Chapter 6
It had been over an hour since the army had struck.
"Fuck, these things are like mosquitos!" Brody yelled. He was piloting the Megazord solo. It was in its sword-and-shield mode, but he mostly used the mecha's eyebeams to attack, occasionally bringing out the sword to slash at his opponents when they got close enough.
Unfortunately, his problems didn't stop there, as two large groups of the invading Shadows merged, forming two gigantic Shadows the size of the Megazord.
"Oh, come on!"
Kelly attacked one of them by firing a stream of multicolored jewels from her mouth. She didn't give it a chance to recover before she rammed it headfirst.
Duncan was fighting on the ground, still in the powered-up form he'd gained from Kelly. He had been doing well, taking out Shadows by the dozen, but against such great numbers, he'd taken his fair share of hits as well. Fortunately, he had help. When the fighting started, the boys had called in their Cryolophosaurs to aid them.
"Chazz, Carl, separate and focus on the two giant Shadows. Kelly, concentrate on the fighters," Brody directed them. "I'm gonna help out Duncan."
The Blue Ranger ejected from the Megazord, which separated into its components. Joining his brother, the two Rangers stood beside their Cryolophosaurs with their weapons at the ready. Staring down the remaining enemy forces, both Zords and Rangers charged.
They didn't notice the onlookers until the battle was over. This time, it wasn't just a small crowd of civilians. At least half the town had showed up to congratulate the Rangers for defeating the army with handshakes and praise aplenty.
Eventually, the boys managed to sneak away. At home, a quick de-morph revealed the injuries they'd been powering through: Brody was holding his shoulder, a stream of blood coming from his nose and mouth, while Duncan felt pain in his ribs each time he breathed and was slowly becoming more and more unsteady on his feet. The boys sat down on their couch for a moment before letting out a massive sigh of relief. The fighting was done.
The silence lasted for few seconds before Brody started sobbing. Duncan groaned into his hands before yelling incoherently. After a few seconds, he started using actual words: "Fuck! Fuuuuuuck!"
"I-I'm starting to have second thoughts about all this," Brody got out.
"You think?!" his brother shouted. "We almost fucking died! Again! I forget why we're even doing this in the first place!"
"…Because it's the right thing to do?" Brody replied weakly.
Duncan gave him a dull look. "Something needs to change."
"What do you mean?" Brody asked.
Duncan got up and made his way over to the shelf where they kept the box they'd taken from the cave. He opened it, revealing the one dino bracelet they had left.
"We're gonna get a new recruit."
Wiping his eyes and nose, the younger brother stood up. "But who are we supposed to give it to?"
Duncan grinned. "We'll do what Deadpool did: have some interviews."
Brody considered it for a moment. "Hmm. Well, we may not have much choice. Our wounds probably won't be healed by the time the next monster shows up." Nodding, he summarized the prerequisites, "We'll need to come up with a time and place for the interviews, as well as requirements the candidates will need to meet, and we'll need to make fliers to get the word out."
Lighting up a joint, Duncan added, "Won't we also need to track down a Zord to go with the bracelet?"
"That's correct," said Carl. "One of us Zords will have to venture underground to search for it."
"I'll do it," Chazz volunteered. "Kelly would just forget what she was doing, and Carl, you'll be better at backing up the guys if another monster shows up."
"Sounds great. You guys do that while I get toasted," Duncan said, taking another puff from his joint. Before anyone could criticize his laziness, he continued, "Also, we should probably take another trip to the hospital."
Brody wanted to say something, anything, but he just sighed. "Let's just get in the car."
One quick drive later, Jane was examining them again.
"Okay, how do you wanna explain away these injuries?" she asked.
Duncan was unable to think up a lie. "Uhh…"
"Forget it," Jane said. "I'm just glad you came in. Your arm and ribs seem bad, but I'm gonna have the doctor check you out to be sure."
It wasn't long after the doctor entered the room that he reached a diagnosis. "Well, there's some light bruising on Duncan's ribs, and Brody's shoulder is sprained. You'll have to avoid any strenuous activities for at least a couple weeks, and that's if you're fast healers."
"Well, thanks, Doc. I guess we'll be on our way. Hey, Brody, quit getting lost in Jane's eyes," Duncan said, grabbing his brother by his non-sprained arm and pulling him away before he could protest.
Brody blushed as they made their way out of the hospital. "Did you have to embarrass me like that?"
"Yeah!" Duncan brushed off the issue. "Now let's get home for some R&R."
And so, the brothers spent the remainder of the week resting. Fortunately, no one at school cared enough to question their injuries—well, almost no one.
"Mind explaining what happened to you lads?" Cooper asked. Being their friends, Cooper and Kenny had naturally noticed that the brothers were hiding injuries.
"Yeah, uh, we fell down some stairs," Duncan said.
"Not good liar," Kenny deadpanned.
Duncan shrugged. "Well, that's the answer we're sticking with."
"Okay, I guess we'll see if ya feel like talking tomorrow," Cooper said before remembering something. "Oh, hey, Kenny, wasn't there something ya wanted to tell them?"
Kenny's face lit up, and he made the group huddle. After a few seconds of typing into Google Translate, he read, "I'm working on a secret project."
"Oooh, is it a spaceship?" Cooper guessed.
Kenny shook his head, so Duncan guessed next, "Some crazy, futuristic weapon?"
Another headshake, with Brody going last, "A robot?" That time, Kenny gave a thumbs-up, so Brody followed up, "What's it look like?"
"See soon enough," Kenny replied.
"Nice. Well, we better get to class," Duncan said.
One boring set of classes later, the boys were back home and Duncan was getting high again.
Taking a puff of his joint, he asked a question, "Hey, Kelly, when we were fighting Obsidius, how come that wall of earth you made had some red and blue in it?"
"I was also kind of curious about that," Brody admitted.
Kelly was happy to answer, "That's simple. First, I, like, stuck my beak in the ground and barfed some gems into the earth. Then, I used my powers to fuse them with the ground to, like, make a wall of gems and earth."
"Barfed?" the brothers repeated.
"Well, yeah. I don't have pockets or hands like you two, so I, like, carry gems around in my tummy," the Brown Zord explained.
"Huh, so that's how you shot jewels out of your mouth earlier," Duncan realized.
Brody thought about this for a moment. "Those colors. Were the gems you used for the wall rubies and sapphires? Because their high melting points would explain why the lava didn't melt the wall quickly."
"Gems have names?" was the response he got.
"I'm gonna go make a few fliers," Brody deadpanned before walking away. He quickly came back to grab Duncan. "You're helping too. It's gonna be hard to make stuff with only one good arm."
"What kind of monster do you have in mind this time, Factoraze?" the knight asked.
Having reattached his arm, the robot nodded and began to use his sludge to forge a new creation. As he worked, he explained, "A monster that should have little trouble against the Rangers' elemental powers."
The knight raised an eyebrow as the monster in question began to take shape. It resembled an anthropomorphic frog with powder-blue skin.
"Well, what are you waiting for? Send it out," he instructed.
"Here we go again," Moses sighed.
Unfortunately, this caught the knight's attention. "I'm sorry, what was that?"
Stiffening up, the Mosasaur quickly retracted, "Nothing."
"That's what I thought," the knight said as he folded his arms.
By the end of the week, the brothers had made dozens of fliers.
"Okay, let's wait until nighttime so no one sees us putting these up," Brody said.
"It is nighttime," Duncan groaned as he lay down. Speaking into his morpher, he asked, "Hey, Chazz, you got that new Zord yet?"
"Almost," the Chasmozord replied. "I just reached his territory. After I convince him to join us, we'll start making the journey back to you guys. Shouldn't take more than a day or two."
"What? But it took you a whole week to get there," Duncan pointed out.
"Our new friend told me about a shortcut," said Chazz. "See? He's helping already!"
Suddenly, Brody's phone buzzed, indicating that some idiot on social media had spotted a monster. Both brothers groaned.
"Crap. What are we supposed to do?" said Brody. "We're both still healing from the last battle."
"Why don't we just send the Cryolophosaurs?" Duncan suggested.
"Huh, I never thought of that," Brody said before speaking into his morpher, "Cryos, we need you guys here on the double."
Within a few minutes, the Crylophosaurs showed up at the boys' house. Brody met them out front with a plan.
"Okay, guys, here's the situation: Duncan and I are still too injured to fight, so it's up to you two to fight the new monster on the loose."
The two dinos looked at each other before giving separate growls, as if in conversation.
"Uh, what?" Duncan asked.
Carl translated, "The blue one said 'Aight' and the white one said 'Sure, that bitch ain't got nothin' on us.'"
The brothers stood there for a moment before Duncan asked, "Are…are they gangsters or something?"
"I was paraphrasing," Carl replied.
"Uh, okay," Brody said before holding up his phone to the Cryos. "Here's the location of the monster. You two get going."
Their steeds nodded and went on their way.
With nothing else to do, Brody picked up some of their fliers. "Well, let's go put these up."
The two Cryolophosaurs ran and ran until they made it to the south side of town. There, they saw a pale blue frog monster strangling a woman to death. Circling around to get behind the monster, the Cryos each bit into one of the frog's shoulders and pulled it off the woman.
Shaking himself loose from his attackers, the frog monster took the chance to put some distance between himself and the dinos.
"Hmm, strange. I was told that I, the Frosty Frog, would be fighting two guys known as the Power Rangers, not a pair of technicolor dinosaurs." He followed up this complaint by lashing out with his freakishly long tongue.
The tongue slapped both dinos across the face with a sound like a cracking whip. The blue Cryo recovered first and went on the offensive. Its attacks were nothing special, just biting and the occasional claw swipe, but it was more than enough to give the new monster trouble. A moment later, the white Cryo joined in and continued the barrage.
Knowing that blocking teeth and claws with his bare arms would probably backfire on him, Frosty Frog used his superior agility to dodge the strikes. Seeing an opportunity to counterattack, the frog monster twirled in place and threw a tornado kick at the dinos, sending them both flying.
"That's one thing I love about being a frog," Frosty Frog sighed. "Really strong legs."
The Cryolophosaurs were just getting to their feet when suddenly, a scream caught their attention. Turning their heads, they saw the woman Frosty Frog had strangled was clutching her neck and writhing on the ground.
A helpful bystander pulled her hands away from her neck to check her injuries to find that her skin was discolored from frostbite and starting to peel off. The man pulled out his phone but before he could call 911, he was ensnared around the waist by Frosty Frog's tongue. The monster reeled the man in and grabbed him by the face, causing his skin to mottle as well. The dinos immediately rushed in, clawing at the frog until he released the man.
Frosty Frog leaped back to gain some distance before shooting out his tongue and wrapping it around the white Cryo. With a heave, he slammed the white dinosaur into his blue counterpart.
Before the frog could withdraw his tongue, the white Cryolophosaurus bit into it. This gave the blue Cryo the chance to charge, snapping his jaws at their enemy.
Shoving the dino away, Frosty Frog managed to yank his tongue free from the white Cryo's teeth.
"Shadows, come!" he shouted.
At his command, dozens of Shadows appeared from the—well, shadows.
The Cryos were forced to forget about Frosty Frog, shifting their focus to the new flock of featureless foes. It wasn't too much of a challenge, but it did distract them for a few minutes. By the time they finished off the Shadows, the frog monster had fled the scene.
A victory was a victory. The dinos glanced at each other and bumped 'fists' before deciding to report back to the rest of their gang.
"So, you drove it off?" Brody asked.
Their steeds responded with low growls of assent.
Carl translated, "'Yeah, that mutha was runnin' like a bitch!'"
"Uhh, good," Duncan said. "Well, I'm going to bed."
Brody yawned. "Good idea. It is pretty late, and we've finished putting up our fliers." Looking at the Cryos, he asked, "You guys wanna crash here tonight?"
The blue and white dinos nodded and Brody showed them to the guest room. On the way there, one of them accidentally knocked over a lamp with its tail. "I feel like I should've seen that coming," Brody sighed.
A mere hour after everyone had gone to bed, Duncan heard a knock on his door. He opened it to see his Cryo. "You need something?"
The white dino thought for a second about how to convey its message before raising its claws and pretending to knock back a drink.
"Oh, you're thirsty?" The Cryo nodded. Duncan led it to the kitchen, poured it a glass of water, and handed it to his mount.
The Cryo didn't bother trying to grab the glass.
"Right, you don't have thumbs," Duncan realized. As an alternative, he got a bowl out of a cabinet and filled that with water instead.
This allowed the Cryo to have a midnight drink. When it was done, it turned around to go back to bed. This resulted in it knocking the bowl off the counter with its tail.
Looking at the shattered bowl on the ground, Duncan sighed, "And I just know they're gonna tear up the guest beds in their sleep."
"And so, another of our monsters retreats," the knight said from his throne.
Frosty Frog held up his hands defensively. "I know you're not pleased with me, Lord Calios, but my assignment was to take out the Power Rangers, not a pair of…whatever those dinosaurs were!"
Calios put a hand to his ear. "Hmm? I'm sorry, I saw your lips moving, but all I heard was the word 'excuses' over and over again." He aimed his hand at the monster, his palm glowing with energy. "I'd get back to wreaking havoc if I were you."
Slowly, Frosty Frog backed toward the launch pods to send himself back to Earth.
Cooper yawned and dragged himself out of bed, readying himself for the day. Seeing it was 10:30 in the morning, he had a late breakfast, reading in the newspaper that the Power Rangers' dinosaur steeds had been the ones fighting the most recent monster instead of the Rangers themselves. 'That makes sense,' he thought. 'If I fought a whole army, I'd take a nice long break too.'
Having the day off, he decided to head out for a drink…again. As he walked down the street, something on a telephone pole caught his eye.
Ranger Recruitment Drive
The Power Rangers are looking for a new member and will be conducting
interviews and other trials to determine who this new member will be.
Requirements: candidates must be in at least somewhat decent shape
and willing to put themselves in danger for the greater good.
Interviews will be held at 11:00 a.m. on October 20th at 2135 Quavo St.
"This is definitely for me," the Scotsman said to himself.
A nearby scream caused him to turn around, where he saw a pale blue frog monster holding a man in what looked like an embrace. Before Cooper could say what he was thinking—WTF?— he noticed that frostbite was rapidly spreading over the man's body.
Cooper was poised to run before he noticed that the frog was eying his next target, a nearby jogger who hadn't yet noticed all the commotion. Before the monster could get his hands on her, Cooper threw the nearest object he could find—in this case, one of his shoes. Unfortunately, this didn't distract the frog at all; it was only the timely intervention of the two Cryolophosaurs that stopped him in his tracks.
"Not you two again!" Frosty Frog yelled as he grappled with the dinos.
Cooper took the opportunity to grab the girl and flee the scene. Once they were out of harm's way, he realized just who he had rescued.
"Hey, I know you! You're that girl Brody likes."
Jane took a second to process his choice of words before replying, "And you're the janitor I see him and Duncan hanging out with sometimes."
"Are you gonna be tryin' out to join the Power Rangers next week?" the janitor asked.
"Why would I want to do that?"
"Why wouldn't you want to do that? You'd be a real-life superhero," Cooper fired back before changing the subject. "Anyway, you'd best get out of here. It ain't safe."
Jane looked confused. "Aren't you gonna run too?"
Cooper shook his head. "Nah, I wanna see where this goes."
With that, the high schooler took her leave while the Scotsman observed the fight from afar. As he watched, he couldn't help but wonder where the Power Rangers themselves were.
The Cryolophosaurs fought differently this time around. They weren't simply attacking mindlessly. They showed a bit of strategy, with the blue one bit at Frosty Frog's arms while the white one clawed at his legs.
Frosty Frog tried to put some distance between himself and the dinos by leaping away, but the two Cryos showed how fast they really were by rapidly closing the gap each time.
"Shadows, come!" he shouted, resorting to the same trick as last time. The mooks showed up almost instantly, distracting the dinos yet again. But right as Frosty Frog was about to make another getaway, several blasts of energy struck him in the legs.
Cooper looked in the direction of the blasts to see that the Rangers were actually present this time. However, they were keeping their distance from the fight, simply using their pistols to shoot at the Shadows whenever they saw the chance. He'd have to ask them about this choice in tactics once the day of the trials came. Perhaps they were playing some kind of long game.
Thanks to the Rangers picking off the Shadows, the Cryolophosaurs were able to resume their assault on Frosty Frog. With no way to evade or safely block his enemies' strikes, he kept taking damage until he could barely move.
"Get back, guys!" the Blue Ranger shouted. The dinos leapt to the side to give the Rangers a clear shot. As they fired, the Blue Ranger called the attack, "Twin Ranger Shoot!"
The blast hit Frosty Frog square in the chest, knocking him back—but not for long. The Rangers barely had time to catch their breath before he was back on his feet.
The White Ranger was exasperated by this. "What is it with these monsters not blowing up? Are we just bad at this?"
"Heheh, sorry to inform you, but that just wasn't enough!" the frog taunted them. "I was created with the power of ice, which gives me plenty of resistance against your attacks. Now, I think I'll begin turning the tables on—AHHHH!"
Before he could finish monologuing, the Cryolophosaurs took him by surprise, tearing into him from behind.
Cooper and the Rangers all cringed at the sight.
"I suppose Frosty Frog was right. Those dinos were a bit more than we bargained for." Calios was astoundingly collected. He had a plan. "Lensia, do your thing."
The witch waved her hands, muttering, "That's all I'm good for around here" as she did so. After she launched the beam, she glanced at Factoraze. "Make a better monster next time."
With a burst of energy, Frosty Frog was resurrected as a giant.
"Here we go again," Duncan sighed before bringing his morpher to his mouth. "Carl, Kelly, you're up."
"Okie dokie!" Kelly replied.
The brown and blue Zords quickly made their way onto the scene. Carl made the first move, launching his ice beam.
Frosty Frog stood there and took it like it was nothing. Without missing a beat, he counterattacked by shooting his tongue out at Kelly, hitting her in the face.
"Crap, ice-types have an edge over ground-types." Duncan was beginning to worry.
Carl changed tactics, using his drill tail. His enemy front flipped over the attack and hit the Carnotaurus with an ax kick.
"Alright, we need to get in there. Come on, Duncan!" Brody said as he leaped toward his Zord. His brother did the same, donning his ground-type form as he did so.
As Kelly took Chazz's place as the right arm, the Paleo Force Megazord was formed again.
"Now, let's switch to sword-and-shield mode," the Blue Ranger declared. After a few seconds, nothing happened. "Why isn't that working?" he asked.
"Kelly is incompatible for that formation, Mother," Carl explained.
"Yeah, my head isn't like, removable!" Kelly added. "Only Chazz can do that."
Duncan shrugged. "Whatever. This mode works just fine."
With that, he had the Megazord swing its drill at the enemy. Unfortunately, Frosty Frog was still too fast for the attack to land. He ducked under the blow and kicked the Megazord right in the groin.
"AAAHHH!" Carl yelled, falling to his knees. Being the main part of the Megazord, this attack hurt him more than anyone.
As Frosty Frog advanced on them, Duncan fired the mecha's eyebeams, damaging the frog and giving the Rangers a window to get in a right punch.
The frog monster counterattacked by shooting its tongue out again, only for Carl to catch it with the Megazord's chest head. Frosty Frog whipped his head so hard that it pulled the mecha off its feet and began swinging them in circles.
Carl couldn't keep his grip on the tongue and was forced to let go, causing the Megazord to be sent flying ten city blocks. Clearing their heads from the crash, the Rangers saw the monster hopping toward them.
"Wait a second, I've got an idea!" Duncan declared. He had the Megazord slam the ground with its right arm, causing a slab of earth to shoot up and nail their enemy right in the groin. Frosty Frog doubled over in pain.
"How do YOU like it?!" Carl shouted, clearly enjoying the karma at work.
Frosty Frog righted himself and leaped to attack them once again. The monster was still too quick for the Rangers to keep up with, dodging their comparatively sluggish counterstrikes.
Suddenly, Kelly gasped. "Now I'VE got an idea! Guys, punch my face into the ground!"
"Weird phrasing, but okay!" Duncan obliged. When the Megazord's fist hit the ground, a fissure opened up directly under Frosty Frog, causing him to sink into the ground up to his waist.
Powering up their drill arm, Brody yelled, "Let's finish this! Cryo Drill Breaker!"
The Megazord thrust its drill at the monster. Frosty Frog attempted to catch it, but it was futile. He could only hold it for a few seconds before it impaled him.
Once the frog exploded, the Rangers exited the mecha, which split back into its separate components. The Cryolophosaurs greeted them on the ground with fist bumps. They weren't the only ones.
"That was so badass!" Cooper said as he emerged from his hiding place. The team was surprised to see him there.
"What are you doing here?" Brody asked. "You could've gotten crushed."
Cooper just brushed off the concern. "Nah, I made sure to keep well away from the action. Anyway, I'll be seeing you two later at that recruitment drive." With that, he departed.
After making sure the coast was clear, the boys de-morphed and began making their way home. Along the way, Chazz contacted them, "Hey, guys, ready to meet our latest Zord?"
"Yeah, sure, where are you?" Duncan asked.
"We're at the generic quarry. Come and meet us there," the Chasmozord replied.
Brody sighed. "Alright, but we might be a while. Everyone's a bit worn out from the battle."
Once the team made their way to the quarry, they instantly took notice of the large, pink sauropod standing next to Chazz. It was only slightly bigger than Carl. Along its back were two sails, but unlike the sails of a Spinosaurus, they weren't very tall and ran from the dino's neck to just past the base of the tail.
Chazz began the introduction, "Everyone, this is Dickson the Dicraeosaurus."
The pink Zord nodded. "It is nice to meet you all. Chazz tells me you are looking to find a new partner," he said. He had a peculiar accent, which made the Rangers wonder just how extensive the range of Zords really was.
"Uh, yeah, we are," Duncan responded. "Hey, random question, where are you from?"
"I am from Tanzania," Dickson answered.
Brody got everyone back on topic, "So, we're having the tryouts next week. I take it you'll want to be one of the judges?"
The Dicraeozord nodded. "I would. Now, do you have a bracelet for me?"
Brody took out their final bracelet and held it up, allowing Dickson to infuse it with his energy. Once that was done, he asked, "Hey, does anyone think we should get a new Cryolophosaur for our future recruit?"
Chazz nodded. "I thought of that, and on the way back, I visited the Cryo gang and convinced another one to join us." As if on cue, a pink Cryolophosaurus emerged from behind Chazz's leg to greet the group.
Without so much as greeting the new dino, Duncan started hustling Brody home. "Well, this has been nice, but I'm tired, Brody's tired, the Cryos are tired, we're all tired."
Once the teens were gone, Dickson said, "The brown-haired one seemed nice, but the red-haired one was rather crude, wasn't he?"
Chazz chuckled at that. "Hit the nail right on the head."
I thought it would be cool if the Ranger's mounts got in on the action.