Loud screams were heard through the streets of Canterlot as a mass of fire was shoot through them, consuming everything that stood in its way. Out of the flames jumped a Green Power Ranger, her suit already covered in ash and small burn marks, under her arm a little kid, not older than six. With a sprint, she shoved the kid into the hands of an expecting woman and said: “She’s save,” only to add a far harsher: “Now get going!”
That was something the woman didn’t need to be told twice, and without even a second thought, she rushed off in the opposite direction of the flames. Sour had just enough time to turn around when the next flame breath shoot towards her, thankfully she managed to jump out of the way just in the nick of time.
As she landed a few meters away, a figure stepped out of the flames. At first, one could only make out its silhouette. Its outline was imposing, muscular, and one could definitely make out the thick chitin armor all over his body. As it came closer, more and more of its features were revealed, two massive, flamelike horns atop his head as well as two glowing green eyes that pierced through the smoke. The next thing to become apparent was the marone color of the Changeling’s chitin, mixed in with several golden strips all across his body, but the most striking thing was the mouth. It opened its pincers to reveal what looked like pipes with small flames coming off them.
“Ah, Ranger. So they were right, you would be on your way to your friend just right now. That is so helpful,” he smugly said, his voice more of a hiss than actually any form of speak normal to humans with the added bonus of small flames bursting out of his mouth sporadically.
“How about I’m nice for today since I don’t have time for you? Why don’t you leave now?” She asked in a sickly sweet voice, even adding an overdramatic pose to it, only to add a far harsher: “Because I can’t stand looking at you any longer. You Changelings just don’t know when to call it quits!”
“Oh, don’t try to play the strong one here! You’re the ones who don’t know when they are up against a foe they can’t beat! You know what power we hold? What you are really up against? A bunch of stupid teenagers against our hive? Don’t be ridiculous, you have no chance of winning! In the end, we either crush you with our power or with our influence! You really should just join us, together we can burn this rotten world to the ground!” He growled, flames flaring up in the palms of his hands.
“Oh, that sounds so wonderful, where can I sign?” She asked before dashing forward and punching straight ahead and right towards his stomach. “So, I can rip this shitty contract apart like the trash it is!”
But instead of smashing her fist into his chest, she instead was greeted by a burst of flame heading straight towards her. With a loud yelp, she jumped backward, a little bit of ash having settled on her visor.
“Oh, scared? The little girl is scared, isn’t she? How cute, but that’s why you won’t win against us. We Chageling’s are the burning flames inside an eternal furnace! We will do whatever it takes to burn down this world and build up a brighter one from its ashes, but for that, we need those coins, and no little sparks like you will stand in our way! All those who oppose the new world will be burned down together with this old one!” He growled before unleashing a wave of fire towards her that quickly consumed a car that stood in its way.
The expected explosion quickly followed, scattering pieces of the car everywhere and leaving a burning husk of a vehicle as well as a lot of ash behind, but no Sour Sweet. The green Ranger had managed to slip away in the confusion of the explosion and
[Me-Me-Metal!]
In an instant, the Changeling spun around and sprayed another breath of flame at the Ranger, but instead of jumping back once again, she dashed straight ahead and slammed her fist into the face of the Changeling, slamming his mouth firmly shut. It didn’t take long for the flames inside his mouth to stack up and erupt in a geyser of fire that knocked him of his feet. To her own dismay, the fire actually hit her.
While the Coin definitely helped her against the general burn wounds, she could still feel the heat growing with every passing second, and she was already boiling inside her suit. If that thing kept that up any longer, she would just end up just like a duck sweet-sour. Shaking her head, she pushed that thought as far away as possible and dashed forward, ready to slam her fist right into the Changeling’s mouth.
But to her own horror, the monster had already pushed himself off the ground with the flames coming from his arms, and in the blink of an eye, he delivered a burning hot punch to her face. Granted, she didn’t feel much, but the flaming hot stream of fire definitely started to make her sweat like a waterfall beneath the helmet. With a grimace, she once again jumped back, her posture already showing her exhaustion as she landed, holding her arm.
“Heh, it seems your flame is about to be snuffed out. And I thought someone who was chosen by the Shadow Coins would burn bright, but I guess I was wrong. Oh well, I will enjoy seeing the life disappear from your eyes, you so-called hero. In the end, you couldn’t even save yourself,” he chuckled, already moving his arms in position to burn her to a crisp.
Just as he was about to unleash the attack on her, the sound of an engine could be heard. ‘Oh thank Fortuna, they are finally here,’ Sour though, expecting her friends to come in guns blazing on their bikes, but that never happened. No, another figure crashed into the Changeling just as he turned around, knocking him off his feet and letting him sail across the street and land with a loud groan.
As the girl looked up to see her friends, two fierce red eyes stared back at her. These two belonged to a warrior in green armor that kind of reminded her of a manticore. Kamen Rider Monster. She looked down at her before letting her bike roar to live again, raising it on its rear wheel and raced at the Changeling, who was just now standing back up, staring right into the blinding light of the bike's headlights.
In an instant, he launched his head forward, unleashing another fire breath. Monster, on the other hand, didn’t seem too faced by this; instead, two large bat-like wings opened up on her back and with a strong swing of both the Rider launched herself, as well as her bike high up into the air. As the Changeling just stared at the lunacy that was transpiring in front of him, she threw her whip towards him, entangling him with it and pulling it tight around his neck.
Frantically the Changeling tried to free himself from the whip around his neck, but all was for not as he suddenly felt the pull. Within moments he was pulled of his feet and dragged after the bike of the Rider like a fish on a hook. Without any prior warning, she suddenly hit the breaks, using the moment she still had to turn her bike one-hundred-eighty degrees, the Changeling flying past her and slamming into another wall, it partially collapsing onto him.
“Oh, Fortuna…” Sour just mumbled as she stared in awe at the display that was right in front of her. There was no hesitation in any of her actions, no, she just did. No fire could shake her resolve; it seemed…
But her thoughts were interrupted when she heard the sudden scream of someone: “Take it!” The voice barked at her. That was all she heard and at first not entirely sure who had called out to her when the bike of the Rider once again started to rev up its engine and shoot towards her. Sour’s eyes widened as she saw the machine head straight for her, its dangerous cargo in tow.
“Hey! Watch out there!” It suddenly came from the other direction, accompanied by the sounds of four different bikes. For just a split-second, she looked over to where the scream had come from, noticing her friends arriving. As she looked back, it actually really settled in what was happening right now. Monster was heading straight for her and showed no sign of slowing down. Directly before she would crash into her, she simply jumped out of the way, and right behind a car that was püarked on the sidewalk. From behind there, she could only watch as the Rider made a swift motion with her hands, slowing down in the process, and avoided the place she had just been standing at, the Changeling being dragged through the spot she had been standing in just seconds ago.
As the two rushed past her, the Changeling finally started to come back to his senses and managed to pull himself on his stomach and with a loud screech, unleashed another flaming breath at the Rider. She looked over her shoulder and pulled her whip back before diving out of the way before coming to a screeching halt. Without any seconds wasted, she jumped off her bike and dashed at the Changeling, who was right kneeling and coughing on the floor.
With spread claws, she aimed right for him, but in the last second, he snapped up and with one last cough sprayed fire right into her direction. She, however, made no sign of backing down, instead just leaping through the flames and slamming his body back on the ground, an enormous flare erupting from his body and consuming her and him.
After a few moments of silence, only interrupted by the crackling of the flame, the sound of a loud, bloodcurdling scream could be heard, accompanied by the sound of metal scratching across something hard which let a cold shiver run down the girls spins. That repeated for a few more times until the Rider was suddenly thrown up into the air and against a nearby building.
The Changeling apparently had managed to get his hands between her and him and unleashed her flames, rocketing her into the air through the pressure alone. The Stagbeetle Changeling took several deep breaths, his scared and wounded chest rising up and down as he did so before turning towards the Rangers that had all gathered around Sour.
“You… Little… Shits… Can’t beat me on your own, so you need help? You win this time… But I’ll get you, and then we will save this rotten world from itself,” he hissed, holding his side before almost falling back to the ground. Before any of the girls could react, he sprayed another wave of flames down at the ground, covering everything around him in the all-consuming flames.
Monster was just getting back up when she saw what was happening. Within seconds she dashed forward, straight towards the flames and leaped into them. But as she cut through them like a speeding bullet, her claws only hit the concrete bellow, digging deep into it and leaving vicious claw marks behind. As her head snapped back up, she could only see the ashes he had left behind, but no sign of the Changeling. With a loud, frustrated scream, she slammed her fists on the ground, it cracking in several places.
The five Rangers meanwhile just stared at her, unsure of what to say. That was when she suddenly spun around, her eyes focusing on Sour. “You! That was your fault he escaped!” She growled, taking several quick steps towards her. Sour was sure she could see the fury in the unmoving eyes, even if this should be physically impossible.
Sour took a few steps back, just staring at her. That hower didn’t seem to deter the Rider in any way shape or form as she continued to stomp over to her, coming closer and closer. Sour’s little stumble backward was only stopped when she hit a wall, or in this case, a car, locking her in place. As she turned back around, Monster was standing right in front of her, the red glowing eyes piercing down on her.
“I gave you a simple order, and you blew it!” She barked, grabbing the fabric of Sour’s Ranger Suit and pushing her against the car. “If you don’t have the guts to stand your ground and show your ferocity, this isn’t a job for you!” Sour could only stand there in silence.
“Hey! What in Tartarus’ name do you think you are doing? Let go of my friend!” Indigo huffed, grabbing hold of her shoulder and tried to jank her back. But the Rider simply turned her head like an owl and now stared staring at her. That stopped her dead in her tracks, her hand now awkwardly laying on the armored shoulder.
“And you all aren’t any better! She has eyes in her head, she knew I was coming! She would have actually done what I wanted if you hadn’t interfered! You put that idea about running into her head! If you can’t stand the pressure fighting brings with it, you are a far bigger danger to everyone around then if you would just do nothing! This monster is free because of you!” She continued to growl, the Rangers were at a loss for words.
“How... How should she have known what you were doing? This is ridiculous!” Indigo continued, having regained her voice after a few seconds.
“The moment you decide to walk the path of a protector, you can’t hesitate! If you do, people will get hurt! You can brood and question yourself before and after the fight, but during it, you can’t let your resolve wither! You have to think quick, choose the right action, not run in blindly but you have to move! Every second you lose the opponent gains! You can stumble, think, all of that, but do it without hesitation! If you can’t do that, you already lost!” She finished before turning back to Sour.
“And you, you hesitated! He is gone because of that. Do you really have that determination in you to do what needs to be done?” She hissed into her ear before adding: “If you think you do, come to the Everfree Forest, alone. Either you show me your bite, or you will see for yourself that this is as far as you can go.” With that, she released the girl who sunk down to the floor, still fixated on the Rider.
As she walked past the other Rangers, they all glared at her from beneath their visors. Monster didn’t even give them a simple glance as she picked up her bike and with a loud screech of the tires, drove off.
“What dreadful person,” Sunny huffed, crossing her arms in front of her. “What is she expecting? You aren’t psychic, after all!” She just shook her head.
“Last time, she was far nicer…” Lemon simply said, looking after the Rider.
“Yeah, whatever. This time she sure as Tartarus wasn’t,” Indigo returned, walking over to the still silent Sour and held out a hand. “Let’s get you back on your feet and don’t listen to grumpy-mc-grumpypants, you’re doing fine!” She said, pulling her friend back on her feet and giving her a soft clap on the shoulder. “How about we get you a coffee?”
“Coffee? Why would I-” Sour started to bark but suddenly fell silent and lowered her head and nodded. “Co… Coffee sounds good, actually.”
“That’s what I wanted to hear,” Indigo returned with a soft smile.
>-------<S>-------<
After making a hasty exit, the girls had quickly found the next best coffee shop in the area and had all gotten one of the warm, energizing drinks for themself, well all besides Lemon, who had managed to snatch herself a hot chocolate. They could still hear the sirens in the background, the MRG and police apparently had arrived shortly after they had left. Thank goodness, they were not really in the mood to explain themself to them, especially since Cadance had asked them to keep all of this secret. Her boyfriend might have been the director of the local branch, but as far as they knew, he did take his job very seriously, and she wasn’t entirely sure how he would react to… all of this.
While the other girls were eagerly sipping on the drinks, Sour was just sitting in front of hers, absentmindedly staring at the pattern in her coffee cup as if it was some sort of ancient writing.
She almost fell off her chair when she suddenly felt something softly push against her shoulder. With a surprised look, she snapped her head over as she stared at the somber smile of Indigo. “Everything ok?”
“I’m fine,” she huffed back before adding a far more somber “It’s nothing.”
“Yeah, and that’s why you haven't even taken a single sip from your cup and stared into it like it was a portal to Equestria,” she returned with a raised eyebrow.
Sour gave her a quick glare before emptying the entire cup of coffee in one go before saying with returning with an annoyed undertone: “Better now?”
Indigo raised her eyebrow again before starting to chuckle a bit. “You really are bad at lying, did anyone ever tell you that?” She just got another glare. “Ok, sorry, but this was just perfect. But really, you shouldn’t even think about that Rider anymore, she isn’t worth it. You know how we beat every Changeling that was dumb enough to get in our way? He will end up just like them! We don’t need her for this. We can do this on our own just fine!” She continued with another fistbump to her shoulder.
“Aha…” she muttered back, looking at the now empty cup of coffee. “Yeah, you’re right!”
“See, that’s how we want you! Always the stubborn one! Nothing gets you down,” she said with a wide grin on her lips. “Hey! Another coffee for my friend here!” She screamed across the room, garnering a few funny looks, but in the end, nobody seemed to mind.
The second cup came fast, being placed down before her. Indigo looked away for a short moment to chat with the rest. When she turned back, she only saw as Sour placed the cup back down, put a bit of money on the table, and stood up.
“Hey? Where are you going?” As she asked, the three other girls turned around as well, looking at her in bewilderment.
“I wanted to learn something for math. See ya tomorrow,” she simply returned before walking off and out of the door. Indigo took the last sip from her own cup and stood up as well. Something fishy was going on, for sure.
>-------<S>-------<
The sun was already setting when she finally arrived. Looking up at the wall of trees was undoubtedly fascinating, but right now, she felt something other as well, uncertainty. Should she really follow the Rider in here without her friends knowing about it? “Don’t hesitate or you lose,” she muttered before taking the first step into the forest. Even in her suit, she felt strangely vulnerable.
It was as if the trees itself were watching her every move through the undergrowth and the dead leaves that covered the ground. It probably wouldn’t be that long till autumn would actually hit the area, dying the trees in gold and rust, but all these were just thoughts to keep her mind at bay for now. She didn’t even know where she was going, just pressing forward, always pushing forward deeper into the forest. At times she could swear something was moving close to her, but she choked it up to some animals, wasn’t too weird after all, but that lingering sensation that she was being watched never truly went away.
Just a few meters away, another girl was sneaking through the undergrowth, always trying to stay out of sight of Sour. Indigo had known something was off about Sour when she left the coffee shop, she just knew it. Without even thinking about it that much, she had decided to follow her. She would get to the bottom of this, whatever it was. She wouldn’t leave a friend hanging again, especially when it was so damn obvious. She wouldn’t create another Lightning Dust situation.
Still, what was she doing in the forest? Especially in her Ranger suit? Sour was never the adventurous type, so why was she walking into the woods with seemingly no goal? Something was definitely shifty here, and she had a sneaking suspicion why. And just to be safe, she had sent a message to her friends what she and Sour were up to. She just hoped they would find her before anything would go wrong.
“So, you came?” It suddenly echoed through the woods, as if the forest itself had spoken to them. Sour stopped dead in her tracks, looking around for any sign of whoever had spoken, all while Indigo just barely stopped herself from yelping in surprise before stumbling backward over her own foot and landing right on the ground. Thankfully, neither Sour nor the disembodied voice seemed to hear her.
“Yeah, I did! What exactly do you want from me?” She barked back, still turning her head.
That was when Indigo felt a hand on her shoulder and snapped around in total surprise, staring up at the red eyes and lion mane of Kamen Rider Monster. She had one hand pressed against where her lips would be and signaled her to be quite. “Don’t worry, your friend is safe. Trust me,” was all she said before stepping out from behind the little incline Indigo was hiding. “I’m here to test if you really have the determination to be someone who can protect people! For you and for me!”
With these words, the Rider opened the bat-wings she had used to lift her own bike into the air and dashed toward, throwing up several leaves like a storm had just blown through the forest. Sour had just enough time to cross her arms in front of her before the Rider hit her, her clawed fingers digging into the fabric of her suit and her flesh as she was lifted off the ground and slammed through several trees, leaving a stunned Indigo behind. “What the…” She muttered before running after the path of destruction they had left behind.
With a loud grunt Sour suddenly felt the ground under her once again as she landed rather roughly inside an almost empty riverbed. Monster apparently had dropped her, now circling above her. “What was that for?!” She barked up towards her, holding her arm while doing so.
“Show me that you can fight! I want to see your unbreakable determination, or you won't leave again!” It came back down before the Rider suddenly did as well, with frightening speed.
Sour stood there for a moment before she dashed to the side, but sadly not fast enough, Monster’s claws shutting close firmly around her leg, sweeping her off her legs in the process. She really would have eaten a lot of stones and dirt if she wouldn’t have had the helmet. This way, she at least only felt the visor slamming against her head, granted, not much better, but at least something.
“You hesitated!” She heard the growl of the Rider as she pulled her higher and high, Sour hanging limply by her ankle as she stared down at the ground, which grew more and more distant by the seconde. “You will die the moment you hesitate! Remember that.” With that, she suddenly felt her body being pushed down, together with Monster, she rocketed towards the ground. Only at the last possible second did she feel her body suddenly shift directions again, and she was thrown into the side of the riverbed, leaving behind a small crater.
Just as she pushed herself back up, a bit of dirt, leaves, and stones falling off her, Indigo managed to catch up with them, walking out between the trees atop the riverbed. “What the fuck?!” Was all she managed to shout out as she stared down at them.
It didn’t take long before Monster landed in front of her. “Stay out of this. She agreed the moment she set foot into this forest!” With a simple push of her wrist, she threw the Ranger backward, and down the small hill, she had just scaled.
“Hey! Leave her out of this!” Sour shouted up to the Rider, who turned around to her, the two red eyes focused on her.
“And how are you gonna force me? You can’t even decide what to do at this point! You’ll never be able to protect anyone like this” The Rider mockingly returned before taking off once more, racing towards her with spread claws.
“I’ll show you what I can protect,” she growled before slamming one of her Ability Coins into the Morpher.
[Me-Me-Metal!]
The Rider slammed into her with full force, but this time she didn’t feel the power of the attack, nor the claws of her digging into her flesh, instead she only felt her body being pushed backward in the rocky riverbed. “Hey? So, where is your big mouth now? I ain’t gonna let you hurt my friends! Never!” She definitely screamed back as she slowly was dragged across the ground. With one last push, she felt her stance faltering. Still, even though she stumbled backward a few steps, she remained standing.
Monster meanwhile had taken off again, landing in front of her taking a feral stance, claws spread as if she was ready to attack at any point. “Well, it seems you aren’t as toothless as it looked at first, but that could have been a fluke. I want to see more of this!” She growled at her before pulling out a green medal from the strange belt she wore by pulling the two halves apart. In a fluent move, she replaced it with a red one before slamming it shut.
\ AWAKEN: DRAGON! /
Out of the belt, an ethereal dragon emerged, circled around her a few times before coming back and consuming the Rider in a bright flash. It didn’t take long for the light to fade again, revealing Monster clad in a fire red armor with black undersuit, two dragon heads had replaced the sting-shoulder pads of her previous armor. Her head now resembled that of a dragon as well, with two green eyes. In her hand, she held an ax resembling a dragon claw as well as a dragon-head-formed shield.
“Now, show me if your resolve can stand against the burning ferocity of a dragon,” she growled before dashing forward, ax already raised and ready come down on her.
“I’ll show you what I can do! Just come!” She shouted back, sprinting towards the Rider as well.
Both heroes met when Green’s fists stopped the blade of the ax mid-swing, both of her hands having grabbed the blade before it could actually meet her. But sadly, that wasn’t quite enough on its own, Monster still holding her shield. And exactly that was what ultimately came down on Sour, the dragon head slamming into her side before throwing her to the side and tumbling over the rocky ground.
“You can’t just always stay on defense. Eventually, you will tire out. It’s important to know when to strike and when to stop, but if you never do one of them, you won’t succeed either! Those who always deflect are just cowards in another way. Now! Show me your strength!” Monster barked at her, the blade of the weapon in her hand, starting to glow a fierce red.
Sour meanwhile was starting to breathe slowly. All the blows she had taken until now were beginning to take their toll, even though she had used the Metal Coin. She was sure, if the Rider really wanted to, she would be done for a while ago, but she wasn’t. Seemed, she really just wanted to see her resolve, but if it was that really what she wanted, she would deliver and then tenfold. With a low growl, she removed the Metal Coin from her Morpher and replaced it with her second Ability Coin. If she wanted her to stop defending, she would get that.
[St-St-Strength!]
With a loud scream, she dashed forward, right at the Rider. Meanwhile, Indigo had managed to come back up, just in time to see her friend and the Rider clash once again. Sour had just jumped at her opponent, her fist slamming against the shield of the Rider, who was just about to swing her ax at her, instead was stopped dead in her tracks. A powerful gust of wind blew through the nearby area as both meet, throwing up small rocks as well as several dead leaves.
Monster stumbled back a few steps, her shield almost slipping out of her hands. “Not bad! Not bad at all. That’s the spir-” That was as far as she got before she came face to face with Sour’s fist that slammed right into her face, sending her flying, accompanied by a loud battle cry of the Ranger.
“Is this more to your liking!?” It echoed after her as Sour shouted out, still not stopping for even a second. Well, until something exploded right in front of her and knocked her to the side, at least.
“What?” Indigo let out, staring in confusion of the small fire that had suddenly appeared before her friend only to be blown back as well by a bright flash of light.
“Well, well. Look who I found here. Green, Yellow, and the Rider, all fighting it out? This is perfect, easy picking for me,” a disgustingly familiar voice gloated.
As Sour managed to regain her footing, she stared at the slowly approaching figure with two fireballs held in its hands, the Stag Beetle Changeling. “You! Fingers off, my friends!” She growled, reading herself to attack. But before she could race at him, however, she felt a hand on her shoulder, snapping back, she almost hit Monster in the face.
“I’ll help you with this. You can show him your burning resolve this time. And payback is always at least a little sweet,” she chuckled before pulling out the red Medal from her Driver and replacing it with a purple one.
The belt screamed out, a purple fourlegged bug creature emerging from it before fusing with her. The Rider now clad in purple armor with a light purple undersuit. Her shoulder resembled two horns, and her helmet reminded her of one of the Drones if she was honest with one large horn atop it and two green bug eyes. “Let’s see how much he enjoys facing off against a Changeling,” she chuckled.
“Wait, what?!” Was all Sour managed to say before the Rider expanded a few bug-like wings on her back and shoot into the air.
She stared after her for a few seconds before shaking her head and mumbling: “Eh, whatever, that has time for later,” with that, she dashed forward, replacing her Ability Coin once again. “Come and get me you sorry excuse for a Changeling!”
[Me-Me-Metal!]
The Changeling quickly diverted his attention back to the Ranger and threw a few fireballs her way, but instead of jumping out of the way, she simply jumped through them. From the flames she emerged once again with ash covering her suit, sweat was running down her forehead. Still, she was pressing on. Right now, she just needed to get close enough to lay a smackdown on him.
Just as the Changeling was about to throw another one of the flaming balls at her Monster made her move, rocketing down from the skies above she came up from behind him, the Changeling had just enough time to turn around before he felt the force of the Rider crashing into him.
The Stag Beetle was thrown backward, right towards Sour. She didn’t even need a single word to know what she was supposed to do. With a loud scream, she took a solid stand and threw a punch towards the incoming Changeling, hitting him square in the back. While she was thrown a few meters back as well, she was definitely willing to take the small sacrifice, her opponent having landed on the ground with a loud scream.
Monster landed next to her, helping her back to her feet. “That’s what I wanted to see,” she smirked beneath her helmet.
“Yeah, yeah, we have time for this sappy shit later, right now I want to beat him to a pulp,” she hissed back, pulling herself free from Monster’s grasp before pushing another Coin into her Morpher.
[St-St-Strength!]
The Rider gave her a look before chuckling and shaking her head. “Yeah, then we are two who want that. Yeah, let’s fuck this guy up,” and with that, she stormed forward, right at the Changeling who had just managed to get back on his feet, wonky as he was.
As he saw the two running towards him, he let out a low growl and unleashed a burst of flames from his palms once again. While Sour was taking the long way around him, Monster didn’t seem to care as she lunged through the fire and clawed at him with one of her hands, following this attack up with the other one. Sparks flew everywhere as the claws scraped across the chitin of the Changeling.
Monster, however, wasn’t done just yet, two massive blades forming on the back of her arms. With a swift motion, she pulled both arms back from where they had stayed after her claw attack, carving out an X right on his chest, the sparks accompanying his loud screeches.
Breathing heavily, he stumbled backward, holding his chest, his eyes fixated on the Rider who was just glaring at him he suddenly heard the sounds of footsteps to his right. Before he could even think about what this could have been, he felt a fist crashing into his face. Like an explosion, pain surged through his body before he was thrown to the wayside and landed right in the little water the river still held.
Everything felt like it was spinning, he couldn’t grab onto one coherent thought. Still, he pushed himself off the ground, staring at the purple and green blurs in front of him that were starting to come closer once again. But suddenly they stopped and turned around, apparently because of the sound of something roaring in the distance.
Just seconds later, three bikes appeared atop the riverbed, the three remaining Rangers sitting atop them. Indigo also joined them just moments after, all four glaring down at the injured Changeling.
“Seems like we came just in time,” Red smirked. “Hey, you two! How about we finish this bug off now?”
“Yeah, I think we should do that. It’s time we wrap this up, I’m starting to run out of steam,” Sour said to Monster who simply nodded in return. “Hey, girls! Yeah, let’s finish this up here! This guy has been annoying me for far too long already!” The four other Rangers all nodded in unison before jumping down next to the two of them.
“Then let’s put an end to this guy,” Lemon added, already pulling out her Coin, her friends doing exactly the same while Monster opened the two halves of the belt once again.
[Fi-Fi-Final! Red!]
[Fi-Fi-Final! Blue!]
[Fi-Fi-Final! Yellow!]
[Fi-Fi-Final! Pink!]
[Fi-Fi-Final! Green!]
\ ROAR: CHANGELING! /
Once again, the opponent was consumed in the black cloud, robbing him of his senses before a fiery red light struck him on his chest, right in the middle of the x, before pushing herself off him once again. This repeated itself with a blue, yellow, and pink light, the Changeling now clutching hist chest as he sunk to his knees.
Just as he thought, it was all over a bright green light, as well as a purple one appeared in front of him. He could barely make out the shape of a Ranger and the Rider before they slammed into him, their legs stretched out. At the same time, he felt a foot and what felt like a long spike crashing into him before he was thrown away and exploded against the wall of the riverbed.
The green flames hadn’t even set yet when a beam of light hit the spot where he had fallen, and within seconds the Changeling had grown to enormous size, just like the rest. “I’ll take care of this, you take the giant one,” Monster growled before dashing off in the direction the beam had come from. The five Rangers meanwhile all readied themselves to fight back against the giant monster.
[He-He-Hellhound!]
[Le-Le-Leviathan!]
[Ro-Ro-Roc!]
[Wy-Wy-Wyvern!]
[Ma-Ma-Manticore!]
“Shadow Star Megazord!”
Now, with both the giant monster as well as the Rangers disappearing into their separate dimension, Monster was racing towards her own target. Halfway there, however, a crescent moon shaped energy wave shoot towards her, the Rider barely managing to dodge the attack. As she looked down at where this had come from, she could only make out a very slim looking, insect-like thing, most likely a Changeling. The only thing she could somewhat make out was the sword in his hand that he sheathed into a scabbard.
She dashed towards him, but he walked off into the forest, and at the moment she landed, he was already gone, leaving only a small burned spot behind, a few green flames still dancing across the leaves. “Damn it!” She hissed, kicking out the fire before she had a forest fire to worry about. “Seems this is all up to you then,” she added with a look through the thick roof of leaves over her, seeing snippets of the Megazord slashing across the chest of the Changeling.
Meanwhile, the Changeling had been pushed back, a few sparks still falling off his chest and at the forest below him. The Rangers meanwhile pushed further forward, pulling their sword upwards back up, only for the Changeling to leap backward and spray flames at them.
While the Zord didn’t really feel any pain, they definitely felt the sudden increase in temperature defiantly could be noticed in the cockpit, the Rangers staring to sweet profusely. “If we don’t do something, we are all gonna be cooked alive in here!” Sugar nonchalantly said to her friends, casually moving the necessary controls to get the Zord back up into an upright position.
“Yeah! We are getting toasted in here! We need to get out of his range and somehow fight him from afar,” Sunny added, frantically moving her own levers around to get the Zord moving.
“Yeah, let’s do this. We’ll figure something out,” Lemon returned, taking a look at the hellscape that laid beneath them, the entire forest having been set ablaze, smoke and embers rising even as high as the cockpit of the Zord.
“No!” It echoed through the cockpit.
“What do you mean no? We are gonna die like this if we don’t do anything!” Sunny shouted back at Sour.
“If we back down now we are just gonna give him time to do something else. We have to put the pressure on him, not him, on us. If we hesitate we die! Right now, we can still stand it in here. But how long can we really do that if the entire forest has been turned into an inferno? We need to strike him now before it’s too late!” She barked back, slamming her fist on her control console for good measure.
A few seconds of silence followed, the other Rangers staring at her with open mouths “I think she is right,” Sugar finally broke the silence as she said this with her usual tone.
“Eh, fine. But if you kill us, I’m gonna blame you, ok?” Sunny huffed after everyone else had looked at her for a few moments and just crossed her arms with a huff.
“Ok! Then we are gonna do this my way! Let’s fuck this asshole up good!” Sour screamed out, raising her hand into the air before slamming a coin into the slot in front of her before pushing two leavers forward.
[Me-Me-Metal!]
The giant mech started to move, the coin once again slotting itself into its chest, before leaping up into the air, its wings spreading out. They soared up into the air before turning back around and shooting back down. The Changeling, however, wasn’t just standing idly by, no, he unleashed all the fire he still had left directly at them.
Inside the cockpit, the other four Rangers looked at Sour, but she showed no sign of slowing down, instead only increased the speed of the mech. She spun around, now with a leg aimed directly at the Changeling as they soared through the fire, the heat inside rising to unbearable degrees, but she just let out a primordial scream.
The moment the foot of the Megazord connected with the Changeling it simply eviscerated him, the wind of the ensuing explosion blowing out the flames in the nearby area like nothing. “And we fucking did it!” Sour screamed from the bottom of her lungs, raising her hands into the air.
>-------<S>-------<
“Thank you so much for your help,” Sour said, resting up against a tree, her entire suit covered in ash and small burn marks.
Monster just coked her head a bit and chuckled. “Oh, if one should thank anyone here, it’s me thanking you. Without you, I wouldn’t have been able to deal with the big guy. Don’t sell yourself short.”
“Still, I would prefer it if you wouldn’t beat up my friends,” Indigo muttered, her arms crossed in front of her.
“I only did what was necessary. I never wanted to injure her; she just needed to be pushed in the right direction. But she succeeded with flying colors,” Monster said, taking a few steps towards the Green Ranger and placing her hand on top of her shoulder. “Today, you should that monster who you really were. Never forget that any you all will push through.”
“Don’t worry, I won’t,” she got in return.
“That’s good to hear, but I’ll be off. I have something to do in Manhattan. You’ll keep this place save, I’m sure of it. I have to protect my forest after all,” she said with a chuckle before starting to walk away.
“Wait, but isn’t your forest here?” Lemon asked, somewhat confused.
“Technically yes, but in a way the entire world is my forest,” she returned, all while continuing to walk deeper into the woods.
“She is sooooo cool!” Lemon squealed out, her arms pulled to her side, her friends just shaking their heads in amusement.