Power Rangers Punks: Aftermath Of A Battle

The Yellow Ranger rolled across the ground. The chest of her suit was smoking from the clawed strikes she'd just received. She gripped her chest and hissed in pain but nonetheless shook off the attacks and jumped back up to her feet. "POWER DAGGERS!" She called out and her trusty daggers appeared in her hands in flashes of light. She twirled them, gripped them and rushed the bloated toad monster that was leisurely strolling towards her while laughing like he'd just heard a hilarious joke while walking in the park. She was going to make him regret that. She slashed down on his head with her daggers and she briefly succeeded in pushing his head down with them only for the Toad Monster to suddenly open its jaw back up and knock her backwards!


"Surprise baby doll!" The Toad laughed. The Yellow Ranger rolled back onto her feet and attacked him again!

Three of her friends; Sarah, Kim and Billy, were under the effects of that damned potion that baboon freak slipped into their drinks. Jason and Zack had been split up to opposite sides of Angel Grove by simultaneous putty attacks. That meant she was the only one who could hold the line against this monster until her friends were able to join the battle.

The Yellow Ranger screamed a battle cry at the monster and slashed at the monster but he blocked her hand with his flabby forearm and knocked it aside so she brought her other arm around and tried to slash at his throat only for him to block that and knock it away just the same so she brought up her foot and performed a heavy push kick on his stomach in an attempt to push it away to give her some breathing room but her boot only sank harmlessly into his belly fat before it suddenly sprang back out and pushed her kick right back out! The Yellow Ranger rolled backward and quickly climbed back to her feet but the Toad was already on her! She tried to slash him again but the Toad simply caught the dagger by its blade and delivered a heavy punch to her chest! Sparks shot out of her chest and she would've been knocked backward only for the Toad to grab her wrist and yank her back over to him! He gave her four more heavy punches to the chest before releasing her wrist and hitting her across the jaw of her helmet hard enough to make her spin around!

"How about going for a little spin honey?" He taunted her before repeating the attack from the other side and then the other, keeping the Yellow Ranger spinning and stumbling around while she tried to find her footing until he finally brought his fist back and slamming a heavy haymaker into her stomach! The Yellow Ranger's mouth dropped open beneath her helmet as she felt the wind get knocked out of her!

She skidded backward across the ground until she dug her fingers from one hand to stop herself. She rested another on her stomach and rolled over onto her back coughing and sucking in air. Her suit was quickly dulling the pain but that didn't change the fact that it was still there! This thing was strong. It was stronger than the other monsters. Not only that but it knew how to use its power and defend itself with that bulbous body all without any loss of mobility!

She knew she needed the others. It would take the full force of the team to beat it. She knew that but she couldn't run away or hide. Even if she escaped, it would just rampage into the city! Too many people would get hurt in the time it took for them to regroup. She needed to hold the line.

The Yellow Ranger gritted her teeth and pulled herself to her feet. Shaking off the hit, she reached out and recalled the Power Daggers to her friends.

"Well well! Back on your feet already huh? You've got stamina, kitty!"

"Didn't even hurt wartsbreath." Trini scoffed. "Come on. Lets go!" She jumped in the air and tried to slash down on it only for the Toad to leap up into the air with her! He knocked away one dagger and deflected her other arm while he body slammed her and knocked the Yellow Ranger backwards. She tried to kick up at him only for the Toad to grab her leg and toss her down to the ground! The Yellow Ranger landed hard on her back but withstood the impact and rolled away in time to avoid the giant toad's attempt to land on her. She rolled around on her shoulders, sprung herself up and landed an upside down spinning kick on its back but her foot just bounced off of him! She landed on her hands and pushed back up onto her feet and closed in on him with a chain punch to his body but just like before there was no damage. He laughed off her attempt and tried to grab her only for the Yellow Ranger to leap back, dodge him and leap in for an uppercut to his lower jaw. He laughed it off once again but then she noticed something. Something on his neck. A bulge of sorts. Hidden in those black fat folds around his neck. "Gotcha." She sneered and struck at him with a knife hand strike to his neck only for the Toad to turn away and suddenly grab her hand and push it away.

"Nice try kitten but you're just too slow and nothing can hurt me!"

"Lets find out!" The Yellow Ranger spat and tried another strike on his throat but he grabbed her hand and tossed her away while lowering his head back down and covering it up again.

She scrambled to her feet and pulled her blade blaster out and took aim at the throat only for the Toad to release a series of energy orbs from his horn that exploded against her and caused her to lose her grip on her blade blaster as she was thrown backwards by the energy blasts! She hit the ground again hard her suit smoking and burnt but still functional as she gasped for breath.

"Awww what's wrong? You were so cocky before and now you're just giving up without a fight?" The toad taunted her.

"Screw. You. Kermit!" The Yellow Ranger retorted as she struggled to push herself. "I'm just...getting warmed up!"

"Mmmm mmm mmm. All this name calling. I think you and I got off on the wrong foot. How about I make it up you with a little tongue?!" The Toad raised his hands to his horn and it began to emit a bright yellow light which grew brighter and brighter before it suddenly opened up into a cavernous maw complete with gleaming white teeth and pink gums. The mouth shot out a giant yellow energy tongue which swiftly crossed the distance between and wrapped around the Yellow Ranger and bound arms to her side!

"HEY WHAT THE? LET ME GO! LET ME GO YOU SLIMY-!" She didn't get the chance to finish before the tip of the tongue reached back down and slurped the face of her helmet once then twice! The first lick caused her suit to flash yellow and paralyzed her. The second one caused another flash of energy that blinded the Yellow Ranger's vision! She suddenly found her body unwittingly curled up into a ball as the light grew brighter around her. Brighter brighter brighter! As the light grew brighter her body grew smaller and smaller until it was the size of a small ball and the Yellow Ranger lost all sense of her physical body. She couldn't feel any of her limbs or move at all! Then the tongue unwound itself and the ball was balanced on the tip of it. The Yellow Ranger's vision returned to her and she could suddenly see everything all at once! She could see forward, backward, up, down, left, right, diagonal all at once. She had somehow gained perfect 360 degree vision! The sudden shock of it on top of losing her physical sensations completely overwhelmed her. She couldn't even begin to adjust to this before she was hurtling towards the salivating Toad and the energy tongue tossed her into its mouth!

"Belly time kitten!" He laughed and caught her in his mouth! He tossed the orb around in his mouth, chomping down on it with his rows of sharp teeth and slurping her with his tongue while slamming her against the roof of his mouth and his cheeks as he chewed and savored her. His mouth. His mouth as all she could see! Those giant teeth chewing and chomping on her, that horrible tongue tasting and throwing her around, and all sides of his horrible mouth all once! Every time the teeth would chomp down on her, she would be compressed down and spring back to her original circular shape but that didn't make it any less terrifying.

Finally the Toad apparently decided it'd had enough of toying with her and the tongue pushed the orb backwards while a giant rush of air pulled it backwards down it's rhythmically undulating and pulsing throat which was lined with hundreds of wriggling spear like teeth. She didn't know how long she fell down that horrific demonic throat only that she kept falling faster and faster for what felt like forever until she finally went through an opening and dropped down into a massive cavernous stomach. She fell until she reached a pit full of green slime where she splashed down and her body suddenly poofed back to normal leaving her spinning head over heels in the slime as she frantically tried to claw her way back up to the surface but she couldn't tell which way was up or even where she was! She desperately splashed around in the slime and clawed and thrashed and kicked her feet until she finally broke back up to the surface and gasped. There was nothing to grab onto so she was forced to tread the slime the best she could but it was like swimming through molasses! She could barely see in here either! "A-a-activating...p-power...activating power beams!" She called out and the cats eyes on her helmet opened up and shined bright lights out around her, illuminating her surroundings. It was then that she discovered to her horror the pulsating and wriggling organic walls of her surroundings. Organic 'vines' grew out of her surroundings and looped around the area, attaching to various parts of it. There was some kind of odd growth on them that she didn't want to think about but they looked almost like leaves full of what almost looked like moss. The slime around her bubbled and rippled as gas bubbles grew up before suddenly bursting all around her and releasing some sort of fowl gas into the air. The croaking of frogs and toads echoed all around her.

Suddenly a horrifically loud noise shook her surroundings while there was a rush of that fowl gas that flew out of the slime and up up up through an opening!

"UUUUUUUURRRRRRRPPPP!"


The Yellow Ranger was briefly pulled up into the air by the sudden updraft of gas before falling right back down into the slime again and once again having to fight to find her way back up to the surface while her surroundings continued to shake.

"Ahhhhh that was a good one. Greetings Yellow Ranger! I hope you enjoy your new home!" The Toad's horrific voice echoed all around her as the Yellow Ranger broke through the surface again.

"Wh-wha? Wh-what? Where am...n-no. No. NO!"



NO!" Trini Kwan cried out as she fell out of bed thrashing and clawing at her blanket until she threw it across the room. It hit the closet door and collapsed to the floor. She felt her ribs heaving as if they were bound by ropes, straining to inflate her lungs. Her mind was a carousel of fears spinning out of control, each one pushing her mind into blackness. She wanted to run and scream and panic but all she could do was sit there in the fetal position with her head buried in her knees and her arms wrapped around her legs. Her pajamas clung to her cold clammy skin damp with the sweat dripping down her face. Her breathing became more rapid, more shallow. Her mind repeating that disastrous battle with Rita's monster over and over again. Her pathetic fight against it, the beating she received, being eaten alive, being trapped inside that...THING while she felt her body growing weaker as her powers were being drained out of her. She remembered her body losing its strength and beginning to sink beneath the slime while Billy desperately tried to pull her back up despite having nothing to hold onto. The whole time she was trapped inside of it she had no way to tell how much time had passed. It felt like an eternity. Maybe longer. It was impossible to keep track of time in there. The whole time the monster played head games with them, breaking down their will to fight as their bodies lost their strength to keep fighting.

It was a miracle that Kimberly had gotten them all out when she did. She wouldn't have lasted much longer. They wouldn't have lasted much longer. Trini wasn't sure what had happened while she was trapped but she knew that Kim looked like she'd fought a war while she was gone but she gave as good as she received. The damage she'd inflicted on the monster had been enough to restore enough of their strength to pay it back and obliterate the monster with extreme prejudice. It was a bit of a blur but she remembered enough that she'd been violent. Much more than they usually were with Rita's monsters. To hell with it though. That abomination had brought all of that on itself.

She took about ten minutes to catch her breath and calm herself down before she was able to get back up and grab her morpher. Trini took a deep breath and pressed a button on the communicator and teleported herself to a safe empty location in her pajamas away from her house. She was once again consumed by a bright yellow light and sent hurtling through the air across the city before touching down behind the school. It was past midnight so nobody was around but she took a glance around the area to make sure nobody saw her before raising the Morpher and calling out her animal. "Saber-Tooth Tiger!" In another flash of light the Yellow Power Ranger suit surrounded Trini Kwan and filled her with its power, its strength, its stamina, its courage. Trini Kwan took a deep breath in and slowly exhaled before walking over to the bleachers and sitting down to rest. Wearing the suit always made her feel better, faster, stronger, braver and she desperately needed all of that right now. To not be afraid. To not be weak.

She rested on a bleacher with one leg down and the other up and rested her helmet against her knee while hugging it.

"It's okay...it's dead. It's dead. It's dead. It's okay. You're safe now. You're safe." She repeated to herself quietly.

"I had a feeling I would find you here."

Trini jumped up in the air and landed on top of the bleachers, one hand lowered towards her blade blaster before she got a good look at the new arrival approaching her with her hands up defensively. Trini breathed a sigh of relief as she recognized her. Sarah Estrada. The Purple Quetzalcoatlus Ranger. Quetzal Ranger for short. "S-Quetzal? Hi. Hey. Sorry about that, I-I'm guess I'm still a little on edge."

"Hey, I don't blame you." She replied gently while she ascended the bleachers and sat down next to her. "It was a horrible day for all of us. Which, uh, listen those things I said to you...I'm sorry. None of that was me but all the same...I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said those things, done those things, you never should've had to face that thing alone. "

"No no no. I-it's okay, right? You weren't in control. That space monkey bat drugged you guys. It wasn't your fault and anyway, you guys beat the tar out of it. I just got eaten."

"To be fair, I didn't do much better. We cut off its horn and knocked it around a bit but Kiiii-" She paused and looked around. "Uh, I mean, The Pink Ranger, was the real MVP. As always."

"Heh. You can always count on Pink to come through in the clutch. Gods though, that freaking monster. You weren't down there as long as we were, but it was like an organic swamp in there. It was a nightmare. You might not have noticed but, we could hear him while we were in there. We could hear him taunting us. Mocking us..." She shuddered and hugged herself. "It was all around us and we couldn't block it out and I was getting so weak in there and I nearly drowned and I was being thrown around and-"

Sarah leaned over and gently embraced her. "Ssshhh, shhhh, it's okay. It's okay we're safe. We're safe now. It's dead. We kicked its butt and we won and we blew it to pieces. It's all okay now Trini. Just let it out, you know? Let it out you'll feel better."

Trini nodded and returned the embrace silently. They held each other for a couple of minutes before parting as Trini shuffled her feet and got comfortable. "Sooo uhhh I didn't ask. How'd you know I was here?"

"A lucky guess and some deductive reasoning. I couldn't sleep either. I just sat there in bed going over everything over and over again until I couldn't take it anymore and I had to get out and get some air. I figured if I was feeling down, then someone else on the team was probably feeling off too and the school would be empty and the bleachers would be a nice quiet place to sit down and think."

"Woah. Cool. That's smart."

"Thanks."

"You're welcome. Soo uhhh how are you feeling?"

"Well, better now that I'm suited up again. It seems that morphing not only builds confidence but takes away fears and doubts in general. Sort of like how your fear of heights disappears when you suit up."

"I know right? I was a trembling and shaking mess until I morphed and I was finally able to take a breather. Still, if I'm feeling this bad, I can't imagine how bad I'll feel when I go back to normal."

"That's why we have friends. So we can talk to each other about our problems so we can work through them. I mean, we can't exactly talk to anybody else about it."

"Ain't that the truth." Trini admitted with a laugh. "Still, that gives me an idea. We'll need to talk to the others tomorrow about organizing a group therapy session. We can't just morph whenever we feel bad. We have to be able to face our fears in our everyday lives as well or we'll just be left nervous wrecks and like you said, that's what friends are for. You in?"

"That's brilliant Saber-Ranger! I'm in!"

Black Mastodon Ranger Zakelina Taylor rolled around on her shoulders and upperback while kicking out with her legs to knock down the crowd of Putties surrounding her and then she sprung back to her feet, backflipped over the crowd of Putties and took out her Blade Blaster and began blasting away at the downed Putties, shooting them down and causing them to vanish in flashes of light. "Maaan, how many of you claybrains are there today?" She asked while twirling the Blade Blaster. The rest of them charged her from behind so she turned around and fired on the onrushing crowd of Putties. She successfully shot down a couple of them but the rest continued to charge her head on heedless of how many of them were shot down! They swarmed Zakelina from all sides so she switched her Blade Blaster to its blade mode and she went on the attack spinning and slashing as she did so to knock back a few of them and give her some breathing room. Zakelina then used it to block the sword arm of one Putty while blocking a punch from another one with her other hand and then kicking backward with her foot to knock back another one. She then brought her foot back down and backflipped clean over the Putty swarm, landed on her feet and then she leaped back over to them and kicked one Putty backward into the crowd! She landed on her feet again, blocked and dodged a few more attacks from the other Putties before she retaliated and slashed and punched and kicked and elbowed the Putty crowd as she danced through the crowd like an elegant whirlwind using every limb she had!

It didn't matter how many Putties attacked her, Zakelina was untouchable! Thanks to her combination of speed, skill, fluidity, agility and strength, she was able to decimate the entire Putty Horde! The fight was over before she knew it with the Putties laying on the ground around her in piles of broken space clay and severed limbs. She struck a cool pose as they vanished into thin air leaving only one remaining. Zakelina turned her Blade Blaster back into Gun Mode and pointed it at The Putty. "You can either run back home to Rita or you can get gunned down. Your choice Claybrain!"

The Putty screamed at her in its incoherent garbled language and charged towards the Black Ranger in defiance! That was when The Yellow Ranger jumped out from the trees and drop kicked the Putty away! It was launched across the field and landed in a heap on the ground where it vanished. The Yellow Ranger landed on her feet and dusted off her hands. "And that's how the Putty Crumbles!" She joked and saluted Zakelina. "Hey there Mastodon Ranger! Did you have fun while I was gone?"

"Oh you know, Saber! Always the life of the party!" Zakelina laughed while holstering her Blade Blaster.

"You definitely are." She agreed as she approached Zakelina in a sultry fashion. "And you're strong and brave Zak."

"Ummm...Saber? Arrrre you feeling okay?"

"Just...a bit...stressed." She confessed as she stepped into her personal space. "Lets head back to the Command Center and check in on the others? What do you think? Huh? You and me?" Trini slid a hand around her hips. "Blow off some steam? Come on, lets go home Zak."

"Yeah, yeah, you're right. Still though, this is a bit informal isn't it? You always call me Ellie when we're alone."

"Oh, sorry, Ellie, it's been a long day and I really just need to-"

And then Zakelina sucker punched Trini and knocked her to the ground. "Also, Saber's dating our Violet Ranger and only called me Ellie once as a dumb joke. So who the hell are you and where's my friend?!"

"Well darn and here I thought I was doing such a good job with my impersonation. In my defense though, I just met you." Trini replied and sprung back to her feet. "As for your little friend!" Her voice suddenly twisted into something much deeper and monstrous as Trini started rubbing and patting her belly while her body suddenly ballooned up rapidly until her costume was ripped apart at the seams! The Yellow Ranger Costume was ripped apart and fell to the ground in pieces as a giant yellow belly burst out of it followed by big green clawed legs and big fat arms followed by the rest of a big green bulbuous body and finally the Yellow Ranger Helmet morphed into a large monstrous frog head! The monster!

Zakelina jumped backwards a few feet to put some distance between her and the monster as she observed it. The Monster de jour was a giant anthromorphic toad as tall as a human if not a little bigger, built very solidly, and with almost half of its otherwise green and wart-covered body being taken up by a giant stomach that was yellow and smooth, it was unsurprising that it could hit hard, but surprising that it was more agile than a creature of that build should be. It had red marks on its stomach that looked like stretch marks, a head as wide as its body, a mouth as wide as its head, needle-like white teeth, and a big white horn between its wide-apart, all-seeing eyes. But what most grabbed her attention, what made her blood run cold, was the image of the Yellow Ranger Helmet on its stomach that the Toad was currently patting.

The image is close to lifelike, but is flat and follows the rounded surface of the toad's body. It is marginally obscured by one of the many red patches of skin that pattern the top and bottom of the stomach. These marks do not immediately present themselves as any more meaningful than perhaps stretch marks to emphasize the dominance of the monster's stomach relative to the rest of its anatomy. The presence of the Ranger's helpless helmet, however, makes it more obvious that the red marks are reminiscent of sharp teeth, and that imprinted upon the toad's frontage is a representation of a mouth. Trini's positioning inside this "mouth" reaffirms his imprisonment not as something as dignified as a captive, but as mere food for his adversary.

"Don't worry about me, Zak! I'm fine!" The Toad taunted him in a sickening combination of Trini's voice and his own, making it sound as if both of them were speaking at once as it rubbed its belly. "In fact, the Toad informed me that I was delicious! I'm so happy and its so comfy and beautiful in here! You should join me!"

Zakelina screamed in rage as she charged him. "LET HER GOOOOOOOO!"


"Ohhh I'm really scared!" The Toad taunted the Mastodon Ranger. He waddled towards her to meet her attack and raised his hand up to block her arm and hook it to trap her arm. She answered this with a quick and hard kick to her gut that just bounced off of it. The Terror Toad laughed and punched her hard in the stomach before releasing her arm, slashing her across her side and then punching her away. Zak slid backwards several feet before she stopped herself. She winced at the pain shooting through her but she straightened back up and attacked again with her blade and slashed at the Terror Toad from the left but he blocked her arm and pushed it aside so she tried slashing it across his gut but the blade slid off harmlessly. She transferred the blade to her other hand and tried to slash it again but the Terror Toad caught her wrist, twisted it and punched her away. The Mastodon Ranger dropped her Blade Blaster as she was knocked away this time. She slid on her back a bit before grabbing the ground and springing back to her feet. She looked around for her gun only to see the Toad kick it up into the air and grab it.

"Hey! Give that back!"

"Ohhh sorry, is this yours? In that case, you can have it back!" The Toad taunted her again and tossed the blade at her like a fastball. Zak sidestepped it and grabbed it, turned the weapon back to Gun Mode and pointed it at the Toad. "If you won't give me my friend back then I'll blast holes in you and take her back!"

"Keep dreaming Little Mastodon!" The Toad laughed and waddled towards her again.

The Mastodon Ranger took careful aim and opened fire on the Toad's stomach only for the Toad to croak and inflate its stomach. As its bloated stomach inflated a yellow energy barrier shined out of it. The laser blasts struck the barrier and were promptly reflected off of it! The blasts were sent right back at her and struck the Mastodon Ranger around her suit, sparking it and throwing her off of her feet. She fell to the ground her suit smoking a little but holding.

"It's useless to fight him Zak. Just give up and join me in his belly! It'll be so much easier than fighting. You don't stand a chance against him! Just surrender and accept your fate. We're not heroes. We're not warriors. We're just stupid children who got suckered into fighting a war that had nothing to do with us! So why even bother fighting? It'll be so much easier to just give up." The Toad told her in Trini's Voice.

Zak responded by pushing herself back up and climbing to her feet, twirling the blaster and holstering it. "Man, you really don't know anything about us huh? The REAL Saber Ranger would be telling me to dissect you like a science class! So that's exactly what I'll do! POWER AXE!" She called out and her axe weapon appeared in her hand in a flash of light.

"Don't you get that you can't win yet?" The Toad scoffed. "Every time I swallow someone, especially someone as strong as a Ranger, my power grows! This juicy little lemonhead is a nice tasty battery for me!" He rubbed and patted Trini's image tattoo. "And I've got plenty of room for more!" He suddenly lunged at her with surprising speed but she dashed out of the way and turned to face him. He tried to attack her again but she jumped to the side to avoid him. Keeping a tight grip on her axe, she began flipping and spinning around the Toad in a wild and erratic pattern to confuse him. "Hey now! What are you doing? Stand still would you?!" The Toad growled and tried to slash at her but she focused on movement and agility to dance around it until she could land behind its back.

"Gotcha!" She called out and began hacking at its back with the Power Axe! A few sparse sparks flew out of its back and the Toad stumbled forward. Finally some damage! She grinned underneath her helmet and continued slashing at it back and forth until the Toad growled and turned around and tried to slash at her. She dodged its spinning hand and then the second one, spun, turned her Power Axe around, changed it to Cannon Mode and pressed the barrel right up against its fat gut. The Terror Toad's eyes widened. "Lets see how you handle point blank! COSMIC CANNON!"

Zak pulled the trigger and the blast exploded point blank against it and catching both of them in it. Zak and the Toad were both knocked backwards and the Power Axe flew away from Zak's hands! The Ranger and the Toad landed a fair distance from each other but since the Toad was blasted point blank he got the worst of it as shown when the Toad began to roll around on its back while holding its smoking stomach. "GGGGRRAAAARRHGGGH! You...little...brat! I'm gonna...take my time...eating you!"

Zak meanwhile rolled over onto her stomach and scrambled to her feet and ran to grab her Power Axe. She retrieved it in time for the Toad to get back up while patting down the flames that were covering its belly and bumping back out the dent that the blast had been made in its fatty gut. It waved away the last of the smoke floating up in front of its face and emerged through the smoke and stared down the Mastodon Ranger. They stared each other down for barely a minute before charging one another once again. The Toad leaped up high into the air and tried to bring its arms down on Zak but she backflipped out of the way and the Toads arms slammed down onto the ground and created a small crater from the impact. She landed on her feet and flipped forward again as the Toad was standing back up and she swung down with her axe on its head as hard as she could! The ground beneath the Toad's feet crated a little but it stayed standing, shrugged off her axe blade slash and double punched her away! Zak was launched a considerable distance away from the Toad and slammed down on the ground. She held her stomach and fought to pull herself back up to her feet but the Toad was not interested in letting that happen. He crossed the distance between them with a few quick hops and then slammed its arms down on her back. Zak cried out as she was smashed back down to the ground! The Terror Toad then reached down, grabbed her and dragged her up to her feet and delivered a few more hard strikes to her liver, sparking her suit and then tossing her away. Zak slammed against a tree and dropped down on one knee holding her torso.

"Ohhh don't you quit on me now, Little Mastodon! I still have to pay you back for that blast earlier!" The Toad raised its claws to its horn again and it began glowing with flickering lights before the Toad flung its arms forward and a series of orbs were fired from the horn that quickly crossed the distance between them and struck Zak as she was climbing back to her feet. They exploded around her body and she fell back against the tree and dropped down to the ground smoking and burnt all over her suit and gasping for breath.

The Toad approached the sizzling Ranger as she fought to climb to her feet again. "Alright I think that covers just about everything. Lets finish this baby! It's time to join your friend!" The Toad reached for his horn again and it lit up once more this time in the form of a glowing yellow smiley face. The Toad flung its arms forward again and the Smiley Face opened up to reveal a mouth full of glowing white teeth and a long yellow tongue that quickly crossed the distance just as Zak was leaping into an attack! The tongue wrapped around her mid-charge and lifted her up into the air. The tongue then reached down and licked her helmet twice before she was condensed into an energy orb like Trini before her and pulled into the bloated Toad's mouth. She could only scream as the Toad chewed and slurped the orb before finally swallowing her.

The Toad sighed and slapped its belly as The Mastodon Ranger's helmet tattoo appeared on its stomach next to Trini's.

"Ahhhhh delicious! You Rangers are really tasty!"


Zak pounded her fists against a tree in anger as the images of the other day repeated in her mind on a loop. She didn't know how long she'd been out here. She only knew that she'd come out here in the forest to vent her frustrations and lost track of time. She'd lost. Badly. Her friend was eaten alive by that damn monster and had been counting on Zak to save her and she'd failed. They could have died inside that monster because she wasn't strong enough to save them all.
Zak knew she got in some good shots but it wasn't enough. She wasn't enough. Zak did her best against that damn toad and she got pounded into the dirt for it and eaten alive. She pounded the tree again and again and again! Harder and harder and harder until she finally ended it with one final hard punch against the tree complimented with a cry of rage before she collapsed against the tree. "I'm so sorry Trin. I-I'm so, so sorry you guys. I couldn't beat it. I couldn't save you."

It was just like the Knight. Sure they'd won in the end but she'd been beaten down by that one too. She did her best and she lost.

"We can't keep going like this. Winning by the skin of our teeth. We need to get stronger. We need to get faster. We need to get better." She whispered to herself while she rested her forehead on her arms. "If things get this bad again, we might not win next time."

"Need a hand?"

Zak immediately sprung back to her feet and raised her fists only to relax as she saw Jayce approaching her with her hands held up.

"Jayce...oh Christ, girl, you almost gave me a heart attack."

"Sorry about that but it's okay alright? I'm here because...well, I figured we all needed to talk to someone tonight."

Zak relaxed and sat down again while she began undoing her hand wraps. "Like you would not believe."