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 27
"Wow. Not just Leopold and CJ, but two new monsters at once? This should be good," Calios said, rubbing his hands together eagerly.
"It should be quite entertaining, my lord," Factoraze agreed.
"Tell them not to kill the blue guy. I'm not done with him yet," Simba grinned.
Moses leaned over to Lensia, whispering in her ear or lack thereof, "Who do you think is gonna end up fighting who?"
"Don't know and don't care," the witch replied as she left the room.
Calios pointed at the launch tubes, "Well, what are we waiting for? Let's get our guys down there!"
As the villains of the week launched themselves toward the planets, Duncan wondered, "How do those things work, anyway?"
"Once entered, the tubes encase the subject in a temporary forcefield that protects them during reentry into the atmosphere," Factoraze explained, to which the Dunkleosteus nodded.
Cooper gulped down another beer, sighing contently, "Ah, that's the stuff!"
"I don't see why. But then again, I'm underage, so what do I know?"
Recognizing Jane's voice, Cooper turned to see her sitting to his right with a vicious on her face. Taking a look at her wrist, he spotted a morpher. "You wanna take this outside, lass?"
"No." CJ said as she morphed. The Scotsman barely had time to don his own suit before she blasted him out of the bar.
"So, you're the White Ranger. I don't think we've ever fought before," Leopold stated.
"Yeah, sure," Duncan said, activating his morpher. "But I should warn you: I'm very high right now."
Leopold tilted his head, "Is that supposed to be a threat?"
Duncan didn't answer and instead slashed with his Switch-Gun blade. Leopold dodged by shrinking down. The second he returned to normal size, Duncan slashed again.
"Don't you have anything else you want to try?" the Liopleurodon asked as the process repeated.
"Nope!" Duncan said as he kept slashing.
"You thinking what I'm thinking?" Brody asked.
"That that cloud of orange stuff is being caused by a monster? Yeah, I am," Jane nodded. "Guess a regular date isn't happening today."
The orange cloud dispersed, revealing the new monsters. One was a tree monster with a medium-sized, humanoid build and a jack-o-lantern style face. The other was basically a mushroom with arms, legs, and a face on its brown cap.
"Prepare for destruction," the tree said.
"Prepare for your doom," the mushroom continued.
"'Cause that's just what you'll get," the two took fighting poses, "With Sap and Shroom!"
Brody and Jane were speechless at the display.
"I guess we know what their names are now," Brody said as he morphed. The Blue Ranger drew his Switch-Gun and fired some shots.
Rather than try to dodge, Sap got in front of Shroom and took the shots like they were nothing. "I'm part sugar maple!" he bragged, "A little cold won't stop me!" Taking advantage of Brody's surprise, the duo charged in and engaged him close-up.
Despite taking a few hits, Brody focused his efforts and launched a counterattack on Sap. He was distracted when he heard Shroom call out an attack.
"Stun Spore!"
Knowing his mask wasn't airtight, Brody tapped his morpher and sped away in Electric-Type form. Keeping away from the spores, Brody fired more shots from his Switch-Gun, only for Sap to block them once again.
"I'm also part rubber tree!" the tree monster yelled smugly. "There's nothing you can do that will hurt me!" Brody immediately proved that sentence wrong by dashing up to him and slashing him with his Switch-Gun blade. "Ah! Okay, that's one thing."
Not letting up, Brody fired some of his arm feathers at Shroom, making him stumble back.
"You think you're tough!? Take this! Tree power: Woody Woodpecker!" Sap's right hand transformed into the head of a woodpecker and began pecking Brody's head.
"Owowowowow!" Brody managed to grab the woodpecker and halt its assault. Before he could chop it off, however-
"Tree Power: Savage Squirrel!"
Sap's other hand transformed into the upper half of a squirrel, which began mauling Brody.
"Oh, come on!"
Sap didn't give Brody a chance to counterattack this time and began whacking him with the branches on his head. "Alright, Shroom, finish him off with some Poison Powder!" He got no response. "Shroom?"
The tree monster paused his attacks to check on his partner. The mushroom monster was being assaulted by a dull gold robot. Being mechanical in nature, the robot was obviously unaffected by spores, and was gaining the upper hand as a result.
"Glad you were nearby, Kenny," Jane smiled, pocketing her phone.
"No problem," Kenny replied in perfect English.
"Switch out!"
Sap took his partner's advice and tackled the robot, leaving Shroom to fight Brody.
"Don't go thinking you'll have better luck with me! Mushroom Samba!" Shroom unleashed rainbow-colored spores, grabbing Brody's hand so he couldn't run away.
Unable to avoid the spores, Brody inhaled some. This instantly took him out of the fight as he tripped. The fuck. Out.
"This seems to be going poorly," Carl observed through Brody's morpher. "Cryos, we need backup!"
On cue, the Cryo gang came to the rescue. The pink and white ones pushed Sap back with scratches and bites, though the blue one fell victim to Shroom's spores and was paralyzed.
G2 shot Shroom with an eyebeam and dragged the blue Cryo away, with Kenny and Jane taking Brody.
As the heroes retreated, the two monsters regrouped. "I guess we showed 'em," Sap said, holding up a hand, which Shroom high-fived.
"Nice. That was nice," Calios chuckled.
"That was painful," Simba grinned. "The guy didn't have a chance on his own."
"I say we keep this going," Moses suggested. "Have them stay on the planet and wreak some more havoc."
Calios nodded, "Sounds like a plan.
Jane clapped her hands together and sighed, "Okay, status report. Mr. Cooper, are you okay? CJ didn't hurt you too bad, did she?"
Cooper rolled his shoulder, flinching a bit from the pain, "She knocked the wind out of me, but I'll be fine. You should see what I did to her. Hehe."
Nodding, Jane continued, "Okay, how about you, Duncan?"
"Well, I slashed at the guy but he just shrank and dodged it. Then he grew again, so I slashed at him again, and then-"
"Rinse and repeat?" Kenny guessed.
"Bingo," Duncan grinned. "And now that it's done, I'm gonna call Bailey, and we're gonna-"
"Duncan," Brody interrupted, putting a hand on his brother's shoulder, "If I hear one more word about your sex life, so help me, I am literally gonna bust your balls."
Unfazed by the threat, Duncan smiled, "What was it like being on the fun side of drugs?"
"I'm still on the 'fun side,' actually, and it's not so fun," Brody informed him.
"Then how do you even know you're talking to me?" Duncan teased with a smile.
"Easy, I just picked out the Nazi kangaroo with your voice, that's how," the younger brother explained.
"Nazi kangaroo?" Jane repeated. "I don't even wanna know what else you're seeing."
G2 scratched his head, "So, how do we handle these monsters? They have some tough powers, and they make a good team."
"Okay, let's settle down and think. These guys are a mushroom and a tree…Hmm." Cooper paused and took a moment to think.
"You got an idea, Mr. Cooper?" Duncan asked.
"I have an idea as well," Kenny spoke up. "Perhaps if we rile them up, it will throw off their teamwork."
"That makes sense," Jane nodded. "You finished your little plan, Mr. Cooper?"
"I think I have," Cooper grinned. "Alright, here's what we do."
Numerous townspeople were minding their own business in the shopping mall when the newest pair of monsters walked into view.
"Holy shit! Monsters!" a random guy yelled.
"You were enjoying your day," Sap began.
"Now you're stuck in our trap," Shroom continued.
"'Cause you're locked in a building," they did their poses, "With Shroom and Sap!"
The civilians all immediately made for the exits. However, to their horror, they found that the doors were sealed shut with tree sap. They all banged on the doors in a panic. Said panic turned to shock when the White Power Ranger, in his brown power-up form, erupted from the ground beneath their feet.
Not wasting any time, Duncan busted the doors down with a few strong punches, letting his teammates in and all the civilians out.
"Alright, Duncan, Brody, we'll get what we need to stop the mushroom, you two try and take out the tree," Cooper instructed.
"Got it," the brothers replied.
The rest of the team made their way into the mall. The monsters moved to intercept them, but Duncan tunneled under the ground and burst out in front of them, with Brody joining him, having already switched to Electric-Type.
The two nodded at each other. "You guys must be stupid," Duncan started.
Brody went next, "You guys must be bumpkins."
"'Cause you should know never to mess-" They raised their fists and stood back to back. "With Brody and Duncan!"
The monsters gawked. "Wha? You can't do that! That's our thing!" Shroom yelled indignantly.
"Yeah? Well, too bad," Duncan said, slamming his palms on the ground. This caused a dome of earth to encase the monsters.
Any relief they felt was cut short when the dome began cracking and something creeped through. "Are those roots?" Brody wondered aloud.
His question was answered when the dome crumbled, showing that the monster pair had indeed grown roots to tear through the dome with.
Sap initiated the counterattack. Pieces of bark flaked off his skin and began morphing, taking on the shape of bugs, "Tree Power: Bark Beetles!"
Not to be left out, Shroom joined in, unleashing a cloud of orange powder, "Stun Spore!"
"Ugh, again, Pokemon moves are my thing," Duncan groaned. He slammed his palms into the ground, "Tectonic Rage!" By the Brown Ranger's will, the section of ground the beetles were on folded in on itself, crushing them like the bugs they were.
Brody took it upon himself to get rid of the spores heading for him and his brother. "Let's see if this works," he commented to himself. He fired a blast of lightning from his Switch-Gun at the cloud. Like he'd hoped, the lightning ignited the spores, creating a dust explosion.
"Wise guy, eh? Well, not all my spores are flammable!" Shroom yelled, unleashing a purple cloud of powder.
Duncan chuckled, "I'm not scared of that. Poison's only dangerous if you breath it in." He charged in and leapt forward, using his Drill Run attack.
"I won't just let you-" Sap paused his sentence when Brody zapped in front of him, pressing his Switch-Gun against his gut.
"Contact Ranger Shoot."
The blast knocked Sap off his feet. He groaned in pain and examined the injury, shocked to find electrical burns. "What the? How?"
"Insulators like rubber aren't perfect. If the voltage is high enough, they'll start conducting anyway," Brody explained confidently. "It's called electrical breakdown."
"Cute," Sap said, getting up. "But I've got news for you, Pinestein, that's the only hit I'm gonna let you get on me."
Meanwhile, Shroom had taken Duncan's finishing move and had lost an arm in the process.
The Brown Ranger drew his Switch-Gun and unfolded it into its sword mode. "You're going down, bro!"
Shroom responded with another burst of powder.
At first, Duncan didn't feel like anything was different, so he resumed his attack, only to be surprised when his left arm moved instead of the arm holding his sword. He tried again to swing his sword arm, only for his left arm to make the swinging motions. "What the hell?"
Shroom chuckled and headbutted him in the gut. "That powder messes with your brain, so now, when you try to move something on your left, you move your right, and vice versa!" He followed it up by throwing a punch.
Duncan instinctive tried to raise his right arm to block, which caused his left arm to move, letting the punch slip by his guard. As he staggered, Duncan heard his brother scream in pain and looked to the right. Or, at least, he tried to. He ended up looking left. "Stupid inverted controls!"
Brody was screaming because Sap was rapidly sprouting numerous wooden stakes to jab him with. Figuring they'd done enough, he called out, "Duncan! Tactical retreat!"
"Works for me!" Duncan agreed. He dug into the ground while Brody sped away and hid.
The monster duo took a moment to catch their breath before celebrating. "Alright, two times in a row!" Sap cheered.
"There were a few more of them, weren't there? Let's get 'em," Shroom suggested.
And so, the monsters wondered around the mall. After about thirty seconds, Shroom realized something, "Wait, why are we just wondering around? I've got a thing for this." He scattered some silver spores around. "They're over there." He pointed to the mall's pizzeria, "Looks like they figured out my weakness."
"If we're lucky, they haven't finished with everything," Sap suggested.
They entered the pizza joint's kitchen and found the rest of the Rangers' friends doing some baking.
The team was distressed to see them. "Crap, we're not ready yet. We gotta-"
Kenny stopped Cooper's panic by tapping him on the shoulder. He whispered in his ear before whispering to G2 as well.
"Hehe, good one," Cooper nodded.
G2 started things off, "I'm a battle robot."
"And I'm pretty super," the Scotsman continued.
"And you're about to get trashed," they took fighting stances. "By G2 and Cooper!"
As she continued baking, Jane cracked a smile. "Boys," she muttered to herself.
"Is everyone gonna steal our thing!?" Sap asked angrily.
"Why don't you make us pay for it!?" Cooper taunted as he and G2 exited the kitchen. When the monsters followed them, the janitor morphed and fired his cannon.
To his surprise, the monsters just soaked up the water. "Yeah, I'm a tree and he's a mushroom. All you did was give us a drink," Sap boasted.
"And it gave us time to finish baking!" Jane's voice shouted.
The monster duo turned around to see Kenny and Jane each holding a plain cheese pizza. Jane threw her pizza first, aiming at Shroom.
"NOOOO! Not pizzaaaaaa!" Shroom screamed in distress. The pizza sheared off an entire section of his head when it made contact.
G2 caught the pizza, which now sported a nice series of mushrooms as a topping.
"Pizza face-" Kenny threw his pizza as well, "-has a whole new meaning!"
This second pizza was the finisher, shearing off the rest of Shroom's head and taking him down.
"Partner!" Sap yelled. "You're all gonna pay for tha-" He stopped when he felt something jab him in the back. Turning his head, he saw it was Duncan and Brody, both back in their base forms, and both jabbing him with their guns' barrels.
"Double Ranger Shoot," Brody announced.
The dual ice blasts were too much for the tree monster, and he exploded.
With the battle over, Jane started laughing.
"Uh, you okay, hon?" Brody asked.
"We beat a monster with fucking pizza! How the hell did you know that would work, Mr. Cooper?" she clarified and asked.
"Well, it was more of a hunch. So-," Cooper gestured to G2. "-anyone up for pizza?"
"I hate mushrooms," Jane, Brody, and Duncan all chorused.
"I'll try a slice," Kenny said, reaching for G2's pizza. He retracted his hand just as quickly, though, "Wait, those mushrooms were part of a monster. Pass."
"More for me then!" Cooper declared as he took a slice. Everyone else cringed at the sight.
In a burst of red energy, the monster duo revived as giants.
"We may have lost once," Shroom started.
Sap continued, "But our victory's in bloom."
"This is the revenge," they posed together, "of Sap and Shroom!"
"Okay, in hindsight, maybe we should've destroyed them outside," Brody commented, observing the wrecked mall around them. He spoke into his morpher, "Hey, guys?"
"We're not doing any stupid rhymes," Chazz droned.
"You don't have to. Now get over here," Duncan clarified.
"You too, Pops," Cooper instructed.
"Roger that, boss man!"
The blue, white, and Green Zords quickly arrived on the scene, with Chazz and Carl combining to form the Paleo Force Megazord.
Cooper quickly decided who should fight who. "Pops, chop down the tree! Lads, get the mushroom!"
"Right!" The Rangers had their Megazord switch to sword-and shield mode and advanced on the mushroom monster.
Shroom chuckled viscously, "If you Zords are alive, then this should affect you and the Rangers. Poison Powder!"
As Shroom unleashed his toxins, Duncan came up with a counter, "We're not falling for that! Carl, Icy Wind!"
"Yes, Uncle!" The Megazord let out a burst of, well, icy wind from the head on its chest, deflecting the poison powder.
Brody followed this up by firing the mecha's eyebeams, landing their first hit on the monster. "I say we end this now! Cryo Slash!"
The Megazord charged up its sword and threw a slash, destroying Shroom.
As for what was going on with Sap and Pops, the tree monster dodged Pops's buzzsaw attack. "Tree Power:" Sap sprouted a bunch of colorful flowers from his hand, "Elegant Bouquet."
Stopping his attack, Pops stared at the flowers in awe, "Ooooh. The colors."
This gave Sap the perfect opportunity to kick him in the face.
"Ow! Hey, jerk! Where do you get off kicking strangers!?" Pops asked angrily.
Sap smoothly deflected the question, "Hi, how are you doing?"
And Pops fell for it, "Hi, I'm Pops."
"Great," Sap kicked him in the face again.
"Alright, I'm not lettin' this go on any longer," Cooper sighed. "Pops, kill that guy!"
"Sure thing, Cooper!" Pops agreed. First, he flew backwards a bit to gain some distance. Then, he spun around, wrapping his tail harpoon around Sap to keep him in place. Finally, he fluttered his plates, launching dozens of razor wind blades, shredding the tree monster into woodchips.
"Eh, it sucks that they didn't win, but damn if that wasn't fun," Calios said, smiling under his helmet.
"Agreed," everyone else in the throne room said.
With the battle over, the Rangers all de-morphed. "Man, I'm glad that's over," Duncan sighed. "Well, I'm gonna go get high."
"And I'm gonna go get drunk," Cooper continued.
Brody shook his head, "Of course you guys will."
Kenny slung an arm over G2's shoulder, "We'll give you two some space."
With all their friends gone, Brody and Jane faced each other. "So, uh, wanna get together tomorrow?" Brody asked.
"Sure. I'll text you later," Jane smiled.