An unnerving air was pressing down on the five girls, none of them dared to even breath, or even move a single muscle as their eyes were fixated on the purple monster in front of them. They had no idea why, but he was radiating an absolutely blood-chilling aura that demanded respect, something the muscles all over his body only enforced. It was only a small relief that he didn’t even value them a single glance, instead choosing to ignore all five of them like they weren’t even there to begin with.
But the Rangers weren’t the only ones utterly terrified of the new arrival, no, their opponent, the Centapied Changeling also was trapped standing on the street, eyes fixated on the other Changeling. Her dash forward had been stopped by the sheer presence of the monster, without ever lifting a single finger, and it was enough to let her body betray her. All the smugness and confidence had been drained from her, her body starting to shake uncontrollably as she subconsciously took a step backward. Her mouth was opening and closing again and again, but no words escaped it, only air.
“Do I need to repeat myself? I demand an answer, right now!” He once again bellowed, his voice letting every single hair of the Rangers stand up beneath their suits. The Centapied Changeling meanwhile didn’t fare any better, the small legs all over her body starting to move on their own, gasping for air as they did so.
“M… My Lord…” Was all the terrified Changeling could stammer out, taking even more steps back, her legs shaking like a jackhammer, almost falling over them in the process. One could almost feel sorry for her if she hadn’t tried to kill them just a minute ago.
The sound of him clearing his throat echoed through the street, even drowning out the sounds of sirens in the background, demanding the attention of everyone present. “I don’t remember ever sending you after them! You know what happens to traitors that can’t follow orders,” he growled, his hundreds of eyes shimmering in a devious purple.
“I… I thought…” She tried again, still stumbling desperately over ever oh so precious word.
“That is just it! You thought, instead of following orders like you are supposed to! You know what this little stunt could have cost us?” He interrupted her, taking a step towards her, his weapon casually resting in his hand.
“I… I thou… I’m sorry,” she continued, her voice shaking more and more with every step the male Changeling advanced, frantically looking around in the hope of a miracle that would her allow to escape.
“Sorry, are you? And what is that supposed to mean to me? Do you think that a sorry will just magically fix everything? No! Mistakes are something you can never get rid of! They have consequences! They are eternal! They forever stain you! And you! You are my mistake!” Pharynx grew louder and louder with every word he spoke, his eyes flaring up with an unbridled rage of a wild animal that had been attacked.
That was also the moment the Changeling walked into something, she almost jumped toward Pharynx but just managed to contain her fear, instead just letting er head spin around, staring at the car that had blocked her way. These few seconds, she was distracted; however, was all the time he needed to catch up to her, the realization dawning on her that he was standing right in front of her. Every bone in her body told her to run as fast as possible, but deep down, she already knew that this was pointless. Instead she just slowly turned around, staring into these hateful purple eyes, her blood freezing inside her veins.
Pharynx pulled back his spear, ready to drive it into her chest when something ripped through the early silence around them, something deafening. It was like lightning had just struck and now the thunder was roaring across the city, followed by an annoyed grunt.
To her disbelief, Pharynx had stopped and even started to turn his head away from her, slowly letting it glance over his shoulder.
“Sour? Why did you shoot him?” Lemon weakly asked, all eyes now on the Pink Ranger who was shakily holding the gun in her hand, pointed directly at the male Changeling and a smoke trail coming of its barrel. While both of them spoke the Changeling fully turned around, glaring directly at the girls, taking a step forward, the Centapide Changeling sinking to her knees just behind him.
“I don’t know!” Sour barked back, her voice shaky and uneven as she took a step back. “I… I just had to, ok?” She stammered. “I don’t know why, but it felt like the right thing to do!”
“Huh, whatever it was, it was a mistake!” Pharynx growled, now entirely focused on them. “You know, I have had to endure far too many failures because of you! Failures that I can’t wash away for the rest of my life! I technically was supposed to stay low, for now, to not attract any unwanted attention. But you know what? Thanks to my disobedient subordinate I had to act! And since I’m already here why not kill six birds with one stone,” he chuckled, and without saying another word pulled up his arm and threw the spear towards them.
Threw might have been the wrong word, more like shoot really, the sharp end of the weapon only barely missing Lemon’s helmet and crashing into the wall of the house behind her. The sounds of stone being crushed and falling in on itself could be heard, but none of them dared to look behind them, far to occupied with the colossus that was charging towards them.
Purely on instinct, the girls jumped out of the way in the last second before being run over by the monster, well all but one of them. With speed, Pharynx shouldn’t have had he grabbed ahold of Sour’s leg right as she was above him, and with unimaginable strength, he pulled her back down and right towards the ground.
[Me-Me-Metal!]
Could be heard just mere moments before her body was slammed down with the force of a truck ramming into a building. Without any chance to even figure out what had happened to her she was violently pulled from the small crater she had been slammed into, and with unnerving ease thrown back towards her friends, crashing into the car the Centapide Changeling had stood at just a minute ago. The car was launched off the ground, landing right inside Cadance’s hedge, crushing it underneath it.
Within seconds the four other girls had rushed towards the car wreck, Indigo the first to arrive and without any hesitation crawled beneath the car. What she saw was her friend, her head laying on the ground while her legs were still in the air, almost like she was sitting in the seat of the car. “Sour? You’re ok?” The Yellow ranger asked, trying her best to hide the nervousness in her voice.
“As long as someone got the license plate of that truck, yes,” groaned it back, the poor girl pushing herself away from the seat, toppling over and landing on her stomach. “Seriously, why does this hurt so much? Last time it didn’t!” She sighed, rubbing her head, everything was still spinning like she just left a carousel, and her body was aching all over like she had been crushed under a sack of rocks.
With a nervous chuckle Indigo reached out with her hand, something Sour happily accepted, letting herself get pulled out from the wreck of a car. When her eyes unintentionally drifted towards the house, she had stood only a few seconds before, she realized what would have possibly happened if she was just a second slower.
What she could see was not the ordinary façade of a house, but instead a massive hole where the door should be, almost reaching the two windows next to it. But there was no time to let this actually sink in as the purple Changeling stepped out of the debris, weapon in his hand, still just as pristine as before and his glowing purple eyes that stared directly at her, only for them to dart of to the side for a moment. He huffed, seeing the Centapied Changeling running as fast as she could, not that it mattered right now. He could deal with her later, right now he would try to make up for all the failure he had endured in the last few days.
“Hey! Bugface! Who the hell do you think you are? Everyone who hurts my friends like this is gonna regret it!” Indigo growled, pulling out a coin as well as her gun.
“Indigo, don’t-“ Sour tried stammered, trying to grab for the ankle of her friend, but was just a second too late, the Yellow Ranger having already taken a step forward, slamming the Ability Coin into the gun and aiming directly at the monster.
[Li-Li-Lightning!]
A bright light started to form in the barrel of the handgun, all while Pharynx just chuckled and took a step forward, his weapon in his hand. “Go to Tartarus!” Indigo shouted, finally pulling the trigger, unleashing a barrage of lightning strikes that burst forward towards the Changeling, surging across the ground and his body. Every bolt was accompanied by sparks that were surging off the impact point, leaving burn marks everywhere it touched the ground.
Pharynx meanwhile was taking the full force of the attack, every muscle in his body seemingly cramping up, locking him in place. A very satisfied grin appeared on Indigo’s lips as she watched the monster convulse right before her, no one fucked with her friends and got away with it!
It almost looked like the Changeling wasn’t what it was made out to be, just another opponent they would swipe away like nothing, but only for a moment. With a loud scream, Pharynx tightened the grip on his spear, his muscles tightened even more, and he did the impossible, he moved. He swung the weapon downwards and unleashed a wave of energy that rocketed towards the surprised girl.
Indigo just pulled the gun back and threw her hands in front of her, hoping they would at least somewhat lessen the impact. She was just about to close her eyes and brace herself for impact when she saw a green blur rush past her only for her visor to be flooded with bright, purple light and the following pressure crashing into her and knocking her off her feet.
The impact against the next wall was painfull, her speed almost immediately brought to a crashing halt as her body was forced against the obstacle only for it to break and Indigo to slide across the floor until she finally stopped.
It only took a few moments for the pain to set in, primarily in her back and her chest, and then there was this strange pressure on her, probably just a stone, but it was way too soft for that. She must have laid there for at least a minute before she finally managed to force her eyes open once again and stared at the green blur in front of her. It hit her like a truck, she knew what this was! Pushing past all the pain, she felt she managed to force herself of the ground, careful to not throw the girl off her and on the ground. “You damn idiot!”
“You would have done the same,” she just heard back.
Meanwhile, the three other girls had dashed towards the Changeling, taking potshots at him whenever he was busy with one of the others, not that any of their attacks actually seemed to do anything beyond annoying him even more.
Currently, his attention was square on Sunny who was dashing across the street like a madwoman, jumping out of the way of Pharynx’s energy attacks just in the nick of time and not relenting when it came to unload Tartarus on him. But everything she threw at the rampaging Changeling was just shrugged off like it was nothing, the monster coming closer and closer with every second she wasted. It was only a matter of time before the beast would stand right in front of her, and if that happened…
[I-I-Ice!]
Just a few steps away from Sunny the monster was once again pelted from behind, but this time he didn’t just shrug it off, he let out a pained grunt. As he looked behind him, he stared at Sugar who had her gun aimed directly at him. “You really should cool down a bit,” she returned in her usual monotone voice, even if Lemon could swear there was a bit of nervousness thrown in with it. The moment the last word had left her mouth, she pulled the trigger again, hitting Pharynx square in the face.
Within seconds the shoot spread across his face, chilling to the core and unrelenting it consumed more and more of it until it was covered in ice. That was also when he realized that the previous shots had done the same, covering his back and his legs, basically freezing him in place.
[Do-Do-Double!]
Pharynx heard from behind him, and within mere moments he felt several shots across his back, some shattering the ice on it, but more importantly actually digging a bit further into his skin, but any thought about that was swiftly drowned out by the several shoots that covered him in even more ice on his chest. He could feel the ice spread, its cold grip taking more and more of his body.
“Alright! It’s working! Blue, you are amazing!” Lemon shouted, unloading her own barrage of bullets on the Changeling, much to its annoyance.
Sugar was about to return something when it happened, the ice shattered in a single moment, and the behemoth of a monster appeared right in front of her. She could only stare at him in disbelief as he grabbed her for her leg. In the last second, before she was caught, an idea came to her. And that was all she could do as she was violently yanked from the ground and thrown towards Sunny who let out a loud shriek as the Blue Ranger rocketed towards her.
Lemon could only watch as her friend was thrown across the street, right towards Pink. She didn’t even notice that something was heading her way until it slammed against her helmet and fell to the floor next to her. “Ouch!” She hissed, as she rubbed her head and stared down at what had hit her, expecting a bit of debris, but instead it was something she had not foreseen in the slightest, a gun. But not just any gun, it was the same she was holding, only with a Coin already inserted into it… Oh, now she understood.
[Fi-Fi-Fire!]
Pharynx turned away from the Blue and Pink Ranger after both of them had been thrown into the next wall and been buried under the rubble and turned his attention to the last standing Ranger. And there she stood, two identical guns in her hand, both loaded with a different Coin already inserted into them and aimed directly at Pharynx.
He simply let out an annoyed groan before letting his voice carry through the street once again: “Really? That is your master plan? You saw what happened to your comrades, so why even attempt anything? You know it won’t work. So why not just lay down your weapons and make this easy for both of us?”
The only answer he received was the sound of two triggers being pulled, the sound itself triggering a silent chuckle from the Changeling. Within mere moments a barrage of blue and red projectiles hurled towards the monster, Pharynx rushing towards them, his weapon already in mid-swing as he sliced through projectile after projectile, already looking forward to bringing down his weapon on the poor girl.
Or he would have if the shoots wouldn’t have just kept coming and no matter how much he tried, in the end, they were just too many. At first, it was only one, a red orb hitting him in the shoulder, bursting into a large flame, then a second one, chilling like a stiff breeze on the coldest day of the year that closed around his knee. And with every successful hit, he grew slower and slower, allowing an even bigger opening than before. All over his body he felt the sudden heat followed by the chilling cold switch at random, sometimes canceling each other out only for it to feel even worse where the two sensations mixed.
But in the end, this was nothing more than a distraction, a painful distraction, but a distraction nonetheless. Letting out a loud roar he swung he lance again, unleashing a wave of purple energy that cut through every incoming attack Lemon could throw at him with ease before hitting the girl, against all attempts to avoid the attack.
Even with the suit taking the brunt of the damage Lemon could still feel the attack slamming against her, burning like a forest fire entirely centralized on her stomach as she was thrown backward, slamming into the concrete multipile times, leaving several small craters before coming to a stop. In her haze, she tried to stand back up again, but instead only received a painful jolt through her body as an even greater pain surged through her the moment she dared to move, letting her slump back on the ground again, only able to stare at the approaching Changeling.
Pharynx meanwhile hadn’t felt this good in ages; finally, something was going as planned. When he was done with this here, he only had to take care of the damn Worker that decided to go against his orders, and everything would be fine. But that was something to worry about later, right now he had to deal with this here. He once again raised his weapon, ready to end this here and now. The tingling feeling of power as the weapon started to glow with purple energy was ecstatic, and with a twisted delight, he brought down the weapon…
Then a sudden jerk went through his lance, and just a moment later it had stopped mid-swing. Pharynx’s eyes widened in shock before he turned his head up, noticing the end of a green whip around his lance. With a low growl, he turned around, staring directly at a woman clad in green armor with a black undersuit. Two angry red eyes glared at him from a helmet that reminded one of a lions head. On her shoulders, one could see pauldrons in the form scorpion stingers.
As lemon’s eyes came back into focus, she saw the green figure, her eyes widening behind her own helmet as her pained expression changed into one of pure glee, as much as possible at least. “Kamen Rider Monster!” Her voice traveled through the whole street but fell on deaf ears from both of them.
Pharynx tightened the grip on his lance before letting out a loud growl and swung it back, letting another wave of energy shot towards the new arrival. Without even much of a second thought, she dashed forward, only barely jumping over the attack and landing on the street, immediately pulling the wipe shaped like a scorpion tailback, yanking the weapon out of Pharynx hands.
The Changeling let out a furious roar before charging forward, spreading his claws out ready to tear into the new opponent. Monster meanwhile swung her whip again, striking across the Changelings chest, letting sparks fly everywhere, quickly repeating the attack two times more before Pharynx had closed the gap.
His claw swung directly at her head as she dashed forward, letting her whip fall to the ground, and she rushed past him, almost brushing against his back, now standing behind the beast. With a similar fierce slash, she tore into the armor on his back, once again sparks flying across the street.
While the two were going at each other Lemon had used the time to drag herself away from the fight, but not without sneaking in a few glances at the battle. Right now she wouldn’t love anything more than to just watch the two go at each other, but she knew she could stick around, at least not as a Ranger.
After she finally sunk down behind a wall and deactivated her transformation, she was greeted by a familiar voice: “Who is that?” Sunny asked. As Lemon turned around, she could see Indigo supporting herself on Sunny’s shoulder, just as exhausted as she was.
“Kamen Rider Monster, one of the heroes that saved the city together with Kamen Rider Alchemy, but last time I checked she was a man, so I’m not entirely sure what that is about,” she returned, holding her side as she dared to peek around the corner of the wall towards the battle. “But right now, I don’t care. This is so awesome! She is just… Wow, I wish I could fight like that!” All the pain seemed to have vanished from Lemon’s face as she stared at the hero and the Changeling.
Monster had taken a far more animalistic stance and was spreading her own claws, staring daggers at the Changeling, both circling each other, ready to throw down once again. And without any prior warning both dashed forward, neither even attempting to even block the opponents attack, instead of each one scoring a slash across the chest of the other one, sparks following just like expected.
But while Pharynx stumbled a step backward Monster instead was in no way ready to stop, pushing forward and slamming her knee into the stomach of the Changeling. The sharp bit of armor on her knee hit just one of the spots Lemon had hit the most, and with a loud crunch it tore through the chitin of the carapaces and right into the fleshy bits underneath, Pharynx letting out a pained his as he clutched his wound, poison-green blood dripping to the floor.
Monster once again did not leave him any chance to react, slamming her fist right on top of his hand he had clutched over the wound, throwing him off his feet as he landed on the asphalt.
“You!” He hissed, the pain clearly audible in his voice. “Don’t think you’ve won. You just got lucky!” The Changeling spat out, together with a little bit of his strange blood. “Next, you will not be so fortunate!” He had barely spoken the last word when bright green flames consumed the Changeling, Monster dashing forward to stop him, but her hand only reached into nothingness.
The Rider just stood there for a moment before her feet gave in under her, the hero sinking to her knees and clutching her chest, several claw marks scratched into the armor. “Sure I won’t, and neither will you,” she growled to herself. After a minute she pushed herself back up from the ground, even if she was still somewhat wobbly.
“This! Was! Awesome!” It came from behind her, the Rider spinning around, claws ready, staring directly at Lemon with her glowing red eyes. The girl was somewhat limping from the house that the Changeling had seemingly come from. Eyeing her for a few more moments, she relaxed again.
“You shouldn’t be here. Don’t want you to get caught in the middle of this,” the Rider returned, with a surprisingly calm voice. But the girl apparently wasn’t listening, just staring at her with plates for eyes filled with aww.
“No, really! That was great! I wish I could be so cool!” She gushed, dragging herself forward, a bright smile on her lips.
“Trust me, it’s not half as cool as you might think,” Monster returned, almost quiet enough that Lemon couldn’t hear her. “What do you want? Are you fine? If you need fixing up the MRG will be here in just a minute, I’m not someone who can do that really.”
“No, no, I’m fine, it’s just…” she stuttered, her cheeks becoming a deeper shade of red. “I… I kinda wanted to ask you a question,” she sheepishly returned.
“Lemon! What are you doing?” It once again echoed from behind the girl, Sunny dragging Indigo with her, a panicked look on her face. Following them was Candace who was just as nervous as Sunny.
“Cadance?” Monster turned around, coking her head in surprise before she frantically added: “Uhm, what is Shinings girlfriend doing here?” Sounding as forced as one could be.
The older woman just looked at her dumbstruck for a few seconds before shaking her head in bewilderment and returning: “Uhm, I live here. The Red Ranger and that monster stormed into my garden and then through the entire house. I’m glad that I’m still alive.” All three girls just stared at her in surprise, but quickly nodded along. “I had a self-defense class set up with these girls, and we just got caught in the crossfire, but we should be fine.”
The red eyes of the Rider stared at the group, leaving one no idea what was going on behind the visor before the woman nodded. “I see… You should still call your boyfriend, he can be rather… nervous when it comes to stuff like that and I don’t want to deal with that right now,” she chuckled. She was about to turn around and walk back to her bike when something came back to her mind. “Wait, didn’t you want to ask me, something girl?” She stared at Lemon, who nodded in return, all while her friends looked worried at her.
“Uhm... Yeah, I wanted to ask something,” Lemon said, even more sheepishly as before, her cheeks red and her eyes darting to the ground. “Oh, how do I say that now?”
“Just do,” the hero returned with a light chuckle.
“Uh… Ok then, I guess here goes nothing…” she said, clearing her through one last time. “How did you know that saving people was the right thing to do? That, this is what you wanted to do?” For a few moments, the street was utterly devoid of any sort of sound, only the wind blowing through before Monster suddenly started to laugh. Letting her head sink low Lemon continued: “I… I’m sorry that I asked something so stupid, I shou-“
“Oh, no, no. You did nothing wrong girl,” it came instead, the armored hand of the Rider now resting on her shoulder and even if the eyes still stared directly at her, there was something comforting in them. “No, just somewhat remind me of myself, that’s all. I asked the same question to someone not too long ago. You’re lost, aren’t you?” Even though she couldn’t see it, Lemon was sure there was a smile behind the mask, a warm, helpful smile. She just nodded, much to the confusion of her friends. “I see. Then I’m gonna tell you what that person gave me as an answer, you don’t, you just have to dive in, take the gamble and hope that it works out. Listen to your hearth and do what it tells you no matter what others might say to you. As long as you are happy with it, in the end, you’re going to be fine, just don’t build that on the backs of others. Like he always said, keep moving forward towards a bright future,” the Rider returned with a strange amount of conviction, it was almost infectious.
Lemon just stared at her for a few moments before a dumb grin overtook her lips and she nodded in agreement. “Gotcha! Thanks, I’ll keep that in mind. Oh, and you saved our asses from that monster was totally rad!” If one wouldn’t have known how nervous she was a few seconds ago, no one would have believed that this girl could ever be uncomfortable.
Monster just chuckled again and added: “Yeah, through you should thank the Rangers more, but I’m glad that you are ok, especially Cadance over there. If something would have happened to her, her boyfriend would be completely devastated, and I don’t want to see that. So be careful. I have to look for that monster, can’t let that thing just run around now can I?” And with that, the Rider jumped on her bike and road of after where the Centapide Changeling had fleed.
The moment she disappeared into the distance, everyone bar Lemon visibly relaxed, letting out loud sighs. “You can’t be any more obvious?” Sunny hissed, glaring daggers at Lemon, who just smiled, all while the other two Shadow Bolts were finally showing up.
“Oh, I think I handled that really well,” she beamed in return and before any of them could say anything in return was already skipping back towards the house, apparently already having forgotten about her injuries.
“Unbelievable, but it seems she took it as a ‘thanks for saving you before something else could go wrong’, still, she is always so damn oblivious to the obvious,” she growled. “And what was that with the ‘knowing what you want to do thing’?”
“Don’t worry about that, I’ll have a word with her about that, but right now we should patch you all up, I think I have a first-aid-kit somewhere in the kitchen,” Cadance interrupted the girls and received a reluctant nod.
>-------<S>-------<
Lemon was sitting on a small chair on the large balcony of Cadance house, staring off in the distance, looking out for any kind of attack of the Centapied Changeling. Her friends had meanwhile taken up shop on different sides of the house, all doing exactly what she was doing right now. She got why she had to do this, but damn if it wasn’t dull as Tartarus and oh boy, these damn bandages were itching. Apparently, it wasn’t bad enough that she looked like an unraveled mummy, no, they had to itch as well. She was almost tempted to just rip off the bandages and be done with it, but she knew that wouldn’t fly with her friends.
Lemon almost fell out of her chair when she suddenly heard the sound of a door opening right behind her only to realize last second that it was only Cadance. “Cadance, you scared me half to death!” She sighed as she leaned back in her chair.
“I’m sorry, but I had something for you,” she heard in return, and after a few moments, something was deposited on the table next to her. As she turned her head, she could see a pink USB-stick just laying there. With a puzzled look, she stared up at Cadance who just smiled before continuing. “I saved the addresses of a few websites that might interest you. They are places where you can learn about certain jobs, look for them, or a few tests that help one decided what to chose. I got nothing more to say than that Rider hasn’t told you already. Well, that’s not entirely true. There is one thing I want to tell you. I’m sure you figure it out eventually, just do a little bit day by day, rushing it won’t do you any good. You have to do this at your own pace. And if you want to talk, just ask your friends or me, they were a bit worried about you when you asked Monster that question,” she chuckled with a weak smile.
Lemon simply rubbed the back of her head in return and pocketed the stick. “Yeah, I guess I should have asked them as well… Probably gonna do that when I hit a wall again. Thanks, by the way, you had no reason to do any of that for me, and you did anyway.”
“You really think I would turn you away? That’s not something I would ever do, so don’t worry about it. I became a teacher to-“ she was about to return when she suddenly stopped mid-sentence and looked down at the garden beneath them and a slender figure jumping over the fence like it was nothing and landing inside one of the bushes. “Seems our guest has arrived. If you may?” With a simple nod, Lemon jumped off her seat and activated the Morpher on her wrist.
[Re-Re-Red!]
“Light up!”
[Shine Bright! Red!]
In one fluent motion, she jumped over the railing of the balcony and landed right in front of the bush that hid the woman. “Ok, gigs up. How about we stop beating around the bush and finish this once and for all?” Lemon’s voice echoed through the garden.
“Tsk, oh well, seems you aren’t as blind as the last time,” the Changeling returned, her body shifting and forming into her monster form as she rose from the bush. “But that won’t help you. Right now, I have only one option left, and that is through you and your friends. And I will not leave emptyhanded!”
With a loud screech, the Changeling dashed forward, her arm just barely missing Lemon as she dodged and gave the monster a deserved kick in the back, letting her stumble forward with an aggravated growl.
“Who said you could start without us? You know what happened last time?” Indigo shouted from the entrance to the garden, the three other Rangers next to her.
“Yeah, yeah, as if I forgot that, just wanted to make sure that she doesn’t ditch this fight as well before you show up,” she chuckled energetically before jumping over to her friends, landing right in the middle of them. "By the way, I have something planned,” Red added with a wide grin under her helmet.
“Planed, what do you mean with that now?” Sunny asked a nervous undertone to her voice. “I hope it’s nothing stupid!”
“Oh, not more than usual, now watch and learn, ” With that she spun around pointing at the Changeling who was getting back on her feet, glaring daggers at the Rangers. With a voice that easily carried through the entire street, she burst out: “The light that shines bright in the darkness, Shadow Red!”
The four others just stared at her, an uncomfortable silence was beginning to lay itself over the entire garden, all while Lemon just continued to hold her fist close to herself, the Changeling in turn just stared at them in confusion. “What is she trying to do?” Indigo just shrugged as an answer to Sunny.
“The light that shines honest in the darkness, Shadow Blue!” It suddenly cut through the quietness, letting the three remaining Rangers spin around directly at Sugarcoat who was holding her hand to her helmet.
“Eh, you know, looks rad. Let’s give it a try,” Indigo now joined in. “The light that shines wild in the darkness, Shadow Yellow!” Taking a similar stance like Lemon.
Sunny and Sour just shared one last look, shrugged and finally spoke as well: “The light that shines glamorously in the darkness, Shadow Pink!” She kneeled down on one knee, almost like she was jumping backward.
“The light that shines courageous in the darkness, Shadow Green!” She simply raised her hand, looking by far the most disinterested of them all.
“We are the light born from the shadows! We are the Power Rangers Shadow Force!” And with that last shout, a colorful explosion went off behind them, and everyone just spun around in bafflement.
“What in Tartarus name was that?” Sunny just asked, just staring at the smoke behind her. Lemon just shrugged and turned back to the Changeling who was equally as disinterested as her.
With a loud roar, she unleashed her arms towards the Rangers once more, the five of them all dodging the attack without much effort, landing atop Cadance home. “I don’t think we have any chance to get close to her. We should switch to something more long-ranged,” Sugar said, already pulling her own Coin out.
“Nice idea! Let’s light her up girls!” Red shouted back at Blue before all of them inserted the Coins into the Morpher.
[G-G-Gun!]
[G-G-Gun!]
[G-G-Gun!]
[G-G-Gun!]
[G-G-Gun!]
Not one moment too late the weapons materialized in their hands, just one second later and their principal's roof would have been ripped to shreds. Instead, a barrage of energy bolts pierced through the arm of the Changeling, letting her scream out in agony.
Whoever would have looked at the sudden sounds of battle would have seen five colorful figure soaring through the air as they jumped off the roof, unloading blast after blast on the monster that had already caused way too many problems for them today. The Centipede on the receiving end of this attack meanwhile had wrapped its arms around it like a shell was standing completely still, only several grunts could be heard from within the shield it had created for itself.
The Rangers landing on the crated riddled grass that surrounded the monster was what finally breathed new life into the Changeling, the arms uncoiling from her form, revealing a charred and burned monster, one that growled at them. With a loud warcry, the arms shot towards them, and while all four others jumped out of the way once again, Lemon instead dashed forward on her own, jumping and dodging under the arms and their tiny little legs, even if things got close a few times at least.
Dodging one more swipe she had finally reached her goal, a terrified looking Changeling, but instead of pointing her gun directly at her she continued her sprint, jumping on her chest and pushing herself back off.
[Fi-Fi-Fire!]
Under the eyes of the Changeling, she had managed to slot in one of her Coins and now was aiming down at her from the air. Without any chance to react a burst of fire shoot from the weapon, consuming her entirely, only her agonizing screams filling the air. “Now!”
The others watching Lemon’s little display and had only waited for this one word. In unison, all of them inserted Coins into the slot of their weapons.
[Fi-Fi-Final! Red!]
[Fi-Fi-Final! Blue!]
[Fi-Fi-Final! Yellow!]
[Fi-Fi-Final! Pink!]
[Fi-Fi-Final! Green!]
A black shadow laid itself around the Changeling who just spun around, desperately looking for any sign of the rangers. However, the only thing she saw was the darkness and- Before she could even finish that thought a bolt of blue energy hit her square in the face, followed by the colores of the other Rangers, finished off with a red belt right through her stomach.
As the cloud faded around her, she lay defeated on the ground, the black stone, however, nowhere to be seen. But before any of the Rangers could reach her, she was already starting to grow, just like the last one. “Prove yourself useful, and I might be merciful. It would be a waste to squander this opportunity.,” Pharnyx muttered from a nearby roof.
With a simple nod the Rangers each pulled out their Weapon Coins and replaced them with the only thing powerful enough they had.
[He-He-Hellhound!]
[Le-Le-Leviathan!]
[Ro-Ro-Roc!]
[Wy-Wy-Wyvern!]
[Ma-Ma-Manticore!]
Just like before the monster and all of their mechanical beast were pulled into a sort of parallel world projected across the sky of Canterlot City. “Ok, let’s go for round two!” Lemo shouted from within her Hellhound Zord and ran towards the Changeling.
With every step glass shattered from the nearby buildings and the concrete under her paws shattered. The Changeling, however, was seemingly not that worried about the Zord that was speeding towards her, instead of slamming both tips of her arms into the ground, letting the earth shake underneath her. Just a few hundred meters before Lemon could reach her the arms shot out of the ground once again, ripping everything in its way to pieces, houses, streets and everything in between and that wave of destruction hit the Zord. The two limbs wrapped around the mechanical animal without any sort of effort, squeezing and pressing against its metal hull.
“Hey! Let go of her!” Indigo shouted out, soaring towards the red Zord, together with the pink Wyvern she shoots down at the see of limbs that had entangled their friend. Pink fire and yellow lightning shoot down at the arms, signing and burning them, but not enough to do any lasting damage. It was however enough for the arms to let go of Lemon and flick her to the side, bot arms shooting up into the sky. Both Wyvern and Roc were fast and agile, but the tendrils were faster, ultimately wrapping themselves around their wings and squeezing just like they did with Hellhound.
However, unlike Hellhound, both of the Zords now in the clutches of their enemy reacted differently, unleashing a blast of electricity and fire respectively, letting the Changeling scream out in pain. But instead of just being released they were both flung right at Manticore and Leviathan, bot far too surprised to react on time and for that, they were knocked off the ground with ease.
“Damn, it! Damn, it! Damn, it!” Lemon shouted into her cockpit, looking for anything that could win them a victory in this situation when something familiar happened. Just like when the first giant Changeling appeared, something started to glow, a red button right in front of her. “Uhm, girls-“
“We’re seeing it!” It shouted back at her from Sunny’s cockpit. With a silent nod, she slammed her first down on the button, her friends doing the same thing.
Without even a second to think about what she might have just done now, she felt her Zord dash forward, entirely out of her control and jump into the air. When she spotted a monitor to the right of her, her jaw dropped to the bottom of her helmet. The thing was transforming. The legs were beginning to collapse inward. Next Sugar’s Leviathan jumped at her, split in two and attached itself where her forelegs had been, creating something that looked like arms as well as two fists that grew out of the ends of these new “arms”. Next were Manticore and Wyvern, both sailing into where the legs would have been, folding in similar to Hellhound and attaching themselves to the left and right leg respectively. The last Zord that hadn’t docked yet was Roc, and that one was already soaring right towards them, only slowing down last second and attaching itself on the back, forming some sort of wings for the new combination. As a sort of last touch a face flipped up from under Hellhounds head, now it looked like this new Zord had a human face and a helmet looking like a wolf.
“Shadow Star Megazord!” It echoed through the ruined streets of this world as the tail of Leviathan flew down, split in two and landed in its hands like two swords.
The Changeling just roared and let its arms lose once again. But instead of jumping out of the way of the deadly limbs the Megazord stood its ground and with an x-shaped strike of his tow swords just cut through the attack, an x-shaped energy wave flying past the initial point of attack and slamming into the Changeling who let out a loud roar as well as an avalanche of sparks.
“Awesome!” It bellowed through the new cockpit the Rangers now shared, much to the annoyance of the others.
“It’s nice that you are so enthusiastic about this,” Sour said before continuing to bark: “But keep it down, will you?”
“Uhm, sorry,” Lemon nervously just chuckled.
While the Rangers were busy bickering, the Centapied Changeling had recovered and was about to unleash another attack on the Megazord. But instead of taking it head one once again the massive Zord dashed forward, gliding over the ground, slicing through every arm that came even close to them without much effort until thy reached the monster in question. With two simultaneous strikes, they cut right through the chitin of the beast, letting a pained scream be heard through the entire city before flying up into the sky.
“Ok, let’s do this!” Red once again screamed, followed by a nod of her friends. High above the Changeling who had fallen on its back, they hovered, but within moments they dashed down, spinning like a madman. A black vortex began to form around them, encasing them within, coming faster and faster down on the Changeling beneath them until-
The entire shadow world was consumed by an explosion before falling apart once again, leaving the Rangers back in the garden where their fight had begun.
A bit further away on the edge of a forest, a woman sat atop a green bike, her helmet hanging on the bars of her handle, a smile crossing her lips. “I have the feeling we are in good hands for now. Wonder when our paths might cross once again.”
>-------<S>-------<
The sun was already setting over Canterlot City when the door to her parent's house slowly opened once again. In stepped a rather nervous Lemon Zest, most of her wounds had already healed thanks to her Shadow Coin. But that wasn’t what she was worried about, they had bought the self-defense story after all.
As silent as a mouse on the lookout for some cheese, she sneaked through the house. Only at the kitchen she finally slowed down, daring to take a look inside. Almost like they hadn't moved all day her parents were still sitting on their chairs, her dad reading the newspaper and her mom walking over to the window and taking a look outside only to let out a low sigh.
Once again she felt her throat tightening, her body starting to shake and every single bad thing that could happen rush through her head, threatening to drown her once again in-
No! She couldn’t let this happen again, she had to stand her ground now, no matter the consequences. She could fight a giant monster, why not her parents? Right?
Tightening the grip on the SUB-Drive, she had gotten from Cadance, she stepped into the kitchen, breaking the awkward silence with an equally as awkward: “Hey!” To crown of the uncomfortableness in her rigid body, the motion of her hand waving from side to side was just as stiff.
What followed next came at a total surprise to her. Her mother had rushed towards her, and before she could even get any excuses and apology out of her mouth she had been caught in a tight hug. “I’m so glad you’re back!”
“I’m… I’m sorry…” That was all she could manage to stammer out, her arms having hanging limp from her side.
“Never do this again, ok?” She simply got in return, warm tears running down the cheeks of her face and landing on Lemon’s shoulders.
“Yeah, your mother was worried to death about you,” he joined in a warm smile on his lips. “And I was too,” he added after a glare from his wife. “We are also sorry for pushing you like this. We should have seen that you were uncomfortable with the whole situation. But you have to understand that we are just worried about you, that’s all. We don’t want to push you too hard, but we also can’t let you run headfirst into a disaster.”
Lemon just looked over to her father, a somber tone in her eyes before she started to speak: “I… I know and I get what you wanted, I just… It was just too much,” she returned with a low voice before adding with a bit more confidence: “I had a bit of time to think about this and, well, I have no idea what to do after school. I always just thought it would come to me, but doesn’t look like it, does it? I have to look for myself.”
“Lemon…” Sweet Orange muttered, loosening her grip on her daughter a bit and staring down at her.
“So, you do you have an idea how to go about this? Do you need our help with this?” Grapefruit continued, looking at her with a hint of worry.
“Yeah, I have an idea! And this is something I have to figure out on my own, ok?” It came back with a conviction that took both of them by surprise.
“Ok then, you do you Lemmy, but if you need help, we are always there to help you, remember that,” grapefruit finally said, a warm smile on his lips. And before Lemon could say another word she was already once again pulled into Sweet Orang’s hug. At first, she tried to pull herself free, but after a few moments, she just embraced her, it just felt right.