PokéRangers: New World

The Forsaken Heir (Part 1)

With the battle against the monstrous Ecto-Titan now over, everyone breathed a collective sigh of relief. The broken heap of machinery lay still evaporating into the air as the Rangers recalled their Zords and slowly made their way back into the cavern.

"Dawn!!!!!!!!" Vinnie cried as he quickly scurried towards her on all fours.

"Vintavius!" she cried as she quickly slid to the floor and scooped him up with both arms. "I'm sorry... 'Vinnie'" she corrected as she scratched his tummy. "Look at you all grown up and stuff!"

The warmth and laughter emanating from the two was enough to lift everyone's spirits. It had been a long day for all of them – maybe the longest ever – and here they were, all safe and sound. Though whereas the life or death battles were now behind them, there were still a slew of uneasy conversations to have before this day would be truly done.

Zekks cleared his throat and slowly stood himself back up – leaning on his cane with almost all his weight.

Dawn slowly set Vinnie down and stood back up as well before slowly making her way towards Zekks.

"So what happens now?" the Bewear Ranger asked in a concerned tone.

"Well if it's anything like last time" Macho began, "probably a lot of yelling."

"Dawn..." he began

"Zekks..." she replied coldly

"Should we be scared? I feel like we should be scared..." the Houndoom Ranger began

"Oh please. They're both adults" the Mandibuzz Ranger replied.

The Greninja Ranger couldn't help but chuckle to himself. "Well at least one of them is."

"Exactly, and I think he's going to be mature about it!"

As the silence continued, it was suddenly broken by the sound of subtle – but quickly growing - laughter.

"... You look ridiculous" Zekks snickered as the group of onlookers fell to the ground in shock.

"I'm sorry, but can you repeat that?" Dawn replied in an annoyed tone as she pretended to clean her ear. "It's kind of hard to hear you over the constant cracking of your joints old man!"

"You sure it's not all that hair getting in the way?" he continued to laugh. "Maybe it's clogging your ears"

"So much for them being adults" the Infernape Ranger sighed.

"No, no. This is good" Vinnie replied. "At least they're both talking."

"Plus neither of them have drawn their weapon..." Macho added, though it was unclear if that made the others feel more or less at ease.

"At least my hair's grown in the past 2 years – unlike some people" Dawn fired back before leaning forward in a condescending manner. "I wonder if that means you're beginning to bald?"

Zekks's laughter abruptly stopped.

"You know what..." he fumed, the vein over his left eye beginning to throb. "A part of me actually missed this" he ultimately admitted with a half smile.

"Same, regrettably" she shrugged. "Openly insulting rocks doesn't exactly have the same effect – even if you do both have similar IQs."

"You finished?"

"Just getting started actually" she smirked. "Making up for lost time and all"

The two couldn't help but chuckle to themselves before meeting each other for an embrace.

"Thanks for coming" he smiled softly.

"Yeah well... it's not like I had anything better to do" she joked, quickly wiping away a tear that began to form. "Good call on 'not burying the lead'. I might have actually hung up on you."