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 25
"You sure you're alright, man?" Duncan asked before takin a long hit from his a joint.
"I'll be fine. He didn't hit me as hard as he thought he did," Brody assured him calmly.
Cooper nodded. "That's all well and good, but how do we catch that shark girl? For all we know, she could be killin' someone else right now."
"That's not even the worst part. Even if we catch her, she'll just get teleported away," Jane pointed out, obviously frustrated.
"Maybe master could build a device that interferes with the teleportation?" G2 suggested.
Kenny groaned. "Why do you guys think I can do that? Just because I built a robot doesn't mean I can build just anything. Not all machines are the same."
"You can't?" Carl repeated.
"No, I'm not some movie scientist that can do anything just because it's 'science,'" Kenny pointed out, flashing jazz hands for the "science" part.
Cooper puts his hands up defensively. "Alright, lad, alright. I get it."
"Yeah, we shouldn't have made assumptions," Duncan followed up, starting to feel a buzz. "They make asses out of u and 'umptions.'"
Kenny calmed down and took a breath. "I do have a theory. But we need to test it out." He went over his idea with the team, and they all nodded. He looked around. "So we'll start with a search."
As the Cryolophosaurs scouted the city in search of Megan, Duncan and Brody had others matters to attend to.
"You sure about this?" Brody asked, his voice full of uncertainty.
"Dude, you look fine. Relax, will you?" Duncan groaned. They were at the mall, and Brody had been trying on one suit after another for the past half hour. He was over the fashion show. "Can we go already? This feels too much like a shopping montage in a chick flick."
Brody sighed. "Alright, let's go."
However, right at that moment, Brody's morpher buzzed to life.
"Mother! The Cryos caught Megan's scent! Head to their location as fast as you can!" Carl instructed.
Changing quickly, Brody used his Electric-Type form to speed to the scene. When he arrived, he found Megan biting the hand off a new, fresh corpse.
The shark woman noticed him despite her crunching and snarled. Before Brody could even attack, she looked to the sky and yelled, "Bring me back!"
Remembering what Duncan had done with CJ that one time, Brody zapped toward Megan and tackled her just as red energy began enshrouding her body. Following Kenny's plan, the Yellow Ranger ran with the shark until they reached a parking garage a mile away. Once there, he gave her a hard punch to the chest, making her double over in pain as she fought to get her breath back.
"So, getting attacked when you're being teleported makes the whole thing cancel out. Good to know," Brody observed.
Megan growled and got to her feet, "Let me guess, you think just because I've been running that I can't actually fight. Am I right?" She wasn't surprised when Brody nodded. She scoffed. "Well, I can. Especially with this guy backing me up."
Before Brody could ask what she meant, a new opponent slashed him from behind. Speeding away, Brody took a second to observe his new foe. It was an anthropomorphic black cat monster with long claws.
"Your luck's run out now that I'm here. I'm Luckat!" he introduced himself.
"Man, your bosses really don't try hard when they name you guys," Brody snorted, unimpressed with the name.
"I don't need a cool name with luck on my side," Luckat bragged. He beckoned for Brody to come at him. "Go ahead. Try and blitz me with your speed."
"You asked for it." Brody charged in, only for a piece of the garage's ceiling to crumble and land on his head. The blow threw him off enough that he stopped moving at top speed, making him slow enough for Luckat to get some strong swipes in.
Going for a different attack, Brody angled his arms and fired his forearm feathers. This went nowhere when a strong breeze blew them all off course.
"How can there even be a breeze in here?! It's a parking garage!" Brody asked incredulously.
He drew his Switch-Gun and unfolded it into its sword mode to fend off slashes from the black cat. Seeing an opportunity, he snap-kicked the cat away and put his sword back into gun mode. He pulled the trigger, only for the gun to spark and misfire. Could nothing go right?
"Oh, this is gold. Like, sunken treasure gold," Megan commented as she watched Brody struggle. Her grin faded when she heard a growl and saw that the Cryolophosaurs had caught up with them. "Eh, the Rangers were one thing. But you three, you three I can handle."
Luckat closed in once again. "Luck is power! And without it, you're nothing!"
Brody hated to admit it, but he was starting to believe that. Every time he tried to turn things around, something went wrong. It was like any luck, even basic luck, had abandoned him. Coming up with another idea on the fly, he wrapped his arms around the cat monster and willed himself to generate a whole bunch of electricity.
However, the split second before he could do so, the pink Cryo crashed into them, knocking them apart. It apologized for messing up Brody's fight, even if he couldn't understand it, and rejoined the fight with its crew.
At that moment, Cooper arrived on the scene, already morphed. "Alright! I'm here! What's goin' on?"
"Cat with lucky powers!" Brody informed him quickly.
"Really now? Let's see him luck his way out of this!" Morphing into his Flying-Type form, Cooper swung his mace, creating a mini tornado.
Luckat avoided getting sucked in by sticking his claws into the concrete.
Brody had no such protection, however, and was sucked into the twister, forcing Cooper to cancel it out. This wasn't going to be as easy as either Ranger planned for.
"Okay, back to basics." Switching to his usual pink form, Cooper engaged with the black cat. He landed a few good punches while he took some bad scratches in return. It was still better than hurting Brody, exhausting himself, and not doing any damage to the target in process.
Figuring nothing could go wrong with a sneak attack, Brody shifted back to his base form and charged his fist with ice energy. The Blue Ranger moved in for the attack, only for the ground to give out beneath his right foot. "Oh, come on!"
And that wasn't the only thing making the situation worse.
Megan yelled, reminding the guys she existed. "Luckat, catch!"
The cat monster looked in Megan's direction to see she'd thrown one of the Cryos at him. He caught it in an impressive display of strength and swung it by the tail, hitting Cooper and then Brody with it.
"This might be a good time to retreat!" Cooper announced. Shifting to his flying form, he grabbed Brody and made for the exit. "So long, sucke-oof!" Having turned his head to give that taunt, Cooper hadn't noticed he was flying a bit too high and crashed into the wall just above the exit.
Luckat shook his head with a chuckle. "And bad luck strikes once again."
Seeing the Rangers scramble away, the Cryolophosaurs decided to call it quits as well and ran off, pleased with their win.
"Seems like the first of our little stockpile is doing well," Calios observed happily.
"I still can't believe that giving people bad luck is a superpower," Moses said with a deadpan expression.
"Technically it isn't luck," Factoraze interjected. "He is merely manipulating probability through his mere presence."
Moses rolled his eyes. "Gee, thanks, professor."
"Should we be concerned that they seem to have figured out Lenisa's weakness?" Leopold brought up.
Calios just shrugged.
Eventually, Cooper and Brody met back up with Duncan and relayed their story.
"A black cat that causes bad luck?" Duncan repeated, nursing his black eye. He chuckled, "Well, ain't that fitting?"
"Speaking of which, where the hell were you? It couldn't have taken you that long to pay for our stuff," Brody complained.
Duncan shrugged, "Oh, yeah, I was gonna go do that, but then I got an idea and called Bailey and-"
Cooper held up a hand, stopping him. "Wait, don't tell me, you went at it in the changin' rooms. Am I right?"
"Yeah, we took turns punching each other while she rode me," Duncan said as he grinned.
Cooper laughed while Brody groaned, facepalmed, and shook his head. The boy quickly perked up, though. "Hey, Cryo gang, was Kenny's idea right?"
They growled back, which Carl translated, "Yes, she didn't teleport away even when it looked like she was losing."
Cooper chuckled. "So, a thick roof blocks their reception? That's rich."
"Hey, Duncan, next time this comes up, could you be the one to deal with it? I just know next time is gonna happen during the dance, and I don't wanna have to ditch Jane," Brody requested.
"Eh, fine, but you owe me a corndog," Duncan agreed.
"Weird request, but sure, and thanks." Brody nodded.
Cooper patted the brown-haired teen on the back. "You go home and make yourself pretty. Tomorrow's the big day." As Brody left, Cooper addressed Duncan, "alright, we need a game plan."
"Nothing too fancy," Duncan said. "You said this monster has luck, so we've gotta be flexible."
Megan chowed down on her latest victim. This time, she'd lied in wait in the backroom of the aquarium and kidnapped the first sucker to open the door. She raised a nonexistent eyebrow when she heard less and less footsteps outside. Odd. The aquarium didn't close for another hour, so people shouldn't have been filing out just yet.
Some footsteps approached the door, which was swung open by Duncan, already in his Ground-Type form. "Surprise, bitch!"
He grabbed her and threw her out of the closet in the direction of the waiting Cryolophosaurs. They scratched and bit her multiple times before she was able to punch her way out and gain some distance.
"Get me out of here!" She waited but nothing happened. "What the?"
"Nice try," Duncan said as he jabbed a thumb behind him. "As soon as we were sure you were here, I had Kelly surround the whole building in a dome of quartz and topaz."
"I made it nice and thick so you can't teleport out of here," Kelly said through her partner's morpher. "It's also so tough that I'm sure you can't break through it. Go get her, Duncy."
"Hard pass on the nickname," the Brown Ranger replied. He turned back to the Cryos, "Alright, boys, time for a feeding frenzy!"
Luckat stood just outside the high school's entrance. The moment he took a step, sure he had the upper hand, someone spotted him.
"Hold it!"
The cat monster turned to see Cooper approaching him. Luckat snorted. "You had trouble fighting me even with a friend. You think you can take me by your all by your lonesome?"
The Scotsman activated his morpher and donned his suit, "Maybe, maybe not. But it's me friend's big night, so you ain't gettin' in."
"There's no way you can get around bad luck. Exhibit A," Luckat pointed up.
Cooper followed his gaze just in time for some bird poop to fall on his helmet, distracting him long enough for the cat monster to slash him across the chest.
Brody adjusted his collar. "Okay, show time." He walked in. As he searched around, he spotted Kenny. "Hey, man, you have a date for the dance?"
The other boy nodded and presented the girl he had with him. Some petite girl with short, blond hair that Brody didn't know.
"I'm Nicky," she introduced herself. "I agreed to go with Kenny so he wouldn't look like a loser."
"And you're gonna say that with him right there?" Brody pointed out.
Kenny didn't look offended and waved his hand. "Eh, same thing applies to her." Changing the subject, he jokingly asked, "If Duncan was coming, do you think he'd bring Bailey?"
"I hope not," Brody said as he cringed.
"Who's Bailey?" Nicky asked.
"Not important," the two friends answered in unison.
"Well, I'm gonna go find Jane. See you." Brody searched around for a moment before spotting his girl in the crowd. She was wearing a simple, red dress and looked stunning.
"Hey, Jane!" he called out.
She spotted him in return and approached him, playing with her hands in front of her and looking up at him expectantly.
Brody immediately got awkward. He wasn't sure whether to compliment her or get her a drink. He cleared his throat, then spoke, "So, you, uh, wanna dance?"
Jane smiled. "That's what we're here for."
"It sure is," another person answered.
The two looked to see CJ right next to them, making them jump back.
The Red and Black Ranger chuckled, "Aw, why so nervous? You invited me, didn't you?"
"You know I didn't," Brody said as he glared.
He was about to morph before he realized that there was still a ton of people present. He was saved from this dilemma when G2 walked in front of him wearing a dress and a wig.
The robot shed his disguise, prompting someone in the crowd to yell "Holy shit! My date was a robot!"
CJ ignored G2 and addressed Jane, "I'm surprised you even bothered coming here. Do you really think he's any different than all the others?"
"How do you know about that?" Jane asked.
The evil Ranger tapped her temple. "I'm you, remember? I bet you're still scared that he just wants you for your pretty face."
"I, I," Jane stuttered, unable to deny what her clone was saying.
"Uh, should we be listening to this?" a random girl in the crowd asked.
CJ responded by summoning her dark Biting Gauntlet and fired a shot from it, blowing the girl's head off.
This was more than enough to get everyone in the room to flee, minus Brody, Jane, Kenny, and G2.
Grateful for the privacy, Brody morphed and summoned his Carnage Sword. "Back me up, G2."
The armored robot nodded and fired an eyebeam.
CJ dodged the blast just by tilting her head to the side and used one of her gauntlets to catch Brody's sword.
Before she could counterattack, Brody gripped his sword with both hands and swung it around, flipping CJ over.
"Where the hell did you learn a trick like that?" she questioned, having landed flat on her back.
"Duncan said he saw it in a movie. I actually didn't think it'd work," Brody admitted.
Before CJ could get up, G2 hovered, his foot right above her chest. "One-Inch Stomp."
CJ only barely managed to slide to the side, with G2's foot crushing the spot she'd been in a second ago.
"KIDNEY PUNCH!" As Megan was sent flying from his attack, Duncan asked the Cryos, "Wait, do sharks have kidneys?"
His companions all shrugged in response.
Seeing Megan struggle to her feet, the Brown Ranger taunted her, "Bailey hits harder than you. And that's not even when she's fighting."
The Cryos groaned at Duncan 'kissing and telling' while Megan growled, "Don't you dare. Say that that fucking whale. IS BETTER THAN ME!"
She lunged, but in her haste, Duncan easily counter-punched her. That punch proved to be the last straw. Megan's body morphed and mutated before growing to her giant size, destroying the aquarium and the crystal dome.
"Huh, kinda looks like Godzilla," the Brown Ranger commented. He raised his morpher to his mouth, "Chazz, Carl, Kelly? A little help?"
Cooper stumbled back, rubbing the numerous parts where he'd been scratched. "Man, I'm gonna be feelin' these tomorrow."
"Why are you even still fighting? With no luck on your side, this is hopeless!" Luckat boasted. He charged in, not caring that Cooper shifted forms.
"Because I got a plan!" The now-green Ranger threw punch after punch, but they all either missed or were parried. Making things worse , like last time, he took scratches for every missed punch. "If there's no way around luck-" Seeing his chance, he lunged, grabbing the cat in a bear hug. "Then I'll just power through it!" Cooper unleashed an explosion of razor wind from his body, destroying Luckat.
Sighing, Cooper fell to one knee from the pain and spoke into his morpher, "Dickson, it's showtime."
"Raaah!" CJ yelled as she sprayed fire and shadows everywhere.
G2 hugged Brody, with the robot using his body as a shield. His back armor was dented and burned but he still stood tall. When the barrage finished, G2 grabbed Brody and threw him at CJ.
Rolling with it, Brody revved up the drill part of his sword and thrust it forward. CJ couldn't block the strike and it pierced her torso. She staggered back, clutching her gut. That didn't stop her from contacting her Zords, "Todd, Andy, you're on."
At her command, Todd bit off the school's roof. Right before he could step on anyone, he was rammed from the from the side by Alicia.
"Alicia? What are you doing here?" Brody wondered.
"I'll tell you later. Anyway, how about a 'gracias?'" the Austrozord replied.
"Alright, you little thunder chicken, I'll take you down first," CJ grinned as her Zords combined into the Hell Force Megazord.
Knowing Alicia likely wouldn't be a match for a Megazord on her own, Brody spoke into his morpher, "Uh, Carl? We're gonna need your help."
"We're spread a little thin at the moment, Mother. Only one other Zord is available."
"And that's me!" Pops yelled as he flew onto the scene. He let out a beam of wind from his mouth, staggering the Hell Force.
CJ growled from her cockpit, "I'm gonna do this quick and get it over with."
The Hell Force Megazord stomped its feet, superheating the ground. Brody was able to keep everyone safe with his ice powers and Pops could fly, but Alicia had no such protection, and her feet got burnt. She let out a yell as she tried to get away from the hot floor.
"Hey, you can't do that to people! Especially when I'm pretty sure they're friends of mine!" Pops shouted, firing more wind beams.
Unfortunately, the Hell Force countered these with fire blasts, and shot Pops down in less than a minute.
"And now for you guys," CJ grinned.
Like before, she was stopped from killing off the heroes by lasers and ice beams, but despite their escapes, they were growing exhausted fast.
The Paleo Force Megazord stepped into view in its sword-and-shield mode.
"I killed Sharkzilla!" Duncan boasted from the Megazord's cockpit. "Wanna get in on this, Brody?"
"You know I do!" Brody said as he hopped in. "Let's finish it quick."
The Paleo Force charged up its sword with energy.
"Hehe, this almost reminds me of when we first fought. Let's do this," CJ said, having her Megazord launch its finishing move.
As the fiery, dark tooth made its way toward them, Duncan got nervous, not trusting any of their weapons. "Shit, I don't know if our sword…" he trailed off. "Hey, Chazz, can our shield get charged up with ice too?"
"I know exactly where you're going with that, and yes it can," the white Zord replied.
The brothers thrust their icy shield at the tooth. The stalemate lasted for a moment before ending in a draw, knocking the Paleo Force's shield away. The Rangers didn't pass up the chance this gave them and unleashed their Cryo-Slash on the Hell Force.
The attack caused the enemy mecha to spark all over and disassemble, throwing CJ out.
Having recovered from being shot down, Pops threatened the evil Ranger, "Run if you wanna run! Wait no. I mean 'live!'"
While clearly not happy, CJ took the hint and was teleported away.
With the battle over, the teens exited the Megazord, which disassembled.
"Pardon me, I need to go fetch Chazz's head," Carl said as he made his exit.
Jane rubbed the back of her head as Brody de-morphed. "Um, about what CJ said."
"You're still a bit unsure about me, huh?" Brody summed up. When she nodded, he continued, "if you were still a bit nervous, you could've said 'no,' I wouldn't have pressured you."
"No, I did want to come. It's just-," Jane paused as she thought about her words. "You've been nice so far. But the more I get my hopes up with you, I get even more scared about how it'll feel if I'm wrong."
Brody frowned. "I'm sure you are. And I know I don't have any magic words to convince you but, at least believe me when I say-" he extended his hand. "I'd like this dance."
Looking back and forth from his hand to his hopeful smile, Jane gave in and smiled back, taking his hand. "You can have it. But, you know this whole place is trashed, right? The dance is basically over."
"Not a problem," Cooper said, inserting himself into the scene. He was covered in bandages and carrying a first-aid kit. "You think we didn't see somethin' like this comin'?"
Duncan joined in next, "yeah, man, look around. With the room busted up, you've got a beautiful sunset to dance to. Plus-" he pointed at Kenny. "Hit it!"
Nodding, Kenny stood next to an intact speaker and hooked his phone up to it.
Play "Dandelions" by Ruth B.
Looking between his three guy friends, Brody sighed and smiled. "Okay, I'm admitting it. You guys are great wingmen."
"Ahem," the three of them cleared their throats and pointed behind him.
Turning around, Brody approached Jane. She gently wrapped one arm around his neck while he put an arm around her waist, with their free hands clasping. Together, the two of them slowly swayed with the music. They got so caught up in each other that the minutes stretched into what felt like hours.
Eventually, Brody decided to take a chance and slowly leaned in. His risk was rewarded when Jane leaned in as well, and their lips met.
Author's note: For a better idea of Megan's giant monster form, look up Raiga: God of the Monsters.