A/N: Well, I had this plot bunny and it simply would not leave me, so welcome to this.
Basically, I had eight ideas pop up all at once which were impeding me from continuing Mystic Fairytale, so I took the idea I had poured the most brain juice into and here we go.
Don't worry, after this I'll be sure to get on with Mystic Fairytale. (Unless I decide to write down my other plot bunnies first)
For now, let's go to 2025!
Disclaimer: None of the characters except for Daffadil belong to me. The concept of age energy belongs to me.
Emperor Grumm sat bored on his throne, looking around the room. His most recent scheme had been taken down by the SPD Rangers a few hours prior, and he was losing his patience. Something had to be done to take down SPD.
"Grumm," Broodwing spoke as he walked in. "There's someone here to see you."
"Why have they come here!?" Grumm asked.
"This monster lived on KO-35 for the longest time but she recently escaped the jail on that planet after being put in it for causing huge uproars among the civilians of the planet with her powers. She thought that you would have what she needs." Broodwing explained. "Come in."
In walked a creature that was bright yellow. Her neck was adorned with four small flower petals, she had a white head with orange hair and her body was decked out in armour that was multicoloured and looked like building blocks.
"Who is this eyesore?" Grumm asked.
"Her name is Daffadil. She's an alien criminal who drains aliens and humans of their age to live." Broodwing explained.
"Hiya Grummy!" Daffadil chirped. "It's sooooooo nice to meet ya!"
"She sounds like a moron!" Grumm shouted, which made Daffadil look at him forlornly.
"That's not nice mister skullman!" She whined.
"She's immature.' Broodwing whispered to Grumm. "She needs people to drain of their age to make her lifespan longer.'
Grumm nodded, and then a devious idea popped up in his mind.
'I know just who Daffadil should take age from...' he chuckled evilly. "What time is it down in New Tech City?"
"Just after midnight." Broodwing responded.
"Get her down there." Grumm demanded. "Under the cover of darkness she'll be able to take plenty of people who are walking home from parties or late shifts. That should give her some age to drain, and we can set a trap for the Rangers."
"Rangers? They have those on this planet too?" Daffadil asked.
Broodwing nodded as he escorted her out of the room, and Grumm sat back.
'This plan is perfect. B-Squad will be too young to bother me!' He thought with an evil chuckle.
"Kat, summon the Rangers." Doggie Cruger requested. Kat Manx nodded and B-Squad were soon in the room.
"Rangers, we've got a problem." Cruger began, as Kat brought up a series of reports on a screen.
"Early this morning, 20 civilians have mysteriously vanished after entering a daycare centre in one of the seedier parts of town. SPD officers on night patrol at the time said they saw them follow a flashing light in the window of the daycare inside only for them to not exit." She explained to B-Squad.
"Sounds spooky." Bridge stated as Jack spoke up.
"Any other information?" He asked.
"There were Krybots in the area every tenth person, so twice Krybots scurried around the area and then returned." Kat responded.
"That's so weird. Why would Krybots just show up and then vanish again?" Z wondered.
"Worse, the officers who sent in the reports also went missing." Kat continued. "That's why we need two of you to investigate. The other three will go and stop a small Krybot force at a bank."
"I'll go!" Syd said.
"Erm, Syd, I feel as if I should go." Z spoke up. "I think you should stick with Jack and Bridge while me and Sky go and investigate."
"She's right." Sky spoke. "I don't want you to let those Krybots do whatever they are doing. Me and Z can handle ourselves."
"Okay, okay, fine! I'll go with Jack and Buttery here!" Syd sighed.
"Don't worry Syd, you'll be safe with us." Jack reassured.
"Get on your way to the bank." Cruger told them and Bridge. The trio ran off, while Sky and Z were given the coordinates to the area where the people disappeared.
"Good luck Rangers." Kat said as the two left, before turning to Cruger. "Are you sure they'll come back?"
"I'm sure." Cruger replied.
Around midday, the two SPD officers walked into a small plaza area. Not far away from this area was the daycare that they needed to investigate.
"So quiet..." Z noted nervously as she looked around.
"The site of the disappearances shouldn't be far off." Sky observed as he and Z started walking towards where the coordinates led them to.
On a rooftop above them were Daffadil, Broodwing and a few assorted Krybots, as they looked down at the two walking to the daycare.
"Got anything to deal with them? Too fast would be too obvious." Broodwing spoke, as Daffadil unfurled her hand to reveal a pair of robotic ladybugs.
"My thirsty friends would love to sip their age!" She giggled as the ladybugs flew down and attached themselves discreetly to the unknowing Rangers' backs before turning invisible.
"There it is!" Z exclaimed as the two arrived at the daycare.
"'Flowerpatch Daycare'." Sky read from the colourfully decorated sign as the two walked inside, noticing a disco ball lamp in the window.
'That must be the light which lured the civilians!' Z thought as the Rangers looked around inside the daycare. On the left there was a wall with a brown desk, on the right the wall was cut away to reveal a play area. Sky went behind the desk and saw a piece of paper which read 'DRAI HU' with eraser marks to indicate where certain letters had been wiped away.
"Strange." Sky said as he showed Z the paper and they took a picture of it to send back to base. They then progressed into the play area, which consisted of a large foam jigsaw puzzle floor that was primary colours with various toys scattered about.
As they looked around, Z idly picked up a bouncy ball and started playing with it.
"Hey, Sky..." she spoke as she turned around to face her colleague. "This place is making me feel like a little girl again."
"Seriously?" Sky spoke as he looked at the ball. "I want to play with that too." He said in a sad voice.
"Here you go!" Z handed him the ball and he bounced it on the floor.
"Good going Sky!" Z giggled. Sky put the ball down and the two saw a staircase in front of them, so they approached it.
"How do you think the other Rangers are getting on?" Z asked.
"I think they might've defeated the Krybots. After all, Kat did say it was only a small force." Sky responded as the two entered what looked like a child's bedroom. There was a large blue and brown circular rug in the middle, plastic tables and chairs, toys and a pink wardrobe in front of him and Z.
"This is suspicious." Z said as she went to look on the right while Sky looked on the left. Suddenly, Sky groaned in pain. It felt like his whole body was on fire.
"Agh... Z..." He murmured as soon Z started to feel the same pain as Sky. The two collapsed onto the floor on their tummies, as they began to feel immensely weak.
'What's going on...' was Sky's last thought before he fell unconscious, as Z soon joined him.
The two ladybug robots became visible and took to the air. The one from Sky's back was glowing blue while the one from Z's back was glowing yellow. They zipped out of the room and into an office where a woman with brown hair streaked with yellow and orange eyes wearing a flowery blouse chuckled as they returned to her.
"Good work little bugs! This age energy smells delicious!" The woman giggled mischievously.
Jack went up to Cruger. "Commander?"
"Yes?" Cruger asked. "Was the mission successful?"
Jack nodded. "It was, but I'm a bit worried about Sky and Z. They haven't returned for a few hours now."
"He's right." Kat spoke up. "They left around midday and it's now late afternoon."
Syd and Bridge entered the room, Cruger looking at them.
"Where's Sky and Z?" Bridge asked.
"They are missing." Cruger replied, as the Rangers shared worried glances.
What happened to their teammates?
Z was rather woozy as she awoke. That was a really nice nap! The carpet was comfy and the blanket was nice and soft and warm!
How long had it been since she fell asleep, though? Sky and her were investigating something for SPD when they suddenly collapsed painfully. Where was Sky?
Z opened her eyes to see that she was lying on the floor of the room they were knocked out, only everything seemed... bigger. Like she had the proportions of a child. A yellow blanket had been draped over her, and she sat up and glanced around.
"Sky?" She asked, only to hear a much cuter and younger voice from her mouth!
This was natural, right? No, it was not natural.
Z turned around and saw that next to the doorway was a mirror. Walking over to it, she let out a sharp gasp.
She had been turned into a five year old girl!
"W-What?" Z asked as she looked over herself. Instead of her SPD uniform, she wore a yellow T-Shirt with black trousers and she was also barefooted. Checking for her communicator proved fruitless. This was all very strange.
'Okay, so I'm a little girl now. But where is Sky?' She thought as she began looking around the room, before seeing a small door open in the wall, high up from her. Thinking quickly, she stacked up a pile of plush toys and used a chair to climb onto the pile, hoisting herself up into the little tunnel. As she crawled inside, she heard a small noise.
"I don't wanna get up..." a young boy's voice echoed through the tunnel, as Z exited it and fell on top of the boy, who was also curled up under a blanket which was blue.
"Wake up sleepyhead!" Z giggled, as the boy yawned and stretched, sitting up slowly as Z helped pull the blanket off of him.
"Z... WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU!?" Sky shouted.
"What happened to you!?" Z replied, as she saw that Sky was also five years old and wore a longsleeve dark blue top with grey trousers and was also barefoot.
"We've become little children again." Sky said. "This is just great."
"Don't worry, we'll find a way out of this." Z said as she felt her pockets again and found her morpher. "On the other hand, do these still work?"
"Let's try it." Sky said as he took out his own morpher and the two went through the motions.
"SPD, Emergency!" They stated...
...only for nothing to happen!
"Thought so." Sky said as the two stashed their morphers back in their pockets. "We're going to have to be careful if we get into trouble."
Z nodded as the two examined their surroundings. They were currently in another playroom, this time there were several pieces of soft play equipment spread around the room in an array of colours.
"There could be something in here..." Z said before she tapped Sky on the shoulder. "Tag! You're it!" She said as she ran off into the soft play.
"Come back here!" Sky said as he ran after her. The two chased each other under and over soft structures, up ramps and through tunnels before Sky finally caught up to Z.
"Tag." He patted her on the head and smiled as Z smiled back before noticing something on the wall which Sky also noticed.
It was a poster which depicted a flower smiling and the title of the daycare. But what made the two come closer was something that was drawn on the poster.
It was a rough picture of a group of children stood around a strange creature that looked almost like a flower. Below it was written three words.
Good Parenting Matters
'Good Parenting Matters? What does that mean?' Sky thought as Z heard a door open behind them. The two turned around to see Krybots pouring in and approaching them.
"Oh great." Z said as the two ran into the structure to hide as the Krybots started to swarm at them. As one was about to grab Sky, a forcefield blocked the grab.
"Somehow we still have our powers!" Sky said in happiness as Z cloned herself and used her clone to distract the Krybots while she went to grab Sky and they ran into another part of the play structures.
However, a Krybot tripped Z as she ran for the next one and easily scooped her up, as Sky was soon grabbed from behind by another Krybot.
"Hey, put me down!" Z whined as the Krybots scurried out of the room with the two young SPD officers in tow...
"Should we declare them MiA?" Kat asked Cruger. The absence of Sky and Z was really starting to worry her.
"Not quite yet. If they are gone for even longer then we'll have to do that, but if not then it'll have to be done." Cruger replied.
"Should I send the other three Rangers?" Kat requested.
"Not yet." Cruger spoke. "We'll wait a little longer just in case they do return."
Sky and Z found themselves tumbling down a slide after a Krybot had placed them into a chute of some kind.
"This is kind of fun, actually." Sky said as Z giggled and screamed joyfully as she slid down.
Soon, the two landed on a plush floor. They were in a new room, and it was a crowded one. About 28 kids ranging from 2 year olds to 7 year olds were scattered around the room, all idly playing with the various toys.
"These must be the people and SPD officers who vanished!" Z exclaimed as suddenly a voice came from behind them.
"How right you are, Rangers!" The female voice said as the two were picked up and were in the arms of a woman. "I'm your new mommy!"
'What.' Both thought simultaneously as they were carried off into the room they had first fell unconscious in, and laid down on the floor.
"First of all, I'd just like to say you two are very naughty kids and naughty kids deserve punishment." The woman explained as she brought out the light from the daycare window and set it down on the plastic table. She switched it on, and Sky and Z's attentions were immediately drawn to it. To them, the light show seemed to take forever, before the woman switched it off.
"But I liked those lights mommy!" Z pouted, as the woman took both morphers and placed them on a high shelf.
"It's getting late, you should get to bed." She told the two kids as they nodded.
"Can we have milk and cookies first?" Sky asked shyly. His answer came when the woman walked back into the other room and came back with two cups of milk and a plate of cookies.
"Share these." She advised as the two scrambled to the plastic table and started on their milk and cookies.
"One, two, three." Sky counted three cookies for him and then three for Z before he gave them to her.
The woman watched before turning around to head back into her office. Once inside the office, she opened up her laptop as an image of Grumm appeared.
"They now think they're my children!" She chirped before Grumm laughed evilly.
"Good job Daffadil, we know that works on Rangers now as well. Now we need the other three Rangers and then you can steal their age energy too." He complimented.
"I'll do my best." Daffadil spoke as she shut the laptop and walked back to see Sky and Z had finished off their milk and cookies and had gotten dressed for bed. Sky was in blue PJ's with a light blue star pattern while Z was in PJ's that had a similar design to Daffadil's blouse.
"Okay darlings, I'll let you brush your teeth then come back here and I'll have your beds ready." Daffadil said as the two ran for the bathroom and she set their beds up.
When Z and Sky came back they got into their beds.
"Do you want a bedtime story?" Daffadil asked as they both nodded.
"Alrighty then." She said and began her story.
"One day there were two policemen who worked for something called SPD. Their commander had assigned them to hunt for some missing children at the Flowerpatch Daycare. They came inside and as they looked around, they began to act childish and grow younger. When they became completely little, they cried and fled from the nice people who wanted to adopt them. But a kind mother came in and saved them, and they lived with her in peace. The End." She finished.
"That was a great story mommy!" Z said as Daffadil hugged each of them.
"Good night little ones." She spoke before turning off the light and shutting the door as her 'children' went to sleep.
"I don't understand..." Kat said as morning was once again upon New Tech City. "Sky and Z should have been back by now."
"We have no choice but to send the other Rangers to the daycare." Cruger spoke as Kat summoned Jack, Syd and Bridge.
"Any luck?" Jack asked.
"No, that's why we're sending you to find them." Cruger said as he handed them the coordinates and the Rangers set off.
"I hope they succeed." He said, as Kat nodded and they looked at each other in worry.
At the plaza, a handful of Krybots was scattered around looking for people to take before the Rangers came in.
"I will hold them off! You two go and get Sky and Z!" Syd said. "SPD, Emergency!"
As Syd morphed and battled the Krybots, Jack and Bridge headed towards the daycare and got inside.
"Where to start?" Jack wondered as he looked around and saw the paper on the desk.
"That looks like another language." He commented, before holding the paper up to the light and seeing the letters that had been rubbed out.
"'DRAIN HUMANS'?" Jack read. 'This is getting weird...' he thought before Bridge led the way into the play area.
In one corner, a little boy in a blue cloud themed T-shirt was playing with a ball while nearby a little girl in a yellow dress was scribbling a picture in crayon.
"Seems normal." Jack stated before Bridge waved his hand and his smile dropped.
"Um, Jack..." he stated. "These readings I'm getting are just like Sky and Z's energy readings only littler."
"That means..." Jack's eyes widened. "No way!"
"Hello there, naughty boys." Daffadil strolled into the playroom. "How do you like my children?"
"They're not your children!" Jack snapped.
"Yes they are." Daffadil insisted. "Kiddies, we've got some visitors."
The two kids stopped what they were doing and looked at the two.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" Z asked.
"Z, it's me, Jack!" Jack said.
"Huh?" Z tilted her head. "What are you talking about?"
"Remember?" Jack asked. Z shook her head.
"You're being weird." She said and went back to her colouring.
Bridge had also tried to get Sky to remember him to no success. Daffadil smirked as both were distracted, and she glowed as tendrils made of yellow energy shot out and wrapped around Jack and Bridge, paralysing them.
"Let us go!" Jack demanded, but Daffadil dragged them into her office, before throwing them into a playpen where two further tendrils coloured their respective colours came out from the wall and wrapped around their bodies.
"You see, boys," Daffadil began, "I am Daffadil, a criminal from KO-35 who drains age energy, which is how people grow older. Without it, they become kids and stay kids. I need this energy to keep myself alive, and for a few years now I've been sucking it from many people. Your friends' age energy will give me a nice boost in lifespan, and yours will boost it even longer. I fear nothing more than meeting my maker, and I hope that I'll now live even longer than I imagined."
"You won't get away with this!" Jack growled as the tendrils started glowing.
Syd defeated the last Krybot in the plaza before she headed towards the daycare. Once inside, she heard Jack and Bridge yelling and followed the noise past the desk in the left into the office, where she saw them getting their age energy sucked out.
"Stop right there!" She screamed, as Daffadil snickered.
"No chance. Surrender your age energy to me and I might let them go." She offered, but Syd simply shot her with a laser as she fell on the floor in pain.
"Mommy!" Sky and Z ran in and clung to Daffadil as she rose slowly.
"You... little... RANGER!" She screamed loudly and surrounded herself with energy, transforming into her flower like alien form before grabbing Sky and Z and running outside.
"Quick, we have to get after them!" Syd shouted as she struck the tendrils and freed Jack and Bridge as their age energy flowed back into them. They saw the ladybugs and grabbed them, before all three rushed outside and saw Daffadil with Z and Sky clinging to her legs.
"Get them out of the way and I'll beat her up!" Jack said he morphed and Syd and Bridge grabbed Z and Sky respectively and carried them out to the side while Jack and Daffadil charged at each other.
"Go get him, mommy!" Z cheered as Jack threw lasers at Daffadil, who countered with vine like energy beams. The two seemed to be having a really heated fight, as Bridge remembered the ladybugs and threw both on the ground, before stamping on them.
This caused the age energy contained within the bugs to flow back into Sky and Z, turning them back to normal as they were now their proper ages and wearing their SPD outfits.
"What happened?" Z asked.
"No time to explain! Let's help him!" Syd said as Bridge ran over to the two with their morphers.
"SPD, Emergency!" The three shouted as the team was now fully morphed up and they charged into battle.
Daffadil fought against the Rangers, firing her tendrils and beams, but eventually, Jack landed a blow which blew her on her back. "NO!" She shrieked.
"Time to judge you!" Z shouted as she and Sky held up their judgement detectors.
"No! No!" Daffadil shouted.
"GUILTY!" Z and Sky declared at once, before Daffadil was sealed into a containment card which Jack picked up. The group cheered and headed back for base.
Back at SPD HQ, Sky and Z had finished explaining what happened to them before they were made to think that they were Daffadil's children.
"You must have enjoyed being kids again!" Syd said.
"Yeah, it was fun but in the end she was a criminal." Sky reasoned.
"What happened to all those captives?" Bridge asked.
"They returned to normal and the SPD officers on site helped them get away." Kat explained.
"Great job, B-Squad." Cruger said. "You are dismissed."
All the Rangers left the room except for Z. She looked at Kat and Cruger.
"You know what matters as much as protecting the innocent?" She asked.
"What?" Kat inquired.
"Good parenting matters." Z said as she left.
'Maybe I enjoyed it a bit too much.' Thought the Yellow Ranger.
A/N: That's a wrap!
Hope you enjoyed this story, and all the cuteness which unfolded! If you have ideas for future stories, be sure to chip in.
Peace Out,
~Dash