1006/Pure as Diamond

Pure as Diamond
Date of Scene:	17 June 2017
Location:	The Smithsonian
Synopsis:	Rita initiates the first part of her plan, and plants a seed of doubt into the heart of the Black Ranger.
Cast of Characters:	355, Black Ranger (Taylor)

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Rita Repulsa (355) has posed:
The Smithsonian Institution. The greatest history museum in the United States. Maybe the world.

Wonder how much that means to Rita Repulsa? When Zack got a *beep* in the middle of the night from Alpha 5, warning him that Rita Repulsa and her minions had teleported to Earth and were in Washington, D.C., maybe he just wanted to go to bed -- but evil never sleeps, so neither can you, Zack.

Outside, Rita strikes the end of her Magic Wand against the ground, and looks up. On either side of her, the massive brute Goldar and the svelte Scorpina. On her right, a cringing bat-monkey and a round blueberry... hobgoblin... thing. Squatt and Baboo. With a wave of her hand, crackling energy fills the courtyard, coalescing into gibbering, dripping Putty Patrollers. Dozens of them.

"Tear this place APART!" She says, as she turns to advance into the building.

Black Ranger (Taylor) has posed:
Beep-Beep-Beep Beep Beep-Beep!

Zack doesn't actually ever sleep. Well, sometimes he does. He wasn't sleeping when the communicator went off this time though. He had just finished tucking in his sleeping mother and slid off to his room to find some gear to wear to some all night party that he probably shouldn't be going to. His leather jacket on and his hair smoothed out but the beeping of his communicator put a stop to that with the quickness.

"I'm on my way."

Yeah, there's not even a look of annoyance on his face when he teleports this time. Duty calls and he's willing to leap into the fray without too much issue. His teleporting takes him past the Command Centre and straight to Washington. Thanks to the coordinates and Alpha 5 being a freaking teleporting super robot genius or something, Zack ends up touching down right in front of the doors of the Smithsonian Museum. Zack looks up and recognizes the building almost instantly. "Huh. Cool. Always wanted to check this place out. How come there's no field trips in high school?" It's somewhere in the middle of his riffing to himself that he hears such madness and alien-ness behind him. Which causes a spin and a sudden eye of widening due to the sheer number of... evil... that's in front of him. Time to talk brave and be stupid.

"Hey! Waffle Cones!" Zack tosses a late-night insult in Rita's direction. "Why don't you have your ugly ass family reunion somewhere else? The museum's closed!" He has no idea if this talking is going to work but it'll give him time to tap his communicator and send a distress signal to Zor-Don, Alpha 5, AND ANY OTHER RANGERS.

Rita Repulsa (355) has posed:
Rita turns, and her eyes widen in anger, briefly. Scorpina and Goldar step forward, and that would be bad enough by ITSELF - except for all the Putties. And Rita herself. But she holds up a hand. "WAIT. Wait wait wait. Zack. Zaaaack." She grins, and turns.

"You know, it's so SELDOM you and I get to talk, Black Ranger. I know your mom's REAL sick. Getting sicker all the time, right?"

Goldar growls, until Rita cuts him off with a "Quiet!" Then she says, to Squatt and Baboo and the putties, "Find it, idiots!" And then they're headed for the museum building. The Putties literally flow through doors and windows -- Squatt jimmies a lock. There are some security guards about to get a real surprise.

"So." Rita chuckles. "Zack. Let me ask you a QUESTION --" She points. "Zor-Don is one of the most accomplished beings in the galaxy, who comes from a civilization that was ages ahead of Earth even when we were fighting ten thousand years ago. So..."

"Why has he never offered to help your mother?"

Black Ranger (Taylor) has posed:
"Uh. Because he's in a damn wall?"

That's the answer that Zack has for Rita. It comes out of his mouth with the quickness. A little too quick, really. There's just a quick glance to the side for the Black Ranger after he says that, almost like a hesitated afterthought or something akin to that.

"We're not buddies, Rita. We don't talk. You and your Fuglytown Friends keep tryin' to conquer Earth and me and my Kickass Club keep whoopin' that ass. That's pretty much how this works." And that's when Zack steps into one of his weird ass martial arts stances. "And that's how it's gonna' work this time too if you don't call your cronies off." He knows that some of them are getting into the building but he can't just rush in there and leave the outside unprotected. He can't let the security guards inside get hurt either.

He can't be in two places at once! Dammit! He's going to have to bluff his way out of this.

Rita Repulsa (355) has posed:
Rita grins, at that. "Zack. I don't think you realize how SELFISH Zor-Don is. One day you'll find out. So I have a DEAL for you." She draws out the 'l' at the end of 'Deal'.

"I'll have Finster make a potion that will CURE your mom. No side-effects. No take-backs. She won't turn into a monster and she won't turn on you--not out of anything I did anyway. Just a miracle, promised and delivered."

"And all you have to do, is bring me the Green Power Coin. That's IT. Give me back MY coin... and your whole life changes."

Scorpina gives a tight little smile as Rita goes on. "You don't even have to say yes now. The offer stands. I mean, it may not be tempting now--"

"But I imagine you'll think about it a lot harder while you're mom's struggling to breathe in the middle of the night! Hahahahah!" Then she gestures, to Scorpina. "Take him. Goldar, come on!" She turns to walk into the museum building, with that massive gold-armored brute close behind.

Scorpina raises her bladed boomerang, and raises her eyebrows. "I'd think about that offer, Black Ranger. You're never going to get a better one. You ready to dance?"

Black Ranger (Taylor) has posed:
This is way too much information for Zack to try and parse at all once. There's a chance that his Mom could be cured by Rita but it's /Rita/ and while she does have some epic magic... there's also the fact that she's pure evil. Not to mention that he probably should've questioned the lack of any assistance for his Mom's ailments from Zor-Don or Alpha 5. It's a lot on his mind right now and he can't even. Just. Can't. Even.

Zack reaches up and tugs the leather jacket he's wearing closer to his body. "Guys. Come on, guys. Where are you?" is muttered to himself as it looks like he's run out of stalling time. With the others nowhere to be found and Rita and Friends taking the museum... there's only Scorpina here to deal with. That he can handle. Maybe. It /is/ Scorpina.

Zack reaches up to around his neck and pulls his earbuds up and plugs them into his ears. He grabs his phone out of his back pocket and activates his playlist. The music flows through his body and that static pose turns into a more fluid one of movement as he motions for Scorpina to bring it on.

"Y'know, normally I charge fifty bucks for lessons. But for you, I think I'll make an exception."

Rita Repulsa (355) has posed:
"Oh, I know all the moves," Scorpina says. And she does. She's fast. Fast, fast, fast, a blur of motion as she leaps into a handspring and twirls *around* Zack, kicking at him, then swinging down into a low sweep, then springing back up into a fighting stance, which is when she gestures with two fingers at him, and winks. "Bring it on. Show me those Hip Hop Kido moves."

As they go round and round, she says, "Not gonna Morph, Black Ranger? I'll even let you." She whirls her blade, then takes a step back. "You know." She says, "You really should consider switching sides. Zor-Don talks a big game but *I* remember the state he left Rita in. I wonder how much he told you... if you knew the whole story you'd understand why she hates him so much. A lot of promises got made, little Ranger... but they were never kept. Zor-Don doesn't keep his promises."

Inside, Rita advances down the hallway, hurling a security guard away with a wave of a hand, then freezing another in a block of ice. "No, YOU freeze. Idiot."

Then Baboo comes up, cradling that glittering diamond. "We found it, Rita, just like you wanted."

"Aw, that's nice... except the Hope Diamond they put on display is a FAKE!" She picks up the glass bauble and crushes it in her hand. "The REAL Hope Diamond is kept in a warded vault to contain the curse on it!" She grins, "And it's that curse that's gonna make it the power source for the PERFECT monster."

Black Ranger (Taylor) has posed:
Zack can barely keep up. He's much faster than he normally would be, thanks to being a Power Ranger and all that, so he can still manage to see her even in that blurred state. But he can't exactly match that speed. She's still faster than him.

"I just got my hair the way I want it. I am not messin' it for /you/." Zack takes his turn and takes his own sweet time with his moves. He goes up and over, dropping to the ground in a quick split, before up ending himself and spinning on his palm with his legs extended. Another rotation and he's back down, swinging those feet in a breakdance fueld sweep at Scorpina's legs, but whether he's actually tying to connect or just keep up appearances is kind of hard to tell.

Zack has the feeling they are both pulling punches.

"If I have to tell you idiots that he's trapped in a wall one more time..." Zack keeps saying that because it's the only defense he has for what their saying. He really shouldn't be alone and hearing all of this. It's starting to get to him. And that much is showing on his face.

The music can only drown out so much...

Rita Repulsa (355) has posed:
Scorpina grins, and launches forward into a whirling series of spin-kicks and strikes. She's pulling her punches, yes. Because Scorpina can fight all five rangers, armored up, and *win*. "It's painful, knowing deep down that you don't get any respect, isn't it?" She asks, before she sways, and lets Zack go on the offensive, blocking each of his kicks and strikes with movements of her forearms. "It's a shame. Tommy may have the most technical skill, Red Ranger may drill the hardest, but you are by FAR the most creative fighter. They don't understand art the way we do."

Inside, Rita has moved out of the exhibit area, and is waving her wand, which sheds a red glow, which shows wispy black trails in the air that get thicker and darker, until she comes to a vault door -- and when she sheds her light over it, symbols and marks glow white on the door. "Ugh, who did they hire to install this mess? John Constantine?" Then she runs her fingers over the wards, and pulls them apart like tissue paper. "Goldar!"

With a growl, Goldar steps up with that giant sword of his, and *cuts* the reinforced, three foot thick steel door off its hinges, then rips it out of the wall. One-handed.

With a grin and an elegant lifting of her skirt, Rita steps inside, where the real Hope Diamond sits glittering, and to her Magic Eye, exuding corruption in a glass case. She opens it, and lifts the pendant out with one hand. "Yeah!"

Black Ranger (Taylor) has posed:
"Whatchu talkin' 'bout, Scorpina?" Zack lets his most horrible Diff'rent Strokes impression out just long enough to backflip away from Scorpina. Getting himself some space and just dancing in place for a moment. "Yeah, I do make this look good, don't I?" Zack will take whatever pats on the back he can get. Even if they come from the bad guys. Which is probably exactly what Scorpina wanted. Oh well, if she speaks the truth, she speaks the truth.

"So. How long are we gonna' stall each other? You're waitin' for your boss. I'm waitin' for my friends. We could be here all night." Zack seems to be using another tactic because there's no way in hell he can take her combatively.

"Is this a date? This isn't a date right?" Human Emotion Confusion Attack!

Rita Repulsa (355) has posed:
Scorpina grins. "I dunno. Is it? You're on the wrong side, Black Ranger. You give your life for a cause, to people who claim the cause is everything... but never once do they bother to help you keep your life from falling apart."

That's when Rita emerges, with a swarm of Putties behind. "Well. That's the boss. You think about it, Black Ranger. Friends are supposed to help each other." Then she claps her hands, and backflips back to Rita, who clutches the purloined diamond--and then she and Scorpina and Goldar and her two idiots teleport away.

Leaving Zack to fight about four dozen putties, who are doing that creepy cocked-head crouch thing and creeping up on him, going blerbulblurbalurbablurblrub.

Black Ranger (Taylor) has posed:
Zack watches the Villain Brigade disappear and is powerless to do anything. In fact, that's why there's a big ol' frown on his face. Either that or he's actually thinking about what has been told to him. He sighs and shakes his head, trying to get the seeds that have been planted to shake out but it's no use.

Zack is doubting some things.

He doesn't have an opportunity to really think it through at the moment because there's an entire army of Putties rushing at him. "Alright." Zack pushes the volume up on his phone and grimaces just a bit at the swarming Putties. "Let's go... go..." is whispered to himself as he takes off in the direction of the Putty Swarm and leaps into the air with one of those Mighty Morphin' Power Jumps! One pulls back one hand into a fist and descends towards the Putty Swarm of doom!