Kai POV
I was in my dimension when my phone buzzed. Hope.
I pulled it out and read the message.
"it's ready" hope
I killed the locator spell, then teleported to the lab. Hope was already there, perched on a stool, a strange little device cradled in her hands. She stood, turned, and handed it to me with a grin.
"So this thing tracks all the Power Coins?" I asked, weighing the gadget in my palm.
"Yeah," she said. "Thanks to Trini letting me study her coin in Alpha Help, I reverse-engineered the signal. It'll ping any Power Coin you give it a universe for, range is effectively universal."
I glanced up. " Bitching. I'm going to go kill a space tyrant."
Hope held up a hand. "Before you go on your revenge mission, I need a favor."
She turned to the console, fingers flying over the keys. A 3D model of a building filled the main screen, sleek, modular, half construction and half lab.
"This is the New Dawn hero facility. It's a prototype, not finished yet, but it'll be done faster than expected. I need you to do something for me."
"Sure," I said. "What do you want me to do?"
Albedo's already started on the Null Void project, Hope told me. "It won't take long to carve a prison inside that dimension, but I want magical wards on it, just in case anyone's stupid enough to try and break someone out and I want you to do the same for your new base."
"Sure. No problem," I said.
"Good. Albedo says the project should be done in less than five weeks," Hope added.
"Alright," I said.
"Have fun hunting a space tyrant," she smirked.
She rose and walked back up to the front room. Once she left the lab I grabbed the Multiverse Gun, punched in Trini's universe, and disappeared
Appeared in the ruined Angel Grove, the city looked like someone had run a sandpaper over civilization. I pulled the Power-Coin tracker out, flipped it on, and watched the signal spike. It pointed me toward the closest active Power Coin. Nice and fast, but space is big, and "close" could still mean hours.
I flew up out of Earth atmosphere, and flew fast as I can to the signal.
Ten hours later
I'd been flying through space for ten straight hours, and honestly? It was boring. There's only so much empty void you can stare at before your mind starts wandering. The tracker in my hand kept blinking, the signal clear, the Power Coin was somewhere inside a nearby fleet.
"Finally," I muttered, speeding toward it.
The moment the ships spotted me, their cannons lit up the dark. Beams of energy streaked past me, explosions going off like fireworks. Didn't matter. I reached for the hammer on my belt, ripped it free, and I threw it.
The hammer flew into the ships like there were paper destroying them instantly, ships bursting apart in fiery waves all around me. I didn't slow down. My focus was locked on the ship carrying the Power Coin energy signature.
I slammed through its cockpit window, shards of glass and air rushing into the void, everything flying outward until emergency shields sealed the breach. The pressure normalized just as I landed.
Standing in front of me was a tall alien in ornate blue armor. So this is where the Blue Power Coin ended up.
He barked something at me in a language I didn't recognize, until I muttered a quick spell, and the words shifted into English in my head.
"Who are you?" he demanded.
"Who I am doesn't matter," I said. "The only way you live through this is if you tell me where the other Power Coin users are, and where Rita is."
His expression hardened, fury twisting his face. He rose to his feet and summoned an axe formed from the same strange metal as his armor. Without warning, he swung.
I didn't flinch. I drew my fist back and met his strike head-on, the impact shattering the axe and his head in the same instant.
After his body hit the floor, I stepped forward and pressed my hand against his chest. The Power Coin armor shimmered, then broke apart, the energy snapping back into the coin in an instant. I caught it before it could hit the ground.
The Blue Power Coin pulsed in my palm, faintly glowing.
I turned to face the rest of the aliens. Every one of them froze under my gaze.
"If any of you want to live," I said coldly, "you'll follow my orders. Take me to the other Power Coin users, now."
The threat didn't need repeating. They'd just seen me kill their leader with a single hit; obedience came naturally after that.
We couldn't leave right away, the crew had to repair the cockpit window I'd just blown through. I recalled my hammer and dropped into the throne where the Blue Ranger's leader used to sit, rolling the coin between my fingers.
"These things were meant to protect people," I muttered, eyeing the soft blue glow. "But Rita picked the worst possible hosts, all chaos, no heart. What a waste."
The repairs finished faster than expected. One of the aliens hurried over and reported that they'd locked onto the next signal, the Yellow Power Coin.
"Good," I said, leaning back as the ship's engines roared to life.
This vessel was fast. Way faster than flying on my own. Within moments, we were cutting through the void like a comet, headed straight toward my next target.
They were taking me toward the Black Power Coin user's location, but as we traveled, I noticed something on the tracker, the other Power Coin users were moving too, converging on the Black one's signal.
"...Sneaky little bastards," I muttered. "Must've sent out a distress signal. Fine by me. Makes it easier to find them all in one place."
Not long after, the ship dropped out of hyperspace, and the view ahead made my eyes narrow. A full armada of ships filled the void, some of them the size of moons. The instant we appeared, they opened fire.
The aliens in the cockpit panicked, shouting in their language, trying to divert the ship, but it was far too late.
A blinding explosion swallowed us whole.
When the blast cleared, the ship was gone, vaporized, but I floated there, untouched, hammer in hand.
"Big mistake," I muttered.
I spun the hammer once, then hurled it forward with enough force to crack the silence of space. It rocketed me out of the wreckage like a meteor, straight toward the fleet.
Dozens of ships locked onto me, energy cannons firing in waves. I weaved through every blast with ease, closing the distance fast. When I got close enough, I threw my hammer toward the left flank of the fleet.
And the stars lit up.
I veered to the right, tearing through their ships like they were made of paper. Hulls split apart, engines burst, and fire bloomed across the void. Every swing, every strike, left another explosion drifting behind me.
Across the battlefield, my hammer carved its own path, ripping through the left flank of the fleet like a vengeful storm.
Together, we were chaos incarnate.
In the middle of all the destruction, I caught sight of the main ship, the one carrying the Power Coins, breaking formation. It was heading toward a nearby planet.
I could've chased it… but I didn't.
Instead, I turned my attention back to the fleet. One by one, I wiped them out, until the silence of space was filled only with debris, drifting where an armada used to be.
It took me about thirty minutes to finish off the rest of the fleet. I recalled my hammer, launched into the sky, and headed for the planet the main ship had crashed on. The ship was still smoking where it had landed, but by the time I hit the ground, all the Power Coin users were already outside, lined up with a ragged army of alien soldiers. Rita stood at the front, a grin like a blade.
I dropped in a few feet from them. Some of the soldiers were visibly shaking.
"It's been a long time since anyone powerful stood against me," Rita said, voice loud enough to carry. "You've surprised me. Who are you, and what planet are you from?"
"It doesn't matter," I said. "If I tell you, you'll still die."
Rita's eyes narrowed. "Don't get cocky, kid. I am Rita Repulsa, the most powerful being in this quadrant. You may have destroyed my fleet and a few subordinates, but none of those losses are me."
She gave an impatient flick, and the army rushed. Blades, rifles, energy cannons, everything they had came at me. The shots glanced off or fizzed harmlessly. I didn't waste time with grunts; I planted my feet, leveled the hammer, and unleashed a bolt of lightning that vaporized the front rank in an instant.
Poor bastards didn't even stand a chance.
After the dust settled and the smoke cleared, Rita still wasn't flinching. She barked orders and three of her lieutenants stepped forward, one with a Black Power Coin, one with Pink, and one with Red.
They attacked as a unit. The Black warrior slammed a massive warhammer into the ground; the Pink one loosed volley after volley of crackling energy from a glowing bow; the Red fighter charged with a razor blade that hummed with power.
I met them head-on. My hammer spun, and I met the Black's strike, his warhammer crashed against mine with a concussion that rattled my teeth, but I held firm. I angled a block and the impact sent his momentum past me. At the same time I used the hammer to reflect the Pink's energy bolts back in a bright arc that cut through a formation of alien troops. The Red lunged, blade flashing; I sidestepped and crushed his wrist with a hammer butt, sending the sword clattering away.
We traded blows for a few brutal minutes. Their gear was solid, better than the average goon's, but it wasn't built to take lightning. I let the hammer sing. A storm of electric wrath tore through them; armor cracked, limbs went slack. One by one they fell like puppets with their strings cut.
Their armor folded inward, collapsing back into the Power Coins. I reached out with telekinesis, plucked each glowing coin from the wreckage, and held them hovering in my palm.
As I gathered the fallen Power Coins, I slipped them into a small pocket dimension alongside the blue one. When I looked up, Rita's expression had twisted into pure rage.
She raised her staff and fired a blast of energy straight at me. I swung my hammer and deflected it easily, the shot ricocheting into the sky. She snarled and fired again, stronger this time. Then again. And again.
Each beam grew more violent, more desperate, but I kept walking forward, reflecting every single one without breaking stride. Sparks and raw energy lit up the battlefield as her attacks slammed uselessly against my defenses.
When I got close enough to feel the heat from her magic, she began charging one final, massive blast. But before she could release it, I blurred forward in a flash of lightning, smacking the staff out of her hands and clamping my hand around her throat.
The ground cracked beneath us as I lifted her off her feet.
"Please… stop. Mercy," she wheezed, struggling against my grip.
"Mercy?" I echoed, tightening my hand around her throat. "Mercy? How many people begged you for that same thing before you slaughtered them anyway? How many families burned? How many worlds did you destroy and claim as trophies? You never gave anyone mercy, so why should I give you that privilege?"
Her eyes darted, desperate. "You can rule by my side… as my husband. You can have anything you want."
I stared at her for a long moment, then raised an eyebrow. "You're serious?"
I snapped her neck and her body hitting the ground. I pulled the green Power Coin from her armor and slipped it into my pocket dimension with the rest.
I was just about to leave when the ground trembled. A blinding beam of crimson light shot down from the sky and struck the surface with enough force to rattle the air.
When the light faded, someone stood there, wrapped in metallic flesh, dark energy pulsing off his body like poison.
My eyes narrowed. "...Lord Zedd," I muttered. "Didn't expect to see you here."