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Twice Chosen
"So… you're telling us some people in One actively suspect Finnick Odair is working with some kind of resistance movement?" Peeta looked at Glimmer in barely contained shock.
"It was only ever one of those stupid rumours that everyone has about celebrities or big shots in the right circles," Glimmer shrugged as she leaned nonchalantly against her 'podium' in the main chamber. "The guy might be the official darling of the Capitol ever since his Games, but for people who want to know more about him than just that he looks good and got the most expensive Gift anyone ever sent in the Games, there's a few details that don't quite add up."
"Wouldn't people know that?" Rue asked.
"You've seen the Capitol, kid; how many people would bother to look that deeply?" Glimmer observed. "I mean, most of it would depend on the investigators thinking of the idea that anyone would want to act against the Capitol in the first place, so quite a few people just wouldn't think to look at things the right way."
"And you did?" Thresh raised his eyebrows as he looked sceptically at our Pink Ranger.
"A few friends would talk about some of the more… interesting rumours about his background," Glimmer said, shooting a glance at Rue that reminded me of how my mother and I would try and talk around certain topics in Prim's presence so that she wouldn't hear anything inappropriate. "I wasn't that into those kind of theories myself at the time, but what I heard got me thinking, and… well, there we go."
"It's unconventional, but frankly everything about this situation is unconventional, so I'm all for anything that gives us a chance to end this sooner rather than later," Alpha put in from his usual position in front of Zordon, giving Glimmer his equivalent of a thumbs up. "I've programmed the ship to let us know the moment Mr Odair tries to contact us on the frequency you gave him, but in the meantime, we should-"
An alarm suddenly blared through the ship, prompting all of us to move from relaxed to alert as we turned our attention to Alpha.
"What was that?" Liv asked, her body suddenly tense. "Did the Capitol do something?"
"Worse," Zordon's voice said, drawing our focus from Alpha to him. "I have detected a new surge in the Morphing Grid."
"A surge in- you mean like when we morphed?" Liv asked.
"Exactly like that," Zordon said. "And I was even able to identify the nature of the energy surge in question."
I was about to ask what he had detected when I registered the glow of the central orb, turning around to see whatever Zordon wanted to share with us. I was immediately shocked to see a large green machine in a similar style to our own five zords, attacking what I recognised from our recent excursions as District One.
"What the Hell?" Thresh yelled, reflecting my own shock as we looked at each other before turning back to Zordon.
"Is that-?" Peeta began.
"The personal zord of the Green Ranger," Zordon confirmed grimly. "The Dragon."
"Dragon?" I repeated before I turned back to look at the image in the orb. The exact size was hard to judge on a screen, but based on the surrounding buildings, it looked like this zord was a bit taller than my Tyrannosaurus, although that might be because it was standing straight upright where my zord always moved along bent over. The new zord was also slightly thinner, with large grey and gold wings extending from its back, what looked like rockets just where the wings joined the main body, and sharp claws on its hands.
"Hold on; dragon?" Liv looked at Alpha in confusion. "I thought these zords were meant to imitate the most powerful creatures on the target worlds that actually existed?"
"And dragons don't exist?" Peeta asked.
"They were just myths; they're cool, but they're not real!"
"The Green Power Coin has been separate from the other five since Rita turned against us," Alpha observed. "It's possible that other parties may have been able to influence how the Green zord rebuilt itself in a manner that we could not have predicted."
"But if Rita had… that, why did she need to use that gold guy?" Thresh asked, as the dragon on display continued to march through the District, striking at buildings with its claws, feet and tail.
"Rita saw Goldar as a manifestation of her own power, where the Green Zord was essentially just another hang-over from her time as a Ranger," Zordon explained. "The Green zord is particularly powerful, but that power is fundamentally based on its ability to come together as a team with the rest of you."
"So… if the green zord is out and active right now… does that mean Rita isn't the one in control of it?" Rue asked, voicing the question that I knew was on all our minds.
"It is at the very least unlikely-" Zordon began, before his attention seemed to shift. "There."
I didn't even have time to ask what had happened before the image in the orb shifted again and we were now looking at a figure in semi-familiar green armour. Where Rita's armour had given the impression that pieces of it had been torn away, this armour was completely intact, although the upper chest and shoulders were protected by some kind of additional golden armour rather than the whole suit being a single colour. The extra padding made it hard to be certain, but from the overall design I was fairly confident that the new Green Ranger was male rather than female, and was holding some kind of long green-and-silver dagger rather than Rita's staff.
"That's the new guy?" Thresh asked.
"Correct," Zordon confirmed, his tone grim as the view shifted to show how the new Green Ranger was standing on top of a high building to watch the Green Dragon advance through District One. "You must make contact and establish how he acquired the Green Coin before he does any further damage."
"Let me guess; Rita wielding that thing for so long means it's probably not as 'picky' about who picked it up as ours were?" Glimmer held up her own coin to reinforce her point.
"And that is before taking into account certain other questions that I always had about what happened to Rita…" Zordon mused.
"Like what?" Rue asked, before the orb's display showed the Green Dragon literally taking a bite out of a large tower.
"We can talk about that later; right now we have to get in there and stop that guy before he and the zord do any more damage to our reputations," I said, grimly pulling out my coin. "Is this person controlling the zord without actually being in it… I mean, could Rita do that?"
"She could," Zordon confirmed. "As with Goldar, the Green Zord possessed a limited independent intelligence that allowed it to operate on its own once it was given a suitable target."
"So it can't do everything by itself, but if Mr New Green gives the thing a clear goal it'll work towards that goal until it's told otherwise?" Liv asked.
"Correct."
"And for those of us who aren't geniuses?" Thresh put in.
"The Green Ranger could have just told the zord to destroy District One and it'll keep trying to do that any way it can until Green tells it to do something else."
"OK, so we should assume that's what he instructed the zord to do and take it from there," I said. "Glimmer and I will try and deal with the Dragon while the rest of you go after the Green Ranger; maybe we can take at least one of them down before anything serious happens."
"You're the boss," Glimmer grinned at me as the others pulled out their coins, clutching them in their hands before we all began to feel the armour surge over us…
Even with my 'orders' to the rest of the team, I was still slightly surprised to find myself released from the energy surge of teleportation to arrive in the cockpit of the Tyrannosaurus Zord, already facing the large Green Dragon. A check of the zord's sensors (I couldn't entirely explain how I just knew this stuff, but it seemed to get easier every time) confirmed that Peeta, Liv and Thresh were facing the new Green Ranger on the ground, which left Glimmer and I take on the zord.
"OK, Pink," I turned on the radio after confirming that the Pterodactyl was on the way, "hit it hard and drive it back, but be careful of collateral damage."
"Gotcha, Red," Glimmer's voice responded over the radio as the flying pink zord came into view, cannons firing pink energy at the new green zord as it turned to face us. The Dragon let out a loud roar and raised its claws to fire missiles from its fingers towards Glimmer's zord, the Pterodactyl forced to weave around the attack while I drew up close in the Tyrannosaurus. With guns useless at this close range, I spun around to strike the Dragon with the Tyrannosaurus's tail, sending it staggering back. I used the opportunity to look over at where Peeta, Liv and Thresh were trying to fight the Green Ranger, but even at this distance I could see that he had my teammates on edge. Liv seemed to be on the ground and Peeta had just been sent flying while Thresh was struggling against Green, the other Ranger holding some kind of weapon in his hands.
Unable to do anything about that, I turned my attention back to the Dragon as it regained its footing, the other zord spreading its wings. Not wanting to find out if this thing could actually fly, I fired my own weapons, striking the Dragon's wings, but even if it did damage I doubted that it would be enough to stop the zord. Grounded for the moment, the Dragon charged towards my own zord, leaving me with just enough time to raise the Tyrannosaurus's small arms and grab the other zord's own in my hands.
"NO!" a voice yelled out, followed by three panicked yells over the radio. I risked a look down and was shocked to see the Yellow, Blue and Black Rangers had fallen, but I didn't have time to wonder how that had happened before the Green Ranger leapt from the ground to the head of the Dragon zord. I was briefly impressed at the distance that our opponent had just jumped despite myself, but I had to focus on the main problem as the Green Ranger vanished inside the other zord. I prepared for the next attack, but even then I was taken off-guard when the green zord fired a new wave of missiles at the Pterodactyl as it flew overhead, rather than trying to attack my zord. Glimmer was able to evade the worst of the attack, but at least one missile grazed a wing, forcing the pink zord to fly off as the Dragon turned its full attention on me.
"You DARE attack me?" an unfamiliar voice called out over the radio, a deep male tone that I assumed was the Green Ranger.
"You're attacking innocent people-" I began, preparing my zord to fight the Dragon as I turned on my own radio.
"They serve the Capitol; none of them are innocent!" the apparent Green Ranger yelled back. I wasn't sure exactly where the cockpit was on this zord, but at least if I faced it directly I could feel like I was facing the man I was talking to. "They have the resources to stand up to the bastards in charge-!"
"They live more comfortably and get some training; that doesn't mean they know how to use it," I countered, following the Dragon's example as it began to pace carefully around the open square. "Any revolution needs the right kick-"
"And these people could have provided it, but they decided it was better for them to be comfortable and let everyone else suffer!" the Green Ranger retorted, the Dragon letting out a loud snarl. "We should teach them all a lesson-!"
"And if we start doing it that way, where does the violence stop?" I countered. I didn't know where some of this was coming from, but if I was meant to lead the other Rangers, I had to hope that I could do more than just beat people up. "We're all Power Rangers, which means we're here to protect people; you can't just decide you have the right to kill anyone you don't like-"
"If you won't use this power properly I'll just have to do it myself," the figure in green said indignantly, the Dragon letting out a low rumble that actually sounded like a real animal noise. "You focus on 'protecting' people; I'm here to actually make a difference to the world."
"But this isn't the way to do it-!" I began, before the Dragon spun around and fired some kind of energy blast from its mouth towards me. I just managed to manoeuvre my zord to avoid the worst of the blast, but I still took a glancing blow to the tail. Even worse, when I looked back I realised that the latest attack had struck the building behind me, which I was fairly sure from the design was the central Peacekeeper facility for this District.
"Funny how the ones who have the power are the ones who want to maintain the current peace," the Green Ranger said. "I thought you might be different, but Zedd was right; you don't have the strength to do what's needed."
"Zedd?" I asked, before the Dragon lashed out with a more powerful energy blast that sent my own zord flying off its feet. My hands instinctively moved across the controls in front of me as I tried to retake control of the powerful vehicle, but even as I felt the zord start to turn back into a better position, I realised that I wasn't going to get out of this. The Tyrannosaurus struck the Peacekeeper building behind me with such force that I felt it shatter around me even through the zord's heavy armour, sparks flying from the console as one panel basically exploded in my face. My helmet closed in time to protect me from any serious injury, but I could already tell that the red zord was down for the moment.
"And this is just the start," the Green Ranger announced again, an echo to his spoken words that suggested he was broadcasting this to people other than just me. "Panem can consider this the beginning of my war against the Capitol; they will pay for everything they've done, and everyone who gets in my way will get what they deserve."
"You can't do this; there are innocent people-!" I tried to protest, only for something to strike my zord again.
"Anyone innocent won't be in my way," the Green Ranger replied firmly. "And your team has a chance to realise what's important and join me; I won't be so forgiving next time."
With those words, the Dragon let out another roar, spread its wings, and flew up into the sky, only to turn and fly in the direction that I was suddenly sure was the location of the Academy.
"NO!" I yelled, desperately trying to get my zord back onto its feet. The Peacekeeper building was at least essentially a military target, but if the Green Ranger attacked the Academy-
"STOP!" I heard Glimmer scream as the Pterodactyl zord flew in again, the wing repaired and pink energy blasts firing at the Dragon. As the larger zord turned to aim its mouth at my team's flyer, I was briefly concerned that Glimmer was about to be hit by another energy blast, but then the dragon put on another burst of speed and flew off into the distance, leaving Glimmer to turn around and fly back towards us.
So much for making a good impression, I thought to myself as I slumped in my zord cockpit.
We'd just been basically taken apart by the Green Ranger, and our only claim to success was that we'd stopped him destroying the Academy, which wouldn't exactly help our public image when we couldn't properly explain how he fit in with the rest of the team…