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 32
"Calling in a merc?" Calios repeated. "That's different."
"Well, that's why it'd be fun," Moses pointed out.
Calios nodded, "Fair enough. Alright, I'll call him up while you guys send out our newest monster.
Brody stood there in silence for a moment before finding his voice, "I'm sorry. Could you repeat that?"
"I want you to meet my parents," Jane said.
"Uh, I, you, I-"
"Look, we've been going out for a while now, and I figure the time is right," the girl explained.
Before Brody could answer, something crashed ten meters from the park bench they were sitting at.
Taking a closer look, they saw what looked like a perfect circle drawn from pencil. A line began running through the circle, forming a door. The door opened and out stepped a stick figure holding a five-foot pencil.
Upon seeing the two teens, he made his intentions clear, "Well, it looks like I have my first victims." The stick figure swung his pencil, eraser side first, at them.
Jane and Brody leapt aside. To their shock, the section of bench struck by the eraser was erased from existence.
Seeing that the civilians were already starting to flee, Brody morphed and drew his Switch-Gun.
"Wow. I actually didn't know you were a Ranger when I started attacking," the stick figure said as he began drawing something new. As Brody aimed to fire, the stick man held up a…not-hand. "Excuse me a second." Quickly finishing his new drawing, he brandished the new weapon: a sword wreathed in crudely-drawn fire.
Figuring the monster would counter any ice blasts he fired, Brody unfolded his Switch-Gun into its blade mode while summoning his Carnage Sword. He threw two slashes with his Switch-Gun before thrusting with his drill blade. He had to be cautious, though. He wouldn't want his weapons to get erased. Surprisingly, neither of his swords could cut through the stick man's pencil.
The fight went pretty evenly until the stick figure was hit in the back of the head by…a stick. "I'm a stick figure and you hit me with a stick. Was that on purpose?" the stick man asked.
"Not really. Just trying to help my friend," Jane answered.
"Well, you were better off when I was ignoring you," the stick man informed her. He held up his flaming sword and launched some fire at her.
Brody was about to tap his morpher to shift into his Electric-Type form. It turned out he didn't need to, as Duncan leapt in front of her, blocking the fire with his shields.
The stick man looked back and forth between the two Rangers. "Don't think you have the edge just because there's two of you," he said. He drew some lines in the air, creating another stick man. He also drew up a crude sword for his new compatriot. "I'm Sticktavius, by the way," the stick man with the giant pencil clarified.
The other stick man rubbed his chin, "Then I'll be Charles Stickens." He brandished his sword at Duncan, "En garde."
Duncan grinned under his helmet and drew got out his Switch-Gun blade, "Come at me, bro."
And so began a tag team match began. The fight got crazy when Charles Stickens showed he had tricks that didn't involve a pencil. He grabbed both ends of his stick sword and stretched it out, turning it into a staff. And he knew how to use it too. If Duncan hadn't had his shields, he'd likely be taking way more hits.
Brody, meanwhile, was still having no luck with Sticktavius. Deciding to take a risk, he flicked his wrist, folding his Switch-Gun back into an actual gun. He blocked a slash from the fire sword, and when Sticktavius slashed him across the gut with his pencil, he fired a shot. Unfortunately, in all the excitement, he'd forgotten just how narrow his opponent's body was, and his blast flew right past the stick man's torso.
Sticktavius jumped and hit Brody with two kicks, one to the gut and another to the face.
At this point, both Rangers hit their morphers, changing into their power-up forms.
Brody ran forward only to realize he was running at normal speed. This gave Sticktavius the chance to slash him with his fire sword. "What the hell happened?"
"If you really want to know, I'll show you," Sticktavius planted his sword in the ground and pulled out a flip book. Flipping through it, it showed that, when he'd slashed Brody, he'd drawn the word "slow" on his stomach.
"…You wrote a four-letter word in the split second your pencil was touching me?" Brody commented.
Sticktavius chuckled, "When you're a stick figure, anything is possible." To demonstrate his point, he threw his flaming sword in the air and punched it, shattering it into a bunch of small stick segments. Catching the segments in one "hand," he threw the segments like darts.
Undeterred, Brody fired his arm feathers, countering the sticks.
Duncan, meanwhile, stowed his sword and threw a series of punches, which Charles Stickens blocked with his staff. When the stick man swung his weapon, the Brown Ranger let it hit him in the side and wrapped his arm around it. Pulling himself in close, Duncan kicked Charles Stickens in the thigh, stunning him just long enough for him to hit him in the face with a Ranger Punch, blowing his head off.
"Charles Stickens!" Sticktavius called out. Before he could counterattack, or even make some promise of revenge, he was hit by a powerful blast of water.
"Thanks for callin' me in, Jane," Cooper nodded.
"Any time," the girl smiled.
With the three Rangers surrounding him, Sticktavius weighed his options. "So long, suckers," he drew a circle on the ground, flipped it up like a manhole, and leapt in, closing it behind him. Before the team could try and follow, the circle was erased.
"Shit. What do we do now?" Duncan wondered as the team de-morphed.
Cooper shrugged, "We could call in the Cryo gang?"
"Does a stick figure even have a scent?" Chazz wondered.
"We may not need to worry about his scent," Carl stated. "If he keeps drawing more of himself, he'll turn up in no time."
"But what if the real him stays in the shadows while-"
As the rest of the crew debated the logistics of dealing with this new enemy, Jane pulled Brody aside, "So, you never really answered my question."
The boy was still uncertain, "Uuuuh-"
At that point, Alicia butted in through her partner's morpher, "Get on with it, nino!"
Flinching at his Zord's order, Brody caved in, "Okay! Geez! When do you wanna do this, and should I wear anything special?
"Not really. Maybe a collared shirt, but not much more than that," Jane shrugged.
"Alright, I'd say I look presentable," Brody smiled. His outfit was a black, collared shirt with icicles on the sleeves, as well as some blue jeans.
"Perhaps you shouldn't celebrate just yet, Mother," Carl said through his morpher. "As you may recall, Father has had a rather checkered dating history. If her parents are aware of that, then they may be distrustful of you."
"Well, no helping that," Brody shrugged. Getting in his car, he began driving over. He would've said goodbye to Duncan, but his brother was too stoned to even form a proper sentence.
Pulling up to his girl's house, he took a deep breath and knocked on the door. The door opened up, revealing Jane's father. "Hi, Mr. Dawson," Brody nodded. "How are you guys doing tonight?"
"Just fine, thanks," Mr. Dawson answered, sounding almost bored. "Come on in."
Following the man in, Brody spotted his gal pal, "Hey, Jane."
"Hey, Babe," she greeted back, briefly hugging him.
"Dinner's ready!" Mrs. Dawson called out from the kitchen.
Dinner turned out to be pasta with some garlic bread.
Jane grinned as her parents gauged Brody's table manners. She wasn't worried, though. Brody kept his elbows off the table and didn't stuff his face.
"Alright, if I were a stick figure, where would I be?" Cooper wondered aloud.
"Perhaps he is at an arts & crafts store?" Dickson suggested.
"Or perhaps he's right here."
Cooper looked ahead to see the enemy he'd been searching for. First things first… "Everyone, run! MONSTER!" As the civilians cleared out, Cooper morphed and raised his guard.
"Before we get started, allow me to introduce some new friends of mine," Sticktavius spread his arms out, beckoning for other stick figures to come out of the woodwork, all wielding crudely-drawn weapons. "These are Stick Clark, Andy Stick, Emily Stickinson, and Stick van Dyke."
Seeing he was outnumbered, Cooper took a small, nervous step back, "I might be in trouble here."
"That's 'cause you are."
Cooper relaxed his guard a bit, his nervousness turning to confusion, "Uh, which one of you just said that?"
"Are you blind or something?"
"Yeah, how could you not know?"
"Well, you don't have faces and your voices all sound the same. You don't even bob your heads when you talk. I've no clue which one of you is talkin' at any given moment," the Pink Ranger stated.
"You know what? Let's just get to killing this guy already."
"You said it, Emily."
"So, how exactly did you meet our girl?" Mr. Dawson asked.
"Just last fall, actually. We share some of the same classes," Brody answered. He rubbed the back of his head awkwardly, "Had a crush on her right away."
Jane stayed silent as the interrogation continued.
"Jane had all but given up on boys for a little while. How'd you two get together?" Mrs. Dawson leaned in, eager for details.
Brody paused for a minute, trying to think of an explanation that didn't involve admitting he was a Power Ranger. "Hmm, well, you know those monsters that keep fucking up the city?"
"Language," Mrs. Dawson corrected. "But go on."
Brody nodded, "I got hurt in a lot of those attacks. Wrong place, wrong time, all that. Anyway, I happen to go to the hospital Jane's interning in, so she helped patch me up. Eventually, we started talking and one thing led to another."
"Oh, we know. I remember when she came home from that dance. She had a smile like you wouldn't believe," Mr. Dawson chuckled.
"Daaad," Jane groaned.
"Come on, sweetie, don't deny it," her father laughed.
Brody smiled, happy that the tension had left and amused at Jane's embarrassment.
Cooper landed flat on his back. Seeing Sticktavius swinging his pencil's eraser, he scooted back so it only erased part of his kilt. "You're gonna pay for that!" Springing to his feet, he bobbed and weaved round a couple of eraser strikes. Taking a chance, he lunged in close enough so that the pencil's shaft hit him instead of the eraser. In exchange for taking the hit, he threw a cross, hitting the stick man right in the face.
"Look at your friends," Sticktavius suggested.
Looking to the left, Cooper saw an amusing sight: the pink Cryo was trying to attack Andy Stick, who was using a bo staff to hold it back, leaving it to flail comically.
"Hehe," Cooper chuckled. Unfortunately, this left him open to a strike from Sticktavius. "Should've seen that coming."
The other Cryolophosaurs were having trouble too. The blue Cryo had to deal with Stick Clark and Emily Stickinson at once. The former was wielding a pair of nunchucks while the latter had sais. At first, it had been able to counter their weapons with its claws. But then they changed things up.
Emily Stickinson joined her sais at their hilts and stretched them out, forming a two-ended trident, which was harder to counter.
The blue Cryo bit down on one end of the trident, but this left it open to a hit from Stick Clark. Growling, the dino spun in place, deterring its opponents with a tail swipe.
The white Cryo was fighting Stick van Dyke, whose weapons were a pair of swords. The stick figure swung both his swords at once, only for the dino to catch them with its teeth and clenched, shattering them into pieces. The white Cryo roared in its achievement, only for Stick van Dyke to hit it in the face with a one-two punch.
Crouching down, Stick van Dyke picked up the pieces of his swords and mashed them together, making rings out of them.
Wanting payback for the punches earlier, the white Cryo took of the distraction and bit Stick van Dyke's left arm, ripping it clean off.
Rather than scream in pain, Stick van Dyke swung his ring, gashing the Cryo on the shoulder.
As it roared from the injury, the white Cryo internally cursed its partner for being too high to show up to a fight.
Having stolen another glance at his team's situation, Cooper frowned at how bad things were turning out. This whole fight was going evenly at best. He punched the ground, shattering it, all the shrapnel forcing Sticktavius back. Taking the opportunity, he spoke into his morpher.
"Brody? I know you're busy, but we kinda need help here!"
The Dawson family all stared at him. "What was that?"
"Uh, sorry, I forgot to turn my phone off," Brody spat out quickly. He got up, "Let me just take this real quick." Excusing himself to the living room, he answered his morpher. "I'm kinda in the middle of something here!" he hissed. "Can't you get Kenny or something?!"
Cooper crouched behind a mailbox for cover. Sticktavius had drawn himself a gatling gun and he wasn't hesitating to use it. "I tried! Kenny said he's being attacked by Stickolas Cage! He and G2 are off the table!"
"Then-" Brody paused as he heard something breaking through Dawson's door. "Uh, I'm starting to think I might be off the table too."
Reconvening with the Dawsons, Brody saw pieces getting punched out by an axe. Once there was a big enough hole, a stick figure poked his head through.
"Here's Johnny!"
Brody, Jane, and even Jane's parents only had one dull response to that line: "Cliché."
"And you are?" Jane asked.
"Jack Stickolson. Pleased to kill ya," the stick man said before he went back to hacking the door down.
"And this is the part where we run," Brody said.
"Everyone out the back!" Mr. Dawson yelled, guiding the group. Any relief was short-lived when they found another stick figure waiting for them. "Oh, come on!"
"My name is Stick Tracy," he introduced himself as he reached behind him. The weapons he pulled out only barely looked like weapons. They were two short sticks with slightly longer sticks attached sideways at the tips.
"Are those supposed to be guns?" Mrs. Dawson wondered aloud. Stick Tracy answered by firing a shot at their feet. "Okay, definitely guns."
Hearing the back door reopen behind them, they saw that Jack Stickolson had caught up with them.
With enemies on both sides, Jane cast a glance at her boyfriend, "Brody?"
Having an idea of what she was thinking, Brody asked, "Are you sure?" When she nodded, he sighed. Before her parents could question anything, he activated his morpher, donning his suit. Stick Tracy fired his guns. Brody blocked the shots with his Carnage Sword while using his Switch-Gun to shoot at Jack Stickolson.
While Jack Stickolson blocked the shots, Jane moved in and shoved his axe down before punching him in the face.
Brody, meanwhile, engaged Stick Tracy in close combat as well. Stick Tracy stuck one of his guns in Brody's face, only to immediately retract it as Brody swung his sword. The Blue Ranger aimed his own gun at the stick figure, who batted it aside.
The next two attacks were simultaneous: Stick Tracy fired a shot at Brody's stomach while Brody threw a Ranger Slash, cutting the Stick Man in two.
Looking back to check on Jane, he saw that she'd gotten Jack Stickolson in a headlock.
She called out to him, "Shoot him! Shoot him in the face!"
Holding his gun, Brody took aim. Once he lined up the shot, he charged up his gun and shouted, "Hit the deck!" Once she did, Brody let loose with a blast that vaporized Jack Stickolson.
The two took a deep breath as Brody de-morphed. "You okay?" he asked.
"You should be more worried about them," Jane stuck a thumb behind her, directing his gaze to her parents.
"Oh…"
"YOU'RE A POWER RANGER!?" they exclaimed together.
Mrs. Dawson calmed down just a tad and put a hand on her husband's shoulder, "Wait, Jane's the one who signaled for him to fight."
Mr. Dawson's eyes widened, "You knew?"
Jane looked at the ground, "I did."
Her parents sputtered for a few seconds before her father took a deep breath, "Explain."
"Well, remember when I said Brody kept having trips to the hospital?" she asked. Her parents nodded, so she continued, "I got suspicious when I saw he just happened to get injured in pretty much every single monster attack, so I asked and he and the team fessed up. After that, Brody asked if I'd be the team doctor and I said yes."
"And that's when one thing led to another," Brody finished.
Jane's parents stood in silence briefly before her mom fainted.
"Shit! Is she okay?!" Jane panicked.
"Oh, I'm sure she's fine," her dad answered in a fake-casual tone. "I think she was just a little overwhelmed by the fact that her kid is dating a literal superhero."
"Okay, that makes sense," Brody admitted. He quickly came to his senses, "I'm sorry, but I've gotta go. That call from earlier was the team asking me for help." Re-morphing, he switched to Electric-Type and sped away. "Love you!"
"I gotta ask, Jane, are you into him 'cause of all the action?" Mr. Dawson asked.
"Not just that," Jane smiled. "He's also a dork."
"'Bout time you fuckin' got here! Cooper shouted. He aimed his cannon in the air and fired a blast of water that rained down. "Scatter! Brody, you know what to do!"
Nodding, Brody pulled out his Switch-Gun and fired a beam of lightning, zapping all the stick figures present. While they were still stunned, he sped around, slicing them all up.
With the battle over, Cooper and the Cryos made their way back onto the scene. "So, how'd it go with Jane?" the Pink Ranger asked.
"Long story short, I showed her parents I'm a Ranger," Brody admitted.
As Sticktavius was resurrected as giant, Cooper said, "Tell me more when we're done with this."
The Rangers called in their Zords. With Duncan absent, Cooper joined Brody in the Megazord's cockpit. In sword-and-shield mode, the mecha swung its sword.
Sticktavius blocked the strike with his pencil and leapt back. He then drew a shaded-in circle with some jagged points. The circle began generating suction.
The Megazord planted its sword in the ground to keep itself from getting sucked in. "Did he seriously make a black hole?!" Cooper thought aloud.
"Sure seems like it!" Brody answered. "What do we do!?"
Fortunately, Carl had an idea, "I know what to do! Get ready, Chazz!"
The Blizzard Force Megazord pulled its sword from the ground and let itself get pulled toward the black hole. Once it was close enough, it split back into Chazz and Carl. The separation made them fly around the black hole. The two Zords let loose with their ice breath, forming a sphere of ice around the hole so it couldn't suck anything else.
"Okay, then I'll try these!" Sticktavius made some new toys for battle. First, he drew a stick on his torso that acted as a third arm, then he drew up a drill, a bazooka, and a crossbow.
"I will take care of this!" Dickson declared as he arrived. He fired a water blast, only for Sticktavius to counter it with a rocket from his bazooka.
The stick figure leapt over to Dickson and drew a word on his side. Dickson suddenly went stiff, not moving an inch.
"What did he d-" Chazz paused as he took a look at the word. "He wrote the word 'Frozen.' Dickson's out!"
"I'll call for backup!" Cooper commented.
Carl thrust his drill tail, but Sticktavius responded with his own drill. The two drill tips clashed and sparked.
Chazz went next, doing what a horned dinosaur did best and charging literally headfirst at his enemy. Sticktavius fired some stick bolts from his crossbow, but they just bounced off Chazz's frill. The Chasmozord rammed the stick man, forcing him back. To his dismay, Sticktavius angled his bazooka over his frill and fired. The explosion floored Chazz, taking him out of the fight as well.
Thankfully, backup arrived in the form of Alicia and Pops. "Take this, skinny!" Pops spun around and swung his tail, creating a massive, green arc of razor wind.
Sticktavius simply leapt over the attack.
"Ahem."
He turned around to see that the Rangers had reformed the Megazord but with Alicia as the arms this time. The mecha's blades were already charged up.
The stick man knew what was coming next, "Oh, boy."
The Megazord threw a gazillion and one slashes, destroying Sticktavius and ending the whole ordeal.
Exiting the Megazord, everyone, human and Zord alike sighed. "Man, I'm glad that's over," Cooper said as he stretched out his aches.
"I second that emotion," Dickson nodded. He began leading the other Zords away for some R&R.
De-morphing, Cooper brought us his previous question, "So, about Jane?"
"Well, it went like this-" Brody began.
"The Destruction Empire," the mercenary noted. He was a black and white robot with a large, red eye in the middle of his face. There were red circles on his palms as well as the back of his hands. Lastly, there were red dots scattered across his chest and shoulders. "So this is what your ship looks like on the inside."
"Impressive, yes?" Calios nodded from his throne. "Given your occupation, I imagine you know why we've called you here?"
"Easy guess. Just give me some names, as well as whatever info you have on the targets," the merc chuckled, "This should be fun."