreed. They both turned back to the current threat.
"They're so cute." Alexis commented.
"It was a good thing he was there." Josh replied.
"Did you just compliment a Thunder Ninja?"
"I don't like the Thunders, doesn't mean I'm oblivious to the good that they do do."
"Really? 'Cuz, we've seen them do a decent amount of good, and this is first time you've ever said anything." Alexis pointed out as she burned another attacker. Josh just grunted in reply. They continued, using their aggressive fighting style to its fullest.
"I...miss...my...LAVA..SWORD!" Alexis complained between strikes. Knocking out another Manlay, for the time being, she saw an opportunity. "Josh, eleven o'clock." Ash-a-Trops was standing ahead of them. "Looks like he doesn't have a sparring partner."
"Well, why don't we give him one or two." Josh quipped. The siblings headed straight for the monster.
"Look, two mice to be slayed." Ash-a-Trops attempted.
"Seriously? I like you better when you couldn't speak." Alexis flew up in a tornado kick to his head. Josh and Alexis both unleashed a series of physical attacks on them, but found it did little good against his thick armor-like skin.
"It's like punching a volcano." Josh analyzed.
"That be the point."
"Dude, someone has got to fix your English."
Ash-a-Trops ignored them, and instead a cluster of holes appeared around them. Lava began spewing from the openings.
"So, you power is to make fire come from the ground." Josh observed. "Well guess what big guy, mine makes fire come from the sky." Josh only had to lift his hands and shoot fire into the sky. There, they formed into small but powerful spheres, coming down onto the alien.
"GAH!" it screamed at the oncoming assault. Alexis was ignoring him, instead gazing into the sky where Josh's attacks would take form. It was a highly advanced technique, one that she had never gotten to learn before Lothor abducted her entire school. It was because she had her eyes on the sky she saw it. The emerald dragon, just to the east, flying away from the battle. On instinct, she began running.
"Scarlet, where are you going?" Josh yelled at her.
"Just trust me!" She shouted over her shoulder before disappearing into the woods.
Josh summed all of his energy into one more fireball, bringing it down directly on the alien. It knocked the monster out of the fight, but only for a moment as the thing returned to its feet before disappearing as the sisters had. Turning to survey the battle, Josh saw they were winning. Most the Manlays were either retreating or dead.
"Lets end this. Push them back!" he heard Shane order. He joined the others in a last effort.
Once the Manlays had all ran back to the safety of their homes, the villagers let out a loud cheer. Danny came up, grinning wildly. The boys grabbed hands in a signature high-five, before turning and exchanging high-fives or 'good works' with the rest of the fighters. Danny and Dustin spent a moment discussing how awesome the fight was. The villagers who had been in safety emerged, and began tending to the wounded.
"Collect the dead Manlays." Josh ordered some of them. "Put them in storage, there'll be meat for weeks."
"Where's Alexis?" Hunter came up and demanded.
"You really want to start making demands on me, Bradley?"
"If you weren't Alexis' brother.."
"What, you'd hurt me? Lot of nerve for someone.."
"Alright, break it up, you two." Blake interrupted. "You've made it obvious you don't like each other, but the fact of the matter is, Alexis is not here, so she could be in danger."
Alexis had ran into the words, heading to where she thought the dragon had hovered above. She ran as first as she could, weaving between trees and rocks.
'Something is off about that dragon. Why do I think I can understand it? And whats with this whole pain thing?' She was jerked from her thoughts when she came to a sudden stop. The setting was cliché. A clearing in the forest, not large, but enough for the dragon to be resting there. She was only a few meters away. She could almost feel the emerald flames warmth. But she saw how small the aforementioned flames were. On close examination, the puke-green scales could be easily seen. It looked at her, but Alexis recognized the emotion in its eyes. Not anger, but fear.
"I'm not going to hurt you." she said softly, raising her hands and taking a tentative step forward. When it did not move, she tried a few more, but it huffed and tried to stand. Alexis halted. She watched, it struggle to get up, before giving up. When it looked back at Alexis, its face held a new expression. Resentment.
"Somethings wrong with you." Alexis realized. "Your sick." The dragon gave a low growl, which Alexis somehow knew to interpret as, 'no duh'.
"You've come here to die, and you want to me gone, because you think I'll kill you, and you just want to go in peace." The resent left the dragons eyes, and she saw once again a deep sorrow.
"I want to help you." the dragon obviously understood her words, but cocked its head as if to ask why.
"It's those flames, isn't it. The green fire. That's not right. They're whats hurting you." Alexis tried a few more steps, this time, the dragon did not move, just stared her straight in the eyes. "Let me help you."
All was still for a moment, before the dragon lowered its head, the flames there dying down. Alexis had another moment. 'This is its way of agreeing. Its saying, `okay`.' She carefully placed her hands on its head. "This will probably hurt us both." she warned before absorbing the flames.
It was the most excruciating pain Alexis had ever felt. A thousand times worse than the first time, but she kept going. She some how knew this is what needed to be done.
When she was finally done, she collapsed to her knees, breathing heavily. When she looked up again, her eyes widened in awe. It was undoubtedly the same dragon, but with a new majestic flare. Its scales now gleamed a bright scarlet color. The flame beginning to burst from its back were vibrant reds, oranges, and yellows. It was looking at her. She felt something new. It seemed like someone's thoughts had drifted into her head.
"You're welcome." she responded weakly. "Why do I know what you mean?"
'Bonded', came into her head.
"Because I saved you, we're bonded." she said, her voice getting weaker. "You got a name?"
It shook its head. "That won't due. We'll just have to pick something to call you." She looked up and down its body. "Most my friends call me Scarlet. Why don't we just call you Red." The dragon nodded in silent approval.
'Must go'
"Yeah, you probably have some business that needs tending to."
'Rest' Alexis gave a small laugh. "I will. I'll be fine"
She kept her consciousness long enough to see Red fly off. She could see the darkness closing in and feel her body falling backwards. She was only awake long enough to hear a male voice, filled with love and concern.
"Alexis!"
A/N-HI EVERYBODY! So, that was fun, very little things on interest happened if your reading this for the Hunter/Alexis-ness, but I promise, there will be a lot more in the next chappy. I don't know bout y'all, but I'm so ready to get you all to the end of VS. In fact, sooo ready, I have decided, with the exception of a quick Christmas presnt, will not be uplaoding anything else onto FF until its done. Your welcome.
So, I'd like to give a shout out, so much thanks to HunterBradley, whose offered to make a cover for this story.
So, what'd y'all think. So much thanks to dsiuser, who gave me the original idea of the dragon.
Special Thanks To
HunterBradley
Malloryxoxome
vanillapalmtrees(that is so true, I do make you wait months. You know, I never really realized that til now)
StellaTori
ninjaxman
kitten9322( hey sry theres no Dustin/Marah, but heres my theory. In between when Marah played the good guy and the season finale it seemed like they hadnt had any contact, and im trying to keep this as cannon as possible. So, I apologize I cant do what you requested)
Lamoyasmith vs blakeNtori
D.J. Scales
Guest( you know what, if your the same person everytime, I'm beginning to really like you)
BooksFan101
MintyMintMint
White Fairy Writer( happy now? And its even before Thanksgiving)
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