Jen Scotts' dreams are interrupted by blaring sirens and the noise of heavy footsteps outside her door. Instantly awake thanks to her training, the veteran Time Force Pink Ranger leapt from her bed, quickly drawing a pistol from a holster on the wall, doing a quick visual check of the firearm, before slamming I home and placing the holster and belt on her, glad once again that her Time Force uniform was selfcleaning, allowing her to sleep in it, a habit she'd grown into on any number of missions.

Less than a minute after waking, she was out in the hall, watching as the cadets and various civilian staff at the base were milling around, some going to stations, others seemingly just walking about in circles, causing her to scoff at the latest batch of recruits. Still, she didn't know the situation either, and slammed her palm against one wall, allowing the bio sensors in the hall to read her signature, and then read who she wanted to talk to, much like the Zord's took commands through her sword hilt.

"Report," was all she said as a screen flared to life against the wall, seeming to just appear out of nothing. The image on it was of the command center for the Time Force base, and in that image was a female Xybrian, Trip's people, with that trademark jewel of theirs glowing in his forehead, showing anyone who knew to look, just how worried this girl was.

"I don't know, Commander. One minute we were getting all clear reports from every section, and then something hit the Time Shadow, hard. We've got crews where it crashed, but we've still got no idea what hit it. Here's the image," said the girl, panicked, since this was the first crisis that Time Force had faced since that whole Ransik debacle, but still, she was well trained.

The screen switched over to a view outside the base, showing the city at night. Everything looked beautiful, as always, with a few buildings taking advantage of the clear night air to float freely over the city, rotating slowly. Looking closer, she spotted the Time Shadow's black silhouette against the stars, doing a lazy auto patrol loop around the city.

Suddenly a shot came. It was a lightning bolt, obviously some form of energy attack from some weapon. However, there was no obvious source for it, at least, none capable of producing one of the magnitude the displays were registering it as. No mutant could produce that much energy without using growth power, and it just seemed to come from inside the city, exploding against the Time Shadow's left side, and causing it to crash in the city below.

"Alright, I want every patrolling Zord back at headquarters five minutes ago, we can't give whatever did that anymore airborne targets. And get all the Time Force agents not dealing with the crash in the city back here," she said, as the image faded back to the girl, who nodded and quickly began to push buttons off screen. Jen, seeing no reason to continue the channel, removed her hand from the wall and turned to find she had an audience waiting.

"Okay grunts, everyone get a weapon and get to the Time Door. I want that thing locked down tight. Everyone not in Time Force itself, remain in your quarters until we know what happened," she ordered, and the assemblage of various people began to disperse to the tasks she assigned them, while Jen herself started towards the Vault, to get her Morpher. She didn't think she'd need it, but if that blast was some new mutant, then this was going to be a long night.

((((()))))

"Come on! FASTER!" shouted Lucas to his vehicle, a flycar he'd been modding with some advice he'd gotten from Wes back in the 21st. It was about 20% faster than anything else in the air that was available to the civies, none of whom were flying tonight, what with the crash, and Time Force's no fly order. Lucas though, he was with Nadira when whatever had happened, happened, and so when the call went out, he raced to his car, telling Nadira to got to her dad, while Lucas flew out to where he'd seen that lightning strike come from.

That was ten minutes ago, and now he was desperately running, looking back through his mirror to see that…whatever it was chasing him, the brown cloak it wore billowing in the wind behind it as it leapt from building to building, somehow keeping up with his ride. Even that speed demon mutant hadn't managed that, but then, this thing, whatever it was, it wasn't a mutant.

"I know you've got more juice than this, just give daddy a little bit more," he coerced , pushing a big red button he'd told his wife never to push under any circumstances. That was because it basically dumped all the fuel at once into the engine, and had it blow out in one burst. It was something he knew was stupid, but still, the result was he suddenly shot away from the thing, towards the command center, with a few vids of this thing. Maybe Jen or Alex could ID it, and then figure out what to do.

"Time for Time Force!" he shouted, rubbing his fingers against the morpher on his wrist, causing his suit to appear around him. It felt good to be back in the thing, the protective field it generated making his skin itch. That good feeling left him as he also felt the car, now bereft of lift, start a slow arcing fall towards the ground below. Shutting down the crash field that kept him against the seat, the Blue Time Ranger leapt from his vehicle, landing on the ground, before taking off at a run.

Lucas, the king of speed, got fifteen steps from where he'd landed before he stopped, staring at the thing he'd been running from. It was impossible, but this thing had not only kept up with his car, which landed just behind the pair, creating a spectacular shower of sparks as it slammed into the permacrete, sending parts flying. The thing had also passed them, and was now just standing there, as if mocking him.

"Kyah!" yelled the Blue Ranger, going for the first attack with a flying kick, hoping this thing would dodge and let him bolt past it while it tried to counterattack. Instead the thing reached up one large, rocky gray hand, and did something that just..it defied physics. Somehow it grabbed Lucas' foot, and held him there, just holding him by his ankle in the air, before dropping the stunned ranger at its feet.

"Heh, the old ones would have just teleported to their command center. You new ones are pathetic in that regard," said a voice like gravel mixing in a tumbler, while the thing reached up and pulled its hood back a bit. Beneath the lip of that coarse brown fabric Lucas caught a glimpse of something like that hand, gray and rocky, however, it was the eye that drew his attention, shining like a ruby in the night air, before a bolt shot out of it, and Lucas' world exploded into red, hot pain.

((((()))))

"Time Force Megazord and the Transwarp Megazord at the ready to defend against any aggressors, ma'm!" said the recruit, saluting. Behind him, Jen could see the Zords he spoke of, the vehicles she'd driven for so long, as well as the thing that sent them to the past. In front of the Zords were the assembled Time Force squads, all with Chrono Blasters drawn, ready for whatever might come their way, should the Zords fail to meet the foe.

"Good work, join the squads at the ready," said Jen, her voice a bit muffled by the Pink Time Force helmet she now wore, having morphed once she was sure the others were coming. Alex was at some stupid off world conference, but Katie and Trip were rarin to go, both of them, as well as she and Lucas, having been allowed to keep the morphers they'd 'borrowed' during their little adventure. Lucas, according to Nadira, was already on his way, and Ransik had offered to assist if she needed.

She'd nearly told Ransik to stick his offer up his….but she had instead told him to stand ready. Whatever had hit the Time Shadow was powerful, and so she'd ordered Blue Mode for the Time Force Megazord, figuring speed would allow it to at least somewhat counter that power. Staring at the titanic machine, being piloted by cadets, she actually thought they might enough to stop whatever had attacked them.

Then it happened in a flash. More lightning struck out from the city, closer to the base than before, probably just outside, but moving closer. It lanced towards the Transwarp Megazord, slamming into the monolithic machine several times in the blink of an eye, eliciting several showers of sparks from its defensive field.

To their credit, and her own as their trainer, the ranks of cadets stayed strong, not moving, even as the Transwarp was caught by the Time Force Megazord. Of course, as she watched, another attack, this one not lightning but some kind of blast, shot out from the end of the runway one which she stood, blasting the Megazord, and tossing it away, like it was nothing but some kind of child's plaything.

Staring towards the point the beam had come from, she silently ordered her helmet to zoom in, and again, to finally see a figure approaching the place where she and the cadets stood. It was human sized, rather than Zord, but the readings on her suit said that this figure in a coarse, brown fiber cloak was indeed the source of those powerful blasts. Worse than that though, was he was dragging a shape by its neck in his left hand. That shape was Lucas.

Without thinking, she brought up Lucas' biomonitor on her screen, his suit's internal systems telling her suit's that he was still alive. In pain probably, but alive, as the figure dropped him roughly on the ground at his feet.

"You see how well your weapons work against me, so I will be merciful and offer you this one chance. My vendetta is not with you, but with the past. Stand aside," rang a harsh voice, seeming to come from all around Jen. It was probably worse for the recruits, who weren't wearing the ranger suit. However, she was gratified to see that not one of them budged an inch.

"We won't be intimidated!" shouted that Xybrian girl from the control room earlier, and with a cry she fired her blaster at the figure, the beam blasting against his skin, and burning the cloak he wore. Instantly everyone joined the attack, most figuring that this guy had wasted all his energy on taking out the zords, and the tactic had been a bluff.

Shot after shot poured over the figure, and when at last the cadets, and Jen who'd joined in a moment later, stopped firing to replace their power packs, they looked towards where he stood, and let the rubble filled cloud clear, only to reveal the figure, in all his gruesome glory just standing there, not even a scratch showing on him.

It was a him too; Jen could see that from his now revealed face. It was a hideous face to be sure, half human, and half…something else. Not any mutant she knew, but still, it had to be some kind of, the rocky gray skin with one shining eye. Below the neck, he was still somewhat human on one side of his body, even having a human right hand, however, the left side, and his legs, were smooth and gray, with hands and feet being as rocky as his face, and looking deformed, like they'd been molded from some kind of clay.

As soon as he took a step forward, more shots stuck him, but none of them did a thing to him, not even pushing him back. Instead the beams just kind of got absorbed by him, even where they struck his human looking skin, as he kept advancing. When he got about halfway down the runway, he stopped, and then a beam, like what had struck the Time Force Megazord, shot out of his eye, slicing into the ground before the cadets, and causing a massive explosion that sent them all flying.

Jen, feeling the pressure of the blast, still charged forward, her suit allowing her to leap into the air, and come down with a cry at the strange man, only for him to just grab her, and then slam her into the ground hard enough to cause an overload in her suit's protective field, generating a spray of sparks. Still recovering, Jen then found a hard foot stomp onto her chest, pinning her against the hard permacrete ground.

"Heh, so much for the Power part of your name," said that voice again, mocking contempt in it, as the form of the mutant leaned down, and then grabbed her head. It felt like her soul was draining out of her as that hand, the human one, seemed to pass into her helmet, and then touched the side of her face. When it was removed, Jen just slumped down, too weak to move.

"Still, that was quite helpful of you to be here for me," he said, and Jen's eyes bulged a bit at her voice now coming from his lopsided mouth, before he just stepped over her, and walked towards the Chrono Arch.

"Voice and biometric override, Command Code, Twilight of Time," came her voice, and the arch's power cells spun to life, spurring Jen to rise, forcing her mind away from the pain that nearly swooned her as she carefully got to her feet, and saw the figuring walking towards the now glowing archway.

"Recalibrate mass index, set for my current mass reading from this spot, and send it to Angel Grove, 1995, August 29th," commanded her voice, and Jen watched as the arch slowly spun all its motors to life, and then with a flash, the time vortex opened up. The figure, not stopping, kept moving towards it, and Jen, knowing she couldn't let this thing, this man, mutant, or whatever back to where it wanted to go, charged, trying to go silently.

Either the thing was too distracted to hear her, or Jen was quieter than she thought, because the Pink Time Force Ranger was able to do a flying leap at it, causing them both to go into the time vortex together, the energies of the travel tearing at her being, even as she heard the thing curse her interference.

((((()))))

"Deca! What's with that alarm?" demanded the Silver Ranger as he roused from what had been a peaceful slumber aboard the Astro Megaship II. Going to the bridge, he found various screens lighting up, and everything was telling him this was going to be a very long day, as he detected something with a massive amount of energy enter Earth's time space from the future. Whatever it was, Deca was picking it up from KO-35's orbit, and that meant it was real trouble.