//------------------------------// // Episode 2: Test of Question // Story: Power Rangers SUPER Starfleet (Starfleet Humans) // by DakariKingMykan //------------------------------// EPISODE TWO It was the first Monday of May, and the very last month of school before summer. This meant final exams were coming for the students of Canterlot High. Many of them had already begun their hard cramming and buckling down to ace their tests, which weren’t for a few weeks, but many of them wanted to pass, especially those who wished to graduate. Durring a break period, the rangers and Twilight went to the school library to do some quick crash studying, and while Twilight didn’t seem too worried as she buried herself in her books, while the rangers were all bored to the bone. “Oh, this is giving me one heck of a headache!” groaned Rainbow “Math, Literature, Lightning’s History course, Biology… It’s just half the stuff I have to work on.” “Come on, Rainbow, we have to keep going, All this will help us keep our futures flowing.” said Rhymey. “He’s right…” said Sunset “After all, if we want to graduate, we need to pass these courses to get the last credits we need.” Fluttershy however looked a little sad. “You having trouble?” asked Buddy. “Oh, no… it’s not that. I’m just worried about graduating. Remember what we all talked about when the semester began?” The others all stopped and looked up from their books in concern. They remembered wondering what would happen to them when they all would graduate, since they wouldn’t have school to hang out at anymore. “I guess we’ve been so preoccupied with all this ranger stuff, we didn’t have time to think about that.” said Buddy. Now all of them felt a bit concerned about what to do, but the bell rang and they all had to head off to their next classes, “We’ll talk about it later.” said Sunset. With that, they all packed up and headed off. Meanwhile, Nacluv was going over the computers of the many types of monsters locked up in the prison, and while he did so, the minions were all arguing over ideas of how to get the rangers. “I say we send a creature to mess up their appearances.” said Marla “Then maybe they’ll know what it’s like when they mess up me.” “That is so lame it’s not even funny…” groaned Keto, “I say we sent a magical creature to turn those rangers into slimy worms. Then they’ll never be able to fight us.” “Ha!” snapped Bronc “I’ve got a better idea: We send a computerized creature to steal more of their secrets to use for ourselves.” “If by better you mean dumber!” jeered Marla. “You can’t talk to me, that way!” “You two are both crazy!” sneered Keto. Nacluv grew so annoyed with their bickering that he turned in his chair and let out a small shout, catching their attention, “How Vulcan ever put up with you three is beyond me!” he grumbled, and the minions felt ashamed. “Besides, I already have an idea…” and he clapped his hands calling forth a creature he had ordered to be released. The creature had a large book for its head with open pages, a ruler for his left hand, and a drawing compass for his right. “Crammer at your service, sir.” he hissed to Nacluv “I’ll beat you those rangers by giving them a lesson they won’t soon forget.” The minions were all confused by the sight of this creature, but Nacluv seemed impressed. “Maybe you could teach these three a lesson?” he suggested. The minions felt shivers run down their spines, but then Crammer demonstrated his power… off-screen. “What’s this supposed to be?” asked Marla. “I don’t know.” replied Keto. “I think I know…” said Bronc, but before he could do anything else, all three minions received a nasty shock from whatever it was that Crammer gave them. “Sorry, guess you’re not smart enough.” Nacluv chuckled, “Just what I was thinking.” he said hinting at the minions. “Now, go and challenge the rangers. Make it good…” “You got it, boss.” (Que Intro) That day at lunch, the rangers all went outside in the soccer-field, to get a breath of fresh air on a sunny day. Rainbow and some of the others were kicking the soccer-ball around, but Twilight was still buried in her textbook. “I don’t know how and where you get this concentration from, Twilight.” Sunset said playfully. “Really, well I don’t know where you don’t get it from.” Twilight teased. The girls giggled, Fluttershy was busy making a list of potential hangout places for the gang after graduation. “There’s my place… or at the mall… or even at the base.” Suddenly, she nearly broke down, “Oh, who am I kidding? This isn’t working at all.” The other girls shook their heads pitifully, “Fluttershy, it’ll be alright.” said Sunset “You should worry more about passing exams first.” Sadly, that didn’t make Fluttershy feel any better. Now she felt more nervous with all the pressure returning to her. As if that weren’t bad enough, Nikki came along and mocked, “Aw, poor Fluttershy nervous about exams?” Amber and Dionne snickered at her, much to the ire of the others. “Shouldn’t you be studying, Nikki?” Sunset asked. “Don’t need to. I, like totes got the finals nailed.” gloated Nikki. “Oh, really…?” asked Twilight, “Then surely you know the circumference of a hypotenuse is how long in measurement from the correct angle.” Nikki froze, and her cronies looked confused. “Like, what did she say?” asked Amber. “I don’t know.” said Dionne “Tell us, Nikki, you said you knew all that stuff.” “Um… yeah… well… I, uh…” Suddenly, Rainbow kicked the ball, “HEADS UP!” she shouted and Nikki ducked down just in time letting the ball zoom over her head, just missing her by a few inches. “Whoa, are you crazy?!” she panted stressfully, “I… I need to go chill. Come on girls.” Then they were gone, but Twilight and Sunset felt that Nikki just used that as an excuse because she was bluffing about the whole “Having it nailed” deal. “What’s up with her?” asked Buddy. “Ah, don’t worry about.” said Sunset. Rhymey then noticed Fluttershy was a little shaken. “Hey, You okay?” he asked. His girlfriend looked up and she tried to hide her worries, but he could already see it; the pressure of studying, and the thought of what to do after graduation. “Come on; let’s go for a walk, And you and me, we can talk.” He held out his hand so gentlemanly to her, and she smiled lovingly as she softly took it and they walked off together. “Aww…” the others cooed, and decided to let them have their privacy. “They’re so cute together.” Rainbow said, and the others agreed. Rhymey and Fluttershy loved taking walks together to help them forget their worries. “Um.. Rhymey… do you wonder what’ll happen to all of us down the road?” Fluttershy asked. Her boyfriend pondered deeply, “What the future holds is a mystery, for you, for me, or for anybody, I guess it’s all a matter of what you want to do, But one thing I know that I want; that’s to always be with you.” Fluttershy blushed, and turned away feeling warm inside, but then then she rested her head softly on his shoulder as they continued to walk, and he pecked her head. Suddenly, he stopped, and Fluttershy snapped her eyes open. “What is it?” she asked, but she saw herself… There, floating in midair before them was a math equation; “1+1=…” Fluttershy and Rhymey looked at one another, and then Rhymey raised his finger at the math problem, and he magically drew in the answer; “1+1= 2” and like that, the problem vanished in a small flash. Suddenly, another question appeared by Fluttershy: “Define Hypotenuse…” Still confused, she put in her answer, “Hypotenuse: The longest side of a right-triangle.” That question vanished too, but then many more appeared, and both Rhymey and Fluttershy, and the many bypasses gawked in curiosity and confusion. “What is all this about?” Fluttershy wondered aloud. “It’s unusual, no doubt.” said Rhymey. “Oh, it’s more than unusual!” snarled a voice, and the by-passers screamed as Crammer appeared. “This is your ultimate test, but you’ll fail!” Rhymey and Fluttershy clenched their fists. “Whatever you are, whoever you may be, We won’t let you win, you hear me?!” snarled Rhymey. “Wrong answer!” snapped Crammer, and at once, lots of the floating questions turned red and began to shoot lasers beams at everyone around, making small explosions! Rhymey and Fluttershy backflipped out of the way just in time, barely being missed. “Everyone, get out of here!” Fluttershy shouted to the civilians. The people ran for their safety, and after which, Rhymey activated his morpher-badge… At the same time, Sunset’s badge began to flash red, “Uh, oh… trouble!” Suddenly a whole stampede of panicking people came rushing from down the street, “I think we know which way it is.” said Rainbow. “I’ll head to the base and run a check. Good luck guys.” said Twilight. Then she dashed off and hid behind a tree, where a secret entrance to a jump tube; the network of which were honeycombed all over the island for quick travel to and from the rangers’ secret base. “Let’s go, guys!” cried Buddy, and off they went, and they all ran off just as the school bell rang for the start of next period, but the rangers were given special excuses when duty called… provided of course they catch up with their homework and make up assignments. Meanwhile, “Here’s a question for you…” hissed Crammer, and from his magic compass, he unleashed the question: “How will the rangers win…?” Naturally, he didn’t even give Rhymey and Fluttershy a chance to answer it, and made it turn red automatically, shooting at them. The two rangers dodged the laser fire again, and nodded at one another. “It’s morphin’ time!” cried Fluttershy. “Morhing Sequence… Ready!” “STARFLEET MAGIC… POWER ON!!” “Okay, you…! It’s one against two!” shouted Rhymey. Crammer laughed at him, “Oh, yeah, well, tell me what two times eight is? It’s sixteen!” and with that, he unleashed at least sixteen different questions, sending them straight at the two rangers, not even giving them a chance to look at them before being fired upon. Sparks and explosions flew all about, knocking the rangers down, but they got up and lunged at him before he fired anymore questions at them, but even still, Crammer proved to be just as good at fighting as well…! Rhymey punched for him, but got blocked by the creature’s large ruler arm, and he was swatted away, and Fluttershy kicked at the creature, but she got struck hard, with sparks, the compass arm, which was sharp like a sword. “Oh, my…! Fluttershy…!” Rhymey shouted as he dashed to her side. “Face it, you two power punks don’t have a chance!” snarled Crammer, but he suddenly got blasted at from behind, “What the?!” he growled as he turned round and saw the other three rangers. “Then why don’t we add three to the two?” Sunset teased. Rainbow lowered her cannon, and the other two rangers ran up to their friends, “You guys okay?” asked Buddy. “Yeah, thanks you guys.” replied Fluttershy. Cramer just snickered, “Well, well… three plus two is five, but what’s one plus a dozen?” and with that a swarm of Lingos appeared, “Get them!” “Let’s rumble!” shouted Sunset, and she and the others dashed forth, punching, kicking, and stomping all over the Lingos with ease, but Crammer still proved a dirty fighter, as he fired more quick questions out of his compass which blasted the rangers all over without even giving them a chance to answer them. Rainbow tried to shoot the questions down with her cannon, but her blasts went right through them, like passing through thin air, and the lasers still shot at her. The other rangers huddled around, “You okay, Rainbow?” Sunset asked. Rainbow felt okay, but outraged as well “And I thought cramming for a test was rough.” “How are we supposed to beat him like this?” asked Fluttershy. “The answer is… YOU’RE NOT!!” shouted Crammer, and he unleashed so many questions completely surrounding the rangers from all angles. From his tower, Nacluv watched the whole thing on the screens, and he chuckled softly, “School’s out, Rangers…” The questions were on all kinds of subjects, but there were so many all over the place, the rangers got woozy just looking at them all. Some of the questions didn’t even make sense as they seemed misprinted. “Spell “Mousetrap” in just three letters:…” “If you have 2 Coconuts, and your friends had 3 Coconuts, how many Coconuts would ten people like you and your friend have?” “What is the square root to the power of 29 of the trigonometric amplitude of 87 divided the quantitative hydraxis of 956 to the power of 77…?” “Ugh! The blood is rushing to my head! All these questions make me see red!” groaned Rhymey. “Get ready, guys. On my mark…” Sunset said softly to the others, and her friends caught on, while Crammer snickered “Final answer… rangers lose!” and with that, all the many questions turned red and fired so violently, making a big explosion where the rangers stood. “At last, I got them!” Crammer shouted, and he laughed and cheered for joy, but little did he realize that the rangers had escape through a secret jump-tube where they were standing, and just escaped with their lives. They rode the jump tubes straight to their secret base, and once there, they removed their helmets but remained morphed. “That’s as close as I ever want to cut.” panted Buddy. Celesto and Twilight were there to greet them, so was Spike, and they held a briefing to discuss about Crammer and his cheap tricks. “I never thought studying could be so dangerous before.” said Twilight. “That’s what I tell you all the time.” Spike muttered to himself. Rainbow clenched her fists and pounded the central table, “That monster’s as crooked as a curveball. Even if we got a chance to answer his questions and make them fade, he’d just make them shoot us anyway as if we guess wrong.” Sunset sighed, “Which leads us to the really big question: How can we beat him if he keeps cheating us?” Celesto chuckled softly, “I think you’ve just answered your own question there.” The gang all gawked at him, “Think it over again; you can’t beat Crammer because he cheats at his quizzing you, so perhaps you can use that to your advantage.” The rangers caught on… “You mean we can cheat him at his own game.” said Fluttershy. Rhymey then grinned widely, “And I think I know how… Let’s go back, right now.” “Wait, what’s your idea?” asked Sunset. “I’ll explain on the way, Right now just don’t delay.” said Rhymey. That said, the rangers grabbed their helmets and headed back for the jump-tubes. “I’ll call up Lightning.” said Twilight. “He was teaching a class, but he should be free now at period change.” added Celesto. Indeed, the bell rang and Lightning dismissed his History class. Unlike his fellow rangers, nobody knew of his identity-- that he was the Cosmic Comet Ranger-- and due to his being a teacher he couldn’t just waltz off in the middle of class whenever he wanted, without someone ready to stand in for him, despite the overall importance. Now that the period was up and next period would begin shortly… Once his classroom was emptied, his morpher-badge beeped from inside his blazer-pocket. He doubled-checked to make sure no one was watching, and then he answered, “This is Lightning…” “Lightning…” Twilight called to him “The others are heading downtown. There’s a monster on the loose, and they’ll probably need some backup.” Just then, someone came into the classroom; Principal Cadance, a ranger ally, and she was still in charge of Canterlot High since her Aunt Celestia was on maternity leave. “I can watch the class for you. Uncle Celesto just called me.” Lightning nodded, “Thanks,” and then he grabbed his morpher and headed off, out of the building and headed through a secret jump-tube nearby, and on the way, he morphed. “Cosmic Comet… Power On!” Meanwhile, Crammer, still believing the rangers were beaten, walked around town. “Now that the rangers are no more, I’ll start crushing the city. Nacluv will be pleased.” …And with that, he unleashed a swarm of his powerful, cheating, questions upon the city, making lasers fire. Breaking holes in buildings, blowing up the streets and frightening the people. “Guess the people aren’t too smart!” Crammer cackled. “That’s what you think!” shouted a voice. “What?!” Crammer was very surprised to see all the rangers, and Lightning, standing there. “But… but I destroyed you!” “Way wrong answer, pal.” said Sunset “Now it’s our turn to teach you a lesson!” One-by-one, the rangers did their roll-call. 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!” Lightning: “Fightning all danger! Comet Ranger!” And altogether they shouted “…POWER RANGERS… SUPER STARFLEET!!” “All right… Next question: How annoyed am I, and how fast am I going to destroy you?!” and he launched more cheating questions at the team. “Spread out!” shouted Sunset, and they all jumped away just in time before the lasers fired. “So what’s the plan again?” Lightning asked. “Listen to me, And you will see…” rhymey said, and then his whispered his plan that he already had told to the others. “Aha! I got’cha.” said Lightning. With the rangers all spread out, Crammer fired more questions than ever to shoot at them. “You can’t escape, Rangers! You’ll have to fail the test sometime!” The rangers dodged and evaded as many of the questions as they could, and some of them tried to face the monster head on to distract him from unleashing any more. The creature ruthlessly thrashed his weapons at the rangers, knocking them all off. “Sorry, that’s not the answer we’re looking for.” he teased, and then unleashed a huge swarm of more questions. “Now or never, Time to get clever.” muttered Rhymey. He signaled to all the other Rangers by waving, and they all waved back ready to put the plan into action. “If you can’t answer the questions, you’ll answer to the power!” shouted Crammer, and that’s when the questions turned red and prepared to fire. “NOW!!” shouted Sunset, and all the rangers quickly leapt right over towards the monster, just as the lasers fired, and then they quickly rolled out of the way causing the shots to blast the monster instead! “Hey, it worked!” cried Buddy. “Great plan, Rhymey!” said Fluttershy, and her boyfriend gave her a thumb-up. Crammer on the other hand was looking really beat up and smoldering from all the blasting. “No fair…!” he groaned “You guys cheated!” “It’s you who cheated.” snapped Lightning “And you know what we do to cheaters…” Sunset agreed, and she and the rangers brought their weapons together. “Weapons Combine!” “Star-Slammer… Ready!” “I’ll give you guys an extra boost,” Lightning said and he activated his gloves… “Come Gauntlets… Engage!” “Huh? Oh boy…!” cried Crammer as he watched the rangers prepare their attack. “STAR-SLAMMER… ULTRA-STRIKE!!” as they waved the weapon round and around, “Comet Trail… Fire!” Lightning shouted, and he gave some of his power to the weapon, strengthening it. WHAMM!! The weapon slammed right on the creature! “I CAN’T ANSWER TO THIS!!” Crammer shouted, and he exploded just like that! Nacluv saw the whole thing, and clenched his fists, “You think you’re so smart rangers? Well, see if you can answer to this…! …Keto!” Keto nodded and aimed his staff out the window, “FORTISSIMO!” The magic Mugic launched, made its way to Mystic Island and worked its magical music, sparing Crammer from capture and grew him to a tremendous size. The giant creature laughed and taunted, “There’s no questioning me now!” The rangers grunted, and Sunset called the base, “Jet-Star Megazord…!” Their zords were launched and already combined, and the rangers beamed aboard. As for Lightning, he powered up himself. “Comet Striker, Armor up!” “Summon Armor!” First he grew into a giant, and was then coated in a suit of armor, becoming his own megazord. “Comet Striker… Ready!” The rangers’ megazord raised its fist, whishing Lightning good luck. “Ha! How about a little crash course before the big test…?!” Crammer shouted as he charged forth. “Let’s get him, guys!” said Sunset. The two zords fought valiantly, punching and kicking hard, but Crammer managed to strike them both with his compass and his ruler, making sparks fly. Crammer laugher, “Too bad, Rangers… now try your brains at these!” “He’s created more questions!” cried Fluttershy. “Everybody, hang on!” said Sunset. The lasers fired, striking the two zords hard, “Whoa!” Lightning groaned, and the other rangers were rocked about in their cockpit, followed by a sharp right-tilt! “We’re going over!” shouted Buddy. CRASH!! The Megazord fell on its side! “No! Guys!” cried Lightning, and suddenly the monster ambushed him. “Six take away five leaves one! You may as well give it up, Comet Ranger! It may be one-to-one, but to you it may as well be a million to none!” He rammed numerous strikes into Lightning making sparks fly all over. “Lightning’s getting creamed up there!” cried Rainbow. “We’ve gotta help him!” Rhymey agreed and got an idea, “Let’s split the words up and attack from all sides. It just may work and turn the battle tides.” “Right…good thinking, Rhymey.” said Sunset “All right, let’s break ‘em down.” With that, the megazord glowed and split up into the five separate star-jets and flew off. Lightning extended his blades out from his arms, and both he and the monster engaged in a double-handed swordfight. Their weapons clashed and sparks flew, and they engaged in a struggle. Finally, Crammer raised his foot and kicked Lightning hard in the chest, knocking him back, and then slashed at him hard making him fall over. Crammer laughed at him, “Test is over, and you failed.” He then unleashed a whole swarm of more questions that aimed right at him, but as they fired their lasers, their beams were intercepted by other laser fire, sparing Lightning from harm. “What the…?!” Crammer shouted, and that’s when the five Star-Jets. “Looks like the test isn’t over quite yet.” said Lightning. The monster growled, and Lightning called up to the others, “Let him have it, guys!” “Yeah!” agreed Sunset “Rangers, fire at will!” “Ah, yeah, I love this part!” cried Rainbow. With that, the rangers steered their jets downward and opened fire, shooting their lasers all around Crammer to distract him, and then strike him hard with their missiles. “I didn’t cram for this!” groaned Crammer, and then he saw Lightning stepping up and he sneered, “I’ll bet you didn’t study for THIS either…” His two blades began to glow, and he spun round once in a slow pirouette as the scene around him became an illusionary field of space as comets passed by. “SUPER SPACE STRIKE!!” and he thrust forward, striking the monster hard! Crammer flared up and screamed, “I FAILED THE TEST!!” He exploded, was imprisoned, and Sunset beamed him aboard her cockpit. All the rangers rejoiced, and they all made the call, “MONSTER CAPTURED! MISSON COMPLETE!” At the Prison Tower, Nacluv was fuming angrily. “Who’s idea was it to send that no good failure of a monster after the rangers?!” The minions all shuddered fearfully by their master’s wrath. “Well… speak up!” “Um… well… it was your idea, actually.” Keto stammered. Nacluv felt a little silly, “Oh… that’s right.” he grumbled, “Still, that doesn’t mean I can’t take my outrage out on you three!” The minions freaked out and ran as Nacluv fired his flames at them from afar. “Come back here!” he shouted “Don’t run away from me when I’m blasting at you!” School was already out by the time the rangers got back, and you can bet, Principal Cadance loaded them down with lots of homework, and in Lightning’s case a few spots of overtime work without pay. The rangers were all badly dismayed, but Cadance reminded them, “Now, now, you all know the arrangement we have.” Buddy sighed, “We don’t get paid enough for what we do.” So, while Lightning went off to get his lesson plans ready, Cadance was at least kind enough to let them stay after school and do their work in the library, and when they arrived, they found Twilight was there already working on her own make up assignments. “Mr. Grandruler said… “Honourable as your intentions are, you too have to make up for boycotting class in the middle of the day.” “Then, why are you grinning?” asked Fluttershy. Twilight pointed cheekily at several tables across where Nikki and the Jazzies, actually studying?! Nikki looked up and whined, “My mom’s making me cram extra hard for exams, or she'll take my credit cards away. This is totes lame!” “It’s lamer than lame!” added amber. “It’s so lame, even lame looks remotely decent.” whined Dionne. The rangers couldn’t help but snicker, and then they all sat down together with Twilight to do their homework, but Fluttershy began to feel worried again about exams and graduation coming up. “Are you still worried about what we’ll do after that?” asked Sunset. Fluttershy nodded, “I know we’ll have to face it, but… I don’t know if I can.” Rhymey comforted his girlfriend, “Remember what I told you today? …Only you can decide your own way. I don’t know really know what will come… but, I hope we will all be together, no matter what.” Fluttershy smiled, and placed her hand over his, and all the others joined hands wanting to keep to that word.