Shadow of the Dragon
Part VIII
by DTM666

"Tell him Gasket sends his compliments."

The last words Thomas Oliver heard in a brief moment before he lost touch with his previous environment. A teleport maneuver, similar to what the stranger used to put away the other Rangers... no, the exact same way he used to force teleport Jason into Rita's dark dimension during his days as the evil Green Ranger. When Tommy materialized someplace else, he realized what the words of his enemy had meant.

Gasket, he thought to himself, all this time, it was Gasket.

Tommy surveyed his surroundings; it was an empty cavern, for the most part dimly lit. Tommy could recognize this as one of Zedd's dark dimensions again, but the caves didn't have that same presence, so this must be a random moon cavern under the corrupted alien palace that Rita Repulsa and Lord Zedd had controlled. Tommy studied his surroundings, slowly turning full circle as he looked for any hidden exits or passageways, but there was none. Almost suddenly, he stood face-to-face with the master of this lair and immediately went into a fighting stance. He had fought Zedd once before and defeated him, but in Tommy's mind, the victory was more a fluke than a true victory. Even in his Ranger form, Zedd was still a formidable opponent whose strength and magic far exceeded that of the Red Ranger.

"You know," Zedd said, "I was watching your fight with Gasket. Who would have thought that Mondo's kid would be able to cause all this mischief? That kid's got potential and I'm evil enough to admit it."

Tommy clenched his teeth. "Whatever you and Gasket are planning..."

Zedd held up a hand to stop Tommy's ranting. "Gasket and I didn't plan anything, you idiot. I didn't even know that was Gasket, but I'm impressed by the overall improvement of his skills. That's what the fusion of organic and mechanic substances will do to you, I suppose." He looked towards the ceiling as he talked. "It's rather interesting, isn't it? Gasket would accept an offer from his father-in-law to undergo bio-automation in return for betraying Mondo. So he mailed me this nifty bomb that I gave to Mondo as a peace offering. Took the whole bunch of those Machine idiots out, leaving his base to fall prey to Aradon's bio-automatons."

"Mondo's gone?" This was the first time Tommy had heard of either Mondo's 'departure' or Gasket's involvement in his removal from the moon.

Zedd nodded, "I'm assuming that Gasket had planned this from the start. He's helping Aradon become the undisputed Emperor of the Machine Empire. But enough talk." He held his staff firmly in both hands, preparing himself for combat. "The first answer is yes. Your friends are here. The second answer is no. I don't know where. It's hard to keep track when they running amok in the palace for no reason other than to give Rita migraines."

Tommy's fists tightened, "You're going to lose, Zedd, Just like the last time."

"Doubtful. Let's get this over." With those words, the battle had begun.

Zedd pointed his staff at Tommy, where various beams were unleashed and struck the Red Ranger. Tommy stood his ground and leapt at Zedd, but the fleshman anticipated the move and swatted towards a wall with a fierce swing from his staff. Tommy's slumped onto the concrete floor, leaving a hole in the wall he collided with. Flipping back to his feet, Tommy dodged another of Zedd's bolts and managed to score a hit on Zedd with a kick to the chest.

Tommy's first idea was to break away Zedd's staff, which had won him the battle before. So he took our his Zeo Blade and tossed it at Zedd. However, Zedd managed to deflect the sword with his staff. The move was enough for Tommy to pull out his blaster and fired several shots, most of which Zedd blocked. One lucky shot managed to stun Zedd, causing him to drop his staff. Tommy began to aim for the staff, but when he had a clear view of it, he saw that the staff was broken. When he returned his gaze to Zedd, he had a strange blaster in his hand and fired three shots at Tommy. Tommy managed to dodge two of the shots, but the third shot hit the back of Tommy's head. Tommy, almost surprised that he felt no pain, smiled behind his helmet as he took a defensive stance against Zedd.

"Your toy gun didn't work, Zedd," the Red Ranger said smugly.

Almost worriedly, Zedd fired another shot which landed on the Red Ranger's chest. Almost instantly upon the blast's impact, the Ranger suit quickly disintegrated, leaving behind Tommy in his civilian form. Tommy looked over himself to find his Ranger suit gone and when he turned back, he was met with a quick jab from Zedd. The impact of the jab was enough to knock Tommy against a nearby wall.

Zedd let out a faint laugh, "How do you like my new Polaron Disruptor, Tommy-boy? One of my little souvenirs from Mondo's scrapyards. The polaron properties is a weakness in the Ranger's morphing matrix, so much that it not only dissolves a morphed state but also drains the source of its power for a momentary period." Zedd shook the weapon for a moment before tossing it away. "It's out of ammo, but it's already useless to me because it accomplished what I wanted."

Tommy winced, shaking the headaches away. "What do you want, Radiator Face?"

"I want a fight," he said, ignoring Tommy's insult, "No magic, no powers, no weapons. Hand to hand combat. Straight-up brawling. The way it should have been before you decided to cheat!!"

"Fine!" Tommy spat, "I'm gonna beat your ass to the ground!"

Tommy rushed forward with a spinning heel kick, which Zedd managed to dodge easily and counter with a side kick of his own, to which Tommy also dodged. Tommy followed with a hard right hand that smashed against Zedd's metal mask, bending the mouthpiece slightly inward. Zedd blocked the follow-up roundhouse kick and countered with a sweep kick that knocked the Red Ranger to the ground. Zedd felt a bit of choking that forced him to cough, then he noticed that he spewed a crimson liquid from his mask. He looked down at Tommy as he struggled to get back on his feet.

"My congratulations, Red Ranger," Zedd complimented while breathing heavily, "You're the first being to make me spit out my own blood."

Tommy puffed without answering. He dashed at Zedd and tackled the fleshman to the ground, following up with several hard punches to the head, all of which Zedd managed to block with his arms. After a missed jab, Zedd landed a hard right to Tommy's stomach and knocked him down with a stiff headbutt. Tommy hit the ground hard, aching in pain. Zedd soon merely walked up and delivered a hard, unassuming kick to the grounded Red Ranger's chest, causing his adversary to recoil towards the end of the room.

"Don't give up, Tommy!" he said in a mocking voice as he landed two hard stomps on Tommy's head, "You can do it, Tommy!"

Zedd walked over to the fallen human with the intent of another kick, but was met with a hard elbow to the chest, which momentarily stunned him. Now on his knees, Tommy threw hard punches at Zedd's lower abdomen, stunning the fleshman. Slowly, Tommy was up on one knee, but still continuing with the rapid-fire barrage of quick jabs to the chest. When he was fully standing, Tommy threw an uppercut that made Zedd recoil a step back. Another uppercut made the fleshman recoil further back against the stone wall. Tommy kept up with this relentless assault of hard jabs and uppercuts that Zedd all took, wincing in pain. Finally, a jumping spin kick seemed to be the killing blow, but the Lord crouched down to avoid the kick and delivered a fierce uppercut of his own across Tommy's jaw. Zedd slowly approached the dazed Red Ranger and wrapped his enemy's head with his left arm. Despite a couple of hits from Tommy's elbow, Zedd did not let go. After a moment, Zedd fell back-first the ground, driving Tommy's head into the pavement with excruciating force. The maneuver stunned Tommy for a moment, who was groaning in pain.

Not satisfied with the beating, Zedd grabbed Tommy by the neck, his grip so tight he was practically choking. When Zedd got Tommy back to his feet, he tossed him towards the wall. The Ranger's body practically shattered through the stone wall into another chamber, hitting the ground with a sickening thud. Zedd walked through the newly created hole in the wall to see Tommy struggling to breathe and to get back on his feet, but the fleshman would not allow it, as he would kick Tommy's stomach, the force practically lifting the human's body off the ground before landing. Confident that the human was finished, Zedd proceeded to lift his right foot slowly over the Ranger's head and quickly brought it down, but Tommy instinctively rolled out of the way.

With the missed stomp, Zedd left himself open to Tommy, who capitalized with a hard kick to the chest. Slowly managing the strength to stand, Tommy headbutted Zedd's stomach and as soon as he was standing, he threw a hard right across the fleshman's mask, slightly cracking the visor. With Zedd staggering, Tommy kept pounding on the Dark lord with closed fists, not giving him a chance to block or counter. But Tommy made a vital mistake by attempting a roundhouse, in which Zedd managed to block away with his fist. The next move was Zedd's and he capitalized with a hard right to Tommy's face. Now Zedd was delivering the hard blows. Tommy tried, as hard as he could, to block his blows, but they were too powerful. Eventually, Zedd stopped and took one hard look at the Ranger, who stood there dizzied, his right eyebrow cut open, and his nose bloodied. One fierce backfist later, the Red Zeo Ranger crumbled to the ground in a heap. Zedd waited for the Ranger to get up, but instead the Ranger laid there, a beaten man.

Lord Zedd was triumphant over Thomas Oliver, his long hated enemy.

There was a long, pained silence between the two of them, aside from the human's heavily breathing. Zedd reformed his recently discard staff in his hands and positioned the sharp, bladed edge over Tommy's head. Whether he was aware of Zedd or not, he couldn't tell nor did he have the energy to do anything. Zedd held the staff firmly with both hands, his arms almost shaking as he prepared to deliver the killing blow. But rather than thrusting the bladed-edge of his staff through the Red Ranger's skull, Zedd tossed the shiny weapon away and backed off without removing his gaze from his fallen enemy, who managed to gain some movement in his hands.

"It's over, Tommy," Zedd said, an almost sympathetic tone lurking in his words.

"It's not over!!" Tommy growled, fiercely. He tried to pull himself back to his feet, but would collapse to the stoned ground. His eyes would shut, but he was still breathing heavily.

Zedd stared down at the beaten human who was struggling to get back to his feet, but kept falling. After three attempts to get up and fail, Zedd sighed. Even a being with as much hate and/or evil as Zedd felt a bit of pity for the Ranger.

"No," he said, his voice unwavering yet sad. "No, I've gotten what I wanted. You're not worth the effort anymore."

For the past hour, the four Zeo Rangers navigated various tunnels, halls, and caverns searching for a way out, all the while trying to avoid Zedd's rock putty soldiers. Other than a couple of unavoidable battles, the search has been uneventful. At this point, it almost seemed hopeless, but as luck would have it, Kat noticed a large wooden door at the end of one tunnel, almost half-smiling that she's found something. The four approached the door cautiously, checking for traps as they go.

"Is this the way out?" Rocky said.

"Only one way to find out," Adam said as he opened the door.

All four Rangers entered a large cavernous room, similar to the others. However, they noticed Lord Zedd standing over a bloodied and beaten person. Kat shrieked upon recognizing him.

"Tommy?!" she cried out as she rushed towards him.

Zedd took a step back while the Rangers tended to their fallen leader. They called out various things at him, all clichés he had heard in the past from the whole bunch of warriors who butted heads with him.

"You'll pay for this, Zedd!" Rocky growled.

"You can't take us all on!" Adam shouted angrily, almost going into a fighting stance.

"Enough," Zedd said, shaking his head. "Save your breath, Rangers. I've already got what I wanted."

Zedd suddenly raised his fingers towards a wall away from the gathered Rangers, which exploded and revealed a blue portal.

"Go," he said.

"What?" The Rangers (minus Tommy) almost gasped in unison. They hadn't expected this.

"This gate will lead you back to the Power Chamber. Get lost," he barked as he turned towards the gate, "Go home. Go to a bar. Go to Japan for all I care. Just get out of my palace. I want nothing to do with you."

With that said, the fleshman vanished in a flash of light, leaving the Zeo Rangers along with their beaten leader. Kat soothed Tommy's hair while Rocky stood, staring for a moment at the portal and turning to the spot where Zedd had disappeared. Dejectedly, Rocky hung his head and turned to the others.

"Let's go home."