THE BLUE RANGER DUEL, PART 2.
Base of Zone C.
10:00
Diana woke up to find her arms and legs tight with spasms. She had trained for hours with little rest, but she needed to oil herself if she wanted to beat Lady Shiva. She remembered that she had fallen asleep in the virtual training room, so she grabbed the swords that she had left on the ground and got into position for another training session against virtual Lady Shiva.
Just like the time before, she gripped her swords very tightly, took a deep breath, and got into position. Just when the virtual Lady Shiva started to make a move, Diana felt confident, but she knew that she had to get it right so that confidence didn't fade.
The swords shot out at her with the speed she had grown accustomed to, but this time, she blocked everything with movements so fast, fine, and precise that it caused all the deflected swords to dig into the ground. And when the final attack came from the front, Diana struck another blow, but this one was more precise. The blow was so strong that apart from slicing the sword in half, she also managed to land the blow at Lady Shiva, knocking her down.
Once Diana stopped the attack, she felt even more confident. However, inspired by her Amazonian upbringing, she had to train to avoid surprises so she spent another forty minutes training. After all that time, she thought her victory over Lady Shiva was inevitable.
So, after hard training, she went to bathe before going to the dining room where she ate by herself, but the strange thing is that her fellow Rangers were nowhere to be seen. She was both relaxed, and somewhat curious.
They would surely be looking for her, or maybe they didn't care. On the other hand, it was good since she wouldn't have another talk that would make her angrier. She was already angry, but she needed to be focused.
It was after eating that she went to her room for the swords and was about to leave. She was in a hallway near the exit, but unfortunately, Commander Wayne caught her. He took the sword from her hand.
"You are not going to leave yet, Prince," the commander said seeing the current state of the sword.
"I told you I have to do this for me. I can't be a Ranger if I can't beat her," Diana said, annoyed that this man was teasing her. They had been doing that to each other since they returned from Themyscira, and although she was comfortable with him, this was not the time.
"Not yet, Prince. You have to listen to me, or I won't let you go," he told her.
She thought that she could escape, but surely he already had something planned. If so, that would take a lot of effort, so she decided to reserve her strength and listen to him. "What I have to tell you is that I have seen very few Rangers training tirelessly just to outmaneuver a formidable foe. That's what a Ranger does, no matter the difficulty and challenge. You face it in hopes of beating it, and that's why you're not a shame. It's also good because each member of the team always has something to contribute, and you are already defining what you do. Because of this, I think you can beat her," he said, throwing the sword to the ground and took the Morpho from Diana.
She tried to take it away, but was surprised that he pulled out another sword. "You will not beat her if the sword breaks," he added, offering the sword by the handle.
"You're not saying it just for the sake of it, are you?" she asked, still mistrusting the commander that she hoped would one day make his reveal.
"No, I would never say this without reason. If you think you can beat her, then do it, but we will go with you to avoid some kind of surprise, Prince," he told her.
Diana was about to protest, but he beat her to it. "We will go because Lady Shiva follows orders, but she always has something secret in store. It is to avoid risks, but you are the one who is going to face her. Now go ahead, or you may not be on time," the commander said.
Diana just nodded and went to the hangar for the patrol car. In silence, she had said thank you. It was a surprise that the commander let her go, but the important thing was to defeat Lady Shiva.
When she left, Commander Wayne went to the conference room where J'onn was already waiting for him.
"Well done, commander," J'onn said, satisfied that the commander had put it into practice, although it was a titanic effort for him.
"Now, we have to bring the others," Said the commander, touching the microphone button. "Rangers, to the conference room."
After a few seconds, the other four Rangers were in the conference room, all forming a horizontal row. To their surprise, Diana was not there.
"Rangers, Cadet Prince has left the base and is on her way to the Gotham City Royal Hotel to confront Lady Shiva," Commander Wayne said far too calmly.
"And how come she left before?" Kal asked.
"Because I let her go. What did you want me to do?" the commander asked, hoping that this would serve to make the Rangers accept Diana after the trust that had been lost.
"Well, stop her. If she faces Lady Shiva alone, she will be slaughtered," Shayera said somewhat impatiently.
"But you don't trust her," said the commander.
"No, but she can't die just because she wants a rematch," John said impatiently.
"You surprise me, cadets. As Cadet Prince said, you focused more on the grudge rather than on helping a Ranger who had lost her mother and the place where she grew up so that she could feel better," said the commander.
"But now we have to go save her," Barry said, fearful of what might happen to Diana.
There was still time, but the commander didn't want them out until they saw how important Diana was to the team.
"You do not know, but Diana did not train for a simple rematch only. Like all of us, defeat is a difficult thing to accept, but she also trained because she was doubting herself to be a Ranger. She did not want to stop being a Ranger, but now she is about to face that great obstacle. She has done what a Ranger does, but you have not noticed," said the commander, seeing how the reactions of the Rangers were going from impatience to embarrassment. They had done wrong, but now they had to make it right.
"Then what do we do?" Kal asked. He was angry, but against himself. He had seen that Diana had problems and needed support, but he didn't want to.
"Simple, Kal. We have to help her," Shayera said. She was the most apt to answer such a simple question.
"But Diana has yet to tell us why she hid it other than just to protect her identity," Kal said.
"Good…J'onn," said the commander, wanting J'onn to take the floor.
"Rangers, we already have a plan, but I tell you that for Diana to succeed, we have to believe that she can achieve it," J'onn said so that this would spread to the Rangers, not just the commander. The good thing is, it worked, and they were ready to go.
XXX
12:00
Diana had her two swords, one in each hand. She was dressed in her full uniform, even with the regulation jacket, with her hair in a ponytail and with the very cold look that would make Barry run away in terror.
She felt somewhat misplaced because she used to train in Themyscira in a high place, but hidden so that her mother would not see her. Now, she was about to enter a duel with a woman who had more skill than her, and now death was likely.
A cloud of smoke suddenly covered Diana. She raised her swords to defend herself, waiting for Lady Shiva to execute the killing blow, but she was wrong. Lady Shiva appeared, but did not execute any attacks. She appeared again, her outfit came with gold and her sword in her hand. She had a Machiavellian smile because she hoped her plan worked and she would go with her and her group.
"I didn't think your team was so heartless to leave you alone," Lady Shiva said.
"They did not leave me alone. They are letting me fight with you and one of them hopes that I can achieve it," said Diana with great conviction
"Please, it's obvious that they don't care about you and only love you for your power, but you still have an alternative to improve that situation. You could join our group and my master and you would be the great fighter that I know you can be," Lady Shiva said. offering her hand, waiting for Diana to take it.
Diana reflected on this for a moment. She offered him to improve her combat, to be valued, to be part of who she wanted to be. However, she wanted to have something else, something that she knew that Lady Shiva couldn't give her, and that was something that she would get with her fellow Rangers, it didn't matter if they trusted her or not yet. Besides that, she reminded her of the women who had invaded Themyscira with the help of other men and had taken Barbara Minerva. She was a ruthless one who preferred the lesser good, not the greater. That is why she would verbally counterattack.
"You may know how to improve me in combat, but you don't have what I'm looking for. You are just one of those women who is part of a ruthless criminal organization that I have no intention of supporting," Diana said with great conviction and getting into combat position. "And I'll only get better if I keep training with my teammates in the Justice League. Having said all this, prepare to lose."
"You had so much potential, but now you will die," Lady Shiva said pointing her sword at her, ready to fight.
Before starting, Diana threw her two swords into the air and drew her Morpho. "Justice League, actívate," Diana said, transforming into the Blue Ranger with the two swords.
Again, the clash of swords sounded with every strike, thrust, block, retreat, and move. If her mother saw her fight against this woman, she would be on the one hand proud that her daughter was such a strong fighter. On the other hand, she would be ashamed that she was fighting against a woman. Her mother always believed that Amazons and women were superior in everything, but now the fight had to go on.
Lady Shiva's blows were still fast and precise, but Diana had already acquired the speed to block and attack effectively. Lady Shiva was surprised that she was so fast, but she was not going to be defeated. She was going to eliminate this woman anyway, and that's why she threw a grenade into the air that exploded. Unfortunately, it did not cause damage as both women fell back. In just seconds, many ninjas emerged from the sides of one of the hotel towers and began attacking Diana.
Immediately, Diana raised her swords and began to knock out several ninjas, but Lady Shiva continued attacking, conering her. She was beginning to lose and receive blows not only from Lady Shiva, but from the other ninjas, until the imposing baritone voice was heard.
"Dark Sword," said the Dark Ranger, launching a blow that knocked out several ninjas.
"Commander," Diana said as she continued fighting.
"Fight against Shiva, the other Rangers will help with this," said the Dark Ranger beginning to defeat the other ninjas.
Diana tried to go after Lady Shiva, but there were many ninjas. If one surprise had not been enough, another was even better. The other four Rangers arrived in their jets, jumping to the roof of the tower where the combat was and began to fight with the ninjas.
"Diana, you can do it," Kal said, using his heat vision.
"You trained too much not to play it, rookie," John said, using a machine gun created with his mind.
"You're better than her, Di," Barry said, running.
"Your victory over her is inevitable, Diana," Shayera said, combining her sword with her pistol.
This was the plan. Let Diana fight Lady Shiva, waiting for surprises as the Dark Ranger climbed the other tower of the hotel. Diana nodded and went to fight Lady Shiva, who was waiting for her on the edge of the tower.
Before another attack was executed, Lady Shiva leapt onto the other tower, wanting to have the upper hand to execute her attack. Diana, guided by impulses, jumped to the other tower and was about to attack, but Lady Shiva executed her circular movement and the swords appeared again.
As she moved her sword to the front, Lady Shiva's swords shot out at the Blue Ranger, who, adhering to all the hours of training, only held her swords very tightly. She began to execute her attacks with such delicacy, precision and speed that she surprised her adversary, but not so much.
Just as Diana was deflecting the last of the swords, Lady Shiva executed her last frontal attack, but Diana saw it coming and sliced the sword in half with a single blow. She also managed to hit Lady Shiva, knocking her down.
"Wow, I see you made an improvement, but it won't be enough to beat this." Lady Shiva said, drawing another sword and directing it towards Diana again.
This time, the swords did not come out in a circular motion, but instead came out from under the ground, and began to attack Diana. The swords were tied to hard threads that could only be cut with swords or lasers, but Kal could not interfere with Diana's moment of glory, nor did he know that he could interfere.
Although Diana managed to cut some, the swords began to surround her and corner her. Diana tried to fight, but they had already brought her to her knees.
"Last chance to join us, Amazon," Lady Shiva said, bringing her face close to exert power over her.
"Cadets, we have to help her," said the commander.
"But you told us we can't interfere," Barry said.
"We cannot interfere, but we can help her improve," said the commander.
"I do not know how. I can't lend her anything I created, because it would disintegrate, and we're still in combat," John said.
"The gun wouldn't do much good," Shayera said. "She doesn't handle guns that often."
Kal thought too fast, he did not know what to do, while the commander used all his strength not to go to help Diana. He hated Lady Shiva, but Diana had to defeat her to regain the lost confidence. After a few seconds, one of Diana's swords was broken by a double attack from Lady Shiva, knocking Diana down.
"I will never join you, Shiva," Diana said, trying to defend herself with the sword she had left.
"Too bad for you," Lady Shiva said before wielding her blow.
Diana blocked the blow, but Shiva kept attacking. She would lose at some point, but this made the idea occur to Kal, who drew a sword using his Morpho.
"Diana, here" Kal said, throwing his sword at Diana. Diana grabbed it and blocked Lady Shiva's blow, knocking her back.
"I have it. Everyone, use your morpho to bring a sword and throw it at Diana," Kal said. Everyone obeyed him, even the commander.
When Diana caught the swords, she felt more confident. Finally, her companions were helping her, and she was not going to give up until she defeated Lady Shiva.
"Try to attack me now, Shiva," Diana said with three swords in each hand, grasping them by the handle.
Lady Shiva attacked again with swords attacking from all sides. At this moment, Diana could see the attacks coming, and began to cut the thread of each sword that was heading towards her. She was so inspired that she began to spin without moving from the place where she was. She began to float for a few seconds, destroying almost all the swords that were attacking her. After this, she knew she had to end this.
"Let's see if you can handle this," Diana said.
The next moment, Diana leaped into the sky and threw five of her six swords in the direction of Lady Shiva. Lady Shiva, shocked at this attack, blocked two, but three hit her and caused her to fall to her knees. "Final thrust," Diana said, grabbing the last sword she had with both hands and addressing Lady Shiva.
Lady Shiva could not believe that this Amazon could make such unpredictable movements, but she tried to block her attack to no avail. Diana struck her opponent's sword with such force that it broke it, and also knocked down Lady Shiva.
As they leaped to the other tower, the Rangers were in awe of the moves Diana had executed with the help of the swords she had been given. They were still ashamed for not wanting to help her, but this would not happen again if she told them why she had hidden it.
"Super cannon time, guys," Diana said.
"Yes," said the other four Rangers and pressed the button on their Morphos and the Super Cannon came out.
"Prepare, aim… fire," the five said and shot the fireball at Lady Shiva, exploding.
Fortunately she was still alive, but badly beaten. Her suit had protective plates. This was known to the Dark Ranger, which is why he did not object to the use of the Super Cannon.
Diana approached Lady Shiva, pulling out her arrest handcuffs to handcuff her.
"On behalf of the Justice League, you are under arrest," Diana said happily.
"This is not over, Rangers" Lady Shiva said dropping a smoke bomb and disappearing, along with her the ninjas of the other tower disappeared. There were already two times that a criminal escaped after having been defeated.
XXX
13:00
"Rangers, despite your great effort and the fight that Cadet Prince gave, Lady Shiva and her ninjas escaped in front of our eyes. It is certain that they will attack again. Remember, we are fighting a great threat, and we cannot make these mistakes again," Commander Wayne said.
He was using all his strength not to explode violently against something. The last thing he needed was for his Rangers to flee because of the bad treatment they were given. "This was a team battle, and that is something that will help you in the future," he concluded, trying to dissipate his anger.
"Diana, we still have to know why you kept your secret from us," John said.
He still wanted to know that just like the other Rangers, but he was direct. At first, Diana thought this was a bad idea, but she had already gone too long without speaking to them. She knew this was her chance, so she stepped forward and spoke.
"What I said was true in part to protect my identity and because I did not want to be revealed. I know that was wrong, and for that I am sorry," Diana began, finding it difficult to express herself. "But the main reason was because I didn't want special deals. When I left Themyscira, I came to Greece, there I met someone who helped me form my false identity to join the League. Then I was in England for a few months, but the people I met didn't treat me like royalty. They treated me like a person equal to them, something I never had in Themyscira. All my sisters in Themyscira were always nice to me, but because I was the queen's daughter, not because they liked me. When I joined this team, I didn't want to tell you why…"
She took a few seconds to speak again. She was being vulnerable in front of her team, her commander, and J'onn. "... because I did not want to lose your companionship. I would lose the friendship and what I had achieved with you, but I'm sorry I didn't tell you," she concluded and waited for an answer.
To everyone's surprise, Kal spoke first.
"Diana, we need you to forgive us," Kal said. John, Barry, and Shayera nodded.
"What?" Diana asked confused. She did not think that her companions would apologize for all this time.
"Well, the commander made us see that we exaggerated the situation. Instead of helping you like a team does after your mother banished you, we left you to your own devices. I still have a lot to learn as a leader, Diana, but that doesn't take away from the fact that you had a really bad time because of us," Kal said.
"I always wanted a female friend, and instead of acting nice, I left you to your own devices for a long time. That's why I'm sorry," Shayera said, being somewhat embarrassed as well.
"It was my duty to keep the harmony, and I didn't do it until very late, rookie," John said.
"And I'm always attracted to you, and instead of talking to you, I left you alone," Barry said.
"So please ..." Kal said, waiting for his companions to say it at the same time.
"... forgive us, Diana," the four said in unison.
This was the best Diana had ever heard. Her teammates also recognized her mistakes, and were asking for her forgiveness, and even Commander Wayne had helped. Obviously, she didn't turn down the opportunity to be a team again.
"I've been looking forward to this a lot," Diana said, spreading her arms and hugging them, Kal and Barry on the left side and John and Shayera on the right side. The Rangers were so happy they returned the hug. Sadly, the happiness didn't last long, because the commander spoke again.
"It's good that you are a team again, Cadets. However, now more than ever you will need to work as one if we are to face the threat of Lady Shiva's organization. Get ready, because the training will be harder than ever," said the commander before sitting in his chair and turning his back on them. "You can go, cadets," said the commander.
Even though the Rangers wanted to know why he was acting weirder than usual, they wanted to keep the calm that he had returned a few seconds ago, which was why they decided to leave.
"You know the time to reveal the truth is very near, Commander," J'onn said.
"They don't have to know. They must train to defeat him," Commander Wayne said without looking at him.
"They will tolerate it for a while, but then they will want to know the truth. And you know that if they find out without your help, you will lose them forever," J'onn said.
"I already took care of that, J'onn. And you also know that you shouldn't say anything, "said the commander, pointing a finger at him.
"You know I'm not going to say anything, but you're taking a risk if you don't tell them," J'onn said, approaching the door.
"That is a lower risk than telling them," said the commander, no longer wanting to continue with this conversation.
"Whether you tell them or not, the risk has the same measure. You decide which of the two to run. Permission, "J'onn said, leaving the room. He knew this was not easy for the commander, but it was necessary. If his commander didn't say anything, he was sure the trust would never be repaired.
The team wasn't ready for another breakup, especially as the people of Zone C were starting to feel a little more secure with the new Power Rangers squad. They needed to keep them within the Zone more than ever just for a little longer than necessary.
Unfortunately, the next few weeks would be too demanding for the Rangers and the commander as the great threat was about to launch his next blow.
XXX
Unknown location
"I can't believe that Amazon beat you. She is from such an outdated and predictable race, and you lost Shiva. You disappoint me," said the mysterious voice.
"I accept the punishment that you impose to make amends for my failure," Lady Shiva said on one knee with her head bowed. She was ashamed of this failure, but she would not leave without helping her master again. "Master, I'm sure Wayne is the one who managed to reunite the team again. Maybe the team will be weaker if…" Lady Shiva said, but she couldn't complete the sentence, because the man already knew what she wanted to say.
"If we eliminate or if we take Wayne out of his boxes…" said the man. "Knowing the result of the previous fight, I think he has already started to treat his Rangers badly. Once they see what happened, they will resign and Zone C will be at our mercy. Shiva, correct your mistake by going for him," the man ordered.
"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Lady Shiva asked.
"Sure, he will be the one who creates the tension between Wayne and the Rangers even more, and thus, I will be able to break him just like he did with my plan years ago. Now go," the man ordered.
"Yes, master," said Lady Shiva very obediently before going to look for the man who would be one more pawn in her game against Commander Wayne.
"I hope you are ready, Wayne. Our reckoning is near, and soon I will destroy the C Zone as I should have done years ago," the man said, going back to his chair to await the return of Lady Shiva.
NEXT: THE GREAT THREAT, PART 1.
Well, here is another chapter. What did you think? Did you like the WonderBat moment? Do you think I developed it well? They're excited? Let me know what you think in the comments. By the way, now I'm going to update Mysterious island.