"Whoa..." Sarah whispered softly as she stared up at the image of the Dragonzord standing among the wreckage it had caused on the Viewing Ring, "The old news footage never did the size of these things justice."
"Ooooh, this is bad!"Delta-3 moaned as he switched from control panel to control panel on his dedicated platform, "My my MY! If those villains have done what I think they've done, this is REALLY bad!"
Unable to take her gaze away from the image on the screens, Sarah asked, "Is there anything I can do to help? Anything at all?"
"Not at this moment,"Delta-3 replied as he kept working, "Right now, all I can do is redirect as many Nanomorph machines as possible to finishing up the construction of the Zords! I don't know if the Pink Battle Borg on its own will be able to handle this!"
Momentarily looking up,Delta noticed Sarah was still gazing up at the Dragonzord, her back to him. Her body language was tense and he saw her fists were tightly clenched and trembling by her sides. "I'm sorry," he said, "I know you're worried about them and if I think of anything at all you can help me with, I'll let you know."
"Thanks," Sarah said sharply, without turning around.
Delta-3 saw that she relaxed a little, but only a little.
\\
The now purple-eyed Dragonzord raised its hands, pointing its empty fingers down at the team of Power Rangers near its feet. Missiles suddenly popped into place where fingertips would have been and, only a second later,began to fire.
The missiles streaked down towards the Rangers with their explosive payloads, the team being able to avoid any direct hits from the projectiles but being knocked head-over-heels by the shock waves from the resultant explosions as the missiles slammed into the ground. Landing painfully on his back,the Red Ranger rolled to his right to avoid chunks of falling asphalt, metal, wood, and glass that had been launched into the air as well. Getting back up to one knee, he called out, "Everyone okay?!"
"I'm fine!" the Pink Ranger snapped to his left.
"N-Nothing fractured,"the Blue Ranger groaned behind him.
Looking up from where he had landed on his stomach to Jason's right, the Black Ranger whispered in a voice that was a mixture of excitement and terror, "He actually shot the finger missiles."
"Yeah," the Yellow Ranger added, sitting up next to Rich, "I'm okay too."
The Dragonzord let out a shrieking roar and aimed a kick at a near-by pile of shipping containers, sending the massive hunks of metal flying towards the Rangers that they frantically had to dodge. Rolling under an orange container that passed only inches over him to crash into the side of a warehouse, Jason looked over at Val and called out, "Looks like we're going to need the Battle Borg here!"
"Right!" Val replied,reaching into the compartment on the side of her Morph In Belt to pull out the coin, "Normally, I'd hate smashing an ancient relic to pieces but in this case..."
"Hey, hold on a sec!"Rich exclaimed suddenly holding up his hand, "You can't just destroy it! The Dragonzord may act bad sometimes but it's an ally of the Rangers! Something's wrong and we gotta fix it!"
Before the argument could continue, the Dragonzord attacked again, spinning around as it swung its massive tail at the tiny enemies before it. Jumping high into the air to avoid the attack, the Rangers landed on a near-by rooftop as the tail smashed into the wreckage of a mostly collapsed warehouse. Its swing continued on to strike a pair of construction cranes as well and came to a sudden stop, the girders of metal folding and collapsing in a way that the Zord found its tail temporarily stuck in them.
"There isn't anything to fix!" Val shouted, turning to face Rich now that they had a free moment, "I've seen those kind of purple eyes before! I don't know how they did it but it's been taken over by the Oez Crystal! And it's only going to get worse! We have to destroy it now!"
"If it's being controlled by something else, then we save it!" Rich shot back, pointing his finger in Val's face, "We have to have hope that we can save everyone and everything! That's what Power Rangers DO!"
"That's ridiculous!" the Pink Ranger growled, knocking the Black Ranger's hand away with her free one, "Sometimes you can't just 'hope' your way out of a situation! And how would you even 'save' that thing in this case?!"
"It may have been mostly controlled by a flute-based system," Rich countered, "but the Dragonzord is still a Zord. It's gotta have a cockpit we can get to and either shut it down or at least keep it from wrecking everything and maybe force it back into the sea!"
"You're crazy!" Buff interjected, "I hate to say it, but Pinkie's right! Does THAT look like something you can control at all?!"
Ignoring Val's irritated growl, the Yellow Ranger pointed up at the Dragonzord as it struggled to extract its tail. Purple bolts of energy that started at the top of its head began to crackle down its body, the red chest lights changing color to purple as well. Two rows of jagged, purple and red-veined spikes began to grow out of the back of its head, flanking the bladed fin that was already there. The Zord opened its mouth to let out a frustrated sounding, hissing roar and exposed a new,secondary row of crystalline, jagged purple teeth.
"I concur with Rich,"Amber said suddenly, "It is illogical to annihilate it if it is not in control of its own actions and has returned from being manipulated before."
Jason had been silent as he watched the argument, his body language unreadable. Suddenly, he stepped forward and started to ask, "Could you two answer me thi--?"
A loud screech of twisting metal interrupted him as the Dragonzord finally pulled its tail free,stumbling forward several steps in the process. The Rangers prepared for it to renew its hostility but it suddenly turned away from them,as if it had realized the tiny creatures before it were no threat and could be safely ignored. It began to march further inland, towards the city itself.
"It's headed for the city!" Rich exclaimed, "We got no time to wait!"
He then leaped off in pursuit of the Zord, Amber and Buff yelling at him to stop as Jason still watched thoughtfully.
"On that, we CAN agree,"Val growled before jumping off the rooftop in the opposite direction towards an open parking lot that would give her space to move.
Buff and Amber turned towards the space she had been a moment before but they were unable to call out to her before Jason, who had turned to look in Val's direction as well, spoke up. "Amber, go after Rich and back him up if he needs it. Buff, that goes for you with Val."
The Blue and Yellow Rangers shared a look of confusion. "I believe I've established a rapport with Valestera more than Buff has," the former argued, "And he and Rich have been interacting with each other for a much greater period of time than I have with either of them. Would it not be more logical to reverse our roles?"
"What she said," the latter added.
"No time to explain right now," Jason replied as he draw his Astro Blaster once more, "You're going to have to trust me. So get going!"
The sharp, firm tone in his voice got to both of them, Amber nodding her head as she said,"A-Affirmative."
"Sure, okay," Buff growled, "Fine."
Once the two had jumped off in pursuit of their ordered targets, Jason sucked in a deep breath and aimed his weapon at the back of the Dragonzord's head. "Sorry about the cheap shot that's about to come your way but I can't let you leave here just yet, big guy."
\\
Val was starting to understand the limitations of Battle Borg technology. She had room to perform the movements necessary to control her machine but finding the right angle to keep the battlefield in sight was taking a few seconds longer than she liked.
"Hey! Pinkie! Wait up!"
The Pink Ranger winced at Buff's shout, refusing to look over her shoulder as the Yellow Ranger fell into step behind her. "What are YOU doing here?!"
"Looks like I'm your designated cheerleader for today," Buff replied, "So I'm rooting for ya to recycle that outdated rust bucket!"
Finally finding a good enough spot, Val skidded to a halt as she grumbled, "At least someone's on my side."
She clutched the Battle Borg's coin tightly in her hands as she began to chant, "Tidal energies of the galaxy, hear my call! Battle Borg! Power UP!"
Tossing the coin in the air,the Pink Battle Borg appeared in its flash of light just as a laser blast, fired from Jason's rooftop position, zapped outwards to bounce off the back of the Dragonzord's head. Turning around, the Dragonzord spotted the other robot and let out another screeching roar before starting to angrily stomp towards it.
"Got it moving in my direction so I don't have to chase it into the city," Val muttered to herself before starting to run forward, "Not bad."
Looking up in the direction the shot had come from, the Yellow Ranger shook his head once as he wondered just what their leader was playing at.
Matching Val's movements,the Pink Battle Borg ran forward as well to meet the Dragonzord's charge, lashing out with a hopping forward kick when they were close enough. The impact sent the larger, bulkier robot staggering back several steps before it turned to whip its tail around in a low,sweeping blow aimed at the Borg's legs. In response, the Battle Borg nimbly hopped over the sweep and then ducked under the return swing when the Dragonzord tried to lash its tail back the other way with a higher blow.
"Too slow, lizard lips!"the Pink Ranger taunted before pulling back her right fist and swinging it forward with all her might.
"Too slow, lizard lips!"the Pink Battle Borg mimicked in its distorted version of Val's voice as it too pulled back its right fist and swung forward with all its might.
The punch hit the Dragonzord in the center of its chest, sending sparks flying from the point of impact. The Zord attempted to counter with two lashing strikes of its hands but the Battle Borg easily weaved out of the way of both before countering with three elbow strikes to the Dragonzord's torso and then leaping up into the air to plant both of its feet on the Zord's chest with a dropkick.
Once again knocked back several steps but remaining on its feet, the Dragonzord's chest lights flashed several times as it aimed its fingers at the Battle Borg. More missiles slide into place at its fingertips and Val cartwheeled to the side several times to guide the Borg into following the motion and avoiding the incoming volley of projectile fire. The Dragonzord tried to track the Battle Borg with its fire but the smaller robot's greater speed proved to be too fast for it to do so.
Once the barrage of missile fire halted, the Pink Battle Borg jumped forward, crossing its arms in front of it as it lashed out with a flying, double-handed chop. The attack landed with enough force to send sparks flying from the point of impact but, once again, the Dragonzord was only knocked back slightly and showed no visible signs of damage.
"It's old," Val grunted,"but it can still take a hit."
"Just do what my coach tells the smaller guys when they spar with me!" Buff shouted encouragingly, "Stick and move! Stick and move! You'll wear him down before he catches up with you!"
The Dragonzord suddenly paused, purple arcs of energy rippling along its body for a second time. The lights on its chest began to flash rapidly in a pattern-less, almost panicked looking, rhythm before they started to distort and change shape into sharp spikes. Extending out of the holes on its fingers were not more missiles but serrated, purple crystal claws. Its face began to distort as well, two purple,horizontal tusks appearing on each side of its mouth as well as a star-shaped crest jutting out from its forehead.
"We don't have time to play the long game!" Val exclaimed, raising her right arm to the sky, "I have to finish this before the corruption gets any worse! Lightning Hand Command! NOW!"
As energy began gathering in the Pink Battle Borg's equally upraised arm, the Yellow Ranger shouted, "Chop 'em up good, Pinkie!"
Too focused on the moment to feel irritated at the nickname, Val let out a savage cry as she chopped downwards, the Battle Borg's glowing arm doing the same as it prepared to land its finishing move on the enemy Zord. That was when, with an unexpected burst of speed, the corrupted Dragonzord's hands clapped closed around the Battle Borg's arm, stopping the strike in mid-swing. "What the--?!" was all Val could exclaim before the Dragonzord heaved and shoved the Borg's arm back, knocking both the Aquitian and machine off balance.
Before either could recover,the Dragonzord lashed out with its new claws, sparks flying from where they slashed across the metal alloy of the Battle Borg's chest. Down below, the Pink Ranger cried out in pain from the feedback as the Dragonzord struck two more times with its claws before the drill on its tail tip began to spin. Turning to lash out with its tail,this time the blow hit home, the drill grinding against the Battle Borg's shoulder before something on the latter robot exploded and it was sent tumbling to the ground.
The Pink Ranger was also sent tumbling, only stopping when the Battle Borg hit the side of a half demolished factory. "Hey, you okay?" Buff called out,looking between her and the two giant robots in concern.
"I'm fine," Val groaned,reaching up to feel her throbbing shoulder and flexing her fingers experimentally.
The Dragonzord shrieked and once more aimed its fingers at the downed Battle Borg, the claw-like fingertips shooting off like the missiles they had replaced. New ones almost instantly regenerated and were fired off as well,resulting in a seemingly ceaseless bombardment of projectiles. Still down on the ground, Val curled up to make the Battle Borg do the same, protecting its head and torso as much as she could as the launched crystals proved to be every bit as explosive as the previous weapons.
It felt as if every part of her was being punched and kicked as explosion after explosion impacted against the Borg's body, causing her to curl up even more. The Yellow Ranger looked on worriedly, turning towards the Dragonzord and starting to draw his Blade Blaster.
"N-NO!" the Pink Ranger screamed, "I-If you do that, it'll come over this way and step on us! I-I'm still okay! J-Just... n-need... to wait... for him... to stop... for just... a second."
\\
"Thanks for having my back, Amber," Rich said as the two of them darted from rubble pile to rubble pile, "Thought for sure Buff would be on my tail about this being a bad idea or something."
Drawing closer and closer to the Dragonzord with each dash, Amber occasionally looked over at the battered Pink Battle Borg in concern. "You are welcome," she said, "Though if we are to enact this rescue operation, it appears we must enact it promptly."
The Black Ranger nodded in agreement as he looked up as well. "This thing is from the Dinozord era, so if its got a cockpit, its gotta be in the head,"he said thoughtfully, glad for whatever system in his helmet that was filtering out the worst of the explosive noise as the Dragonzord's assault continued, "and we can certainly jump high enough to reach there if we were in front of it but..."
"Our vertical movement would proceed to take us directly into the path of those projectiles," Amber said, finishing the thought before adding her own, "So we would require redirecting its focus so that it ceases its bombardment and turns towards our direction, but in a way that does not result in it spotting our precise location before we can fully approach. But how--"
She received the answer to her unfinished question in the form of two blaster bolts high in the sky streaking past their location to strike the Dragonzord in its right eye, a small explosion emanating from where the beams hit a relatively soft spot. The Dragonzord instantly stopped firing, almost reflexively raising its hand to cover the damaged eye. Smoke leaked out from between its fingers as it turned to the right,looking around in an almost frantic matter as it tried to find the source of the shots.
For a moment, Amber wondered where the beams had come from as well, the angle too straight on to have been fired from any of the remaining rooftops. She was not given time to check behind her as Rich shouted, "That came from the Astro Blaster! Jas just gave us what we needed! Let's go!"
The Black and Blue Rangers leaped upwards, traveling up the Dragonzord's momentarily blinded side and landing on its head. They had expected needing to search for it but, to their surprise, the second their feet made contact a hatch on the Zord's head opened to let them fall inside. Rich found himself landing in a pilot's chair, a surprisingly bare control console before him that only had two small hand grips and a view port that looked out from between the Dragonzord's eyes. Amber landed standing behind him, feeling the rear wall against her back in the tight quarters.
Looking over her shoulder,Amber noticed that the rear wall was dominated by a large, glowing circle that has a white, three-toed dragon claw design in the center. The circle itself flickered between a soft green and a harsh purple color, an outward sign of the Zord's internal conflict.
"I'm in a Zord's cockpit,"Rich giggled to himself before clearing his throat and trying to keep himself focused as he took hold of the hand grips, "I'm gonna see how much control I get with these things."
Amber noticed what looked like the cover for a circuit breaker on the opposite side wall from where she was and the Blue Ranger leaned over to open it, a blinking array of alien circuitry and wires being revealed. "I.." she said hesitantly, "shall attempt to deduce if any of these components are vulnerable to sabotage that would assist in halting the Dragonzord's movements."
Rich nodded, noticing the Dragonzord had recovered enough that it was starting to move towards the still downed Battle Borg. He did not quite know how but, as he clutched the grips tighter, he began to have a basic idea of how the controls worked. It was far from second nature to him, but it was enough that he began squeezing down with his forefingers as he exclaimed, "I wanna help you, Dragonzord but first you gotta WHOOOOOOAAAAA!"
The Dragonzord's lower body kept walking forward but its upper body suddenly started to lean back, its arms flailing about as if someone had grabbed its non-existent hair. It let out an alarmed sounding shriek as it staggered in reverse, struggling to maintain its balance. To the amazement of those watching, the Zord began to stumble about drunkenly, swaying to the left and right as its arms continued to swing around wildly. One particularly violent lurch sent it into the ruins of a half-collapsed warehouse, making the Dragonzord's body shudder as it leaned forward and began shaking its head and upper body from side-to-side.
Inside the cockpit, the Black Ranger held onto the hand grips even more intently. Rich gritted his teeth under his helmet as the impact with the building and the Zord's violent rocking caused the cockpit to shake hard enough to make remaining in the chair difficult. Behind him, Amber let out a startled cry as she struggled to keep her own balance as her sides were slammed against the back wall and the back of the pilot chair over and over again. Still following the unknown instincts, Rich tried actively pulling on the grips as he grunted,"C'mon, Dragonzord! I said 'WHOA'!"
As the Dragonzord began hopping around on one foot, more purple lightning began crackling around its head. Inside the cockpit, the lightning began traveling up from the control grips and Rich grunted in pain from the sudden,intense electric shock shooting through him. Amber, who had started to reach forward to examine a circuit board more closely, looked over at him in alarm. "Are you okay?!" the Blue Ranger gasped.
"Just... fine..." Rich groaned, still keeping his death grip on the controls, "I dunno if this is you or that crystal stuff, Dragonzord but c'mon! Please WHOA!"
As the Black Ranger continued to struggle with the controls and whatever will behind them that was fighting him, Amber tapped the side of her helmet to open communications with the Command Den and said, "Delta, would we be fortunate enough to be in possession of archived schematics for the Dragonzord's inner workings?"
To her surprise, instead of Delta-3 it was Sarah who responded to her question. "Sorry Amber," she said, "Delta said he was going to be directing a particularly important part of finishing your Zords for the next ten minutes so he can't really talk right now. Afraid you're on your own."
"U-Understood," Amber replied, trying to keep the worry out of her voice as she resumed trying to make sense of the technology before her.
This had been a dumb idea,she self-chastised. It was a machine that was literally alien in nature, and despite its age still far more advanced than any tech that the planet Earth had ever possessed on its own. How could she possibly figure out how any of it worked in a meaningful way?
Wait, she realized, that clover-shaped device in the left hand corner actually did look familiar. It was identical to something she had seen in the Rad Bug and the way it was wired into another near-by device was the exact same way the one in that car had been connected to the engine technology she was familiar with. That most likely meant that the device this one was connected to served a similar purpose and if that was true, then she had a working hypothesis of what she could do if it became necessary.
She was drawn out of her musing as the Dragonzord shuddered again, this time as the result of the now recovered Pink Battle Borg having grabbed hold of its tail. "Forget about me?!" she and Rich heard from the other robot as it mimicked Val's voice.
The electricity shocking Rich stopped for the moment and the Black Ranger flexed his hands as he once more attempted to get the Dragonzord to stop with the controls. The Zords legs held still despite the fact its upper body strained forward, as if it were trying to break the paralysis through sheer force. At the same time, its tail squirmed in the Battle Borg's grasp, the Pink Ranger grunting from the effort as she could feel the raw strength of the Dragonzord under her fingertips. The drill on its tail tip started and stopped in irregular spurts as its arms pinwheeled about, and it seemed to be helpless as the four Rangers heard Jason exclaim over the communications gear in their helmets, "Good job, guys! You stopped it from moving together! Now we need to decide--"
His voice halted as Val let out a battle cry and, after shifting its grip so that it had the Dragonzord's tail tucked under its left arm, had the Battle Borg begin elbowing the tail with its right arm, striking at the vulnerable spots between the segments. "Hey!" Rich shouted in alarm as the cockpit shuddered at each impact, "What do you think you're doing?!"
"Trying! To!" Val snarled back, punctuating each exclamation with another elbow strike,"Damage! It! Enough for! You two! To get! Out!"
"We're not going anywhere!" Rich shouted, "I've got its legs locked down, so just keep holding the tail still and we can figure out how to get this crystal stuff off of it!"
"I said! That's not! Going! To work!"
"How do you know if you're not even going to try?!"
And how do YOU know she hasn't before?!" Buff suddenly interjected, "I know the Dragonzord was mostly a good guy in the past but if you could see what it's looking like out here now, you'd know that you gotta let the old nerd robot crush go before it starts really hurting people here and now!"
"And if YOU were cognizant of the scenario in here," Amber shot back, a sharp note of frustration in her voice, "You would be showing reluctance to terminate this being in need of aide so callously!"
While used to his friend's hash tone, something about Buff's words struck a nerve in Rich and his iron grip on the controls loosened as he muttered, "It's not like I don't know that this guy's really dangerous right now..."
At the same time, Val was caught off guard at how aggressively the seemingly sweet, soft-spoken woman she was just getting to know had lashed out at her. Uncertainty began to well within her as she stopped her attack, the Pink Battle Borg's grip on the Zord's tail loosening as she muttered,"It's not like I WANT to destroy it..."
With both forms of restraint weakened, the Dragonzord let out a savage roar and lashed its tail upward. The movement fully broke the Battle Borg's grip, sending it and Val stumbling backwards. The purple energy surged and crackled around the Dragonzord's body with renewed intensity as its appearance mutated once more.
Its swooping, golden shoulders became thick, jutting spires of red-veined purple crystal. More crystal spikes grew out of its back, traveling down its spine and each segment of its tail. When it reached the tip, the drill was turned to crystal and encircled by four more, smaller crystalline drills. Even more spikes grew out of its knees and elbow, with the second row of crystal teeth growing enough in size to partially force the Dragonzord's mouth open into a jagged grin.
Still crackling with malevolent energy, the corrupted Zord whirled around to face the Battle Borg and unleashed an unexpected volley of purple and red laser beams from its eyes. The blast hit the Pink Battle Borg straight on the chest, setting off multiple explosions over its body as the smaller robot's armor threatened to buckle under the strain of trying to disperse such a tremendous amount of force. When the Dragonzord fired its new eye beams again, the Battle Borg tried to dodge but the damage it had taken slowed its response time enough that the blast hit the right side of its face.
The resulting explosion spun the Battle Borg around before it collapsed to its knees, clutching at its shattered and sparking right eye. Val collapsed as well, the part of her mind that knew her own physical eye was not actively damaged utterly overwhelmed by the waves of literally blinding agony that flowed across the psychic link.
"H-Hey," Buff called out in helpless frustration, "Maybe it's time to pull back and rethink this a bit, Pinkie!"
The situation in the Dragonzord's cock pit was no less dire. A renewed wave of electrical shocks, far more powerful than the first, zapped Rich over and over again. He still held the controls tightly, the Black Ranger unwilling to let go despite the agony he was feeling. The lighting around Amber and himself had stopped flashing, solidly remaining on the ominous purple tone as Rich leaned into the energy. "Th-That the b-b-best you got?!" he grunted with a bravado he was clearly not feeling.
Amber was certain his Ranger suit was the only reason he had not already been fried to a crisp but it seemed he would not last much longer at the rate things were going. "This tactic is proving to be ineffective," she shouted,"We must withdraw and reassess our strategy!"
"Can't!" Rich groaned as he struggled to not fall over, "I let go now, it'll rampage all over the city!"
Down below, Val simultaneously huffed as she struggled to get back to her feet, "I can't! If I don't destroy it now, it'll rampage all over the city!"
Amber realized Rich was not going to give up, so she needed to decide if she wanted to gamble on her theory being correct or not immediately.
Reaching out and grabbing hold of the clover-shaped device, the Blue Ranger began to pull at it with all the enhanced might she could manage. At first the device looked like it would hold fast, Amber's arms visibly quivering with the effort. Shifting her body around so she could plant her foot against the wall, the Blue Ranger redoubled her efforts. After a few more seconds there was the sound of tearing metal and snapping wires as the clover-shaped device forcibly came free.
The effects inside the cockpit were instantaneous, the Black Ranger's hands reflexively letting go of the controls as the electricity stopped flowing through him. He slumped back in the pilot seat, the arms of his suit visibly smoking as he groaned softly.
Deciding that indicated she was on the right track, Amber grabbed the insulated section of several severed wires and twisted them so that the exposed, sparking ends touched some of the equally exposed circuitry beneath the device she had removed.
The Dragonzord was once again covered with energy but, instead of the purple-tinted influence of the Oez Crystal, it was the blueish-white of pure electricity. Stopping in its tracks, the Zord twitched in place wildly before small but multiple explosions raced up and down its body. Inside of the cockpit, bolts of electricity and more minor explosions began dancing along the control panel and exposed circuitry as Amber threw one of Rich's arms over her shoulders. "Evacuation is now mandatory," she said as she helped him stand.
"'Kay," Rich mumbled as he shakily braced himself for their leap out.
Due to a combination of their haste and the Black Ranger's weakened condition, their escape was not as graceful as their entrance. Tumbling out of the still sparking Zord's head, the two were flipped over onto their backs as they began to fall towards the ground thirty stories below. Amber was uncertain if their powers would allow them to survive the impact and, even if they did, she knew the landing was going to be intensely painful. She closed her eyes, bracing for the sensation of her spine suddenly hitting concrete.
"Galaxy Glider! Hang ten!"
Instead of crashing into the ground, the Blue Ranger found herself grabbed out of mid-air by what felt like an arm around her waist. Whoever had caught her then deposited her so that she was standing on a smooth surface and her stomach momentarily lurched as she found herself rising upwards again.
Opening her eyes, the first thing she saw was the Red Ranger's back. Looking down, she saw that the two of them were standing on what appeared to be a flying, red surfboard with a rocket booster on the back, two small, curved, triangular wings on the front, and a silver, foot-level wind shield. Amber rested her free hand on Jason's shoulder to help balance herself, noticing that he had Rich slung over his other shoulder, the Black Ranger weakly lifting his head to look at the Dragonzord as the Galaxy Glider began to put distance between them and it.
"When I say 'whoa'," Rich groaned, "I MEAN 'whoa'."
Shaking her head as Rich slumped back down, Amber looked up at Jason and asked, "Was this device how you were able to reach that unexpectedly fortuitous firing position to assist us with previously?"
"Yeah," Jason replied,"it was like you with that Turbo Blade earlier. I was thinking about how I needed to get around faster to try and help both groups and then I just suddenly knew I could call out for this thing."
Noticing the device still in Amber's other hand, Jason then asked, "So what's that you got there?"
"I am currently ninety-five percent certain that this is some form of energy regulator that also functions as the central hub for what appears to be a minor self-repair system," Amber answered, "If I have deduced that correctly, then its removal and the additional energy feedback I induced should mean that any further structural trauma to anything that allows for locomotion will effectively delay the Dragonzord's aggression upon the rest of the city until its systems can reboot and reroute to back-ups to effect regenerative efforts."
"So if we can get in a good enough parting shot to damage it," Jason said, "It'll take longer to patch itself up and give us at least a little time to comeup with a Plan C while it's on the mend."
"Affirmative!"
Guiding the Galaxy Glider behind the cover of a half-wrecked factory so he could set Rich down on the ground, he asked over his in helmet radio, "Buff! Val! Think you can give us that shot?"
Buff realized Val was not going to give up, so he needed to figure out some other way to help.
"Not sure," Buff replied, "Pinkie's looking pretty tapped out here."
"I can still fight," Val weakly groaned, as she and the Battle Borg made another attempt to stand that dropped them both back down to one knee.
"Can you even still SEE?! How are you expecting to hit anything even if--"
Looking up, he stopped as he noticed something about the Dragonzord's body as the electricity began to fade and it resumed stalking towards the vulnerable Battle Borg. There was a small gap in the armor on its right hip and while he did not know if it was an old injury or something created during the current fight, he knew there was a potential way to exploitit.
"Pinkie, can you charge up that glowy arm thing one more time?!"
"Think so," Val replied, the Pink Ranger's head starting to ache even more as she realized the intensity of the battle was making her reach the limit of her hydration far sooner than normal, "Why?"
"Power it up and when I give the word, you're gonna have to thrust upwards and to the right with it as hard as you can," the Yellow Ranger answered, "And we don't have time to argue, so get ready!"
For a moment, the Pink Ranger looked like she was gathering herself up to object but instead her shoulders slumped as she whispered, "Lightning Hand Command..."
The Dragonzord was now fully on top of the Battle Borg, its purple eyes glowing malevolently as it stared down at its wounded prey. It hissed, as if it were declaring its victory, as it raised its clawed hands to strike.
"NOW!" Buff bellowed at the top of his lungs.
"NOW!" Val shouted, completing the command as the Battle Borg's arm was enveloped in energy and she sprang upwards, thrusting her arm out as instructed with every last bit of strength her body had remaining.
Caught utterly off-guard, the Dragonzord was unable to stop the Pink Battle Borg attack. The smaller robot's hand and most of its forearm speared into the gap in its side, cutting through, metal, servos and circuitry enough that the larger robot's legs stopped moving entirely, its tail falling lifelessly behind it.
"Got it!" Buff cried out triumphantly.
His joy was short lived as, while its lower body was paralyzed, the upper body of the Dragonzord still functioned. With an enraged scream, it opened its mouth wide, firing a torrent of energy beams from its maw, its eyes, the spikes on its chest, and even the crystals on its shoulders. The combined blast struck the Pink Battle Borg so hard it was bodily thrown through the air to crash land in the water of the bay, minus the arm that remained stuck in the Dragonzord's torso.
Val did not have enough energy left to scream, simply collapsing to a sitting position as she silently clutched at her limply hanging arm. Unable to take any more damage, the Battle Borg flashed out of existence, its coin landing next to Val with a deep crack down the center.
The Dragonzord continued to howl in fury, its beams firing in all directions but stuck in place such that it could only hit already destroyed buildings or empty ground.
"Okay," Jason snapped,"We need to get out of here! Now!"
"Fortunately, Delta showed me where the emergency teleportation recall buttons for you guys were," Sarah called out over the radio, "I'm hitting them now!"
"We'll be back for you, Dragonzord," Jason muttered under his breath as he and the rest of the team were taken up by their own colored teleportation beams, "One way or the other."
\\
The doors to an elevator that had not been there when the team had left slid open, letting Delta-3 step back into the main chamber of the Command Den. "Valestera!" he all but screeched as he ran across the room towards the two medical examination tables that had been summoned,"Oh my my my! You've been injured!"
"It's not so bad now that the link with the Battle Borg has been turned off," Val replied from where she sat up on the examination table on the left, her helmet on a small table to the side, "Just need a little extra water and maybe an ice pack and I'll be fine."
Delta made a sound that was a combination of a whimper and a grunt before looking over at Rich on the right side examination table, his helmet also on a small side table. He sat up as well, even though his arms continued to dangle by his sides, and said, "I can still wiggle my fingers but they feel kinda numb. That's probably bad, isn't it?"
Delta-3 turned around and swiftly headed for a control console. "I'll get MRDs for the both of you and patch you both right up!"
"MRD?" Rich asked, noticing Val's slight twitch once Delta's back was turned and adding with a whisper, "Those things hurt, don't they?"
Val scowled at him but still whispered back, "Medical Recovery Devices can be... uncomfortable, yes."
On the other side of the room, Jason held his helmet under his arm as he alternated his gaze between his injured teammates and the image of the Dragonzord on the Viewing Ring above them. The Zord had stopped thrashing in place and blasting at its already leveled surroundings around one minute ago, presumably to focus on restoring mobility to its lower torso. He did not know if that meant they had hours or only a few more minutes to recover as well but, given the severity to which the Oez Crystal had already mutated the Zord, he was leaning towards the latter possibility being more likely.
A fist bumping against his shoulder drew his attention to Sarah, who was standing by his side and alternating her own gaze between him and the Dragonzord. "You wanna talk about what happened out there?" she asked, "You were being a little hands-off with all that."
"Trying to make the bes tof a bad situation," he replied, "They both had points and it wasn't like we had time to debate before the Dragonzord got into the city itself. Just wasn't expecting them to run off like that before I could get a word in. So it just seemed to make the most sense to send someone with them who'd be better for back-up considering what they wanted to do and help out where I could."
"It's true," Sarah agreed, "Buff probably would have just tried smashing everything instead of figuring out that gizmo like Amber did. And as smart as she is, Amber never would have noticed that opening to strike at like Buff did. But you really should have stopped at least one of them to focus on a single plan instead of splitting the difference."
"Which one would you have stopped?"
Sarah opened her mouth to answer but stopped, frowning thoughtfully as she looked back up at the Dragonzord again. She seemed as surprised as Jason was by the uncertainty in her voice when she finally replied, "Probably Rich?"
"It's not that easy, once you start thinking about it, huh?"
Sarah grunted under her breath before asking in return, "So what are you going to do now?"
Jason narrowed his eyes determinedly as he stated, "Get some answers so I can ask some questions."
He turned to where Delta-3 was walking back to the examination tables with what looked like an over-sized bar code scanner in each hand. "Hey Delta," he called out, "I need to go over something with you real fast."
"Of course, Jason," Delta replied, holding out the devices towards Buff and Amber, who were sitting on a pair of summoned chairs with their helmets on their laps, "These are called MRDs. Point them at the body part that's injured, pull the trigger when the light on the back turns red and then keep holding it down until the light turns green."
Taking the devices, Buff and Amber nodded at each other before heading towards Rich and Val respectively. Delta then made his way over to Jason, who quickly asked, "So is Val right? Once you get taken by that crystal stuff, it's all over?"
"So far," Delta replied,"that's been the case every time we've encountered someone in that condition while we were on the run."
"'So far'?" Jason and Sarah asked simultaneously.
Delta-3 tilted his head to the side in thought before answering with, "Well, given how quickly it mutates and regenerates whenever it's damaged, I've had a working theory that if you damaged the crystals on a host's body both repeatedly and rapidly enough it might be possible to overload and burn out the main shard controlling them from the inside."
"But you haven't found anything that can hit that hard, fast, and consistently yet?" Sarah asked.
"I'm afraid not."
Jason nodded. "Alright, next question. Sarah said you had to step out before because you were overseeing a part of finishing up our Zords. If you're back ,does that mean they're ready?"
"The Zords themselves are finally ready, yes," Delta-3 answered before he squirmed momentarily, "but the Megazord's sword isn't! I was originally planning to gather more combat data on all of you first so that it could be crafted to best fit your unified fighting style but I wasn't expecting things to escalate beyond the abilities of the Battle Borg so soon and I have no idea what to tell the Nanomorphs to make and oh my my my my my my!"
Jason hummed thoughtfully. "How long would this weapon take to finish if the drones started now?"
"It would depend. Probably not too long since they have the materials available but it would go a lot faster if they had a specific design in mind."
"So we've got a blank slate to create something that can cut and stab a lot of times really hard and really quickly."
Sarah's eyes suddenlywidened and a smirk came to her lips as she said, "Jason, I know EXACTLY what you're thinking of."
Jason smirked as well. "I figured. Think you can walk Delta through it?"
At Sarah's nod, he looked back over towards the other Rangers and said, "Thanks. Now I can go ask those questions."
Meanwhile, across the room, Amber was wordlessly running the MRD over Val's shoulder, the Aquitian squirming at the tingling sensations running up and down her arm. The silent treatment was proving to be equally uncomfortable and Val finally asked, "I've disappointed you, haven't I?"
"For the sake of full transparency," Amber replied tersely, "I can only answer in the affirmative."
After a moment to shift her aim to the next injured spot, Amber added, "You spoke about your enthusiasm for being a Ranger so intently, I was unprepared for you to abandon their major tenets of teamwork and trust for the sake of your own independent actions.
"I'm sorry," Val said as she looked down at her lap, once again surprised at how much Amber's disappointment upset her, "It's just been me and Delta for a long while now and we've been through a lot. A lot we haven't really had a chance to tell anyone about yet. I know it's no excuse but I'm still getting used to having... someone else there to tell it to."
Amber sighed, a small smile coming to her lips as Val's tone and body language convinced her that she was legitimately remorseful. "Once this situation has been satisfactorily resolved," she said, "perhaps we can spend more time getting you acclimated to that concept."
"I'd like that," Val replied as she smiled back and fought the urge to twitch as the MRD repaired a particularly sensitive spot on her shoulder.
"This thing working?"Buff asked as he held his MRD over Rich's arm, which he pulled straight to keep the limb steady.
"I can feel you crushing my wrist now," Rich replied through gritted teeth, "So I'd say it's working."
"I should crush your stupid nose," Buff growled, letting the limb go once he saw the light on the back of the MRD turn green, "Or maybe your entire moronic face. What were you THINKING out there?!"
Rich smiled ruefully as he replied, "Honestly? What we used to play together whenever we finished making a sand castle in the park's sandbox or at the beach on the lake."
Buff had to think about that for a few seconds before saying, "'Green Ranger and Dragonzord Smash Rita's Palace'? Seriously?"
"Yeah," Rich all but whispered as he rubbed his wrist with his other hand, "And it just felt so WRONG that we've only just started being Power Rangers and one of the first things we have to do is destroy something that's so important to our history? I just couldn't take it, best bud--"
Buff slapped him on the back of the head, Rich's eyes widening in surprise as he let out a yelp of pain. "Uh uh," Buff grunted, "You don't get to call me that. MY best buddy tells me what's eating him instead of just doing weird crazy things on his own."
He turned away from Rich slightly, folding his arms under his chest as he huffed, "Or at least he will from now on. RIGHT?!"
Rich rubbed the back of his head and sighed as he replied, "Yeah."
Jason, having finally made his way over, looked between the two pairs of his four teammates. "First things first," he said, "You two going to be okay?"
After both Val and Rich nodded, Jason turned towards the former and said, "I get that we've barely known each other twenty-four hours and you've obviously been through more than you've had a chance to tell us about yet. But even if you're just that used to working alone, you're part of our team now. If someone objects to something you want to do, you're going to have to trust me to address it real fast without you flying off the handle like that. Understand?"
He then turned to Rich. "And not gonna lie. You HAVE known me long enough that it hurt a bit when you ran off without letting me get a word in. I know this Ranger stuff means a lot to you but if I'm the Red Ranger then I need to trust you to trust me in doing Red Ranger things. Got it?"
Seeing that both of them were digesting his words, Jason took a breath before saying to the entire group, "Delta just let me know our Zords are ready to go."
The other Rangers reacted with a wide range of emotions. Amber looked nervous but curious, while Buff had an eager grin on his face. Val's expression became one of grim determination while Rich's became one of wide-eyed glee. "But before we go out there again," Jason said as he returned his attention to Val and Rich, "I need each of you to answer a question for me."
Jason first turned to Rich. "If we can't save the Dragonzord, we're going to need all five of us working together to destroy it. If it comes to that, will you go through with it?"
Rich's expression quickly grew more somber as he looked over at Val. "It let us in, y'know,"he all but whispered, "Some part of it's still in there and obviously wants help stopping itself. But if it really comes down to it or the city? I... think I can do it."
Nodding in acceptance, Jasonturned to Val. "And if there's a chance we can save the Dragonzord, even if it's only around a one percent chance or less, that's going to take all five of us working together too. If we tried that, even if it seemed hopeless, will you still work with us to do it?"
Val's expression softened ever so slightly, looking over at Rich with a small note of sympathy in her eyes. "I really meant it when I said I don't want to destroy it. I just haven't seen any other choice before. But I guess at some point you have to try for something more... hopeful."
Jason nodded again. "Then it sounds like, even if we don't like all the words on it, we're all on the same page for now."
"In that case," Delta said from directly behind Jason, startling the five as they all turned to look at the robot, "allow me to give you your new Power Chips."
Delta handed a red Chip toJason that had the image of a rounded spaceship embedded into it. "This, Jason," he said, "Will allow you to launch the Astro-Megafighter Amalgam Zord."
Walking over to Amber, he handed her a blue Chip which had the image of a tear-shaped car on it. "Amber, with this the Nova Racer Amalgam Zord is yours to control."
Turning around, Delta gave Rich a black Chip with the embedded image of a stallion pulling along some kind of Roman-looking pillar upon it. "Rich, this will let you roll out the Stallion Amalgam Zord."
Turning around again, the robot held up a yellow Chip for Buff which had a more rounded, robotic looking Allosaurus design on it than the Power Chip he used to transform. "Buff, you may now call upon the mighty Allosaurus Amalgam Zord."
Facing Val, Delta-3 handed her a pink Chip with a snarling fox design on it. "Valestera, this is your Pink Fox Amalgam Zord. It's as cunning and pure-hearted as you are."
Buff snorted in amusement as he commented, "Just ask her out already instead of fishing with the extra compliments."
"What?! No!" Delta snapped as Val glowered at Buff, "First of all, she's my friend! Secondly, how would that even work?!"
"Bufford's just yanking your power cable," Sarah called out, "don't pay him any--"
Her eyes widened in alarm as movement on the Viewing Ring caught her attention and she grew visibly tense as she said, "Guys, Dragonzord's starting to move again!"
Looking up as well, the five Rangers saw the Dragonzord's eyes flare back to life with a purple glow as its tail lifted off the ground to sway behind it once more. After taking a few tender steps to make sure its legs were working again, the crystal corrupted Zord appeared ready to resume its march onto the city proper.
"Perfect timing," Jason grumbled as the others scrambled to grab their helmets, "What's the status on the sword, Delta?"
"Still not done yet,"Delta replied, "but the Nanomorphs are following the design Sarah gave me, so I'd estimate you'll need to keep the Dragonzord busy for three to five minutes once you arrive."
"Alright then," Jason said, looking at the others gathering around him, "Everyone ready?"
As the rest of the team nodded at him, Sarah asked, "You sure you're going to be able to do this?" Sarah asked, "Amber's the only one of you with a license and I'm not sure it's rated for giant robots."
"Our powers have previously enhanced out combat and weapons knowledge," Amber replied, "It would be logical to presume they would provide assistance in this endeavor as well."
"And if not, we'll figure it out as we go," Jason added before gathering himself up and proclaiming, "But for now, we need to get back to the action!"
\\
Teleporting back to the battlefield, the Power Rangers found themselves staring up at the back of the Dragonzord. Each of them tightly gripped their new Power Chips as Jason stepped forward and inserted his into a secondary slot on the top of his Morph In Belt behind the one holding his transformation Chip. "ASTRO-MEGAFIGHTER!" the Red Ranger shouted, "TAKE OFF!"
"LAUNCHING ZORD!" the Belt intoned in response.
Somewhere in the farmlands of Angel Grove, a long abandoned farmhouse shuddered as the ground beneath it, the near-by barn, and the grain silos began to slide to the right. The shifting ground revealed a deep hole, out of which a launch pad rose. On the launch pad, its snub-nosed front pointed to the sky, was a large, mostly circular, red spaceship. The center section on the front was dominated by a large, blue-tinted, wedge-shaped windshield and on the back were two square, silver colored rocket boosters.
The rocket boosters roared to life, spewing out a massive cloud of water vapor and smoke as the ship rose up off the ground, the flare of light looking momentarily like a shooting star that had reversed course to try and return to space. Once it was high enough, the spaceship sharply turned to fly forwards at high speed towards the one who would pilot it.
"PINK FOX! AMALGAM ZORD!"the Pink Ranger cried before inserting her Chip," POWER UP!"
"UNSEALING ZORD!" her Belt confirmed.
Deep in Angel Grove Forest and Nature Preserve there was a river with a massive waterfall. Suddenly appearing through the torrents of falling water was a pair of glowing pink eyes. The source of the glowing eyes was a four-legged, pink colored Zord, it's sleek body and silvery head, legs and tail cast in the image of a fox. The Zord leaped out of the cave behind the waterfall and through the crashing water. It's head and tail eagerly perked up and its legs were a blur as it ran on top of the river towards the one who would wield it.
"I CALL UPON THE POWER OFTHE ALLOSAURUS!" the Yellow Ranger bellowed as he slammed his Chip home.
"AWAKENING ZORD!" was the reply his Belt gave.
In one of Angel Grove's abandoned rock quarries, the ground suddenly and explosively split apart. Fire belched upwards from the opening, as if a vein of magma had been pierced to release something primordial onto the world. Out of the flames rose a yellow and silver, bipedal Zord shaped and stylized like an outdated concept for one of the mightiest apex predators of the ancient dinosaur world. Radiating a primal fury, the Allosaurus Zord stepped out onto even ground and began to stomp towards the one it would lend its power to.
"I NEED STALLION ZORD POWER!" the Black Ranger shouted, his heart racing as he placed his Chip in its slot as well, "NOW!"
"FIRING ZORD!" his Belt responded.
High atop the snow covered peaks of Angel Grove Mountains, a hidden hatch on the highest point slid open and a giant cannon extended out from it. After taking a moment to aim in the direction of the city, the cannon fired, shaking the mountains around it with the force of its blast.
The projectile that was shot out of the cannon was a black and gold robot in the shape of a stallion, a pair of chains attached to the bit in its mouth letting it pull along a black and gold weapon platform that resembled a Roman-looking pillar with a multi-barreled Gatling Cannon on top. It galloped through the air, racing towards the one it would aide.
"NOVA RACER!" the Blue Ranger called out as she firmly clicked in her Chip, "ACCELERATE!"
"REVVING UP ZORD!" her Belt replied.
In downtown Angel Grove, the sound of squealing tires emanated from somewhere deep inside a long abandoned underground parking garage. Roaring out up the exit ramp and onto the street was a blue, tear-shaped car with a wedge-shaped windshield that took up most of the front end, a large concave spoiler on the back end, and rear tires that were far larger than those on the front.
The car began racing down the road as it was enveloped in blue energy and, in a flash of light, expanded to more than ten times its previous size. Still fitting on Angel Grove's over-sized highways, the machine sped towards the one that would drive it.
The five Zords quickly met up, continuing their journey towards the Rangers in a v-shaped formation. The Astro-Megafighter was at the vanguard as the Stallion Zord landed to race alongside Nova Chaser while the Pink Fox and Allosaurus Zords took up the rear.
"There they are!" Jason called out as he pointed towards where the five machines appeared over the horizon, "So do we jump up into them or--"
A beam of light in the color of its respective pilot shot out from each Zord, striking the appropriate Ranger and teleporting them to their cockpits.
"Well, that answers that,"Jason remarked as he landed in his seat and reflexively took hold of the flight stick in front of him.
"Quite the change from the Battle Borg," Val muttered to herself as she placed her hands down on the large metallic control pads in front of her.
"Somehow, I expected this thing to be even bigger," Buff said as he took hold of the hand grips in front of him.
"This is quite the prodigious new car smell," Amber gasped as she clutched the steering wheel.
"Oh man, these things actually DO have stereos!" Rich giggled as he gripped his Zord's twin control sticks.
Looking at the Megafighter's view screen, Jason saw that the Dragonzord had turned towards them. It seemed the promise of a foe to battle was still more enticing to it than a cruel rampage but there was no telling how much longer that would remain the case. "As much as I'd love to give these things a proper shakedown," he said, "We're gonna have to go straight to Megazord for this one!"
As soon as the words finished leaving Jason's lips, the Power Chip for his Zord popped out of his Belt. He reflexively caught it and, given the sounds of surprise he heard over the radio, guessed the same had happened to the others. A slot on his console snapped open, the insides glowing faintly with red light, and he knew what to do. "Okay, everyone,"the Red Ranger called out, "On three!"
"ONE! TWO! THREE!" the five shouted together as they inserted their Chips into the slots that were glowing their respective colors and then held on as their machines began to transform.
The nose of the Megafighter split in half vertically, the two halves and the circular outer sections of the Zord swinging around to transform its profile from a UFO-shaped spaceship to a torso with leg stumps.
The chains at the Stallion Zord's mouth detached and retracted into the sides of the pillar-like weapon platform. The Stallion circled around to stand side-by-side with the platform as it rolled to a halt, the Gattling Cannon suddenly flying off and teleporting to somewhere else. At the same time, the Stallion's legs folded up against its sides before the back two-thirds of its body swiveled upwards, completing their transformation into a pair of legs and feet. Square shaped slots opened on the top of both legs, which the leg stumps of the Astro-Megafighter were able to attach to as it landed on the two halves of the Stallion Zord with a loud, metallic click.
The Pink Fox Zord jumped into the air, its tail swiveling up to lock in to a depression on its back as its legs curled up against its sides. A metallic gauntlet, its fingers extended in a knife-edged chop, teleported in and locked onto the front of the Fox, covering its head. Its transformation into an arm complete, the Zord attached to the left side of the Astro-Megafighter's torso.
The Allosaurus Zord leaped upwards as well, its small arms drawing up against the sides of its chest as its legs did the same against its lower torso. The Zord's chest popped open to allow the head to rotate inside, revealing a clenched fist beneath it. Once the chest closed and the tail flipped around to become a shoulder spike, its transformation into another arm was complete and it attached to the right side of the Astro-Megafighter's torso.
Nova Chaser sped past the mostly completed body, putting some distance between the two of them before making a hard U-turn. As it raced back towards the combined machines, the windshield on what was now the Astro-Megafighter's chest partially swung open. At the same time, booster rockets fired to life on the bottom of the car-based Zord, launching it into the air. The back end of Nova Chaser detached from the rest of the vehicle, with the spoiler detaching from that in turn, and rotated around to reveal the underside of that section was a silver robotic face with solid yellow eyes and a metal plate covering its lower half.
The rest of Nova Chaser fell into the angled opening provided by the Astro-Megafighter, the windshield closing to lock it into place and revealing the large,white, circular crystal in the center of the car-based Zord's silvery under carriage that was in the same design as the crystals on each of the Ranger's Morph In Belts. Magnetic energy shot out from the top of the Megafighter, pulling in the head and turning it into position as the spoiler split in half down the middle. The head attached to the top of the torso, the two spoiler halves connecting to the sides of the head to give the appearance of a finned helmet.
Their Zords now combined as one, the five Rangers found themselves transported to a new, central cockpit big enough for all five of them with Jason in the center, Buff and Rich to his left and Amber and Val to his right. The team looked out the view screen in front of them to see the corrupted Dragonzord staring back at them, looking almost surprised to realize what was now standing before it.
"AMALGAM MEGAZORD!" they cried as energy visibly coursed over the new robot's body and its eyes flashed to golden life, "POWER UP!"
TO BE CONTINUED