"Did the zords retreat successfully?" Billy asked.
"They did, Billy." Alpha answered.
The power rangers, now in civilian attire, watched the viewing globe as it portrayed a triumphant Zulwarn. "I can't believe this is happening," Jason reacted. "I should've known better than to risk it all with that attack."
Placing a hand on Jason's shoulder, Kimberly consoled, "You're a great leader, Jason. You kept us confident against a nasty enemy."
"You must not blame yourself for the loss, Jason," Zordon coached. "We were in over our heads. We must observe while the zords recover to see if new intelligence can be obtained."
"Ayayay!" Alpha shouted. "I do hope we can find some way of besting that zord."
Trini opined, "That miasma crippled our zords. It was like Cyclopsis all over again." [1]
"Man, that guy makes Cyclopsis look like a wind-up toy!" Zach fumed.
"His power was rather frightening," Billy agreed.
"Who IS he anyway?" Tommy voiced his frustrated curiousity.
"He could be extra-dimensional, given the spontaneity of his assault," Billy speculated.
"I should've gotten there sooner!" Tommy lamented. "Now he's free to kill again!"
"Tommy," Kimberly gently said, then slightly tearing up as she gave Tommy a hug.
Looking Tommy in the eye, Jason agreed "That's what pisses me off the most too."
A set of fast beeping sounds filled the command center, prompting Alpha-5 to check the computers and the rangers to turn their attention to him.
"Alpha, what is the radar reading?" Zordon inquired.
"There's a power source approaching the enemy right now!" Alpha answered, "It appears to be another zord! It should be visible momentarily!"
"Guys, look!" Tommy projected. On the viewing globe, the rangers, Alpha, and Zordon witnessed the entry of the glorious white ATAC Ultragunner. They stared in wide-eyed wonder at the amazing mech as they awaited its first action.
"Faulkner!" Bastion shouted as he directed the Ultragunner towards Zulwarn.
"Bastion?! No! You can't be here!" Faulkner spoke in shock.
"Well whatever brought me here must have brought both of us here," Bastion concluded. "Now park that ATAC and stand down!"
"Heh heh heh," Faulkner laughed. "This is the best thing that's ever happened to me. This world's only ATACs fell to my power. Soon, I will rule it all…"
"Are they..talking?" Kimberly wondered out loud.
"I will check, Kimberly," Alpha offered as he pressed a few button. A small screen showed an oscillating frequency reading. "Yes! They are exchanging communications signals!"
"Alpha, tap into their frequency," Zordon instructed.
From the control panel's speakers, the rangers heard Faulkner's voice continuing his sentence, "…and have more lands under my thumb that I could ever have had in Eptina."
"I will not stand for your tyranny, Faulkner! Not in Eptina nor here!" Bastion threatened.
"Come now, kid. You know your ATAC can't defeat me!" Faulkner boasted.
"Come on, give me a little credit. Besides, it looks like your last opponents roughed you up a bit. You're at less than full strength." Bastion resisted.
"I know that voice! It's Bastion!" Trini exclaimed
"The new guy?" Jason checked. "Where'd he get a zord?" he said in curiosity.
"I don't know, but if he can stop that evil zord, I'm glad he's got it," Zack opined.
"You and the Ultragunner will be made to serve me as emperor, Bastion! And you don't have a say in the matter!" Faulkner tyrannically dictated. He wrapped his hands around 2 rods on the control panel and grunted, "Ha!" Once again, piercing waves of dark energy emanated from the Zulwarn. The miasma gripped Ultragunner at its many joints. Inside, Bastion winced in pain. Flexing many of his finely shaped muscles, Bastion struggled to push the dark energy off. Faulkner taunted, "You can't resist me without your friends here!" Bastion started thinking about his friends from Eptina, such as Reyna, Andrew, and Sadira. Then he thought about Puck, who was still with him, monitoring the Ultragunner's systems. He finally thought about the new friends he had made in the last 2 days, including Trini, Zack, Billy, Jason, Kimberly, Tommy, and Ernie. He remembered that even though he was the new kid in town, they treated him like part of a family. Strengthened by the thoughts of his friends, he forced himself to stand up as the gravity of the miasma tried to pull him down.
"Hua!" Bastion shouted as he sharply stretched his arms, violently dispelling the miasma that gripped him before. As he broke free, the Ultragunner emitted soft waves of gentle, comforting, white light. As the bright light spread across the battlefield, the dark miasma started to dissipate, giving way to the daylight once again.
"Damn!" Faulkner cursed. "I'll just have to smash you the old fashioned way! Gah!" Faulkner grunted as he marched Zulwarn across the beach towards Ultragunner. The 2 mechs began their clash trading blocked punches and pushes. Zulwarn then dove in with an uppercut to Ultragunner's stomach. The energetic Ultragunner countered with a backfist to Zulwarn's forehead, from which Ultragunner turned a combination including a reverse punch and a roundhouse kick. Faulkner grunted and reeled from the hard strikes. The ever-determined madman pointed Zulwarn's hand out at Utragunner and fired several sharp blue projectiles from Zulwarn's tremendous shoulders. Marching in towards Ultragunner, Zulwarn led with a side-kick that drove Ultragunner back several yards. Bastion cringed in pain from the impact but recovered just in time to block a roundhouse kick. Zulwarn continued his combination with an elbow to Ultagunner's face. The strike sharply forced Ultragunner's head back, but then Bastion recovered and had Ultragunner kick Zulwarn's shin. Ultragunner then grabbed Zulwarn's head and forcefully pulled Zulwarn's into Ultragunner's awaiting knee. Zulwarn rolled with strike, backpedaling several steps. "Draw!" Faulkner shouted as Zulwarn produced the Soulstab and fired a ring of energy blasts at Ultragunner. Inside the Ultragunner's bridge, Bastion flexed his pectorals and tensed his shoulders. In response, Ultragunner fired wide, white energy beams from 2 concealed guns on its shoulders, neutralizing the black blasts. Seeing the Soulstab halberd in Zulwarn's metal hands, Bastion drew Eternus, the Ultragunner's great sword. Bastion and Faulkner stared each other down via their mechs as Zulwarn and Ultragunner attempted to circle one another.
"Come on, Faulkner, bring it!" Bastion dared.
"Try me, rookie!" Faulkner taunted back.
Simultaneously, the mechs swung their melee weapons at each other, and several loud clangs resounded between them as their blades collided. Zulwarn swung the Soulstab overhead, which Ultragunner met with an upward block. Pressing his halberd against the Eternus, Faulkner motioned for the Zulwarn to push at Ultragunner. Bastion had the Ultragunner push back, causing them to separate again. Zulwarn quickly dove forward with front kick, which stunned Ultragunner long enough for Zulwarn to wind up and deliver a hard thrust with spear of the Soulstab. Finally, Zulwarn made a charging tackle against the Ultragunner, causing it to fly backwards and fall on its back.
"Ouuff!" Bastion shouted as Ultragunner hit the earth.
Zulwarn gestured its open hand forward and outstretched its fingers. The Heaven's Gate symbol formed before Zulwarn in response.
"We've still got power, Bastion. Let's get back in this!" Puck encouraged.
Zulwarn started flinging black throwing-stars at the slots in the black pentagram with wrist-snapping motions.
Recovering from the bump, Bastion affirmed, "Right. We can't let him destroy this world like he tried to destroy ours. I just wish we didn't bring him here."
"Don't blame yourself for that, Bastion. We had no way of controlling that."
Ultragunner rose back to its feet, gripped the Eternus in both hands, and sprinted aggressively at its nemesis. Coming with range as Zulwarn held the Soulstab high above its head ready to chop the Heaven's Gate symbol, Ultragunner swung Eternus in a hard slash across Zulwarn's shoulders, knocking it off-balance and dissipating the icon of black energy it had produced. Finishing the follow-through of its massive swing, Ultragunner then took the Eternus in its right hand and back-slashed the side of Zulwarn's head. A deep gash appeared in Zulwarn's metal collar. Ultragunner pulled the incredible sword back around Zulwarn's left shoulder in an attempt to finish the combination, but this time the Eternus met a hard block from the Soulstab. Ultragunner reacted quickly by C-stepping into a left hook to Zulwarn's head. To finish the assault, Ultragunner shouldered the Eternus, grabbed Zulwarn's head in both hands and pulled it forward slightly while moving a leg behind one of Zulwarn's, and then shoved Zulwarn's head in an backwards arch shape while buckling its right leg.
"Nice slam!" Puck congratulated.
"It's not over yet!" Bastion advised, as he cued the Ultragunner to swing Eternus into his grounded nemesis. Zulwarn rolled away from the great white sword and pointed the Soulstab up at Ultragunner, firing yet another ring of black lasers. Ultragunner backpedaled with the stunning blast as Zulwarn returned to its feet and re-engaged its opponent. More clangs echoed as the Eternus and Soulstab collided during the wielders' attempts to inflict more damage upon each other. After yet another clash of metal on metal, Ultragunner made a quick side-hop to the right and made an inward slash at Zulwarn's exposed shoulder. Zulwarn dodged the strike with a quick knee-dropping hop and countered with a halberd chop to Ultragunner's back. After landing the hard chop, Zulwarn lifted up Ultragunner from behind and threw the mighty white mech as hard as Faulkner could make it with a 2-handed thrusting motion.
"Whoooaa-aah!" Bastion screamed as the Ultragunner sailed face first into the solid ground. Cracks formed in Ultragunner's chest plate.
"We've gotta turn it up now. Puck, give me all the power you got!" Bastion urged.
From the Zulwarn, Faulkner boasted, "I have you now, sweet prince!" Zulwarn formed the black pentagram as Ultragunner started to stand back up. Faulkner, so focused on forming the Heaven's Gate symbol and throwing energy stars into the outer ring, did not notice that Ultragunner was leaping high into the air while Eternus was charging up with soft white energy. Ultragunner had the Eternus great sword held in both hands atop its head, blade pointing back.
"Hang on, Puck," Bastion warned his diminutive friend before he shouted at the top his lungs, "Soaring Dance!" Ultragunner, aglow with white energy, dove at Zulwarn at a 45 degree angle with a crushing overhead swing of Eternus.
Zulwarn raised the Soulstab above head-height and loudly shouted, "Heaven's Gate!" as he struck the spinning black pentagram he had just produced. As he finished his final strike, Ultragunner suddenly came crashing down on Zulwarn with a tremendous strike that knocked Zulwarn flying off its feet and back into a rocky crag. Faulkner screamed in startled pain upon the brutal impact. As Zulwarn flew back, a long streak of white energy exploded in Zulwarn's face, neck, and chest, causing pieces of its lower face to detach. When Zulwarn fell on its backside, its head suddenly slumped over as the previously weakened connection between its collar and neck collapsed. "Ughf!" Faulkner grunted as his mech his the earth.
Faulkner glanced over at Ultragunner, which was restoring its stance. Zulwarn raised its right hand in Ultragunner's direction and clenched it into a fist. The Heaven's Gate symbol, now located directly below Ultragunner's feet, contracted into a tall, slender tower of energy, which violently exploded over Ultragunner's entire frame, ravaging it fiercely. Inside, Bastion and Puck piercingly screamed in painful terror. As the sparks projected in every direction, Ultragunner's cracked chest plate shattered, sending pieces all over the nearby grounds and exposing the inner components of the Ultragunner. When the explosions finally relented, Bastion, breathing hard and still in pain, declared, "We gotta end it!" Ultragunner slowly moved its left leg forward.
Seeing the Ultragunner damaged but still standing, Faulkner struggled hard, trying to will the Zulwarn to move, but its legs would simply not respond. "Damn it!" Faulkner cursed. Ultragunner took another slow, difficult step in Zulwarn's direction. Faulkner sulked slightly, then angrily grunted at Bastion, "You haven't seen the last of me, kid!" Faulkner opened a glass covering to a large, red button on the Zulwarn's control console. He then slammed his open hand on the button. Blood flowed out of Zulwarn's reserve tanks and into the engines. Zulwarn's detached parts glowed with energy and flew towards the mech's superstructure. Soon, Zulwarn itself was nothing more than a glowing, amorphous ball of dark blue energy. Finally, the dark-glowing remnants of the Zulwarn faded from sight.
"Grr..he got away!" Bastion lamented. Ultragunner then dropped to its knees.
"Bastion, we're damaged and out of power." Puck added.
[1] MMPR Episodes 39-40, "Doomsday"