THE DOME DOLLS… Revisited

AUTHORS NOTE/Preface: So, I've never written for Power Rangers, or, in a very long time, actually watched it. The only reason I started watching was because after watching The Lovely Bones (film based on the book) I couldn't figure out where I had seen the girl who plays Lindsey Salmon, Rose McIver, before. So, I searched the Internet and the only recognized Johnny Kapahala: Back on Board (which I never saw, though I did watch the original) and Power Rangers (though I'd never seen or heard of RPM). Curiosity got the best of me, and I started watching on YouTube (on this channel: .com/user/pbbguru.) Amazingly enough, this season made sense more so than the others. (There's even an episode in which the mentor figure attempts to explain different random things that the rangers have to do/ happen. E.g. Why do we have to shout 'RPM! Get in gear!' every time? Why does my zord have eyes? The "spandex" (it's not spandex!) was also explained). Also amazing, the red ranger didn't get some kind of power upgrade on the others (I'm pretty sure that was a regular occurrence on the seasons I watched as a child.) More amazing still, there was an episode entitled The Dome Dolls, in which the monster releases a toxin into the air supply (technical explanation: it was a chromosomally – based toxin that releases an unusually high amount of serotonin into the blood stream, putting all the men to sleep.) and the women of Corinth are left to fend for themselves. In the actual episode, the girls do fight for a bit, morph and fight some more, have some help from climate control, and then, when the monster grows, the boys are back in action to help out.

I know that Power Rangers is a show that is essentially made to sell toys that little boys will kill each other over. Between morphers, zords, and faux weapons, there's a lot of marketable crap sold for this show. That's why I knew it wouldn't end with the girls victorious alone. It ended, as always, with a team victory, any and all injury you'd think would have been sustained magically gone. Not so in this fic.

It was an ordinary day within the city of Corinth. Or, as ordinary a day as a post – apocalyptic town could have, anyway. Inside the domed city, the seven people who defended the city, or Power Rangers, along with the genius who had, essentially, created and given them their power, were going along their normal, everyday lives.

But when the world has been mostly taken over by a computer virus capable of stealing military secrets and taking down the government, no day can really be considered "normal." Especially when you live in and defend the last human city.

This day was no exception. It had started off a nice, warm, sunny day thanks to climate control, but by midday, the alarm had sounded, and there was a monster to fight.

Tenaya 7, a human – like attackbot, was loose in the city with grinders, the easily replaceable minions, whose purposes include, acting as a guard or tiring out Power Rangers before they fought a monster. Today, their purpose was the latter.

As Tenaya and her minions strolled around, predictably the Power Rangers showed up to stop whatever evil plot she had this time. The Rangers fought for a bit, but before finishing off the grinders, Dr. K, genius, tech expert, and their mentor, called and explained that there was a monster loose on the other side of town. The Red Ranger and leader, Scott, decided that Gem and Gemma, the Gold and Silver Rangers should stay and fight Tenaya and the grinders. Scott, Flynn (the Blue ranger), Summer (the Yellow ranger), Dillon (the Black Ranger), and Ziggy (the Green Ranger) left to fight this new threat to the city.

The new monster looked, well, odd, to say the least. He appeared to have been made up of straws. Though, typically, there was some kind of banter with monsters, there wasn't any with this one, seeing as how within its mouth was a straw. Or perhaps it was part of his mouth. His fingers were also made up of straws. Which, it seemed was a design flaw as he seemed to have trouble speaking or doing anything at all, making him appear a bit dimmer and less likely to be a challenge than other monsters they've fought.

As they fought, one of the four bottles attached to the monster's belt had fallen to the ground. With great difficulty, the monster managed to grab another one of the small bottles, insert his straw/mouth, and blow the chemical all over the place. When the mist had faded, the Rangers realized he had gotten away.

Summer, the Yellow Ranger, noticed that the attackbot had dropped another bottle.

"Wait a minute!" Summer exclaimed. She bent down to retrieve the bottle.

"What he'd drop?" asked Scott.

"I don't know." Said Flynn.

"He might have gotten away, but we got this." Said Summer.

After they returned to the garage where they lived and kept watch on the city, Summer and Scott started playing pool. Seeing an arrangement of balls the boys decided would be impossible to hit, Dillon and Gem came over to watch. They taunted her, which caused her to challenge them back and say, "Watch and learn."

Neither the boys, Summer, nor Flynn and Gemma, who were working on modifying a zord nearby, noticed the yellow-y gas flowing out of the air vent. Summer took her shot, and landed four balls in the pockets of the pool table. Unfortunately, none of the guys noticed, having all passed out.

"Guys?" asked a concerned Summer. "Guys?" she asked again. "Guys!" she near – shouted, concerned.

Flynn moved closer to them and started asking. "Guys are you all…" He stopped turned to face Summer and said, "Oh, Summer, that's very pretty," before he too fell to the ground causing Gemma to almost ask, surprised, "Flynn!"

Dr. K, who had been studying the substance in the small, plastic bottle that the Rangers had brought back with them had just realized that the toxin within the bottle was chromosomally linked. This particular toxin, should it be released into the air, would knock out all the girls.

Unfortunately for them, the toxin that had been released had rendered all of Corinth's men completely and utterly useless. Moments after the door to the airtight lab had opened, a call came in from the command center letting the lab know that all the men in Corinth had passed out. Ziggy, quite possibly the last man standing, whose collapse had been put on hold momentarily because he was in the airtight lab, fell to the ground moments after the door had opened.

Summer, to whom leadership usually fell when Scott was unable or unavailable, took that leadership now and decided to go help Vasquez get herself together. She gave Gemma the command to finish the modifications she had started with Flynn. Dr. K gave herself the order to work on an antidote, and the women all got to it.

Vasquez, a young female soldier, was near hysterics when Summer reached her. Luckily, Summer was a natural leader. She helped Vasquez put all the men into sitting position, and then started to head out.

Seeing Summer walking towards the door, Vasquez called out, "You're not going to leave me here, are you?"

"We have to protect the city," said Summer. Turning to face Vasquez, she said, "You're in charge of the biosphere, now."

"Me?" Vasquez was a little shocked and afraid. "But, I don't want to be in charge."

"Listen, we're five rangers down. We need you! Corinth needs you!" said Summer. Vasquez still looked a little scared, so Summer added, "You can do this."

Vasquez's mind seemed to change with those words. "Okay," she said and gave a little smile, "What's the plan?" she asked Summer.

"What exactly can this stuff do?" asked Summer. In her mind, a plan was already forming.

Meanwhile, back at the garage, Gemma was not exactly following orders. Flynn and Gemma had decided that Scott, as the leader, should be in control of when they used the road attack zord. Knowing this, they had been planning on modifying the zord so that it would work with Scott's engine cell alone.

Gemma wasn't exactly a negative thinker. But she hated to think what would happen if the monster came back in big way before the other five rangers woke up. So, deciding she would switch it back later, Gemma was modifying the zord to respond to Summer's engine cells. That way, no matter what happened, they'd be ready.

Gemma ran in to tell Dr. K the great news. She asked how the antidote was coming along. Dr. K had just finished her first attempt at the antidote. According to the computer, there was only a fifty – two percent chance that it would work. Dr. K knew she was working against the clock, and knew that there was no way of predicting when the monster would come back and attack. She also knew that the antidote she had developed would not cause any permanent damage to the rangers. So, she tried it out on Ziggy first.

Ziggy, panting heavily, said, "I had the strangest dream." Reaching for Dr. K's hand, he said, "We, we were on a date."

"That sounds more like a nightmare," replied Dr. K as Ziggy once again, fell asleep.

"Any luck?" asked Summer as she bounded into the lab.

"Luck is an abstract concept that ignores skill," explained Dr. K, "but since you asked, no."

Right after she said this, the alarm went off. The three girls rushed to the computers. Dr. K told them that the guards at one of the gates must have been affected, because the gate had been breached. The girls rushed off to defend the city.

As they slid into the garage, they both looked from Summer's small, really only intended to hold one, motorcycle, to Dillon's fast, dangerous, five seater.

"Hey, it's an emergency, right?" asked Summer.

"Yeah!" said Gemma. The girls rushed over to his car where Dillon had, conveniently, left his keys. They sped off, rushing to defend the last human city standing.

The girls arrived at the scene to find Tenaya, the straw-covered attackbot, and far too many grinders to count.

"You ready?" Summer asked.

"I'm always ready." Gemma replied. Then, in a hushed undertone asked, "Do we have a plan?"

Summer whipped out her morpher and asked, "Vasquez, are you ready?"

"Not quite," replied Vasquez.

Summer turned to Gemma and said, "Just follow my lead."

Tenaya pointed out, "You can't possibly win. You're completely outnumbered."

"Then this won't take very long," replied Summer.

Tenaya sent the grinders charging at the girls, and they began to fight back. Seeing as how there were only two of them they tired quickly, and Tenaya took advantage of this, attacking them herself. One, powerful kick threw both girls off balance and a little backwards. They couldn't really put morphing off any longer. Though it was better to conserve energy, they were going to need it if they were to defend the city.

"Ready?" asked Summer.

"Ready," confirmed Gemma.

"RPM! Get in gear!" the girls shouted in unison in order to morph. They jumped into the fray attacking the grinders as they went along. Summer used her energy burst attack to kill off a good twenty or so, but it wasn't enough, and she was back to taking out as many as she could at a time with her hands. Gemma wasn't doing much better.

Thrown back by a grinders attack, Gemma had just a few seconds that allowed her to do one of her best moves. Taking the cloud hatchet in hand she shouted, "Ice Mode!" and flicked the switch allowing her to do so.

That took out the rest of the grinders, leaving the girls to fight Tenaya and the strange attackbot. Tenaya began to attack Summer and Gemma took on the attackbot. As they fought, a mere coincidence landed Summer and Gemma on the ground close to each other. Summer, sounding forced, said, "My suits at 52%!"

Gemma replied, in similar forced, painful tone, "Mine's at 48!"

The girls knew they didn't have much time left. Even so, they continued to put all the energy they had into fighting the monsters, running more so on adrenaline than the energy gained from morphing.

When yet another round of painful moves forced Summer and Gemma to ground, they both de-morphed and were left gasping for air. Panting heavily, Summer once again asked, "Vasquez, are you ready?"

"Yes!" said Vasquez. She flicked a few switches, and started tapping various buttons. Within seconds, dark clouds appeared over the girls and the monsters. Lightning struck down the attackbot and Tenaya. More lightning appear, but this time, Tenaya was ready for it. She stuck her fist in the air and all the lightning seemed to be attracted to it. She then controlled it and turned into a burst of energy which she thrust at the female rangers. They were blasted to the ground once again, but this time had no power suit to protect them. There was a sickening snap and a dull thud. The snap was Summer's ribs, she could tell that they were broken. Gemma, on the other hand, landed on her back, her head hitting the cement hard and knocking her out.

"Gemma!" shouted Summer. Working through the pain, she, to the best of her ability, half – dragged, half-carried, Gemma to the car and shoved her inside. She couldn't fit inside, unless she ran around to the other side, and only had a few seconds before the next part of her plan came into action.

Next came the tornado. Summer only just managed to grab the car tightly enough in time to avoid being carried away. Tenaya grabbed on to the building she happened to be standing next to. The attackbot was carried away, lifted into the air and spun round and round by the fierce winds. Then, the unthinkable happened. The hood of Dillon's car was ripped off and began to beat the monster. The hood was becoming visibly less like a hood with each hit, and Summer knew there would be hell to pay later. Good thing they lived at a garage. Having a mechanic on hand didn't hurt either.

Tenaya, being the smart robot that she was, figured out where the storm was coming from and shot at the command center. This put Summer's plan out of action, but the fight was far from over.

Within Dillon's car, Gemma regained consciousness. The genius Dr. K had been multitasking. While working on the antidote, she had also been following the fight to save Corinth. She had recharged the morphers so that the girls were ready to go when the monster inevitably grew about three stories high. She wasn't a strategic genius, however, and was working incredibly hard because she didn't think the girls would be able to fight a huge monster in his super-sized form. Good thing Summer was a genius of another kind.

Summer couldn't be one hundred percent sure, but she didn't think Gemma had a concussion and was pretty sure she'd be able to handle her zord. She knew the Road-Attack Zord would have to come into play, but there was no way to make a megazord. The only way they could fight was with the three zords they had; her's, Gemma's, and the Road-Attack zord.

Fortunately for them, Summer noticed that the attackbot was not quite like other monsters they'd had to face. This one was not built for power or even intelligence. This one had been built to knock out the city; beyond his chemicals, he was pretty useless.

Putting all this knowledge together, plus the fact that Dr. K's antidotes hadn't worked yet, Summer knew that she'd have to fight in her zord regardless. It was either kill or be killed, and if they were taken down, the whole city was, too.

Predictably, the monster grew to several times his previous size. Summer took her engine cell and placed it in the Road – Attack Zord, setting the independent robot out on his own with the orders to attack. She then asked Dr. K if they could morph. Getting the all – clear, she and Gemma morphed for the third time that day. Calling their zords, they took off and began to attack, helping the Road-Attack Zord fight the attackbot. It was tiring, but they kept at it because failure was not an option when you defend the last human city on earth.

Dr. K finally had success with the antidote. Spraying all five male rangers in the face, she stepped back to admire her work. The boys, confused when they came to, were given the briefest explanation possible as to what had happened to them, before she sent them to help the women of the team. As she had given her little speech, miraculously, the girls had managed to shoot the slightly timid, shy, relatively peaceful attackbot enough times that he had been destroyed.

The fight wasn't quite over yet. Tenaya had stuck around, knowing that the girls would be completely drained, unable to morph if they wanted to, after the zord fight. She knew that she could take on two, essentially defenseless, human girls, and that's what they would be after this fight.

The two girls came back, un-morphed to fight Tenaya. They knew that she knew that they were too exhausted to morph. They also knew that they couldn't let her be set loose on unprotected city. Neither side knew that Dr. K had completed the antidote.

With one swift kick, Tenaya knocked both of them backwards. She pulled out her robotic hand, her first two fingers becoming a gun. She pointed and aimed at them. They knew it was all over. Faintly, a voice could be heard saying, "No one likes a cheap shot." Then, to the great surprise of the rangers, Tenaya was the ground. She turned and saw a monster leaving and began to rant. She was yelling something about a traitorous backstabber and did not notice the five colorful new additions to the scene.

"Summer! Gemma!" cried out the voices of the guys. They ran onto the scene.

"Easy, now," Flynn said, as he and the other boys helped the girls up. Scott was no medic, but he could tell that Summer's ribs were broken or at the very least bruised from the way she was holding herself. There was blood on the ground, and they could only hope it wasn't from one of the girls (although, they were fighting robots, so who else would it belong to?)

"Hey, Tenaya! Stay away from our women!" came the voice of the over-enthusiastic Ziggy. Had they had a little more energy, Gemma and Summer may have protested being referred to as "our" women, but as it was, the only thing Summer really wanted to do was get into her bed as soon as she could. But there was one thing she had to smugly ask Tenaya first.

"Now who's outnumbered?" she asked with a grin. She was exhausted, hurt, and beaten like she never had been before, so her words didn't have the scathing wit they normally would have, but the message was there all the same. Tenaya shrieked her little – girl - about - to – have – a – hissy – fit shriek and stalked off.

"Let's get you girls home," said the caring voice of Dillon. The guys were afraid – the girls had managed to have an entire fight without them and were looking much worse for wear. They were so worried, no one, not even Dillon noticed that the hood of his car was missing.

Back at the lab, Dr. K had a good look at the girls. Summer had broken her ribs, but not too badly. Being linked to the bio-field, in addition to giving them special powers, increased their strength, stamina, and healing abilities. Though it wouldn't take much more than a few days for the minor cuts and scrapes to be healed, or more than a week for Summer's ribs, Dr. K was ordering them off – duty for two weeks, except in an extreme emergency (like a monster that puts all five boys to sleep, or otherwise gets all five of them out of the way). The five guys ought to be able to do what the two of them did, right? Though, having the two of them would make it easier, and allow for use of more zord and weapon combinations.

Afterwards, Dillon, Ziggy, and Scott went to put the rest of the antidote into the air supply. When they left, Summer and Gemma enlisted the help of Flynn and Gem to get Dillon's car and hood back. Summer knew Dillon wouldn't be happy about the shape of his hood at all.

When Dillon and the others got back, Dillon looked from the car to the hood, and back again. Then he looked at the girls. Deep down, he knew they had done it to save mankind, but that didn't stop him from getting angry. Flynn and Scott had to work incredibly hard to keep their laughter contained at the site of Dillon's face.

"Ouch," said Ziggy, looking at the damage.

"Wow! That must have been one really, really, cool fight," said Gem, amazed.

"It sure was!" exclaimed Gemma.

"Don't worry, don't worry. We'll uh, take out the dents and uh, give it a fresh coat of paint. It'll be good as new." Flynn and Scott were hardly trying anymore, bursts of laughter interrupting Flynn's sentence.

"I don't want it good as new. I want it the way it was." Dillon was, understandably, mad.

"All in the line of duty," reminded a grinning Gemma.

"He understands," Summer said, looking at Dillon as she said it.

Angrily, Dillon said, "Don't ever drive my car… ever."

Summer responded with a grin, "Don't fall asleep on the job, and I won't have to. "

As she said this, Summer walked away towards her bedroom. She was still incredibly tired. She couldn't believe what she had been capable of doing. If someone had come to her yesterday and told her that she, Summer Landsdown, would have commanded the only other ranger left standing into a victory, she wouldn't have believed. Now, having done it, she was incredibly pleased, but also incredibly tired. So, she closed the blinds, locked the door, and fell into a deep sleep.