EPISODE THIRTEEN
With the comet gone, there was no need for the people to stay out any more, and considering the catastrophic dangers that could have happened had it not been for the rangers’, no one was really too upset now that the comet was gone, probably never to be seen again.
The school yard stood empty, all the people, the setups, everything was gone. Celestia was back at home still under the care of her sister and her surrogate niece and nephew-in-law.
She received a phone-call from her husband that he would be home soon once the rangers had returned to base.
Soone, the rangers arrived flying their jets through the launch tunnel and landing safely, cruising to a gentle stop allowing them to taxi gently into the hangar.
Celesto, Twilight, Spike and Celesto were there to greet the rangers and congratulate them on a mission well done.
The rangers, all de-morphed, were just relieved it was all over. “I still don’t get how we managed to pull the comet away.” said Sunset.
“Well, thankfully you did…” said Celesto “Or we wouldn’t even be here to discuss it.”
The rangers all smiled proudly.
Twilight, however, was still pondering deeply. “It still doesn’t make sense. What did Vulcan want with the comet?”
“What else, to destroy us maybe?” suggest Rainbow.
“Not likely…” said Buddy “I mean wouldn’t he risk destroying himself in the process? No, there’s got to be something else for why he wanted it.”
Before anyone could say anything else, just as the hangar bay doors were closing, Krysta came flying through… having seen the jets coming in and followed them through the tunnel and into the base.
“HEY!!” she called out, capturing everyone’s attention.
“KRYSTA?!” everyone exclaimed.
The poor little bird flopped onto the floor near everyone, exhausted and so parched her could barely speak.
Fluttershy scooped her up, “Oh, you poor thing!” she said while tenderly comforting her.
“Krysta, what are you doing here?” asked Celesto “…And where’s Lightning?”
Krysta was still panting heavily and couldn’t make any clear words as she spoke. “Light… Monst… kidna… mach… Help!”
Help… was about the only word anyone seemed to understand, but they still couldn’t make the whole thing out. “Krysta, what are you trying to say?” asked Buddy.
“Monsta… big… monsta.”
“Monsters?” asked Rainbow, and Krysta nodded and then squawked “Light… Kidna…”
Spike tried to make out what she was saying, “Light Kidney? Light Kind of?”
Krysta could see this wasn’t working, and with whatever strength she had left, she managed to pantomime the situation.
“Lightning was kidnapped by monsters?” asked Twilight.
Krysta nodded vigorously, and everyone gasped in shock!
After Krysta was treated to a good long drink, she still felt exhausted but she found her voice again and explained to them everything happened on the beach.
“So it was Lightning who helped us.” said Rainbow.
“Lucky he did what he had done,
He helped saved us all and everyone.” said Rhymey.
“Yeah…” Krysta said, her voiced sounded a bit tearful, “But then these bad guys just came out and took him away. I couldn’t do anything, so I came looking for you guys for help.”
The others felt very bad for Krysta, knowing she and Lightning had such a strong bond. They also felt worried for Lightning, unable to imagine what he was going through in Vulcan’s clutches!
“You just got to help me find him!” cried Krysta, almost fully crying, “I could never live with myself if anything happened to him.”
Sunset tried to calm her down. “We want to help Krysta, but…”
“But what?!” shouted Krysta “What are you saying you won’t do it?!”
“No, it’s not that at all.” replied Sunset “It’s just we don’t know where Vulcan’s tower is. We’ve tried everything and so far we still can’t locate it. We don’t even know where to start looking.”
The others nodded regretfully agreeing with Sunset. Now Krysta was having a hard time hanging onto any hope she had left of saving her friend, and she sobbed little tweets.
Fluttershy held her close comforting her. “I can’t stand seeing a little bird… cry!” she peeped, and let out a soft sob herself.
Rhymey hated seeing his girlfriend so upset, but he and the others all felt badly for Lightning too, especially Celesto, he gripped his walking-stick tightly and prayed “Lightning, wherever you are… please be alright!”
Suddenly, the alarms went off.
“What now?” Rainbow asked annoyingly.
Twilight dashed to the computer and immediately saw, “It’s Vulcan!”
Everyone raced to the computers to see Vulcan, or rather a giant holographic image of him, like from way back before, had appeared in the night skies about the city, and he had a rather sinister grin on his face!
(Que Intro)
Everyone on the island who still wide-awake looked up at the sky and saw the frightening image of Vulcan in the skies above the major city.
“Now hear this, Power Rangers…!” Vulcan called out over the city “I hereby challenge all of you to a battle.”
The team hear him and all exchanged looks of concern.
“Come to the southern beach of your island, Nine-O-Clock tomorrow night. I’ll be there waiting, and it would be most unwise for you not to show up, because I have something… or rather someone close to you.”
A small image of Lightning, bound to a chair appeared next to Vulcan’s image.
“Lightning!” cried Krysta.
“It is him…!” added Spike.
The image of Lightning faded, and Vulcan threatened “If you agree to show up, I’ll let him go, but if you don’t… well, you get the idea. Also… if you don’t show up…!”
He unleashed a wave of fire so massive that the entire city seemed to become a blazing inferno, frightening all the people everywhere.
Even the rangers screamed on horror, Fluttershy turned away, and Rhymey held her close.
“Damage report!” shouted Celesto.
Twilight was about to look into it, when suddenly all the fires had gone away; it was all an illusion.
“You see now… how it is.” Vulcan hissed “If you don’t show up, I’ll roast your friend and your island to ashes! This time… for real…!”
With that said, the image vanished and all was quiet, but you can bet your shoes the rangers were deeply concerned.
Meanwhile, Vulcan felt most content with making his threat. “Like business says: Make them an offer they can’t refuse.”
He then turned to face Bronc, “Is everything ready for the next phase?”
“Yes, sir…” replied Bronc, “The prisoner has taken his place already.”
In another chamber, Lightning strapped to a metal board and tilted upright to face a large injector-ray that was pointing right at him.
Try as he did, he couldn’t break free. “You creeps won’t get away with this!” he shouted to everyone.
Marla sighed “Can’t anyone come up with a phrase better than that? It’s so last century!”
“Never mind…” said Keto “Let’s get started…” he signaled to the Lingos to power up the machine.
“What are you going to do to me?” Lightning asked.
Marla and Keto just snickered but didn’t answer him as the machine was charged up, infused with the gathered volcanic and comet energies.
Vulcan and Bronc joined them all, and Vulcan threw the switch, firing a powerful beam straight at Lightning.
Lightning screamed and yelled as the powerful burning rays struck him. It felt as if there was hurricane going on inside his body changing him as magical badge, larger than the rangers’ morphed badges, appeared on the front of his shirt… which resembled that of a comet.
Then in bright flashes, Lightning had become a Power Ranger!
He wore a silver suit, with white boots, and golden pads around his shoulders, arms and knees and matching golden belt, a big white vest with his comet-badge on the front. His white helmet with two gold streaks on the side, a small golden point on the forehead, and his visor was a six-pointed star-shape.
Everyone gazed in awe at the sight of the creation, and the ranger growled behind his helmet, actually wrenching himself free from bondage, and looking edgy for a fight.
“The control codes are working.” said Bronc “He’s completely under our influence.”
Vulcan smirked and then approached the snarling ranger. “Good evening, Comet Ranger.”
Lightning turned to face him.
“Your powers have been created by the cosmic essence from the stars, and volcanic energy to enhance your natural abilities.
Tell me… what’s the first thing you’re going to do?”
Lightning glared at him seriously though his helmet and replied, in a rather deep and raspy voice, “…I will destroy the power rangers, Master.”
Vulcan snickered and laughed at the response, feeling the rangers were sure to be in for a surprise now.
Meanwhile, the rangers had been conversing all over Vulcan’s threat.
“It’s a trap, it’s got to be.” said Sunset.
“I agree…” said Buddy “Knowing Vulcan, he’s probably just trying lure us into the open to get at us more easily.”
“But what about Lightning?” cried Krysta “We can’t just leave him with that monster like that?”
“She’s right…” agreed Celesto “And don’t forget the other part of the ultimatum. Vulcan said he would destroy the city. The thought of such consequences cannot even bare consideration.”
Rhymey pondered over everything at hand,
“If we accept it could be bad for us,
If we don’t, it’ll still be dangerous.
Either way it doesn’t look good,
But as for accepting, I think we should!”
The others gawked at him, but Fluttershy agreed with her boyfriend. “Lightning helped save us from Xaydie, remember?”
The others did remember, the time they faced the evil witch-doctor, but their powers were running low. Had it not been for Lightning using Twilight’s magic-absorber to drain Xaydie’s own power to give them all the edge they needed, they all would have been destroyed, as well as the world.”
“She’s right.” said Rainbow, “And he did help us out twice now… I’m in.”
“So am I.” added Buddy.
“I guess that’s it then.” said Sunset “…We go!”
All day the next day, the rangers didn’t waste a single moment and spent the entire time training at the base and in the open fields for the big battle; practicing their combat moves, lap running, their weapon handling; all this while their old Starfleet song played in the background!
Celesto and Twilight kept a watchful eye over the rangers as they trained, and provided them with cools drinks and towels for break time.
“Ah, man!” Buddy panted “This is so not the way I wanted to spend my weekend.”
“Yeah…? Well imagine how Lightning must feel right now.” said Rainbow, but her words worried Krysta. “Please don’t say things like that, I’m worried enough as it is.” she chirped.
“Easy, Krysta… Rainbow didn’t mean to worry you.” said Celesto. “Yeah, Krysta, we’re going to do the best that we can tonight.” added Sunset.
Krysta didn’t feel too much better, until Fluttershy softly stroked her head and said, “Try to be brave, like you are when you’re with Lightning every day.”
“This coming from a girl scared of her own shadow half the time.” Spike muttered, but he received a small nudge from Twilight for that remark.
Krysta thought back to the many advantures she and Lightning had, and how she always managed to maintain her courage while with him, and even when they were separated she usually didn’t let it get to her… mainly because they had never encounter dangers like this before.
“…I’ll try, but no promises.”
Then, late that night, due to the impending threat, many armed police forces from around the island setup at the southern beach, waiting for anyone suspicious to show up.
Vulcan’s minions were hiding nearby, and naturally they didn’t take kindly to the uninvited “pests”
“We can’t have these fools here, it wouldn’t make the fight a fair one.” said Bronc.
“I got this one…” Keto said as he raided his staff, “Song of Stasis!”
The cops heard the sound of the music playing and wondered what it was and where it was coming from… when suddenly, in a bright flash, they were all frozen in solid ice right on the spots.
“Okay, that is actually cool.” remarked Marla “Or should I say… Cold.”
Keto’s magic would keep the guards frozen so they would not interfere in the ensuing battle, but it wouldn’t work on the rangers as the power from their morphers made them resistant to it like they were to most of his mugics.
It didn’t seem to matter much to him anyway.
“The rangers should be here any moment.” said Bronc “Let’s move.”
No sooner had the minions run off when the rangers, not morphed, arrived on the scene through a jump tube.
Sunset contacted the base where the rest of the gang were viewing them. “We’ve arrived, but it all seems quiet… too quiet.”
“Stay cautious, Sunset.” Celesto answered “Twilight detected signs of alien activity moments before you got there. Be ready for anything.”
The rangers continued to look around, but all they could see were sand, boulders, water, the old wooden pier docks that were falling apart and were going to be demolished and replaced soon.
Suddenly, they heard a rustling sound. Fluttershy whimpered nervously, and Rhymey held her hand to calm her.
“Who’s there?” Buddy called.
No response!
“Come on out! We’re not afraid of you.” shouted Rainbow.
After a moment of silence, the rangers were suddenly swarmed at by a whole hoard of Lingos.
“As we did fear,
The welcome wagon’s here.” said Rhymey.
“Go!!” shouted Sunset, and the rangers split up to make short work of the Lingos.
Sunset kicked one Lingo in the chest, and elbowed two more that tried to sneak up from behind her.
Buddy leapt over a huge boulder and ducked down behind it waiting for the three Lingos following him to jump over as well, once they did and landed on the sand, he surprised them and attacked from behind.
Fluttershy was surrounded and looked as if she was cowering as the Lingos approached to take her, but really it was just an act as she thrust her fists out, punching two Lingos out, and then she got down and did a whirl kick to trip all the others up. “I’m not as meek all the time.” she gloated.
Two Lingos leapt up high and punched Rainbow hard and sent her skidding along the sand. “That does it! Time to play ball…!”
She noticed a discarded volleyball near her and playfully passed it between her feet, much to the Lingos confusion, until she swiftly kicked the ball causing it to fly past the two Lingos, bonking them in their faces, and down they went.
“You’ve just been served.”
Rhymey flipped one Lingo down, and back kicked another. Then he was surrounded by four more, but he waited until they charged him all at once and he flipped up high causing the Lingos to crash into one another.
“Out of sight,
It serves you right.”
With the last of the Lingos gone, the rangers all regrouped.
“You guys alright?” Sunset asked.
“Yeah, we are.” replied Buddy.
“We sure showed those punks.” added Rainbow.
Suddenly, the rejoicing was ceased by the sound of a wicked laugh. The rangers turned to look up the slope and there they saw Marla, Bronc and Keto… standing beside their master.
“It’s him!” cried Fluttershy “It’s really him!”
“Vulcan!” Sunset sneered softly. The other rangers all clenched their fists and glared angrily up at him.
“Greetings, Rangers. We finally meet in person.” Vulcan hissed “I hope you enjoyed that little warmup we prepared for you, because now things are about to get serious!”
The rangers felt chills run down their spines, but Sunset stepped forward, “Where’s our friend? You said you’d let him go if we meet your challenge.”
Vulcan and the others just laughed at her, and Vulcan said, “One of the very first rules of business my dear: Don’t trust anyone!”
“Why you double-crossing dealer!” snarled Buddy “You just wait until we get through with you. Then you’ll regret having ever fought us.”
The others agreed, but Vulcan laughed again and he said, “Whoever said that I would be fighting you myself?”
Now the rangers were confused.
“Enough of this stalling,
Let’s all get brawling.” Rhymey suggested, and the others agreed with him.
“It’s Morphin’ Time!” said Sunset, and the rangers prepared themselves.
“Morphing Sequence… Ready!”
“…STARFLEET MAGIC… POWER ON!!”
Once they were all morphed they did their role calls…
Sunset: “Evil’s Dread! Starfleet Red!”
Buddy Rose: “Let’s make the scene. Starfleet Green!”
Rainbow: “We’ll see things through. Starfleet Blue!”
Rhymey: “Though peace and Woe! Starfleet Yellow!”
Fluttershy: “Quick as a Wink! Starfleet Pink!”
All together they stood and shouted “POWER RANGERS STARFLEET!!”
Vulcan and his minions simply stood where they were, with their arms folded as if nothing amusing was happening.
“Let’s get ‘em!” shouted Sunset. The rangers agreed and they all charged for the villains, only to suddenly get bombarded by powerful blasts. Sparks and explosions flew all around knocking them off their feet, but it wasn’t the villains who did the blasting.
“Where’d that come from?” asked Rainbow.
She got her answer as a stranger leapt out from the shadows landing before them-- another Power Ranger, much to the rangers shock and horror.
“It can’t be!” cried Buddy.
“Oh, my goodness!” peeped Fluttershy.
The others were speechless as the new rangers glared at them, growling softly and clenching his fists. “Power Rangers… Prepare to meet your doom!” he shouted at them.
None of the rangers could recognize his raspy voice, but knew this guy meant nothing but trouble.
At the base, everyone was stunned by what they were seeing. “I don’t believe this!” cried Spike “Neither do I…” added Twilight.
“Vulcan’s created his very own ranger.” said Celesto. He and Twilight scanned the new ranger, and his power levels were very high.
“How do you like my little surprise?” Vulcan teased “Meet my Comet Ranger, designed from the very information we got from your computer friend.”
The rangers suddenly remembered the data stolen from Twilight’s computer, and that Vulcan had gained just enough info to create this new ranger, by infusing the powers of volcanic and comet energy.
“We still have the advantage, we do.
There are five of us and only one of you.”
Comet Ranger snickered, “You have no idea how powerful I am.”
The rangers all stood glaring at him like cowboys ready to draw.
“Go!!” shouted Sunset, and she and other others charged forth, and Comet Ranger lunged at them as well.
Vulcan snickered, “Let the chaos commence!”
Comet ranger leapt up and over, landing on the sand with the rangers all coming at him from different directions, but they soon discovered that even at five to one, this ranger was something else!
Fluttershy got punched hard…
Rhymey tried to punch back, but Comet Ranger blocked him with a kick and then whirl kicked him tripping him off his feet.
Rainbow and Buddy both tried to gang up on him at once with a double karate-chop, but he blocked them with his arms criss-crossed in front and socked them both away hard.
Even Sunset couldn’t seem to get at him.
At the base, the others saw everything. “This guy’s fighting circles around the team!” cried Spike.
Twilight calculated more information about this new ranger, “I’ve never seen anything like this. It’s like he has the power of ten people, but I still can’t tell who he is. His suit blocks the scans.”
Krysta gazed at the Comet Ranger and noted his familiar fighting-style. She began to have a worried feeling “Could it be…?”
Celesto then had an idea, “Activate the vocal scan, maybe we can crosscheck his vocal waves.”
Comet Ranger leapt forth and booted Sunset hard in the chest, making sparks fly and sent her sailing back hard across the sand.
“Sunset…!” Buddy called as he and the other rangers dashed to her and helped her up, “Are you alright?”
“Yeah, I think so…” replied Sunset.
Comet Ranger laughed at them, “Fools, you’ve only just had a sample of my powers.”
“Yeah?” snapped Sunset “Well let’s see how you like this… Ready the Star Slammer!”
“Weapons Combine”
“Star-Slammer… Ready!”
The rangers all stood together as Sunset held the weapon, “Any last words…?” Sunset called.
“Yes… six actually…” hissed Comet Ranger “Let me show you my trick…”
With that, his body began to flare up like red hot flames; the volcanic energy that powered his suit and his strength.
“Whoa! What’s he doing?” asked Rainbow.
“Quick, let’s get him before he does… whatever it is.” cried Fluttershy.
“Right!” agreed Sunset “Altogether now…!”
“STAR SLAMMER… ULTRA-STRIKE!!”
The rangers launched the Star Slammer to strike Comet Ranger, but much to their surprise; he raised his arms out and blocked the slammer as it came down on him, and he actually knocked the star away… causing Sunset to lose the weapon from her grip
“I don’t believe this!” cried Sunset.
Vulcan and his minions laughed. “Nice try rangers…” Vulcan called to them, and then he shouted Comet Ranger “…Let them have it!”
Still glowing, Comet Ranger stuck out his hands, and his gloves began to glow with a white cosmic light.
“COMET TRAIL … FIRE!!”
Out from his hands he fried two large bursts of powerful cosmic energy that struck the rangers all very hard in a massive explosion.
At the base, everyone gawked in shock, and Twilight’s glasses slipped off her face when she winced.
The smoke from the explosions cleared, and the rangers all lay in the sand, un-morphed, and looking rather beat from the blast. They could hardly seem to find the strength to get up again.
Comet Ranger was no longer glowing, but he snickered at what he had just done and the sorry sight the rangers were in.
“Wow! That was incredible!” cried Marla. “He’s amazing!” added Keto. “I agree…” said Bronc.
Vulcan snickered, “Well done, Comet Ranger… now finish them off! We have a planet to conquer.”
Comet ranger nodded at him, “At once, sir…” and he stomped his way towards the downed rangers ready for the final attack, when suddenly he stopped dead in his tracks and began to feel strange… hurt… woozy!
“What are you doing?!” snarled Vulcan “Finish them off!”
“Something must be wrong!” said Bronc “It seems the ranger powers are having a negative impact the human’s body.”
Comet ranger finally collapsed on the sands, and he could barely move any better than the rangers could, much to their shock.
Vulcan was most outraged. “Well, what are you standing here for?!” he thundered at the minions “Get him and bring him back to the tower so we can work on these bugs!”
Keto and Marla quickly did as they were told, and took Comet Ranger with them.
While they were distracted, “Come on… we’ve got to get away while we can.” said Sunset.
“But wait…” cried Fluttershy “What about Lightning, we still don’t have him…”
“Run first, worry later.” said Buddy, and all the rangers dashed for the nearest Jump tube to head back to base.
Vulcan growled as he watched them leave, having missed his chance to destroy them himself. “Run while you can rangers... I know you don’t have a chance against what I’ve created.”
With that, he and the minions teleported away with Comet Ranger in tow… and no sooner had they left did Keto freezing spell wear off on the police.
Every single one of them was physically fine, but didn’t remember a thing that happened.
Once Vulcan and the minions got back to the tower, Lightning, un-morphed, was placed on a medical table and slowly being treated to, but he was unconscious by anesthesia.
The control codes in his comet morpher would only keep him under Vulcan’s influence so long as he had the morpher on him. If it were removed at any time, he would be back his old self.
Marla gazed pitifully at Lightning and said, “What a wimp. I knew he couldn’t do it.”
Keto
Bronc was working hard to work out the bugs in the comet ranger powers so they wouldn’t be so fatal to Lightning using them so much. “Apparently we didn’t consider how frail his human body really was.” he said to Vulcan “I should be able to correct the imbalance so this will not happen again.”
“You had better…” hissed Vulcan “We were this close to finally being rid of the rangers and THIS HAD TO HAPPEN…!!”
Bronc shook off the shock from Vulcan’s shouting and pointed out, “At least we know for sure the rangers haven’t a chance against him, and they still haven’t seen all of Comet Ranger’s greatness yet. There are still a few things they don’t know.”
Vulcan’s outrage faded into a sinister grin, “Quite right…”
The rangers made it safely back to base and went straight to the medical ward to have their injuries treated by the doctors and nurses.
“That ranger nearly beat us like we were bugs.” said Sunset “If he hadn’t suddenly collapsed we’d have been destroyed for sure.”
Everyone else felt the same way.
“Urgh…!” growled Rainbow “The next time I see that creep, I’ll break him limb from limb and use his head as a soccer-ball!”
“Oh, really… like he almost did to each of us?” Buddy protested “That guy was like fighting a steel wall, and we could barely land a hit on him.”
“That’s not even the worst of it…” Fluttershy pointed out, “After everything we went through, we still didn’t get Lightning back from Vulcan.”
Everyone held their heads low, also feeling outraged that Vulcan double-crossed them.
“Vulcan may have kept his word not to torch the town,
But the fact he didn’t return Lightning makes him low-down!” said Rhymey.
The others agreed, and all felt the same way, and Sunset said. “The next time he and his Comet Ranger show up… we’ll get them!”
The others couldn’t agree more.
Just then Celesto, Twilight and the two animals came into the ward, and all four of them had hard and concerned expressions on their faces. “Rangers, there’s something you need to know.”
Krysta, sitting on Twilight’s shoulder was shaking badly as if she had seen a ghost, but she seemed more on the verge of tears than scared. “I can’t believe it! I won’t believe it!” she kept on saying.
“What’s wrong?” Fluttershy asked.
Twilight, feeling equally as shocked and upset got out her laptop and explained, “During the fight, I was able to record Comet Ranger’s vocal waves, and I ran them through the vocal filter, and well… look.”
She showed them all the images of her laptop, images of the Comet Ranger, and with a simple touch of a key, she played the ranger’s raspy voices, and then another press and the sentence repeated itself in a voice that sounded very familiar to everyone.
“That voice!” cried Sunset.
“No way, it can’t be…!” said Rainbow.
“Yep… afraid so…” Spike blurted, and that’s when Twilight hit the key again and the computer showed the only possible match of the person the voice belonged to.
…Lightning Dawn!
Everyone was completely speechless!
To Be Continued…!