Disclaimer: While I don't own the overall concept of Power Rangers, Zords, and all else that goes with it, I, along with the friends that are involved with the story, do own Power Rangers Literati itself and its components.

-o0O0o-

Power Rangers Literati
"Versus Super Sentai"
By J.T. Magnus, "Turbo"

-o0O0o-

Previously, on Power Rangers...

"Targeting computers down, tracking systems are out," Yolanda announced, "Parts of the flight systems are melted beyond self-repair, we'll have to fix them ourselves... Worse news, one more attack with fire energy and our protection against it will be gone, the Phoenix Spiritzord can only absorb so much of it without the Dragon to help."

In his thoughts, Daniel swore hard, "Justin, we need the Megablaster."

"What good will that do?" Justin asked as his hands flew across his controls, "We can't lock onto anything."

"Then we'll sight down the barrel!" Daniel answered forcefully.

Justin closed his eyes for a second, "Get us to our feet, I'll see what I can do."

Across the water, Cameolion made it to its feet, still in its stolen form, and started toward the fallen Megazord, sword gripped tightly in its hand. Both hands pushing off the river bed, the Spirit Megazord rose up enough to get one leg under it and bring the other foot forward, leaving one hand on the riverbed for balance as it raised the other and summoned the Demon Spiritzord's Megablaster. As the barrel of the Megablaster was leveled at the on-coming counterfeit Megazord, blue energy began spiraling around the barrel, then yellow, red, green and finally pink before blending together into a ball of white at the end of the barrel. As the Literati Megazord raised its sword, the Spirit Megazord fired, smoke and sparks obscuring the copycat monster before clearing as it fell backwards into the water, defeated and headless.

"Bang," Daniel whispered.

Jessica took a couple of deep breaths, the adrenaline still strong from the fight, before her eyes shot open, "Johnnie."

-o0o-

"What the hell was all that?" Amanda swore.

J.T. winced, breathing heavily as he stood up, "I'll tell you in about a week..."

"A week! A week?" By this point, the blonde was almost hyperventilating.

"Yeah... That's when I'll probably wake up," J.T. expanded, staggering and putting his hand on the railing behind him to brace himself as his eyes flashed black, then green, and back to black before settling on their natural grey, "I did something... something really stupid and... I'm going to suffer for it... Kella, could you help me get home? I need to be sure I make it there since when I fall... I'm going to hit hard and won't be getting back up for a while..."

-o0o-

A faint ironic smile traced its way across J.T.'s lips as he read, "Evicted..."

Jessica looked at the note on her partner's apartment door, "Oh, Johnnie..."

"Not..." J.T. forced out, leaning against the wall, "...Surprised... Hardly here... any..."

J.T. winced, "Anymore... work, 'work', the... team, your house... Your house... take..."

The unmorphed Black Ranger couldn't force his body to go any further, injuries, forced accelerated healing, massive Power surges all had taken their toll on him and he slid down the wall, collapsing on the floor as he lost consciousness.

Over two thousand miles away, deep beneath the Pacific Ocean, a pair of red eyes glowed to life for a moment before fading back to darkness.

And now, the continuation...

-o0o-

Except for a double-door, a brick fireplace in which a fire burned and the bay window that seperated the room from the rain outside, the walls were covered with shelves of books, books on almost any subject that could be thought of, wing-back chairs for one to sit in while they read those books were across a rug from the fireplace. Standing on the rug, two lovers stood in a close embrace, the woman's arms tight around her man's neck as his hands rubbed her back gently. After a moment, he slid his right hand around to pull her closer as he reached up to her face with his left and, with the tips of his first two fingers, traced the thin scar along the right side of her jaw before curling underneath so that the knuckles of his first finger were right under her chin. Their eyes met and a silent permission passed between them for him to gently lift her face to meet his as he lowered it and touched his lips to her's. As they kissed, the hand that had moments before brought their faces together brushed a wild strand of hair back behind her ear as it fell to re-encircle her, coming to rest against the blade of her shoulder. Breaking the kiss, she turned her head and rested it against his chest, leaving him to plant kisses in her soft flame-colored hair. When she whispered his name he could hold back no longer, he turned his head to rest it against her's and began to cry; tears of saddness, tears of joy, tears of relief, tears of laughter, tears of thanks... But most of all, tears for all the times that he had held back his emotions, tears to create tabula rasa, to create a clean slate. He whispered her name and she gently twisted her head out from under his and smiled at him, a smile that when she was relaxed could light up a dozen rooms and in combat would foretell her enemies' doom...

Then, wth a roaring sound echoing throughout the room, she faded away...

-o0o-

Laying on his back on what felt like concrete, J.T. clenched his eyes closed tighter each time the roaring sound of engines grew louder. Each time the sound grew louder, it grew more unpleasant; if he drank, J.T. would almost think he was suffering from a hangover. Slowly, he began to mentally go over the last things he could remember...

Groaning in a mixture of discomfort and realisation, J.T. brought his hand up and dropped it against his forehead, "...battle..."

He had overcharged himself, drawn on more energy from the Power Grid than his body could handle and ended up crashing afterwards. The last thing he could remember clearly was Jessica helping him to his apartment door and them seeing the eviction notice taped there.

"...evicted..."

Jessica. Jessica had been the one making sure he made it home before he could completely crash. Jessica had been the one there with him when they saw the eviction notice. Jessica had been the one there when he passed out... Jessca who he had asked to take him to her house...

"KELLA!" J.T. jerked up to a sitting position and his mind came to full consciousness with a shout of her name,...

Into a place where there was no logical way for him to be; Scenic City being on the East Coast and Irwindale being in California on the West being one of the reasons that were easier for him to grasp in his current state as he sat up and looked around.

"Oh, boy..." The unmorphed Ranger muttered with a groan.

J.T. would freely admit to himself that he had experienced some weird dreams over the years, but they had all turned out to be dreams. That he could feel pain and discomfort, as well as read the Irwindale Speedway sign - something linked to the opposite side of the brain than dreaming - meant that whatever the situation was, it was not a dream. Of course, there was also further proof in the fact that, as he occasionally joked, he had better things about which to dream. The sound of engines growing and fading before growing again broke J.T. from his reverie and drew his attention to the track itself, where a red vehicle was running laps around the track. With no other signs of life present, that left J.T. with no other option and with a groan, he pushed himself to his feet and began to walk down the stands to trackside.

Trying to ignore the fit of coughing he was experiencing...

-o0o-

As J.T. stepped out onto the track, he noticed that the red car was no longer running laps, instead it was sitting pole position at the starting line next to a similar vehicle in black. Upon closer look, they each looked like a mad mesh of Formula-One racer and Baja rally buggy. While the black car was unoccupied, a driver sat behind the wheel of the red car, helmet on and clad in red and white to match his car. Lifting his visor, the driver of the red car narrowed his eyes, pointing first at J.T., then to the other car before pointing down the track, issuing a challenge to a race.

In response, J.T. started towards the red car, fist clenched and intent on getting some answers before he stopped in his tracks. He could drag the guy out and beat the information out of him; he could and it would help satisfy the fury he felt at not knowing where he was, or how, or why, or what had happened to his friends, but...

He remembered a line from a webcomic he liked, 'Pick up the call. We can always blow them up later.' The driver wanted to race. J.T. could race him and see what would happen, see if he'd get any answers that way. After all, if not, he could always drag them out of the guy later. J.T. turned towards the black car and walked up to the rollcage covering the driver's seat, sitting on the seat were a black helmet and a neck brace.

"Well," he remarked, "Let's see if I remember anything from when I used to watch NASCAR before points came into it..."

Looking up to the heavens, J.T. added, "Help?"

After all, it wasn't much of a secret that he didn't like to drive.

-o0o-

It could have been a half-hour later, it could have been two hours, or even four, J.T. couldn't know. J.T. had entered 'The Zone'. The Zone took on many forms, from gaming to writing to reading to driving and a dozen others, at its worst, it was called 'Tunnel Vision', at its best a 'Creative Trance'... Right now, it was the only way to describe the mindset of J.T. Magnus as he drove the black car around the track. He would have loved it if there had been music playing, maybe a little Allman Brothers, but unfortunately, the only thing there was for him to think about was keeping pace with the red car. The mantra played in his mind like the words of a crooked three-card monte dealer, 'red car, red car, follow the red car'.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a larger counter tick down into the single digits and the mantra changed...

'Pass the red car.'

For eight more laps, the only thought in J.T.'s mind was to pass the red car as he kept side by side with it, fighting for the lead. He hated to lose. He loved to win. He wanted to win...

It had always been one of the things that got on his nerves when information he was looking for refused to be found, and unfortunately there was no way to force a computer or book to spill what he wanted to know. If he didn't win, he was going to take immense pleasure in beating some information out of someone...

The thought made him grin ferally as they made the turn down to the final straightaway, he didn't know who was driving that red car, but he was going to either beat them or he was going to beat them.

Then there was a loud sound to the right and J.T. felt the car veer hard to the left, having a bad feeling that he had just lost his right front tire, he took a deep breath and remembered what he had been taught; he took his foot off the pedals and held onto the steering wheel without turning it.

"Lord, don't take me now," J.T. quickly prayed through clenched teeth as he gripped the wheel.

As he worked to keep the at least pointed towards the finish, J.T. was forced to watch as the other driver took the opening provided by his car's sudden veer to the left to pass him on the right and start to gain distance. Feeling his car stabilise, J.T. slammed his foot back down on the accelerator pedal, feeling the car jump forward and hearing the wheels squeal against the tarmac as power was again applied to them. The engine roared, the driver growled, the black car gained on the red, the finish line approached...

And J.T. was forced to watch as he couldn't get past the red car and it won by the length of a clip, slewing around as it braked until it was pointed back the way it had just came when it stopped. That wasn't something J.T. felt comfortable trying to duplicate since he felt that with his luck he'd try it and end up rolling - he just braked and let the car come to a stop before he pulled himself out of the driver's seat and out of the car. Dropping to the ground beside the car, J.T. took off the brace and helmet and slung them to the side before storming over to the other car. J.T. hated to lose.

Which meant it was time for option two. J.T. punched his fists together, he didn't like to drive, he didn't like to lose, so he was going to enjoy this. When the other driver climbed out of his car, the part of J.T.'s mind devoted to random connections immediately dubbed them as 'Red Stig' for quick reference, The rest of his mind, however, was more focused on J.T. grabbing 'Red Stig' by the racing suit and slamming him against his own car.

With complete calm, the other racer reached up and removed his neckbrace and helmet and dropped them into the car before speaking as though someone wasn't six inches away and ready to hurt him, "Not a bad run... for the new guy."

"Query..." J.T. began, sharply.

"Who am I and where are you?" 'Red Stig' asked, smirking at the suddenly suspicious look on J.T.'s face, "Easy guess. The only other question you could've asked was what time or day it was."

"So what's the date and time?" J.T. returned in a deadpan, releasing the other man and taking a step back.

"Doesn't matter here."

J.T. narrowed his eyes, "Which brings us back to 'Where is here' and 'Who are you', doesn't it?"

"You know the amazing thing about your group? You're all something of everything; you, you're Black, but you're Blue and Red and Green... especially Green, so why don't you use the Blue that's in you to figure it out."

"You talk of our colors like you know them personally... that makes you a Ranger."

"Actually, Zordon of Eltar's was the first team that used the name 'Ranger', traditionally, it's been 'Sentai'."

"Warriors," J.T. observed, frowning slightly at the use of a Japanese word by a non-Terrestrial human,, "And from that, I can extrapolate that you're from more than ten thousand years ago, so this is either a time warp or we're both dead."

"I am, you're not... just close to it. I'm not even myself, just an echo of me that's become a part of this place, part of us all."

Realisation hit, "I'm... we're in the Power Grid?"

"I heard you were a smart one."

"Great, this is Star Trek Generations and I'm Picard... that makes you Guinan... so, when do I go find Kirk so we can leave and stop Soron?"

"What?"

"After your time."

"Mood swings?"

"Don't push me," J.T. snarled back.

"I don't see how your team puts up with you."

J.T. deflated, sinking to the ground and sitting cross-legged, "I don't know how they put up with me, either... Sometimes, I don't know how I put up with myself... Sometimes, I don't even know who I am..."

'Red Stig' shook his head and leant back against his car, "Are you a Sentai?"

"You know..." J.T. chuckled humorlessly, "I don't know what that means. Don't bother trying to tell me what you think it means; that doesn't mean that it means the same thing to me..."

'Red Stig' arched an eyebrow in response to that answer before he asked another question, "Brother?"

"Adoptive..." J.T. sighed, "Honorary..."

'Red Stig' asked again, "Friend?"

J.T. shrugged, "Sometimes..."

"Lover?" 'Red Stig' asked.

"No..." J.T. shook his head, "I've never slept with anyone."

"I didn't ask if you were sexually active, I asked if you were a lover, if there was someone you loved," 'Red Stig' corrected.

J.T.'s face fell, "Don't make me answer that question... I don't know the answer anymore, I don't want to know the answer..."

'Red Stig' looked at him curiously, "What do you mean?"

J.T. looked up at the other Sentai with a mixture of sadness and amusement on his face, "Sometimes, I find myself wondering if I love her or love the idea of loving her... I need it to be love; after what happened last time, I'm not sure I can survive it if it's not..."

The standing Sentai stared at his sitting counterpart for a moment before commenting, "You don't want to talk about what 'last time' was, I'm sure."

"I don't want to entertain the thought that I'm doing to someone else what was done to me," J.T. whispered, "Using them like that... I think I'd rather be dead..."

"That part's easy," 'Red Stig' waved his hand to indicate the Speedway, "All you have to do is not leave."

J.T. rolled backwards until he was laying on his back, with his legs still crossed, looking at the sky and appearantly considering the idea.

"But you may want to consider what might happen if you stay."

"Somehow," J.T. muttered, "I knew you were going to say that... Just tell me this isn't going to be an 'It's a Wonderful Life' rip-off..."

"I'll keep it short," 'Red Stig' smirked, "The conflicted one kills himself to take out all your enemies at once and dies forgotten and unremembered; the girl that you're worried about has a breakdown from being abandoned and closes herself off from the world; your fun-loving and cheerful teammate becomes more serious and less fun; the lovers move far away from Scenic to help her escape the bad memories that she'll forever associate with the city; the last one just fades away... and in the end the 'Literati Rangers' are no more."

"If you're trying to reassure me, you're failing miserably," J.T. remarked as he rolled over and rested his forehead against crossed arms on the ground.

"Crisis of confidence. It's something we all face at some point."

J.T. rolled over and sat back up to glare at the other man, "How would you know?"

'Red Stig' held his hands up and formed a triangle with his thumbs and forefingers, a triangle that started to project waves of red energy.

"Right, that," J.T. shook his head, "Wondering if you're the right person to have been chosen to defend the world is a big difference than having to ask yourself 'who am I' and not knowing the answer because you don't know how to define yourself anymore. You don't know how it feels to start to wonder if everything you've ever done claiming it was for someone else was for yourself all along."

"You'd be surprised," 'Red Stig' countered, lowering himself to the ground to sit facing J.T., "My name is Takeru and like so many other worlds are in their own language, my planet was called 'Earth'."

"Seems to be a lot of that going around," J.T. muttered.

Takeru rolled his eyes, "Hey, you mind?"

"You want to end up under the car this time?" J.T. returned.

"Are you always like this?"

"...Sometimes, yeah."

Takeru sighed and continued, "I didn't know anything about Sentai, the Universal Power, anything. I was a racer and the only thing I worried about was winning, then I met her. Mio was bright and outgoing, she took joy in the simplest of things like walking in the sun and sitting watching the world, but there was always an air of sadness around her as well. I didn't know why she was so sad all the time, but her light changed me, winning began to matter less than making her proud of me.

J.T. closed his eyes and smiled softly, "No matter what happened, you could look in her eyes... and nothing else really seemed that important anymore."

"Exactly," Takeru nodded even though J.T. couldn't see the motion, "Then her... 'family' came looking for her."

"I take it that it wasn't a happy reunion," J.T. observed with his eyes still closed.

"Understatement; it turned out that she was supposed to be spying on the surface world to prepare for an invasion, except she had fallen in love with it and me... Mio was really Princess Ial of the Underground Empire Tube."

J.T. opened one eye, "Underground Empire Tube?"

"What?"

"You're probably speaking your own language, I'm just hearing mine because we're in the Power Grid," J.T. opened the other, "I'm sure it sounds more impressive in your language, but... Tube... 'Ooh, run for your lives, it's Tube!' It just doesn't have an intimidation factor to it. So, what are they, Molemen?"

"Humanoids descended from reptiles."

"Huh. Splinter theory and Parallel Development rear their ugly heads. Should've know it could happen somewhere."

"What are you talking about?" Takeru was getting really tired of having this reaction whenever the other man said something.

"Lizard-men from the planet's core," J.T. clarified, "I've believed in everything from ghost and demons to reincarnation and secret organisations bent on world domination... except I've never been able to believe in lizard-men from the planet's core. Don't ask me why, I just haven't..."

Takeru gave a small smile before he continued, "It was the championship race. I was leading on the final lap, then Mio was on the track. I stopped the race and went to her... We were running from Tube's invasion... the ground opened up and... I tried to save her, but she slipped out of my hand. They took her prisoner because she no longer wanted to destroy the surface world and they froze her in ice... I didn't join the Hikari Sentai Maskman to save the world or fight evil, I just joined to get her back and everything else happened because of that. You tell me, how is that any different than what you're feeling?"

"I don't know," J.T. admitted unhappily, he had always placed a certain value on his knowledge and intelligence to make up for what he lacked in physical abilities and didn't like it when that failed him. It was one of the reasons he often listed 'when information won't give itself up' as one of his pet peeves.

"Your problem is that you're leading with your mind instead of your heart. If making things better for her makes things better for you as well, who's to say that's wrong? Who defines what love is to different people? If you're both happy with the other and willing to stay together even when the future is cloudy because you can clear it up easier together than apart,, isn't that love? Let her decide if you're worth it, her answer might pleasantly surprise you."

"I'm scared..."

"Are you going to let that stop you?"

J.T. started to answer, then stopped. Instead, he reached under his shirt and took hold of his medallion, pulling it out and lifting it up to bring the chain it was on over his head so that he could look at it, thumb tracing the raised design on the coin-shaped centerpiece. Thoughts began playing in his mind...

'Anyone can meet their maker, I'm the one who has to face my ancestors.'

'Do not take counsel of your fears.'

'Courage is not the absence of fear, but resistance to fear, mastery of it.'

'Look, 'Is there anybody here right now that can do the job better than I can', that's the right question in an tight situation. If the answer's 'no', then you better pick up the ball and run with it.'

'Do not take counsel of your fears.'

'All men are frightened. The more intelligent they are, the more they are frightened. The courageous man is the man who forces himself, in spite of his fear, to carry on.'

'Do not take counsel of your fears. Do not take counsel of your fears. Do not take counsel...'

As that thought kept repeating itself, J.T. felt a tingling in the hand and fingers that were holding the medallion and the thumb that was running across it... now he knew what to do...

"So, what are you going to do?" Takeru asked again.

Rising to his feet, J.T. placed the medallion back around his neck and replaced it under his shirt, "Attack."

Takeru stood up to face him... and nodded.