pretty poison: by cynthia_harrell [power rangers: fall]
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters presented here and am not making any profit off of this whatsoever.
Title: Pretty Poison
Words: 3,359 (total so far: 19,971)
Theme: fall
Fandom: Power Rangers
Warnings: Power Ranger level of violence.
Tommi’s lips were curved into a wicked, triumphant smile as she looked at Jason. “Are you surprised?” She hoped that he was.
“Tommi…I don’t understand.” Jason shook his head, trying to clear his sight. Was this something that Rita was doing to trick them? Making them think that Tommi was the Green Ranger when it wasn’t? “What are you doing?”
“What does it look like? I’m destroying everything and everyone that stands in the way of my queen’s conquest of Earth.” Tommi said, tightening her grip on the sword in her hand. “If that means you, then so be it. But I don’t think you want me to do that, do you?”
He shook his head again, wincing as he did. This was not right. He’d never had a headache while morphed before, but now one throbbed and ached behind his eyes.
“She’s got you under a spell, Tommi!” Kim declared, stepping forward to stand beside Jason. “Zordon told us about it! You’ve got to fight it! You don’t want to do this.”
Zack nodded, also taking up a position on Jason’s other side. Both of them were just a little too close to him than they might normally have been. “If you’re a Power Ranger, then you shouldn’t be working for her.”
“I am a Power Ranger, and I serve Empress Rita, now and forever.” Tommi was not in the mood to listen to them. “And her command is for me to destroy you all!” She slammed her helmet back on and leaped forward a heartbeat later, aiming her sword directly towards Zack’s chest.
“We’ve got to stop her!” Trini lunged forward, attempting to suit actions to words. It was not quite that easy, however, as Scorpina blocked her, a mocking smile on her own lips. “So you’re Scorpina, huh?”
“That I am.” The alien warrior woman replied. “And I’ve got some surprises of my own up my sleeve, Yellow Ranger.”
Trini took up a firm battle stance, ready to do anything. She couldn’t see what was going on behind her, but from what she could hear, the others were having a hard time with the Green Ranger. At least she could make things easier on them by keeping Scorpina occupied.
“What are you talking about, surprises?”
That got a laugh as the other attacked swiftly, her blade striking hard into Trini’s arms, only turned aside by the armor. “If I told you, then they wouldn’t be a surprise anymore. But you’ll find out, very soon.”
Trini wanted to get more details, but not only did she not think that Scorpina would share them, she didn’t have time to ask. Not with the blows that the scorpion warrior kept raining down on her, and the blocking and attacking she had to do in order to keep herself in one piece. Once in a while she got a glimpse of the others, and just as she’d thought, it didn’t look too good for them.
“Stop this, Tommi!” Jason tried to grab hold of the Green Ranger, wanting to get through to her, to find out what grip that Rita had on her mind and break it.
“No, Jason. This is what I want.” She struck quickly, avoiding his grasp and knocking his feet out from under him with a hard strike. Just as she had the first time that she’d fought them, she stood over him, one foot on his chest. She glanced lazily at the other Rangers. “One more step and I’ll run him through.” Her blade’s edge gleamed briefly in the sun as she admired it.
Zack held his arms out, preventing the others from moving forward. After what Zordon had told them, they’d hoped that they would have been able to prevent Jason from being hurt by Tommi somehow. Unfortunately, that hadn’t quite worked out the way that they had planned. “She’ll do it,” he said. The tenseness in her shoulders spelled it out plainly.
Tommi chuckled for a moment. “Yes, I would. But I have other plans for the Red Ranger.” Jason jerked and squirmed for a moment, until she pressed down harder on his chest with her boot. “Don’t make me kill you.”
“What do you want?” Zack asked warily. Sure, she’d said that she was going to destroy them, but with what she was doing to Jason…he wanted more information.
“I told you that once already. The fact I have other plans for him doesn’t mean that I’m not going to kill all of you.” One gloved hand caressed across Jason’s armored chest, then down to his belt. “But this is going to have to go.”
She pressed one hand against his belt, and a surge of green energy shot from her hand towards it, surrounding Jason entirely. He bucked underneath her, and if her eyes could have been seen, they would have been staring with the interest of someone watching a pinned insect squirm. As the energy faded, so did his armor, leaving only Jason himself behind.
“Much better.” Tommi stepped off of him and seized him by the arm. “First things first. Scorpina, let’s go. We can finish them later.”
Scorpina hmphed a little, smirking at Trini as she did. “Fine with me. I have something that I need to get back to anyway. And you will be seeing us again, Rangers. You can count on it.”
“Jason!” Kim tried to move forward, but the multiple bruises and cuts, painful even through her armor and through the effect of the Power, held her back from doing much more than reaching out ineffectually as the Green and Red Rangers, and Scorpina, vanished from the battlefield. As soon as they did, the flames in which Tommi had surrounded them faded away, leaving a scorched circle around them, and a few civilians on the other side, staring in shock at the beaten and smoking Power Rangers.
Billy inched his way closer, his stomach screaming in a red-hot agony of pain. Tommi had delivered several powerful kicks there, knocking him backwards before she’d went after Jason directly. “Let’s get back to the Command Center,” he groaned. “Maybe we can figure out what to do from there.”
Trini glanced for a moment at where Jason and Tommi had been, then to where she and Scorpina had been fighting. What did she mean by that? Now wasn’t the time to think about it, though. “Let’s go.”
Four bright lights lifted into the sky, vanishing from human sight as they streaked away. When they arrived at the Command Center and reformed, demorphing in the same moment, all of them were having trouble staying on their feet. “That Green Ranger is brutal!” Zack declared. “She wasn’t anything like that when we were watching her at the Youth Center.”
“In disguise,” Trini reminded him, leaning against the nearest console that would bear her weight. She turned to look at Zordon, who regarded them all with kind and worried eyes. “What can we do?”
The only way to defeat the Green Ranger and save Jason is to destroy her weapon: the Sword of Darkness. The spell that binds her has been woven into it, and destroying it will destroy the spell. Zordon told them. It will not be easy and it will require all five of you.
Zack sagged down, just barely able to hold himself off of the floor. “Great. And she’s got Jason already. So now what do we do?”
“Get him back.” Kim said simply. “What else are we going to do?”
“Got any ideas for that?” Zack asked, closing his eyes as Alpha started to putter between the four of them with his medical equipment. He wasn’t sure just what it consisted of, but if it was going to ease the pain, he wasn’t that picky about it.
No one had any answers for that, at least not right away. Alpha went among them, waving one of the devices that Billy hadn’t done much more than the barest examination of. It was something to repair torn and broken skin and muscle tissue at a slightly faster rate than the Power itself could, something they could all use at the moment.
“What’s she going to do with him?” Trini wondered, glancing at the others. As Alpha passed each of them, they all began to stand up a little straighter, the pain easing. “What does she even want him for?”
“To stop us from stopping her,” Zack suggested. “Thanks, Alpha.” He straightened up a little more and looked towards Zordon. “Are you sure there’s no other way to stop her?”
Rita’s spell cannot be broken any other way. We are extremely fortunate that it was tied into something that can be destroyed. Zordon sounded almost thoughtful, and Zack frowned, noticing that.
“What’s on your mind, Zordon?” He seldom asked their mentor anything like that, but right now, any information would be useful.
Zordon said nothing in reply for a few moments, then shook his head slowly. A thought, nothing more, Zack. It may come to nothing. He paused briefly. The sooner that we are able to free the Green Ranger and rescue Jason, the better.
There was no need, or way, to argue with that. “We can’t attack Rita’s palace,” Zack said, turning his thoughts away from Zordon’s curious evasion to the business at hand. “But is there any rule that says we can’t sneak inside to get Jason out of there? And maybe get rid of that sword while we’re there.”
That would be permissible. Zordon agreed with a slight bending of his lips. So long as you do not attack first.
Trini grinned some. “But they’re probably going to attack us as soon as they find us.”
“So, we either try not to be found, or we be ready to defend ourselves,” Zack replied, his grin answering hers. “Next question: can we get up there? She’s probably got some kind of security, right?”
Billy moved over to one of the consoles, doing so much more freely than he had when they’d arrived. “I should be able to scan the moon and get a precise location for Rita’s palace, and possibly Jason’s location within it.”
“Then let’s get to it.” Zack moved a little so he could see what Billy was doing and tried not to think about what Jason was probably going through up in Rita’s dungeon.
The cords that bound Jason to the bed were slender, but glowed with a faint emerald light that betrayed the magic within them. He jerked his arms forward to no avail, wanting to get free, morph, and get out of here, and if he could find a way to save Tommi as he did, then so be it. But staying here with her wasn’t an option. As much as he cared about her, and he did, very much, he wasn’t going to betray his principles, or the trust Zordon had put in him, or the entire world for a pretty face.
He’d been pushed in there nearly as soon as they’d arrived. He hadn’t even seen Rita, and this place had a vague disused air to it that told him it wasn’t used all that much. Not that he wanted to see Rita, but it would have been much better than being tied down here and wondering exactly what Tommi was going to do.
She’s the Green Ranger. That kept going through his mind. If he could help her, turn her away from Rita, then it would certainly be better for both of them. The idea of fighting side by side with her, just like they had against those Putties, only knowing for certain they were both doing this for the good of the world…it was exhilarating.
“Well, aren’t you a pretty sight there.” Goldar was suddenly in the doorway, filling up most of it with his armored bulk. “Rita’s Green Ranger’s going to have some fun with you before she kills you.”
Jason’s first reaction was to deny that Tommi would do any such thing. But his second was to recall that foot pressed down on him and to remember the cold look in her eyes. She would do it. Rita’s spell would make her.
“What business is it of yours, Goldilocks?” he asked instead, glaring over at him. “You want a fair fight? Let me out of this and I’ll give you one.”
“What would I want a fair fight for?” Goldar sneered, his sword appearing in his hand in a flash of black flame. “I might spare her the trouble of playing with you first.” He eyed the captive Ranger, his dull red eyes sparking wickedly. “Maybe I should play with you first. My way.”
Jason jerked once more at the bonds, but there was absolutely no give at all. The cords didn’t bite into him, but for all the reaction there might have been, he might as well not have moved at all. Goldar smirked as he stepped closer.
“I’ve been wanting to do this ever since I met you, Red Ranger,” he said, raising his sword. “And there’s no way that I will let the Green Ranger take killing you away from me.” He swung the blade downward sharply, and Jason moved as quickly as he could to avoid it. There wasn’t much movement he could do, and if Goldar did want to kill him he was certain that he would be dead.
Which was why he was more than a little surprised when the blade cut through the cords instead. Goldar raised it again and sliced through the ones on the other side, but pressed one hand against Jason’s chest, keeping him pinned, while he cut the bonds on Jason’s ankles as well. His sword vanished, and he seized Jason by the hair, dragging him off of the bed.
“I thought you said you didn’t want a fair fight!” Jason gasped, wincing at the grip. He’d known Goldar was strong, but facing him without being morphed was different than facing him with his armor on.
“I don’t.” Goldar sneered and pushed Jason through the door. “I have something much more fun in mind. But it’s still going to be a fight.”
Jason ended up being pushed and semi-dragged out of the room and down a dark, murky hallway. That was just the start, however. He was pushed and pulled this way and that, up stairs and down them, through doors and rooms, most of which were thick with dust and had the musty smell of a place where air hadn’t moved for years, if not centuries.
When he was last pushed through a doorway, Jason’s skin tingled all over and everything went completely black for a few moments. He stumbled, falling to his knees briefly, then rolled instinctively when he heard Goldar moving up behind him. Goldar’s foot just scraped the side of his ribs, and the mighty warrior laughed cruelly.
“This is only the beginning, Jason. You have no idea of how badly I’m going to hurt you.” He laughed again. “You had better pray that the Green Ranger does find you, before I kill you.”
Jason’s vision cleared suddenly, though he realized a moment later that it didn’t make that much of a difference. Wherever he was, it was all but impossible for him to see around himself. Thick fog filled the area, blocking everything that was farther away than a foot or so from being seen.
Not good. He started to pull himself to his feet, then caught the slightest breath of moving air. That was all he needed; he threw himself to one side, slamming into a wall he hadn’t even realized was there. Where he had been a second earlier, Goldar’s sword swept through. If he’d stood there, the blow likely enough would have taken his head off.
He had to find a way out of here. He grabbed quickly for his communicator, and had to bite back a furious groan when his hand met only bare skin. Goldar laughed, sounding far too close for Jason’s personal comfort.
“Did you really think that we were going to let you keep your communicator or morpher? You’re never leaving this place alive, Red Ranger.”
“That’s what you think!” Jason defied him; it didn’t matter that he didn’t have any way to escape. He wasn’t going to lay down and die. “You’re in for a shock, Goldar!”
Again Goldar’s laugh echoed, and Jason dodged another strike, but not nearly as well as he had the previous time. The sword cut into his shirt, and a thin line of fire across his back told him he’d been marked. “That’s just the beginning, human. I’m going to take all of your blood before this is through.”
“Keep bragging.” Jason hissed, dropping low and moving as far back as he could from where he heard Goldar’s voice coming from. At least for the moment. He moved around silently, trying to catch some glimpse of Goldar, hoping for a chance to turn the tables on him attack.
The back injury wasn’t too bad, thankfully. He’d done worse to himself in sparring sessions, he thought. But he didn’t want Goldar to get a chance to do something like that on a more intense scale.
He held himself still, waiting and watching, listening with all of his might. There was no sound of anything anywhere, save for his own breathing. Goldar should be there, should be breathing, but he couldn’t hear him.
One scrape, that was all that it was, and Jason didn’t have quite the split second he could have needed to react before a huge, scaled hand came from the darkness and knocked him backwards into the wall. He moved a moment later, however. If he stayed where he was, Goldar would kill him without a doubt.
How is he doing that? How can he get around like he can see in all this darkness? Jason didn’t have Billy’s brains, but he was far from being an idiot, especially where combat was concerned. If Goldar could make his way around as if it weren’t dark to him, then maybe to him it wasn’t.
“You can see around here, can’t you?” Jason spat the words out; Goldar had said that it wouldn’t be a fair fight, but that didn’t stop the fury from boiling up at the thought how ridiculous he had to look. Not to mention, how could Goldar see in the fog? Shouldn’t it look just as black to him?
Goldar’s voice came from right beside him, and Jason reacted, jump kicking him in the chest as hard as he could. It didn’t have quite the impact that it might have had if he’d had a bit more distance, but it was enough to get Goldar to back off some. “You’re only prolonging the inevitable, Jason! You’ve only survived this long because I’ve permitted it!”
Jason snorted to himself, trying to keep his back to a wall so Goldar couldn’t sneak up on him like that. “Yeah, I’ve heard that before.” He would’ve given a lot for his communicator. Or morpher. Or a door that led out of there. There had to be one, since he had gotten in here, but the fog had to be keeping it concealed.
“Do you really think you’ll get any better treatment from the Green Ranger?” Goldar mocked, one fist flying at the captive Ranger. Jason dodged, seized Goldar by the wrist, and held him there while he drove a knee up towards him. That proved not to have been the wisest move, given the armor that his opponent was in, and Jason winced as pain shot through his knee. Not enough to stop him from moving, but it wasn’t going to be fun to keep doing so.
Before he could move far enough away to avoid it, Goldar had seized his shoulder and threw him downward, pinning him there. Jason’s heart raced, as did his mind. He had to find a way to get out of this, before he was shish kabobed.
Goldar raised up his sword and brought it down swiftly, aimed directly for Jason’s unprotected chest.
To Be Continued
Title: Pretty Poison
Words: 3,359 (total so far: 19,971)
Theme: fall
Fandom: Power Rangers
Warnings: Power Ranger level of violence.
Tommi’s lips were curved into a wicked, triumphant smile as she looked at Jason. “Are you surprised?” She hoped that he was.
“Tommi…I don’t understand.” Jason shook his head, trying to clear his sight. Was this something that Rita was doing to trick them? Making them think that Tommi was the Green Ranger when it wasn’t? “What are you doing?”
“What does it look like? I’m destroying everything and everyone that stands in the way of my queen’s conquest of Earth.” Tommi said, tightening her grip on the sword in her hand. “If that means you, then so be it. But I don’t think you want me to do that, do you?”
He shook his head again, wincing as he did. This was not right. He’d never had a headache while morphed before, but now one throbbed and ached behind his eyes.
“She’s got you under a spell, Tommi!” Kim declared, stepping forward to stand beside Jason. “Zordon told us about it! You’ve got to fight it! You don’t want to do this.”
Zack nodded, also taking up a position on Jason’s other side. Both of them were just a little too close to him than they might normally have been. “If you’re a Power Ranger, then you shouldn’t be working for her.”
“I am a Power Ranger, and I serve Empress Rita, now and forever.” Tommi was not in the mood to listen to them. “And her command is for me to destroy you all!” She slammed her helmet back on and leaped forward a heartbeat later, aiming her sword directly towards Zack’s chest.
“We’ve got to stop her!” Trini lunged forward, attempting to suit actions to words. It was not quite that easy, however, as Scorpina blocked her, a mocking smile on her own lips. “So you’re Scorpina, huh?”
“That I am.” The alien warrior woman replied. “And I’ve got some surprises of my own up my sleeve, Yellow Ranger.”
Trini took up a firm battle stance, ready to do anything. She couldn’t see what was going on behind her, but from what she could hear, the others were having a hard time with the Green Ranger. At least she could make things easier on them by keeping Scorpina occupied.
“What are you talking about, surprises?”
That got a laugh as the other attacked swiftly, her blade striking hard into Trini’s arms, only turned aside by the armor. “If I told you, then they wouldn’t be a surprise anymore. But you’ll find out, very soon.”
Trini wanted to get more details, but not only did she not think that Scorpina would share them, she didn’t have time to ask. Not with the blows that the scorpion warrior kept raining down on her, and the blocking and attacking she had to do in order to keep herself in one piece. Once in a while she got a glimpse of the others, and just as she’d thought, it didn’t look too good for them.
“Stop this, Tommi!” Jason tried to grab hold of the Green Ranger, wanting to get through to her, to find out what grip that Rita had on her mind and break it.
“No, Jason. This is what I want.” She struck quickly, avoiding his grasp and knocking his feet out from under him with a hard strike. Just as she had the first time that she’d fought them, she stood over him, one foot on his chest. She glanced lazily at the other Rangers. “One more step and I’ll run him through.” Her blade’s edge gleamed briefly in the sun as she admired it.
Zack held his arms out, preventing the others from moving forward. After what Zordon had told them, they’d hoped that they would have been able to prevent Jason from being hurt by Tommi somehow. Unfortunately, that hadn’t quite worked out the way that they had planned. “She’ll do it,” he said. The tenseness in her shoulders spelled it out plainly.
Tommi chuckled for a moment. “Yes, I would. But I have other plans for the Red Ranger.” Jason jerked and squirmed for a moment, until she pressed down harder on his chest with her boot. “Don’t make me kill you.”
“What do you want?” Zack asked warily. Sure, she’d said that she was going to destroy them, but with what she was doing to Jason…he wanted more information.
“I told you that once already. The fact I have other plans for him doesn’t mean that I’m not going to kill all of you.” One gloved hand caressed across Jason’s armored chest, then down to his belt. “But this is going to have to go.”
She pressed one hand against his belt, and a surge of green energy shot from her hand towards it, surrounding Jason entirely. He bucked underneath her, and if her eyes could have been seen, they would have been staring with the interest of someone watching a pinned insect squirm. As the energy faded, so did his armor, leaving only Jason himself behind.
“Much better.” Tommi stepped off of him and seized him by the arm. “First things first. Scorpina, let’s go. We can finish them later.”
Scorpina hmphed a little, smirking at Trini as she did. “Fine with me. I have something that I need to get back to anyway. And you will be seeing us again, Rangers. You can count on it.”
“Jason!” Kim tried to move forward, but the multiple bruises and cuts, painful even through her armor and through the effect of the Power, held her back from doing much more than reaching out ineffectually as the Green and Red Rangers, and Scorpina, vanished from the battlefield. As soon as they did, the flames in which Tommi had surrounded them faded away, leaving a scorched circle around them, and a few civilians on the other side, staring in shock at the beaten and smoking Power Rangers.
Billy inched his way closer, his stomach screaming in a red-hot agony of pain. Tommi had delivered several powerful kicks there, knocking him backwards before she’d went after Jason directly. “Let’s get back to the Command Center,” he groaned. “Maybe we can figure out what to do from there.”
Trini glanced for a moment at where Jason and Tommi had been, then to where she and Scorpina had been fighting. What did she mean by that? Now wasn’t the time to think about it, though. “Let’s go.”
Four bright lights lifted into the sky, vanishing from human sight as they streaked away. When they arrived at the Command Center and reformed, demorphing in the same moment, all of them were having trouble staying on their feet. “That Green Ranger is brutal!” Zack declared. “She wasn’t anything like that when we were watching her at the Youth Center.”
“In disguise,” Trini reminded him, leaning against the nearest console that would bear her weight. She turned to look at Zordon, who regarded them all with kind and worried eyes. “What can we do?”
The only way to defeat the Green Ranger and save Jason is to destroy her weapon: the Sword of Darkness. The spell that binds her has been woven into it, and destroying it will destroy the spell. Zordon told them. It will not be easy and it will require all five of you.
Zack sagged down, just barely able to hold himself off of the floor. “Great. And she’s got Jason already. So now what do we do?”
“Get him back.” Kim said simply. “What else are we going to do?”
“Got any ideas for that?” Zack asked, closing his eyes as Alpha started to putter between the four of them with his medical equipment. He wasn’t sure just what it consisted of, but if it was going to ease the pain, he wasn’t that picky about it.
No one had any answers for that, at least not right away. Alpha went among them, waving one of the devices that Billy hadn’t done much more than the barest examination of. It was something to repair torn and broken skin and muscle tissue at a slightly faster rate than the Power itself could, something they could all use at the moment.
“What’s she going to do with him?” Trini wondered, glancing at the others. As Alpha passed each of them, they all began to stand up a little straighter, the pain easing. “What does she even want him for?”
“To stop us from stopping her,” Zack suggested. “Thanks, Alpha.” He straightened up a little more and looked towards Zordon. “Are you sure there’s no other way to stop her?”
Rita’s spell cannot be broken any other way. We are extremely fortunate that it was tied into something that can be destroyed. Zordon sounded almost thoughtful, and Zack frowned, noticing that.
“What’s on your mind, Zordon?” He seldom asked their mentor anything like that, but right now, any information would be useful.
Zordon said nothing in reply for a few moments, then shook his head slowly. A thought, nothing more, Zack. It may come to nothing. He paused briefly. The sooner that we are able to free the Green Ranger and rescue Jason, the better.
There was no need, or way, to argue with that. “We can’t attack Rita’s palace,” Zack said, turning his thoughts away from Zordon’s curious evasion to the business at hand. “But is there any rule that says we can’t sneak inside to get Jason out of there? And maybe get rid of that sword while we’re there.”
That would be permissible. Zordon agreed with a slight bending of his lips. So long as you do not attack first.
Trini grinned some. “But they’re probably going to attack us as soon as they find us.”
“So, we either try not to be found, or we be ready to defend ourselves,” Zack replied, his grin answering hers. “Next question: can we get up there? She’s probably got some kind of security, right?”
Billy moved over to one of the consoles, doing so much more freely than he had when they’d arrived. “I should be able to scan the moon and get a precise location for Rita’s palace, and possibly Jason’s location within it.”
“Then let’s get to it.” Zack moved a little so he could see what Billy was doing and tried not to think about what Jason was probably going through up in Rita’s dungeon.
The cords that bound Jason to the bed were slender, but glowed with a faint emerald light that betrayed the magic within them. He jerked his arms forward to no avail, wanting to get free, morph, and get out of here, and if he could find a way to save Tommi as he did, then so be it. But staying here with her wasn’t an option. As much as he cared about her, and he did, very much, he wasn’t going to betray his principles, or the trust Zordon had put in him, or the entire world for a pretty face.
He’d been pushed in there nearly as soon as they’d arrived. He hadn’t even seen Rita, and this place had a vague disused air to it that told him it wasn’t used all that much. Not that he wanted to see Rita, but it would have been much better than being tied down here and wondering exactly what Tommi was going to do.
She’s the Green Ranger. That kept going through his mind. If he could help her, turn her away from Rita, then it would certainly be better for both of them. The idea of fighting side by side with her, just like they had against those Putties, only knowing for certain they were both doing this for the good of the world…it was exhilarating.
“Well, aren’t you a pretty sight there.” Goldar was suddenly in the doorway, filling up most of it with his armored bulk. “Rita’s Green Ranger’s going to have some fun with you before she kills you.”
Jason’s first reaction was to deny that Tommi would do any such thing. But his second was to recall that foot pressed down on him and to remember the cold look in her eyes. She would do it. Rita’s spell would make her.
“What business is it of yours, Goldilocks?” he asked instead, glaring over at him. “You want a fair fight? Let me out of this and I’ll give you one.”
“What would I want a fair fight for?” Goldar sneered, his sword appearing in his hand in a flash of black flame. “I might spare her the trouble of playing with you first.” He eyed the captive Ranger, his dull red eyes sparking wickedly. “Maybe I should play with you first. My way.”
Jason jerked once more at the bonds, but there was absolutely no give at all. The cords didn’t bite into him, but for all the reaction there might have been, he might as well not have moved at all. Goldar smirked as he stepped closer.
“I’ve been wanting to do this ever since I met you, Red Ranger,” he said, raising his sword. “And there’s no way that I will let the Green Ranger take killing you away from me.” He swung the blade downward sharply, and Jason moved as quickly as he could to avoid it. There wasn’t much movement he could do, and if Goldar did want to kill him he was certain that he would be dead.
Which was why he was more than a little surprised when the blade cut through the cords instead. Goldar raised it again and sliced through the ones on the other side, but pressed one hand against Jason’s chest, keeping him pinned, while he cut the bonds on Jason’s ankles as well. His sword vanished, and he seized Jason by the hair, dragging him off of the bed.
“I thought you said you didn’t want a fair fight!” Jason gasped, wincing at the grip. He’d known Goldar was strong, but facing him without being morphed was different than facing him with his armor on.
“I don’t.” Goldar sneered and pushed Jason through the door. “I have something much more fun in mind. But it’s still going to be a fight.”
Jason ended up being pushed and semi-dragged out of the room and down a dark, murky hallway. That was just the start, however. He was pushed and pulled this way and that, up stairs and down them, through doors and rooms, most of which were thick with dust and had the musty smell of a place where air hadn’t moved for years, if not centuries.
When he was last pushed through a doorway, Jason’s skin tingled all over and everything went completely black for a few moments. He stumbled, falling to his knees briefly, then rolled instinctively when he heard Goldar moving up behind him. Goldar’s foot just scraped the side of his ribs, and the mighty warrior laughed cruelly.
“This is only the beginning, Jason. You have no idea of how badly I’m going to hurt you.” He laughed again. “You had better pray that the Green Ranger does find you, before I kill you.”
Jason’s vision cleared suddenly, though he realized a moment later that it didn’t make that much of a difference. Wherever he was, it was all but impossible for him to see around himself. Thick fog filled the area, blocking everything that was farther away than a foot or so from being seen.
Not good. He started to pull himself to his feet, then caught the slightest breath of moving air. That was all he needed; he threw himself to one side, slamming into a wall he hadn’t even realized was there. Where he had been a second earlier, Goldar’s sword swept through. If he’d stood there, the blow likely enough would have taken his head off.
He had to find a way out of here. He grabbed quickly for his communicator, and had to bite back a furious groan when his hand met only bare skin. Goldar laughed, sounding far too close for Jason’s personal comfort.
“Did you really think that we were going to let you keep your communicator or morpher? You’re never leaving this place alive, Red Ranger.”
“That’s what you think!” Jason defied him; it didn’t matter that he didn’t have any way to escape. He wasn’t going to lay down and die. “You’re in for a shock, Goldar!”
Again Goldar’s laugh echoed, and Jason dodged another strike, but not nearly as well as he had the previous time. The sword cut into his shirt, and a thin line of fire across his back told him he’d been marked. “That’s just the beginning, human. I’m going to take all of your blood before this is through.”
“Keep bragging.” Jason hissed, dropping low and moving as far back as he could from where he heard Goldar’s voice coming from. At least for the moment. He moved around silently, trying to catch some glimpse of Goldar, hoping for a chance to turn the tables on him attack.
The back injury wasn’t too bad, thankfully. He’d done worse to himself in sparring sessions, he thought. But he didn’t want Goldar to get a chance to do something like that on a more intense scale.
He held himself still, waiting and watching, listening with all of his might. There was no sound of anything anywhere, save for his own breathing. Goldar should be there, should be breathing, but he couldn’t hear him.
One scrape, that was all that it was, and Jason didn’t have quite the split second he could have needed to react before a huge, scaled hand came from the darkness and knocked him backwards into the wall. He moved a moment later, however. If he stayed where he was, Goldar would kill him without a doubt.
How is he doing that? How can he get around like he can see in all this darkness? Jason didn’t have Billy’s brains, but he was far from being an idiot, especially where combat was concerned. If Goldar could make his way around as if it weren’t dark to him, then maybe to him it wasn’t.
“You can see around here, can’t you?” Jason spat the words out; Goldar had said that it wouldn’t be a fair fight, but that didn’t stop the fury from boiling up at the thought how ridiculous he had to look. Not to mention, how could Goldar see in the fog? Shouldn’t it look just as black to him?
Goldar’s voice came from right beside him, and Jason reacted, jump kicking him in the chest as hard as he could. It didn’t have quite the impact that it might have had if he’d had a bit more distance, but it was enough to get Goldar to back off some. “You’re only prolonging the inevitable, Jason! You’ve only survived this long because I’ve permitted it!”
Jason snorted to himself, trying to keep his back to a wall so Goldar couldn’t sneak up on him like that. “Yeah, I’ve heard that before.” He would’ve given a lot for his communicator. Or morpher. Or a door that led out of there. There had to be one, since he had gotten in here, but the fog had to be keeping it concealed.
“Do you really think you’ll get any better treatment from the Green Ranger?” Goldar mocked, one fist flying at the captive Ranger. Jason dodged, seized Goldar by the wrist, and held him there while he drove a knee up towards him. That proved not to have been the wisest move, given the armor that his opponent was in, and Jason winced as pain shot through his knee. Not enough to stop him from moving, but it wasn’t going to be fun to keep doing so.
Before he could move far enough away to avoid it, Goldar had seized his shoulder and threw him downward, pinning him there. Jason’s heart raced, as did his mind. He had to find a way to get out of this, before he was shish kabobed.
Goldar raised up his sword and brought it down swiftly, aimed directly for Jason’s unprotected chest.
To Be Continued