Fissure

Fissure is the twenty-fourth episode of Power Rangers: Lost Ninjas.

Synopsis
Korassil and Alex's plan to separate the Rangers takes shape, as a former classmate of Nico's becomes the next monster.

Last time we saw the Terra and Shinobi Rangers...
After Chris helped Nico save his mother from the Obsidian Ranger (recognizing him as his brother), the villains plotted to turn Nico and Chris against each other.

February 13th, Olino Pub, Castle Ridge, 9:44 pm
"Twenty-one?" The bouncer looked Nico up and down and laughed. "Sure." Behind him, muffled music, the sound of a game on TV and conversation carried out of the bar. It was a crowded night.

"Look," Nico started, fumbling for his ID, "Just ask Link, he'll—"

"Link's off-duty tonight. Get out of here," the bouncer said. When Nico pulled the ID out, he rolled his eyes. "Don't even bother."

The bouncer moved to slap it out of Nico's hand, but Nico caught him by the wrist. The man's smile faded a little. He was a full head taller than Nico, and the teenager couldn't even wrap his fingers all the way around his wrist.

"You want to start something?" The man asked, starting to get serious.

At that point, a blond man a little older than Nico slid between the two, putting a hand on either's shoulder.

"Getting into another fight?" He asked Nico in an amused, weary way, as if he'd done it before.

Realizing what the stranger was doing, Nico let go of the bouncer and looked sheepish. "Sorry."

"He's my cousin," the stranger went on, to the bouncer. "Just this once? I'll keep an eye on him, he'll be 21 in a couple of months, plus it's been a rough week." He said something else in a low voice, and the bouncer nodded slowly, looking more sympathetic.

"Don't start anything," he said to Nico, and stepped aside. Putting a hand on Nico's shoulder, the stranger guided him into the pub.

"For future reference, I told him your Dad got hospitalized in a monster attack and lost his job," the stranger said to him.

"Thanks," Nico said to the blond, as he let go. "Why'd you do that?"

"Easier than trying to find someone willing to answer my questions," the stranger replied, grinning. He held out a hand. "Alex Slater. I'm new in town."

Nico shook it. "Nico Ramirez. You're here with the scientists?"

"The what?"

"We've been getting a lot of researchers and scientists, what with the monster attacks," Nico replied. A waitress slid past, and Nico backed up to give her room. Alex sat in a booth, and after a moment, Nico joined him.

"Really? I'd have thought people would try to get away," Alex said.

Nico shrugged. "Some are, but there are plenty of people who'd love to figure out how these creatures operate. Military, mostly, but I think there are a couple of Power Ranger fanboys."

"Makes sense," Alex said, nodding. "But wouldn't most of them go to California?"

Nico paused. "There are other Rangers in California?"

"Yeah, three of them, Red, Yellow and Blue."

Nico sat back. There were other Rangers out there? They might be able to help—assuming they weren't busy with their own problems.

"Funny how the guys here don't seem to match," Alex said, interrupting his train of thought. "The uniforms, I mean—though now that I think about it, they don't seem that coordinated."

"Probably because only the Blue one's local. The Silver guy showed up later," Nico said.

Alex's eyebrows shot up. "Then how come he's in charge?"

"In charge?"

Alex laughed. "I'm not exactly one of those Ranger fanboys, but I watched some of the fights before I got here. From what I've seen, Blue does his own thing until Silver tells him otherwise."

Nico sat back. "I guess you've got a point," he admitted, after a minute.

"What's the matter?" Alex was looking at him funny.

Nico shook his head. "Nothing, I'm fine. Just always thought of them more like partners, that's all."

"Sure. Like I said, I'm new; I haven't seen them in person." Glancing over his shoulder, Alex grinned suddenly, and reached across the table to poke Nico's arm. "Check out the twins."

Nico looked, and recognized the two blondes at the bar. "Janelle and Mona Rose. Don't bother unless you're secretly a millionaire."

Alex quirked an eyebrow. "Money isn't everything."

"It is for them." Nico had only run across the pair a couple of times, and they'd always been hanging out with Angela Giry, so naturally they turned their noses up at him.

"Watch and learn." Standing, Alex casually strolled over to the couple. After a moment's hesitation, Nico shrugged and followed him.

February 13th, Korassil's Ship, Prison Deck, 9:58 pm
Korassil waited for the Kelzak Berserks to unlock the cell door. Aside from the dim lights in the walls, a cold, pale violet light pulsed from inside the cell itself. With a rumble, the door opened, and Korassil entered.

A glowing force field split the cell in half. The far side looked like a geode, covered in sprouting crystals. A young woman sat in their midst, knees tucked up to her chest and head bowed. Her Terra Ninja uniform had torn as more crystals sprouted through her skin.

"I think you've paid for destroying the Jewel Morpher, Angela," Korassil said. The girl didn't react. "It's time to introduce the rest of the world to the Crystalis."

At the last word, she twitched. Slowly, she lifted her head to look at him through tangled hair. The left side of her face was almost entirely covered with crystalline growths. Her eye had turned into a diamond.

February 14th, Ramirez House, Castle Ridge, 7:43 am
Nico was woken up by a ringing phone. He groaned and rolled over. His head pounded, his stomach felt like it was trying to wriggle up into his chest, and he had a bad taste in his mouth. Opening his eyes, Nico immediately squeezed them shut again, burying his face in the pillow. Too bright, too bright.

"Nico? Phone!" His Mom called. Nico groaned, and heard the door open. He peeked up to see her already dressed for work. She threw the phone at him, and it bounced off his shoulder. With an exasperated sigh, she slammed the door and walked away.

Fumbling, Nico sat up and got the phone to his ear. "What?"

"We've got a new monster. Get to the middle of town."

"Yes, your highness," Nico mumbled.

"What?"

"Never mind, I'm coming." He hung up before the Silver Ranger could say anything else. Looking down, he saw that he was still fully dressed, except for his shoes. With a groan, he went to get them, and almost tripped over his own feet. What had he done last night? Oh yeah. In spite of the hangover, Nico grinned. Hopefully Alex would stick around for a while.

Financial District, Castle Ridge, 7:56 am
Chris heard the faint whoosh of ninja-streaking behind him. He crouched in the middle of the road, looking down at a prone, moaning man in a grey suit. Other civilians lay scattered across the road among overturned and crashed cars. Sirens wailed in the distance.

"What's going on?" Nico asked, from behind Chris.

"See for yourself." Chris stood, and Nico looked.

One of the man's hands was covered in blue crystals. As the two Rangers watched, they grew up his arm, ripping his sleeve apart as they swelled. Nico backed up a step.

"Oh," Nico said, sounding disgusted. He looked around, performed a double take, and whirled, dropping into a fighting stance.

Chris looked. In the middle of the road stood a young woman. Her brown hair hung around her face in disheveled tangles, and her Terra Ninja uniform was torn and dirty, exposing patches of crystals. Her body was so overgrown that it almost looked like a layer of jeweled armor.

"Angela?" Nico asked, sounding incredulous. She raised a hand, and started walking towards the Rangers, slowly, like a zombie. "What did Korassil do to you?"

Abruptly, Angela darted forward, grabbing at Nico. He ducked, and she bumped into a light pole. At her touch, crystals sprouted up and down the post. Drawing a handful of throwing stars, Chris backed up, making a mental note to avoid touching the monster. With a grating snarl, she swung around, facing Nico.

"Kill," she growled, barely sounding human, and advanced on him again.

"Just you try it," Nico said. "Terra Bo!"

He swung the weapon, but she caught it with both hands. Blue crystals crackled down it, and Nico hastily threw the weapon down. She laughed, voice rasping like concrete blocks rubbing together, and took another swing at him. He ducked.

"Great—why don't I have any ranged weapons?" Nico had to somersault away. He looked to Chris. "Any time now!"

The Silver Ranger hurled a handful of shuriken at the monster. They sparked against her stony shell, and she staggered.

"You know her?" He asked Nico.

"Jewel Ninja," Nico replied.

As he spoke, the monster backed up a few steps, raised one rocky fist, and slammed it into the pavement. The ground rumbled, and cracks splintered out from the impact. More crystals burst from the ground at the impact, spiderwebbing across the street. Chris sprang aside in the nick of time. In the Rangers' distraction, Angela turned and ran away, vanishing into an alley.

"Get back here!" Nico ran after her, but Chris caught him by the shoulder.

"Wait—we need a plan."

"How about destroy the monster and make the bad crystals go away?" Nico suggested.

"But it's not a monster, we might hurt her if we don't do this right, and we can't leave these people in danger to hunt her down," Chris said, gesturing to the infectees scattered around the street.

"Stop giving me orders! Who put you in charge, anyway?" Nico snapped.

"Nico—"

"And there's another thing. You know my identity, even my phone number somehow, but I don't know yours. Where's the logic in that?"

Chris threw up his hands in exasperation. "We don't have time for this!"

"You know what? You're right." Nico smacked his hand aside and ninja-streaked away.

"Blue Ranger!" Chris almost ran after him, but he stumbled. His left foot felt like pins and needles, and when he looked down, he saw a clump of whitish crystals gleaming on his ankle. Apparently he hadn't been quite in the nick of time.

As the ambulances finally arrived, clustering at the end of the street, Chris watched Nico zip away into the city. With an exasperated growl, he turned back to the injured. Fine, he told himself, he worked better alone anyway. He counted fifteen (other) infected people, plus a few patches of crystal growing on cars and other inanimate objects.

"Don't touch the crystals!" He called to the oncoming paramedics. "They're contagious!"

The paramedics obeyed, and soon the situation seemed to be under control. Chris got out of the way. They needed to find the monster first—usually destroying it made whatever damage it caused automatically vanish.

At that point, a hand tapped him on the shoulder. Chris looked around, and saw a woman in her mid-thirties looking at him. Silently, she pointed to his foot, and he nodded.

"I saw," he said.

"The labs are already working on a treatment," the woman said. "Can you come with me, please?"

Chris didn't have any other options, so he went. Quietly, he summoned the Tigerzord to the outskirts of town. He had a feeling he'd be needing it sooner or later.

Korassil's Ship, 10:11 am
"Progress?" Alex asked, walking onto the bridge.

"Crystalis is entering her final form," Korassil replied, gesturing to the console screen. The monster had found a quiet alley corner, cocooned herself in crystal, and was quietly growing inside it.

"Great. Any chance she'll actually kill one of the Rangers?"

"Possible, but unlikely. She's serving her purpose regardless. You did well last night," Korassil said.

Alex grinned. "I'll say. So we'll use my other plan if things go badly for Crystalis?"

"Perhaps." Korassil didn't look at him.

Alex half-smiled. "Still don't like my idea, do you? But you don't have a better one, you said so yourself."

Korassil said nothing, merely watched the screen as Crystalis finished sealing herself away.

"Anyway, I just had another idea. Teleport me about a street away from Nico, I think I'll earn a little more of his trust."

With a nod of acknowledgement, Korassil hit the teleport. Alex vanished.

A few seconds later, Korassil heard the Obsidian Ranger's voice coming through the speakers. He switched to a different nanocam view, and saw Alex talking to the Blue Ranger.

". . . Down that alley, I saw it, that weird jewel zombie girl." Alex sounded out of breath.

"Show me."

Alex led the Blue Ranger back to Crystalis. Korassil noted that he took the long way, so that by the time they found the cocoon, it was already starting to crack.

"Thanks, you need to get out of here," Nico said, and nodding, Alex bolted. Another crack appeared on the cocoon with a loud pop. "Right. Cougarzord!"

*Mortimer Labs, Castle Ridge, 10:32 am*

Silently, Chris watched the scientists work. There were a lot of them: the newly-arrived scientists and monster analysts seemed to have been waiting for a chance like this. He'd stayed morphed, and the doctors occasionally stopped by to examine the crystal growth on his foot. It was spreading much more slowly than the civilians' infections—and it wasn't really hurting him either, unlike them. All of the infectees had had to be sedated.

"I think I've got something," a woman called, as she stopped stirring a pale blue formula. Several other scientists converged on her, collecting samples to test elsewhere. This was the fifth time something like this had happened, and it always ended with a failed test.

This time, though, the technobabble sounded hopeful. After a couple of minutes, one of the scientists walked up to Chris.

"If you don't mind," he began, but Chris just waved a hand and set his foot on the table. The scientist dripped a little of the blue stuff on the clump of crystals.

At first, nothing seemed to happen. Then the crystal began to hiss and bubble. It started to smoke, and it boiled away like butter on a hot griddle. Chris could feel the heat through his boot, but it wasn't really painful. In a few seconds, the crystals were all gone—along with part of Chris's boot. His exposed, red skin burned.

"Feel anything?" The man asked, checking the burn.

"Stings a little, but otherwise, no," Chris said. "Can I have some of this? I think we can use it to fight the monster."

"Of course." The scientist handed him a flask of the stuff, almost spilling as a rumble shook the city. Springing to his feet, Chris ran to the window. Sure enough, he saw the Cougarzord bounding over the buildings towards the downtown area. Shaking his head, Chris climbed out the window and ninja-streaked away.

Landing on a roof, he surveyed the situation. Crystalis was entirely covered in jewel-like armor now. The Cougarzord slashed and clawed at it, but its claws skittered off the crystals. They looked as hard as diamond. More crystals had already infected the Cougarzord, but its constant movement kept knocking them off.

Chris looked down at the formula in his hand, and then back up at the monster. Then he hit the intercom.

"Nico?"

"Oh, you're back." Nico sounded annoyed and out of breath. "What is it?"

"I've got an antidote for the crystals. Try to hold her off while I get my Zord."

As the Tigerzord came, Chris eyed the monster. The heart was probably the best place. In a few seconds, the Tigerzord leaped over a skyscraper, landing in the street beside Chris. He sprang into the cockpit.

"Tigerzord, Warrior Mode!"

The Tigerzord rises on its hind legs. All of its limbs rotate on the body, becoming more humanlike. Hands unfold from its forepaws, under the claws. Its head snaps forward, and its jaw drops to expose a humanlike face. Its tail splits off and transforms into a katana, which it catches and swings.

Formula in hand, the Tigerzord advanced on Crystalis. Seeing him, it seized the Cougarzord in a headlock and swung it around, but the Tigerzord stepped back to avoid it.

"Let's hope this works," Chris said. Hauling back, the Zord pitched the formula like a baseball. The flask shattered against the monster's chest, right on target. Immediately, the liquid soaked into the armor, hissing and steaming. The monster backed up, looking down at its chest in confusion.

"Now, Nico!" Chris yelled.

"Bobcat Blades Power Sphere!" Nico shouted. His Zord roared, and the Power Sphere flew out of its mouth, opening to reveal a set of curving blades. They flew at Crystalis's new weak spot, and three blades struck home. As explosions shattered its armor from within, the monster screamed and collapsed, shrinking as it did.

Nico leaped out of the Zord, and ran to the center of the smoky debris. Chris was a second behind. As they came closer, he saw the crumpled body in the middle of the blackened crystals, and slowed to a halt. His heart sank.

Crouching, Nico checked for a pulse, but he didn't need to. Nobody could lose that much blood and live. The body teleported away in a flash, and Nico stood up.

"It wasn't her anymore," he said, after a moment. "The crystals destroyed her mind before she started fighting."

"You don't know that," Chris said.

"Shut up!" Nico snapped, whirling on him. "I actually knew her, remember?"

"What's gotten into you lately?"

"Let's just say someone pointed out how much you've been dominating us," Nico said.

"Someone—you told someone else your identity?"

"No, but why would it matter if I did? I mean, I don't even know your identity," Nico said accusingly.

Chris threw up his hands. "You are insufferable!"

"Likewise."

"You know what? Fine! Work alone if you want! I don't want to have to deal with you—don't expect me to save you again!" Chris snapped.

"Please, I don't need you," Nico retorted. He walked back to the Cougarzord, and shaking his head, Chris returned to the Tigerzord.

Korassil's Ship, 10:51 am
Korassil ended the transmission. He turned back to the woman standing between her guards. Master Antoinette Giry of the Metal Ninjas looked on in silence, her expression stony. Alex, standing nearby, came forward.

"The Crystalis was curable. The Rangers shouldn't have had to kill your daughter. I'm sorry," Alex said quietly.

Giry simply drew in a slow breath. "You should be."

"I did what I had to. The Rangers didn't," Korassil said. "They killed her out of convenience."

Giry said nothing. Crossing the room, Alex conferred with Korassil for a moment. Then he turned back to Giry.

"You're a teacher at this school; you must know at least a few ninjas more worthy to use these morphers. If you can take the morphers back from these two, Korassil will let you choose who to wield them."

After a long minute, Giry looked him in the eye, and nodded once. Korassil gestured, and the foot soldiers stepped away from the ninja.

"Very good. Come: we have to plan our counterattack."

Allies

 * Luciana Ramirez
 * Master Antoinette Giry

Villains

 * Korassil
 * Crystalis
 * Kelzak Berserks

Trivia

 * I was originally planning for the morpher-destroying Jewel Ninja to be a cameo for one of the submitted OCs I didn't accept, but then I decided that this was going to be Korassil's punishment, and that it was too nasty to inflict on someone else's OC without asking.