What has gone before: The intergalactic wizard Zordon chose Jason Scott, Trini Kwan, Zack Taylor, Billy Cranston, and Kimberly Hart to become the first group of Power Rangers after Rita Repulsa and her minions were released from their captivity. As the battles ensued the evil witch played one of her trump cards, the stolen power coin and turned Tommy Oliver into her evil Green Ranger before he was brought over to the good side. Not long after, two events occur; the first was the initial creation of a monster known as Shell Shock, making a comment to "Teenage mutants seeing what a full grown turtle could do." When Rita Repulsa recreated Shell Shock to give him another chance the rangers were aided by the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles; Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello and Michelangelo, this would lead to a long standing alliance between the four mutant turtles and the teenage rangers. The second event was the creation of a monster known as Lightning Falcon that nearly defeated the six rangers. In response Zordon created a new power coin and infused it with the power of lightning, giving it to a martial arts expert named Amber Quinn. Not long afterwards Lord Zedd would arrive and banish Rita Repulsa and set his sights on defeating the Power Rangers and their mutant allies, starting with Tommy. This lead to what Zedd would assume was the end of the Green Ranger when he would have the expected final battle against Turbanshell…
Jason did not like the looks of this. He and his four friends were trapped behind a force field, forced to watch as Lord Zedd prepared to infuse his newly chosen Dark Rangers with power and use them to conquer Earth.
To the side they could all see the crystal that held what was left of the green ranger's powers. "I can't believe he's won." Zack muttered. "We're trapped, Tommy facing that Turbanshell monster with no powers, and Amber probably has her hands full against Scorpina."
"I can almost hear Alpha panicking now." Kimberly added softly. She looked to their leader. "Jason, what do we do?" She asked him.
The red ranger placed a hand against the field holding them and got a shock. "I don't know." He answered her regretfully.
"There is nothing you can do." Zedd told them scornfully as he turned to face them, the winged space alien Goldar at his side. "In fact, I think I will return you, weak and powerless, to the city where you will not be able to lift a finger to stop me." With that statement he teleported the rangers out of the field and into Angel Grove Park.
"Master, allow me to go and finish Tommy off." Goldar requested. "I have an old score to settle with him."
"Very well, you have earned that privilege at least." Zedd allowed.
Just as Jason predicted Amber had been diverted trying to fight Scorpina. The scorpion monster swung her sword at the purple ranger and she blocked it with her power staff, a weapon similar to Billy's lance in size and shape but without the pointed ends in back. In exchange for the lack of blade power she was able to shoot her trademark lighting from either side of the weapon. That came in handy now as several Putty Patrollers tried to move in from behind her. The lighting quickly sent them scurrying away. Then she heard Zordon from her communicator, "Amber, we have a situation. We cannot allow this diversion to go on any longer."
"I'm on my way Zordon." Amber replied as she unleashed another blast of electricity, this time at Scorpina. When the smoke cleared she was gone, transporting to the command center. "What can I do to help my friends?" She asked him.
"I'm afraid there is nothing you can do to aid the rangers." Zordon informed the purple ranger, who was still morphed sans her helmet that was sitting on the top of the console in the command center. That point of course became moot when Zedd returned the five teens to Angel Grove Park. "Lord Zedd has surrounded the crystal in a field that no power ranger can penetrate."
"Then I can help Tommy." Amber decided.
"That has already been arranged." Alpha Five said.
"Right now be prepared to step in should something more serious than a diversion arise." Zordon instructed the purple ranger.
Goldar appeared in front of Turbanshell. "You have been recalled by Lord Zedd, I will finish off this weak human." He was planning to torment Tommy with memories of being the green ranger and demand the human admit he was inferior compared to him before destroying him.
"Why don't you both stick around?" They heard. They turned to see two mutant turtles heading their way. The one in blue, Leonardo, kicked Goldar in the chest hard while the one in red, Raphael, kicked Turbanshell back hard.
The one purple, Donatello and the one in orange, Michelangelo, were on Tommy's other side. "Man, am I glad to see you guys." Tommy said to the two mutant turtles. "But Turbanshell took the last of my powers and he's going to use them to power up his Dark Rangers."
"Yo, bros!" Mikey called out. "We got to go."
Even as Leo blocked Goldar's sword swing with his two katana blades and Raph flipped over Turbanshell, taking a hold of the monster's arms and toppling him, the two of them heard the call. They dashed over to them.
"How do we get out of here?" Tommy asked. His communicator was gone. He vaguely recalled the message from the future he and Kim had seen but so far saw no signs of how he was supposed to make that happen.
"The same way we got here despite Zedd's plan." The purple masked turtle answered. Donnie pulled out a small remote. "We're taking a page out of another playbook and we're going to portal out of here." He answered. He pressed the button and a small pink portal appeared. "Let's get back to the command center." The five of them started through the portal.
"No, stop them." Goldar commanded. Turbanshell tried to blast them with his shell staff but the four turtles and Tommy were gone.
The five teen's teleported from the park to the command center after seeing a news report questioning where the Power Rangers were. Moments later the four turtles and Tommy came in through the portal.
"Are you okay Tommy?" Jason asked his friend.
"Yeah." Tommy answered a bit dejectedly as Kim placed her hand on his shoulder. "But my powers are gone."
"Not necessarily." Donnie interrupted them. He looked up at Zordon. "I think we can take that crystal and polarize it." He started to explain to him. "It should short out Zedd's control over the Dark Rangers so we can return them to the city unharmed and preserve Tommy's powers."
"So we could make him the green ranger again." Kim supplied helpfully.
"Is that even possible Zordon?" Tommy asked their mentor.
"Donatello's strategy as far as freeing the teens Zedd is using is sound." Zordon agreed. "However I do not know how we can turn around and use that energy to prolong your powers much longer. I do believe though that it will allow you a few more battles Tommy."
"But how are we supposed to do that?" Amber asked. "I thought Zedd's field would prevent power rangers from getting to the crystal."
"Um, we're not power rangers." Mikey answered as if it were obvious. In this case it was though usually the orange masked turtle did not get the obvious right. "We'll go get the crystal."
"I'll go with you guys." Tommy volunteered. He could already see protests forming on the lips of Kimberly and Jason and he moved to cut them off at the pass. "Look, I'm human now. I'm not blocked out by that field. And the guys might be needed if Zedd is remotely prepared, but he'll disregard my presence."
The monster alarm sounded and they saw that Turbanshell had returned, this time in giant size. "Looks we've got our own problems to worry about." Trini observed.
"Guys, take care of that crystal." Jason said to the four turtles. "Amber, hang back in case something else goes wrong." He said to the purple ranger, who nodded in agreement. "It's morphin' time!"
The five of them pulled out their morphers and called for their powers. "Mastodon!" Called Zack. "Pterodactyl!" Called Kim. "Triceratops!" Called Billy. "Sabertooth Tiger!" Called Trini. "Tyrannosaurs!" Called Jason.
The five rangers appeared in downtown Angel Grove. "We're going to need the power of thunder." Jason declared. The five rangers summoned the Mastodon Lion Thunderzord, the Pterodactyl Firebird Thunderzord, the Triceratops Unicorn Thunderzord, the Sabertooth Tiger Griffin Thunderzord and the Tyrannosaurus Dragon Thunderzord. They were then brought together to form the Thunder Megazord.
The four turtles and Tommy teleported into the place where Zedd was in the process of giving orders to the Dark Rangers. The fact that Goldar and Turbanshell had failed to destroy Tommy because of the turtles didn't seem to bother him too much. Leo and Tommy both exchanged glances, hoping that would change soon enough.
They started sneaking forward to grab the dark crystal. Somehow despite the four turtle's ninja training and Tommy's own training Goldar seemed to decide to look toward the crystal. He exclaimed, "Lord Zedd!"
The red skinned metal covered mastermind looked to where Goldar was and saw the five of them. "Don't just stand there." Zedd ordered the winged minion. "Stop them."
The four turtles leapt past Tommy and landed around Goldar, surrounding him. They then turned around and slammed all four of their shells against him hard, stunning him.
Tommy meanwhile took a hold of the dark crystal. He could already feel some of the energy of the green ranger powers surging through him as he raised the crystal from the pedestal only to slam it down hard, shattering it and ending Zedd's control over the dark rangers, who seemed confused before Zordon teleported them away.
"Your plans are finished Zedd." Tommy said to him. "When are you going to learn that you can't beat the Power Rangers?" With that he and the turtles teleported to the command center.
They returned to the command center where they witnessed Turbanshell unleash an attack on the Thunder Megazord before withdrawing into his shell and ramming hard into it. The zords were forcibly separated and Trini, Kim, Zack and Billy were forced to evacuate the zords, leaving Jason and the red dragon thunderzord to fight it.
"How do you feel Tommy?" Amber asked her friend as she watched the screen anxiously. She had just about been ready to join the fight regardless before they had shown up.
"Like I have at least one more battle left in me." Tommy said with some joy.
"Then go, and let the power protect you." Zordon replied.
Tommy pulled out his morpher and called out, "Dragonzord!"
The green ranger showed up and pulled out the dragon dagger, about to summon his zord when he was interrupted by Zordon from the communicator, "Rangers, Alpha has just learned that Turbanshell can only be defeated by heating him from the inside and then freezing him from the outside."
"I have a laser that can do the job, but we've got to get you inside first." Billy said to him.
"I have an idea about that." Tommy replied. "We just got to freeze him afterwards."
"Don't worry about that one." Amber said. "I'm coming down there, and I know how to deal with that."
Tommy got Turbanshell to notice him and the large monster ate the crate of watermelons that the green ranger chose to dive behind. Once inside Tommy started to fire the laser inside of Turbanshell's stomach. He didn't find it the most pleasant thing but when a ranger you do things that aren't always pleasant. He recalled Jason telling him that he had had to jump inside another monster's stomach named Hatchosaurs to get at the controlling AI Cardiotron.
"Give me a hand." Amber called out. Zack came over and joined the purple ranger and together the two of them picked up a large hose and began to spray Turbanshell with cold water. The result was a lot like sticking an ice cube into scalding water.
"Oh, I don't feel so good." Turbanshell murmured before basically spitting Tommy back up again.
The five rangers, led by Kimberly, ran over to the green ranger. "Tommy, are you okay?" The pink ranger asked him.
Tommy nodded. "I'm just fine guys." He promised. "The four of you should rejoin Jason and finish him off." The four of them nodded and Amber hung back with Tommy as they reformed the Thunder Megazord and ultimately charged up their thunder sword and finishing Turbanshell off.
A couple hours passed as the seven teens checked up on the former dark rangers. Leo had a corner in the command center to meditate while Donnie worked with Alpha five. Raph and Mikey stood around somewhat impatiently but their leader had insisted they wait around until they knew everything was fine.
The ranger's teleported into the command center and told them that the teens seemed to be fine after their brief 'recruitment' by Lord Zedd. They had elected to start fresh with them after the harrowing experience. "Glad that's resolved." Raph commented.
"So what's going on with the green ranger powers guys?" Jason asked Alpha and Donnie. "How can we keep them up? How much longer can Tommy possibly be the green ranger for?"
"We think Tommy should have at least a few more fights left in him thanks to some circuitry rerouting that Donatello and I have been working on." Alpha answered him. "As for what we do after that, I'm afraid we're all still working on that one."
"What we seem to need regardless is another power ranger." Amber said softly to Kim, who couldn't help but nod in agreement. Seven was still not entirely cutting it, and right now the green ranger was more like half a ranger.
"Whatever happens, I know you'll all have done your best." Tommy said simply.
"And I am very proud of you Tommy." Zordon said. "You have time and again shown yourself as a true hero and a worthy power ranger."
"Thanks Zordon." Tommy replied. "But I also realized it's not just about this." He held up his morpher. "It's about what's in here." He added as he tapped his hand to his chest.
"No question about that one." Trini agreed.
"Still we're not out of options yet." Donnie said. "I've got a couple of ideas I want to try out but that's going to have to happen at my lab in New York." He looked to Tommy. "Don't worry, it'll all work out."
"And remember no matter what happens, if this eventually fails or succeeds, you'll always be a power ranger." Jason said to his friend and then realized there were four mutant turtles in the room that had helped them on numerous occasions. "I mean you'll always be one of us."
The seven human teens and the four turtle teens placed their hands together and leapt up into the air, and despite the four turtles not having powers they all still called out, "Power Rangers."
"I'm sorry your plan failed master." Goldar tried to appease Zedd as he paced his throne room, very obviously angry at the loss.
"No, my plan didn't fail you fool. You failed!" Zedd growled out. From the corner of his eye he saw Scorpina flinch a little and bow her head just as Goldar did and he could hear the two useless ones; Baboo and Squatt cowering behind the wall. The First only knew where the Repulsa's former monster maker Finister was hiding himself.
"Still so short tempered I see." They heard a voice say with amusement.
"Who dares speak to me that way?" Zedd demanded. "Show yourself!"
"You can stow your attitude brother." The voice answered as another being that looked like Zedd appeared in front of them. The only difference was this one was more muscular than Zedd clearly a fighter, and he had an R on the helmet on his forehead and staff. "And I wouldn't worry about what just happened down there. In fact, I needed the green ranger active for my plan to put an end to the power rangers to work."
"Oh?" Zedd inquired. "Tell me more…"