Chapter19: Team Building
"Run!"
"Don't tell me what to do!"
"Don't yell at him"
"Please you three, The purpose of this is teamwork"
Inside a hazy black mindscape, four individuals are getting thrown around by a mass of green tentacles.
Things started off bad, the moment the four Royal rangers and Arjet were encompassed by the ball of mist Nick summoned,the creature attacked. First it started off as a ball of smoke that the others could avoid easily, but then Toxala tried to punch it.
The smoky orb phased through her and Morphers into what was kicking their butts now.
"What even is this thing?" Dialect asks while she evades the green tendrils. Toxala bites the creature, but she just gets a mouth full of smoke, they can't touch it.
"It's something from far off, the toughest thing I ever went up against, I fought it before I got arrested." Toxala explains, causing Kyle to raise his hand.
"It's a grappler, an engaged species from the lion galaxy, you were arrested because you killed it. Well technically you were arrested by virtue of being sledge's daughter, but what you did gave the S.C.P.D a good excuse."
"My point still stands, it was hard enough to beat this thing when I could hit" the green skinned woman responds.
A lash of green knocks Arjet back, the only thing that stops her from hitting the hard black floor is being caught by Dialect. The telepath gently puts her down before speaking.
"Can't morph, can't use any of our individual skills, what do we do?"
Toxala is slammed into the ground hard enough to leave a 3inch Crater. There's a pause, everyone looking to see if she took any fatal damage.
With a roar, Toxala jumps out the hole she made and screams "we use magic!"
"I'm sorry what?" Dialect asks
"Magic!" The green woman speaks again as she raises her hand, three strikes of lighting hit the beast, causing The mass of tentacles to turn back into a ball of smoke.
Everyone looks at the yellow Ranger, confusion filling their faces.
"How. The hell. Did you do that?" Dialect moves to inspect Toxalas fingers, the yellow Ranger pumps both fists in the air, almost hitting her.
"Haha yes, ok listen. I guess when that guy said 'believe in magic' he didn't mean just know that it exists. We have to actually believe that it can get us out of a situation."
"And how did you come to that conclusion?"
"I had an epiphany when I got a concussion."
The distraction of Toxalas sudden abilities allows the smoke to pass through Kyle, and once again it changes shape.
It does not take the shape of a monster, no horns or claws in sight. All that stands in front of them is an older man.
He appears to be a primape alien. The man's body is riddled with scars, he was wearing what appeared to be a more informal version of the prison guards uniform.
On his right hand is a burnt bracelet, and on the left is a morpher, his pinky and thumb missing.
"We need to get out of here"
The plea comes from a shaken Kyle, the pink ranger backing away slowly.
The man that came from the smoke walked past Toxala, it only looked like he tapped her windpipe and stomach, and she collapsed on the ground.
Arjet does her best, but the man parries all her attacks, using the same two strikes to knock her out.
Kyle runs, he can't face this man. Tears run down his eyes as he tries to breathe, but once he falls it all over. The man stands over him and starts beating on him.
With the first hit, Kyle's nose is broken, with the second hit his jaw, and with the third his skull.
He dares not fight back, he knows the beatings will get worse if he does.
Just as the fourth hit is about yo land, Dialect stops it putting the man in a headlock.
The primeape easily pulls her off and lifts Dialect up by her hands and feet, slamming her down into his knee.
There's a very audible crunch as Dialect screams, and a switch is flipped in Kyle's head.
A pink haze surrounds Kyle as he reaches a hand out and makes the apparition freeze where it stands.
"I'll believe in anything that will help her, I'll make a pact with anything that will help her"
Kyle raises his hand and lifts the prinespe up with a tornado of pink wind.
"So I hope you don't let me down, or start making deals with something worse"
…
Inside root core, Zolda sits with an invested Thruster, Zolda deciding that he needs someone to talk to.
"So you're mom just…chose not to help?"
Zolda takes a long sip of a drink Nick gave him, "as far I can tell yeah, who knows maybe there is a reason she couldn't come, but she won't talk to me I'm just gonna assume the worst."
Both Royal rangers turn to the dome of smoke that houses their teammates, it begins to bubble and swell, then it pops with a bubble.
Arjet and Dialect are propelled out of the now popped bubble, hitting the walls of root core.
However Toxala and Kyle are seated right where they started, no worse for wear.
Both red and blue rangers rush to help the two that hit the ground, Thruster helping Arjet, and Zolda helping Dialect.
"What happened in there?" Zolda asks a groggy Dialect.
From across the room comes a scream from Arjet. "How was that team building!?"
As the two women recollect themselves, Nick and Jaden walk in. The former with a late container full of small mechanical animals, and the later holding belt with various disks attached to it
Arjet takes a deep breath and calms down. "Honored ranger, may I ask what the purpose of that was?"
Nick answers like he's stating the obvious, "best way to believe in magic is to fight an enemy that can only be harmed by magic. Cuts the learning cerb by a lot."
He walks over to Toxala and Kyle while they have just gotten up, he places an arm around both their shoulders. "The smoke goes in and turns into the toughest thing in your memories. The only way to beat it is with magic, so you'll have no choice but to believe it can help"
Ajet gets annoyed by the explanation, her face turns sour, but she still keeps her polite tone.
"But honored ranger, I'm a literal manifestation of the grid, I have various techniques and powers that make magic look poultry"
"Good for you kid, that's probably why you failed" Nick laughs as he walks off throwing the mystic Force legacy book behind him.
Kyle is about to catch it, but Toxala shoves him out of the way, gleefully jumping up and down as she holds the book in her hands.
Jaden passes by and places the samurai book in the hands of Zolda before walking into a backroom, Nick following behind.
…
Both groups sit and recall what their various training was, Zolda and thruster stuck on one thing.
"You killed an engaged animal?" Thruster asks, this the second time he's asked this.
"Listen, it attacked me" Toxala responds, causing Kyle to speak up.
"You tried to steal it's eggs"
"I can't get a job because of my dad, so I had to eat"
"You could have hunted for literally any other eggs, it was legal on the planet you were on. The only rule they had was to not mess with the grappler."
"But the others were bland and tasteless" Toxala Whines, causing Zolda to let out a laugh as he tries to change the subject.
"So an ape kicked your butts?" He asks, and Kyle's mood shifts.
Dialect puts a hand on his shoulder as he tries to gather the courage to explain. He's shaking and tears well up in his eyes.
"That was S.C.P.T green, my teacher, and the most sadistic man in the universe."
There are three looks of shock, and one of unbridled rage. Thruster slams his fist into the table, shattering it as he turns to walk off.
Zolda begins to chase after his cellmate turned friend, but not before saying something to Kyle. "You're gonna be ok dude, I can get the picture by your reaction, if we see green,you can step back and let us handle it. You can tell us the details at your own pace, but we're all on the run, so you'll have to tell us eventually."
As he walks off to check on Thruster, Zolda turns to see Arjet Following him.
"What's up"? He asks
"Go get your sword"
"Naw, this is more important" Zolda waves Arjet off as he walks up the spiral stairs of root core.
…
As night falls and everyone goes to sleep, Jaden, Nick, and his father are atop the giant tree root core resides in.
The giant dragon known as fire heart stands ready, prepared to fly off at any moment.
"Everything ready?" Jaden asks as he puts the large Container on the side of a saddle the dragon is wearing.
"Yeah, let's go," Nick says as he shakes of his jitters.
Nick gives a hug to his father, and the two red rangers hop on fire heart and fly off. Fully prepared to end their respective enemies.
Down below, an awake Zolda sees this and sighs to himself.
"I should probably wake the others up".