Chapter 6: Wrath of the Dark Master Part 1
Despite defeating Bianca, Spyro still insisted on keeping us at his place for the night, I'd been noticing that Spyro had been acting weirdly since we first fought Bianca, like he was terrified to let us out of his sight, especially me with my injury. I still hated the fact that he benched me for that fight, I mean, it's cool Dean and the others managed to beat her back to whatever hole Malefor's cronies crawl out of, but I still felt like I was being left out.
After that, Spyro had made his point, rather forcefully I might add, that we stay at the temple, claiming he didn't want to risk me getting jumped by Malefor's forces while I was injured. This didn't explain why everyone else had to stay, but would you want to argue with the ten foot tall purple dragon of death? I didn't think so.
My injury wasn't even really that bad, it hurt yes but I've hurt worse in my time and I was perfectly capable of walking on my own power now, but Spyro still insisted I rest, getting very uppity with me when ever he caught me out of bed. God if I wanted to be babied like this I would have gone home to mom. Oh! That's right! I can't thanks to mommy dragon here!
So I just laid there in bed, bored out of my mind, I tried using my phone to occupy myself, but obviously, the Dragon Temple doesn't have WiFi, to be honest I'd have been quite surprised if it did. God this was like my own personal hell, all it needed was the song from the "It's a small world" ride and it would be my perfect hell… ugh.
Suddenly I heard a light knock on the doorway, seeing Kevin enter the room, "Hey dude, how are you holding up?" He asked me, sitting on the bed next to me.
I sighed, "Miserably, I hate laying in bed all day, but mommy Spyro won't let me out of it until god knows when," I said, I wasn't hiding my annoyance with our purple lizard mentor, what was his damage anyway?
Kevin sounded with a light chuckle, "You never liked staying put, I remember you used to drive your mom crazy with how much energy you had when we were little kids," he laughed.
I looked to the doorway, making sure Spyro wasn't within earshot, "You notice how weird he's acting lately? Spyro I mean, it's like the dude is terrified to let us out of his sight all of a sudden," I asked Kevin.
Kevin blinked, clearly he hadn't really given it that much thought as he seemed surprised I even asked. "Not really, too busy worrying if I'd still have a job after tomorrow," He said.
Kevin was the only one of the group with a job, and it wasn't really a glorious one to put it lightly, he worked the register at a McDonalds. It was kinda funny now that we were Power Rangers, the great Blue Ice Ranger was also serving you Big Macs and making minimum wage while doing it. Kevin hated his job, but needed it because he wanted to be able to move out of his parent's place once he graduated, so he was saving up for an apartment.
But on to more pressing matters, "Dude's been babying me since we got here, I swear he's worse than my mother," I commented.
I then heard someone clearing their throat, it seems that Spyro had somehow managed to slip into the room without me noticing, which mean he had just heard that 'worse than my mother' comment. Oh joy… "I'm sorry that you feel that way Dylan, but I prefer to keep my allies alive," he said rather bitterly.
Neither of us dared speak another word, terrified we'd incur the wrath of the purple dragon of legend, preferring to keep our dumb mouths shut, "Look, I get that you don't like spending the night here or me keeping you in bed," Spyro began, "But Malefor is beginning to step up his game, and I don't want to risk your lives anymore than I have to," He explained.
If he was so worried about us, then why make us Power Rangers in the first place? Doesn't that typically come with putting yourself in danger? This explanation of his did little to satisfy my confusion, something about the way he was carrying himself told me he wasn't being one hundred percent honest with us, like there was something he was intentionally leaving out for god knows what reason.
This could have just been due to how frustrated I was with him right now, I never liked being babied, it made me feel like I was helpless and weak, neither of which I enjoyed feeling since I was ten. I rolled over so my back was facing the dragon, "Dylan come on! Don't be like that!" Spyro chastised me, but I didn't care, I was so done with this whole 'injured ranger' nonsense, I was doing much better, especially after Spyro had healed me with his mystical gem things. But he was treating me like I was missing limbs!
"Dylan you mustn't be angry with Spyro," Ingitus began, I don't want to hear from the peanut gallery right now! "Spyro has gone through many struggles in his life, I do not blame him for being protective of his rangers," he continued regardless, "Dylan I'm doing this for your own good!" Spyro said.
I growled, turning to face the irritating dragon, "I don't need a goddamn nanny! You and Ignitus do nothing but nag me and treat me like a little kid! I can take care of myself!" I yelled, I was at my wits end right now, I had two dragons nagging me like fussy parents!
Spyro however, instead of look hurt or angry, seemed confused, "I… Ignitus?" he questioned, "Dylan, h… how do you know that name?" He asked again, this was a very odd reaction coming from the guy who helped make the thing that put Ignitus into my head in the first place.
However, Ignitus decided to clarify, "Dylan, I told you before Spyro probably didn't know we were in the morphers," He explained, that… actually made sense, he was confused because he didn't know Ignitus was in my head, we never really did get he chance to tell Spyro about that did we?
Kevin and I looked at each other, silently debating which one of us should explain this to Spyro, in the end, Kevin decided to explain it, "You see Spyro… when you made the morphers using your mentor's uh… spirit stuff… their… restless souls kinda became part of the deal… and well… they kinda talk in our heads… which come to think of it sounds a lot worse than it actually is-" Kevin began to ramble before Spyro held his paw up to signify he wanted him to stop.
Spyro stayed silent for a brief, awkward moment, I guess the idea of trapping the souls of his mentors and possibly even father figures in the heads of a bunch of dumb teenage humans was hitting him pretty hard, but it was hard to tell given the flat, unreadable expression on his face. "He told me it wouldn't happen!" Spyro said to himself, "He said it would just give you their power! He lied to me!" He growled, it was then Kevin and I started to notice his scales growing darker. At first I thought it was just the my eyes playing tricks on me, but that went right out the window when his scales had become jet black, and his eyes a pure, milky white, "HE LIED TO ME!" He roared in a slightly distorted voice, he then violently jerked his head in our direction, "WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME?!" He roared.
Kevin and I both back up into a corner, not sure what the hell was even happening right now, Spyro seemed downright insane with anger, making it quite possible he could try to kill us. "Kevin what do we do?" I asked, Kevin's only answer was a panicked shrug and shaking of his head, telling me he had no clue.
"Dylan, I want you to morph," Ignitus said, wait… you want me to what? Didn't Spyro say I could only do that when Malefor forces me to? "Trust me," Ignitus reassured me, out of options and not wanting to die at the claws of my own mentor, I did as Ignitus asked.
I timidly placed two fingers on the gem of my morpher, "Legendary Dragon! Power of Red Fire!" I called, activating my morpher and confusing the hell out of Kevin.
However, after I had finished morphing, I… couldn't move, I tried to move my arms but they wouldn't respond, I tried to speak but nothing came forth, what the hell was going on? "Spyro! Stop!" Ignitus suddenly said, but something was off, it didn't have that echo like sound that it usually did, and I felt my mouth move with his words.
Wait a minute… dude was controlling my body wasn't he?! Knowing he could do that now made my skin crawl, "Calm yourself! Before you do something you'll regret!" Ignitus said, I can tell you right now, having someone else controlling your body was a surreal and terrifying experience, it was like I was a marionette, being controlled by some unseen puppeteer.
Spyro however, faltered a bit, his white eyes losing some of their agression, "I… Ignitus?" He stammered, I could see his eyes beginning to water slightly, as if he hadn't heard from Ignitus in so long, "I'm sorry! I… I didn't mean to trap your soul like that! I… I was just trying to protect the world… I… I," He continued to fumble, I could see his scales starting to brighten a bit, and coloration beginning to appear in his eyes.
Ignitus shook my head, "Spyro it's alright, I understand why you did what you did, and I hold no ill will towards you for it," He explained, god this was so wrong having him puppeteer my body like this like some twisted Jim Henson! I mean, it was working sure but that didn't make it any more pleasant! "To be honest with you, I've been quite fine in young Dylan's subconcious, even if he is currently panicking right now," He chuckled, oh har har! You're possessing my body dude! I think I have the right to panic! "I have accepted my role as Dylan's guide and mentor, as I did you all those years ago, you did me nor the other guardians any harm," He reassured Spyro.
Kevin meanwhile was quite freaked out to say the least, "Whoa whoa whoa! Time out! Are we just going to ignore the fact you're possessing my friend right now?! When the hell could you do that?!" Kevin asked, one could argue this wasn't the time for this, but he kinda had a point here.
I felt a smile force it's way across my lips, "I could have done it at any time actually, but chose not to until I found it necessary, I'm sure Cyril thinks similarly," He said, this caused Kevin to turn pale as a ghost, knowing that the ice guardian could hijack his body at any moment. "Do not worry Kevin, we can only take control when you are morphed," He added, but that didn't help Kevin much at all really.
Spyro meanwhile, had completely shifted back to normal, "Ignitus… I..." He said, choking up a bit.
"There's no need to say anything more Spyro," Ignitus said, "I'm still as proud of how far you've come as I always had been, farewell," He said before demorphing me, the sudden regaining of control over my body took me by surprise and caused my knees to buckle and me to fall right on my rear end. "N… never do that again!" I said to Ignitus, I didn't care if they heard me, that was screwed up!
Spyro took a moment to collect himself, wiping the tears from his eyes, "I… I'm sorry Dylan, Kevin, I shouldn't have snapped at you two like that," He said, neither of us really know how to respond to that given what had just happened.
However, suddenly Jess and Dean came running into the room, "Guys! Something's going on in the… pool… thing..." said Jess.
Spyro shook the shock of all that had just happened before responding, "The Pool of Visions, it's called the Pool of Visions," he clarified, why the hell didn't he tell us that before?! "What did you two see?" He then asked.
Dean shook his head, "See for yourself man," he said, we all then headed for the Pool of Visions, we all gathered around it, at first I didn't see anything, but after a few moments and image began to form within it's murky waters, of an army of Grublins and crystal… monster… things marching through New Harmony, destroying everything in sight.
Spyro began to quiver slightly, "Malefor's escalating his attack!" He said, it was clear Spyro was terrified by what he was seeing, "I never expected him to take things this far so soon," He added.
It was clear what we needed to do now, "We've gotta stop this! There's no way the city can defend itself against Malefor for long," I said.
We all gathered in a circle, I found myself a little hesitant to morph after what Ignitus had just done not too long ago, but I wasn't about to try throwing myself at Malefor's armies unmorphed! "Alright guys, it's morphin' time!" I said.
"Legendary Dragon! Power of Red Fire!"
"Legendary Dragon! Power of Blue Ice!"
"Legendary Dragon! Power of Yellow Electricity!"
"Legendary Dragon! Power of Green Earth!"
While we teleported back to the city to confront Malefor and his armies, I noticed that Spyro seemed a bit down, just sadly looking off to the side before we suddenly found ourselves in the city again.
The city was in chaos! Grublins and weird crystal golems were all attacking random people, destroying cars, and generally wrecking everything. "Alright Rangers! Let's put a stop to this little party!" I said before launching myself at a group of Grublins, roundhouse kicking one in the head sending it stumbling back, before deflecting another one's punch catching it in the head with a high kick. I then flipped myself over a newspaper stand, before smacking one right in the dome with a right hook.
Man, you'd think after the thousands of Grublins we'd beaten the crap out of, that Malefor would send something with a bit more… strength after us? But hey, at least it wouldn't be a difficult battle to save the city.
Crap! Spoke too soon, one of those crystal golem things managed to score a direct hit to the dome with it's very hard crystal arms, the blow knocked me right into the newspaper stand. Man that hurt, but I quickly got right back up and threw a high kick right to the head, and regretted it the second my shin made contact, the thing was rock solid, meaning that high kick hurt me a lot more than it hurt it. "Crap!" I said as I hopped backwards on my good leg, "Time for a different approach I guess," I added before summoning my sword of flame.
I took a few hard swings, managing to chip the crystal golem a bit, but one solid knock to the dome was enough to knock me right back to the cold, hard, unforgiving concrete. I needed a new game plan here, there had to be a way to take this stupid things down!
I then heard laughter, "Having problems Red Ranger?" I turned to see Scorn and Bianca standing on the roof of a nearby gas station, "Elemental Golem's bodies are notoriously hard, although I'm sure you've figured that out already haven't you Power Ranger?" He laughed, god I hated this mutt, him and his stupid bunny sidekick, "However, there's another thing they're quite good at, I'll give you a hint, there's a reason they're referred to as elemental golems," He said.
Before I could even think on what he meant by that, I suddenly noticed the crystal golem began to glow a bright red, as fire began to form in it's hands. Thinking quickly, I rolled myself out of the way before a giant fireball came crashing down on the ground where I once laid.
Great, as if this thing wasn't hard enough to fight already, it could throw fireballs too! "Oh! And I wouldn't use your fire abilities against the thing either Red Ranger!" Scorn said, "It tends to enjoy fire," He added with an ear piercingly annoying laugh.
"Oh yeah? How much does it like ice?"
Suddenly Kevin came flying out of nowhere, coming down with a downward slash, cleaving the thing right in two frozen chunks, "I'll take that as a 'not at all'," chuckled Kevin.
Scorn seemed at first stunned, but his furry canine face soon scrunched up in anger, "Fair enough, I was hoping I'd be able to kill you personally anyway Red Ranger," He growled before leaping down in front of me, he instantly went for a high roundhouse kick, which I ducked, but he quickly used his momentum from the kick to power an uppercut that caught me right in the chin, knocking me down.
"Don't forget about me Fido!" Kevin said before swinging his lance at the wolf warrior, Scorn easily dodged each swipe before slashing Kevin right in the chest, sparks erupted from the cut as Kevin fell to the ground.
Scorn quickly put a foot on my throat, "I'm through playing games with you humans! Today, you will all finally die! Four weeds thankfully plucked from the garden of life!" He snarled.
I quickly grabbed my sword, "Fat chance dog breath!" I said before catching him right in the snout with my blade. He recoiled back, clutching his nose in his hand, making some kind of wimpy, whining sound as he did so.
He then lifted his hand to reveal I had made a nice, big, solid cut across his snout, which bled a steady stream of red blood, "You… you little brat! How dare you defile my face!" He whined, dude you're a six foot tall dog man, not like you were much of a looker to begin with! But apparently among other things, Scorn was also quite vain. He the began to bare his sharp white fangs, "You're not the first to scar my face human," he said, pointing to the scar marking his eye, "A cheetah warrior gave me this one years ago, you know what happened to him? I cut him down right in front of his own village! And I do intend to do the same to you!" He snarled before launching himself at me.
He caught me with several slashes across the chest, sparks flew as I tried desperately to defend myself, I was still a bit green when it came to sword fighting, and boy was Scorn ever exploiting that. "DIE! Just DIE!" He growled, slashing at me like mad.
I managed to get a good horizontal slash right across his abdomen, sparks flew from him too (somehow) and he stumbled back, clutching his stomach, "Dammit! Not again! You won't defeat me again!" He growled.
"No… he won't"
Everyone suddenly stopped right in their tracks. Rangers, Grublins, golemns, mages, all stood in awe of the new figure that decided to join us.
He was a large, ugly, dark purple dragon, his horns were oddly shaped, forming some kind of odd trident shape, ending in blood red tips. His eyes were pure yellow, save for the reptilian slits that served as his pupils. This dragon had a similar presence to Spyro, only much more sinister, like a demon rose straight from the bowels of hell itself. The dragon landed softly onto the pavement, eyes locked on me. "Because I will deal with these humans myself," He said.
Scorn quickly got on one knee, "Y… Yes Lord Malefor," He stammered.
I felt a pit in my stomach as the identity of this dragon was revealed, this was Malefor, the very dragon Spyro had made us Power Rangers in order to stop, I felt myself shaking, knowing how powerful this creature that wanted to fight me really was, Malefor smirked, showing his sharp fangs, "Ah… the mighty Red Ranger, at last we meet face to face," He chuckled, "You and your little friends have become quite the headache for me lately, and I simply cannot allow that to continue," He growled.
I tried my best to hide how intimidated I was, this dragon was so powerful that even Spyro couldn't defeat him completely, what chance did I have? I was still relatively new to this whole Power Ranger thing, Malefor's eyes went wide, a smile creeping across his grotesque face, "What's this now? Is the great leader of the Power Rangers… afraid of me?" He mused, oh god he noticed! "You know it… don't you little boy? Just how in over your head you are… a mere hatchling about to battle with a dragon that even the ancestors themselves cannot kill, make no mistake Red Ranger, you are right to fear me…" He growled.
I found myself backing up out of instinct, sword bared, bracing for the worst, "I didn't get to kill your counterpart last time Red Ranger, not directly, but you can be sure this time I plan on killing you myself, and I will bring your head to your beloved mentor, so he can look upon your lifeless eyes in terror before I slay him as well," He said.
Okay, one: ew. Two: This was bad! I wasn't prepared to face off with Malefor yet! How the hell was I going to survive this? Suddenly the others joined my side, "Fat chance Malefor! You can't take us all on!" Dean said, well at least he still had his confidence. "Power Rangers fight together! And when we're together, no one can stop us!" He added.
Malefor laughed, a sickening, dry cackle that echoed through the city streets, "You really think that don't you Green Ranger?" He laughed, "Allow me to prove to you, how wrong you really are," he then said much more darkly, before he suddenly launched himself at us.
I barely had time to bring my sword up before Malefor caught me right in the chest with his claws, sparks exploded from my chest as I found myself flipping through the air uncontrollably before hitting the ground with a hard, painful thud. Malefor wasted no movements, quickly smacking Jess back with his tail, while shooting a large rock right in Dean's face.
Kevin tried to slash at him with his lance, but Malefor caught it right in his claws, he used it to toss Kevin through the air, sending him sailing right into a billboard, before he came crashing down onto the concrete like a sack of bricks. "Pathetic! I don't know why, but I expected more of a fight than this," Malefor scoffed.
Dean quickly got up, "We'll never give up! You won't beat us you overgrown lizard!" Dean said in defiance, drawing his ax. Dean dragged it's blade across the ground, sending a wave of rock right at Malefor.
Malefor effortlessly dodged it, before blasting Dean with a volley of sharp rocks, causing an explosion of sparks to knock him right back down. Jess tried to get him from behind with her daggers, but Malefor quickly side stepped her swipe, before zapping her with electric breath. Jess cried out as electricity surged through her body.
"JESS!" I cried out, I couldn't let him do this! Not to my friends! This wasn't just fighting to him, he was toying with us, I could see it in his eyes he was enjoying this! I rushed him, sword bared, ready to cleave him in two.
However, he saw me coming, and I found myself engulfed in a wave of fire, the smell of burning plastic and flesh assaulted my nostrils as my skin screamed in horrible agony, when the flames finally stopped, I found myself falling to my knees before the Dark Master.
Malefor grinned a sadistic grin as I tried desperately to regain my composure, "A rather brash one, aren't we Red Ranger? Honestly what other result did you expect from just blindly running at me like a fool?" he mocked me, before backhanding me right into the waiting arms of my friends. "Your feeble attempts to combat me have been quite amusing Power Rangers, but I'm afraid it is time to end your miserable existences for good," He growled.
I then felt the ground shake under our feet, what the hell was he doing? I looked to Malefor, who had his eyes shut, as if he were meditating, I then noticed a purple energy surging around him, bits of concrete began to lift from the ground around him, floating next to him.
Suddenly everything went white, before I even knew what was happening, I saw that we were back at the Dragon Temple, Spyro standing before us, pale as a ghost, "Spyro? What's going on? What happened?" I said in confusion.
But Spyro didn't answer, averting his eyes from us as he muttered something unintelligible to himself, the four of us stood up, not sure what to think, he probably just saved our lives in fairness, but Malefor was still out there, free to level our home town! We had to get back out there! "Spyro we need to get back out there! If we don't-"I began, but didn't get the chance to finish as Spyro growled at me like an angry dog.
He then stormed off without a word, leaving us all confused and kinda sore…
Meanwhile…
I knew that coward Spyro would summon them back to him, his heart was just as soft as it was the last we battled, but I knew they'd be back, the rangers wouldn't leave their precious city to my mercy.
"L… Lord Malefor?" Asked Scorn, "What shall we do now?" He added, I stared at the empty spot the Power Rangers once stood before I came up with my answer.
I turned to my canine subordinate, "Burn the city to the ground, they'll be back, and when they do come back, I will finish them off for good," I said. I was through playing games, the Power Rangers will die today, and with them, both realm's hope would die as well…
To Be Continued….
A/N: Talk about a close call right? Will the Power Rangers be able to save New Harmony? Or will Malefor succeed in destroying everything the Power Rangers hold dear? Stay tuned!
Don't worry, this isn't the end of the story by a long shot, you could just consider this something of a mid story finale of sorts, you'll see what I mean by the end of next chapter.
Besides… I still have one more ranger to introduce… you know… the one on the cover… but he won't come for at least a few more chapters (I'm such a tease aren't I? Wakka Wakka!)