Chapter 8: Ranger Down!

Having met a new enemy in the form of two new Power Rangers that seemed to be working for the Scale Shedders, on top of having their noble leader squashed like a bug from said rangers, Astrid and the boys sit around at the Dragerium while Hiccup was still out cold.

It had been a long, concerning week since the old Rangers met the new ones, and all three met at the Dragerium every day after school to see if Hiccup was awake yet, but to no avail. The three did continue with training with whatever information Hiccup had already given them, but the thought of Hiccup being out never stopped being on their minds.

Meanwhile, back at the lair of the Scale Shedders, Girsly had summoned the silver and violet Berserk Rangers to his lair where he addresses them, "My Rangers, I have allowed you to rest long enough, it is time for you to head back out and take down those pesky dragon heads. They may expect some of the moves they saw during the last battle, so make sure to keep them on their toes. You know what to do."

The two Rangers bow. "Yes, sir!" before turning tail and leaving.

Grisly then comments to himself, "Before I know it, I will have more Drago Scales in my possession…and the more I have, the more powerful I shall become."

Back at the Dragerium, the three original Rangers sat around with the thought of what could happen should they lose Hiccup for good flows through their head. Astrid was just scrolling through a book about Ranger techniques in hopes that there was something new in there that could help her out, that's when she found something that catches her eye. "Power fusion?" She asks herself.

She wanted to read on, but, as usual, that's when the emergency alarm began to sound and it snapped her from her daze.

Alicia kneels before the special pond as an image of the quarry where the Drago Rangers met the Berserk Rangers pops up, along with said Rangers. Alicia sighs, "I'll give ten dollars to the person who guesses who is out there."

The other three sigh and say, "Berserk Rangers."

Alicia nods. "You know you guys don't have to do this. It doesn't look like the Berserk Rangers are causing any real harm."

Fishlegs comments, "But if we don't get out there soon enough, they could start causing real harm."

Thinking for a moment longer, Astrid looks into the medical room where Hiccup was lying on the bed, still as unconscious as when he was first placed there. She then stands up and says, "We're going to fight!"

Fishlegs then states, "But…Hiccup-"

"Is still as useful for a fight as a piece of asparagus, I know," Astrid states. "but we can't just sit around while those insane Rangers are out there…it's what Hiccup would've wanted." She looks to Snotlout and Fishlegs and says, "If you two aren't going to join me, then I'm just gonna have to fight those rangers myself!"

She turns tail and heads down the stairs to where the Rangers usually teleport from, leaving Snotlout and Fishlegs to wonder what they should do. Astrid was just about to warp away, when the boys stop her. "Wait!" Fishlegs says. "We'll go with you, for Hiccup."

Astrid looks to Snotlout and asks, "Is that why you want to go too? For Hiccup?"

Snotlout replies with, "…I mostly just want to kick some butt."

Astrid shrugs. "It's as good of a motivation as any. Alright guys, let's Morph up and get ready, because we've got a tough fight ahead of us." They turn to face the same direction as Astrid asks, "Ready?"

Snotlout and Fishlegs reply with, "Ready!"

The three of them then hold out their arms like wings while calling, "DRAGO FURY, FIRE UP!" and bringing their respective blue, red and yellow Morpher to their chest and hitting it with their other hand.

From Snotlout's Morpher, a bunch of red scales pool out and form together to form his Power Ranger suit before the horned head of the Nightmare opens up and takes in his head, forming his helmet. From Astrid's Morpher, a bunch of blue scales pool out and come together to make up her Ranger suit before the spiked head of the Nadder opens up and swallows her head. Finally, from Fishlegs's Morpher, a bunch of yellow scales pool out to form his Ranger suit before the bumpy head of the Gronk opens up to swallow his head and form his helmet, thus completing the Morphing sequence.

Once in their suits, the three rangers head, but as soon as they left, Hiccup began stirring in his unconscious state before clenching a fist.

The Drago Rangers warp themselves to the quarry where, at the other end, the Berserk Rangers stood. Upon seeing the Drago Rangers, the violet Stryke Ranger comments, "Back for more, I see. Strange, I recall that there was four of you last time."

Astrid comments, "I'd expect you, of all people, to remember what happened to him." She whips out her blue hilted Drago Saber and points it towards the Berserk Rangers. "I still don't know who you are, but it doesn't matter because you WILL pay for taking out our mentor!"

The silver Razor Ranger scoffs, "Is that so? Well then, show us what you're made of." The five Rangers get into a fighting stance before charging at each other, Drago Sabers held high.

Astrid immediately went for the Stryke Ranger as he was the one who took out Hiccup while Snotlout and Fishlegs head off to fight the Razor Ranger.

The Razor Ranger blocks oncoming attacks from Fishlegs and Snotlout by twirling her dual sided Razor Axe in her fingers. She then spins while calling, "Razor spine tornado!" and shoots silver spines in all directions.

Snotlout calls, "Flame Wall!" And puts up a wall of flames to block him from the attack while Fishlegs calls, "Stone Wall!" and puts up a wall of stone to protect him.

However, after putting down his fire wall, Snotlout was kicked in the stomach by the silver Ranger, making him cough a few times as she shoves him down to the ground saying, "Funny, I thought the Red Ranger was supposed to be the leader of the pack."

Snotlout couldn't respond to that, but Fishlegs charges at her with his yellow Gronk Bludgeon raised as he swings down. The Razor Ranger senses this and leaps out of the way, making Fishlegs swing and nearly hit Snotlout before realizing at the last millisecond what he was about to do before the Razor Ranger kicks him to the ground.

Meanwhile, Astrid was going at it with the Stryke Ranger, clashing swords like two master swordsmen. The Stryke Ranger comments as he blocks every one of Astrid's moves, "Come on, your moves are so predictable. Do you even want to defeat me?"

This enrages Astrid as she leaps up and yells, "Spine Circle!" and sends a circle of spines that surround the violet ranger on all sides.

The Stryke Ranger scoffs. "Quick tip! You should work on your aim!"

Astrid replies, "Tempting it may be, I didn't say I was aiming FOR you." The Stryke Ranger then notices, from the glisten of the sunlight, that the end of each of those spines had a thin wire wrapped around it. Astrid tugs on the wire and makes the tips of each spine close together around the Ranger.

This, however, was met by the Stryke Ranger appearing right behind Astrid saying, "Nice move." Before kicking her in the back. "But not nice enough." She falls onto the ground and the boys join her, both feeling a lot of pain while the Stryke Ranger comments, "Come on, is this all your pathetic teacher has been teaching you? I thought you could at least put up a fight."

The Razor Ranger adds, "Same here, this is so easy I could do this in my sleep. A pity, if you three were strong enough, we would've considered having you join up with us, but you wouldn't even last a day in our training area."

From the Dragerium, Alicia comments, "This is not good. Those two are just too powerful for the Rangers to handle! I fear for their lives."

The Stryke Ranger then states, "Enough fooling around, it's time to get serious."

Snotlout asks, "You mean you guys WEREN'T serious?"

The Berserk Rangers then raise their left arm before meeting their Morpher with the symbol on their chest as the Razor Ranger calls, "Silver Razor Zord!" And within seconds, a silver dragon Zord with a long, spiked tail and a plated armor appearance pops up.

The Stryke Ranger adds, "Violet Stryke Zord!" And a bipedal, violet and yellow dragon Zord with three scorpion like tails and claws pops up.

Snotlout states, "They. Have. ZORDS?! Of course they have Zords, WHY would they NOT have ZORDS?"

The Razor Ranger then states, "Time to squash these spineless bugs." She then leaps up and climbs into the head of the Razor Zord while the Stryke Ranger leaps into the head of the Stryke Zord.

Fishlegs then says, "This is bad. This is very bad."

Astrid tells him, "Focus, they're not the only ones with Zords, you know. Alicia?"

Alicia replies, "While you can bring your personal Drago Zord down, I'm afraid that the Night Fury Zord can't come since it needs Hiccup to be in Ranger Form to do so."

Astrid nods. "We'll have to make it work! Let's do this, guys." Fishelgs and Snotlout nod to that.

The other three Rangers then put their Morpher to the symbol on their chest and say, "CALL DRAGO ZORDS!" The red, blue and yellow Drago Zords ascend from skies and their respective Ranger leaps into their head.

The Razor Ranger comments, "I see, so you wanabees have toys of your own. Now things can get exciting."

The Stryke Ranger comments, "Three Zords? No problem. Tail shot!" The tails of the Stryke Zord extend and each fire violet bolts towards the Drago Rangers, which they make quick attempts to dodge.

From inside the yellow Gronk Zord, Fishlegs says, "You guys like music? Because I prefer rock and roll!" He has the Zord slam its tail onto the ground, sending up a wall of rock that comes crashing down at the Berzerk Zords. However, this was futile as the Razor Zord flies in with such speed and power that it slices the rock in half.

The Razor Ranger comments, "Huh, I guess rock doesn't always beat scissors. Steel Spine Shot!" The Razor Zord fires a flurry of dragon-sized steel spikes from its tail.

This was met by Astrid firing spikes from the blue Nadder Zord, which collided with the steel spikes with precision and even made one spike hit the Razor Zord at the base of its tail. "Don't ever call me spineless again!" Astrid states.

The Razor Zord pulls the spike out with its mouth as the Stryke Ranger states, "Alright, I take back what I said earlier about your aim, Blue Ranger, but…" the Stryke Zord plops down and grabs the neck of the Nadder Zord with its claws. "…Let's see if you can claw your way out of this."

Fishlegs says to Snotlout, who was to the left of the Stryke Ranger and Astrid's Zords, "You gotta get that Ranger away!"

Snotlout states, "I don't want to hurt Astrid!"

Astrid states as her cockpit shakes from the damage, "I can take some heat, Snotlout, just do it!" Snotlout nods and has the red Nightmare Zord fly in, body lit on fire as it collides with the Stryke Zord and knocks it off of the Nadder Zord.

Snotlout asks, "You ok, Astrid?"

Astrid states, "I've taken worse."

The Stryke Zord then joins up with the Razor Zord as the Styrke Zord states, "Man, with how much you Rangers work with dragons, I at least expected you to know how to use them. Come on, Razor, let's show them some real power!"

The Razor Ranger adds, "With pleasure."

The two Rangers then press a button in their cockpit and yell, "FORM BERSERK MEGAZORD!"

The Stryke Zord then tucks in its legs and its mouth opens up to reveal a head as the Razor Zord splits and form the appearance of legs, the two Zords then merge together to form the Megazord.

Having seen this Megazord's formation, Snotlout states, "Ok, I'm proposing the old C&R technique."

Astrid asks, "What's C&R?"

Snotlout replies, "Cut and run!"

Fishlegs adds, "For once, I agree with you, Snotlout. There's no way we can take on that Megazord, especially since we don't have access to the Night Fury Zord to form the Drago Megazord!"

Astrid then asks in her caller, "Alicia? What are our options?"

Alicia replies, "It is true that you normally need the Night Fury Zord in order to form the Drago Megazord. However, the Gripper Zord can take its place. Get the other three Zords together, and I'll send it's power scale."

Astrid nods to that. "Good enough for me! Form Drago Megazord!"

The Nightmare Zord's legs then extend to become longer and sturdier while the Nadder and Gronk Zords come to its side to form the arms and a head pops out of the Nightmare Zord's mouth. Alicia then says, "Alright, here comes the Gripper Zord's Scale."

The black and red scale then pops up through a slot in the Megazord's control center. "Thanks, Alicia!" However, the scale then slips back through before Astrid even has a chance to grab it. "Wait, what the?"

In the Berserk Megazord, that same scale pops up in the control center, which the Stryke Ranger plucks out and says, "Successful Interception."

The Drago Rangers then yell, "NO WAY!"

The Stryke Ranger then says, "Let's see what this does. Power Scale, activate!" Just then, the black and red, long tusked, scorpion tailed Gripper Zord descends from the skies and tucks in its legs and wings, taking a spot on the Megazord's right arm. The Megazord then plucks the tail from the Gripper Zord and says, "Huh, this could be very useful."

Snotlout comments, "I sense a lot of pain coming my way."

The Berserk Megazord then plucks its three tails from the Stryke Zord and snakes the Gripper Zord's tail through the center, finding that the Gripper Zord's tail is longer than the other three but still made for a weapon consisting of the four tails. "Now this is what I'm talking about. Quad-tail Drill!" Suddenly, the four tails spin like a drill.

Fishlegs comments, "Oh no. OH NO!"

The Berzerk Megazord then thrusts the drill into the Drago Megazord's chest, causing the whole Megazord to shake as it steps back. Alicia states, "I can't let this go on any longer. Rangers, you need to get out of there, now, while you can!"

Astrid replies with, "NO! We can still win this for Hiccup! We just have to-!" She was interrupted as the Drago Megazord was hit again with the drill's tip, this time right on the Nadder Zord.

Alicia states, "Astrid, I'm not asking you, I am telling you! Hiccup might be out, but it won't help if you three get killed as well! You need to get the other Rangers and your Zords out of there, immediately!"

Snotlout states, "I'm with Alicia, we should leave now!"

Fishlegs adds, "I'm second on that!"

Astrid states, "Come on, guys! We can't give up, not while one of us can't even move! Can't we call the Quaken Zord?"

Fishlegs replies with, "What good would that do? They would just steal it from us! We're basically fish in a barrel at this point!"

From inside the Berserk Megazord, the Razor Ranger states, "Time to finish this!" She then plucks the Razor Zord's tail and it extends it's spikes out to form a spiked sword. "Razor Blade Saber!" The Berserk Megazord holds up the two weapons in its hands, about to slash down in an X fashion.

From inside the Drago Megazord, Snotlout had his eyes closed and was saying, "Tooprettytodie! tooprettytodie! tooprettytodie!" Fishlegs also kept his eyes shut as he was preparing for the final blow.

Alicia then calls, "ASTRID!"

Now finally realizing there's no use, Astrid calls, "TRANSPORT!" as she presses a big, yellow button that sends the Rangers and their Zords right back to the Dragerium.

Realizing that he wasn't feeling pain yet, Snotlout feels himself over and says, "I…I'm alive! I'M ALIVE! YEAH!" while Astrid drops to the floor in defeat.

Once the Rangers got out of their suits and Alicia checks up on the Drago Zords for damage, she goes up to the Rangers and says, "The Drago Zords did take on a lot of damage, but it's nothing that's unrepairable. They should be up and running by tomorrow night at the latest."

Fishlegs then sighs and says, "Well, this is just great. There are two crazy Rangers out to get us and we have no leader and no Zords either. Things are looking up for us, aren't they?"

Snotlout then looks over to Astrid and says, "Well, if someone just backed out like we said, one of those things might've changed."

Astrid just stares at the ground as Alicia states, "Snotlout has a point, Astrid. You could've easily backed out, yet you kept going, for no other apparent reason then to protect Hiccup…why?"

Astrid just glances up at Alicia before saying, "I…just thought that if we took out those guys on our own, it could mean showing Hiccup what we can really do."

Alicia then shakes her head. "I sense that something is going on inside your head, something that kept you from doing what you knew was the right thing. It's almost as if you…" She stares down Astrid for a moment, figuring out the look she was putting on. That's when it hit Alicia. "…Oh. My. Word…You like Hiccup, don't you?"

This caught Fishlegs and Snotlout's attention as they look to see how Astrid would react to that. She looks up at Alicia with worry in her eye before turning away and looking back down to the ground. Alicia sighs. "Then that explains it. Your affection towards Hiccup is clouding your better judgement…it's leading you to act against what you know is the right thing to do." The silence from Astrid was all Alicia needed to hear. "…I suppose we should leave you alone now." She gestures to Fishlegs and Snotlout and has them go on their merry way.

Meanwhile, at the lair of the Scale Shedders, Grisly had called upon the Berserk Rangers once again and spoke up saying, "Well, you two are certainly skillful…however, I still find myself without a Drago Scale. I was lenient last time, but clearly that was a mistake! If you two don't bring me a Drago Scale the next time I see you, then it will be yours that I will take, understood?"

The Rangers nod and says, "Yes, sir!" Before turning around and heading out.

Meanwhile, with not much else to do that day, Snotlout found himself walking through the woods on the outskirts of Berk, not really thinking about where he was going, that is until he bumps into something large and hard. "Hey! Watch i-"

He pauses as he sees Dagur right in front of him, and memories of what happened last time come flooding back into his head. "Hey there, Snothat."

Snotlout stammers before saying, "D-d-Dagur! Hey, buddy! Uh, I swear I haven't even seen Heather today!"

The muscular, red-haired boy chuckles while shaking his head. "It's not about that, I promise. I actually wanted to discuss…something else."

From behind, Heather walks up, "Yeah, we just wanted a little chat."

Snotlout blinks saying, "Heather! Hey! Uh…just want to talk? Great, I like talking…uh, what should we talk about?"

Dagur scoffs before gesturing to Snotlout's Morpher. "That watch of yours is quite nice. Feel like I should've kept it myself, especially knowing the…dragon power that it possesses."

Snotlout just blinks to this. "Uh…"

Heather nudges Dagur before saying, "He's not going to get it, we might as well just say it." Dagur steps up next to Heather as Heather says, "We are the Berserk Power Rangers, and we're here to take you down."

This was followed by the two of them lifting their left sleeve up, showing a silver/violet Morpher with a respective colored Drago Scale to go with it. They raise their arm up to their chest as they say, "BERSERK FURY, FIRE UP!" as they hold their Morhper arm behind them to the side and slap their Morpher with their other hand.

From Heather's Morpher, silver scales pool out as she leaps into the air with her limbs held out and the scales collect around her, creating her Ranger suit before she does a backflip and lands on the ground in the position of a bear about to attack and the head of her Razor Zord pops up to form her helmet.

From Dagur's Morpher, violet scales pool out as he leaps into the air with his limbs held out to form his ranger suit before he does a front flip and lands on all fours before the head of his Stryke Zord consumes his head to form his helmet.

Once the Morph was complete, the Berserk Rangers stare down Snotlout as he thinks about what he should do. He decides to yell and run as Dagur pulls out his Tri-Stryke Blaster and blasts the ground behind Snotlout, making him nearly fall to the ground as he calls, "DRAGO FURY, FIRE UP!" and his red Ranger suit takes his body before he shoots flames from his fists to make him rocket out of there.

Heather says as Snotlout leaves, "Get him." And the two of them run off.

Once in the air, Snotlout calls to Alicia, "ALICIA, ALICIA, COME IN!"

Alicia says, "Alicia here, what is it, Snotlout?"

Snotlout replies, "It's the Berserk Rangers! They found me! They're right on my tail."

Hearing this, Astrid perks up from her seat and looks to where Alicia was crouched down. "Alright, stay calm, Snotlout. Let me get a lock on your signal so I can let Astrid and Fishlegs know where you are."

Snotlout then says, "There's something else, I know who the Berserk Rangers are!"

Astrid replies with, "What was that?"

Alicia adds, "Well, by all means, tell us."

Snotlout nods. "Alright, this may shock you all, may even blow your mind, but sometimes the truth just has to come out, because the identity of the Berserk Power Rangers is as follows. AH!" He stopped in his tracks as he was hit with Dagur's blaster in Ice mode, freezing his body and making him fall to the ground.

Dagur and Heather then walk over as Dagur uses heat from the blaster to melt part of it as he reaches in and plucks Snotlout's red Drago Scale from his Morpher, causing Snotlout's suit to fade away in a flash. Dagur then says, "Funny, if I knew this is how things would turn out, I would've kept your stupid watch to save time. Catch you later, Snothat." With that and a flash, the two of them leave for the Scale Shedder's lair.

Since he was frozen, Snotlout couldn't do anything but sit there as Astrid and Fishlegs come up. Since he was face down, he didn't even hear them come up as Fishlegs smashes the ice with his Hammer Fists, freeing Snotlout from the ice. Astrid then grabs Snotlout and asks, "Snotlout, are you ok? What happened? We lost your signal there."

Snotlout puts his hands into his head and says, "No. No no no NO! They…they took it!"

Fishlegs asks, "What did they take?"

Shaking both from cold and nerves, Snotlout looks Astrid and Fishlegs in the eyes and says, "…M-m-my scale! The Berserk Rangers took it!" Hearing this, Astrid and Fishlegs exchange a look of fear before heading back to the Dragerium.

Once back at the Dragerium, and after explaining to Alicia both about the scale and the identity of the Berserk Rangers, Alicia states, "Seems like we can't get a single advance on those Berserk Power Rangers…what can we do?"

Astrid states, "We have to get the red Drago Scale back…we just need to figure out how."

"Then that's our next mission!" Said a nasally voice that made everyone else look into the Dragerium temple to see an auburn haired boy with a bandage wrapped around his head and a black shirt.

"HICCUP!" Astrid yells as she leaps up and hugs Hiccup. "I was so worried that I lost you!"

Hiccup pats Astrid on the back and says, "Hey, it takes a lot more than a little fire power to take me out. I'm just glad to see you're all safe."

Snotlout then asks, "Uh…Hiccup…how long have you been standing there."

Hiccup replies with a shrug, "Long enough to know that we have a Drago Scale to take back, and I'm here to help you guys do so." The Drago Rangers let out a small cheer before Hiccup says, "But before that…there's something I need to address, something related to what happened earlier with the Drago Zords." The cheer, and Astrid's heart, drops to the ground upon hearing that. Hiccup looks to Astrid and says, "Astrid, is it true that you nearly cost the lives of yourself and your teammates in an attempt to save me?"

Astrid rubs her arm and says, "Well…wait, how did you know?"

Hiccup shrugs. "Ok, so I didn't exactly just wake up, but that's not what's important here. Astrid, there's something very important that you need to hear, and this goes for you two as well." He gestures to Snotlout and Fishlegs.

Hiccup takes a deep breath before saying, "I am about to share with you a lesson that I wish someone taught me when I started out as a Ranger, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. I put myself before Dagur with the intention to protect you guys from harm, but you, Astrid, put yourself in danger with the only intention to help me out, and that nearly cost you much more than just your Drago Scale.

*sigh* Fighting these enemies, facing these battles week after week, this isn't like what you learn in school. In school, if you mess up, you often get to retry or have another shot at success, but in the battlefield, you only get one shot. It is life or death, do or die, kill or be killed…you do not get a second shot.

If you think the Berserk Rangers are tough, then think about this. Say we do end up taking them down, then what? Someone more powerful will no doubt take their place, and if you were willing to put the lives of others in danger like that for those two, then chances are that that next battle could be your last. I don't want to see that happen to any of you, and I know you guys don't want to see that happen to each other.

I am seriously proud of how far you guys have come with your training, but what you know now can only take you so far, and at some point you will meet that enemy that is simply too much for you to handle, like the Berserk Rangers, but worse."

The Drago Rangers take a good while to let all of that information sink in before Hiccup turns around and says, "With that out of the way, I say it's time to plan how we're going to take back what is rightfully ours. If you guys need to take a minute, then go ahead." With that, he walks into the temple while the other Rangers sit to realize just how tough being a Power Ranger really is, and how much harder they're going to have to work if they're going to take out not only Dagur and Heather, but the Scale Shedders as a whole.