EPISODE SEVENTEEN
Suddenly, coconuts were thrown out from the thickets of the jungle right near the vehicles. They hit the ground and exploded unleashing green clouds of smoke.
“What the…!” shouted one of the drivers, and he suddenly began to feel woozy and collapsed, falling out of his seat and out of the vehicle.
“It’s knockout gas!” cried another driver as he slammed his door shut and rolled up the window to keep himself safe from the fumes.
“What’s going on!” shouted Kasko, and that’s when two more coconut gas-bombs were fired at him and his goons. “Run!!” he shouted just as they exploded and unleashed more gas.
Lightning saw the whole thing and wondered who was doing that, but they seemed to be giving him to opening he needed to sneak over to the chopper.
Krysta flapped for joy when she saw him, “Lightning!!” she cried. “Shhh…!” snapped Lightning “Don’t worry, everything’s going to be okay.” He grabbed his morpher and Krysta in her cage. “It’s time Kasko got a taste of ranger power!”
Kasko was growing really irritated with all these coconut gas-bombs, and he armed his rifle. “Shoot into the thickets.” he said to his goons. The goons agreed, and the three men began to shoot right through the trees and brambles.
The stranger ducked down to avoid getting hit, but unfortunately the men shot so recklessly that one of their shots caused a huge tree-limb to fall right on the stranger’s head, knocking them unconscious.
When the coconut bombs stopped coming, Kasko assumed they hit their target. “Let’s see who’s in there.” He and his team were about to move in…
“Not so fast!” Lightning shouted.
Kasko winced, “That voice…!” he turned round and saw Lightning, morphed, “Game’s over, Kasko!” Lightning said to him, “Give it up, or face the consequences!”
Kasko, completely outraged that Lightning had survived, shouted to his men, “Shoot him!”
His goons fired their every last shot at him, but Lightning’s ranger suit didn’t even get scratched, much to their chagrin! “So that’s how you want it?” said Lightning “Fine by me!”
Kasko was still not willing to admit to defeat, and whistled to the remaining workers in their big machines to get at him! The workers complied and revved their machines, bounding straight for him, while Lightning stood on-guard and ready to take them on!
Meanwhile, the other rangers weren’t faring so well. Four of the rangers were on the ground, looking weak and beaten up, and Sunset was fighting with the villains until her Able-Boost wore out leaving her feeling weak and tired as well, which gave the villains the opening they needed to blast her hard and send her to the ground with the others.
“Sunset!” cried Rainbow.
The villains all laughed, “Face it city-slickers,” said Prospector “Whoever has the gold and the power makes all the rules.”
The others looked confused, “How does that ever work in this situation?” asked Keto. “Who cares?” said Marla “Finally, after all this time, these little freaks are going to be destroyed.”
Bronc snickered, “And with no more power rangers, conquering this world will be a snap!”
The villains all laughed with the thought of their victory, while the rangers barely managed to sit up right. “It’s no use! They’re just too strong!” cried Sunset.
“Our suits are almost out of power.” cried Fluttershy “What are we going to do?”
Marla suddenly bound all the rangers up in her long red hair, and held them all together. “Take a deep breath, Rangers. It’ll be your last!” she laughed at them, and she began to put pressure on them, holding them tighter.
“What might!
So tight!” groaned Rhymey.
“Can… hardly… breathe!” cried Buddy.
The others villains chuckled, and prepared to finish the job once and for all!
Spike was still looking in the hole, and Celesto shone a flashlight down inside so the dog could see well. “Do you see anything?” Celesto called to him.
“Nope, nothing but dirt.” replied Spike, and then…! “Wait…! I smell something, something metallic!” and he began to dig with his little paws and he unearthed a second box, identical to the one the villains had stolen.
“Heads up…!” Spike called and he tossed the box way up where Celesto caught it. Celesto then looked at the box closely wondering what could be inside it.
“Um, hello…” Spike called “Still down here. Need help up!” but Celesto was too memorized by the box to hear him, and seeing as the box wasn’t locked, he lifted up the latch and inside was another large glowing orb of light. The light leapt up, up, and then split into six smaller pieces. Five of the lights flew off in the same direction-- towards the city, while the sixth one headed up, up into the sky, and flew off far to the East-- bound for Africa
“What was that?” he wondered.
“What was what?!” Spike called “Help me out of here!”
Marla continued to tightening he grip round the rangers, while her comrades stood ready to fire and destroy them forever. “Farewell, Power Rangers!” hissed Bronc. “It was fun while it lasted.” added Keto.
“Draw!” shouted Prospector!
Suddenly, there was a bright flash, and the villains all looked up and saw five glowing orbs of light fly in out of nowhere. “What are those?” asked Keto, and before anyone could answer, the lights began to swirl and dart at the villains like pesky mosquitoes.
The villains swatted at the lights as they all flew by, and they all began to spin in circles and crash all over one-another and the lights then turned to Marla, swirling around her, and even darting right at her, actually hitting her, knocking her down, and causing her to let go of the rangers.
All of them looked at the lights. “What are those lights?” asked Buddy. None of the others could tell… until the lights swirled around each ranger, and sank into their morpher badges, which made their suits glow brightly.
“What’s going on?” asked Rainbow “I can feel my strength growing again.”
The villains couldn’t believe what was happening either, and everyone, they and the rangers, heard a voice calling to them.
“Rangers…! It’s me, Flash!”
“Flash?” cried Sunset “What’s going on?”
“No time to explain, just listen carefully.” said Flash “I have merged my special power into your suits. Whenever you need, call upon the “Crystal Battle Armor.”
The glowing stopped, and Flash said no more, leaving the rangers astonished and anxious to try this new gift out.
“But how is this possible?” asked Fluttershy.
“Is it even probable?” rhymed Rhymey.
“Never mind, I say we try it out, now.” said Buddy
Sunset agreed, “You bad guys are in for it now.” she sneered at the snarling villains.
The villains growled.
“Ready, guys…?” Sunset asked the others. “READY!!” they replied, and all together they shouted, “CRYSTAL BATTLE ARMOR!!”
Somehow, their morphers had been reprogramed as even the automated voice called out, “Crystal Armor, Engage!”
The rangers all began to glow brightly as shimmering sparkles flickered around their suits, followed by a wild and dramatic effect scene-- in which each ranger was encased in a crystal spike that emerged from the grounds beneath them. The tips of the spikes then opened up like blooming flowers, as each ranger stood before an exploding background.
The villains glared at the rangers in extreme shock; each of their suits were coated in a light powdered-blue crystal-like armor-- shoulder pads, torso armor, armored samurai like skirts, even their helmets were replaced with silvery guards with visors, and spikes atop the heads, and each ranger was armed with a special crystallite saber, sheathed on their backs.
Twilight witnessed the whole thing on the monitors, and was amazed, almost beyond words. “The power levels are going crazy!” she said with glee. “It’s even stronger than the Able Boost!”
“It worked!” cried Sunset.
“Whoa! This feels so neat!” exclaimed Rainbow.
“I almost feel like I’ve got my Starfleet powers back.” added Buddy.
Rhymey clenched his fists feeling so much power coursing through him.
“Now that we’re back at our best,
Let’s put these new powers to the test!”
“Yeah!!” shouted Fluttershy. For the first time in a while, she never felt so brave, willing and able.
Bronc clenched his fists, “I don’t care how fancy you look in those costumes! We’ll still take you all down.”
“YEAH!!” the others agreed.
“We’ll just see about that!” said Sunset, and she drew out her sword. “Let’s go, guys!”
The others drew their swords and cried out like ready warriors!
“Get ‘em!” shouted Marla.
The villains all rushed forth and the rangers lunged too.
Marla swung her claws at Fluttershy, striking her armor hard making sparks fly, but Fluttershy didn’t feel a thing, nor did she even flinch.
“What?!” snapped Marla. Fluttershy snickered, and then gave one slash with her sword, knocking Marla back hard.
Bronc went after Buddy and Rhymey, ceaselessly swinging his fists and shooting at them, but now only did this new armor make the rangers stronger, it made them swifter as well; making it easier to dodge all the attacks. “You can’t dodge me forever!” Bronc growled.
“We don’t plan to!” said Buddy.
Rhymey agreed and rhymed “Take this, you!” and they both punched him hard in the chest and back with their free hands, making small explosions, and severely damaging Bronc hard. The two rangers slapped each other a high five that make sparks upon impact.
Keto and Rainbow stood starring each other down, ready for the fast draw. “Think you’re so cool with that fancy armor?” Keto scoffed. “Sure I think, unlike you!” Rainbow sneered.
Keto growled and unleashed a huge magical burst from his staff straight at her, but Rainbow held out her sword and the blade actually absorbed the power right inside it, and reflected it right back at Keto, knocking him back really hard.
“Wow! Super-Cool…!” Rainbow exclaimed.
Then finally, Sunset was battling with Prospectror, her sword and his pick and shovel. “No yella belly varmint’s a’gonna me from my gold…!” Prospector growled.
“One, it’s not your gold!” snapped Sunset, “And two…” she paused and gave her sword a huge swing, breaking the shovel and pick to pieces, “…I don’t have a yellow belly. I’m the red ranger.”
Prospector found himself surrounded by all five rangers. He was unarmed and had no time to light up any dynamite he had. “Oh, Nellie… I’m in for it now!” he cried.
“You’re through, Prospector!” said Buddy.
Seeming to already have some knowledge of their new powers, the rangers were ready t try their new finisher moves. “Crystallite Sabers, Ignite!” cried Sunset.
“Crystallite-Saber… Engage!”
All the sabers were glowing with a bright and shimmering sparkle, and each ranger pirouetted around making circles of energy waves above their heads. “CRYSTAL SLASH!!”
They all slashed their blades, striking the monster, and he roared and cried out as his body was basked in light, dispelling the magic that made him young and reverting him back to his old crusty self again. “I’M TOO OLD FOR THIS!!” he growled, and he exploded and was still imprisoned in a sphere.
The minions couldn’t believe what just happened. “Forget this! Let’s split!” shouted Keto.
“Never!” shouted Bronc, Marla agreed with him, until the rangers all turned to face them, still glowing brightly, “Um… on second-thought…” Marla cried. Even Bronc couldn’t deny it now. “We still have our new powers rangers, and we’ll see you again! Mark my words!”
Then they vanished and were gone!
“We’ll be here waiting for you creeps!” thundered Sunset.
The rangers looked all around at the damages the villains had done, and the tips of their swords began to glow. “Now what’s happening?” asked Fluttershy.
Sunset took a good look at the light. “I wonder…” and she held her sword out over a few cracks in the road, and all at once, the cracks were fixed in a glow of bright light. “It’s restoration magic!”
The others stared at their swords in awe and then they unleashed their magic about the town, restoring all the damages done, and while the magic could not heal physical human injuries, at least the city was back to normal.
With all this settled, Sunset picked up the sphere containing the newly captured monster, and made it official. “Monster Captured! Mission Complete.”
While all that happened, Lightning approached Kasko and his team of mighty machines, when out of nowhere, this light came flying in and zapped his suit, and he too donned Crystallite Armor.
“Oh, no, look at him now!” one of the goons cried.
Lightning had no idea what was happening or how it was happening, but he liked this new power, and while he didn’t have a sword like the other rangers did, he didn’t need one. Instead, he had a huge bazooka, linked to his gauntlets by a threading of wires.
“You guys are toast!” he said deeply as he cocked his weapons.
“Crystal Cannon, Engage!”
Even the workers in their mighty machines knew this was bad and all began to rush out panicking. “Come back here you cowards!” Kasko shouted “DON’T LEAVE!!” but even his goons fled the scene as well.
Kasko turned round, just as Lightning fired his weapon, unleashing a huge wave of light straight at the machines, blowing them all up in a colossal explosion.
The explosion was so massive that it alerted the attention of the authorities, whom were already on route to the danger zone in choppers and jets with paddy wagons on the land below.
“What the heck is that?” One of the men cried.
“Let’s check it out.” said another.
At the dangers sight, the smoke had cleared from the ground, and Kasko looked up and gasped in horrors! All the machines had been blown to bits of burning scrap-metal, and Lightning stood looming over him in a threatening pose.
Kasko had no chance at all now, and he surrendered.
That’s when the authorities arrived on the scene, and Kasko practically dashed up to them, wailing “I admit it! I did it! I did it all! Just please… Please… keep me away from that guy!” he motioned at Lightning.
The police looked over at Lightning, “He’s right.” Lightning responded, “Follow the tire-tracks from here, you’ll find the underground warehouse with all their plans and everything else you need, and there’s a whole bunch more of them that ran East.”
The police chief instructed his men to chase after all the runaways, “But what about all this mess?” he asked to Lightning.
“Stand back.” Lightning simply said, and he used his powers, just like the other rangers had, and magically made the burning heaps vanish and restored the grass to normal.
“Whoa!” the chief exclaimed “Neat stuff.”
Lightning nodded, and de-morphed, and he helped the police survey the area, and he gave his side of the story and everything.
Soon, the men were all locked up in the paddy-wagon, and Lightning had taken the vial from Kasko to see what the liquid he found really was.
“I’ll get you for this, Lightning Dawn!” Kasko threatened “All that oil was almost mine!”
“Oil?” asked the Chief “I’m telling you, bucko; there is no oil in these parts.”
“That’s what I told him.” Lightning said as he came up with the vial in his hand, “This stuff is just a greasy hair-tonic. People in this country use it all the time.”
Kasko felt horribly humiliated.
“Well, let that be a lesson to you.” said the chief, and then he motioned for the driver to take the crooks all away to jail until the international authorities would decide what to do with them.
As the wagon drove away, Kasko kept calling out, “I’ll get you, Lightning Dawn! I’LL GET YOU!!”
Lightning sighed, “That’s what he always says.”
Suddenly, he noticed Krysta was sitting on a tree branch over by the jungle and was waving at him, meaning she had found something! “Oh, excuse me a moment, will you?” Lightning asked, and the chief let him go.
Lightning bounded over the jungle brush, where no one could hear him talk to Krysta, “What is it?”
“There’s someone over here.” cried Krysta. Lightning quickly leapt round the tree, and to his surprise, “That’s the person that helped me.”
He realized the person was unconscious, and pulled the huge fallen tree-limb of off the body, which made the person’s hood fall down, revealing the face of a pale-skinned African woman with white and black stripped hair. “Zecora…!”
It was her! Lightning and Krysta would recognize her anywhere. She looked exactly the same when they saw her long ago.
“We’ve got to get her some help.” said Lightning, and he scooped Zecora up in his arms to take her back to the police.
Meanwhile, the villains made it back to the tower, and The Sirens stood where they were they were, staring sourly at them with their arms folded, and tapping their toes.
“Let me see if we get this right.” said Adagio “You had all this power, and yet you still got whooped by the rangers?”
The minions, nervously stammered, and tried to come up with their excuses, “Oh, shut up already!” said Aria “We forgive you.”
The minions gawked at their leaders with confusion and shock. “You actually forgive us?” asked Marla.
“Duh!” said Sonata “You may not have a beat the rangers, yet, but you still got these wicked powers, just as we’re perfecting some powerful moves of our own.”
Adagio nodded, “Once we have things perfected, and YOU THREE learn to control your new powers… we’ll destroy those rangers.”
The minions, ever so grateful, got down by the girl’s feet, groveling and kissing their hands. “Thank you, mistresses!” said Bronc.
“We’re truly grateful to you all!” added Keto.
The Sirens only felt akward.
The Rangers made it back to base where Twilight, the professor and all the rest of the team would have a field day wanting to study the new Crystal Powers infused into The Ranger’s suits.
“This is extraordinary.” said Twilight “I’ve never seen anything like it, but until we understand more about it, it’d probably be best to save this armor-mode as last-minute resorts.”
“Still, I’m glad we managed to fix all that damage.” said Fluttershy “Now Mr. Grandruller doesn’t have to pay for all the repairs.”
Even Celesto had to a agree, “While I am relieved that everyone is safe for now, the villains are still at large, with their new powers after all.”
“He’s right.” said Rainbow “They’ll be back, and they might be stronger than ever.”
“Maybe…” said Buddy “But they know that we have the crystal armor, and it can easily stand up to them, for now.”
Rhymey agreed, but he thought deeply of something and asked,
“There were two boxes down hidden from view.
Sunset, why did Flash not tell this to you…?”
Sunset shook her head, “I don’t know…” but she was about to get her answer when there was a flash of bright light shining in the room, and Flash’s spirit appeared before them all once again.
“It’s because you woke up too fast, I didn’t have time to tell you in your dream.” he answered “All I could give you was the clues of where to find it.”
Sunset felt a little silly.
Then Spike asked sternly, “The why didn’t you just come to us now and tell us everything?”
“Because my spirit wasn’t free enough without my full power being unleashed.” replied Flash, and he immediately told everyone his story.
“I remember, while still originally evil, I had hidden not one, but two special boxes containing essences of my alien powers. One box contained small powers of my evil magic, and that was the power the villains had dug up. I suspected that they would try and steal the power if they knew you were searching for it.”
The rangers all had sour looks on their faces. “He knew we’d get into this trouble.” Rainbow whispered.
Flash went on and explained, “The second box contained more magical essence of my strength and crystal armor. I knew the villains would never find it, but you would, despite the lack of evidence, because I knew Sunset would understand things.
I knew her for… quite a while, remember?”
He referred to the time how they used to date, which made Sunset fell a little embarrassed, and ashamed as it reminded her of her mean-girl days.
“Still, now that you’ve all taken my power, it helps my spirit to rest even more knowing it is being used for good, and with it your enemies won’t stand a chance! Not even with the powers they still have.”
Celesto bowed gratefully to him, “Thank you, Flash. This is truly a remarkable gift you have given us. I only wish there were some way to repay you.”
Flash shook his head, “Think nothing of it. Besides, spirits don’t need that much anyway.”
Everyone held in a laugh, but it still saddened them that he was… dead after all, but Flash didn’t seem to mind one bit. “Farewell, my friends… and good luck ahead.” Then he vanished, and was gone. He wouldn’t be able to help them much anymore, but everyone felt satisfied that he had helped them a great deal.