Disclaimer: Me no own Power Rangers.
It had been a week since Hathaway's morpher malfunction.
He seemed to be very depressed behind that. Hathaway made his walk to school alone today. He turned the corner and bumped into Roxy and Tiffany.
"Oh hey you guys..." He said in an unenthused tone.
"Hey, you okay?" Tiffany asked.
"You never returned my calls."
Hathaway rolled his neck.
"Uh...yeah I've been busy, catching up on school work." He lied.
"Hm." Tiffany said.
"Ah, yeah I gotta get in early, I'll see you guys at lunch." Hathaway said as he walked off.
Tiffany shook her head, "He just hasn't been the same since he's been unable to morph."
"I know, its really sad to see him like that." Roxy sighed. Tiffany and Roxy began to walk at a much slower pace.
"What are we gonna do?" Tiffany groaned.
*-PRNF-*
Wes and Rey were working in the basement on a way to fix Hathaway's morpher.
"Wes, thanks for coming here so early in the morning." Rey said clacking away on his keyboard.
"No problem, besides the soon we get Hathaway's morpher back up and running the better." Wes said.
"This can't be too hard, I mean there has to be some method to siphon the excess energy out of Hathaway's morpher." Rey said continuing to type away.
"But what would we do with the excess energy...?" Wes asked.
"We could put it into the Paradox Cannon and the Continuum Blaster."
Rey responded.
Wes thought about it for a second,
"That could work. Let's go for it."
And just like that they began working on their theory.
*-PRNF-*
Hathaway had made it into school.
He walked into his first period class,
US History. He took a seat in the back of the room and immediately put his head down.
He heard his teacher drone on and on about some nonsense but Hathaway tuned it out and began to fall asleep.
*Hathaway's Dream*
The other seven rangers were fighting Rhinoceron and losing badly.
Rilan and Leonide were tossed to the floor. Marias and Zeili were blasted with an energy attack and sent reeling.
Megan and Blade tried to save their comrades but to no avail. They were knocked to the ground next to their teammates. A distraught and unmorphed Hathaway was watching the whole scene unfold.
"Guys!" He shouted. He couldn't even help because he couldn't morph.
Roxy was the only one left standing.
She charged forward and attacked Rhinoceron. Rhinoceron easily blocked her attack and delivered a devestating attack causing sparks to fly out from her suit. She went crashing to the floor with a pained groan.
Hathaway was trembling in fear as he could do nothing but watch his friends inch closer to death.
Rhinoceron waited until the rangers gathered together. With a victorious cackle he fired a black energy blast causing a massive explosion upon impact.
All Hathaway could hear were his friends' agonized screams as they sunk to the floor.
"N-No!" He shouted.
The rangers were now demorphed, their beaten and bloddy bodies unmoving. Rhinoceron turned to him.
"How does it feel? Knowing that you had to sit there and watch your friend die in front of you? You couldn't do a thing to protect them." He said.
Hathaway looked on in horror.
"I-I couldn't protect them..."
And with that Hathaway awoke with a start.
"Ugh..." He groaned. He stood up and began to walk out of class.
"Hathaway, where do you think you're going?" His teacher asked.
Hathaway didn't answer and simply left class.
*-PRNF-*
Wes and Rey were still typing away and working on Hathaway's morpher.
"Aagh! This is so frustrating!" Rey said running his hands through his hair.
"Stay calm, we can do this." Wes said.
Just then, the monitor beeped alerting them that Rhinoceron had appeared.
Rey called the rangers up,
"Guys, Rhinoceron is back."
Rilan, Leonide, Marias and Zeili came downstairs.
"We're on it, Nova Force! Start it Up!"
Rilan said. His teammates followed suit.
They brought forth their Nova Runners and drove down the tunnel.
They resurfaced about 20 yards away from Rhinoceron.
The re-energized monster spotted them and blasted them. The Nova Rangers barely avoided the attack and skid to a stop.
They dismounted.
"Time to finish what we started!"
Leonide said.
"I'd love to see you try!" Rhinoceron growled. The rangers charged at the monster. Rilan and Leonide attacked him individually before attacking together. Rhinoceron swatted them away and blasted Marias and Zeili.
"Pathetic!" Rhinoceron growled.
"Try us!" Blade called out.
The Lunar Rangers came charging at Rhinoceron.
"Hazard Dagger!" Roxy shouted.
"Nitro Scythe!" Megan called out.
The two attacked Rhinoceron.
Rhinoceron evaded Megan's attack and countered Roxy's. Megan got back up.
"Yah!" She grunted. She swung twice. Rhinoceron dodged both striked and hit her.
"Ugh!" She fell to the floor.
"My turn!" Blade said running towards Rhinoceron. He drew his Hazard Dagger and slashed him twice.
"Urgh!" Blade went for a third strike when Rhinoceron caught his arm and punched him in the stomach.
He tossed Blade to the floor.
"Is that it? We don't even need the Dreadnaught to beat you!"
Rhinoceron cackled.
"Ugh...Bastard." Rilan said.
Rey called Hathaway up.
"...Hello?"
"Hathaway! Get back home now!"
"...Fine."
Hathaway hung up and quickly made his way home.
"What is it Rey-!"
Hathaway looked at the screen in front of Rey and saw his allies being beaten down.
"Just like my dream..." Hathaway said.
"Hathaway, you have to go help them."
Wes said.
Hathaway shook his head.
"What good am I without my morpher? I'm a liability now."
Wes stood up.
"Look, you don't need your morpher to be a leader. This is gonna sound cheesy but, its not the Ranger that makes the man but the man that makes the Ranger." Wes said.
"I guess your right, they are my friends after all." Hathaway swiped his morpher and took off.
"Wait! We're not done with it yet!"
Rey said.
Back at the scene of the fight Marias and Rilan were attempting to stop Rhinoceron but to no avail.
"Why try anymore!" He said.
"Continuum Blaster!" Roxy shouted.
The Lunar Rangers fired their weapon only to have it blasted back at them.
"Ugh, that hurt a little!" Rhinoceron said.
Leonide and Zeili ran at him with their Raider Swords in hand. Rhinoceron caught their blades and then threw the rangers to the floor.
"Now, to end this."
"Not so fast!" Hathaway shouted.
Hathaway startled the monster.
"What the-? I thought you were out of commision?" Rhinoceron growled.
"Well obviously that's not the case anymore."
Hathaway pulled out his morpher.
"Nova Force! Start it Up!"
Hathaway morphed but then electricity crackled around his body just as it did before.
"Ngh!" He groaned.
"Hathaway what are you doing!"
Wes said into his mic.
"Like you said, the Man makes the Ranger!" Hathaway said ignoring whatever pain he felt.
The electricity subsided.
"Let's go! Orion Saber!" He shouted.
Hathaway's weapon materialized in his hands and he began to battle Rhinoceron. He slashed the monsters chest repeatedly before jumping up and kicking him. Rhinoceron stumbled backwards.
"How did you get so strong!" Rhinoceron said.
The electricty crackled again, much more abundant this time.
"Aagh, I gotta end this quick. Rey, don't be mad."
"What, why?" Rey said.
"Solar Disc! Solar Mode Activate!"
Hathaway pulled out his Disc and clipped it onto his belt buckle.
The electric current came back and repeated what happened before.
"Aaaaaah!" Hathaway groaned.
'Urgh...I can't let this stop me now! I have to protect my friends!'
"AAAAAAAGGGGHHHHH!"
In a flash of red light, he transformed.
His labored breathing began to stabilize.
"Vector Lancer!" He called out.
He charged at Rhinoceron and smashed the lance into his chest.
He delivered a series of combos before jumping backwards.
"Its over! Vector Blazer!" Hathaway said launching his attack.
The attack put a hole in Rhinocerons chest. The same orb that Aquarius used on the Nighlock was visible in the hole.
"What the? That's it, Hathaway! You can deter the excess energy into that orb! Its an energy generator." Rey said.
"But won't that power him up!" Hathaway said.
"Just trust me! The generator is damaged, it will hurt him more than help him." Rey responded.
"If you say so." Hathaway ran at him and grabbed ahold of the generator.
The energy began traveling between the two.
"Huh! What are you doing?" Rhinoceron said.
"Ugh! Its working!" Hathaway said.
The generator began flashing rapidly followed by an explosion.
Hathaway was sent flying backwards.
"Ugh!" He demorphed upon landing.
"Hathaway!" Roxy screamed as she scrambled over to him. She demorphed and helped him up.
"Argh...thanks Roxy." He said.
She rapped his forehead lightly.
"What were you thinking? You could have killed yourself!" She said.
"Eh, I was half exepecting that, but you know I would have been happy to die for you guys." Hathaway said standing up. The other Ranger walked over to him.
"What's wrong with you man!" Rilan said.
"Yeah! You could have killed yourself."
Megan said.
Hathaway laughed.
"You guys can all scream on me when we get home, I need to lay down. Ugh..." He said walking away.
Rey sighed in relief.
"We did it."
Wes leaned back in his seat.
'He sure is coming along.'
A/N: what do you think? Leave your responses!