[See Skyland and the Jewel Rangers for disclaimer]
Battle, Sieged in the Soul
By Sarah-Lynn Brown
By Sarah-Lynn Brown
[The Prism Ranger informs the Jewel Rangers of a Dark Army convoy on its way the planet of Orpalt, in the Gamma Quadrant. Lucent (Prism Ranger) is too far away and asks for the Rangers to stop the convoy before it reaches the defenseless world, once her home planet. The Rangers agree and leave immediately on the half day long transwarp journey. When they intercept the convoy, they are immediately engaged in battle. The Jewel Rangers ship is damaged, but not as heavily as the convoy which deters and leaves the system. Black Nebula, not willing to give up the fight so easily, sends a fighter squad to the space to get the Rangers while they sit in Orpalt space repairing their ship. The six Jewel Rangers become involved in a second battle with Dark Nebula. Their ships blasting at one another for several hours, soon the Jewel Rangers are losing with their ship barely holding together. They put themselves into stealth mode and fly to a nearby, isolated white dwarf system to make repairs and devise new tactics for a comprise. Unknown to the Jewel Rangers, the White Dwarf star is emitting a pulse that interferes with their powers, and they quickly become restless and paranoid.]
[Aboard the J.R. ship, the six teens are trying to make repairs and interactions between them are becoming hostile. Daisy and Jenii try to repair the circuitry on the main computer and bring data systems back online. Brice is patching the damage to the hold by a robotic arm with a welding tool attached. Evin, Skyland, and Xenos are working on repairing the engines. Skyland is humming a song while she works in the core of the engine. The sound echoes through the engine room. Xenos becomes agitated and screams.]
Xenos- Stop that stupid humming!!!
Sky- Don't scream at me!
Xenos- (scream!) Ah! [Evin becomes angered by Xenos and drops his tool and goes over to him.]
Evin- What is wrong with you!!….Do you see a radio in here…Music might make these repairs bearable!
[The two young men then begin to posture at one another. Skyland hears the silence then begins to hum again. They both turn and scream at her to shut up. She climbs out of the engine and scowls at the two of them.]
Sky- What is your problem!!?
Xenos- If we hadn't stayed in the battle with the fighters so long, we might not have so many repairs to make.
Sky- What are you trying to say?!
Xenos- You are the worst leader ever….I think we should leave, forget about the stupid planet.
Sky- What about you?! (looking to Evin)
Evin- It would be the only thing I would agree with Xenos on..But, I dare not to agree with him!
Xenos- Dare not to agree with ME?!!
[Sky, dirty from her work, slaps Evin for being sarcastic to her and leaves a streak of grime on his face. He is angered, but doesn't strike out at her. Xenos laughs at Evin and angers him. Evin jumps out at Xenos and they begin to roll around on the floor, fighting. Skyland gets so upset at the both of them that she starts crying and curls up in a corner, away from the fighting males.]
[Daisy and Jenii, work diligently to make the repairs to bring the computer back up. They converse in a friendly manner, but soon the questions turn mean.]
Jenii- Well, who do you think is cuter of the three, Xenos, Evin, or Brice.
Daisy- I don't know…They are all cute…I'd probably pick Xenos.
Jenii- Brice is fierce!
Daisy- About as much as a fluffy kitten.
Jenii- Who are you calling fluffy, you short sissy?!!
Daisy- Sissy? Me sissy?…..You're the PURPLE RANGER, Miss I'm-so-feminine-and-dainty.
Jenii- At least I can defend myself in a battle.
Daisy- Only if a Green Ranger is behind you!
Jenii- Ewwww!…hush up, you round little lemon!!
Daisy- I'm not fat, you're the big, fat one!
Jenii- No, I certainly am not….Not that much!
[Jenii gets up and leaves, holding her arms crossed across her waist. Daisy sits with the computer panel in front of her giggling
and continues to work.]
[Brice is growing tired of the repetitive work of welding the holes in the hold of the ship. Exhausted and unable to rest, he begins
to hallucinate. Brice is sure that he sees Skyland frantically waving to him from outside the ship to help her. Brice waves back at
her and smiles.]
Brice- Sorry, I cannot help you. I'm busy fixing the holes like you told me to.
*Sky-(yelling) Let me in….Help, I don't have much air left!!!
Brice- Hold your breath, and it'll last longer!
*Sky- (getting drowsy from lack of air) Please….hellllp meee! (she falls unconscious)
Brice- I warned you! (smiling to himself)
[Brice blinks and then refocuses on repairing damage to the ship.]
[Dark Nebula discovers the Rangers situation and casts a spell upon the them which puts them deep into the dream realm and
they must now fight to get themselves out.]
[The six Rangers suddenly find themselves in a eerie old movie drive-in, playing several old fashioned horror and monster
movies at the same time. The screams of victims and attacking sounds of monsters overwhelm all other sound as the movies
flicker on screens all around them. They look to one another in confusion. Then, one of the screens directly behind them airs an
image of a little girl walking through a tropical jungle, then Daisy disappears. . The five remaining look to the screen and see it is
Daisy, as a pre-teen. Another screen switches to an of a scene boy riding upon a horse through tall, dry grass. Suddenly, then
Evin disappears. The screen shows Evin as a child riding upon his horse. Next, a third screen airs the image of a boy sleeping in
his bed, then Brice vanishes. Next, a scene of a girl ice skating on a frozen lake airs and Jenii vanishes. Skyland and Xenos look
to each other and to the screens. A fifth screen switches to an image of a boy walking down a dark alley in a large city. Xenos
looks to Skyland upset. "That was the night I was assaulted." Abruptly, Xenos vanishes. Skyland stands and looks to her
screen.]
["What in my past do you attempt to haunt me with?" A scene of her as a child, playing in her parents laboratory airs…."Is
that all you got for me? The day I was burned!!" Skyland, too, vanishes and finds herself in a childhood experience.]
[Daisy, marches through one of the remaining jungles in Argentina. She is a child, with a backpack on her back. Ahead of her, her older brother whistles and fusses at her to hurry. She picks up pace and meets him. A rustle comes out of the bush, then the two stop quickly and listen. A jaguar leaps out of the bush and pounces upon the two children. In a frenzy, the two are both badly hurt and then the big cat is suddenly scared off by a gun shot. In shock, Daisy rises with tears and bites on her arms and legs. She goes to her brother, who is more severely injured. Behind her, she sees her father pop out of the bush. He rushes to the children. "Didn't I tell you to never wander away into the jungle!!!" the big burly man yells, shot gun in hand. " How many times…."]
[Evin rides his horse through the tall grass of Oklahoma in summer and smells the dry air. He goes to a old burial ground and looks to the graves, remarked over 100 years ago in a preservation effort, he reads the plague obscured by weeds. "This historic Native American burial sight is home to the graves of more than two hundred Cherokee and Creek people who died while on the Trail of Tears from the Carolinas." Evin reflects on how hard it must have been for those people and soon he has a vision. He sees himself as one of the people on the Trail of Tears, sick and thin, being forced by obnoxious and cruel soldiers to keep walking. By him, a bare-boned dog walks with his head bowed and behind him, a small child is being carried by her ill mother. Evin feels how sore his feet are and how his entire body aches of rest and nourishment. The woman behind him stumbles out of weakness and he turns and helps her up, taking the child in his arms and carrying the small boy until they make camp at nightfall. Around the fire, the rations are given out, the group of around a hundred greedily take their food from the soldiers, who ration it to them in tin pans and water in rusty cups. Evin takes his mush, dried meat, and water, then finds a place near one of the fires to eat and rests on his shabby blanket. The dog begs for food from the soldiers, who yell at it and chase it away. Evin calls the dog to him and offers it some of his food. The dog quietly takes it and swallows it almost whole. As Evin drinks his water, he sees the small child also feeding the dog some of his food and playing with the animal. The boy's mother is yet more ill and she coughs repeatedly, eating her food slowly and entirely. Evin recognizes what is wrong with the woman, but knows that no medicine can cure her now. Tired and sore, Evin lays down and goes to sleep.]
[The next morning when he wakes, he finds that the mother of the little boy is dead, her body wrapped around her child, shielding him from cold and predators. The child is now trapped in his mothers arms. Evin goes to the woman and pulls the child out of her arms, pulling a blanket over the woman's body. She is buried in a shallow grave before the group picks up and moves on. Evin carries the young child with him all day, except for a hour here and there that he is too tired and the child can walk. As more days pass, the rations for the native people grow slimmer as do the Indians. Evin gives his some of his rations to the dog and doesn't allow the child to give up any of his food. A week later, they arrive to the reservation in Oklahoma and Evin, weakened terribly, falls ill and gives the child to another woman there. He then lays in his bed and slowly feels his body die…..Evin comes out of the vision, crying and sees that it is dark out now. He gets on his horse and rides home, still haunted by ghosts.]
[Brice finds himself waken in a smoky and dark panic. The Royal summer home is a blaze and he hears shouting out in the hall. Scared, Brice freezes and coughs from the smoke that spreads into his room. Yells in the hallway bring him back to alertness as he falls out of his bed and crawls out of the room. Down the hall he bumps into objects scattered across the floor and searches through the blinding and choking smoke for a way out. The hall near the door is blocked by high flames. Brice decides to go back to his room and crawl out the window. He gets to the room with the smoke and flames pressing down on him. He cannot open the jammed window, so he smashes his hand through it and cuts himself in an attempt to leave the burning structure, but makes it outside.]
[Jenii skates with friends on a frozen lake dressed in a fuzzy coat and tights with white skates. She circles the skating ring several times and laughs at friends who fall. She then sees a marker on a far part of the lake and skates out onto the forbidden ice. She sasses her friends and jumps up and on the ice, then she feels the ice crack beneath her and she attempts to cross back to the safe area but falls through. She plummets into the sub-zero water and, instantly, all air escapes her lungs and sharp pains surge through her body. She fights to stay afloat in the chunky water as people attempt to come out to her aid. The pain of the cold water and hand of death overwhelm Jenii. She continues to fight the sharp water until a rescuer with a rope tied to his waist pulls her from death.]
[Xenos walks through a dark alley on his way home from an after school activity. A group of young men dressed in black with gang bandanas come up behind Xenos and corner him. They take his few dollars and beat him severely. Pounding his face, bruising his body, and breaking his leg. They cause him to bleed until he cannot move or talk and leave him to suffer. For minutes, that seemed like an eternity. Xenos goes in and out of consciousness before someone comes to his aid….]
[Skyland finds herself as herself when she was five years old and in her parents lab. She reenacts the day in which she was playing around with her parents experiments and accidentally toppled a bottle of acid which dumps on her chest, arms, and legs. She screams and her parents rush in to see the little girl drenched in the chemical. Her mother rushes and grabs her, putting her under the fire shower to rinse the acid from off her skin. Her father calls for medics to come. The child is immediately stripped bare of her eroding clothes and sprayed with water until they think all of the acid is off her skin. As she shivers from shock and cries, her skin is pink and covered with sores. The medics come into the lab and perform emergency aid on the child to neutralize the acid and prevent further irritation. She and her mother, who's arm was burned while grabbing the child, are both taken to the hospital and treated for sever chemical burns.]
[Skyland fights to alter the chain of events at every turn, but is unable to change any fact of the childhood experience when reliving it.]
[The Jewel Rangers relive other experiences and nightmares over and over again. Each time, they play back faster and faster. They are being driven to insanity by the delusions…..Suddenly, they seem to stop and the Jewel Rangers find themselves in a train yard. Trains come at them from all directions. They have to escape the paths of the oncoming locomotives….]
[Then the teens find themselves on a mountain road of Earth, in the late 20th century. They are in a bus that has just been stranded on the side of a road with several other teens who they don't know with them. They leave the broken down vehicle and walk to the small town. They see it at the foot of the mountain, nestled near woods and farm land. As they walk into the town, they notice several abandoned vehicles nearby and the streets littered with metallic objects like keys and broken watches and coins. They are curious about this and several of them pick up some of the various trinkets. The town, quiet and barren, makes no sound as it seems to contain no life. They soon hear old timey country music in the distant and come up to an old dinner and go inside. They are greeted by an elderly man and woman who offer to sell the thirsty teens soda pops. They agree, and Brice asks over his drink just where is everybody. The couple reply that they are the only inhabitants of the town. Then Jenii asks if there is a phone that they can use to call for help. "No phone!" the old man replies. A few of the teens decide to walk ahead while the Jewel Rangers hang back to talk further with the elderly couple.]
["Why do you stay in a place all by yourself?" asks Skyland.]
["Because it is safe for use to…(pauses, remembering something)..You need to leave this place immediately!" says the old woman.]
["Hugh!?" asks Skyland.]
[The man comes up and looks to them sternly. "Leave, she said. GO!!" The Rangers are shocked by the sudden attitude change and pay their bill and leave. While walking the direction of the others, one of the four who left with the other group comes rushing back toward them….]
["Run, Run. They are coming after us!!" he yells. The Rangers confused, but not chancing anything, run with him. They flee into the woods nearby and hide in the bushes. Xenos demands to know what they are running from. "The Dark Army is after us! They took the others, they'll take us, too!!" the young blond haired boy whispers. The Rangers all look to their chests for their Jewel necklaces, but they have none….]
["We aren't Power Rangers!!" Evin mutters.]
["Oh my goodness," exclaims Daisy.]
[There is a high pitched sound as several soldiers beam down and the teens all stand still. The soldiers catch the boy when he panics at the army's nearness and jumps out off the bush. He is stunned and taken aboard the ship. The soldiers continue to look for the other teens. Then, Brice has the revelation that the metal they carry is allowing the soldiers to find people. "Remove all the metal you carry!!" he orders. The Rangers remove their metal and the enemy is unable to find them……..They suddenly skip back their nightmares and they are played at and ultra fast speed. Soon they act out a part of others nightmares. They fight the delusions and soon, when faced with the train in the shipyard again, and this time crippled, Skyland refuses to move from the path of the trains and is killed by one. Soon, the others don't fight the dreams and they, too, recover from the spell.]
[The Rangers quickly repair their ship and get rush to the planet Orpalt in need of their help. They find two Dark Army ships orbiting the planet, beaming up people. The Rangers storm in, blasting with new diligence and destroy the Dark Army ships, leaving the soldiers no choice but to save themselves in escape pods. The Prism Ranger sends the Rangers plans as to how they and the planet's people can set up a teleport link between them and Earth. The link can be used for quick transport between the planets and as an evacuation route in the case of extreme emergency. The Jewel Rangers promise to always defend the planet of Orpalt.]
[After the incident with the Dark Army, the youth of Orpalt set up a Global Guard unit and with technology long unused, they take up arms against the enemy threat.]
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