Captain Blues: Another day, another episode. Enjoy!
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Final Mix
Episode Three: Ranger Killer Black
[Location: Downtown Angel Grove
POV: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers]
"Time to can this bitch! Form up the Power Blaster!" Red exclaimed as he and the remaining rangers stood in a straight line, side by side.
In front of the Rangers was their newest enemy, a skeleton with a black hat with a red strip and a feather, and a red cape. The skeleton got up off the ground, its body smoking from the blow dealt while it tried to escape.
"Y-You can't hurt me. I am the magnificent Bones!" The monster exclaimed as it took a step backward, fear in its glowing yellow eyes.
Changing his Power Ax to the Power Cannon, Black cocked it and said, "Too bad, Spooky Scary Skeleton! Power Cannon!" before tossing it in the air.
"Power Bow!" Pink enthusiastically shouted while tossing her bow into the air, watching as the bow locks on the top of the Power Cannon horizontally.
"Power Daggers!" Yellow shouted as she tossed both of her daggers into the air, both of them hooking underneath the bow on separate sides of the Power Cannon, the handles of her daggers facing forward.
"Power Lance!" Blue shouted as he separated his lance and tossed them in the air, the two instantly going next to the power daggers on both sides of the cannon, the handles of the separated lance facing forward as well.
With a jump into the air, Red shouted, "Power Sword!" as he placed his blade on top of the bow, locking it in place.
Holding the Power Blaster in his hands, Red landed on the ground, and his team instantly came by his side, Black and Yellow on his left and Blue and Pink on his right, the rangers held the Blaster, and before they fired, all of the rangers shouted, "Fire!"
With the pull of the trigger, five beams of energy shot out from the power blaster and slammed against the monster, causing the skeleton to explode on impact until there was no trace for Rita to make the monster grow.
Blue, Pink, and Black jumped up in the air with a victorious yell. At the same time, Yellow turned her back with a cross of her arms, chuckling as Red raised the Power Blaster down to his shoulder and said, "Rack up another victory for the Power Rangers."
[Location: Rita's Palace
POV: Rita Repulsa]
"Lady Rita. Keep calm now," Finster told his Empress while patting her hand softly, watching as Rita took deep, slow breathes.
Rita closed her eyes, took another deep breath, and then snatched her hand away from the dog-like monster as she yelled, "These Rangers are giving me a headache!"
"This is the third monster I have lost to them!" She yelled out, fist slamming into the armrest of her throne. "I've had enough of them! It is time we take them out now!" Rita roared while scowling, her relatively youthful face taking on a vicious scowl.
Goldar, who was listening to her rant calmly, was struck with an idea and said, "Lady Rita…I think I know what we shall do about the Rangers."
Rita stared down at the knight with a raised eyebrow and a curious expression, silently telling him to continue.
"Remember during the war on earth ten thousand years ago?" Goldar questioned.
Rita glanced away from the being and looked down at Earth with a bitter scowl, her eyes taking on a hazy look.
In her mind, she saw five silhouettes standing in front of a tall man with white hair, a white robe, and piercing blue eyes, holding a blade in his left hand, appeared.
"I remember…That foolish Sage had Rangers back then as well…." She told Goldar while she turned her gaze back to the monster.
"And remember how we dwindled Zordon's forces from Five to just him?" Goldar questioned again.
Rita couldn't help but let a smirk form on her face at the memory before her eyes sparkled in realization.
"I realize what you are getting at Goldar!" Rita exclaimed as she stood up from her throne and looked towards the Earth, but instead of the bitter look she had before, this one was more sinister but happy as well.
"The Ranger Killers…What better way to end these pesky rangers than by sending the ones that have killed their predecessors…." Rita muttered to herself.
It made perfect sense.
Why send her weakest to battle when she should send her Ranger Killers to deal with these pesky, good-for-nothing upstarts?
"Finster! Bring me your Monster Book!" She had to wait a few minutes, but then Finster was by her side in an instant, bowed on his left knee as he opened the book and lifted it enough so she didn't have to bend over to see which monster from the "Ranger Killer" group she would choose first.
She then found the perfect one.
For on the page of Finster's book was a black knight with a golden trim around the edges of its armor, its helmet being the shape of a lion's head, and beneath it were two glowing golden eyes.
The monster held a long, golden steel sword and black shield with three golden lions going across it in a straight line going down the shield
"The Knasty Knight…" Rita whispered before she closed her eyes.
Rita remembered this fearsome knight fighting against one of Zordon's Rangers from the sage's home planet.
That ranger wore a black spandex suit with white sleeves, a black wristband connected with the black gauntlets with white gloves beneath them.
The ranger had black boots with a thick white lining on the edge of the top of the boots and a thick white line going down the front of the footwear.
The ranger also wore a white belt that arched down to a "V" shape when it hit the front of his waist, a white "V" shape going down the top of his chest and back with a black crest that held a silver "5" inside of it.
Finally, the black helmet the warrior had on his head had a white outline around the "T" shaped visor that sat in the middle of the helmet.
The Black Ranger had fought fiercely with his long steel black pole, but in the end, the knight had slain the Ranger but was soon killed by the sage's other rangers.
"Yes…Those Aura Rangers were powerful until Knasty Knight killed the Aura Black Ranger…." She then smirked and sat the book down. "Let's see if he can kill another Black Ranger."
Taking the book from Finster's hands, she sat it down, and with a firm grip of her scepter, Rita began to speak.
"Killer of the Black Ranger, I summon you from your book to serve your empress once more…Arise my Knasty Knight, and kill the Black Mastodon Ranger!"
Rita raised her scepter into the air and watched as her gem began to glow brightly before shooting out a bolt of red lightning towards the picture of the knight in the book and with a sudden plume of red smoke.
When the smoke died down, she saw that the knight was kneeling on the ground with his head lowered. Then slowly, the Knight stood up, looked toward Rita, and asked, "…You have summoned me, Lady Rita?"
Rita could only smirk in reply.
"I have, and I have an important mission for you…And it involves this ranger…." Rita answered before creating a sizeable misty screen that revealed the Black Ranger in battle.
"He is the new Black Ranger? He doesn't look like much, my lady," The knight said with a cross of his arms."The form of the ranger was weak, and not only that, he was barely holding his ax correctly. This ranger is nothing short of a novice."
Rita chuckled as she turned to the knight and replied, "I thought so as well but take a look at these…."
The scene on her large globe changed, revealing Black fighting a few putties, and then the scene changed to Black slamming his Ax into a monster made up of nothing but multi-colored eyeballs.
"While he is new, he is a formidable opponent to my warriors, but he also seems to be the humor of this little group…But there is something dark in his soul, and it's just waiting to burst free. Much like the Aura Black Ranger," Rita concluded.
She smirked as she saw the Knight's golden eyes narrow beneath his helmet, a small grunt leaving his lips. "You take him down; the team will crumble as well."
The Knight balled up his fist. "When you send the next monster down, I will attack him and kill him…I swear on it, Lady Rita."
[Location: Arnie's Juice Bar
POV: Zack Taylor]
Zack was nervous
It had been a full three weeks since he and his friends had become the Power Rangers and things were pretty awesome.
For some strange reason, Rita seemed only to attack weekly, which was good for them to still be active in their other activities.
After serving out their punishment, the five decided that if a monster were to attack while in school, they would need to think of a real good excuse if someone noticed their missing.
Another thing they realized was that their ranger powers helped them a lot more than they thought in battle.
It had happened when Jason and Billy had gone into a spar.
It was a shock to see Billy so thoroughly trounced during that spar, but the minute they morphed, Billy was matching Jason blow for blow with an excellent defensive wall, and that wasn't just all they noticed.
Jason was busting out some martial arts moves that he didn't even know he could do and using his sword like it had been a part of his life since he was young.
It was then that Billy gave them a theory of how since they didn't know how to use their weapons and defend themselves properly yet, their power coins were using them as puppets to help them protect themselves in their fight against justice.
And it made sense to them all.
In their standard forms, they knew they could barely put up a fight against the putties and would stand no chance against the Minotaur or that skeleton, but when they were morphed?
They were busting out moves and taking down all challengers without a care in the world without really knowing how they were doing it, and not only that, they knew how to use their weapons and the zords without genuinely knowing how.
Now that they had realized this, the group decided they would become better than what they were now. They would train to the point where the power coins would not need to be them as puppets to defend them.
But as of right now, Zack was not worried about that.
Instead, he had something else to worry about.
Trini avoided him for a while after she walked away from him after their battle with the Mighty Minotaur. Zack decided that it was time for the two of them to talk, so he was making his way towards their usual lunch table to ask her out for dinner, just the two of them.
He wanted to get their friendship back on track.
Zack walked up to Trini, and with a friendly air, he said, "Hey Trini."
Trini looked up at him and said, "Hey Zack…." With a hesitant tone in her voice.
Zack cleared his throat before he said, "I know we didn't really get a chance to talk…Well, more we've been busy with training and the battles to talk, but I was wondering if-"
Zack was just about to ask her, but that was when he heard an enthusiastic "Hey guys!"
Zack and Trini turned around to see Billy, Jason, and Kimberly walking towards their regular table with their food in their hands.
Zack let out a hint of an annoyed look while Trini seemed slightly relieved by the interruption. "So, what were you two talking about over here?" Kimberly asked as she sat down next to Trini, who smiled at her.
"Nothing important," Trini stated with a hint of something in her voice, which made Zack sigh sat down next to Kimberly, and nodded in agreement, disappointment evident in his face.
He could see Jason and Billy sit down next to Trini, and all three of them began to talk, but Zack didn't pay attention to any of their chat at all.
He had spent the past three days trying to think of a way to ask Trini, and the one time he got the chance, he was interrupted.
Just his luck.
"Zack…Zack!" Jason shouted, which caused Zack to blink in surprise.
"Huh…What?" Zack asked with a tilt of his head.
"Well, since everything seemed to be going well, I thought we could all hang out this weekend," Jason said with a smile on his face before he asked, "Do you have anything planned?"
Zack let out a small sigh and replied, "Not really…What do you guys want to do?"
"Well…How about all of us go to the carnival," Trini suggested while sipping on her grape soda once again.
"That's a glorious Idea," Billy said while adjusting his glasses, lightly smiling as he added, "But we should make a backup plan in case something happens so…How about Roller skating? All of us know how to skate, right?"
Zack and Kimberly raised their hands, but Jason and Trini looked sheepish while lowering their heads.
"I'll take that as a no," Kimberly said with a slight giggle, eating her salad happily.
"Hm…How about a movie? I heard Supergirl Versus Astra comes out this weekend. Maybe we can catch it in the morning," Jason suggested after taking a bite out of his sub.
"That does sound pretty cool too…." Zack said. "All of you guys' ideas sound good. I kinda wish we could do it all."
That's when Kimberly, who had a cheesing smile on her face, asked, "Zack-man, who said we couldn't do all those things?"
The rangers turned to her with looks of confusion on their faces, and seeing them caused her to grin wider as she stated, "I mean, we don't have school on both Friday and Monday. Why don't we?"
Zack's eyes suddenly started to shine as well, catching onto what Kimberly was about to say and adding, "And don't forget Kimberly, none of us have homework on that Friday from any of our classes…Except for Mr. Wilson's class, of course, but it's pretty light."
The three rangers stared at the two for a moment as if they had gone insane, but Jason found himself nodding his head and said, "You know what? That does sound like a good idea. We'll be gone the entire day, so we should let our folks know."
"Yeah, we better ask our folks…I don't want to do this behind their backs…Unlike other things," Kimberly mumbled softly.
The rest of the team had somber expressions appear on their faces when their new job reared its head.
After their battle with the Mighty Minotaur, Zordon had finally laid down the ground rules.
1. No one must know their secret identities as rangers.
2. They must never escalate a fight by summoning their zords.
3. They must never act out of vengeance.
They had already dealt with the secret identities on their part and understood the latter two, but the issue then Jason bought up a point he honestly didn't want to bring up
Their parents.
Their parents knew nothing about them being rangers, and they all knew right off the bat that not telling their parents was a terrible idea.
What if one of them died during a battle with Rita's forces?
What would they tell the parents of that ranger?
Or if they all fell in battle and somehow demorphed?
Their folks would not only find out their secret that way, but it would be worse if they died and then demorphed, making it even worse for their parents.
They explained this to Zordon, who merely replied that while they could not reveal their secret to their parents, if something dire were to occur or if something outside of their control caused their identities to be revealed, then he would make exceptions.
They now had to be careful about how things would be done when in Ranger form
Suddenly, their communicators chimed a minor tune, causing them to look at each other before
Jason lifted his left wrist, pressed a button, and then said, "Jason here."
"It's Alpha! There are two monsters and a band of putties in Angel Grove's national park! Ay-Ay-Aiiii!"
Knowing his team heard, the five nodded and quickly tossed some bills on the table and ran out of the juice bar, not aware that someone was watching them very closely.
[Location: Angel Grove National Park
POV: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers]
Appearing in their respective colors, the five teens, now in their ranger attires, looked around the area where they landed and noticed that nothing was out of the ordinary, but they didn't rule it out just yet.
Alpha was never wrong when the city was attacked, so they found no reason not to trust him now.
"Did we come to the right side of the park?" Yellow asked while pulling out her Blade Blaster and placing it on her right shoulder, turning to Red, who had also pulled out his Blade Blaster.
"I'm sure we did…This is strange…." Red murmured in response while looking to his left.
"All I know is that we have to end this before lunch is over. God knows we can't afford Mr. Wilson yelling at us again. I barely managed to talk myself out of detention," Black whined lightly, but his voice was more humorous than anything else.
"Same here. If he yells at me again, I'm out of my next match-up." Red replied. "That guy is such a dick."
"Seriously. He has some problems," Yellow muttered.
Meanwhile, Pink had walked a little ways away from the team and moved a large rose bush that was in the way, only to get blasted by a laser beam in the chest, sending her soaring backward and landing on the ground, hard.
"Pink!" The four rangers yelled out before they ran to her side, with Red the only one to kneel by her side.
"Are you alright?" Red asked with a worried tone.
Pink nodded, and with help from Red, she was back on her feet. "I'll be ok, Red..." She murmured as the five of them watched as a blank, white monster with one large dark green eye and a mouth walked out from the bush and said, "Hello Rangers, I am the Cyclops, and you are all dead!"
The Cyclops then fired a giant laser from its eye towards the five. The Rangers rolled out of the way before Blue and Pink leaped in the air and delivered a kick to the monster's chest.
Red, Yellow, and Black flew over the two rangers and fired their blasters, making sparks fly from the monster's chest before falling to the ground.
The monster suddenly got back on its feet and pointed at the five Rangers while he screamed, "Putty Patrol! Attack!"
Suddenly, twenty putties came flipping over more bushes and then charging towards the Rangers, who instantly began firing their Blade Blasters, nailing the five in the chest.
Without any warning, a black blur flew out of a bush, slamming into the Black before disappearing in a black and gold flash.
"Black!" The four screamed out in terror at their friend's abduction.
"You have yourselves to worry about right now!" Cyclops exclaimed as the putties began their battle with the four Rangers.
[Location: Pocket Dimension
POV: Mighty Morphin Black Ranger]
Black fell to the oddly colored gold ground beneath him with an explosion of black and gold energy.
When Black got onto his feet, he looked up to see a pitch-black sky with golden stars flickering above him and pale-gold mist around him.
Black wanted to say how cool this looked, but he was more concerned about where he was and how he got here.
Without warning, Black was kicked by two feet in his back, making him stumble forward. The Ranger quickly turned around to fire his blade blaster only to be struck in the chest by the Knight's sword, making gray sparks fly from his chest.
Black spun to the ground and grasped his chest as he stood up, but the knight quickly advanced and bashed him in the helmet with his shield, causing Black to soar back into the air with more gray sparks exploding from his chest.
But as Black fell to the ground, he withdrew his blade blaster and pulled the trigger, successfully hitting the Knight in the chest, causing brief sparks to fly from its body, but the knight still stood tall.
"Your skills as Black Ranger are weak," The Knight commented while watching Black stand on his feet, change his blaster to its blade mode, and point it at the knight.
"Who the hell do you think you are talking to me like that?!" Black exclaimed with anger in his voice.
The knight chuckled and pointed his sword towards Black and replied ominously low, "I am the Knasty Knight, The killer of Zordon's Black Aura Ranger, and your murderer as well, Black Mastodon Ranger."
Black scowled beneath his helmet, charged forward, and slashed his blade towards the knight. Knasty Knight lifted his shield to block each strike, then kicked Black in his right knee, making Black fall onto one knee.
Black quickly swept the knight's feet, making his enemy fall before rolling out of the way, reverting his blade to its blaster form, and then summoned his Power Ax.
"You aren't killing any Black Ranger today! I'll make sure of it!" Black exclaimed, watching the Knight rise to his feet with a chuckle and with a brief glare shared, the two charged forward.
[Location: Angel Grove National Park
POV: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers]
With screams of pain leaving their lips, the four rangers flew backward into the air with sparks coming out of their chests from Cyclops' laser beam that he fired from his eye.
The rangers collided with the ground, smoke rising from their bodies as the Cyclops laughed. "You pathetic humans are no match for me!" the Cyclops exclaimed as the Rangers groaned in pain.
"Well, this is most unfortunate," Blue uttered in pain as he moved to his feet.
"First Black gets kidnapped, and now we're getting our collective butts whooped," Pink uttered in annoyance while hoisting herself to her feet.
"Of all the times for Black to be taken…." Yellow growled out while using a tree to help her get to her feet.
"This is not looking too good for us, gang. This monster is far tougher than Multi-eye, Bones, and Minotaur..." Red muttered as he stood off the ground, summoning his power sword to his side.
Hearing this, Cyclops let out a cocky bark of a laugh while pointing at Red and stated, "Bones was always the weakest of Lady Rita's monster army! Every monster you all have faced pales in comparison to me!"
When the monster began to laugh, Red found himself getting annoyed by the laugh and threw his sword, blade first, at the inhuman creature, who was immediately struck in the chest by it, making the monster fly backward.
Seeing this, Blue and Yellow charged past Red and kneed the monster's face when he got up, making the monster slide back on its ass from the impact.
Red then ran forward, jumped in the air, and delivered a dropkick to the Cyclops' eye, causing it to yell in pain. Red then rolled aware as Pink held her Power Bow with three glowing arrows in it.
The monster didn't even have time to scream as the three arrows were shot, piercing his left shoulder, the right side of his shoulder, and finally, right in the stomach, causing a mass array of sparks to fly from the impact points of the arrows.
After Pink had taken her shot, Red pulled out his blade blaster and started to fire his blaster, striking the monster relentlessly in the chest.
Yellow and Blue took out their blade blasters and fired them at the monster, striking their opponent repeatedly, causing more sparks to fly from the wailing creature's mouth.
The monster finally had enough and unleashed a fully charged red laser beam from its eye, hitting all of the Rangers as well as sending them back into the air. The Cyclops, heavily wounded from the attacks delivered to him, fell on his left knee while clutching his chest, panting.
"Y-You rangers impress me. I haven't been in such pain since the war for earth ten-thousand years ago…." The monster had murmured under his breath as he rose to his feet only to stumble backward, his large, single eye watching as the four Rangers stood up across from him.
The Cyclops screamed as he charged towards the group, his arms outstretched and his hands in a clawing position.
Yellow was the first one who met the monster head-on, ducking the wild swing of the monster's right hand and going to kick his stomach.
The Cyclops caught her leg and forced it back, punched her in the helmet, then kicked her chest, sending Yellow colliding back first into a boulder.
With a turn, the Cyclops kicked the charging Pink in the stomach as hard as possible, and when Pink fell to one knee, the monster kneed Pink in the helmet, sending Pink flying towards a tree.
Blue tackled the Cyclops off his feet, who continued to run before slamming the monster into a tree so hard that the two tore right through the tree itself.
The Cyclops wrapped his arm around Blue's neck, hoisted the ranger off of his feet, and then fell backward, implanting Blue's head into the ground before sliding from Blue's grasp and rolling to his feet.
The monster turned around and blocked Red's punch with his forearm. "So close," The Cyclops hissed out before kicking Red in the stomach, then elbowed the ranger in the back when Red hunched forward due to the kick.
Red fell to the ground only to be sent skidding against the land from the monster's kick to the stomach. Red used the momentum of the mighty kick and rolled onto his feet, only to fall on one knee.
"I am unbeatable!" The monster yelled out in victory as he turned around and began to thrust his hands into the air, whooping loudly.
As the monster celebrated, Pink rose to her feet, her Power Bow in hand, and noticed a smaller eyeball on the back of the monster's head.
Closing one eye, Pink held the weapon up and whispered, "Bulls-eye," then took the shot.
When the glowing pink arrow slammed into the back of the monster's head, he let out an agonizing scream of pain before an explosion of pink sparks flew out the front of the monster's front eye.
The monster stood still for a moment, but then it sunk to its knees and fell face-first to the ground before it exploded on impact.
"With those eyes, he still couldn't see that coming," Pink quipped as she smirked beneath her helmet, just as the other rangers were getting up as well.
"You did it, Pink!" Blue exclaimed while giving Pink a mighty hug.
Pink squeaked in surprise before she cheered happily.
"Nice work, Pink," Yellow said with a proud tone as she approached her two teammates.
"Thanks," Pink said as Blue sat her down. "I guess that training is paying off."
"Guys," Red began as he marched towards his team with a purpose. "I think we're celebrating far too early, considering we're down a member."
Black was still gone.
"That's right," Pink whispered. "What are we doing? Black was abducted before the battle started. We need to find him."
"I think we should head to the Command Center. Maybe Zordon can help us," Blue said.
With a nod, the four placed their hands on their power morphers and transported them out from the park, hoping to find their friend before something sinister could happen to him.
If it didn't happen already.
[Location: Rita's Palace
POV: Rita Repulsa]
"No!" Rita screamed out in seething anger.
She couldn't believe it.
One of her strongest monsters was defeated again by those pesky Rangers, despite being down a member. Rita looked at the ruby that sat at the top of her lunar scepter and saw that there was enough power within it to bring her monster back to life and make it grow.
Taking her scepter in her hands, she said, "You have fallen, my Cyclops, but it is time for you to come back! Now my mighty scepter, make my monster grow!" With that shout, Rita launched her scepter down to earth with a smirk on her face.
Rita knew that despite them defeating the monster their size, they could not defeat him at full size without the Black Ranger.
[Location: The Command Center
POV: The Chosen Five]
"This has got to be the most stressful day we've encountered thus far," Billy announced as he leaned on a console that was in front of the team's mentor, a heavy sigh leaving his lips.
After their battle with the Cyclops, the four had returned to the Command Center, still in their ranger suits (sans helmets) to look for their missing ranger, but just as they arrived, they found out that the Cyclops had returned and was in his larger form.
Trini was irate.
"Man, what a perfect time for Zack to disappear on us!" She exclaimed with annoyance while motioning to the Cyclops walking around, blasting the various warehouse buildings around him.
Kimberly glanced at Trini briefly, a little confused as to why she was mad at Zack. "Surely you aren't blaming Zack for being kidnapped, are you?" Kimberly asked with a quirk of her left eyebrow
"I'm not blaming him…." Trini reluctantly said with a cross of her arms. "I'm blaming his luck."
"What does his luck have to do with anything, Trini?" Kimberly asked with narrowed eyes.
"Think about it. Whenever we needed Zack around, something took him away," Trini replied with a frown.
"You can't blame him for that. It's not his fault he was kidnapped. It could have happened to any one of us," Kimberly told her sternly as she crossed her arms.
"Yeah, but it happened to him," Trini said with her own narrowed eyes. "We don't even know if we can form the Dino Megazord without him at the helm of his zord."
Kimberly opened her mouth but then shook her head.
She didn't understand why Trini was so sour about Zack. Kimberly knew their friendship was on shaky grounds due to whatever happened between them a few years ago, but that didn't mean she could be mad at him while he was in danger.
Jason turned to Zordon and asked, "Trini has a good point about the Zord. Is there any chance we can form the Megazord with Zack being absent?"
"Unfortunately, there is not. Zack must be present to summon his zord. Anyone outside of being the Black Ranger would not be able to control the power the Mastodon zord commands," Zordon answered, causing Jason to growl a little.
Surely, Zordon could have made a failsafe if something like this were to occur, and for him to not foresee this made no sense to the ranger that he didn't see something like this coming.
Taking a deep breath, Jason said, "Well, regardless, we need to do the best we can and stop that monster from destroying our city."
All was silent in the command center until Billy turned to Zordon and asked, "What if we were able to find Zack by using his power coin?"
Kimberly turned to her friend and asked, "What do you mean by that?"
Billy turned to her and said, "Well, you guys remember how we were transported here when we first became rangers?" Seeing his friends nod, Billy turned to Zordon and Alpha and asked, "Now, how did you guys accomplish this?"
"Well…" Alpha said nervously, turning his head up to Zordon as if he were asking permission to tell them.
Zordon nodded his approval, which caused Alpha to look at Billy and answer, "Well…When we need to transport someone, we lock onto the energy of that person and break down their DNA into particles of energy which we then use to take them to our location of choice."
Billy nodded his head at this and asked, "Now my next question is this, and this is to you, Zordon. If there was a time when we were unable to transport here, is there anything that could harm us if we need to get inside?"
"Of course not," Zordon answered the glasses-wearing teen, a knowing smile on his face.
"And why is that?" Billy asked.
"It is because the DNA from you and your fellow rangers have been labeled as acceptable entrants to our system." Billy smiled at this.
"Precisely as I thought," Billy said, pleased with himself.
"What's going on in that head of yours, Billy?" Trini asked.
"So wouldn't it be possible to locate Zack using the DNA that is stored in your systems and forcibly transport Zack here?" Billy asked softly, causing all of his friends to glance at him in surprise.
Why hadn't they thought of that?
"That may just work!" Alpha exclaimed before moving to the console on the left side of the room and pressing a few buttons on it, after a few seconds, the lights in the command center dimmed, but as they did, the viewing globe lit up brightly before an image was seen through the white static within it.
The image was of the Black Ranger battling a knight and being struck by the knight's shield, but as the sparks flew from Black's body, the image quickly faded back into the static.
"We aren't able to get a clear bead on him. We don't have enough power to transport him here due to the distance between us and his location," Alpha said to both the rangers and Zordon, with the latter closing his eyes in thought but once again, the blue ranger had an idea.
"What if we were to use a power coin as a conduit to transfer energy from it into your systems to be able to give your system a boost to retrieve Zack? Is that possible?" Billy asked.
Slowly, Kimberly and Jason turned to Trini, wanting her to transfer his words into something they could understand. "He's wondering if we can use the power coin to give more energy to their systems to strengthen the connection to Zack to transport him back here."
Jason and Kimberly nodded.
"Is it possible?" Billy asked.
"It is possible, but for that, we will need one of you to stay behind to supply the power," Zordon announced.
"Seeing as it was I that supplied the idea that I will be the one to help," Billy answered before removing his power coin from his Morpher, causing his ranger suit to dissolve into blue and white lightning.
Once Billy was back in his usual clothing, he handed his power coin to Alpha, who shuffled away.
"Rangers, try and hold off the monster as long as possible. Your fellow rangers will join shortly," Zordon told the three rangers.
The three rangers nodded before Jason took out his Morpher and yelled, "Back to action!"
[Location: Downtown Angel Grove
POV: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers]
When the rangers landed on the roof downtown, they could hear the screams of the people below them as the Cyclops trampled the ground beneath it.
"Run humans!" the monster roared out before shooting out a powerful laser beam, causing a building to evaporate before their eyes.
"Damn it! He's destroying the place!" Yellow yelled out as she clenched her fists.
"Which is why we can't waste time! We need Megazord power now!" Red yelled out while reaching his hand out to the sky.
[Location: Volcano]
With an explosion of lava, a white and pink mechanical Pterodactyl flew out of the active volcano.
The Zord twirled in the air with two streams of smoke trailing behind it as it screeched, its body glowing a bright pink before it streaked through the sky and appeared in Angel Grove near the forest.
[Location: Jungle]
From the deepest pits of the jungle, a yellow and silver mechanical Saber-Tooth Tiger with black wheels on its legs rose from its resting spot, causing the trees around it to either snap or become unrooted.
The Tiger growled before running through the deep forest until its body flashed a bright yellow and appeared beneath the flying Pterodactyl.
[Location: Mountain]
From beneath the earth, a deep rumble shook the area as the ground began to split.
Accompanied by flames, a red and silver mechanical Tyrannosaurus Rex rose from beneath the earth with a mighty roar.
Once it was on its feet, it began to dash forward, its body glowing a bright red until it appeared in the middle beside the running Saber-tooth Tiger.
[Location: Downtown Angel Grove
POV: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers]
"Let's get to it!" Red said to his fellow rangers before all three of them jumped in the air and were transported into their respective zords.
Once the three were inside, they pulled out their power coins, formed the power crystals, and placed them into their holding spots, quickly giving them control of their zords.
"Alright, guys, we need to do as much damage as possible to this thing until we can form the Megazord," Red told the two rangers.
"Understood, Red," Pink said with a tone of determination.
Yellow stayed quiet for a moment before she whispered, "Understood…."
Red took a deep breath, his head bowed, and his eyes closed as he whispered to himself, "Stay safe, Zack…We'll see you soon…."
Red's head then rose as he shouted, "Here we come, Cyclops!"
[Location: Pocket Dimension
POV: Mighty Morphin Black Ranger]
With a shower of sparks, Black fell to the ground back first, groaning in pain as he looked up at his opponent, who was stalking closer, holding his chest in pain.
"You have lost, Mastadon Ranger," Black heard the knight murmur softly as he scrambled backward to get some distance away from him and the knight.
The knight continued to advance towards the battered Ranger, but as Black dragged himself away from the knight, he felt his hand scrap against his discarded blaster.
The Knight continued to advance over the weakened Black Ranger's body until Black had finally stopped moving, his chest heaving heavily. "The Empress told me that you were a challenge, but she was wrong…." The Knight told him, finally standing above his body with his sword in hand.
"This battle was a disappointment, but the only prize I can claim from this is that I have killed two Black Rangers…I suppose it's destiny..." The knight slowly lifted his blade and held it in the air, ready for the final swipe.
"Now it is time for you to die...Goodbye, Black Ranger!"
"Not today!" Black yelled as he took the chance to lift his hand off the ground and fire his blaster, beams of energy striking up the body of Knasty Knight until it hit his face, causing large amounts of sparks to shower Black's helmet.
Black swiftly got to his feet as the knight stumbled back in pain and delivered a hard punch to the knight's face before kicking him in the stomach, making the knight stumble backward.
The knight moved forward to slice the ranger, but Black changed his blaster into blade mode, blocked the sword, and pushed it away to kick the side of the knight's head, sending the knight falling to the ground.
Narrowing his eyes, Black leaped up to try and pierce the knight through, but the knight rose to his feet quickly and blocked it with his shield.
The knight shoved Black away and quickly moved it aside to slice at the ranger. Seeing this, Black swung his blade to block the knight's weapon, causing the two weapons to clash, causing the knight's blade to fly from his hand and land in the gold smoke.
Black quickly took advantage of knocking the sword away and kicked the shield to the side before stabbing his blade through the knight's armor and right in the stomach, causing a large number of sparks to fly from the wound.
Knasty Knight let out a bellowed yell and slammed his fist right into the face of Black, causing the ranger to fly backward while making him let go of the blade.
The knight stumbled backward and pulled the blade out from his stomach, growling from the pain, and once it was free, the knight let out a furious shout and ran towards Black.
Seeing the knight coming, Black summoned his Power Ax into his hand and swung it upwards while the knight swung downwards, causing Black and Knasty Knight to clash their respective weapons against the other.
The two combatants pushed against their weapons for a moment then pulled away with the knight sneaking in a swipe of his blade towards Black, who was struck in the chest, causing him to stumble back.
Knasty Knight then threw his blade at Black's chest, causing the ranger to be sent spiraling to the ground with gray sparks accompanying his spinning form.
The knight summoned his sword back into his hands while Black grabbed his sword and returned it to its blaster form while dismissing his ax for now and saw the knight's foot coming down to stomp on his head.
Black rolled out of the way of the Knasty Knight's foot, quickly got up, and fired his blaster at the knight who blocked it with his shield.
Knasty Knight slashed his blade downwards with a snarl, causing a gold wave of energy to fly from the knight's blade, and struck Black in his right hand, forcing him to drop his blaster.
Black quickly re-summoned his Power Ax, charged forward, and swung it down at the knight, who blocked it with his shield.
"You've lost, Mastadon Ranger. Continuing to fight is pointle-" The knight was rudely interrupted with a hard head butt from Black, who quickly followed it up with three strikes to the Knight's chest with his Power Ax before ending it with a side kick to the head, making the knight fall to the side on one knee.
The knight had looked up to face his target, but instead, he was met with the cannon end of Black's Power Cannon.
Knasty Knight quickly lifted his shield as Black pulled the trigger at point-blank range, causing Knasty Knight to fly backward as his shield exploded into shards of metal.
Black swung his ax over his shoulder, thumbed the right side of his helmet, pointed at the knight, and mocked, "You've lost, Knasty Knight. Continuing this fight is pointless."
The Knight rose to his feet with a chuckle and tossed his destroyed shield's handle to the ground. "It seems we are tied, Mastadon Ranger," Knasty Knight stated. "However, I can see the weakness in you...You only have so much time before you run out of power while mine is infinite."
Black panted as he narrowed his eyes, sweat falling down his face.
[Location: Command Center
POV: William "Billy" Cranston]
"Look, at the picture!" Billy exclaimed while looking at the viewing globe. The image of Black and the Knight was getting clearer with each passing second.
"When we have a clear picture, his signal is strong enough to transport him," Alpha said while pulling a lever up, causing the picture to fluctuate wildly before becoming crystal clear.
"There, we have a perfect lock!" Billy exclaimed.
[Location: Pocket Dimension
POV: Mighty Morphin Black Ranger]
"You sense it too, don't you? That this is the end of our duel…." The knight asked while standing up on his feet, his blade glowing ominously.
"I do…" Black whispered before gripping the hilt of his Power Ax. "So this is how we will end it. One strike with nothing held back."
Knasty Knight's eyes narrowed at this proposition.
"Then, and only then will we see who wanted this victory more!" Black exclaimed while moving his ax from his shoulder and holding it before him, his grip on his weapon's hilt tightening.
Knasty Knight gripped the hilt of his blade with both hands and shifted his stance as he replied, "I couldn't have suggested it better..."
Everything was quiet in the area, the two enemies glaring each other down before the two ran towards each other, letting out a fierce roar.
And with a mighty downward swing from Knasty Knight and a powerful upward swing from Black, the two were struck each other hard before sliding to a stop.
The two stood in total silence, but then the knight fell to his left knee as sparks repeatedly flew from his body, but he was otherwise well, despite his injuries.
Black, on the other hand, was not.
The Power Ax slipped from Black's hands with a gasp filled with pain before disintegrating into purple particles. With a single step forward, tons of gray sparks flew from Black's body as black lightning shot out from Black's body to the area around him, accompanied by his screams of pain.
Then after ten seconds of his agony, all of it stopped.
Slowly and silently, Black fell to his knees and demorphed to his human state before falling down face first, his side bleeding lightly.
Knasty Knight turned around and walked towards the human and watched as his opponent feebly got on his knees, and with a sneer, he kicked Zack in the stomach, causing the human to flip over on his back.
"It looks like I wanted it more…." The knight softly said while lifting his blade. "I will admit, you were stronger and trickier than your Aura counterpart, but as I said, destiny was on my side today…Goodbye, Mastadon Ranger."
Zack helplessly watched as his opponent's blade came swinging down to him, but Zack disappeared in a black flash of energy before it could connect.
Seeing that his blade hit nothing but the ground, Knasty Knight was shocked.
His opponent just disappeared out of nowhere.
"H-How is that…How is that possible?"
[Location: Command Center
POV: Zachary "Zack" Taylor]
Appearing in a black flash, Zack appeared laying down on the ground with one eye staring at the star-filled ceiling above him.
What had happened?
It was then he took stock of where he was.
He turned his head and saw the worried expressions on Zordon and Billy's faces staring in his direction.
He was back at the command center.
He was still alive!
"Zack!" Billy exclaimed as he rushed towards Zack and helped him up to his feet, causing Zack to wince in pain. "Are you alright, my friend?" Billy asked with worry in his voice as he took stock of his friend.
Zack merely smiled at Billy, nodded his head, and asked, "Were you the ones that got me out of there?"
Seeing his friend nod with worry in his watering blue eyes made Zack's smile broaden before he grabbed the sides of Billy's face and kissed him hard, causing Billy to squeak in surprise. Zack immediately pulled away and said, "I owe you my life, you beautiful nerd, you!"
"Wowsers…." Billy whispered while adjusting his glasses, trying to will down the deep blush that appeared on his face.
Zack then looked around and asked, "Where are the others?"
"O-Oh. They're in a Kaiju battle with Cyclops. He grew, and we were unable to c-create the Megazord without you," Billy stammered.
"Well…so much for rest, but it beats being in a permanent state of it," Zack said with a light smile but then pulled out his Morpher, and together, he and Billy shouted, "It's Morphin Time!"
[Morphing Grid
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers]
(Theme of Morphing - Infinity Mijinion Stage from Megaman X6)
Zack and Billy found themselves falling down the black void, their bodies glowing in their respective colors, when both of them saw their power coins in the middle of a glowing orb, each one in their individual colors.
The two teens dove down and slammed into the orbs at top speed, causing five streaks of lightning to shoot down to the ground.
The black streak of lightning and the lightning formed a male's body on one knee. The glowing black and white male figure got on his feet and forced the energy away from his body, revealing Black holding his Power Ax.
Black swung his ax twice before placing it on his right shoulder and pointed a thumb at his head as he shouted, "Mastodon!"
Moments later, a blue streak of lightning slammed a few feet away from Black. It formed a male form before it rose and forced the energy away, revealing Blue with his Power Lance.
Blue twirled the lance in the air before slamming it on the ground as he shouted, "Triceratops!"
[Location: Downtown Angel Grove
POV: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers]
"Damn it!" Yellow yelled as her zord slammed onto its side, scraping against the ground hard. The battle between the three zords and the monster was not going so well.
While Pink's zord could give cover fire from the air, the monster was taking them down bit by bit. They truly needed their other two teammates before things were to become worse.
"Are these the Mighty Power Rangers Lady Rita has spoken about?!" Cyclops asked while slamming his right foot on the downed zord of the Red Ranger.
Before he could speak another word, the monster was suddenly hit hard from behind, sending him slamming into a building face first, causing it to crumble beneath him.
"Blue! Black!" Pink yelled out in excitement as she flew above them.
"Our apologies, fellow rangers," Blue apologized.
"But we always have to make an entrance!" Black added with a wide grin while his zord blew its trunk in victory. "Now, let's form the Megazord and go home!"
"Thank god you're alright, Black," Red said with a relieved tone. "Now, let's kick this into overdrive. Dino Megazord, enter battle mode now!"
Red took the red crystal and placed the crystal into a slot on the console, which started to glow brightly.
"Ready, set armed!" The four rangers shouted while they took out the crystals of their respective colors and placed the tip into the slot, making them all glow brightly.
Yellow's zord gave a brief growl as its legs sunk underneath its form, riding on the wheels that were on its legs and the tail of the zord turned until it was right against the tiger's back.
Blue's zord followed suit while the legs on Red's zord folded backward, leaving metal nubs that connected to the slots on Blue and Yellow's zords. Black's zord split apart from the back and collided with the back of Red's zord, giving Red's zord cannons for arms.
The head of Black's zord connected to the chest of Red's zord as Pink's zord flew behind the head of Red's Zord and landed on its shoulders, its chest resting against the back of the Zord's head and with each successful connection of the zords, blue electricity flowed around the connected joints.
Suddenly, the five rangers found themselves in a much larger cockpit together with Red sitting in between Black and Blue while Yellow and Pink sat behind Black and Blue, facing the consoles on the separate walls.
"Megazord sequence has been initiated," The voice announced as the cannon arms began to flip slowly into a compartment on the side as two black fists took the cannon's spot as the arms.
Pink's zord suddenly flew off of the shoulders of Red's zord while Blue and Yellow's Zords slowly began to lift off the ground until the entire Megazord was standing upright.
Pink's Zord flew around the zord for a moment before its head slides down into its chest while turning so the Zord's back was facing the monster.
In contrast, the chest of Red's zord lifted as the Tyrannosaurus head bent into its chest, which then closed over the head, revealing a black and red robot head with a smooth grey steel plate where the mouth would be with a yellow spike on top of the head.
Once Pink's Zord connected to the chest of Red's zord, two red horns flipped onto the Robot's cheeks with a snap of blue electricity, causing its yellow eyes to glow red briefly before fading back to yellow, revealing the proper form of the Dino Megazord.
"Megazord activated!" the voice chimed out before blue electricity flowed around the Dino Megazord's body.
[Location: Rita's Palace
POV: Rita Repulsa]
"No…" Rita said in shock as she stared at the Megazord.
She was so sure that her knight could get the job done, yet their Megazord was complete. No, perhaps that damn Zordon had a failsafe in case one of the Rangers went missing.
That had to be the case. There was no way that her knight could have been defeated.
Hearing a portal being opened behind her, she saw Knasty Knight limping out of it with a shameful expression on his face, and it made her feel as if something was wrong.
"I have returned from battle milady," The knight said while kneeling to her.
"Welcome back, Knasty Knight. Was your mission successful?" She asked while moving him up to his feet. The knight looked to the side in thought before lowering his head.
"The battle was mine, milady, but in the end, he was transported when I was going to land the final blow," He told her with regret in his voice.
Rita looked to her orb and saw the ranger's Megazord and the Cyclops and gave a sigh of annoyance, but as she looked at the knight, she saw his light blue blood flowing from various parts of his body, especially from his stomach.
She knew that he should be punished. However, he was one of her strongest fighters next to Goldar, and it wouldn't feel right to hurt him because the Rangers found a way to free his opponent.
"It is ok, Knasty Knight," Rita told him. "Do not look at me as if you failed. You were merely delayed in your objective, something I will forgive you for. Now go rest and heal."
The Knight nodded and walked off, his light blue blood dripping down to the ground behind him, leaving Rita to watch the Rangers battle with her monster.
[Location: Downtown Angel Grove
POV: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers]
"Take this!" The Cyclops screamed while shooting out a powerful beam of energy from its eye.
The Megazord immediately shielded the energy with the Mastodon shield, causing the Megazord to slide back from the laser's impact. The Megazord began to move forward against the energy as it tried to reach the Power Saber.
During the intense battle, the rangers summoned the Power Saber to defeat it, but the Megazord was launched into a building before they could retrieve it.
This monster was giving them quite a headache.
"Man, he's given us no breathing room at all to get the Power Saber," Yellow said with a frown on her face.
"There must be some way to stop him…Some laser on us or missiles or something," Pink said with a solemn tone in her voice.
It was then that both Yellow and Blue's eyes widened, realization within them. "Wait, we can use the laser cannons on my zord to hit him!" Yellow said to her team with excitement in her voice.
"And I can use my own twin laser cannons on my zord to provide fire as well," Blue added as well with an enthusiastic nod.
Red nodded and said, "Black put some power into the Megazord's legs. It's time to put them to good use!" Red shouted. Black nodded and pressed a few buttons on the console in front of him.
"Did it," Black said with a right thumb up.
"Good, now let's show him why you don't ever put the rangers in a corner!" Red shouted.
The tails of both the Triceratops and Saber-tooth tiger shot up from their resting spots and fired into the Cyclops repeatedly, causing the monster to stumble backward while it wailed in pain, sparks flying from his body.
Feeling the energy stop, the zord charged forward while grabbing the hilt of the Power Saber and yanking it from the ground before leaping into the air and piercing the monster in the chest, making it howl as sparks flew from the wound.
But then the monster grabbed the sides of Zord's head and rammed its head against it, causing all of the rangers to lurch forward sharply, causing them all to groan in pain, but the rangers forced the zord to kick the monster in the knee hard, causing the monster's nails to scrap against the head while it fell on one knee.
The zord then took a step back and rammed its knee into the monster's head, making it skid backward into the water of Angel Grove's harbor but made sure to hold the hilt so when the Zord kneed the Cyclops, the sword was freed from its chest.
The monster slowly rose to its feet, its chest flowing with dark blue blood from its stab wound. "Ready to finish this damn thing off?!" Red asked his team with an excited tone in his voice.
"Did you really need to ask?" Pink asked with a sarcastic tone in her voice.
"Let's slice and dice!" Black exclaimed.
"Good, now let's end this! Thunder Power strike!" With a powerful upward swing of the Megazord's bright glowing blade, a large energy wave shot straight out towards Cyclops, who tried to block it in vain, but in the end, he let out a scream of agony as he exploded into oblivion.
With a short swing of the blade going left then right, The Dino Megazord slowly lowered its arms towards the ground, the tip of its blade gently scraping the ground as it posed, the sunlight reflecting off its head while the rangers said, "Dino Megazord…Victorious!"
[Location: Downtown Angel Grove
POV: The Chosen Trio]
"Man…You must have been terrified," Jason said with soft eyes after Zack told his tale of fighting the knight in that warrior's dimension.
After giving their battle report to Zordon and dismissing their zords, the entire team made their way to the Juice bar.
Billy had to duck out due to his father calling him to head back home and Trini leaving due to some reason that they didn't bother going into.
Kimberly and Jason were shocked at the details of the rather intense battle that ensued during their own rather fierce battle and felt so bad for their friend.
"I was, and if I were in there just a few more minutes, I would have died…." Zack admitted softly with closed eyes, his voice coming out a lot weaker than he expected.
While he was scared an hour ago, he was high on adrenaline, but he had a lot of time to think after the battle ended. He was fortunate to survive as long as he did in that place, and it did scare him endlessly.
He couldn't stop thinking about the fact he was so close to getting killed. Even his fear of snakes was wiped out by the thought of fighting alone like that.
"Well, at least you were able to survive, man," Kimberly said with a small smile, patting his shoulder sympathetically.
Zack could only nod and say distantly, "Yeah…Look, I have to get going. Thanks for the milkshake, guys."
Zack got out of the chair, walked to the bar, smiled at Ernie, and said, "Thanks for the great milkshake, man," while placing the money on the counter.
"You don't look too good, Zack. Are you alright?" Ernie asked.
"Ah, you know me. I'll be fine," Zack said with a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. "Well, see you tomorrow Ern, same time, same place, same snack," Zack said before running out of the door, leaving behind three worried people behind him.
