//------------------------------// // Thunderstruck (part 2) // Story: Welcome to the Jungle: A Power Rangers Story // by TheHardie-Boy //------------------------------// “Wait, you’re...Tommy Oliver? As in the greatest Power Ranger of all time?” Theo asked. “That’s me. You must be the Jungle Rangers. It’s nice to meet you,” Tommy responded. “It’s an honor. But why are you here?” Casey said. “I’m here to stop Rito Revolto. I tracked him here. He’s scouting this land for his sister to see if she could take it over. Luckily, you guys managed to keep him here long enough for me to catch him,” said Tommy. “Thanks, another second and we would’ve been done for,” said Rainbow. Tommy had not yet noticed that this land was full of ponies. He was shocked to see that came from a pegasus. “Umm, no problem. Wow, I probably should’ve checked where I was going,” Tommy said. “It’s fine, you get used to it after a while. We should get back to Ponyville and prepare for Rito’s return,” said Casey. “Good idea,” said Tommy. “I’ll let you guys explain when we get there.” Meanwhile “You ran away?!” said Carnisoar. “Hey, you don’t know what that guy’s capable of. That’s Tommy Oliver. I wouldn’t have stood a chance fighting him,” Rito defended. “So, that was the so-called ‘greatest Power Ranger of all time’? He didn’t look that strong to me,” said Jellica. “Well, you haven’t seen him in battle,” said Rito. “Why don’t we make a deal? We’ll both go after ‘Tommy’ while you finish what you started with the Jungle Rangers,” said Jellica. “Hey, that’s good idea. You fight Tommy, I fight everyone else. I have a good feeling about this,” Rito said, jumping around. “As good a fighter this guy is, he’s an even bigger idiot,” Carnisoar said to Jellica. “Yes, but maybe he’ll be the one to finally destroy the rangers,” replied Jellica. Meanwhile “So let me get this straight,” said Tommy. “I’m in another dimension called Equestria, and we’re the only humans present in this dimension?” “Yeah, pretty much,” said Casey with a nod. Twilight was finally coming to. The last thing she remembered was fighting a skeleton and then another human showed up. “What happened?” she asked. “Oh hey, Twilight. This is Tommy Oliver, the greatest Power Ranger of all time!” said Theo with enthusiasm. “Wait, that wasn’t a dream!? Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh, I have sooooooo many questions to ask you,” said Twilight. Tommy’s morpher started to buzz. “Maybe later, I gotta go deal with Rito,” said Tommy. “Let’s go,” said Casey. “Hold on, you guys stay here. Rito’s too strong for you guys. I’m gonna deal with him myself,” Tommy replied. “What? What do you mean he’s too strong? We can deal with him,” said Lily. “Well, according to what I saw earlier, no you can’t. No offense, but Rito’s My personal responsibility,” said Tommy. “But we can help. We’ve dealt with powerful beings before. Why is Rito any different?” Casey asked. “I’m gonna deal with. End of discussion,” Tommy concluded. With that, Tommy exited the room to go fight Rito, leaving the others to discuss what had just happened. “This guy’s not very humble is he?” Starlight said. “Well, he is kind of the best,” Twilight said. “So what? That doesn’t mean he can do everything on his own,” said Rainbow. “Rainbow and Starlight are right. His arrogance is gonna get himself killed,” said Applejack. “I don’t know. I mean, you saw what Rito could do. We might just end up getting in the way,” Rarity said. “Guys, let’s just let him figure that out for himself,” Casey said. “What are you saying?” asked Theo. “I’m saying, let’s let him try to fight Rito. If he beats him, that’s great; but if he doesn’t, maybe then he’ll realize that he needs us to help him,” Casey said. “I guess it’s worth a shot,” Lily shrugged. “Alright, if you guys say so. But I gotta ask; why did you faint when Tommy arrived, Twilight?” Starlight said. “Oh, that’s easy. HE’S THE GREATEST POWER RANGER OF ALL TIME. I mean, sure he started out evil, but how many other rangers can claim that they’ve been FOUR DIFFERENT COLORS. He’s been green, white, red twice, and black,” Twilight said, jumping around. “Wait, he was a black ranger? As in...the black Dino Ranger?” said Rainbow with a grin spreading across her face. “Yep, he was the only Dino Ranger not to be sucked into Equestria when Zeltrax attacked,” Twilight said. “WHY DIDN’T YOU SAY THAT?! I’m gonna go watch him fight,” Rainbow said, zooming out the door. “I guess we should go too,” Casey said. Meanwhile Tommy got to the town center to face Rito. “There’s no escaping for you this time, Rito,” he said. “We’ll just see about that, but first the fight,” said Rito. “Bring it on,” said Tommy. “Oh, you’re not fighting me. Today, you’re gonna be fighting these two,” Rito said. At that, Carnisoar and Jellica stepped up to the battlefield. “Who are you?” Tommy asked. “I am Carnisoar, Overlord of the sky,” said Carnisoar. “I am Jellica, Overlord of the sea,” said Jellica. “You may as well surrender now. You don’t stand a chance against both of us,” said Carnisoar. “It doesn’t matter how many of you there are, I’ll beat all three of you,” Tommy said. Rainbow and the others all got to the scene as Tommy pulled out a black key. He activated his morpher on his wrist. “Dino Thunder! Power Up!” Tommy said as he put the key into the morpher. There was another deal of roars and bright lights. In Tommy’s place stood a Power Ranger with a black suit. It had golden triangle patters instead of white.l Tommy was now in his black ranger mode. Rainbow couldn’t help but squee at the sight. Tommy drew his bracheostaff and charged at Carnisoar and Jellica. Carnisoar reacted first. The two of them met and they fought. They both attacked as fast as they could. Tommy dodged everything Carinisoar threw at him, but he wasn’t able to land any solid shot himself. Tommy used his Dino Power to turn invisible. He was able to get the jump on Carnisoar and land a good hit. He then turned his staff upside down and fired a deal of lasers at Carnisoar. The laser all bounced off of Carnisoar’s wing. The returned with a huge gust of wind that sent Tommy into the sky. Carnisoar followed him and struck him down to ground. Carnisoar stepped back and Jellica a chance to fight. She used her spear to jab at Tommy, but he was able to avoid the attacks. Tommy tried to strike back, but simply used that as an opportunity to attack. She hit Tommy square in the chest and he went flying back. Tommy spun a disk on his staff, and unleashed a lightning bolt upon Jellica. She erupted into a fit of smoke as sparks from the resulting blast. Tommy turned invisible again and attacked Jellica. But when he tried to hit her, his staff just went through her body. Jellica sent a big wave at Tommy, sending him back. ”These two are strong, but they haven’t seen anything yet,” Tommy said to himself. “Super Dino Mode!” Tommy’s suit glowed as the triangle patterns on his suit became blades. He jumped back into the fight. This time, both Carnisoar and Jellica attacked. Tommy tried to spin and use his blades to strike them. They both took a couple shots before catching Tommy and using their combined powers to blast him. The resulting shot caused him to demorph by force. “You were unwise to fight us alone, weakling,” said Carnisoar. “And to think that this mortal is the best Power Ranger of all time. If that’s true, Earth is doomed,” said Jellica. Casey and the others were still watching in the distance. They saw everything that had happened. “We have to help him,” said Casey. “Right,” agreed Theo. “Let’s go,” said Lily. “Be careful,” said Twilight. Casey, Theo, and Lily came out to face Carnisoar and Jellica. “Leave him alone,” shouted Lily. “Or what? You think you can beat us?” taunted Carnisoar. “Here we go,” said Casey. “Jungle beast! Spirit unleashed!” The three jungle rangers morphed into their respective suits. “With the strength of a tiger! Jungle Fury, Red Ranger!” shouted Casey. “With the stealth of a jaguar! Jungle Fury, Blue Ranger!” shouted Theo. “With the speed of a cheetah! Jungle Fury, Yellow Ranger!” shouted Lily. Tommy, barely conscious, saw the Jungle Rangers trying to protect him. “You’re going down,” said Casey. “Let’s see about that,’ Carnisoar. “Let’s just use our animal spirits so we can regroup,” Theo suggested. “Good idea. You guys ready?” Casey asked. “Ready,” said Theo. “Ready,” said Lily. “Call to the beast inside! Free the tiger!” “Call to the beast inside! Release the jaguar!” “Call to the beast inside! Bring out the cheetah!” The rangers’ animal spirits all made contact with the two Overlords. The resulting blast sent the Overlords flying away. “Hey, you guys beat my backup. Guess I’ll have to deal with myself,” said Rito. He went to attack when he saw the rangers recharging their animal spirits. “On second thought, I think I’ll join them.” The mane six went to tend to Tommy. “Let’s get him back to the castle ,” said Starlight. Later Back at the castle, the rangers were waiting for Tommy to wake up. “Carnisoar and Jellica are gonna be hard enough to beat. We have to be ready for when they return,” Casey said. “Yeah. I’m just glad Grizzaka hasn’t shown his face, yet,” said Theo. “Either way, how are we supposed to beat Rito? He mopped the floor with us before,” Lily reminded them. “That doesn’t matter. What does is that we do what we can to beat him. Maybe Tommy can help, you, when he wakes up,” said Casey. The door opened. The rangers turned to see Twilight and Starlight. Twilight’s words from before began to ring in Casey’s mind: ’kind of like you and Starlight’ ‘kind of like you and Starlight’ ‘kind of like you and Starlight’ Casey shook his head and got those words out of his mind. “How’s he doing?” asked Twilight. “Good. His pulse is getting stronger. He should be awake in a few minutes,” said Theo. “I can’t believe Carnisoar and Jellica could do so much damage,” said Starlight. “Yeah, we beat them, but we still had a really hard time,” said Lily. “If only RJ or Dominic were here,” said Casey. “Maybe they will be. They just haven’t been summoned yet,” Starlight said. Just then, Tommy started to wake up. He looked around and saw the Jungle Rangers, along with Twilight and Starlight. He was instantly filled with a sense of regret and embarrassment. “Hey, you’re awake. How are you feeling?” asked Casey. “Fine. I’m sorry guys. I should’ve learned this lesson a long time ago,” said Tommy. “Hey, don’t beat yourself up. I had the same problem with Casey when I we first became rangers,” said Theo. “Yeah. Although it’s honestly a little ironic,” said Casey. Tommy shot him a confused look. “I was teaching my students about humility right before I came here.” “Yeah. But what are we gonna do about Rito?” Tommy asked. “The Elements of Harmony may not have defeated him, but they did hurt him. Combine that with your powers, and I think that should be more than enough,” said Twilight. “Sounds good. Either way, we should get prepared. I’m gonna go on a quick jog. You guys can join me if you want,” said Casey. “I-I’ll go with you, if you don’t mind,” said Starlight, sheepishly. Twilight raised an eyebrow and shot her a smirk. “You two go on ahead. I have a few questions to ask Tommy,” she said. Casey rolled his eyes. “Alright, we should get going,” said Casey. “See you guys later,” said Starlight as she and Casey exited the castle. “We should go too, just in case Rito comes back,” said Theo. “Right, bye,” said Lily. They both exited the castle and left Twilight and Tommy alone. “Alright, what did you want to ask me,” Tommy said. “First, how did you know that Rito was here in Equestria?” Twilight asked. “When you’ve been a ranger as long as I have, you get large connections, even to places you’ve never been to,” Tommy replied. “You said that Rito was here to scout. What did you mean by that?” “Rito is the brother of Rita Repulsa. She’s one of the most powerful beings in the universe. She sent Rito to seek a land that she could take over without much trouble.” “I assume your Dino Power is invisibility. When did they return?” “What do you mean?” “Your Dino Power. The other Dino Rangers said that their Dino Powers returned just before they were brought here.” “My former students were here? How many of them?” Twilight was a little shocked to learn that Tommy didn’t know his fellow Dino Rangers came to Equestria. “Oh, all of them: Connor, Ethan, Kira, and Trent.” “Why? What would they need to do here?” “Zeltrax came here and tried to open a black hole.” “Oh. I thought Zeltrax was destroyed. What happened? Was Mesagog here too?” “He wasn’t at first, but Zeltrax did summon him. Anyhow, the rangers tried to fight Mesagog when Zeltrax managed to open the black hole. Luckily, it opened point blank on Mesagog and sucked him in. But when the black hole opened, a force field formed around Zeltrax, and we couldn’t get to him. But the rangers...they took their Dino Gems and threw them at Zeltrax. They broke through the force field and hit Zeltrax. They went flying into the black hole, and Equestria was saved.” Tommy was aghast. He had no idea Zeltrax was capable of such a catastrophic action. Zeltrax has done crazy things before, but nothing this bad. “Wow, they really gave up their powers?” “Yeah. We were all extremely grateful. We wanted to repay them, but they wouldn’t accept it. I just feel so bad that there was nothing more we could’ve done to help.” “It’s fine. Sometimes rangers have to make sacrifices. Were they okay when they left?” “Yeah they-“ Twilight was cut off by Tommy’s morpher going off. “Rito’s back,” Tommy said. “Let’s go get him,” said Twilight.