Chapter 23 – The Girl Who Fell To Earth
Pacific Ocean
About a mile off the coast of Hunston Valley, a lone figure swam through the clear waters of the Pacific Ocean. Since the arrival of the Deboss, Kiera didn't have as much time to swim as she would have liked. Her hybrid status meant that she didn't need to rehydrate but she still felt at home in the water. Her Aquitian heritage also gave her advantage when it came to water. When she first arrived on Earth she could hold her breath under water for about fifteen minutes. Now she was older and undertaken some training, she had extended this to around an hour.
Kiera had no idea how long she had been underwater today but she was beginning to feel tired so she guessed that she would need to take a breath soon. Turning towards the surface, she kicked hard and moved towards a shadow on the water. When she broke the surface, the teen took a deep breath and brushed the damp hair from her eyes. She reached up and clambered back into Jason's fishing boat that he had let her borrow for the day.
As she leant on the side of the boat and looked out of the ocean, a part of her wished that her parents could be here. There was no resentment towards them, Billy and Cestria had made the right decision sending her to Earth. Jason was great but it wasn't the same as having her actual parents in her life. The first few years after moving to Earth had been the most difficult. She knew that she was different from all the other kids her age and this has made her shy and withdrawn. She wouldn't say that she had been bullied, picked on definitely but no more than anyone else.
After a few months Jason had pulled her out of school and used his connections in the ranger world to continue her education. She remembered getting Math and English tuition from Kat Hillard, learning about science from Trini Kwan and getting personal martial arts tuition from a number of ex-rangers. But the most important lessons she remembered was from Andros. Like her the red space ranger was an alien living on a different world so he knew exactly what she was going through. Now that she had inadvertently created her own team of rangers, it felt like everything had come full circle.
She was pulled out of her thoughts by a buzzing sound coming from her bag. Fishing through her clothes, she found that the noise was coming from her communicator. "Kiera here", she answered.
"Kiera where the hell are you", Jason began, "we've got a situation in the city".
The teen turned towards Hunston Valley and saw the unmistakable figures of the Dino Charge and Ptera Megazords. They were fighting a giant green dinosaur and by the looks of it, they were losing, "Oh yeah", she replied, "sorry I was swimming", she apologise.
Jason sighed, "It's fine you weren't to know, just get here as quickly as possible, we could use your knowledge". Kiera turned off the communicator and quickly fired up the boat's engines. She set course for the harbour at the quickest speed that she dared.
Downtown Hunston Valley
In the city Jason had been enjoying a quiet day at the museum when the monster attack began. At first he believed that it was just another monster but then he got a visit from Torin. The creature attacking wasn't any monster, it was Master Deboss himself. Apparently the Deboss Generals had gotten tired of waiting to gather enough human emotions and decided to try and revive him anyway. Due to his premature revival, Torin said that he wasn't at full power. That wasn't reassuring Jason as the rangers were struggling to land a blow on the giant dinosaur. After summoning Kiera back to the lab, there was nothing more he could do than sit and watch.
"Hello Mr Scott", a female voice called. It was Celina Morgan, a visiting lecturer on marine dinosaurs. She was around Jason's age and about five foot six tall. She had long brown hair that was tied back into a ponytail. She also wore thick framed glasses that looked similar to the ones Kiera wore sometimes.
"Can I help you Doctor Morgan", Jason replied.
"Is this a common occurrence, monsters attacking the city", she asked.
"Sadly it has been in the last few months", Jason began, "don't worry the Power Rangers will stop it", at least Jason hoped they could.
Up in the Megazords, the rangers were rocked by another strong blow from Master Deboss. They were thrown around on their pedestals and struggled to keep their balance, "Nothing we do has any effect", Koda cried as he struggled to get the controls to respond.
"We're not giving up that easily", Tyler replied. The rangers directed the Tricera Drill towards the ribs of the giant dinosaur but the Master grabbed the zord with his mouth. He bit down hard and the rangers were sure that they could hear the Tricera Zord cry out in pain. The Megazord uses its shoulder flame thrower to distract the Master long enough to allow them to wrench the Tricera Zord free.
"I don't think Steggy can take another blow like that", Shelby called out.
"Perhaps it's time to try something new", Tyler began, "Chase you and Riley join Ivan in the Ptera Megazord. Use your zords in combination with his, maybe his zord's extra speed will help."
The black and green rangers nodded and jumped over to the gold rangers zord. Calling on the Para and Raptor Zords, they linked up with the Ptera Megazord to form the Ptera Artillery Megazord. "Alright it's nice to have some company over here", Ivan stated.
"Let's hope this works", Chase replied and took aim with his Dinovolver. The Para Zord landed a few clean shots on the Master and the creature was temporarily stunned by the blows. It didn't last long and soon the giant dinosaur was back on the attack again. The Ptera Megazord was quick but the extra mass of the additional zords slowed it down. The Master caught the golden Megazord with a blow to the chest, knocking it to the ground. Riley was quickly back on his feet and used the Raptor Zord to slash at the legs of Master Deboss. The green monster howled in pain and stamped down hard on the body of the Megazord, putting all of his weight behind the attack. The walls of the Megazord groaned as they struggled to take the strain.
Master Deboss was so focused on the fallen Ptera Megazord that he didn't notice the Dino Charge Megazord sneaking up on him. The rangers had swapped out the damaged Tricera Zord with the Anklyo Zord and they immediately put it to good use by smashing it over the head of the Master. The dinosaur creature appeared to be wounded by the attack and hobbled away in pain, "Quickly hit it with everything you have", Ivan called out.
The Ptera Megazord took to the sky as the Para Zord fired a blast from its tail. The Raptor Zord sent a wave of green energy at the monster before the main body of the mecha crashed through Master Deboss with a crackle of lightning. The Dino Crush Megazord charged up its light blue hammer and hit the dinosaur creature with three consecutive hits that would have destroyed a normal monster. Instead they barely seemed to faze Master Deboss, "I don't believe it, he's still standing", Tyler cried out.
There was worst to come for the rangers. Master Deboss opened his jaws and began to gather energy. He fired a powerful ball of red energy at the Megazords that tore through the vehicles. Both Megazords fell to the ground with sparks flying off their outer bodies. Inside the Megazords things weren't much better. Several metal beams had fallen down and the rangers were slumped over their pedestals. Slowly but surely they began to come around, "Is everyone alright?" Tyler asked everyone.
"Yeah just peachy", Chase replied from the Ptera Megazord, "we can't win against that thing".
Tyler sighed, "I don't want to admit it but you're right, we need to fall back".
"Agreed", Ivan added over the radio. There was a shimmering light as the zords powered down and their spirits returned into their Energems to recover. Fortunately for the city, Master Deboss seemed to be feeling the effects of the battle as well as he also decided to retreat and recover.
Down on the ground everyone began to emerge from their hiding places. Jason looked around and after checking that no one was in any immediate danger, he took off in the direction of home. Doctor Celina Morgan wasn't looking too impressed with the damage caused to the city. She pulled out a strange looking cell phone and made a call to her husband, "It's just as we feared, she's not safe here", she said before retreating into a private area of the museum
Pacific Ocean
Kiera was pushing the boat as fast as she could but after seeing the Megazords fall, she tried to push the engines to their absolute limit. She was approaching the jetty when she felt like something was calling to her. Bringing the boat to halt, she tried to focus on that feeling. After a few moments she felt like something was calling to her a little further down the coast. Her scientific curiosity got the best of her and she changed the boats course. She moved away the beach and towards a rock formation. Stopping the boat again she felt that same pull from earlier. Looking over the edge of the boat, there was a light coming from underneath the surface. Her brain was telling her that exploring strange lights was a mistake but that mysterious pulling force was hard to resist. Jumping overboard she swam over to the source of the light.
The teen knew that she wouldn't be able to stay underwater too long, she needed some time to recover before she could reach her maximum endurance again. Hoping that whatever was calling to her wasn't too far underwater, she dived under the surface.
The water was dark compared to the open ocean but after a few minutes searching, she found an underwater tunnel. Whatever the source of this light was, it was coming from down this tunnel. Kiera didn't know how long she had been swimming for but her chest was beginning to feel tight, a sure sign that she would need oxygen in the next few minutes. Suddenly the texture of the walls changed from rock to metal. Kiera noticed a small airlock in the metal wall nearby and swam in that direction.
She tried to turn the wheel but it was stuck. She tried again but she felt close to blacking out, she needed to breathe in the next minute otherwise she would drown. It was too far back to swim out of the tunnel so she needed to open this door and hope that it wasn't flooded. With the last of her strength Kiera got the wheel to turn and forced the door open. Behind the door was a small airlock with a large red button on the wall. Slamming her hand against the button, the water slowly began to drain from the airlock. When enough of the water had drained away, Kiera kicked for the surface and took a deep gasp of air. She was breathing heavily but at that moment, the teen couldn't care less.
The water was completely drained but it took Kiera a few minutes to summon up enough energy to move. Turning the wheel on the inner airlock, it clicked open and Kiera stepped inside. To her amazement she was inside an abandoned laboratory. The room was almost completely dark, only emergency lighting illuminated the gloom. As she explored further, Kiera noticed that virtually everything of value had been stripped out of the lab. Whoever owned this place clearly didn't want anything falling into the wrong hands.
She pushed open another door and entered what looked like a giant hanger, it was hard to tell as there was no lights in the room at all. Suddenly a pair of yellow eyes appeared in the gloom and the lights buzzed into life. When the lights had all come on, Kiera's jaw dropped. Floating in the water of a dock was a purple and white Plesiosaurus, "The Plesio Zord", Kiera said with awe.
"I see you've found her then", a male voice called out. Kiera spun around and pulled out her Dinovolver from the holster on her wetsuit. "I mean you no harm, I couldn't even if I wanted to".
Kiera looked a little closer and the voice belonged to a holographic projection of an elderly Japanese man. He had shaggy white hair and a pair of glasses perched on the end of his nose. Underneath his white lab coat was a purple button shirt, "You're a hologram?" Kiera asked.
"More than that", the man replied, "technically I'm a spirit. Allow me to introduce myself, I'm Doctor Takaharu Kato previously known as the Purple Dino Charge Ranger".
"When you say you're a spirit, are you like Andreas and Torin?" Kiera stated.
Doctor Kato laughed, "In a way, just before I died seventy years ago I uploaded my conscience into my lab. This way I could keep an eye on the Plesio Zord until my successor was chosen. Unfortunately my spirit can't leave the lab but that's a small price to pay".
Kiera looked over to the Plesio Zord, who seemed to be more activate than she was a few minutes ago. Suddenly Kiera remembered what the Doctor had said, "I'm sorry did you say successor", Doctor Kato nodded, "surely you don't mean me".
"I can think of no one better", Doctor Kato began, "a child of a distant water based planet. Born to a former Power Ranger, trained and educated by several others, I'm amazed none of the other Dino Spirits didn't snap you up".
"Doc you can't be serious", Kiera replied, "I'm a scientist, not a fighter".
"So was I many years ago", Doctor Kato replied, "the decision has been made by the spirit of the Plesiosaurus". The Plesio Zord opened its mouth and spat out an Energem that landed in Kiera's hand. It was a deep purple colour with the number 9 on it, "Kiera Cranston, you are the new Dino Charge Purple Ranger".
TO BE CONTINUED
A/N - Doctor Morgan is a reference to Kendall Morgan from Dino Charge, although my Doctor Morgan is not related to Kendall (or Lost Galaxy's Kendrix).