Chapter 48 – Gift From The Spirits
Hunston Beach
Tyler wasn't sure how long he had been out for, it could've been minutes or possibly even hours. He slowly pushed himself up and looked around to see how his team were doing. Koda, Ivan and Matt were slowly stirring and trying to wake up the person nearest to them. The red ranger felt like his entire insides were on fire and he stretched out his muscles to try and alleviate the stiffness, "Tyler", Koda called out and shuffled over to the red ranger, "how you feeling?"
"Daft question dude", Tyler choked out, "I feel like I've been run over by a truck but other than that I'm fine".
More of the rangers began to wake up and slowly they began to huddle together, "How long were we out for?" Chloe asked the group.
Chase checked his communicator, "Probably no more than ten minutes", he flicked through the screen on the device, "and we've only got thirteen missed calls from Jason".
As the black ranger put a call in to the lab, Kiera picked up her Dinovolver from the sand, "I think we've got a bigger problem". Her morpher was blackened and smoke was still pouring out from the device. She pushed the eject button and a blackened Energem popped out and landed in the dirt.
"Are they fixable?" Ivan asked, his Ptera Brace was in a similar state to the other morphers.
"Not in the time available to us", the purple ranger replied and pulled at a few loose wires.
"I think it gets worse", Chase began as he returned to the group, "all of the Energems in the rack at the lab are fried too".
A heavy silence hung in the air as reality hit the rangers, "So it's over", Riley sighed, "the Deboss has won".
The rangers bowed their heads and sat in silence for several minutes. Suddenly Tyler punched the sand and stood up, "I'm not going to sit here and do nothing", he said and began walking towards the Ice Palace.
"And I only recently praised you for being calm and restrained", Chase snorted.
"Yeah well some situations call for a little bit of recklessness", he began, "if I do nothing then I'm dead, if I go to the Ice Palace then I'm also dead but at least I go down fighting".
"I'm with you", Shelby stood up and stood side by side with her boyfriend, "who wants to live forever right?" Tyler smiled in appreciation as the red and pink rangers were joined by Bastian.
"I've been here from the beginning", Chase said as he stood up, "I wanna see how this is going to end". Kiera's hand shot up and grabbed hold of Chase's arm. Initially the black ranger thought he was going to stop him but to his surprise she hauled herself up and stood alongside Chase.
"A true warrior keeps fighting to the end", Ivan dragged himself to his feet and he was soon joined by the Griffin brothers.
"I'm not going to have my child call me a coward", Chloe finally announced and joined the growing group of rangers. Koda was the final one to join the huddle and the rangers placed an arm around the people next to them. After a few moments, they broke apart and began the short walk to the Ice Palace.
Chaos thought he had seen the last of the rangers so he was shocked to see them marching towards the palace. He admired their courage but also couldn't believe their stupidity. His last attack had destroyed their morphers and the link to the Energems. Why would they march towards their deaths without any protection? "You just don't know when to give up", Chaos drawled.
"Call it the human condition", Riley responded.
"The dinosaurs felt that way too", Chaos snorted, "and look what happened to them".
"Just because we don't have our powers doesn't mean we're going to give up", Tyler replied. "We still have the spirit of the dinosaurs within us and we always will as long as we have breath in our bodies".
As soon as Tyler finished his speech, the Energems in the rangers hands began to glow, "What's going on?" Koda asked.
"I think the Dino Spirits are recognising our bravery", Bastian replied. The light continued to glow until it consumed the rangers. Chaos cried in frustration and began to shoot lasers from his hands towards the rangers but it didn't have any effect.
When the light cleared all ten rangers were back in their suits and with their newly repaired Dinovolvers in their hands. Tyler had been morphed instantly into Supercharged Mode, "Impossible", Chaos roared.
"No Chaos", Tyler began, "this is the true power of the dinosaurs". The Stego and Tricera attachments connected to his arms and he charged towards Chaos. The drill of the Tricera Zord cut into Chaos' upper body, drawing some thick green blood from the monster. The red ranger was in a frenzy and Chaos could barely keep up with him.
"Let's change this up", Tyler said and swapped out the Tricera Zord for the Para Zord. A barrage of black energy bolts slammed into Chaos, pushing the monster further back towards the Ice Palace. Chaos tried to fight back but his sword was blocked with the Stego Zord. Tyler then raked the sharp edges of the shield down the body of Chaos, sending sparks flying into the air.
With Chaos reeling, Tyler changed the Stego Zord for the Raptor Zord. The sharp blade cut through Chaos' body, drawing more blood from the leader of the Deboss. Chaos tried to block an attack but the Raptor Zord sliced through his sword and into his body, "My sword", he cried.
"That's just the start of your punishment Chaos", Tyler said as he backed away towards his team.
"You still don't understand how much power I have", Chaos roared as green energy began to gather around his body. He began to grow in size until he towered over the rangers on the beach below.
"Geez he is massive", Chase groaned.
"Then we should bring out our big guns", Bastian suggested and called on the Titano Energem. He threw it into the air and gigantic Titano Zord lumbered on to the beach. Once it had converted itself to warrior mode, it stood roughly the same height as Chaos. Considering that the Titano Zord was significantly bigger than any other giant monster, the rangers still had a fight on their hands.
Deprived of his sword, Chaos had to resort to hand to hand combat. Unfortunately for the rangers he was still just as powerful. Chaos struck the Titano Zord with a few hefty blows, rocking the giant mecha. The Megazord returned fire with his staff, cutting deep into the skin of Chaos. It was becoming clear that whilst the two were evenly matched in terms of power, Chaos was significantly quicker than the Titano Zord. The green skinned monster effortlessly dodged a swing from the Megazord's spear and landed a kick in the side of the mecha.
"We're too slow", Ivan groaned, "maybe the Ptera Zord could help us".
"No offence Ivan but that thing would crush all of our other Megazords", Shelby replied, "if only there was a way we could combine all our forces together".
"Wait that's it", Tyler clapped his hands together, "other ranger teams could link all their zords together so why can't we?"
"I dunno I haven't got any data to support that theory", Kiera replied.
"Then let's conduct a field experiment", Koda said as he and the other four original rangers retrieved an Energem from their buckles. Summoning their zords, the Titano Zord began to separate and merged with the Tyranno Zord. The Raptor Zord connected to the giant spear as the Stego and Tricera Zords formed the arms. The Para Zord sat on top of the zords left shoulder as a giant yellow crown dropped down into place. Finally a yellow chest plate slotted into place on the front of the Megazord.
"Dino Charge Ultrazord", they called unison.
"Think that scares me", Chaos cried and charged towards the Ultrazord. He blasted it a few times with lightning but the Ultrazord absorbed all of the blows without flinching. Quick as a flash it swung it's giant spear and sliced through Chaos, removing the lower half of his right arm. Chaos looked down at his bloodied stump and let out a furious roar.
"Ultrazord Crown attack", Tyler called and a powerful golden beam struck Chaos and he was thrown into the walls of the Ice Palace, punching a huge hole in the side.
"Wait I'm getting a message from Tan", Bastian began, "if we combine all of the Energems then we should have enough power to overcome Chaos".
"All of the Energems?" Kiera asked, "even the guardian gems?" Bastian nodded in response.
"Well the spirits haven't lied to us yet", Ivan said and called on the Ptera Energems and a couple of others. The rest of the rangers did the same and soon the Ptera, Anklyo, Pachy and Plesio Zords were flanking the Ultrazord. The chest plate of the zord disconnected and landed in the sand. Several slots opened up and the guardian Energems slotted into place.
Chaos barely had enough time to get to his feet when he saw the might of all the Dino spirits standing in front of him, "No this is impossible", he cried.
"Haven't you learned that impossible isn't a word in our vocabulary", Tyler replied and the guardians spirits in the cannon began to charge up.
"You might defeat me but I will have the last laugh", Chaos began, "your town will be wiped off the face of the Earth".
"Bored now", Tyler replied, "Ultrazord Cannon, lock on and fire", he called. Streams of energy poured off the Ultrazord and the zords lined up beside them. The cannon was fully charged and a huge stream of golden energy tore into Chaos, turning him instantly to dust. The blast also tore off the top of the Ice Palace, including the summoning beacon for the meteor.
A few moments later everything began to power down due to the massive energy surge that had just gone through the system. Tyler quickly pulled off his communicator and called the lab, "Jason have we stopped the meteor?"
After a few tense seconds he replied, "It's going to be close but the computer thinks it's going to just miss the planet".
"We've done it", Koda called out, "we've saved the world". The rangers jumped into each other for a massive group hug and there were even a few tears of happiness.
Their joy was short lived though as the ground underneath them began to rumble, "Now what!" Chloe snapped. The remains of the Ice Palace seemed to be trying to life out of the ground and smoke was pouring out of the ground.
"Can that thing fly?" Chase asked the gold ranger.
"How should I know?" Ivan replied.
"Well you spent a little bit of time there", Riley added.
The gold ranger thought for a few moments, "Well it didn't move whilst I was on board but Torin said that it used to bring terror from the skies so it must be able to move somehow". The palace broke free of the ground and began to slowly rise into the air. With the tower like turrets removed from the top, the palace resembled a small meteor.
"Erm another problem", Matt pointed to the ground and several Vivix were pouring out of the palace and towards the city".
"They just won't let us have our moment of glory", Tyler sighed, "Dad, Kiera, Chloe and Matt you get down to the beach and stop the Vivix from reaching the city. The rest of us are going to take the Ptera Zord and find a way to stop that palace". Everyone nodded and the support team jumped to the ground whilst the others climbed over the Ptera Zord.
"Hang on everyone", Ivan called out as the golden zord streaked after the Ice Palace. Several chunks of crystal were falling off the palace, forcing Ivan to take evasive action. The palace flew out across the ocean before turning around in a wide arc.
"It's heading back for the city", Shelby noticed.
"That must be what Chaos meant about wiping the city off the map", Chase added.
"I think we can cut it off but it's going to get a bit rough", Ivan said and turned the Ptera around sharply. They were heading on a direct course with Ice Palace at maximum speed, "Alright we're going to have to jump".
"Are you insane?" Koda asked the gold ranger.
"Possibly, I've never been tested", he joked before address the Ptera Zord directly, "once we're onboard go back to the beach and help the others". The Ptera Zord screeched in response and accelerated towards the Ice Palace.
The rangers moved out onto the beak of the Ptera Zord and struggled to keep their balance due to the wind shear, "Over there", Tyler pointed to a large hole in the side of the Palace. The Ptera Zord acted accordingly and got as close as it could to the gap. Just as the rangers were about to jump, a chunk of rock hit the Ptera Zord and disrupted its flight. The rangers stumbled but somehow they kept their balance. The Ptera Zord lined up again and one by one they jumped over the Ice Palace.
"Come on, the main chamber is up head", Ivan instructed them. After a few moments they reached the chamber with the three totems representing anger, sadness and happiness. Sitting between them was a small pedestal with a navigation system and a joystick.
"Alright Koda you've played a lot of simulation games", Tyler thrust the blue ranger towards the controls.
Koda scanned his eyes nervously over the panel, "We're losing height rapidly", he announced, "the best I can do is level us off and try and settle us down gently", he tugged on the joystick, "assuming I can get this to respond".
"We've got faith in you man", Chase slapped in on the shoulder in response. The blue ranger nodded and took a deep breath, the joystick wouldn't change course but as he first thought, he could alter the rate of descent. Pulling back violently on the stick, it began to level up but the city was coming into view very quickly.
"We're not going to make it in time", Koda said as the rocket propelled ball of rock crashed through a radio communication tower before punching a hole through a glass front skyscraper.
"We're going to hit the city square", Tyler noted. Suddenly they were struck by an unknown force and spiralled completely out of control. They had just enough time to register that they were going to crash before they felt a massive impact and the world descended into darkness.
TO BE CONTINUED
A/N - Only one more battle chapter to go and then an epilogue, can't believe it's nearly all over...