Play "Falling" by Cryoshell
Instrumental
The screen starts off black. One by one, spotlights come on, revealing the three Rangers looking at the ground. They then lift their heads as the title Power Rangers: Paleo Force shatters through the remaining darkness above them.
Lights out.
Duncan, Brody, and Cooper stand together at the generic quarry, looking at their Zords and smiling.
No one's here.
Kenny is working on a circuit board with a robotic hand sitting on his desk. He grins as he taps the circuit board with a stylus, making the hand twitch.
Hear the silence.
Jane and Brody are together at the hospital, Jane bandaging Brody's leg.
Scent of fear.
All the heroic characters look up to the sky.
You start running.
The view moves up into space, where we see our main villains in their spaceship, followed by a close-up of each of them.
With mistrusting and skeptical eyes.
We get a shot of Cooper, Duncan, and Brody staring down an army of Shadows.
Are you haunted?
The three look at each other before nodding.
I call out.
One by one, they take fighting stances as they ready their morphers.
I'm counting on you.
The screen cuts to black.
Falling.
All three Rangers charge in slow motion as an explosion goes off in the background.
Is this the end of the line, and can we make it in time?
In a rotating shot, Brody slashes Shadows with his Carnage Sword, Cooper shoots them with his cannon, and Duncan blasts enemies with his Switch-Gun.
Falling.
CJ extends her arm, directing her Zords to charge forward.
My world is spinning around. I'm crashing into the ground.
Calios descends from space like a comet and, after landing, steps forward, slowly drawing his sword.
Falling.
Moses folds his arms as three silhouetted figures gather on either side of him.
Now I need you to see it's up to you and me.
The Paleo Force Megazord shifts into sword-and-shield mode. It slashes a monster, then uses its Cryo Slash on it, making it explode.
I'm counting on you.
Consecutive shots of Cooper doing a Ranger Punch, Duncan doing a Ranger Slash, and Brody doing a Ranger Kick at the screen.
Cut to the end of the song as the music fades out.
The Rangers stand confidently in front of their respective Zords, who roar behind them as the screen fades to black again.
Chapter 20
"Alright, time for maintenance," Kenny said to himself. It had been a few days since he'd repaired G1 after that last battle, and he needed to confirm that his robot was back in working order. He normally spoke to himself in his native tongue as he worked, but lately he'd been experimenting with new ways to help keep his English sharp.
G1 held still as his creator gave him a close inspection, poking and prodding him from various angles.
Kenny nodded as he found a kink. "Hmm, loose joint." He sat back on his heels, rubbing his head to dull some lingering pain. "Sloppy repair. Must have been that last battle." He grabbed his tools and made some quick adjustments. "Try moving your shoulder."
The robot rolled his shoulder and found the movement was smooth. "It works, master."
"Subarashii," Kenny said, the word morphing into a yawn. Between his injuries from the battle and all the time and effort he had put into repairing his robot, he was starting to have trouble keeping his eyes open. Deciding it was time for a nap, he walked over to the couch, where he fell asleep before he was even fully horizontal.
His eyes eventually fluttered open again. He checked his phone to see that he'd been out for an hour and a half. That didn't concern him. What did concern him was that G1 was gone.
He gave the house a quick once-over, thinking G1 had simply entered another room. But he couldn't find him anywhere. And if he wasn't in the house, then that meant…
"…Kuso."
There could be no doubt; G1 had wandered away again. It wasn't the first time this had happened. Kenny couldn't be too mad. The sentient robot was just curious, after all. Still, it didn't seem like a good idea for a robot to just walk around in public. It wasn't so bad when monsters were around because everyone left the scene, but this was an ordinary day, so there were people everywhere.
"G1?!" Kenny called out as he searched the streets.
"What the hell is a G1?" a random passerby asked.
Kenny ignored the guy and went on with his search. After a minute, he pulled out his phone and called his friends.
"What's up?" Duncan answered first.
"It's G1," Kenny told him. "He—"
"What, did he explode in your face again?" Duncan guessed.
"No, he left my house, and I don't know where he is!" Kenny said, trying not to shout.
"You want help looking for him?" Duncan asked. "I'll get Brody and Jane on board. You call Mr. Cooper."
Kenny nodded and ended the call. He dialed their Scottish friend's number, hoping he wasn't drunk.
"Cooper, my robot left the house without permission. Help us look for him?"
"You got it, lad," the Scotsman answered and hung up.
Kenny sighed. Knowing his friends would help him cover more ground gave him a bit of relief. Still, he hoped that wherever G1 was, he wasn't getting into too much trouble.
G1 strolled through the streets, ignoring all the stares he was getting. The robot made it several blocks before he was confronted by a pair of police officers.
"What is this thing?" one of the officers asked. "Some new military drone on a test run?"
G1 shook his head. "I am past my testing phase. I am G1. Nice to meet you."
The cops' eyes widened. They clearly hadn't expected a verbal response. "State your business."
"Exploring," the robot answered politely.
One cop leaned over to the other and whispered, "Is it weird that this thing has a kid voice?"
The other one nodded, keeping his eyes on G1. "Look, we don't know where you came from or why you're here—"
"But I just told you why I'm here," G1 butted in. "To explore."
The officer went on, "I'm afraid we can't just take your word for it. You're gonna have to come with us."
"Hey, wait a minute," a random civilian chimed in, stopping next to the three of them. "I recognize this thing. I've seen it help the Power Rangers on Instagram." He got out his phone and showed it to the cops.
Before anyone could say anything else, an ear-piercing scream turned all their heads. G1 quickly made his way over and found a bank robbery in progress.
The officers followed G1, with one of them asking, "Hey, what do think you're—"
"Shh." The robot held a finger to his face, signaling him to be quiet.
The officer looked to his partner, wide-eyed. "I can't believe I got shushed by a robot."
Breezing past the stunned cops, G1 entered the building, catching everyone—robber and hostage alike—by surprise.
After the initial shock wore off, the robbers started laughing. "The fuck is that supposed to be, some life-sized toy?"
The robot was indifferent to the insult, but he decided this would be an appropriate time to use one of the one-liners he'd learned from Brody and his master. He pointed at the robbers. "I will knock that smirk off of your smelly face."
This time, the crooks and the hostages cracked up.
"Okay, I'm taking care of this now." One of the thieves raised his gun and shot the robot in the chest.
G1 staggered back but didn't let it stop him. Rather than fling another one-liner, he decided to try intimidation before resorting to violence against humans.
"I am tough enough to battle monsters. Do you think your guns will stop me?"
Unfortunately, this backfired; it just prompted the robbers to make use of their hostages. "Alright, freakazoid. One move, and they're dead."
That made G1 stop and consider his options. He looked between the two perpetrators and wondered what the Power Rangers would do. He grabbed his left wrist and, in one clean motion, twisted his hand off. He returned his gaze to the robbers, who were understandably put off by the display. "I'm warning you. You had better give up."
"Shut up and get outta here," one of the perps growled.
With their position made clear, G1 fired his eye beam, hitting one of the robbers in the elbow, burning him badly. He immediately followed it up by throwing his disembodied fist at the other crook, knocking him out.
The robot turned to the door and called out to the cops, "I saved the day!"
The police officers came in and tried not to look impressed when they saw the state of the robbers. They immediately moved to apprehend them.
One of the coppers turned to the robot. "Thanks, I guess. You might wanna leave, though. You scared that kid over there."
G1 looked across the room at a pair of hostages, a scared child being hugged by his mother. He quickly realized that, if the hostage situation was scary by itself, his shooting the robbers likely made it worse. The robot walked over to apologize, only for the parent and child to cower even more when they saw him approach. Figuring he should probably leave, G1 made for the exit.
"Hey, Kenny's robot!"
The bot turned his head to see Jane approaching him. She grabbed his forearm and started dragging him away as she called the rest of the team on her phone. Mere seconds after she'd informed them where she was, the ground started rumbling.
A fissure formed in the asphalt, making its way toward Jane.
G1 pushed her out of the way, saving her from a possible death by landslide. She hit the deck with a grunt as the ground opened up between them.
"Aw, look at the little robot playing hero."
"Oh, come on," Jane muttered, picking herself up off the ground.
Approaching them now was a steampunk-looking monster with large claw hammers for hands. "My name is Mark Carson, and I'm going to smash every single one of you."
"For a monster, that name is…weirdly mundane," a civilian commented.
The monster swung one of his hammers at the ground, knocking a piece of asphalt at the guy. Fortunately, G1 destroyed the piece with his eyebeam, giving the bold bystander enough time to scurry away to safety. Mark Carson decided to use his hammers at close range and advanced on the robot. G1 fired another laser, but the monster deflected it with a swing of his hammer.
G1 felt anxiety. He had little combat data to help him analyze this monster, so fighting it at close range wasn't ideal. Luckily, there was more than one way to generate combat data.
Mark Carson swung both his hammers, which G1 dodged by falling backwards. The robot fired his eyebeam yet again. The beam hit Mark Carson in the chest, but he persevered and swung his hammers together, smashing G1's waist on either side, effectively cutting him in half.
"G1!" shouted Jane.
At last, Kenny and Duncan arrived on the scene.
"I got this!" Duncan announced. He reached for his morpher but stopped when he saw that there were civilians present. "Never mind. I don't got this!" He quickly left the scene.
Jane's mouth fell open. "Are you kidd—"
Kenny held up a finger to halt Jane's complaint. Several seconds later, Duncan re-appeared, now morphed.
"Now I got this!" The White Ranger drew his Switch-Gun and took aim as the monster began walking toward him.
Jane stopped him from making a pointless move. "Don't bother with that. This guy can counter beams."
"…Okay then, I'll try this!" Duncan unfolded his gun into its sword mode and tapped his belt buckle, causing his shields to appear on his forearms. "Standard procedure. What's your name?"
"My name is Mark Carson, and I'm going to smash you!" The monster raised one of its hammers above its head and brought it down. Duncan blocked the strike with his forearm, but the impact was so strong that it forced him down to one knee.
Duncan took advantage of his position and slashed the monster's knee, asking, "Do you know where CJ is? I kinda wanna kill her."
"Who cares? You're dealing with me!" Mark Carson used the claw part of his left hammer to pull Duncan's shield out of the way so he could try again with a hammer swing.
Duncan avoided the strike by leaping back, muttering to himself, "Where the fuck are the others?"
"I can help you."
He looked to his side to see that G1—what was left of him, anyway—had dragged himself over for support.
"G1!" Kenny ran over and tried to haul the bot away, only for G1 to latch onto Duncan.
"I can still help!" the robot protested.
A shadow loomed over the trio. They saw it was Mark Carson, ready for another attack.
In the blink of an eye, Brody, in his Electric-Type form, appeared beside Mark Carson with his Switch-Gun pressed against his head.
"Ranger Shoot!" The attack sent the monster staggering back, with part of his head sparking like a short circuit.
"Must've ducked at the last second," Brody speculated before turning to his friends. "Everybody alright?"
"Us? Yes," Kenny answered. He pointed at G1. "Him? Not so much."
"Hey, where's Mr. Cooper?" Jane asked.
"BOO YAH!"
A green streak swooped down from the air and tackled Mark Carson.
Duncan bumped his fists together. "We'll handle this. You guys go home—or enjoy the show. Your choice."
While the Branson brothers joined Cooper, Jane helped Kenny drag G1's upper half away.
"What were you thinking? Wandering off on your own!" Kenny scolded him.
"You never let me leave the house except to fight," G1 argued. "I just wanted to see the town. I even helped people!"
"AAAAAHHHH!"
The trio came to a stop when Duncan landed in front of them. He quickly scrambled to his feet. "'Scuse me."
As Duncan rejoined the battle, the non-Ranger members of the team continued onward, G1 falling into an embittered silence. Jane couldn't help but crack wise, "Aw, Kenny, your robot's growing up."
"Not helping," Kenny glared. As a crack of thunder sounded behind them, he returned his attention to G1. "If you wanted to go out, you should have at least asked me."
"Would you have said yes?" G1 asked.
"Maybe," Kenny answered. "You would have had to convince me, but still."
"AAAAAAAAAHHH!"
This time it was Cooper who landed in front of the group, now back in his original pink form. He got up and dusted himself off, nodding at each of them. "'Scuse me."
"You think the monster's flinging those guys over here on purpose? Or is it just a coincidence?" Jane asked.
Kenny and G1 answered at once, "Who knows?"
"Hm," said Jane. "Say, robot—"
"G1," Kenny and his creation corrected her.
"Right, that," Jane conceded. "Anyway, when Kenny repairs your legs, how about we take you out on the town?"
Kenny looked at her like she was out of her mind, but G1 nodded his head. "I would like that!"
The ground rumbled. "AAAAAHHHH!" To complete the set, Brody landed in front of them this time. Not only that, but Mark Carson decided to follow up and leapt toward the Yellow Ranger. Still dazed from the attack that had launched him there, Brody didn't have it in him to dodge.
G1 fired his eyebeam which, once again, was deflected by the monster. Seeing no alternative, G1 squirmed free from the humans holding him, grabbed them by their shoulders, and used them to fling himself at Brody. The robot clutched onto the Ranger and took the brunt of Mark Carson's hammer swing, crushing his upper torso.
"No!" Kenny cried out.
By this point, Brody had gotten his bearings. "Guys, Triple Ranger Shoot!"
Duncan and Cooper got on either side of the steampunk monster. The brothers charged up their Switch-Guns while Cooper did the same with his Dicraeo-Cannon. All at once, the team unleashed beams of water, ice, and lightning.
"You think that's enough to stop me?!" Just before the beams could converge on him, Mark Carson spun in place, his hammers a blur. "Hammer Cyclone!"
The spin attack halted the beams, but the Rangers didn't let up.
"First you guys kill my dog, and now you kill our fucking robot?!" Duncan shouted as his beam's power intensified.
"This is payback for knockin' us around!" Cooper yelled, adding his own two pounds.
"…I can't think of a thing to say!" Brody admitted.
The three Rangers let out battle cries as their beams became too much for Mark Carson to handle.
There was a massive explosion. When the dust cleared, they saw that Mark Carson had miraculously survived. He wasn't unscathed, though. His arms had been completely destroyed by the attack.
"Alright, alright, you guys win this round." With those words, he was teleported away by Lensia's magic.
The fighters sighed all at once, relaxing until Kenny reminded them that things weren't quite over yet. "Could you gather G1's parts?"
After a few minutes gathering what remained of G1, the group headed over to Kenny's house to salvage their robot buddy. Kenny took G1's parts to begin the repair process, while the others went on their way, knowing they wouldn't be any help in this matter.
The next day, everyone received a text from Kenny that the repairs were done.
"Wow, he works fast," Duncan remarked before taking a puff of his joint.
They all reassembled at Kenny's place. The boy looked dead on his feet.
"Looks like someone pulled an all-nighter," Cooper commented.
"No kidding. I can smell his coffee breath from over here," Jane said, waving a hand in front of her face.
"Minasan," Kenny droned, not having the energy to bother speaking his second language. "Shoukaishimasu, G2." He lazily gestured to the door of his living room.
The door opened to reveal the newly rebuilt and newly christened G2. Rather than the wiry robot they'd gotten used to, G2 was clad in dull yellow armor that made him look like a chubby mannequin. He also had two eyes now: his original, beam-shooting left one, and a smaller right one.
"Wow. Not your finest work, dude," Duncan deadpanned.
Kenny's response was to flip him off before slowly falling forward. Thankfully, Cooper caught him.
"There wasn't really a rush. Why'd he push himself like that?" Brody wondered aloud.
"Unless I'm mistaken, G2 is Kenny's greatest achievement," Carl pointed out. "Perhaps that's why."
"I am ready to fight again," G2 reported.
As if on cue, Brody's phone went off. "Well, you can fight right now because that monster is back. Go figure."
Setting Kenny down on the couch, Cooper pumped his fist. "Well, what are we waitin' for? Let's go!"
Mark Carson slammed his new arm on the ground. The tremor it created ended up destroying a nearby building.
"Man, I love these things!" he exclaimed as he gazed at his new arms. Instead of claw hammers, he now had splitting mauls. Using the ax side of one of his mauls, he swung and formed a blade of razor wind, bisecting a fleeing civilian.
"Hey!"
The monster looked over to see the team approaching him. Duncan grinned as he readied his morpher.
"Wait. I want to fight him," G2 objected.
Before Duncan could protest, Cooper put a hand on his shoulder. "Let him do this, lad. Every man deserves a shot at revenge."
Brody wanted to speak up, but a thought crossed his mind. "Well, he did just get an upgrade. Let's see what he can do."
"What kind of logic are you two running on?" Jane asked incredulously.
G2 nodded and advanced on the monster, delivering another line, "When this is done, I'll use your arms to build a spice rack."
Brody gasped in joy, "He came up with his own one-liner."
"Hey, should somebody record this?" Chazz asked through Duncan's morpher. "I'm sure Kenny would wanna see how this fight turns out for himself."
Mark Carson launched a blade of razor wind, only for it to bounce off G2's armor.
"Wow. Now that's heavy duty," Duncan said, impressed.
G2's beam eye glowed as he got in close. Mark Carson swung his maul. Rather than block the weapon itself, G2 inched forward and blocked the monster's forearm with his own, stopping the attack. The robot quickly followed this block with a counterattack, firing a charged-up shot from his laser eye.
Mark Carson was knocked back by the shot and decided to change tactics. He swung the hammer side of one of his mauls at the ground, causing another earthquake.
To counter, G2 took a deep stance to avoid losing his balance. He may not have had a mouth, but he wanted to smile. The combat data his creator had uploaded into him was serving him well. He saw Mark Carson charging at him again and calculated a plan of attack. When the enemy brought his maul down, G2 used one arm to redirect the attack and put his other hand right in front of him. "One-Inch Punch!" the robot announced.
His fist jerked forward, hitting Mark Carson with enough force to send him sprawling. Mark Carson quickly got back to his feet, though.
"You think that was—" Mark Carson couldn't finish his sentence, falling to one knee. Looking himself over, he saw that the punch had left an indent in his chest. "What in the—?"
The distraction left him open to more lasers from G2, who moved in for another round of close combat.
Mark Carson swung his mauls inward, just as he'd done in their first encounter.
In response, G2 swung his arms outward to stop the attack while raising his foot to Mark Carson's face. "One-Inch Kick!" This kick proved to be the finishing blow, completely obliterating Mark Carson's head.
The rest of the gang cheered for their teammate's victory and walked up to congratulate him. As they did, Jane gasped, "Oh, my God. I just realized something. His name was Mark Carson, and he used hammers as weapons."
"Yeah? So what?" Duncan asked.
"That makes him MC Hammer," Jane explained.
The rest of the team could practically hear the percussive sting: badum tsss. They burst into peals of laughter. However, the celebration was cut short when Mark Carson was resurrected as a giant.
"We got this," Brody said, feeling ready to get off the sidelines.
Duncan spoke into his morpher, "Chazz, Carl, Kelly, it's go time."
"We're on our way," Chazz answered.
"Yay! I get to do stuff!" Kelly cheered.
While the Branson brothers and their Zords engaged with Mark Carson, Cooper and Jane questioned G2.
"So, your first big win on your own. Feels pretty good, huh?" Cooper asked.
"It does feel good. Really good," the robot answered happily.
Jane asked a question next, "Hey, how come you let yourself get smashed earlier? Duncan or Mr. Cooper might've been able to help instead."
G2 answered without hesitation, "I just did what I thought the Rangers would do."
Smiling, Cooper slung an arm around the robot's shoulder. "Looks like Kenny built you with a heart of gold. What do ya say we celebrate with some booze?"
As Duncan and Brody landed a finishing move on Mark Carson, Jane pointed out, "He's a robot, Mr. Cooper. He can't drink booze."
"He just got an upgrade," Cooper retorted. "You don't know what he can't do!"
Author's note: G2's new name and appearance are taken directly from Chojin Sentai Jetman. Why? Because that robot deserved better than it got in that show.