Divided We Fall
Chapter Three
By Peter J. Smith
Chapter Three
By Peter J. Smith
Aaron was painfully outmatched, and he knew it. As a team, it was safe to say that Ultramarine had beaten us soundly, although technically, the battle hadn't ended – Aaron was still not entirely sure of what had happened to his teammates. All he figured was that he'd suddenly become the major player in one of his enemy's plans. Anyway, Ultramarine had just beaten the team, but Aaron on his own was being slaughtered. He tried desperately to keep the battle at a distance by constantly using his blasters, realising that Ultramarine's most lethal weapons were only for close-combat, but Ultramarine moved incredibly fast for someone burdened with bulky full-body armour.
And so, after yet another hand-to-hand confrontation had resulted in nothing beyond him acquiring random bruises and wounds and a one-way trip to the ground, Aaron was beyond happiness when he saw six teleportation streaks flying towards downtown Caloundra – red, yellow, blue, pink, black and green. The six senior rangers materialised several metres away from Aaron, and quickly ran over to him. Ultramarine reacted to their arrival with only an amused chuckle.
"Aaron, you okay?" asked Tommy, helping Aaron to his feet.
Aaron nodded. "I'm okay. A couple of bandaids wouldn't go astray though."
"What happened to the other rangers?" asked Jason, concerned.
"I'm honestly not sure. One minute they were here beside me, the next minute they were gone. I think Rita had something to do with it though."
"Most likely," replied Zac. "Any ideas?" He directed the question towards Billy and Jason.
"Not sure," replied Jason.
"Could've been to take them away from fighting him," said Aaron, signaling Ultramarine. "He's a real nightmare."
"Your worst," growled Ultramarine. To illustrate the point, he turned and swung his wrist blade towards a lamp post standing nearby. The blade cleaved neatly through the thick metal post with a spray of sparks, and the post fell forwards onto the ground, the glass smashing upon impact.
"Not good," said Kim, as Ultramarine advanced towards them.
"All right," exclaimed Rita, glued to her telescope, watching the battle intently. She turned to Goldar, who'd returned and was standing beside her. "They've arrived. Now let's get phase two of the plan going."
"I'll go and give the order to the putties to move out."
"No wait," said Rita. "You've been so efficient lately Goldar, why don't you go down there yourself and have some real fun. Try and kill a ranger or two for me, okay?"
Goldar nodded. "Yes, my empress," he said with a smile, before turning and walking away.
"Whatever happens now, we can't lose," smiled Rita, and then, standing to her full height and raising her wand, she cried, "this one's for old times' sake, buddy. Grow, Ultramarine, grow!" And for the second time that day, lightning bolts from her wand flashed from the moon down to the Earth, headed for downtown Caloundra.
The bolts of lightning surged through the atmosphere and down towards Bulcock Street, striking the area and forcing the rangers to duck for cover. Even Ultramarine was mildly surprised at what was going on, and he looked up and around for the source of the disturbance. Without warning, several bolts struck him in rapid succession, and before he even knew what was going on, he was suddenly taller than the apartment blocks and office buildings that stood nearby.
"Whoa," exclaimed the villain. Ultramarine glanced from one side to the other. He could see all the way to the hills in the far west, and could see over the ocean all the way to Moreton Island. Down below him, everything suddenly looked so small and insignificant. His seven opponents were now only the size of his fingers, and in awe, he took a step forward, crushing an abandoned car like an aluminium can under his massive blue foot. It was definitely a new experience for him.
"I'm invincible!" he exclaimed, with an odd child-like quality in his booming voice. "Unstoppable! Undefeatable! I'm a god!!"
Down below, the rangers all realised with trepidation that their problems had just multiplied tenfold, and when Ultramarine took a step forward, they all dived out of the way.
"This doesn't look good," muttered Jason, as everyone got back to their feet.
"Yeah," agreed Aaron. "He was powerful enough at normal size. I honestly don't think that your Megazord, the Dragonzord and the Parazord can take him down."
"Well we have to at least try," said Billy, and then they all raised their arms to the sky. "We need dinozord…"
"Wait!" cried Alpha, his voice echoing from everyone's wrist communicators. "Rangers, Goldar and an army of putties have just marched into Caloundra."
The Rangers lowered their arms, quickly looking past Ultramarine's huge feet and legs – it was true. They could clearly see Goldar and about a hundred putties marching down Bulcock Street.
"Man, right when things couldn't get any worse…" muttered Tommy.
"Well what are we going to do?" asked Trini frantically. "Someone has to stop Ultramarine, but it's going to take an awful lot of us to stop Goldar and defeat all those putties."
For Aaron, the whole world came to a stop. He knew exactly what was about to happen, he knew of the chaos that would ensue if things didn't happen this way, and he knew precisely what he had to do. After all, the situation didn't give him much of a choice, but Aaron vaguely felt that this was the way it had to be – this was the way things had to happen. So, pausing briefly and gathering courage, he soon spoke with a trembling voice.
"Guys," he began slowly and quietly. "You six go and take down that army. If we don't get rid of them now, they'll go on a rampage, and like Trini said, you all have to go do it. The Parazord can take on Ultramarine solo until you guys finish or until the others get back from wherever they are."
There was a stunned silence. "Are you sure?" asked Jason. "The Parazord might not survive…"
"I know for a fact it probably won't," said Aaron quickly, "but what choice do we have?"
Jason nodded, realising the internal torment that was probably going on inside Aaron at the moment. "Okay. Good luck dude. C'mon guys, let's go!" and the six senior rangers turned and charged up the street towards the approaching Goldar. Aaron watched them go, and when they were a safe distance away, he raised his arm to the sky and cried, "I need Parazord power, right now!"
With the epic battle looming, Goldar advanced on the town, marching forward with the army of putties right behind him.
"Hold it right there!" came a voice, and the entire army froze on the spot. Looking forward, Goldar growled angrily – the six senior Power Rangers stood in a line across the road, effectively blocking the army's march forward.
"You again power weaklings?" he grunted, raising his sword angrily.
"You better back off right now Goldar," started Jason venomously, "and take your army with you."
"Yeah, "'cause we got other places to be and other battles to fight," stated Zac.
"Foolish rangers," muttered the golden warrior, before turning back to his army and raising his sword high into the sky. "Charge!" he cried, and as one, the entire army rushed forward in an effort to overwhelm their opponents by sheer numbers.
"We took "'em all out once," said Jason, bravely taking a stand, "and we can do it again. Power Sword!"
"Power Axe!" cried Zac.
"Power Lance!" called Billy.
"Power Daggers!" continued Trini.
"Power Bow!" cried Kim.
"Dragon Dagger!" finished Tommy, and now that each ranger was armed, they all paused for just a microsecond more before racing forward towards the advancing army, not for a second intimidated by the numbers nor by their opponent's tactics. They could do this, Jason told himself. This was just one more in a long line of battles, and the Rangers would be victorious.
"A snake?" repeated Scott slowly. "Are you sure?"
I nodded. "Well, it was long, thin and felt like it was moving pretty fast, and I didn't feel any legs."
Taking my words to heart, everyone suddenly looked around and down into the mist, trying to catch a glimpse of what I'd seen. Teresa shivered – it was cold and eerily quiet in the place. A little too quiet, she decided.
"I don't see anything," she murmured, slowly and quietly.
Suddenly, something heavy brushed past Brendan's leg. With a loud yelp, he instinctively leap back.
"Whoa," he exclaimed.
We all spun around towards him. "What is it?" asked Scott.
"Peter was right," he replied, pointing down into the mist. "I felt it move past me. There is definitely something down there."
"Which way did it go?" asked Sarah. "Where is it?"
Brendan shook his head. "I'm not sure."
I gazed down into the mist, straining my eyes to see whatever it was that was in here with us. I could have done it with my Torlian energy, but demorphing would put me in a lot of danger. Still, I would have given anything to be able to see through the fog. It was creepy. The thing in here with us could be anywhere. It was moving in between us in total silence. It could sneak up and launch an attack anywhere, and we'd be totally unprepared for it. And wrestling a giant snake was most certainly not on my "'to do' list for today.
"Well," said Teresa suddenly, breaking the eerie silence. "You've got to hand it to Rita. She's definitely thinking through her plans a lot more these days."
"You can say that again," muttered Scott, as he walked slowly backwards, staring intently into the mist.
All of a sudden, Sarah yelled, "Heads up guys! Over there!" We all instantly spun around on the spot towards Sarah, then to where she was pointing. And sure enough, some thing was rising out of the mist about ten metres away. A head, with a long neck attached. The funny thing was that the neck never seemed to stop as the creature's head got higher, so I realised that I'd been right – it must have been a serpent. The snake rose up higher, using its body for balance like a cobra. It peered down at us through two red eyes, and when it opened its mouth and flicked its tongue in and out, we saw it had four very long and very sharp fangs. Its reptilian skin was light grey, almost white, giving it perfect camouflage in the mist.
"Is anyone else suitably creeped out?" asked Teresa quietly. "I hate snakes."
Suddenly, the snake dived forward, its head plunging into the mist, and it disappeared from view. And from the direction that it had dived in, I'd say that it was coming right for us.
"Where is it?" asked Scott frantically.
"Coming right for us," said Sarah, and she was right – even as she spoke, the serpent was gliding through the mist towards us. "But lets get nasty. Power Mace!" And in a flash of purple light, Sarah's power weapon formed in her hand.
"Got that," agreed Scott. "Power Staff!" The blue staff formed in Scott's arms, and they were both ready for battle. Seeing the sense in that, I raised my sword defensively, and Brendan raised both sai. Teresa, realising that her whip probably wouldn't be the most effective weapon, unsheathed her blaster.
"Let's kick some," she smiled, as everyone froze on the spot, waiting for the snake to strike.
Suddenly, a grey serpentine head rose from the mist behind Scott. The two red eyes glared at him for a second more, judging the best time to strike, and then it darted forward, immediately throwing several loops of its long grey body around Scott like a python. Scott cried out in surprise and tried to defend himself, but he was forced to drop his staff as his left arm became pinned by the snake's body.
More of the snake rose from the mist, spinning its body around the poor blue ranger in an attempt to crush him, and it raised its head and clamped its jaws down over Scott's helmet. Scott shut his eyes to block out the sight, all the while shouting his lungs off. But by this time, we'd all heard his cry and come running to the rescue. Sarah was there first, and she immediately began to smash furiously at the snake's body with her mace. Teresa was right behind Sarah, running to aid her brother, but instead of firing at the beast for fear of hitting Scott, she grabbed hold of the snake's body, found the loosest loop and tried to loosen its deadly hold.
I raced over to the commotion. I couldn't get a clear shot at the snake with my sword though, or I might run the risk of hitting someone else in the confusion, but Brendan was right beside me, and without hesitation, he ran up and jammed one of his sai into the snake's body, ramming it in right up to the hilt. With a screech of pain, the serpent immediately let go of Scott's helmet, and spinning around and around in pain, it loosened it's body and dived head-first down into the mist. It soon disappeared from view.
We all grabbed Scott and helped him to his feet.
"Are you okay?" asked Brendan, then immediately regretted asking the question – of course Scott wasn't okay.
"Been better," replied Scott breathily, his heart still racing, resting on Teresa's shoulders. "Nothing broken though, and I think that all my ribs are still in one piece. Did we kill him?"
Brendan shook his head. "Nope."
"Just made him angrier," finished Sarah.
"All right Miss Cynicism," I said good-naturedly.
Suddenly, Teresa screamed – the snake was back. In one fluid motion, the snake had risen from the mist and quickly wrapped it's body around Teresa. This thing must definitely have python heritage, I decided, as Sarah, Brendan and I all turned and ran over to her. But as we came to her rescue, the snake's tail flew up out of the mist and struck us all across our stomachs, sending us flying backwards. Brendan dropped his sai, I dropped my sword, and we all painfully crashed to the ground.
Teresa felt the snake's body tighten its grip around her, and she found it increasingly hard to breathe.
"Help me!" she gasped, as the snake's head floated in midair, watching us all slowly stagger to our feet. But the tail hadn't knocked Scott down, and with he raced over, stopping and reaching down into the mist where Sarah, Brendan and I had been standing previously. Luckily, he managed to grab one of Brendan's sai. All of a sudden, the tail flew up out of the mist at him, but he dived forward under it, recovered and got to his feet.
The snake lunged forward, snapping at him, but he dodged around its fangs and then, he raised the sai and fairly rammed it down into the snake's head, right between its eyes. There was a screech from the snake, and it began to convulse, shaking its head from side to side. It screeched again, but it was a weak cry, and Teresa immediately felt the snake's body begin to loosen. Then, Scott yanked the sai out of the beast's head and pushed it away – it fell down into the mist, hit the ground and moved no further.
He helped Teresa to her feet and offered her his shoulder to lean on until she got her balance.
"Thanks Scott," she smiled gratefully, as we all ran up to them, "I don't know what I'd do without you."
Scott laughed. "Anytime sis. And hey – one problem down, one to go."
"Great move man," complimented Brendan, as Scott gave him his weapon back, "but next time, can you clean the sai afterwards? Eugh…"
I turned back to the gateway. "Well, we could…" but my voice trailed off when I saw it – a grey head with red eyes, rising from the mist right behind Sarah. Oh no! There had been two of them!
"Sarah!" I cried, "behind you!"
Sarah spun around on the spot, right as the snake lunged at her. But she was ready, and in that split-second, she raised her mace, and with all her strength she smashed the snake across the side of the face. The blow was intense, the sheer force severing the snake's backbone and taking its head clean off, sending it flying across the room in a crimson blur before it disappeared into the mist. The now-headless body fell to the ground with a "'clump', and then all was silent again.
"Well," she said with an unnerving calm, turning back to us, "that was fun." Then, she smiled. "But let's find the key and get the heck out of here."
I walked over to her. "Totally. And nice move," I smiled. "Remind you never to make you angry. Now, let's see about finding that stupid key…"