The whole Plesio Zord shuddered as explosions went off around it. Shelby held onto her control console for dear life as Kendall darted this way and that, manoeuvring the ship through the worst of Sledge's onslaughts. She was well aware that his ship had to have at least comparable power to a Megazord, but she wasn't in a hurry to find out, especially if Wrench was telling the truth about the laser cannon he had powered with the Red Energem.
"Hah! Take THAT Sledge!" Kendall called out, firing off a blast that tore one of the outer turrets from the ship. She could see among the wreckage viviks being sucked out, spinning off into space. "That's one less cannon to worry about!"
"Yeah, we only have to worry about the other forty or so!" Shelby complained. "Ms Morgan, you aren't even using full power!"
"I have no idea how connected the ship's systems are!" Kendall reminded her, swerving to avoid a torpedo. "One false move and I could cause a feedback into the main power reactor; it could take the whole ship up with Tyler still on it!"
"So instead we just..."
"We just have to hope all that time I spent on the Zord simulators wasn't wasted." Kendall responded.
"Wait...you spent time on the Zord simulators?" Shelby asked her. Kendall understood the importance of training in all aspects of combat, including the use of the Rangers' Zords, and so she had built a programme that allowed them to enter a VR simulation of Zord battles. It was a way for them to be prepared for the use of their Zords without having to flatten large areas of Amber Beach or the surrounding areas.
"I couldn't let you guys try it without knowing it worked, could I?" She asked as a smile crept across her face. "But I have to say...this is really pretty awesome!"
Shelby held on as Kendall swung around for another attack.
"I think we've been a bad influence." She muttered to herself. "When did I become the voice of caution?"
Back on the bridge of Sledge's ship, Tyler was only barely able to keep out of Sledge's reach. Given his size and the weight of his armour, he was expecting him to be a lot slower than he actually was. Unfortunately it seemed that Sledge was well used to moving in the armour, like he never took it off and was used to its weight. The small size of the cockpit didn't help either, meaning that between the small space and Sledge's size, he didn't need to be particularly fast either. He was beginning to tire from the battle, but having seen Sledge in battles before, he had noticed that he tended to flee if they took too long and hoped that meant he just needed to outlast him.
Sledge brought both hands down in a hammer-blow, which Tyler was only just able to roll out the way of. His hands came crashing down through a bank of computers, sending sparks flying.
"Damn, that looked expensive!" Tyler taunted him. "I really hope you have good insurance!"
Sledge came rushing at him like a freight train, lowering his head. Tyler was banking on this. Without his powers, he could only hope that his goading could lead to Sledge making mistakes. It was working for the most part, but he could already feel his heart pounding in his chest and his lungs beginning to feel strained. He dove over the top of Sledge's clumsy lunge, shoving his head down for good measure. Sledge's momentum carried his head into a monitor, causing him to convulse and jerk around as sparks flew everywhere.
"I know some people will do anything to get on TV but that's just ridiculous!" Tyler quipped as Sledge jerked around. He knew better than to hope a few thousand volts would do much more than anger him though. He cast a glance to where the Get-bot was working on taking a panel off the Magna Beam control column. It was working fast, but it looked like it still had a way to go. Tyler looked back in time to see Sledge finally managing to pull himself out of the screen, only to hit him with a hard kick.
Tyler flew backwards through Sledge's throne, and clutched at his ribs in pain. He was sure he'd felt something break, and he could already feel warm blood starting to well up in his mouth. Sledge grabbed him and slammed him against a wall. Tyler struggled to get free, but he couldn't.
Sledge knew he had the upper hand now, and he wasn't going to give it up. He maintained his grip on Tyler as he threw him to the ground, before driving him into the wall again. He wasn't giving Tyler a chance to get away from him again.
"I'll never understand you humans!" Sledge snapped at him. "Of all the species I've ever encountered, all of them stuck very strictly to their survival instincts."
He drew him back, slamming Tyler into the wall again, smashing more air out of Tyler's lungs. The Red Ranger spluttered as he tried to remove Sledge's hand, though finding his grip so strong he'd be as well trying to pry off a mountain!
"You know I've felled far more powerful beings than you! Yet here you are trying to fight me without so much as a decent club." Sledge said derisively. "What exactly do you propose to do when you don't have the power to defeat me?"
"Fight dirty!" Tyler responded, spitting a mix of blood and spittle straight into Sledge's face, splattering across Sledge's visor, preventing him from seeing. Tyler saw the crack in his armour and the wound in his side and jammed his fingers into it as hard as he could, clawing into it with his fingernails. Sledge screamed out in pain and released him, staggering back, but not before knocking Tyler down. Tyler looked up in time to see Sledge clearing his vision.
"You little...!" He spluttered in his anger. "Just for that, you can WATCH YOUR CITY BURN!"
"NOOOO!" Tyler screamed as he could only watch in horror as Sledge reached for the Magna Beam, slamming his hand down onto it the big, red button.
Outside, Kendall was lucky as the beam launched, narrowly missing her. She had to throw the Plesio Zord into a flat spin to avoid it, but leaving it spinning out of control and vulnerable to other volleys.
"Whoa! That was WAY too close!" Shelby exclaimed loudly.
"That was the Magna Beam!" Kendall called out in horror. "It's locked onto the museum parking lot!"
They both immediately turned their attention to the viewing screens, bringing them to the museum in the hopes of seeing if their friends could somehow stop it. They were just in time to see the beam hit. The flash was so bright it nearly blinded them both.
Down at the museum, the rest of the team were awaiting word on what to do when their warning alarms went off.
"What the hell is that?" Chase called out. "More goons?"
"It's a target lock!" Riley screamed. "Sledge has fired the magna beam!"
They all rushed for the door, not really sure why. The only plan that made any sense was to call the Zords and have them take the hit...but by the time they called them, they weren't sure that they would be in time.
As they got to the door, morphed and ready for action, they saw the beam coming right for them. They were already too late. They all shielded their eyes as they waited for the inevitable. They waited...for a lot longer than they expected.
"Is...is it over?" Phillipe asked.
"I would have expected oblivion to hurt more." Ivan remarked. They all slowly but surely opened their eyes and looked out into the parking lot.
"Well, the GOOD news is that it wasn't the laser." Riley remarked, craning his neck upwards to look up at the company truck, which was the only vehicle in the parking lot. "The bad news is...Ms Morgan has a LOT of explaining to do to the insurance company!"
Back on the ship, Sledge had noticed that there was no great cataclysm on the planet's surface. There was no sign that the beam had done anything at all!
"What is wrong with this thing?" He screamed. Tyler got the answer though as the Get-bot rolled towards him, and presented the Energem to him. Tyler snatched it, feeling its energy already filling him, giving him the boost he needed to get back to his feet. Sledge looked to Tyler just as he clenched his fist around the Energem.
"I've got what I came for! I can leave this ship past you, or through you!" Sledge just moved to stand in the way of the door. Tyler told him, morphing immediately into Dino Steel mode. He summoned up his Tyranno Smasher. "Fine, that's your choice! Ms Morgan! I've got the Energem! Tear this thing to shreds!"
"Tyler!" She protested.
"I'll make my own way off the ship!" Tyler put down flatly. "Bring it down!"
Back on the Plesio Zord, Shelby and Kendall looked to each other. They heard Tyler's order, but neither of them wanted to follow it. Kendall though knew that they now had Sledge more desperate than ever. He had virtually nothing to lose now by bringing his whole arsenal down in a petulant final attempt to take the Rangers with him. Reluctantly, she increased the power to her weapons.
"Ms Morgan, you're not really going to..."
"We have to do it!" Kendall told her.
"But it's TYLER!" Shelby screamed at her. "Can't you...pull rank on him or something?"
"I may be the boss in the museum; I'm sure as hell the boss in my lab!" Kendall said as she had to gulp, hating the words that were about to come out of her mouth. "But the Red Energem chose him for a reason. In the field, he calls the shots...even if they're aimed at him!"
Kendall targeted several of the ship's vital systems, before bringing her Zord around, firing all available weapons as she flew straight towards it.
In the Bridge, Tyler and Sledge had resumed their fight. Even with his powers, Tyler knew that Sledge was the most powerful being he had ever faced. His speed compensated for the difference in strength and size, but he knew that the cramped fighting conditions favoured him in the long run. They both stumbled into each other as the ship rocked and warning sirens started to sound.
"You fool!" Sledge yelled at him, shoving Tyler aside. "Do you know what you've done?"
"I've ensured you won't be hurting anyone ever again!" Tyler stated as he watched Sledge struggling with the controls. He didn't stop to think, looking at the controls he saw they were already descending towards the Earth. He slammed his Tyranno Smasher into the split in Sledge's armour, knocking him to the ground. He brought his weapon down into the controls, again and again, utterly destroying the control panel. "It's over Sledge!"
The Plesio Zord pursued the ship as it descended on its journey towards the Earth. Kendall continued to fire into its engines, crippling them to prevent any attempt to prevent its fall to Earth.
"I've calculated its trajectory, it won't hit the city!" Kendall told Shelby as the ship started to come down through the atmosphere, glowing brightly as it created a fiery streak through the air. "If all goes well, it'll break up on re-entry. If not...at least it won't come down over major population areas. I won't destroy it until Tyler..."
"Ms Morgan, why haven't you destroyed the ship yet?" Tyler yelled through the communicator.
"Tyler, it's coming down at hundreds of miles an hour! If it doesn't break up on re-entry, it'll probably be destroyed on impact!" Kendall told him.
"Probably isn't good enough!" Tyler shouted at her. "Blow this thing to hell!"
"I'm not destroying that ship until you get into a pod!" Kendall told him.
"I'm nowhere near a pod; now blow this thing to hell!" Tyler screamed again. Kendall knew what her sense of duty told her she should do. She also knew what her humanity told her to do. Her hand strayed off the firing controls.
"No!" She put down flatly. "I'm not destroying that ship while you're on it!"
"Then there's a way to sort that problem isn't there?" Tyler responded. As the ship finally broke through the atmosphere, he used his Tyranno Smasher to smash open the side of the bridge, creating a hole to the outside. He leapt from the ship, and started tumbling towards the Earth.
"Tyler!" Shelby screamed. "TYLER!"
"I'm following him!" Kendall assured her. "If we're fast enough we can catch him!"
Tyler saw the Plesio Zord change direction, and he knew they were coming for him, but as he plummeted towards the Earth, he resigned himself to his fate. He knew all about terminal velocity, his dad had told him about the many times he had parachuted into countries where he didn't actually have a visa to dig.
He could feel pressure building in his extremities, especially in his head as the blood rushed out from his heart. His ears started ringing and his face felt warm. His vision started to blur, and he knew it wouldn't be long before he blacked out. He saw the Plesio Zord pulling up, realising that Kendall probably had to abandon the dive when she was getting too close to the ground to be able to pull up. He knew the Ranger suits saved them all from a lot, but a freefall from orbit...his vision started to trim with black, but just before he passed out, he felt a set of arms grabbing him. Was this what death felt like?
A while later, Tyler's eyes started to flicker open, and he found himself staring up at bright lights. Eventually, a dark shape blocked some of the light.
"Tyler?" A distorted voice asked. "He's awake! Tyler?"
A few more forms surrounded him, and another leaned over him.
"Move aside, give me some room." Another distorted voice instructed, before shining another light directly into his eye...yeah, that was what he needed! "Tyler, can you speak to me?"
"Will you stop shining lights in my eyes?" He asked, before trying to sit up. He felt pain, which kind of went against his whole theory of being dead...at least...as far as he knew of what death was meant to be. He sat up, clutching his head and started to focus. Eventually the surroundings started to make a little more sense. He could see his friends, most of them anyway, standing around. Keeper, Riley, Chase, Koda, Ivan, Shelby and Kendall were all standing around him.
"You're back in the Dino Lab." Kendall informed him. "We brought you here after the battle."
"You gave us quite a scare there mate." Chase told him. "Shelby here was having kittens! OW!"
"What the hell did you think you were doing?" Shelby screamed at him. "Jumping out of a SPACE SHIP?"
"I'll admit, it was a pretty wild ride." Tyler chuckled, but that only earned him an angry smack in the chest from Shelby. "Hey, ribs!"
"They're only cracked right now." Kendall assured him. "They'll be completely healed by tomorrow."
"Tyler alright!" Koda yelled excitedly, snatching him in a tight hug. Tyler laughed as he was lifted clean off the bench.
"Whoa, easy there, I do still need to breathe." Tyler reminded him. "Besides, how could anything bad happen when I have this team? I appreciate the catch by the way."
"Catch?" Shelby asked him.
"Yeah, one of you caught me." Tyler stated.
"Tyler...none of us caught you." Kendall told him as they stared at him.
"Yeah, I remember, I felt one of you grab me right before I passed out!" Tyler answered. They all looked to each other, and shook their heads.
"Tyler...none of us were anywhere near you when you hit the ground." Kendall told him. "We found you in the woods about an hour ago."
"None of you caught me?" Tyler asked. They all shook their heads. "Then...who did?"
Meanwhile, Phillipe arrived back at the hospital, making his way through. No one tried to stop him; they had seen him there before and knew he was no danger to them. It wouldn't have mattered much anyway; there wasn't anything that was going to stop him.
He found Margaret's room and headed inside, finding her sleeping on the bed. He couldn't help smiling to see her, and he came across, sitting down beside her. He saw that the television was on the news channel and presumed she had turned it on to catch what happened in the battle. He took a seat next to her and picked up the remote, turning it off.
"Hey." Margaret said in a weary voice, rubbing her eyes a little. "I was watching that."
"That's an impressive trick watching television with your eyes closed." He chuckled. Margaret smiled at him.
"So, you won?" She asked him. He just nodded to confirm the detail.
"We won the big one." He told her. "Sledge and his crew won't be back."
He took her hand in his, while running another hand over her hair in a comforting gesture.
"So now, all you have to worry about is getting better." He told her. Margaret took a deep breath.
"I...I've been given a couple of treatment options." She told him. "I wanted to wait for you to make the decision."
"Me?" He asked. "Margaret, all that matters..."
"My healthcare plan is kind of with my employer...which would be your dad by the way." She reminded him. Phillipe just smiled.
"Screw the plan." He told her. "Whatever option you choose, whichever has the best chance for success, that's what we'll be doing."
"But your dad..."
"Screw the plan." Phillipe reiterated. "Whatever it takes, you have my word, that's what we'll do."