Part Eleven

Chapter Ten

Stunned by the shockwave from his opponent's weapon, Brendan had no chance to defend himself as he was blasted into the pool of blood. He kicked and fought, reaching out desperately for a way to haul himself free. But the pool had a life of its own, dragging him deeper and deeper. He had no idea how long he was there. It felt like time wasn't working properly. It could've been a few seconds or it could've been an hour. All he knew was that, eventually, he wasn't sinking so much as falling. A world took shape around him, racing towards him in a blur.

And that's how he found himself lying on a sand dune.

Blinking with surprise, Brendan climbed to his feet. There was no wind. It was deathly quiet. He knew in a heartbeat he was back in the endless desert. But something was wrong. Everywhere he looked, there were flashes of another reality. Someplace green and lush. Here, but at the same time, not.

He felt eyes on him and turned. The flashes died away as he found himself staring at an enormous shape on the horizon, blocking out the sky. A gigantic mountain towered over him, probably where the Shadow King was imprisoned.

Then the mountain blinked, and the Shadow King turned his hateful gaze down to the diminutive Aqua Ranger. Brendan had never felt smaller in his life.

The demonic elder being was enormous. He had four burning eyes that stared through Brendan with a gaze of pure malevolence. Around his forehead were four great horns, while below were four powerful arms. As Brendan's eyes adjusted, he noticed four pillars surrounding the king, each one the size of a building. Chains were connected to each, every link as large as a house, but three of them lay broken on the ground. The fourth chain was still shackled to one of his arms, holding it in place.

Barely.

The ground shook as the king lurched towards the tiny figure as far as he could, straining at the single chain holding him back. Without a word from his enemy, Brendan felt the full weight of the king's blinding hatred and collapsed to the sand. The king was trying to get into his head. Brendan shut his eyes and fought to think of only one thing. The weak sun was directly overhead, but shadows were creeping across the sand towards him. Just as they were about to consume him, the great king's eyes went wide. The air above the Aqua Ranger flickered. With his power coin glowing brightly, a gigantic spectral Dilophosaurus took form over him, roaring with all its might. The Shadow King recoiled and backed away.

"Careful when you try to peek inside someone's head," Brendan whispered. "You might not like what you find."

The king bellowed a primal, ancient roar. But still, the last chain held.

"No," Brendan said softly. As he spoke, his voice grew louder with every word. "You guys have done nothing but tell us how small we are. In case you hadn't noticed? Your kids and your minions are gone. Maybe the others wouldn't have, but I figured you out. You're big, and you think that gives you the right to treat everyone else like they're small."

Brendan stood up. "That's what this is about, isn't it?" he asked. "There's no grand plan here. You're just mad because someone stood up to you. People aren't afraid of you anymore, and you want to punish them for it. You're a joke, and not even a funny one. You're not a god, or a dark monster from the dawn of time. And if I know anything, it's this."

Despite everything, Brendan smiled.

"My friends are going to beat you."

The Rangers continued after the bear monster, getting over closer to the pillar of light.

Climbing to his feet, Zac charged out of the trees, spinning his Power Axe in his hand and firing blasts at the monster. The blasts went wide as the monster retreated, but it was too slow to avoid a barrage of Kim's arrows as the battlefield went up in sparks and smoke. Stung, the creature lashed out blindly at anyone within range, but Billy and Trini dodged the blows, batting away the monster's quills with their weapons before landing side-by-side high kicks, throwing the beast back even further. While it was still off-balance, Tommy leaped down before it, recovered from the earlier attack and slicing forward with Saba. The monster dodged the first blow but couldn't keep up against the onslaught, Saba carving through the razor quills with ease before Tommy kicked the monster to the ground.

Wounded and beaten, the beast looked up to see Jason pointing the Megablaster straight for it, the other four Rangers standing behind him and bracing the Red Ranger's shoulders.

"Fire!" Jason called.

The blast exploded from the Megablaster and roared across the battlefield, smashing into the beast and destroying it in a massive fireball. But the light from the explosion barely registered in the glare from the pillar of light. As Tommy joined the Rangers and pointed Saba for the Traxian orb, the Rangers readjusted their aim.

"We ready?" Tommy asked.

"Let's get our friend back," Kim nodded.

The simultaneous blasts from Saba and the Megablaster slammed into the Traxian orb. It shattered in an instant. The resulting explosion shook the valley and launched the Rangers off their feet. But the damage was done. Without the energy orb, the pillar of light flickered several times and then slowly faded away.

She Who Destroys Heroes stumbled back under the continuing blows from the MegaIguanodon. She'd just found her footing when the pillar of light disappeared. Her expression fell. For the first time that day, she looked crushed.

"No," she murmured, reaching out towards where the pillar had stood. "What did you do?" and she looked back to us, raising her voice. "What did you do? How dare you take this away from me!"

The MegaIguanodon slammed the demigoddess backwards with a powerful blow that rocked the valley. Before she could recover, we pushed the zord after her, swinging punch after punch, the blows landing like battleships colliding. She caught the zord's arm and struck it away, but couldn't defend against a low kick that left her reeling. She tried to retaliate but her attacks were clumsy and slow, and when she narrowly dodged a blow for her shoulder, the MegaIguanodon wheeled around with a solid punch that took the demigoddess to the ground with an almighty crash.

"Let's finish this," I said. "Rhamphorynchus crossbow mode, now!"

Detaching from the zord's back, the purple Rhamphorynchus dropped onto the MegaIguanodon's outstretched arm, the tail bolt aiming straight for the demigoddess as she climbed to her feet. The zord's eyes flashed as the weapon fired, the bolt scorching across the battlefield and blasting through the demigoddess's chest. For a second she stood there quietly, disbelief etched across her face.

"But I was supposed to win," she said, before falling backwards and being consumed by a massive fireball that shook the MegaIguanodon and sent a plume of smoke roaring skyward. In the zord's cockpit, everyone collapsed against their seats. Gazing over the valley floor, I saw the senior Rangers were still picking themselves up after destroying the Traxian orb.

"The others are hurt," I said.

"You guys help them," Ian began. "I'll get Brendan."

To be continued.