"This outta be a lot of fun!" Bombardier shouted and launched a bomb towards the Zords.
The Zords launched themselves out of the way just as the bomb exploded, destroying a grove of trees.
Firebrand attacked, lobbing fireballs into the chests of the ShogunZords. The Zords fell to the ground, sparks flinging from their chests. Inside the Zords, the Rangers were rocked by the force of the blasts. It was highly unlikely that they would be able to survive much longer under the assault.
"No!" he screamed, "I can't allow him to find that hammer! Goldar, go and stop him! Stop him at any cost! Take whatever you need! JUST DON'T LET HIM GET THAT HAMMER!"
"At once, your maliciousness!" Goldar said and disappeared in a flurry of fire.
With Goldar gone, Rito approached Zedd.
"Hey, Edd..." Rito started but that was all he had a chance to say. Zedd's staff shot a beam of red energy into the chest of Rito. His body crashed against the wall, and Rito lay there, moaning. Rita was just about to go to him when she saw what happened. She stopped in her tracks and turned around, not daring to approach her husband. His temperament was nothing short of...psychotic. Only Rita and Zedd knew what Sean Morissette meant to them. And to be on Zedd's bad side was very hazardous to your health.
Sean dodged a blue scorpion that had came from under a rock. It hissed at him and scurried away to rejoin its family under the dunny-colored rock. The man looked at the map again. From the directions on the paper, the hammer lie a few more kilometers away. He placed the map into his pouch, and walked a bit more.
After a few minutes, he stopped. The wind had suddenly picked up speed, stirring the dust about him like a whirling dervish. It whipped about his cloak, making it look like a snake, constricting its coils about Sean's massive form. Shielding his eyes, he peered ahead. He was able to discern something on the horizon. It seemed to be draped in gold armor with a massive pair of wings...and coming towards him. Whatever it was, it was carrying a pretty nasty looking sword in its right hand. Sean saw more of those OmegaPutties flanking the approaching figure.
"Oh great. Something else to worry about," Sean muttered.
Goldar came upon Sean with a totally evil gleam within his crimson eyes. He stopped short of his goal and laughed.
"How are you doing, today, gentlemen?" Sean said.
"I'm doing fine," Goldar said, "In a few minutes you won't be!"
"Aww," the man said, "And I was just beginning to have fun." His smile with that statement soon disappeared. "Look, I don't have time for this. Just move, and I'll be on my way."
"Too bad, loser. You're not going anywhere! OmegaPutties...Destroy him!"
Sean assessed the situation like he always did. At least seven of those Omega creatures and the monkey-man. He cracked his knuckles and smiled. These were the odds he liked.
"This is going to be fun!"
"All right, Rangers! Bring together the ShogunMegaZord!" Rocky commanded. With that, the ShogunZords leapt into the air. Gears grinded, servos activated, systems came on line to reconfigure the Zords into the massive machine known as the ShogunMegaZord. The Red ShogunZord formed the torso and head. The Pink and Blue ShogunZords transformed into the right and left arms, respectively, as the Black and Yellow ShogunZords attached to form the legs. After a fierce pyrotechnic display of energy, the awesome form of the ShogunMegaZord took a defensive stance.
"Ha!," Firebrand sneered, "You think you can ssstop usss with that! You are sssadly missstaken!"
"We'll see about that, Firebrand," Kimberly retorted.
Firebrand focused his energies into a tight beam of fire. Like a snake, it lashed out towards the ShogunMegaZord and enveloped the machine. Inside of the head, the Rangers were jolted from their seats. Warnings and lights blared into their ears from the command consoles in front of them.
"C'mon, guys!" Rocky yelled over the noise. "We've got to keep it together!"
"Stabilizers are down to seventy-three percent," Billy reported. "At this rate, we will lose stability in precisely two minutes."
Rocky grabbed the steering mechanism and directed ShogunMegaZord in the direction of Firebrand. He peered out of the eyes, something nagging in the back of his mind. Firebrand was just standing there doing absolutely nothing to attack them. The scene did not look right. Suddenly, as if on cue, a warning sensor went off. Adam punched buttons on his console.
"Behind us!" was the last words he spoke as Bombardier plugged them with a thermite bomb. The ShogunMegaZord, stunned, fell upon his belly, smoke belching from his back stabilization units.
"Tommy, we need help!" Rocky shouted into communicator.
Overhead, the FalconZord circled the scene. Tommy slammed his fist into the panel as he saw Bombardier hit them. From the way they were laying, their main stabilizers seemed out.
"Don't worry, guys! I've got a surprise for them! It's time to use the Falcon Rockets!" Tommy said, flipping switches. He grasped the steering stick securely as he issued the command into the FalconZord's computer. The FalconZord swooped down low, bringing its wings together until they were parallel with each other.
"Rockets away!" and eight powerful missiles launched from the tips of the FalconZord's wings. Filing into a pre-programmed pattern, the projectiles dodged the downed form of the ShogunMegaZord and crashed into the monsters. As the explosions subsided, the smoke cleared to reveal that the monsters were retreating to the outskirts of town.
"Is everyone okay?" Tommy asked Rocky.
Rocky responded, "Yeah, and Billy's got the stabilizers on line. They aren't up to full power, and I don't think the repairs Billy's made are going to last."
"Understood. Prepare to initiate the ShogunMegaFalconZord sequence on my command," Tommy told them. "Let's get after those two goons."
"It's time to kick some monster butt!" Adam said. Rocky engaged the steering mechanism, directing the ShogunMegaZord into the last known course of the monsters.
"Give it up, foolish human," Goldar said, "You cannot possibly hope to win."
"Why is it that all villains do that?" Sean asked, sarcastically, "Why is it they always tell the good guys to give up, knowing full well that they won't?"
"Just to keep it interesting, I guess," Goldar replied.
"Why don't you finish me off, 'Monkey Boy'?"
"The Omegas seem to be doing a pretty good job of that!"
"You would let a bunch of stooges deliver the final blow. Have you no pride?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean if I were Zedd's greatest warrior, I would be trying to hog the glory for myself! But I guess you're not up to it! I guess what the Rangers say about you is true. You are scared to fight."
Goldar scratched his chin in thought, not to be fooled by Sean’s attempt to make him angry. "An interesting concept. I accept. OmegaPutties, stand down!"
The Omegas stopped in their tracks following Goldar's orders. Goldar, swinging his sword, stood in front of the human. Sean, of course, was hoping that he would do that. All he had to do now was stay alive long enough to get that sword away from Goldar. Everything else was cake compared to this.
"Perhaps you should reconsider this," Sean said calmly. "I would not want you to hurt yourself."
"Oh, I won't get a scratch! Of course, you won't be so lucky!" Goldar said.
"Then let's get it on!"
"With pleasure."
Goldar's armor glistened in the heated air around them. Sean knew that he had to get that sword away from him. He had seen "Monkey Boy" use it to teleport in. Maybe he could use it to teleport to the Hammer of Hykrania and get rid of Monkey Boy.
Sean sidestepped as Goldar lunged. He jumped into the air to deliver a kick to the center of Goldar's armor. A dent appeared where his foot recently was. Goldar roared and lunged again, getting lucky and striking him with an armored fist in the stomach. Sean doubled over, trying to catch his breath. The sun was beginning to affect him. The dry climate mingled with the throbbing of his limbs, indicated that fatigue was just setting in. He had been through a battle previously in the day, and almost got killed. He was lucky to be alive if not for the antidote Ninjor gave him. He dug his fingers into the dirt and sand, trying to regain his composure. Goldar grabbed him by the neck and hefted his massive body into the air with ease.
"Now, I will make you suffer!" Goldar screamed.
A quick glance over Monkey Boy's shoulder confirmed his suspicions. Goldar had left his sword behind him, sticking up from the ground. His arrogance and pride probably led him to believe that he should finish Sean off with his bare, if you could call them that, hands.
"I will destroy you with my bare hands!"
"Naaah!," and Sean threw a handful of sand that he was still clutching into Goldar's eyes.
"ARRGH! I can't see!" Goldar screamed and released Sean so he could wipe his eyes to remove the sand.
Sean, seizing the opportunity shouted, "That's the whole point, Monkey Boy!"
Goldar went for the direction of the voice. The sand stung his eyes more when Sean delivered an openhanded uppercut to his chin. White sparks flashed about within his eyelids. Sean followed it up with a wide leg sweep.
"Get him!" Goldar screamed to the Omegas, but Sean already had the discarded Blade Blaster within his grasp. With a simple flick of the wrist, he converted it from a short blade to a laser pistol.
"Eat blazing electric death!" Sean shouted and fired it into the oncoming Omegas. One by one, like ducks in a shooting gallery, they fell. And one by one, they got back up. Seemingly, they were not affected that much by the blasts. He looked at the Blaster and shrugged. It had bought him enough time to get to the sword. It lay shining in the sun of Hykrania, beckoning to him. Just as he laid his hands upon it, so did the auric-armored hand of Goldar.
"Not so fast, human!" Goldar said. "This belongs to me!"
"From the looks of things, I think you got it all wrong," Sean said as he fired the Blaster, full energy, into Goldar's chest. Goldar screeched in pain and, clutching his chest, fell back. Sean grabbed the sword and turned to the Putties.
"See ya," and waited to disappear, but it did not happen. Puzzled, he turned to Goldar, who was recovering from the blast.
"Monkey Boy, how do you work this thing?" he finally asked Goldar.
Goldar grabbed the sword. Struggling with the man, Goldar, unconsciously, gave the mental teleport command. Combined with Sean's thoughts of the secret location of the Hammer of Hykrania, their molecules broke apart in a fiery display. The OmegaPutties stared about the area blankly, unable to discern what had just happened.
Ten kilometers away, the two warriors appeared within the confines of a mountain.
"Oh, no," Goldar said.
"Oh, yeah!" Sean exclaimed.
They broke apart. Sean converted the Blade Blaster back to dagger mode. He should be able to stand up to this brute.
Goldar stared motionless at something behind Sean. Sean took this breather to glance about at his surroundings. It was a roughly carved cavern with large stones strewn about the bottom of the floor. The whole place had a soft glow of gold about it. In the light, he could make out hieroglyphs of some sort that were neatly painted on the wall. They appeared to be pictures of rhinoceroses, war, and...him. He could discern his face from the rough paintings.
How did these people know about me? he pondered.
He followed the direction of Goldar's stare. He gasped slightly. Nestled within a transparent block of gold on a high natural stalactite, a large object sat. It had the size and configuration for a hammer, but it did not look like any hammer he had ever seen before. It had a bulbous body, with hammer ends that were solid half moons and a rounded arrowhead on top. Strange and exquisitely carved designs decorated the main portion of the hammer and the grip. Two black tassels hung from the grip, that which was not shoved into the block of gold. It gave off a warm golden radiance that provided the light for the cavern and a majestic, yet mystical feel.
Like in a trance, Sean moved towards it. So was Goldar. Seeing an opportunity, Goldar hit Sean on the back of his head with the end of his sword.
"Monkeys always looking!" he shouted and made his way to the stalactite. Momentarily stunned by the blow, Sean dropped to his knees. A wave of nausea and disorientation came over his body while pain flooded his mind. He shook it off. No way was Monkey Boy going to get that hammer.
Sean launched himself towards the climbing Goldar. Why wasn't he just flying up there to get it? No matter. Sean latched his hand to Goldar's ankle. The creature struggled to get free, banging his hand against the rock.
"Monkeys always looking! Apes always tell them!," Sean told him.
"Release me!" Goldar ordered.
"Yeah right! Tell me another one! As soon as you get your paws on that hammer, you'll go straight to that demented master of yours! He'll probably use its energies to recharge that machine of his, Serpenterra! I can't let that happen!"
At the sound of his last words, he pulled Goldar down. The creature landed hard on the stone floor.
"Oooh, that's going to hurt in the morning!" Sean said, laughing. He continued to ascend the stalactite, heading towards his goal. Goldar stirred on the ground. He got up and shook the dirt off. He looked up, seeing the human making his way to the hammer. Growling, Goldar started after him.
"You will not get the hammer, human!"
Sean did not hear him. He concentrated on getting the hammer. His mind focused on his goal. A few more feet, he would have the hammer within his hands. Nothing would stop him now except for the pursuant, Goldar. He did not hear his predator climbing the rock formation, faster than he did before. Goldar imitated his prey's maneuver from earlier and grabbed Sean's ankle. Sean held on to a outcropping of stone. He looked up. The Hammer of Hykrania lie only a few feet away. Goldar's viselike grip on his ankle tightened, making him wince in pain. The pain jolted his memory. He thought about his parents and how they raised him to trust in himself and his abilities. His mind wandered to his students who called him 'August Sensei' because of the wisdom and care he had showed them. The thought of fighting alongside the Power Rangers floated through his head. He thought about her. Aisha Campbell washed through his mind. He could see her face, all aglow with happiness.
Then the very thought of Zedd ruling the universe with the hammer destined to be his was the factor he used to stretch his arm out. A few inches. A few inches, and he would give Goldar the biggest surprise of his life.
A few precious inches.