After having mutated at the figurative hands of the so-called lava, Neo Team Rocket had returned to the underground tunnel, their new base. Giovanni was pacing a corridor in front of Dr. Nanba, Jessie, James and Meowth. He still wore the same black suit, but his arms and legs were now purple and coated in spikes, like a Nidoking's, and his head was coated in white fur, with a small red gem, like a Persian's.
Jessie had small wings, and large yellow eyes like a Dustox, was purple and had a headdress like an Arbok's, and had the tail of a Seviper.
James was large, round and also purple, with a skull and crossbones on him, but he had a yellow bell like growth on his head, and the voice of an angel, like a Chimeco. He had no legs.
Meowth was stretched taller, and bits of flesh had ripped away in places, revealing his bones. His claws were several feet long, and his posture made it seem like he naturally stood on two paws.
Nanba was hunched over ridiculously, so much so that an open hump had formed on his back (like a Camerupt's), and he had tusks and fur like a Piloswine.
"Now, my mutants! The time has come! Today is the day we make our presence known to the world, and destroy the Poké Rangers!" Giovanni cried.
(Backing music plays, Rangers shown battling, including the Neo Cycles)
To protect the world, from devastation! Go Neo, Go Neo, Go! (Kris, Red Ranger, Arcanine Zord shown)
To unite all peoples, within our nation! Go Neo, Go Neo, Go! (Greg, Blue Ranger, Octillery Zord shown)
To denounce the evils, of truth and love! Go Neo, Go Neo, Go! (Kurtis, Green Ranger, Sunflora Zord shown)
To extend our reach to, the stars above! Go Neo, Poké Rangers! (Anna, Pink Ranger, Togetic Zord shown)
(Backing music plays, Rei, Yellow Ranger, Manectric Zord shown)
Poké Rangers Neo! (Jessie, James, Meowth shown, dancing)
Poké Rangers Neo! (Dr. Nanba shown)
Poké Rangers Neo! (Giovanni shown)
Po-ké Ran-gers! (Megazord battling)
Poké Rangers Neo! Neo! (Rangers with Neo Weapons)
Poké Rangers Neo! Neo! (Rangers with Neo Blaster)
Poké Rangers Neo! Neo! (Whitney, Miborg in Sanctuary)
Po-ké Ran-gers! (Poké Rangers stand facing an army of Grunts, led by Giovanni)
Poké Rangers Neo! Neo! (Donny and Carl at Golden Youths shown)
Poké Rangers Neo! Neo! (Jimmy meeting with Dr. Nanba)
Poké Rangers Neo! Neo! (Rangers with Laser Sabres)
Po-ké! (Ranger teens at golden Youths)
Ran-gers! (Original Neo Zords shown)
Neo! (Full team stand before season logo)
A/N: Well that opener was a big surprise… Welcome to the new season of Poké Rangers, Poké Rangers Neo! A few of you from last season will notice that I've extended the theme song with another verse of the chorus, as it will be particularly needed later in the season to show everything happening…nobody correctly guessed the quiz from the end of the movie, the answer was Battle Fever J. For those of you into spoilers, check out my profile, I've updated it, now including future fics, so some secrets about the future of Poké Rangers have been told! The most interesting being about season 5, Legacy… Now for the feature started in the movie, the silly text! )-( means "message about/from a sad scuba wearing a turban"
Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon, Power Rangers, or Poké Rangers. However, these characters are mine through a verbal contract, excluding all members of "Neo" Team Rocket. This disclaimer applies to this story, as well as all other Poké Rangers fics in my name.
Chapter 1; Giovanni Returns - Part 1
The five Rangers were hanging out at the local youth centre Golden Youths. Greg was playing Super Jail Break 14, a favourite of his. The other four were sat at a table nearby, laughing at what Donny, who worked at the club, was wearing. It was his new uniform, as selected by him; a lime green 1950's style suit, complete with hat and blood red tie. He was parading about in it, showing it off to everyone.
"Yes, it's great Donny, now how about you actually do some work!" Jimmy, the new manager said. Now that he'd gotten the job, he'd swapped his suit for a Hawaiian shirt, navy blue shorts, and brown sandals.
"I liked you better before you started working here," Donny said grumpily, snatching a tea towel from his boss, who was smiling and shaking his head.
"Yes! Yes! Yes! Come on!" Greg cried, punching his fist in the air, and the other Rangers spun round to him.
"What happened, Greg?" Anna asked.
"I've finally beaten the No.1 record again!" he cried, dancing around badly.
"It's just a shame a that you couldn't have done that back when Sabrina was here, huh? Rei asked.
"Yeah… But I'm going to leave the No.2 record hers, for something we can remember her by…but that doesn't mean I wont put my name back on the other eight spots!" he cried, turning back to the game, just as Kris' Neo Phone began ringing.
"Hey guys," he said, and the other Rangers crowded around to her. The disadvantage of communicating through phones was that the others couldn't hear very easily.
"Oh dear, Rangers!" they heard the familiar voice of their semi-cybernetic Mr. Mime friend Miborg cry, "There are monsters attacking the city! We don't know who sent them, or why, or pretty much anything at all right now – apart from what's irrelevant, of course - but you have to get out there and stop them, quick!" he finished, and the Rangers shared shocked and fearful glances, before rushing out.
"Hey Donny, nice suit!" Greg called back, having only just noticed it. Behind the bar, Jimmy put down the glass he was washing clean, and pulled out his own cell phone. He turned away from the room at large, and his eyes suddenly glowed red.
"They're on their way," he said into it, without even dialling, before turning back to the room, his eyes no longer glowing.
"Shortly, in the city centre…
"Come on, Poké Rangers! Come out to play! Jessie called, blasting random buildings and people, until the Rangers arrived, by which time everyone had either escaped or been knocked unconscious.
"Ew, either those are the ugliest men I've ever seen, or something is seriously wrong with them!" Anna squealed.
"Watch you mouth, I'm no man!" Jessie spat, "Maybe this'll refresh you memory! Prepare for trouble!" she continued angrily.
"Make it mutant double!" James continued with a non-creepy smile.
"To protect the world from devastation!"
"To unite all peoples with mutation!"
"To denounce the evils of truth and love!"
"To extend our reach to mutants above!"
"Jessie!"
"Mutant James!"
"Neo Team Rocket blast off at the speed of light!"
"Surrender now or prepare to mutate!"
"Meowth, dat don't rhyme!" the mutant cried.
"Team Rocket!" Kurtis cried.
"Correction! We're Neo Team Rocket! We're here to mutate the Earth, but more importantly, destroy the five o' you's!" Meowth cried.
"Neo Grunts! Attack!" James cried, and a squad of foot soldiers appeared. They were a basic fully black figure, except for the red "R" on their chests, a short blade instead of a right hand.
"Ready?" Kris asked.
"Ready!" the others replied.
"Neo Access!"
"Double-0 5! Discharge Ranger!" Rei cried, after morphing into the Yellow Ranger.
"Double-0 4! Happiness Ranger!" Anna called, morphing pink.
"Double-0 3! Sun Ranger!" Kurtis called, becoming the Green Ranger.
"Double-0 2! Jet Ranger!" Greg cried, having morphed into his blue suit.
"Double-0 1! Legendary Ranger!" Kris yelled, morphing into the leader, the Red Ranger.
"Laser Sabres!" they all called, summoning their base weapons, and igniting them.
They all slashed away, and quickly took down the squad. A few times they made contact with the knives, but they snapped off easily, so the Rangers could then go for another slash.
"Grr, well they're just wimps anyway! We're much tougher!" Jessie spat, and she and the other two rushed forward, Jessie fighting the girls, James battling Greg and Kurtis, and Meowth taking on Kris.
James gave his trademark laugh, as he knocked the boys down using a Smokescreen followed by two swift punches, then said "Ooh, this is kinda fun!"
"Poison Tail!" Jessie cried, swinging her tail round to strike, but the girls jumped and dodged the blow, so Jessie fired a Psybeam as she span back round, hitting the two female Rangers, and knocking them down.
"Hey, twoip!" Meowth panted, as Kris kept dodging his Slash attacks, then slashing him with his Laser Sabre, "Your friends look like they could use some help! What kind of leader are you?" he asked maliciously, and Kris turned to see the others on the ground, and Meowth took advantage of this, striking him down.
"Kris, what do we do now!" Anna asked anxiously.
"I – uh-" he stuttered, as the others bombarded him with the same question, until their Neo Phones began ringing.
"Hang on guys, help is on the way, we've just learned that with your new Zords and powers you've got new weapons, just type in "4-0-" and then your Ranger number!" Whitney told them.
"Perfect, just what we need, thanks Whitney!" Greg called. The four Rangers typed in the number, adding on 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 on the end, and new weapons appeared in their hands.
"Discharger!" Rei called. She held her weapon by a handle, with two poles at the end, that then connected with another short pole, which a had an opening, so it was a basic square.
"Super Spiker!" Anna cried. Her weapon resembled an entire Togetic's head, only with a handle at the end. The spikes appeared extremely sharp, and larger than they should have been in comparison to the rest of the weapon.
"Sun Shield!" Kurtis yelled. His looked like a large Sunflora's face, with a handle behind it.
"Octo-Cannon!" Greg called. He held a basic hand-held cannon, with a similar design to an Octillery's head, with the mouth as the firing end (similar to the Lion Blaster in Wild Force).
"Legend Staff!" Kris finished shakily, and a long staff appeared in his hands, with an Arcanine's head on the end (resembling the Tyranno Staff from Dino Thunder).
Anna and Kurtis leapt forward, striking all three (Kurtis striking with the "petals" of his weapon), followed by Rei blasting a ball of electricity, and Greg a jet of water (combined powering up to intense proportions, due to water conducting electricity), and Kris then leapt at them, to hit them with a flaming strike from his weapon, but he missed, as they all rolled out of the way, even though they were still charred.
"Poison Sting!" Jessie called, blasting the other four Rangers.
"Sludge!" James cried, coating the four Rangers on the ground.
"Pay Day!" Meowth called, scattering the Rangers in coins.
"Meowth! You've learnt Pay Day!" Jessie cried, running up and hugging the mutant, as James gathered the coins.
"We'll be back for you, Rangers!" Jessie said angrily, pulling out a small bottle of the lava, and pouring it onto the pavement, which melted away quickly, and reformed once they'd fallen through.
"Wait a second, was that the lava from before?" Greg grunted, sitting up.
"Maybe we should go to the Sanctuary, and talk to the others about this?" Kris suggested, and they ran, trying to be inconspicuous.
Shortly, at the Sanctuary…
"How can Team Rocket be back? I mean sure, Giovanni, but we threw those clowns into the lava. Speaking of which, how could that hole have reformed after they poured the lava!" Anna asked, waving her arms around as she paced the dome.
"Well first off, it looks like that's not actually lava at all, but the raw energy of that Groudon. Rather than actually hurting them, it seems to have mutated Team Rocket. I'm guessing the Neo Grunts are the product of all those other Team Rocket members in there," Whitney told them.
"And what about the hole?" Rei asked.
"Again, it's only a guess, but I think they've begun to manipulate the "lava" into being able to do other things – such as producing holes that close up," Whitney told them.
"Oh dear! I knew this would happen! And now we don't have Celebi, and all his knowledge, and-" Miborg wailed, so Whitney hit him lightly to shut him up.
"-And he didn't smack me, either!" he said, rubbing that spot of him arm.
"Only because he couldn't," Kurtis told him, and he began sulking.
"So looks like things are back to how they were before? Except for new powers, yours truly, and-" Rei said, but Kris cut across her.
"And an unfit leader," he said. The others all looked to him with shocked expressions.
"What makes you think you're an unfit leader?" Whitney asked, frowning.
"You didn't see me back there! I constantly messed up! First I didn't have a clue what to do when they were attacking us, then Meowth was able to distract me, whilst the others were getting their butts kicked," he said, intending to continue, but Anna apparently thought he'd finished.
"That doesn't make you a bad leader! Remember when Sabrina faced that Ampharos monster! She was completely psyched out by him, and she had to face him all alone, but she pulled through in the end, and saved the four of us! And I know you would do the same!" Anna cried.
"That was different. Not to be arrogant, but I don't think I'm a bad Ranger, just a bad leader. I can't make the decisions, and face the pressure that a leader has to. I don't deserve to be the Red Ranger," he said, and without another word, he held up his Neo Phone to allow him passage through the Sanctuary shield.
"Do you think he'll be ok?" Greg asked.
"Yes," Whitney replied simply, "Anyway, don't worry about him, you might as well go back to Golden Youths."
"So we can put more money in your pocket?" Anna asked with a smirk, as she and the others pulled their Neo Phones from their pockets.
"Come on, you know that your services to the world are all the pay I ask for," she said, smiling back, as they disappeared through the shield.
Meanwhile, in the underground tunnel…
"What is this mess?" Giovanni asked with disgust, kicking random objects around, as he entered the trio's room, which was littered with junk, including a large, gift-wrapped box.
"Thanks to his mutation, Meowth finally learned Pay Day!" James cried excitedly.
"So what, you just popped out to the shops and bought this stuff?" Giovanni asked.
"No, instant home-delivery, they have pokémon teleport it to ya," Meowth told him, dropping some lava on a stuffed Meowth toy, and it mutated identically to him.
"And look, we got you a present!" Jessie told him, ripping off the gift-wrapped box, to reveal a brand new plasma screen TV.
"And we've had Dr. Nanba mutate it, so now it can show you anywhere in the world, without any cameras or electricity needed!" James continued, handing his boss the remote, and he pressed a button, and it showed the four Rangers in the youth centre.
"Why didn't you finish off the Rangers!" Giovanni asked angrily.
"Well, we were just so excited! But don't worry, we've got a plan," Jessie said, pulling out a brand new cell phone, and dialling a number.
Meanwhile, at Golden Youths…
"How can you play that game knowing your friend is out there, crestfallen and dejected?" Anna asked Greg, who was playing Super Jail Break 14 again.
"Yeah, and feeling pretty sad, too!" Kurtis added.
"I know, but Whitney said not to worry about it, so I'm not," Greg told them, adding his name to he third place spot.
Behind the counter, Jimmy's eyes flashed red as he received the call from Jessie.
"Hey, it's Jessie, tell the Rangers that your boss is looking for them," she told him, and he did as asked.
"Hey, guys, it's Whitney on the phone, she wants you to get down to-" Jimmy called to the Rangers, pausing to check with Jessie, "the department store, pronto!" he told them.
"What? If Whitney wanted us, why didn't she call us herself, or even just have told us before we left?" Rei asked the others, making sure Jimmy couldn't hear.
"Are you sure?" Anna asked him, and Jessie told him to put them on.
"Sure, you can talk to her if you want," he said, holding the phone out, and they all went to the bar, Greg taking the phone, and they all listened.
Back at the tunnel, Jessie put on a headset she had used many times before, to alter her voice.
"Hey guys, is that you?" they heard Whitney's voice ask.
"Yeah…" Greg answered slowly.
"Good, we're picking up some weird energy readings from around the department store, think you could check it out?" Jessie asked.
"Sure…why didn't you call us on the Neo Phones?" Greg asked.
"Would you believe the networks down?" Jessie asked with a chuckle.
"Well…ok," Greg said, handing the phone back to Jimmy, and they all ran out.
"Good work," Jessie told him, and Jimmy's eyes flashed red again as he hung up.
As the Rangers approached the department store, they couldn't see anything, but as they stood over a certain spot, they all felt something, so they stopped.
"What on Earth is that?" Kurtis asked.
A second later, a hole in the ground opened up, and the Rangers fell into the arms of several Neo Grunts, who tied them up so they couldn't escape, as they struggled fruitlessly.
A/N: Yet another evil cliffhanger! Well, what can you expect from a two-parter? I didn't expect that to be so long, but I personally think that was a pretty good chapter, with a good couple of titbits from pokémon about Team Rocket, and next chapter will only have more! As of this season, I've decided to stop giving away chapter titles, partly so the next chapter is more of a surprise, partly because I haven't completed my episode guide for this season yet. However, once I have at least got the first half or so, I'll be posting the first half of the episode guide in the forum, for anyone interested. Now, as we all know, the majority of the villains here are morons, so they need ideas for mutants. Yes, I need mutants that could possibly end up with a whole chapter based on them. To begin with, the mutants would preferably be based around the pokémon the four have (since Nanba doesn't have any they cant be based on his), but they can be based on other pokémon as well. See ya!