The year is 2015. A young man walked across the submerged dock of the underwater research colony designated H-307 on the planet Earth. His name is Ben. He's a high school senior at the oceanic academy stationed within the colony. H-307 (the H stands for Hydro), is a 5-year-old project started by several families of scientists to explore new territory for human habitation, since land space on the Earth's surface is becoming vastly crowded; with more and more cities becoming cramped mega-cities like New York and Tokyo, while natural preserves are made of rain forests, jungles, and deserts. No one wanted to harm these untapped resources after the horrible extinction rate of species within these areas at the end of the previous century. While one group worked on floating space colonies, Ben's father's group had decided to try using the still largely unexplored oceans.

Ben paused. This is where all major supply runners and other commuters keep their amphibious craft when not running back and forth between the surface and the sea floor. He glanced around at the various submersibles and smiled. Soon, he would have one too, if he kept his grades up. Ben longed for the ability to explore the open ocean while zipping around in his own little ship. Craning his neck back, Ben looked up through the transparisteel sheets that form the walls of the tube that is the dock. He still remembered the day when his whole life had been torn asunder... when his family members ended their life above, and journeyed below to their new home.

A strange glint in the murky depths before him, and Ben walked closer to the transparent wall to get a better view. Having lived on the station for five years, Ben had become intimately aware of the many types of marine life. His schooling in the science of the sea enhanced this knowledge. That flash of an object as it shot through the water was unlike any fish or mammal he had seen before.

The object darted back across his field of view. It made an insanely abrupt turn and scattered a huge school of fish as it descended again. Then it vanished into the distance. Ben furrowed his brow in thought. Suddenly, the entire structure began to vibrate, as a low rumble reverberated through the corridor. The few other people present (it was Saturday, and most people were relaxing at home), got nervous and began to run for the airlock to the main part of the station. Ben wouldn't budge. As the rumble reached a crescendo, the thing reappeared as it flew straight over his head in a diagonal descent. Ben recognized it as a ship of some sort, although it did resemble a fish in its proportions. It looped about a few times then slammed into the ocean floor some 50 meters from where he stood, creating a great tumult in the sand around the station.

Ben glanced over his shoulder, made sure no one was around, and then ran to the control desk. He looked up which research craft had recently returned, found one suitable, memorized the access code and ran to the ship. After punching in the code, he hopped in the cockpit, submerged, and headed out the docking bay doors. It was only a matter of minutes before he reached the crashed vessel. He flipped the com to an open frequency.

"Harvester Express to unknown ship, are you all right?" He spoke uneasily. He repeated it a second time. He actually got a response this time.

"Harvester *bzzzzt* Express, this is the- *bzzzzzt*," the garbled reply said.

"Repeat unknown ship, you were cut off at the end."

"I reiterate, this is the *bzzzzt* Remnant of Jukta, we request *bzzzzt* assistance, over."

"Remnant of Jukta, where is a side hatch that I could berth with?"

"Starboard *bzzzt* side, look for a *bzzzzt* yellow panel."

Ben scanned the side of the ship through the haze and saw a faint yellow form.

"Got it, extending the docking tube now," he flipped the access switches.

"Acknowledged, Harvester Express."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A short while later, Ben climbed aboard the mysterious craft with glow lamp in hand as he crept along. As he walked, he scanned the area with the beam of the glow lamp, slowly passing it back and forth into the darkness. So far, he had yet to see any sign of the being that had spoken to him earlier. Only damaged equipment that definitely had an otherworld feel to it. He reached a crossway that had four tunnels leading off into different areas. He shone the beam down each before making his decision, which he decided was a good idea since two of them were blocked off by rubble. A sound behind echoed behind Ben, startling him. He spun on his heel and waved his glow lamp around.

"H-hello? Is anyone there? This is the captain of the Harvester Express."

"Ah, there you are," replied an unusual voice emanating from the darkness in front of him. A bright light filled the area, causing Ben to shield his eyes. "Oh, sorry." The mysterious person apologized, turning the light off.

"Who are you, anyway?"

"I think the better question for the moment is: where am I?"

"That's easy, the planet Earth."

"Earth! Really!? Oh dear..."

"What is it?"

"I crashed on the wrong planet!" The voice exclaimed.

"WHAT!?" Ben practically shouted.

"Kidding, kidding. Oh. I forgot. Let me introduce myself," the voice moved toward Ben, and its figure became visible. It was definitely a she - Ben could tell by the curves - the alien wore a black bodysuit with light green piping, short rubber boots, and a peculiar silver bracelet on her wrist. Her appearance was humanoid, but she had a light blue geometric pattern across her cheeks and on the tip of her chin leading down her throat and into the neck of her wet-suit. Ben hazarded to guess where the marks ended.

She had short hair, with the top spiked upward. It was jet-black, darker than Ben's own black hair, and was tinged a light blue at the tips. She had two locks of hair, on the sides of her head, one tucked behind each ear. Speaking of her ears, instead of being rounded, they were tri-pointed, like a fish's fin. Her eyes were an ice blue. To Ben, the female alien was quite beautiful.

"My name is Avot," she extended her hand, which, Ben noticed, had the same blue pattern across the back. He hesitantly reached out and took her hand. After shaking it for a moment, Ben tried to release her hand, but Avot refused. She took his hand in both of hers and began examining it.

"Interesting," she murmured.

"What is it?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"The structures are almost identical, but your digits are not adapted to life in the water."

"What do you mean?" She raised her left hand and splayed her fingers.

"You lack the most basic of webbing," her fingers had light blue flaps across her middle knuckles down to the V between each pair. Ben pulled his captured hand back in mild disgust mixed with surprise.

"Oh, did I hurt you... Ben?" She looked at him worriedly.

"Nah... Your um... webbing is just a little unusual to me... that's all."

"I see," Avot seemed perplexed.

"I just seems strange to me that humans would be living below the ocean's surface and not have evolved for such a lifestyle," she released his hand.

"Yeah, that's a long story."

"I mean, granted, my webbing is somewhat reduced but nevertheless," a loud groan of bending girders interrupted her.

"It may be better to continue this discussion elsewhere," Avot suggested.

"Sounds good, just follow me back to my sub." They were walking for a few moments when Avot suddenly stopped and gasped.

"What? What is it, Avot?" He noticed she had a somewhat wild look on her face. Like she just remembered something.

"I almost forgot!" She ran back into the darkness. The padding of her feet echoed off the metallic walls of the Remnant of Jukta. She returned momentarily clutching a small, worn metal case in the crux of her elbow. Ben stole a gaze at the object and raised an eyebrow.

"What's that?" He indicated the box with a nod.

"Oh," she answered nervously. "...I'll explain... later."

"Alright," They ran back to the Harvester Express.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Safely in the relative security of his room, Ben helped Avot remove the cumbersome tech-cloak she had been wearing.

"Now," she ran a hand through the spikes at the top of her forehead. "Explain to me why I had to wear that," Avot pointed at the rubber coated coat, now piled on the floor.

"You must realize, we don't exactly get many aliens around here, especially any aliens from... what planet do you come from?"

"Jukta. It's in the solar system next door. As you can tell by my physical features," she waved a hand from her neck downward. "Jukta is a water covered planet," she sat down on the edge of his bed.

"Does that mean you have gills?" Ben sat down in a chair by his computer and rotated to face her. She smiled, unzipped her wetsuit a little, and pulled a flap down to show three blue-tinged slits on the left side of the base of her neck.

"I see... Anyway, what's that in the box?"

"Oh right... about those..." She glanced at the metal container in her lap.

"Those?" Ben asked. Avot paused for a moment like she was trying to figure out how to word her response.

"...Have you ever heard of the Power Rangers...?" She inquired hesitantly.

"Power Rangers...? Of course!" His eyes lit up, and he flashed a grin. "But there hasn't been any Power Rangers in years..."

"Yeah, well..."

"What?"

"I guess I better start from the beginning," She leaned toward Ben. "I told you a very vague description about my planet, but the thing is... we've been at war for the past several years. An alien race called the Quarra, lead by Overlord Vratix, invaded Jukta from another planet in our solar system. Like us, they are evolved for a life in the water, and their advanced weaponry gave then a great advantage. After all, we Juktans are primarily a peace-loving specie, and our weapons exist for basic protection purposes, against crime and wild creatures... not as weapons of mass destruction."

"Oh no..."

"Needless to say... we were decimated by Vratix and his Sharkon army..." a tear trickled down her face. "A small group, including my immediate family was able to avoid capture. We escaped on a small ship to another planet, where we are trying to rebuild our civilization. In an effort to mask our ship's exit vector, we fired off a decoy ship in a random direction of space."

"And that ship..."

"Ended up in this solar system and burnt up in Earth's atmosphere after partially colliding with an asteroid. Only after figuring out where the decoy went did we realize it had reached an inhabited planet."

"And that's why you're here."

"Yup. When we found out about our mistake, I was sent here to warn to Earthlings and to assemble a team to defend the Earth if necessary."

"And, is it necessary?"

"My ship was shot down upon approach, what does that tell you?"

"Oh."

"Here, take a look at these," she unfastened the lock and opened the box. Inside were three silver wrist bands with different colored pieces of coral in the center, red, black, and pink.

"These are the Ocean Force Power Depth Gauges. They are used to access the Ranger powers."

"Let me guess, you want me to be a Ranger..."

"Now that you mention it," she smiled and held out the case. Ben reached in and selected the red gauge.

"Wise choice, Ben. You are now the Red Mako Ocean Force Ranger," she watched as he strapped the gauge to his wrist.

"What about the other gauges, who are we going to give them to?"

"Assuming you know a group of well suited individuals, it'll be those guys."

"But what about -" a loud explosion shook the room.

"Oh no..."

"What the heck was that?"

"Aerial bombardment," she closed the case and locked it. "They must have tracked the location where my ship crashed-"

"-Which is right next to the research station!" Ben concluded her thought.

"We better head to the surface before they manage to launch their below surface attack."

"So, I guess it's Morphin' Time?"

"You got it!" She replied with a grin. They stood side by side. Ben watched her movements and carefully mimicked them. They crossed their arms diagonally at the forearm below the wrist, and unfolded their arms as they pointed their pointed hands skyward, with the left hand pressing the activation button on the gauge.

"Power Rangers Ocean Force, dive in!" Beams of light, red and green, enveloped them, followed by jets of water of the same color. Their suits appeared, followed by their helmets. Ben's was shaped like the head of a shark, with the teeth around his eye port. A fin protruded from the top of his helmet. Avot's green suit was a little different from his, with a golden shoulder pads, and a skirt. Her helmet resembled a sea turtle, with the tip of the golden beak between the two halves of her view port.

"Let's do it!" She shouted, tapping her Depth Gauge. Ben followed suit, and a wave of bubbles engulfed them.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"What the heck is that!?" Ben pointed to the elongated, jellyfish-like ship that floated above the surface of the water. They stood on a beach on the western coast of the United States.

"That's Vratix's landing ship. A similar, but larger vessel orbits the planet in a cloaked state to avoid detection by any satellites." The ship hovered closer to the shore and extended the largest tentacle that dangle from the center of its underside. Three aliens disembarked and now stood opposite the Rangers.

"General Vratix..." Avot hissed.

"Oh, don't look so surprised, girl," the finned monster replied sarcastically.

"Don't forget us, little Juktan!" Shouted Vratix's main generals, Yurta and Mohtran.

"This ends here, Vratix!" Ben challenged.

"Is this one of yours, or a pitiful Earthling recruit, Juktan?" Vratix sneered.

"Enough!" Avot and Ben formed battle stances.

"You don't think I'll let you fight me on the first day do you?" Vratix laughed. "Sharkons, attack!" He threw his arms out wide, and a wave crashed onto the beach, revealing over a dozen shark-men.

"Have fun, Rangers!" Vratix and his generals stepped back onto the extended tentacle and boarded the landing craft.

"Alright Ben, follow my lead." Avot ran straight toward the Sharkons.

Avot dived forward, arms out wide. She decked two Sharkons, rolled and sprang into a leap-kick, taking down another one. Reaching into the holster at her side, she pulled out the harpoon dagger, a combination harpoon-gun blaster and saber. Switching to saber mode, she slashed a Sharkon across the chest. It collapsed at her feet.

Ben roundhoused a Sharkon, rotated on his heel, and punched another in its toothy-grin. Ducking, a blow, he elbowed one of them in the gut, and swept the feet out from a Sharkon that was approaching from the side. He jumped upward and slammed another down with a double-fisted hammer blow. Ben noticed a trio of Sharkons sneaking up behind Avot. He grabbed his harpoon dagger, and fired off a burst of shots, dropping the monsters before they got to her.

Avot nodded her thanks and took down another Sharkon with the harpoon dagger. A group of five remained, and Ben hurried over to join Avot. Side- by-side, they side-kicked two Sharkons. Slashing outward, two more Sharkons joined the rest writhing in the sand. The last tilted its head and turned to run back toward the water. In unison, Avot and Ben converted the harpoon daggers to blaster mode and blasted the creature as it jumped in the air, aiming for the crashing waves. All the other Sharkons convulsed for a few seconds and disintegrated. Relieved, the rangers holstered the daggers and grasped each other's gloved hand.

"Good work, Ben."

"Thanks. Don't tell me it's always going to be this easy. is it?"

"Just wait and see..."

They turned and looked over the surface of the ocean, with the sun gleaming across the deep blue expanse. The Ocean Force Rangers had fought, and won their first battle against the forces of Overlord Vratix. It certainly would not be their last.