Doomstoned (Patreon)

Many of the Power Rangers’s monsters are weird and creepy. Some are downright terrifying if not for the writers to tone down their potentials. One of them I think is Doomstone. While his ghoulish visual appearance is betrayed by the mismatching bright socks of his shoes, the monster still can be a formidable foe for our Rangers if given the correct twisted story idea. It’s basically a gravestone-themed monster with powers to resurrect previously-dead monsters. What’s more that you can ask for?

Well, this makes up for my lack of Christmas-themed story for now. But don’t worry, I’ll think of something soon!

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Spooky time isn’t over yet!

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Two beams of teleportation arrived at the Ranger Command Center. Those were Billy and Kimberly in their Halloween costumes. “Zordon, we think Tommy’s in trouble. He was supposed to meet us at the Youth Center, but he never showed up.”

“Correct, we have all of the children accounted for, except those who should be chaperoned by Tommy,” added the geek as he removed the mad scientist’s fake hair and lab coat.

“Your suspicions are correct, Kimberly,” replied the floating head of the space wizard with all of his wisdom. “Lord Zedd has captured Tommy and imprisoned him in a haunted forest where the evil overlord has recreated his most vicious monsters.”

The two Rangers looked at the Viewing Globe. There, the long-haired youngster was fighting for his life against demons they knew they had defeated before. He fought valiantly, but Robogoat headbutted him good to the point of almost collapsing. Pumpkin Rapper’s arms kept him in place as a prisoner. “Tommy!” call out the frustrated Kimberly.

“Why doesn’t he morph?” asked the confused Billy.

“Because his Morpher is missing,” replied Kim who saw through the important details. Tommy’s Power Buckle was not where it should be. “Zordon, he’s helpless against those creatures.”

“Alpha is attempting to locate his position now, said Zordon with assurance.

Billy nodded and pat the Pink Ranger’s shoulder. “I’ll help.”

In the Haunted Forest, Tommy was able to fend off the two monsters by giving them a double spinning kick. Robogoat and Pumpkin Rapper tumbled back at the same time. The youngster got his time of relief.

But not for long as there was actually a third monster hiding among the mist of the creepy forest. With ease, the tombstone-themed demon grabbed Tommy by the neck and pounded him to the ground. The attack was enough to make the beaten hero dazed and confused. “Looks like you have been a naughty boy throughout your life, Ranger. Prepare to count your sin?” asked the giggling Doomstone as the monster intimidatingly approached him.

“No… No…,” whimpered Tommy as he desperately tried to move away. His head hit something. The youngster turned around and was shocked. There, on the cold ground of the Haunted Forest, was a grave marker bearing his name: TOMMY OLIVER, WHITE RANGER.

Above epitaph, one eye mimicked Doomstone’s feature. Once it opened, the eyeball shot out a weird beam of light directly to Tommy’s forehead. It made him jolted and the whole scene was witnessed by his recently-arriving teammates. “HYAAH! Tommy!”

The beam finally let him go. The weakened Tommy could only lay on the ground due to fatigue. “Oh, Man… Am I glad to see you guys…” He grunted while holding his chest. “There’s a bunch of them littering this place.”

“Say no more!” said the Pink Ranger. Kimberly saw Robogoat and was determined to take him down. She leaped and her superhuman abilities enabled her to have multiple handsprings without touching the ground. Her momentum was enough to knock the robotic ram monster to the ground upon impact. She finished the assault with a good roundhouse kick to its chest that sent Robogoat dispersing in a bright flame.

Doomstone showed his possession of the White Ranger’s Power Buckle in his hand. “Looks like we have a couple of tomb raiders. Let’s show them how we honor the past!” declared Doomstone.

“What’s an honor for a monster!” replied the Blue Ranger before he gave Doomstone a good dolphin kick.

The attack let go of Doomstone’s grip on the Power Buckle. Billy easily caught the item mid-air before throwing it to his teammate. “Tommy, I got your Morpher. Here, catch!”

“Thanks, Billy. It’s Morphin’ time!”

The White Ranger appeared to join the team. “Now let’s figure out how to get out of here.”

“Right, after we take care some unfinished business,” said Tommy as he struck a fighting pose.

“Since you are refusing to repent, let’s invite some more incriminating witnesses to your sins!” out of Doomstone’s hand were shooting flames that struck multiple grave markers. From them, burst out numerous monsters that the Rangers had defeated before. Primator, Snizzard, and Rhinoblaster were some of them.

“Uh-uh, this is getting too much!” said the worried Pink Ranger as the heroic trio braced for the worst.

“We need more moving space,” said the White Ranger. He accidentally saw a small opening that led to a path among the thick bushes. “Guys, this way!”

The three Ranger retreated from the battlefield. The resurrected monsters went after them. Behind them all, Doomstone laughed triumphantly. “They are so predictable. It will be only a matter of time before their souls will be a part of this forest!”

Even from afar, the Rangers could hear Doomstone’s ominous laughter. The heroes rushed as fast as they could across the small path. Around them, the forest was not a place people should be lost in. The branches and canopies moved as if on their own. It was truly a cursed place.

“Thanks for the rescue, guys. But are you the only ones?” asked Tommy while exploring the lane.

“Yeah, the others are still in the chaperone program. They have kids to attend to,” answered Billy.

“I should have known that those kids were actually Putties,” said the White Ranger with regret. “Now, we’re stuck in this dark place.”

“Hey, we’re gonna get out of here, okay? All of us.” Kimberly pointed out toward the Blue Ranger. “Try to give Billy some credit for rescuing you since he’s the one who found the coordinates.”

Tommy pat Billy’s shoulder. “Thanks for that, bro.”

“Don’t mention it.”

The White Ranger abruptly stopped his pace and his teammates followed. “What the heck is this?”

Before them was a massive tree. It was a creepy one and the fact it is so huge that a two-story old house was inside its trunk made it more ghoulish. Its sprigs looked weathered with broken and cracked bark. Its leaves were dry and lifeless. The holes at the main body seemingly formed a fiendish crying face.

“There’s no way I’m gonna go in there,” commented the shivering Kimberly. Her object was cut short when roars of numerous monsters were catching up to them.

“It’s the only way, Kim. I’ll make us safe. Let’s go!”

The three Rangers dashed across the barren forest opening to the house. They stopped for a moment to truly see the details of that hideous giant tree. Billy thought that his mind played tricks on himself since he could hear howls from the plant’s face-like features. “This thing is beyond science.”

The White Ranger shook his head. “Let’s decide which one of our predicaments should be in the periodic table later, okay? Right now, let’s come inside and contact Zordon. He must know something.”

It was their gravest mistake to open that door. As soon as the interior was seen, each of the Rangers was ensnared by tentacle-like branches around their neck. “What… gives….”

The three Rangers were yanked violently into the house. Behind them, the door closed shut. Outside, Doomstone’s laughter merged with the surrounding air.

“Power Bow!” cried out Kimberly. Her Power Weapon materialized and she wasted no time shooting two energy arrows at the walls. The angles bounced them all the way to pierce the choking vine, freeing the heroine from its clutch.

But her escape came too late. The Pink Ranger tumbled down and found the door behind her was shut, blocking her way to the main dark hallway. She was trapped in a strange room. “Where am I?” asked Kimberly to herself with doubt as the space around her looked more like a botanical garden. It was dark all around due to the absence of any windows. Moreover, the sprouting humongous leaves on thick veins made it impossible to actually the wall. Among them, a bunch of flower buds glowed in a pulsating fashion.

Kimberly readied her Power Bow for any possible threat. Her eyes scanned the eerie surroundings with alertness. She didn’t like that place even one bit. She gritted her teeth while desperately trying to find an exit.

The Pink Ranger went to the door. She turned the knob. To her surprise, the round door handle unfolded into a horde of hostile tendrils that immediately coiled around her arm. “Hey!”

Kimberly tried her best not to be pulled into the door that slowly expanded its keyhole into a gaping maw filled with fangs. She cried out in pain after it chomped her glove. “I still want to have both functioning arms, thank you!”

The Pink Ranger used her other arm to fire the Power Bow. Two arrows were enough to make the eldritch door mouth shriek and let go of her. She was thrown back as the door burst into flame.

Her sigh of relief turned into horror as the fire extinguished the existence of a door. What was left was a solid all. Kimberly was left stranded in the room with no exit. “Think, Kimmy, think! There’s gotta be another way out of this nightmare.” But the Pink Ranger couldn’t help but gulp. “I hope the other guys are doing better than me.”

The thick leaves shuddered on her left corner. Kimberly anxiously aimed her Power Bow. There shouldn’t be any space for surprises to hide behind that lush layer. The walls were too enclosing. But this place is owned by that Doomstone monster and who knew what he could do.

The roar made the Pink Ranger let go of her hold on the Power Bow’s string. Three energy arrows darted toward the coming shapes. Small explosions made Kimberly protect her helmet visor. Gasping, he peeked back to see her target.

Her assault successfully destroyed the ends of two tentacles. The Pink Ranger took a step back when more tentacles appeared. Those that didn’t receive the bad end of her power weapon had bulbous sacks on them. The ones she destroyed had released their content into the air.

A faint cloud of dust penetrated the Pink Ranger’s mouthguard and into Kimberly’s nose and mouth. The gymnast coughed and choked by the invading particle. Her muscles twitched and stiffened randomly. Her fingers let go of the Power Bow. “What.. is that?”

“Your doom, Little Ranger.” Kimberly’s blurry vision caught a glimpse of Doomstone in the room. It was impossible. The space had no entrance and exit. She was trapped on her own inside. “You should thread your way inside the Haunted Forest’s very own nightmare tree more carefully. One wrong step and you will become an integral part of my beautiful dimension.”

“Let me go, you dead-thing!” complained the sluggish Pink Ranger as she kneeled with one leg to support her wobbly body. Kimberly found it difficult to say more words. As if her throat was being clogged by something.

“I’m afraid I can’t do that, Little Pink Ranger. Your color is too enticing to be set free. I simply want you.”

The leaf-adorned tendrils came for Kimberly. They ensnared both of her arms, coiled around her legs, and snatched her skirt to be replaced by weird green undies. More of her spandex bodysuit was covered, the more she was immobilized.

Then the wall before her opened up into a similar howling face of the main tree. The Pink Ranger screamed as the vines pulled her into its maw. Depleted of power, the tight-costumed female warrior was no match against the dominating indoor forest. With her kicking legs finally slurped into the suffocating gullet of the scary face, Kimberly was out of the game.

“Billy!” called out the desperate White Ranger. Tommy managed to stay with Billy after cutting down the veins, but their luck seemed to have run out. Trapped inside an indoor greenhouse, the two Rangers had to fend off relentless attacks from carnivorous plants around them.

The trees stood still to create an impenetrable wall that stopped the Rangers from escaping the building while their roots shot out to assault them from every direction. Tommy’s Saba Sword and Billy’s Power Lance did well breaking most if not all incoming aggressions. Their ridiculously sharp blades and pointy ends easily shredded the tentacles. But that wasn’t enough to defend their position.

“This is getting too much for us. Tommy,” commented the concerned Billy. The Blue and White Rangers were pushed further and further into the greenhouse hallway. The clear windows there were infested by sprouting veins so much that almost no light could get through. The day seemed to turn into night.

Knowing the helpless situation, Tommy spoke out, “This is going nowhere. Cover your eyes, Billy. It’s gonna be early New Year here! Saba Blast!”

The White Ranger pointed the tiger-shaped handle of his sword. Its eyes glowed before its mouth opened. A devastating burst of gold-and-white flame shot out to burn all threatening veins. Not only that, the fire spread all across the defiling plant parts. There were sickening shrieks from the dying hellish forest as they succumb to the White Ranger’s pure power.

Panting, Tommy finally put his Saba sword away. What was present before the two heroes was a clear view of an old greenhouse. Its windows cracked and filmy, but still quite a see-through. Above the Rangers, the ceiling was that of twisting collection of trunks from the main tree. It roared.

“Time to go!” shouted the White Ranger as he pushed his teammate toward the open exit. From above, stalactites of wood stabbed the ground in an effort to kill the heroes. One, four, then twelve of them came from the encroaching bark to form a new group of unholy trees. Their branches grew out from the floors and unnatural ground beneath.

The Rangers split their way to prevent themselves from being penetrated by a big wood. The tiles beneath their boots exploded with old-looking leaves. “Almost there!”

The White Ranger jumped into the exit just in time before the trees grew there to block any more attempts. He tumbled forward into a dark hallway. His tired body almost needed time to regain its strength and came back up. Panting, Tommy chuckled, “We did it!”

Billy should be hugged by the White Ranger. Only if he was there. Tommy was horrified to find his teammate was not there. “No, no, no!”

“Tommy, help!” the Blue Ranger’s plea could be faintly heard behind the impassable barrier of trees along with the slashing noises of his Power Lance.

“Billy, hang on! Saba Blast!” The White Ranger pointed his weapon again, but this time, he was bombarded with a sensation of exhaustion beyond anything he had experienced before. Tommy quickly fell to his knees. He couldn’t even voice his complaints as Billy screamed for the last time at the other side.

The White Ranger sobbed. His weapon clanged as it hit the cold floor. Tommy felt so hopeless. He looked down at the dirty gloved hands. The hands that failed to save his friend and girlfriend.

He then clenched them. Tommy’s heart was burning with determination to destroy Doomstone.

“How does it feel to be dead and buried, Ranger?” asked the mocking familiar voice from behind. Tommy’s eyes opened wide with hatred. The White Ranger stood back up.

He pointed his sword at Doomstone’s waiting figure at the end of that hallway. “No one’s gonna come to your funeral, Doomstone! I’m gonna destroy and set all of us free!”

“The burning spirit of a dying boy! I like it!”

The White Ranger’s helmet visor glistened for a moment. Tommy dashed away at a superhuman speed and left a small shockwave that filled the hallway. The young hero let out a war cry as he slashed the Saba Sword toward his enemy.

To his surprise, the monster easily blocked his attack. Sparks burst from the meeting of Saba’s sharp blade with Doomstone’s rocky arm. “Is that all your last word?”

Doomstone then choked White Ranger’s neck. Cracking sounds could be heard as Tommy felt unimaginable pain. Laughing, the tombstone monster then broke the hero’s neck.

Doomstone roar of joy filled the hallway. In front of him was the White Ranger’s dead body. His ominous voice boomed and echoed all the way to the endless darkness.

The White Ranger then woke up while gasping. He was still alive, but not like he wanted to be. “No, no, this can’t be!” Tommy shouted in denial as he tried to free his body from being one with the nightmare tree.

All Tommy could move were the simple ends of his fingers. His spandex suit, his boots as well as gloves, his tiger-themed helmet were all penetrated and assimilated by the barks and veins of the hellish organism. Tommy’s visor was opened to show his greenish face.

The poor Ranger vomited out weird sludge and coughed after. He looked down to find a particular tentacle that penetrated his abs while pumping bulks of a similar liquid. His words became more inaudible after.

“Tommy…” panted the voice next to the assimilated White Ranger. Tommy was shocked to find his teammates were there too.

Kimberly was to his side. Her arms extended in a spread-eagle position. Like him, her face visible through the open visor was green. Like him, veins violated her spandex suit in every way possible. Unlike him, the Pink Ranger’s belly was bloated. “It’s inside of me… Please, help me, Tommy…” cried out the defeated Kimberly with black tears flowing from her eyes.

“I… I can’t… I can’t…” It was all Tommy could respond with. He was as fused to the nightmare tree as she was.

“Nothing we do matters anymore…,” added the integrated Blue Ranger. “We are nothing but fertilizers to Doomstone’s nightmare tree. We are only worthy to nourish this hell.”

Tommy was silent for a moment before speaking out the only appropriate words for their end. “We are dead and buried…”

“We are dead and buried…,” replied Billy.

“We are dead and buried…,” voiced the absorbed Kimberly.

Before them, three grave markers seemed to bud from the grey and cold ground around the creepy house. The Blue, Pink, and White Ranger’s names were etched on it as the epitaph.

“That was fun, but I’m just getting started with your souls. Let’s do this again!”

Threatening veins snaked out of the nightmare tree’s skin before stabbing each of the Ranger’s helmet.

“Think, Kimmy, think! There’s gotta be another way out of this nightmare…”

“This is getting too much for us, Tommy…”

“Saba Blast!”

To the three Rangers, they just met with each other at Doomstone’s Haunted Forest. In truth, the assimilated Rangers shouted out the same thing they had before. Billy’s, Kimberly’s, and Tommy’s eyes went white as part of the nightmare tree as their consciousness returned to the horrid scenario they had been forced to play in before.