After Darkness Falls
"Green and Black"
Disclaimer: I do not own Power Rangers, that is owned by Saban/Disney. Carri and all things related to Carri (including Jason's cougar ninjetti power) belong to KJ with many thanks. Everyone else belongs to me.
A/N: One of the samurai rangers makes an appearance in the beginning, and I'm using what I assume to be the morphing call from the promo. And I would like to thank KJ for helping decide on one of the rangers to bring in, so thank you! Kim's powers were inspired by KSuzie, but unlike KSuzie's she cannot travel between dimensions, only time and space. As always, reviews are appreciated.
Kim woke up, the side of her heard freezing cold. As she opened her eyes and blinked the dizzyness away she saw that she was passed out in the street. She began to sit up, quickly grabbing her head as it throbbed, slowly she continued to try and make it to her feet. "How did I...get here?" she asked as she stared down the long dark alley. She began to slowly inch forward, trying not to fall over from the pain in her head. She checked her hand for blood coming from her head, but there was none.
As she reached the corner she turned and saw a fire escape. Grabbing on and praying she wouldn't fall she began to climb up, to figure out just where exactly she was. Slowly she made her way up until she was standing on the roof of what she assumed was an apartment building. She looked around until she saw something that caught her eye, the "Welcome to Angel Grove" sign. It was partially buried beneath rubble, beyond it all she could see was a crater where the city should be. "What the hell happened?" she asked herself. Nothing was making any sense. The last thing she remembered was talking with Carri on their couch, then turning in for the night. She was certain that an entire city couldn't just vanish while she was sleeping.
She decided to go down and poke around the crater, see if she could find anything that might explain what had happened. As she made her way through the streets of Stone Canyon she heard someone, a man, cry out for help. Following the cry as quickly as she could without passing out she found the man in question, a teenage boy. "You!" he cried out as he saw Kim standing there, staring at him. "Rangers Together, Samurai Forever!" he called out, morphing into a green ranger she had never before.
Kim watched as he ran towards her, his sword drawn. "I cannot deal with this right now..." she groaned as she sluggishly moved to avoid his attack. "Feral Jaguar Power!" she called out as she morphed into the Red Feral Ranger.
Mike stared at the red ranger before him, gold bands across the gloves, boots, and collar, a bright red suit with a black jaguar face on the chest, and basic helmet like the Astro Rangers. But as far as he knew all the Feral Rangers were dead, and the powers destroyed. "How do you have that power?" he demanded, raising his sword.
Confused, Kim asked "What do you mean? Me and my teammates just got these new powers!" Curious she asked "Where did you get yours?"
"From my master Takeru, my team was known as the Samurai Rangers, until they were murdered, along with every other ranger on the planet, aside from myself." He said, remembering the day his care-free attitude changed.
Kim jerked back a little at what he said. Was it true, were all the rangers dead? "Who...who killed them?"
Mike couldn't believe what he was hearing, how could she not know? "A demon named Sarahna, and her partners Kanna and Jaxora. What happened, did you lose your memory or something?"
Kim felt her heart skip a beat. They had lost to Sarahna? But how? Just as she was about to ask who Kanna and Jaxora were, a flaming dagger fell from the sky and pierced Mikes helmet, causing him to de-morph. Before Kim could react in any way a creature made of what appeared to be lava rock landed behind him and grabbed his head in her hand and lit him ablaze. Kim cringed as the young rangers painful cries echoed thoughout the city. As she took a closer look at the creature, she discovered her to be familiar. "Sarahna..." she mouthed, her eyes wide.
"Finally, I've been after that one for months. Too bad that's all though, I could go for some more to play with." Sarahna said as looked up and smiled at Kim, her face glowing wiht what she had just done.
"I see you found a way to restore your ranger powers, Kanna. What did I tell you about that?" Sarahna said, the joy from killing Mike obviously gone.
Kim froze, she was Kanna? Just what all had happened while she was asleep? "I..don't know?" Kim said, still confused as to what exactly was going on.
"This!" Sarahna said as she held her hand out, fire forming in it as she rared back and hurled it at Kim. Kim screamed in agony as the flame engulfed her suit, penetrating it, burning her flesh. As she cried out in pain she hit the ground, and everything went white.
There was a knocking coming from her bedroom door. But she didn't feel like answering it. It was too early in the morning and she was too tired. "Go away." She mumbled through her pillow, knowing full well that it would take much more than that to get her roommate to leave her alone.
"I don't think so!" Carri Hillard said as she burst into her friends room. "It's almost four o'clock!"
"In the morning?" Kim ask as she rolled over to face her friend.
"Yes, in the morning. That is why it's so bright outside!" Carri said as she raised the blinds, allowing the sun to shine through onto Kims face. "Now get up, we're going to be late. Geez, and I thought I slept late." Carri grumbled as she left the room.
Kim sat up and looked around, this was definitely her room. She threw her legs over the bed and went to stand by the window. "Definitely Angel Grove." She said as she shielded her eyes from he sun and looked around. "So then, was that all a dream?" Shrugging her shoulders she went to get in the shower and change clothes. As she pulled her shirt off she felt a sharp burning sensation on her neck. Quickly moving over to the mirror she watched a burn patch healed, leaving nothing, not evena scar. "What the?" she asked as she rubbed her fingers over the spot. Quickly pushing the thought out of her mind so she they wouldn't be late, she proceeded to get ready. They were going to find out who the final two rangers to join their team would be today. Hopefully.
Tommy stood patiently in the hangar waiting on the rest of his team to arrive. For once he was the first one to show up, rather than being late. Next to him sat Billy, the original blue ranger and long time friend. Billy had kept the morphers in the Power Chamber over night so as to avoid the problem they faced with the Terra morphers. They had been sitting there for the better par of an hour watching as other rangers arrived. The first had been his teammate Ethan from the Dino Thunder team. He couldn't help but chuckle as Ethan told him that he hoped one of the morphers chose him. He missed being a ranger, being a hero.
The next had been the four Wind Ninja Acedemy instructors, Tori, Shane, Dustin, and Cam, and the Thunder Ninja Academy instructor Hunter. From there the rangers just kept piling in until nearly everyone was there. The only ones left were the rest of his team, and a few of the Wild Force members.
He watched as Rocky, Carri, and Kim all climbed out of Carri's car and walked over to join him in waiting on their leader, Jason. "Couldn't we just start this without him?" Carri asked as she went and stood by Tommy.
"Believe me, I want to. But he is the leader of this team, so I think we should wait for him. For another five minutes at least." Tommy said without looking over at her, his arms firmly crossed over his chest.
"Hey, do you ever find it weird that there's four red rangers on this team? Two current and two former?" Carri asked, trying to spark a conversation so she wouldn't be bored to death.
"No not really. I honestly didn't pay it any attention." Tommy said, turning to look at her this time. "But now that you mention it, maybe. All of us have been trying to lead the team, since we're all kind of used to it."
"Except my Rocky," Carri siad as she wrapped her arm around his neck and patted his chest before kissing him on the cheek.
Rocky sighed, it was true. Even though he had once been a red ranger he hadn't been the leader. That had been Tommy. But he was okay with it, he didn't think he could handle the stress of leading the team anyway. He was surprised that Tommy had been able to do it for so long. "Yeah, yeah."
Kim just sat there quietly, after she had gotten ready she let her mind wander back to the events of that afternoon, her neck being burned and rapidly healing. That was something she hadn't seen before, and she also wondered about last night. She couldn't help but wonder if it been a dream, or did if she had subconsciously traveled to the future. The burn mark on her neck suggested the latter, but she couldn't be entirely sure. It was definitely a possibility, and it would serve as an explanation as to why she was so tired. But if it was the future, or at least a possible future, how did they lose to Sarahna? And how come that red ranger was so afraid of her? These were questions she was going to seek answers for. It was all too similar to what she experienced in the pocket dimension of Dulcea's.
When she travelled to get the Feral powers she experienced a world that was run by Sarahna, all the rangers were dead, some were even strung up to serve as a warning to others, the human race had been close to extinction, every known city had been destroyed, and in the distance she had seen a mushroom cloud, suggesting another city being destroyed. Both that vision and last nights events were eerily similar. Too similar, it sent chills down her spine.
Snapping her away from her thoughts was the loud roar of a Harley pulling up. She turned to face the noise and watched as Jason pulled his helmet off and climbed off his motorcycle. "Am I late?" he asked as he lay his helmet down and walked over to join his team.
"Just a bit." Carri said sarcastically.
"Alright, sorry bout that. But I'm here now so let's get started."
After informing all the former rangers of the events that had transpired over the last couple of days, they began allowing them to come up one at a time to try their hand at receiving one of the two remaining Feral morphers. After about half of the rangers had tried their hand at receiving one, the green lion morpher glowed as Theodore Jay Jarvis Johnson stepped up and waved his and over it. "I don't believe it! It chose me!" he said, a little shocked. It had been nearly thirteen years since he had been called back into duty full time.
"Congrats man." Tommy said, patting his old friend on the shoulder. It had been just after high school graduation when he met TJ and chose him to take over as leader of the team, and even though he lost the fight against Divatox, Tommy knew of TJ's courage in following her into space to continue the fight, even when the outcome seemed bleak at best. "Glad to have you on the team." TJ nodded in response and went to go stand on the other side of Carri.
A few more former rangers came and went without any luck of finding the owner of the black coyote morpher. Soon they were down to five people, hopefully one of them would be able to claim the power. Hunter Bradley, the former Crimson Thunder Ranger came up, but with no luck. Next was Trent Fernandez, Tommy's former Dino Thunder teammate and the White Dino Ranger, followed by RJ the Jungle Fury Wolf Ranger. All three of them tried, but nothing. "It's got to belong to someone." Kim said, sighing as she crossed her arms. They only had two rangers left, from Earth anyway. They still had the Phantom Ranger, wherever he was, Trey of Triforia, and the Aquitians. The Galaxy Rangers had been able to make it from Mirinoi, but none of them had been chosen.
"I think we found our seventh ranger." Jason said, nodding his head towards Ryan Mitchell, the Titanium Lightspeed Ranger.
Sarahna sat up in her bedroom in her palace, contemplating her next move. She had destroyed their base and their powers, and yet they bounced back with a new base and new powers. "This wasn't how you said it would go." She said to the rock that lay before her. "Yes I know we need him, and I thought I would have had him by now. I would have him by now if it wasn't for that damn Murathian sister of his." She heard a knock at her door and abruptly threw a dagger at it, killing the Couratdrone on the other side. "Yes, I understand. He will be ours by the end of the week." As she stood and left the room she muttered "Fool."
Xinas caught Sarahna as she entered the throne room. "My Lady, Xanar has finished his latest monster. Cecrete is ready to go anytime you are ready My Queen."
Sarahna looked over at her minion as she said "Good. Xinas, take Cecrete and a few Courtadrones down to Earth. Bring me back Jason, and if you can, Kimberly as well. Do not return without either one, if you do...well, you'll see."
Xinas gulped, knowing full well what happened to her last general, and said "Yes My Queen, at once."
Sarahna looked out over the Earth from the balcony outside the throne room. Such a tiny, worthless planet, I wonder why they fight for it so hard, she thought as she sighed. Her master was not going to be pleased if she did not have at least Jason to him by the end of the week. She retreated back into her throne room and lifted the box that contained the remaining Terra Morphers. Once Jason was hers she would use him to open the box and create her own team of rangers, then no one would stand in her way.
Looking at the pouch containing the three golden coins that lay next to the box gave her an idea.
Not long after completing their team the seven rangers, Billy, and Trini headed down into the Power Chamber to fill TJ and Ryan in on a few things. "And these, belong to you." Billy said, handing TJ a new communicator and Ryan his own.
"I'd say we found them just in time." Jason said as the alarm sounded, signaling an attack. "Ready?" he asked as everyone nodded. Together the morphed and teleported to the battlefield.
They appeared in the heart of the city, quickly making sure all the civilians evacuated the area before going to face Xinas and his small army. "Hello there red ranger, silver ranger. Queen Sarahna would like to have a word with you." Xinas growled, his black eyes focused on the middle rangers.
"Queen? She has a title now?" Carri asked, rolling her eyes behind her helmet.
"Silence, you insignificant worm." Xinas snapped. He would not tolerate anyone belittling his Queen.
Carri clenched her jaw tightly, doing her best to keep her cool.
"It's more of a demand than a request." He continued.
"Right, a meeting with Sarahna, maybe she wants us to help her eat all her ice cream." Jason said sarcastically. "Not gonna happen, so why don't you just tell Sarahna to shove it."
"Guess it's the fun way." Xinas said, drawing his sword and charging the silver ranger.
"Tommy, you and Kim take care of the monster, Rocky help me with Xinas, everyone else defeat the Courtadrones!" Jason shouted as he drew his Wolf Saber and blocked Xinas' oncoming attack. Rocky pulled out his Ape Knuckles and struck Xinas from behind, causing the monster to howl out in pain.
"I didn't know these things were electric!" He said with a slight laugh as he hit Xinas again, sending a jolt of electricity through the armored wolfs body.
Tommy and Kim went after the monster, Cecrete. "Come on you puny rangers, let Cecrete show you a thing or two!" The monster, Cecrete, looked like a sidewalk colored, two-legged elephant.
From its trunk it shot out some sort of liquid that Kim was able to dodge. She watched as it hit the ground beside her and quickly solified. "Tommy, don't let it hit you with it's snot, you'll be trapped!" She called out as she summoned her Jaguar Bow and fired a few arrows at the monster.
Tommy pulled out his Tiger Sword and struck the monster on its side, watching as his blade sunk into it halfway and got stuck. "What the?" he asked, trying to pull his sword out with no luck.
Cecrete just laughed and said "You like that? I can liquify my body, and harden it any time I want! Now, let's see how hard I can hit!" He knocked Tommy upside his head, sending the crimson ranger skidding across the ground and into the nearest building. "My, that had to hurt! Now let's see how you like being cut with your own weapon!" He pulled Tommy's sword out of his gut and began to advance on him, shooting the liquid out of his trunk and onto the fallen rangers legs. As soon as he reached his target and was ready to land the death blow he felt the sting of arrows piercing his backside. Crying out in pain he turned to see the red ranger getting ready to fire another round.
"That's gotta be his weakness, if he can't see the attack coming then it can hurt him because he doesn't know to liquify!" She muttered to herself. "Billy, are still able to use the Power Cannon?"
"Affirmative. Carri and the others are almost through with the Couratadrones, I'll notify them and send it to them when they're done. You need to keep Cecrete's attentio though." Billy responded from the Power Chamber.
"Alright, thanks!"
Jason and Rocky continued to face off against Xinas. Jason blocked the attack made by Xinas and the wolf creature said "Kinda poetic don't you think, wolf against wolf. If only we didn't have that dirty ape," he paused to look back and kick Rocky in the gut "in the way."
"Yeah, right." Jason said as he forced Xinas back and attacked. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Carri, TJ, and Ryan blast the monster, destroying it. "Looks like it's you against all of us, liking the odds?"
Xinas looked around and saw that both the monster and the Courtadrones were gone, leaving him all alone. "This isn't over, silver ranger!"
Later that day Kim returned to her house, only to find her room torn apart. "What in the world happened in here?" Carri asked as she walked in, but the look on her friends face said she didn't know either.
"It looks like somebody was looking for something." Kim said. Even as she said she knew there was only one thing of any real value in her room. Jumping over her fallen dresser and shoving her desk chair aside she opened her closet and reached into the far corner. Carri watched as her friends arm seemingly disappeared into a small portal. Kim breathed a sigh of relief as she pulled out a rectangular wooden box. "I need to be positive though." She said to herlself as she opened the box, dropping it when she saw that it wa empty. "Damn it!" She shouted as she slammed her closet door shut as she stormed out.
"What was in there?" Carri asked, following her friend out of her room.
Sarahna smiled as she held the Pteradactyl and the Dragon Coins in her hand. For the moment she didn't care that Xinas had failed in his mission, she had succeeded in hers. She now had five of the six coins. All she needed was Jasons, and Jason himself, and she would be able to free her master. Even if would only be for a minute, if that. Giggling evilly she held the two coins up and kissed them. "The universe will soon bow down at my feet. Everyone will tremble at the name Sarahna!" She could taste victory, it wouldn't be long now.