A/N: Behold, the sequel to Dino Charged Samurai! This is an idea I've had for quite a while, and I really like it. Keep in mind, however, that this is fanmade and is in no way part of any canon series.
Disclaimer: I do not own Power Rangers, sadly. Saban does. I just own the story plot.
~PRLG~PRLG~PRLG~PRLG~PRLG~
"Time is not on Riley's side. He needs to hurry if he wants to save the others from freezing to death. Also, Kendall has a special surprise for Emily."
Power Rangers: Dino Charge
Episode 2: Only Human
Chapter 2: Dino Steel, Armor On!
Frost was beginning to build up on everything now. The windows, the doors, the walls, even Emily herself.
Her Dino Com and Samuraizer had long since frozen over. They wouldn't work even if she did have service here. Something was also jamming their equipment. (Or someone.)
Her panic attack had died down a while ago. She was still panicked and scared, but the worst part was over. (For now.)
She was currently sitting against the wall, curled into a tight, little ball, for warmth. She had continued to walk, run, cartwheel, even front-flip and back-flip down this hallway (even when her side began to hurt from exercising so hard) until she got too cold to continue.
Her breath coming out in dense puffs now, she raised her head and chattered out, "If I don't make it out of this, I hope you know, Mike, that you are very important to me, and so are the others…"
She trailed off when she realized that she never gave her Samurai family a proper goodbye. (Not even when she switched teams.)
A tear fell down her cheek, but it had barely halfway fallen when it completely froze over.
~P~O~W~E~R~~R~A~N~G~E~R~S~~D~I~N~O~~C~H~A~R~G~E~
Puzzler was pulled out of his happy place when a Dino Saber was pointed at his neck.
The monster took off his sunglasses as Riley said (with a smoldering, unwavering, determined glare), "Let my friends go, or you're history."
Puzzler, however, was unfazed. He took off his sunglasses. "That would be illogical. If you destroy me, your friends would be ice cubes."
Riley was quiet as he processed this. Puzzler was right. That would be an illogical move. Alright, time for the next idea (Plan B).
"Perhaps, we can solve this. I challenge you to a game." Puzzler suggested (which was exactly what Riley was thinking of, with a good trick up his sleeve, too). "If you win, your friends go free. But, if I win, I get your Energem."
Riley hesitated, his hand immediately closing around the crystal on a string around his neck.
It's okay, Riley. You know exactly what you're risking. Besides, you've got a plan. Remember?
"I don't think it's right for someone to change who they are just because someone else doesn't like them that way," Emily had told him during their first official meeting. "Trust me, I know. It's hard, but if you let them have power over you, it's only going to hurt you more."
And remember, Riley, as long as you stick to that plan, you'll be able to rescue your friends.
"See? I got a B+, Riles! All thanks to you!" Emily's smile had been wider that he had ever seen it before.
Riley would never forget that smile she wore, nor the hug she gave him, that day, because that was when he finally became comfortable with using his intellect around anybody. That was the day Emily had successfully turned his life around. (If she hadn't been there, who knows where he'd be now?)
Riley inhaled deeply, then exhaled slowly (he was nervous), and said, "Challenge accepted."
~P~O~W~E~R~~R~A~N~G~E~R~S~~D~I~N~O~~C~H~A~R~G~E~
Emily weakly smiled at the strong thoughts of her new friends.
Shelby was awesome, and Emily liked her very much (and was reminded of Kevin and Mia, maybe some Lauren too).
She loved Tyler. They were very similar (and he reminded her of Antonio, with Jayden and Lauren's wisdom).
Kendall was one to be respected (and reminded Emily of Jii and Lauren).
Chase was the one she wanted to get to know more. He greatly intrigued her (and heavily reminded her of Mike).
And Koda. Oh, silly, lovable Koda. He reminded her so much of herself. A heart of gold, a bit of a fish out of water, but tough when needed and very protective.
She had only known them for a short time, but she already liked them all, a lot.
But if this was really how she had to die, then so be it.
At least, she died trying to protect this world…
Emily's train of thought was interrupted by a marble falling from the air vent in front of her.
She reached out a shaky hand and picked up the tiny, round object, orange, red, and yellow in color. She immediately recognized it.
Fury's marble, from this morning.
"Riley!" Emily's eyes filled with tears of joy and a smile broke out on her face, as she looked up towards the air vent the marble had fallen through. "You're amazing!"
The fire of determination coursed through her veins, warming her up as she jumped up on a box nearby and pulled off the air vent cover.
This is what he was trying to say earlier, when he got cut off. The marble was his way of relaying that message to her, that this air vent was her ticket out of here.
She never doubted him for a second.
~P~O~W~E~R~~R~A~N~G~E~R~S~~D~I~N~O~~C~H~A~R~G~E~
Riley wasn't paying much attention to the 3D chess game Puzzler had set up. (Though, truth be told, he could play this game blindfolded, with his hands tied behind his back. Yes, it was that easy. At least, for him.) He was distracted by the haunting insecurity that he had failed to save his friends.
Should he have gone for something more recognizable than marbles? But marbles were all he had on him…
What if the others didn't get the message? What if his calculations were wrong? What if they were already dead, already frozen to the bone?
What if he was too late?
But when he laid eyes on those five familiar faces, he wanted to smile, all worries being washed away just at the sight of them still alive and well (and quite ready to kick some butt).
"Hah! I win!" Puzzler announced, looking very pleased with himself. His back was to the others. He clearly did not see them, giving Riley the impression that Puzzler had not caught him throwing marbles at the air vents earlier. Good, that was a sure victory for Riley. "Now, give me your Energem."
Riley merely smirked. "Oh, I don't think so." Puzzler was obviously confused by this, so Riley continued, "You see, the game wasn't chess."
"Surprise!"
The monster turned to look behind him, and he was very shocked to see the other five Rangers standing behind him (the Aqua Ranger in between the Blue and the Black, interrupting the Rangers' usual color scheme), all with angry glares on their faces, the Red and Black Rangers cracking their knuckles (an obvious sign that they meant to intimidate him, but Puzzler remained unfazed).
"The game was to escape the maze," Riley explained. But before he went over to join his (safe and sound) friends, he added, "Oh, and that reminds me." Riley moved his last piece and knocked Puzzler's last pawn off the board. "Checkmate."
Puzzler's attention was immediately drawn to Riley's last move. "What? Inconceivable!"
Riley led the group morph. "Dino Chargers!"
"Ready! Energize, ha! Unleash the Power!"
A bright flash of rainbow filled the area. When it faded, there stood the six Rangers, all morphed.
"I'm done playing games!" Puzzler's temper overtook him. "I'm going to destroy you!" The monster overthrew the chess board, and the table it was sitting on.
Tyler's only response was a strong, "Power Rangers, Charged! Tyrannosaurus-Rex, Power Ranger Red!"
Chase followed, "Parasaur, Power Ranger Black!"
"Stegosaurus, Power Ranger Blue!"
"Velociraptor, Power Ranger Green!"
"Triceratops, Power Ranger Pink!"
"Ankylosaurus, Power Ranger Aqua!" Emily completed the rollcall.
"Dinosaur might, ready to fight!"
"Power Rangers––"
"Dino Charge!" The six finished collectively.
"It's about to get wild!" Tyler announced, the six Rangers getting fired up.
The initial fight against the Vivix went exceptionally well. They were simple foot soldiers (so of course, they would be easy to deal with).
However, it was the middle of the Vivix fight when Emily got the message from Kendall.
Emily was in the middle of a back flip when her Dino Com went off. She answered it, using her other arm to single-handedly fight off the Vivix around her (yes, pun intended).
"Yes, Miss Morgan?" Emily asked. "I'm kinda in the middle of something here."
"The other Rangers have an Armor Mode I each created just for them," Kendall replied, "called Dino Steel."
"Uh-huh. And?" Emily wanted her new mentor to get to the point. But she didn't say that aloud. She was too polite.
"I upgraded your Chargers last night, Emily," Kendall continued with a straight face. "You should have access to it now, too. Go on and try it out."
"Okay," Emily replied, as Kendall's face was replaced with a black screen. She retrieved an Ankylo Charger from her belt buckle, her morpher gun in her right hand. "Dino Charger, ready!"
After clicking the button on the top and placing it in the slot of her morpher, she pressed down on the hammer of the gun once, before switching it over to her left hand, and running the barrel of the gun all down her right arm, leaving aqua-colored sparks in its wake.
"Dino Steel, Armor On!"
The other five Rangers' attention spoke up when they heard these words. They turn to Emily in time to see silver, spiky arm form on her right arm, and an aqua-colored hammer materialize in the respective hand.
"Ankylo Hammer!" Emily called before finding her footing and smacking a Vivix in the chest it the said weapon. She twirled it behind her back, before hitting at least three more Vivix. She smashed her hammer into the ground, causing the rest of the Vivix around her to explode in a giant fireball.
Emily (and the other Rangers) reeled in the sheer power this Dino Steel Mode had given her. (Kendall certainly was amazing. That was for darn sure.)
To no surprise, Puzzler had noticed as well, and he had quickly moved to attack her.
"It's the most logical move to always take out the strongest paw first."
Emily easily blocked his flagpole weapon with her Dino Steel Armor.
Puzzler quickly glanced down at his stomach, where Emily's powering-up Dino Morpher was pointing. He looked back up into her morpher face in time to hear her say, "I am nobody's pawn. Dino Morpher Blast!"
Puzzler crashed hard into the brick wall behind him, caused by the blast from Emily's morpher.
"Guys, I still hungry," Koda informed his friends, as they all joined Emily in facing Puzzler.
"Don't worry, Koda," Emily put away her morpher in order to gently pat the Blue Ranger on his shoulder. "We'll all get pizza after this." She retrieved another Ankylo Charger from her belt buckle, this time handing it to Koda. "Here, finish him off."
Koda took it out of her hand. "Dino Charger, ready!" He placed it inside his own morpher and closed it on the Charger.
"Ankylo Charger, Engage." Koda spun the barrel.
"Dino Morpher Blast, Final Strike!"
A stego head and an ankylo head both flew at Puzzler and bit down on his whole body, hard, one at a time, stego first, ankylo second. The combo blast was, fortunately, enough to beat Puzzler once and for all (hopefully).
The six Rangers celebrated Puzzler's demise. Emily could definitely relate.
But then, the skies went dark, with the clouds filled with thunder and lightning. But a gold-and-black, mechanical pterodactyl flew out of the black clouds, clearing up the skies. But the tension and shock still remained.
"Th-that's the –" Shelby couldn't find herself to finish her own sentence.
So Emily finished it for her. "The Ptera Zord…Fury actually got his hands on it."
Riley said nothing, his guilt only building. He could have stopped Fury. He should have stopped Fury.
But…then his friends would have surely been frozen through by now if he had.
Besides, now, he had the chance to get the Ptera Zord back.
"Let's go," Riley said, holding up a Raptor Charger. "ParaRaptor Formation."
Tyler and Chase both nodded in response and held up their respective Chargers.
"Dino Chargers, ready! Dino Charge Megazord, ParaRaptor Formation!"
Emily didn't have time to admire the Megazord cockpit. It was a nice, slick silver color, and one had to physically mode their bodies to control the entire Megazord, with their morphers locked in the control panel each next to their stands (a bit different from the Samurai megazords, where their swords acted like their joysticks).
Again, Emily didn't have time to admire the craftsmanship of the cockpit, because as soon as they stepped inside the Megazord, the Ptera Zord had shot out a fast beam of lightning at them.
Two shots were fired at them, and the Rangers barely got hit with them.
Two seconds later, Puzzler was back, in Mega Mode form.
Now, with two enemies attacking them on both sides, they didn't stand a chance. At the same time Puzzler was slicing and dicing them with his flagpole weapon, the Ptera Zord was shooting its lightning at them.
The combined forces shook the cockpit itself.
As Emily regained her footing, Koda asked, "Who do we fight?"
"Let's deal with this one problem at a time," Tyler replied. "Dino Charge Megazord, Final Attack!"
"Para Zord, Fireball Finish!"
A purple-energized, green fireball flew at Puzzler, causing him to fly backwards and straight into the Ptera Zord, but that wasn't the weird part.
When Puzzler got close enough, the Ptera Zord fired another shot of lightning, this time at Puzzler, who was gone in a semi-large explosion. This left the Rangers to reel in the shock what had just happened.
"I guess the Ptera Zord thought it was being attacked," Emily suggested, as the Ptera Zord released the Charger from its mouth and flew off.
The Rangers could only stand there, and think about what had just happened.
~P~O~W~E~R~~R~A~N~G~E~R~S~~D~I~N~O~~C~H~A~R~G~E~
The elevator doors swung open, and Chase, Emily, and Koda stepped out into the lab, where Riley was sitting at the picnic table they had brought in, surrounded by Kendall and Keeper.
"But while going after Fury was the most logical decision," Kendall was saying, "it wouldn't have been the best decision."
"She's right, you know," Emily gently spoke aloud, causing the three at the table to turn to her. "Sometimes emotion is better than logic."
"No feel bad, Riley," Koda added, with his signature smile. "You save your tribe. Act with heart." He patted Riley on the chest. "Always good."
"I agree," Chase said, in his New Zealander accent. "Especially since I'm in that tribe."
Emily smiled at that remark before wrapping Riley in a big hug. "I knew you could do it." Emily vaguely felt Riley (somewhat) hug her back.
She could relate. She's made mistakes before, choices that she's regretted.
"Who wants pizza?" Shelby asked, as she and Tyler entered the lab with freshly baked pizza. While Shelby went on ahead to the counter where Kendall's computer was, Tyler stayed behind.
Koda followed his nose, happily muttering, "Finally, food!" Chase and Kendall followed.
"Save some for us, Koda," Kendall was replying.
By now, Tyler had set the second pizza box down on the picnic table and Emily had loosened up her hug she was giving to Riley.
"What's up?" Tyler asked, he and Emily clearly noticing the pain and guilt Riley was going through. Emily was giving Riley a shoulder massage, trying to relax him. (She knew how he got whenever he was stressed.)
"You know that gold energy thing coming from Fury that you saw?" Riley slowly questioned Tyler. When the Red Ranger nodded, the Green continued on, the Aqua keeping quiet and listening, "I saw it too."
Tyler immediately jumped at Riley's claim. "You did?" he quietly asked, though anxious to hear more. Riley nodded. "What do you think it is?"
"I don't know," was the truth the southern boy gave. "But whatever it is, Fury seemed to be draining its power to charge the Ptera Charger."
"Friend or foe," Tyler determined, "we have to either help that thing or stop it before things get out of hand."
"We will," Emily finally spoke up, quietly, still massaging Riley's tense shoulders.
"How can you be so optimistic?" Tyler asked, mildly curious as to what the answer was. "Things are not looking up right now. Not in our favor, at least."
"Yeah, Fury has the Ptera Charger still," Emily calmly explained. "Yeah, he has control of the Ptera Zord now, and yeah, it's mainly our fault." Emily motioned to just the three of them. "But, things usually do look up eventually."
"I fell for a trap," Tyler quietly, almost darkly, stated.
"That any one of us could have fallen for, too, Ty," was Emily's soothing reply. "No one blames you."
"I let Fury escape with the Ptera Charger," Riley cut in, adding in his fault, his voice filled with guilt and sorrow.
"In order to save your friends from a terrible fate," Emily calmly replied again. "You made the right choice, Riles. Me? I have the unforgivable act." The two guys both turned to her, curious as to what that 'act' could be. By this time, the others had gotten wind of their conversation and had decided to listen in. "I was stupid. I actually believed that Fury was an honest and honorable warrior. I actually believed that Fury would hand over the Ptera Charger if I asked him to. I was too trusting and too naïve. Those are not qualities that a Samurai possesses."
"Sometimes, what you think is your greatest weakness can actually be your greatest strength," Keeper politely cut in. He usually didn't overstep his bounds, but when one of his Rangers needed emotional and mental support and advice, he had to.
Every one of the Rangers he had met so far had a specific flaw, except for Emily. She was a mystery to him, mainly because she was always so happy, calm, and optimistic, choosing to be kind to others and keeping her problems to herself. Now he had just realized that Emily's flaw was self-deprecation, or rather, low self esteem.
"One should not tear themselves down in order to build others up, Emily, no matter how right it feels," Keeper continued. Emily broke eye contact with him, unable to look at anyone in the eyes.
Because this was way too familiar…
"Then, why are you always putting yourself down?" Mike asked her. "Unless, that's what you really about yourself…"
"W-Wha–?" was her only response to that. She was speechless.
Mike and Keeper had both hit the same nail on the head. That was what she thought of herself, all thanks to the bullies she had received during her childhood.
She had saved Riley from the same fate (thank God), but she herself could not change back so easily.
"Sorry," Emily muttered a sorrow-filled apology, even though she didn't really need to apologize. She had no reason to. "It's not something I change so easily…" And then she went quiet.
"But still, it's like you said," Riley quickly said, brightening up the mood, mainly for her. (And she knew it. That's why she lightly smiled when she said this.) "Things will look up eventually. And now, the most logical thing to do is to keep fighting, until Sledge is defeated for good and we have all ten Energems."
Emily mentally thanked Riley as the others agreed with Riley's (and Emily's) optimistic statement.
Emotion and logic may clash a lot, but there were times where they always count on the other to support them.
To Be Continued...
~PRLG~PRLG~PRLG~PRLG~PRLG~
A/N: Do review, please. If you guys have any ideas you want me to consider adding, please PM me. A preview for the next chapter:
Chapter 3: "Armor Modes and Art Majors"
"Emily tries to hide this weird parallels thing from the others just as Fury shows up, and he's got a brand new toy, but so does Kendall."