Blue Ranger stalks forward, spurred on by a chilling combination of anger and thrill. When close enough, he tries to strike out with a fist.
"Do not address me by that name! The person you used and manipulated is dead. What remains is my true form. I am now the vassal of the greatest lord to ever live!"
Adam quickly dodged, not attack back and instead, keeping his distance for now. "Used and manipulated?! What are you talking about?! Billy, I would never do that!"
"Liar!" roared the beast, again trying to cut the distance between them with a punch to the torso. "I was superfluous and you knew it better than anyone! You've been biding your time, trying to dispatch of me as easily as possible, but I know better now. You were never his friend."
As he ranted and raved, the evil Ranger weaved false memories of what he described inside the cage where Billy lay, trying to convince his captive that he indeed spoke the truth. There they were: Jason, Trini, Zack, Kim, Tommy, Rocky, Adam, Aisha. A happy family together. Leaving Billy behind. Who needed a clumsy genius when you had Zordon, Alpha, Trini, and Adam to pick up the slack?
Soon, images of his newer acquaintances floated in as well. The Engineering department. They got along just fine without Billy. He'd even been so useless as to let one of them die, once. 'See? They don't need you---and you certainly don't need them!' crowed the evil Ranger.
Billy moaned in pain, utterly confused. First he was too good for these people, and now they were too good for him? Which was the truth? He tugged himself up with the cage's bars, grasping for Adam's voice. At least his story didn't change.
Meanwhile? Evil Ranger, still incoming with a fist. What will you do, frogboy?
Adam crossed his arms to let the punch hit his wrists, wincing at the pain, and pushed back. He wouldn't attack his friend. Merely block and defend if he had to. He would not attack Billy.
"What are you talking about?!" Adam repeated helplessly. "You know me better than that! I hardly ever speak up, let alone plot against people! I am always your friend. BILLY!!"
Time to shift gears again, Blue Ranger thought. They'd get nowhere if the frog fool kept up this defensive game.
"If you were truly his friend, you would attack me. I'm the one who killed him, am I not? Doesn't it bother you to see his body used this way, nothing like the supposed friend you remember? Don't be a coward!"
With a sharp cry, he drew the Blade Blaster and aimed for Adam's head. That blasted Billy wouldn't stop him this time. "Adam Park, today you die---"
No wonder the evil Ranger hadn't wanted the combatants to call Billy's name. Hearing it cleared the fog from him, bit by bit, and he now saw a weakness in the cage's construction. Desperate, he whacked and clawed, but...he couldn't move quickly enough this time. He could only yell in despair as his hand pulled the trigger.
Oddly enough, as the shot fired, the Blue Ranger's triumphant grin cracked beneath the mask. It gave way to a piercing cry of agony that sounded nothing like the Ranger's darker voice.
Why was Billy referring to himself as if he were someone else? Adam didn't understand and it was all moving too fast for him to truly comprehend what was going on. His eyed widened when he suddenly found himself staring down the barrel of the Blade Blaster.
He backed away. "Billy! STOP!"
It was too late, the trigger was pull and it was all Adam could do to scramble out of the way. The Blue Ranger must have followed nonetheless and it was only the fact that Adam had moved that his life was not forfeit. The intense burn of the blast slammed into his shoulder and he hit the ground with a cry.
Holstering the weapon with a dark grin, the evil Ranger advanced, staring down at the other boy. "He's not here to save you now. No one is. As I said, that person is dead. I'm the vassal of the Nightmare King. I have no name."
'No, you're wrong! I'm still here, and I won't let you kill him!' Emboldened by his anger, Billy slammed into the cage---and it cracked. 'Come and get me, tall, dark, and ugly' Billy taunted as he charged at the puppetmaster holding the strings, daring the evil Ranger to stop him now. If he did, he thought, the evil Ranger would have less energy to use to attack Adam. Billy wasn't sure he'd ever be free again, but if he could just give Adam time...
"Argh!" Suddenly backing away from Adam, the Ranger stumbled and yelped, clutching at his head. Billy wouldn't remain under control for long---this was bad. Time for Plan Z. He suddenly tossed the Blaster in Adam's direction, straightening his posture with some effort.
"Pardon me, t'was only a headache. Evil can be a drain sometimes," lied Blue Ranger, even as Billy's resistance made his hands twitch.
"Besides, you're far too late for that. As I've told you before, Billy is dead," tsked the evil Ranger, spitting out the vile name with obvious distaste. "There is no fragment of your lost friend inside my skull waiting to be rescued. If you don't believe me, I'll show you."
Clasping his hands behind his back, Blue Ranger knelt in front of Adam, deliberately throwing himself off balance in front of the Black Ranger. "If you're so confident that the weakling lurks within me, remove my helmet. I think you'll be surprised."
'No, don't do it!' screamed Billy from within, haphazardly attacking the shadows around him in an attempt to reach the controls. But the only outward sign of his struggle was a quiver in Blue Ranger's shoulders.
Adam was taken aback but how suddenly close Blue Ranger was and he trembled softly. He was absolutely terrified. He had dealt with evil rangers before, but this was something completely different. He didn't know what to do.
"Why should I?" Adam replied, not daring to move an inch toward that helmet. "I don't need to prove it to myself. I already know!"
"Tsk. Such certainty is an asinine thing to cling to."
With an inhuman growl, Blue Ranger reached for the clasps himself---only for his reaching hands to encircle his own neck and squeeze hard.
'Where are the veins...' thought Billy in a hurry as he haphazardly pulled on the chains. If he could just strangle himself into unconsciousness---geez that was an odd thought---he could weaken the shadow hold and keep Adam from getting hurt again. As long as Adam doesn't interfere, of course. 'Please don't,' hoped Billy.
Trouble was, with his imprecise medical knowledge and difficulty wrestling control of his hands for long enough to do this, he couldn't quite choke himself with absolute certainty of safety. So he's just gagging in front of you, Adam, and it'd probably be funny if it was anyone else.
Adam gasped and immediately grabbed a hold of Billy's wrists. Was it the one controlling him? He couldn't lose Billy! "Billy, stop! You're stronger than this, I know you are!"
He pulled and tugged, his shoulder screaming at him to stop but Adam wouldn't be deterred. Nor would he morph. Not yet.
'No! I have to try something else---but what? I hear you, Adam, I'm trying!' Momentarily confused, Billy stumbled enough to be thrown back from the controls by the King's vassal. Oww. He didn't think he could win, but maybe if he could give a message...
Shaking his helmeted head sharply, Blue Ranger furiously pulled his wrists outward and attempted to break Adam's hold. "Wrong move again. If you'd allowed the weakling to finish his foolish stunt, I would be helpless putty in your hands right about now. Perhaps he would have even defeated me in my half-conscious state, and you'd be reuniting right now. Alas, only hindsight is 20/20." Blue Ranger chuckled humorlessly, preparing to deal the final blow, when a white flash interrupted his movement---
---to reveal a very haggard demorphed Billy in Blue Ranger's place. Voice strained, he choked out "Adam, run! I can't hold him. If you don't leave now, he's going to ki---" Another flash and howl of agony, and Blue Ranger returned with a vengeance, striking out with his foot.
"Kill you." Blue Ranger finished cheerfully. "Don't worry, the weakling will find himself quite unable to interrupt us again. Now where was I?"
The air left Adam in a whoosh! as he was kicked right in the stomach and he fell back. He coughed and gasped in pain but he worked through it to sit up. He had foiled Billy's plans?! Wait a minute... that meant...
"Billy isn't dead!" Adam shouted and even allowed a tiny smirk. "You said he was dead but he isn't. If he were, he wouldn't tried to do what he did!"
"A mere miscalculation, I assure you. When I claimed this body, I weakened and restrained the existing personality within it to the point where I believed he would wither and die within moments. For a time, it appeared to be working. But your friend has proven himself to be a far stupider opponent than I first anticipated," Blue grumbled, spitting out the word 'friend' in obvious dislike. "He allows his feelings to buoy him, clinging to false hope that I will be all too honored to crush."
He suddenly changed course and walked to the side, past a temporarily paralyzed Jamie to scoop up a familiar discarded weapon. Ah yes, the Power Lance. With this, he could change the tide of the battle. "It's amusingly pathetic, really. When the weakling hears your voices, he becomes emboldened enough to make trouble for me. Love. It's nothing more than a slave's bond, one that he won't free himself from. Not before you die, at least."
Blue Ranger shakes his head, standing more than a lance's distance away from Adam---but only just.
"Love is what Billy deserves. I'm his friend!" Adam said firmly. "He's too strong to just wither and die because you say so. You don't know him as well as I do. There is nothing that friendship can stop."
Within the cold, snarling shell of the Blue Ranger, Billy was unusually still at the moment. He'd been shocked into silence by the words echoing down to him, and the clear conviction behind them. Adam really believed in him. He wouldn't leave.
I won't let you down, the future Wolf thought in response to his amphibian-empowered friend. That influx of positive emotion encouraged him, temporarily cutting off the King's fuel source for his prison---fear. Seizing his chance, Billy pounced, slamming into his captor with every bit of strength in his soul before the startled puppetmaster could react. And the first thing we're stopping is you!
And it worked, if the Blue Ranger's sudden crumpling to the ground and dropping of the lance was any indication. As his last conscious thought, Billy only wished he'd had some way to let Adam know that that was intentional on his part. Billy wasn't powerful enough to seize control of his body back yet---the King made sure of that---but he was getting uncomfortably close. The shadow would need some time to rethink his strategy with this one.
Adam might have seen the morph flicker to reveal Billy's haunted-looking but otherwise normal face for a moment, but he wouldn't stay in Adam's arms long enough for the process to fully reverse itself. Black tendrils, corrupted versions of the tentacles that Stacy used to run the ship, reached out to claim their vassal from the meddling frog.
Thus: a painful and strange game of tug-of-war with Billy's body as the rope.
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"Do not address me by that name! The person you used and manipulated is dead. What remains is my true form. I am now the vassal of the greatest lord to ever live!"
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As he ranted and raved, the evil Ranger weaved false memories of what he described inside the cage where Billy lay, trying to convince his captive that he indeed spoke the truth. There they were: Jason, Trini, Zack, Kim, Tommy, Rocky, Adam, Aisha. A happy family together. Leaving Billy behind. Who needed a clumsy genius when you had Zordon, Alpha, Trini, and Adam to pick up the slack?
Soon, images of his newer acquaintances floated in as well. The Engineering department. They got along just fine without Billy. He'd even been so useless as to let one of them die, once. 'See? They don't need you---and you certainly don't need them!' crowed the evil Ranger.
Billy moaned in pain, utterly confused. First he was too good for these people, and now they were too good for him? Which was the truth? He tugged himself up with the cage's bars, grasping for Adam's voice. At least his story didn't change.
Meanwhile? Evil Ranger, still incoming with a fist. What will you do, frogboy?
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"What are you talking about?!" Adam repeated helplessly. "You know me better than that! I hardly ever speak up, let alone plot against people! I am always your friend. BILLY!!"
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"If you were truly his friend, you would attack me. I'm the one who killed him, am I not? Doesn't it bother you to see his body used this way, nothing like the supposed friend you remember? Don't be a coward!"
With a sharp cry, he drew the Blade Blaster and aimed for Adam's head. That blasted Billy wouldn't stop him this time. "Adam Park, today you die---"
No wonder the evil Ranger hadn't wanted the combatants to call Billy's name. Hearing it cleared the fog from him, bit by bit, and he now saw a weakness in the cage's construction. Desperate, he whacked and clawed, but...he couldn't move quickly enough this time. He could only yell in despair as his hand pulled the trigger.
Oddly enough, as the shot fired, the Blue Ranger's triumphant grin cracked beneath the mask. It gave way to a piercing cry of agony that sounded nothing like the Ranger's darker voice.
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He backed away. "Billy! STOP!"
It was too late, the trigger was pull and it was all Adam could do to scramble out of the way. The Blue Ranger must have followed nonetheless and it was only the fact that Adam had moved that his life was not forfeit. The intense burn of the blast slammed into his shoulder and he hit the ground with a cry.
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'No, you're wrong! I'm still here, and I won't let you kill him!' Emboldened by his anger, Billy slammed into the cage---and it cracked. 'Come and get me, tall, dark, and ugly' Billy taunted as he charged at the puppetmaster holding the strings, daring the evil Ranger to stop him now. If he did, he thought, the evil Ranger would have less energy to use to attack Adam. Billy wasn't sure he'd ever be free again, but if he could just give Adam time...
"Argh!" Suddenly backing away from Adam, the Ranger stumbled and yelped, clutching at his head. Billy wouldn't remain under control for long---this was bad. Time for Plan Z. He suddenly tossed the Blaster in Adam's direction, straightening his posture with some effort.
He gave Adam one command: "Kill me."
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The fact that Billy was fighting whatever was controlling him told him to continue to defend and not harm. "I'm not going to kill you, Billy!"
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"Besides, you're far too late for that. As I've told you before, Billy is dead," tsked the evil Ranger, spitting out the vile name with obvious distaste. "There is no fragment of your lost friend inside my skull waiting to be rescued. If you don't believe me, I'll show you."
Clasping his hands behind his back, Blue Ranger knelt in front of Adam, deliberately throwing himself off balance in front of the Black Ranger. "If you're so confident that the weakling lurks within me, remove my helmet. I think you'll be surprised."
'No, don't do it!' screamed Billy from within, haphazardly attacking the shadows around him in an attempt to reach the controls. But the only outward sign of his struggle was a quiver in Blue Ranger's shoulders.
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"Why should I?" Adam replied, not daring to move an inch toward that helmet. "I don't need to prove it to myself. I already know!"
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With an inhuman growl, Blue Ranger reached for the clasps himself---only for his reaching hands to encircle his own neck and squeeze hard.
'Where are the veins...' thought Billy in a hurry as he haphazardly pulled on the chains. If he could just strangle himself into unconsciousness---geez that was an odd thought---he could weaken the shadow hold and keep Adam from getting hurt again. As long as Adam doesn't interfere, of course. 'Please don't,' hoped Billy.
Trouble was, with his imprecise medical knowledge and difficulty wrestling control of his hands for long enough to do this, he couldn't quite choke himself with absolute certainty of safety. So he's just gagging in front of you, Adam, and it'd probably be funny if it was anyone else.
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He pulled and tugged, his shoulder screaming at him to stop but Adam wouldn't be deterred. Nor would he morph. Not yet.
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Shaking his helmeted head sharply, Blue Ranger furiously pulled his wrists outward and attempted to break Adam's hold. "Wrong move again. If you'd allowed the weakling to finish his foolish stunt, I would be helpless putty in your hands right about now. Perhaps he would have even defeated me in my half-conscious state, and you'd be reuniting right now. Alas, only hindsight is 20/20." Blue Ranger chuckled humorlessly, preparing to deal the final blow, when a white flash interrupted his movement---
---to reveal a very haggard demorphed Billy in Blue Ranger's place. Voice strained, he choked out "Adam, run! I can't hold him. If you don't leave now, he's going to ki---" Another flash and howl of agony, and Blue Ranger returned with a vengeance, striking out with his foot.
"Kill you." Blue Ranger finished cheerfully. "Don't worry, the weakling will find himself quite unable to interrupt us again. Now where was I?"
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"Billy isn't dead!" Adam shouted and even allowed a tiny smirk. "You said he was dead but he isn't. If he were, he wouldn't tried to do what he did!"
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He suddenly changed course and walked to the side, past a temporarily paralyzed Jamie to scoop up a familiar discarded weapon. Ah yes, the Power Lance. With this, he could change the tide of the battle. "It's amusingly pathetic, really. When the weakling hears your voices, he becomes emboldened enough to make trouble for me. Love. It's nothing more than a slave's bond, one that he won't free himself from. Not before you die, at least."
Blue Ranger shakes his head, standing more than a lance's distance away from Adam---but only just.
YAY FOR IC CORNINESS~
Adam stood tall. "The Frog!"
Re: YAY FOR IC CORNINESS~
I won't let you down, the future Wolf thought in response to his amphibian-empowered friend. That influx of positive emotion encouraged him, temporarily cutting off the King's fuel source for his prison---fear. Seizing his chance, Billy pounced, slamming into his captor with every bit of strength in his soul before the startled puppetmaster could react. And the first thing we're stopping is you!
And it worked, if the Blue Ranger's sudden crumpling to the ground and dropping of the lance was any indication. As his last conscious thought, Billy only wished he'd had some way to let Adam know that that was intentional on his part. Billy wasn't powerful enough to seize control of his body back yet---the King made sure of that---but he was getting uncomfortably close. The shadow would need some time to rethink his strategy with this one.
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Adam might have seen the morph flicker to reveal Billy's haunted-looking but otherwise normal face for a moment, but he wouldn't stay in Adam's arms long enough for the process to fully reverse itself. Black tendrils, corrupted versions of the tentacles that Stacy used to run the ship, reached out to claim their vassal from the meddling frog.
Thus: a painful and strange game of tug-of-war with Billy's body as the rope.