No Rest for the Wicked

[Lord Zedd]

It had been a long, trying day.

Lord Zedd had reached the limits of his patience, and his only reward at the end of it all was a return to his weakly furnished apartment. Well, that wasn’t the only reward. He set the blaster pistol Graowr had looted from one of the Vorticon lieutenants atop his mantle, surveying it for just a moment. The opponent it had come from had wielded two blaster pistols in combat, a style that Zedd knew was hilariously useless. This had given him a little extra pleasure in executing the xeno. But Graowr, with her unrelentingly chipper attitude had taken one for herself and given the other to Zedd, deciding that they were a warrior’s version of a friendship necklace. Infuriating, but it the weapon proved useful Zedd would tolerate the undertones.

The door knocked, and Zedd’s visor began to glow a bright red. He had only been within his dwelling for mere minutes, and already someone was disturbing him. Not just anyone, though. He knew exactly who he was dealing with. It was a tenacious, resilient foe, but it would antagonize him no longer. He would see to that. Zedd grabbed his Z-Staff and marched to his door, turning the deadbolt before ripping it open.

What he saw was not what he expected. A plainly dressed man, holding several folders. He appeared young, but not too young, and had thick glasses and a lab coat. Zedd was not fazed by this tactic.

“What!?” Zedd roared at the man, instantly escalating the situation. “I have had this apartment for barely twenty four hours and already I have dealt with your child laborers. Three times they have come to my door, and three times I have sent them away! If you are their master, then you are the one I will strike down to end this incessant harassment!”

“Uhh…” the man was stunned. He’d known to expect the unusual from this one, but he didn’t even know what he’d done wrong yet. “What?”

Zedd tightened his grip on his weapon as he seethed in rage. How dare the man play dumb to him? But if he needed it spelled out, then the dark lord would gladly do so, to remove all doubt on why his life would end if he continued with his current course.

“I do not wish to purchase any of your Girl Scout cookies!!!”

The man stared, dumbfounded at the accusation. His eyes remained wide open, from both shock and fear. Lord Zedd’s facemask prevented him from making out any sort of expressions, but body language alone was enough to let him interpret that one wrong move or word would make things very unpleasant.

Thankfully, there was the creaking of a door opening just a few apartments down the hall from them, and an ornery old lady stepped into the hall.

“Will you keep it down!?” the lady shouted at the prime and his visitor.

“Silence, Mrs. Pearson!!!” Zedd directed his wrath at his nosy neighbor. The reaction was so swift that the secondary stuck between them suspected Zedd was expecting her intrusion.

Still, the moment of distraction was what the man needed to get his bearings back. “I’m not here to… sell Girl Scout cookies. I’m here on behalf of Doctor Regal, who is requesting your assistance with a very urgent matter.”

Zedd calmed down a little bit at that news, but he kept his eyes on that insufferable old woman since she decided to loiter in the hallway and watch them. He directed his attention back to the courier, finally listening.

“What sort of urgent matter?” Zedd questioned the courier, taking his eyes off of the man only long enough to look down both sides of the hallway.

“Doctor Regal can explain more, on Tier 2, but there’s been some strange lifeforms that need immediate attention,” the courier explained.

“I have already dealt with Coruscant’s strange lifeform problem,” Zedd scoffed.

“Can you just go into your apartment instead of standing in the hall and keeping everyone up?” Mrs. Pearson shouted over to Zedd in a snooty tone that made his blood boil.

“Mrs. Pearson, I will rend the flesh from your bones!” Zedd shouted to his neighbor, but this time he did not even bother to look in her direction.

“Not these, you haven’t,” the courier said, handing Zedd a manila folder with various papers inside. He was rushing through it at this point, because he wanted to get the hell out of here. “Please come visit the doctor. He can explain more, I promise it’s worth your time.”

Zedd took the folder and barely had time to nod before the man took off down the hallway. He looked over to his grumpy neighbor, pointing a threatening index finger at the ninety-something woman. She returned with a middle finger gesture the dark lord would have assumed she was too old to stoop to, but he turned and slammed the door behind him, regardless. There was point in squabbling with the likes of her.

He set the folder down on his small table and opened it, first seeing the address to lab belonging to Dr. Regal. The questions were bouncing around his head now. What kind of other life forms were there? Were they anything like the Vorticons? Most importantly of all, though, was who was this man, and how did he track down Zedd at his dwelling so easily?

Zedd had nothing but time on his hands, so he would see what this was all about.

[Lord Zedd]

To most, sleep would have been a valuable commodity, and something to be embraced after such a long day in the depths of Coruscant. Zedd, as usual, found himself without any desire for such a mortal function. At least Omni hadn't taken everything from him.

Instead, he spent the night using the small Imperial computer he had been issued to begin his explorations into the finer details of the Omniverse. And what a journey it had been. He had learned a great deal about the world around him in such a small amount of time. There was plenty more knowledge to acquire, but at least he was making some strides towards his goal.

One thought burned in his mind, however, and remained his key focus. The Dragon Dagger had been brought to this world by someone other than him. The Vorticon had said the woman was named Dulcea, and even though it was a terrifying thought that she and others like her might be here, it was equally concerning that someone might have used that name, knowing it would get to him. Either way, they needed to be found and eliminated.

Zedd’s dataverse adventures led him to learn about the town of Darkshire, where the Vorticon had promised she would be. Unfortunately, a battle of some size had broken out there quite recently, which was something that would certainly complicate his search. Many people with their ridiculous social media accounts had documented what they’d seen with both words and pictures. As utterly frustrating as it was to subject himself to the opinions of these fools, it was the best real time information he could find, though there was no sign of Dulcea anywhere.

In jumping from name to name, he soon found himself looking at pictures that weren’t even Darkshire. That was where he was something that truly scared him, and shook him to his core for a fleeting moment. All humans looked annoyingly similar, but there was absolutely no doubt in his mind about who he saw. Somewhere in the Endless Dunes, Trini Kwan was unintentionally in the background of someone’s picture. It was dumb luck that Zedd should spot the Yellow Ranger, but he knew she wouldn’t be alone. If the Power Rangers were here, they needed to be dealt with immediately.

Yet, with his limited power, he wasn’t sure if he could handle even one of them, much less an entire team. Zedd tried a different approach with that knowledge in mind. Surely there were other people with little regard for morals in the digital domain. It took him a little bit, but Zedd found a way to post a small reward for the capture of the Power Rangers. Some fool would either bring them in, but more than likely just get himself killed. Hopefully it would be publicly, and Zedd could get a grasp for their powers, as well. If it wasn’t, then merely slowing down the heroes was enough, even if he didn’t know what he was slowing, exactly. Anything to bide his time while he gained the power to defeat them and any others.

As the artificial morning sun pierced the glass door to the the balcony, he finally realized how long he'd spent on the computer. Zedd finally closed the laptop and grabbed his staff from the old couch it leaned against. It was time for some more action, as that seemed to be the most effective way of coaxing his latent powers back into use. Doctor Regal and whatever vermin problem he had would do quite nicely for that.

The dark lord exited the apartment and locked it behind himself, before turning and confidently marching down the hall. There before him was once more that insufferable woman, Mrs. Pearson. She carried a paper bag filled to the brim with various groceries, and it precariously shifted in her grasp as she tried to retrieve her apartment keys from her purse. The poor woman didn’t even see Zedd coming.

With one powerful upward swing, Lord Zedd swatted the bottom of the bag with his free hand. The resulting eruption of household goods covered the hallway with vegetables, bread, and other miscellaneous items while the woman gasped in surprise. Zedd never broke stride, and laughed maniacally as he continued towards the elevator.

He didn’t bemoan the fact that he had been reduced from enslaving galaxies to performing juvenile pranks on old ladies. He was trying to stay positive, because he felt pretty good about how he was handling his grim situation. Besides, even the masters needed to practice the fundamentals from time to time.