Fall of the Power Rangers

eeing that he had no real options, Tommy poised for combat, then ran away as fast as he could.

Whatsamatta, Greenie?" Kim taunted. "Shrinking from battle?"

You were the one who ran from your treatment!" Tommy called out at her.

'Treatment'?" Kimberly asked, taking aim at him with her rocket launcher. "We were brainwashed by ZORDON!"

Impossible," Jason muttered. "Zordon wouldn't do that."

You'd like to believe that, wouldn't you?" Kimberly remonstrated. "Too bad you won't get the chance to learn the truth!"

here are few things more pathetic than a weakling suddenly coming into power. Jason's final vocal reverberations proved more pathetic still as he exploded into several thousand pieces by a Sponge Seeker Missile.

We need our Zords!" Trini called out.

Against a murderous ex-Ranger and the Lone Warrior?!" Rocky shouted. "I'd rather take on the entire U.S. Army by myself. Billy, teleport back to the Command Center and find out if Zordon'll be able to help us."

Got it," Billy worriedly agreed, more than happy to get as far from his former friend as possible. He disappeared in a beam on blue light.

Arsenal to Neon Wizard," he spoke into his radio. "You've got a blue booger headed your way."

Gotcha, Arsenal," Neon replied. "That guy gives geeks a bad name."

Zordon, I -" He paused. Something wasn't right here. Alpha was nowhere to be seen, and neither was Zordon. A flurry of bright neon lights from behind him caught his attention. Warily, almost fearfully, he turned towards the lights.

efore him stood a fairly young wizard, as such things are measured, dressed in neon-colored robes. Neon Wizard had arrived.

How did you get in here?" Billy squeaked. "No one can enter here without a Power Coin."

It was mere simplicity to bypass Zordon's pitiful protection spells," Neon Wizard flatly stated. "Life is terribly tragic." Neon waved his hands.

"NO!" the Blue Ranger screamed as he disappeared under an avalanche of Calvin and Hobbes hardcover books.

"I'm almost afraid to ask how," he muttered, half to himself. Instead, he took aim with his pulse cannon at one of the Yellow Rangers; to him, it didn't matter which.

Arsenal squeezed off a barrage of pulse beams in the Yellow Ranger's direction. One of the blasts took out her face-plate, revealing it to be Aisha. The rest of the blasts ripped through her body in five different places.

He turned to face the other Yellow Ranger. "Next?"

Before she could reply, Trini's body exploded. Behind her charred remains, Kimberly lowered her rocket launcher. "Never did like those daggers."

The surviving Rangers regrouped around one of the tables near the lake.

"So how do we take them out?" Zack asked. "We can't form MegaZord without the Firebird or Griffin."

"What about the other Zords?" Adam asked. "At least, then, they wouldn't be able to pick us off so easily."

"Tommy," Rocky asked, "can you control the TigerZord?"

"Or the DragonZord?" Zack added.

"I can give it a try," Tommy muttered, pulling out the flute that once controlled the DragonZord. He tried a familiar sequence, but only managed to produce a gurgle of bubbles from the nearby ocean.

"We need a plan, guys," Adam prompted the others.

"How about, die!" Kimberly called, releasing a few more missiles in their general direction. Two struck Adam, producing an explosion of blood and gore.

With a thought, Zack and Rocky "morphed" into their Zords. Funky music drifted through the air as the Red Dragon transformed into its humanoid configuration. It landed with a reverberating THUD.

"Arsenal, I think we're in trouble." Kimberly sounded worried.

"Nonsense," he assured her. "Concentrate all your fire on his head. I'm going for his legs."

As Kimberly concentrated all of her rockets on the Red Zord, Arsenal ran up to it, extended his ion blades, leapt, and sliced the Zord through its knees. He managed to leap out of its way as it crashed down on the spot where he'd been a moment before. Arsenal slashed open the Red Zord's cockpit and grabbed Rocky by the collar.

"Ernie! Set 'em up and keep 'em coming!"

The two sat at the bar at the Angel Grove Gym and Juice Bar.

"And don't worry about the expiration dates!" Skull called. "The drunker we can get the better!"

"You two must've seen something really, really, really...well, you know, REALLY."

"Really," Skull agreed. Bulk socked him one in the gut.

"Look, Ernie," he almost whispered. "What would you be like if you finally found out who the Power Rangers were, and then have them turned into teriyaki sushi right in front of you?!"

"You're kidding, right?" Ernie was about ready to call the paddy wagon on these two morons, but something told him to wait. Instead, he watched as they got themselves inebriated on eight month old prune juice and cranberry sauce, then picked up the phone and dialed for the local insane asylum.

"Wait," Rocky begged. "If you kill the rest of the Rangers, Rita Repulsa and Lord Zed, if he's still alive, will rule the Earth."

"You really believe that, don't you? It just so happens that Zed and Zordon both answer to somebody named B'harne."

"That's not true," Rocky whispered. "That's impossible."

"Believe it or not, Rock-head," Kimberly stated, reloading her rocket launcher, "it's the truth. That's why I confronted Zordon last time I was here."

"Regardless," Rocky told her, "you are still a Ranger. Chosen to fight Lord Zed's evil."

"Zordon is just as evil as Zed," Kimberly stated. She drew her Power Bow, and shot an energy arrow through Rocky's heart. Then she broke the Bow across her knee and tossed it on top of him.

A loud roar and a thundering of massive metal across rocky terrain grabbed their attention.

"The Lion Zord," Kimberly muttered. "We forgot all about Zack."

"And a certain Ranger you used to love, beautiful," a voice called from behind them. Kimberly spun around to face Tommy, in his Green Ranger outfit, removing his helmet.

"You stall Tommy," Arsenal radioed to her. "I'll be with you as soon as I take care of Zack."

Arsenal ran towards the approaching Black Lion Zord, charging his seismic knuckles to full capacity.

Kimberly mechamorphosed her Excalibur into its cycle mode, and dismounted, removing her own helmet.

"You're still as beautiful as the day we met," Tommy told her.

"And the day after we met," she reminded him, "you joined Rita's forces."

Arsenal ran right up to the Lion Zord, and pounded his fists mercilessly into the Zord's metallic hide.

"I was under a spell," Tommy tried to explain.

"That's no excuse." She looked him in the eye. "I thought you loved me."

"I do love you."

"Then why'd you betray me?"

The Black Zord fell to pieces under the assault of uncontrollable kinetic energy.

Tommy held Kimberly's face in his hands, caressing her cheeks lovingly.

"Kim, you know I'd never betray you."

"I really wish I could believe that, Tommy," she said, turning away from him. "I really do. But it's too late for that now." Without warning, she spun around and kicked him square in the jaw, full force, sending him flying back onto a picnic table.

Arsenal found Zack's body among the wreckage of the Black Zord. Zack was already dead, having every bone in his body shaken to dust and every major organ explode from the intense vibrations. He turned to face Tommy, the last Power Ranger.

Tommy pulled himself up from the wreckage of the picnic table. "That's IT!" he growled. "The kid gloves are off!"

"In case you haven't noticed, Tommy, Arsenal and I never had them on in the first place."

Arsenal could only watch as Tommy and Kimberly fought each other, neither one relying on any weapons except their skills.

Kimberly had learned a lot from Arsenal over the weeks he'd spent training her. Her first blow caught Tommy full in the chest, driving the air from his lungs. The second was straight to the groin, causing Tommy to keel forward. The last isn't worth mentioning as he crashed to the ground, sucking dirt.

"Come on, babe," Neon shouted from a park bench. "Give the wimp a chance to at least whiff! Then IWO JIMA his butt!"

Pulling himself off the ground was the worst mistake that Tommy could have made. Rising to his feet, his face bloodied and battered, his head spinning from the pounding so tenderly administered by his former girlfriend, he fell over from sheer nausea.

"Oh no you don't!" Kimberly spat, spinning a kick into his laterals with an audible crunching of bones. "If anyone puts you down, it'll be me! Not dizziness! Not air pressure! NOT GRAVITY! ME!"

It is a medical fact that human bone is stronger than a bar of tooled steel of the same thickness, but the spine is, nevertheless, a very sensitive portion of one's skeleton.

"AAAAIIIIIYYYYEEEEEAAAARRRRGGGGGHHHH!" he screamed, falling to the ground, his spinal column shattered. Tommy flopped about pathetically for a brief second, then lifted his face towards Kimberly in a final plea for mercy.

"Kim," he gasped, as his head dropped, his injuries being too much for any one person to bear. Moments later, he breathed his last.

"Whoa!" Neon muttered from the park bench. "Too brutal, even for me."

"This from the guy who liked Agony in Pink," Arsenal muttered.

Kimberly stood over Tommy's broken body, a tear streaming down her cheek.

"Zordon'll pay," she whispered. "If only..." The thought was never completed.

Arsenal approached Kim and stood behind her.

"Neon and I are about ready to attack Zordon. I'll understand if you don't want to -"

"I'm coming with you," she interrupted. "Zordon is mine."

"Is that...?" she asked.

"It's Billy," Neon stated. "He couldn't take Calvin and Hobbes."

"Kimberly," Zordon rumbled, finally reappearing. "I see you've returned. And you've brought two Jihaddi with you. Whatever became of the other Rangers?"

"All dead, Zordon," she replied, removing her Excalibur's helmet. "I killed half of them myself. Including Tommy."

"How is that possible? The White Ranger is the most powerful Ranger ever."

"Not when he's in the Green, baldy," Neon taunted. "Pit wits with the Jihad, and you won't have any wits left to pit with, knowwhatImean?"

"So you've joined the Jihad, then," Zordon grumbled. "I take it you've come to kill me, now?"

"That's right," Arsenal laughed. "Kim, where's the dimensional matrix?"

"Right over here," she stated, opening a up console. Arsenal reached his hand in and tore at wires.

"Let me do that," Kim said. "You two can bring this place down after I'm done."

Kimberly pulled Arsenal's hand out of the console and reached inside it herself. Not knowing what to do next, she tore at all the wires. Zordon's bald head flickered in his tube, then vanished. Forever.

"I don't know," she said. She pulled him close and planted a passionate kiss on his lips. "I'll be in touch." She "morphed" into her Zord as it flew away, into the sunset.

Finis.