Author's Note: This may make more sense if you read Psycho Yellow's viewpoint first, over in Psycho Rangers: In Space, but it should stand fairly well on its own.
Chapter 1
The creature's first conscious thought was hatred. It built over the next few seconds, a whirling vortex that consumed her entire mind, until she opened her eyes. The first thing she saw gave her hatred focus, and she knew with her entire being that she was destined only to destroy the foul thing she saw on the monitor in front of her.
Her mind swam, suddenly dizzy, and she stood still for a long moment. In front of her she could see four others like herself, differently coloured; perhaps there were more things like the one she was destined to destroy? She stepped forward to join the others, and saw a woman in black and silver standing at the end of the room. Somehow, she knew the woman - her mistress - was Astronema.
Astronema fixed them with a cold look. "You five are my new Psycho Rangers. I trust you all know your purpose?"
Psycho Pink's mind was still spinning, and stayed silent as Psycho Red spoke with a nod. "We'll destroy the Power Rangers," he said confidently. "Just show us where they are!"
"Good." Astronema did not seem to care about his eager attitude. "You'll get your chance soon. And don't fail me." Apparently bluntness was not limited to Psycho Red, as she turned and left the room without speaking further.
The five Psycho Rangers exchanged looks, before Psycho Yellow spoke, sounding somewhat cautious. "I hope she lets us go soon."
Psycho Blue nodded his agreement. "I can't wait! That Blue Ranger is mine!"
So there were more than just the Pink Ranger she had been shown. If anything, destroying the Pink Ranger would be even more fun with the others by her side.
It was not long before they were sent into action, disguised in the forms of their intended targets. The humans proved easy to panic; it was a simple matter of causing some obvious destruction, and no doubt the Power Rangers would show up soon.
Four people had not fled; a woman holding a microphone, talking into a camera held by a silent man, while another man stood to one side waiting, and another carried a large armful of equipment that Psycho Pink could not be bothered to work out. The microphone-wielder was talking as they rounded the corner. "The culprit struck like a tornado, tearing everything to shreds. We have a witness."
She held out the microphone to the waiting man, and the camera started to turn to face him when they noticed the disguised Psycho Rangers approaching. "Wait, here come the Power Rangers now!" The reporter's attention was focussed on them now. "Hopefully we'll be able to get a word with them, and they'll be able to shed some light onto the atrocity that just occurred here and perhaps clue us into who or what was the cause of it all." Finally, they had reached her and she stopped babbling. "Rangers, can you tell us what happened?"
She held out the microphone, and Psycho Pink looked to Psycho Red, following his lead as they slowly drew their copied Astro Blasters. "Fire!" was all he said by way of response, and they put actions to words. Nobody was really aiming to hit the terrified civilians; they would spread far more fear if they were alive to tell their stories. After all, the goal was the Power Rangers, not those insignificant humans.
The temporary diversion came to an end as the real Power Rangers ran around a corner, stopping short in disbelief at what they saw. The Psychos holstered their copied blasters, mere toys compared to their full power, and Psycho Red spoke with a laugh. "Well well well, what do we have here?"
The Power Rangers exchanged confused looks, and the Yellow Ranger shook her head. "I can't believe it..."
The Black Ranger's gaze was fixed on his counterpart. "They look just like..." His words trailed off into nothing.
Red shook his head. "They can't be."
"Ah, but we are Rangers!" Psycho Blue told them, only adding to their confusion.
Psycho Yellow continued his sentence. "And we're here for one reason, and one reason only."
"To destroy you." With Psycho Red's words, the too-long conversation was finally ended, and they charged in unison.
The Pink Ranger opened with several slow, weak punches that Psycho Pink easily blocked, before countering with one of her own that sent the Ranger sprawling in the rubble. She rolled to her feet; to her credit, she recovered fast, and kept trying to press her attack. Psycho Pink toyed with her for a moment longer, letting her think she had a chance, before delivering a swift pair of kicks to the Power Ranger's stomach that sent her reeling backwards.
She could see the others around her, similarly toying with their prey, giving them almost enough leeway to think they had a chance. She grabbed the Pink Ranger by the arm as she tried to attack again, twisting it painfully; she almost wanted to enjoy the show for just a moment longer.
The fight seemed to be moving into an old, dilapidated warehouse; she could hear cries of pain coming from within, and kicked the Pink Ranger into the building as well. As she followed her, she was met with a blast of the Pink Ranger's satellite stunner. She let the attack hit her for a moment, predictably weak and pathetic, before calmly teleporting behind her.
The Pink Ranger looked around in shock. "Where'd she go...?" she wondered aloud.
Psycho Pink waited just a moment longer for confusion to let the Pink Ranger's guard down, then blasted her from behind with her arrows. "Here," she said, although the point was made more clear by the energy bolts cutting straight through the Ranger's defences, sending her screaming to the floor.
She let the Pink Ranger scurry backwards, regrouping with the others, and rejoined her fellow Psychos.
Psycho Red spoke again, addressing the gasping Rangers. "You were right," he said, clearly enjoying himself as much as Psycho Pink was. "We're not Power Rangers."
The Red Ranger forced himself to stand upright, although his shaky stance could not exactly be complimented. "Who are you, then?"
"You'll find out soon enough." Psycho Pink had a hint of his level of patience, as soon enough turned out to be in two seconds' time. She saw little sense in making that point, though, instead following his lead as they dispelled the illusions that had disguised them as Power Rangers. Now back in their Psycho Ranger forms, none of them could quite help but laugh at their counterparts' shock as they stepped forward into the light.
Psycho Red apparently could not leave anything as a mystery. "We're the Psycho Rangers," he told them.
"We're faster than you," Psycho Black said as they advanced.
"Smarter than you," Psycho Blue added; the Blue Ranger was visibly annoyed at that, even with his helmet hiding his expression.
"Stronger than you," Psycho Yellow said, her gaze firmly fixed on her counterpart.
Psycho Pink finished their brag off. "But we're evil," she said, noticing to her slight amusement that the Blue Ranger was standing half in front of Pink; was he trying to protect her? If so, that would hardly do her any good, not with Psycho Blue here to take care of him...
They were close now, and it was hardly a surprise this time that Psycho Red had had enough talking. "Now we'll show you what a Psycho Ranger can do!"
The Power Rangers regrouped, standing firm together, and Red spoke with an amusing amount of confidence. "Bring it on!"
Psycho Pink charged with the others, correctly guessing that none of them were going to play around this time. She did not give Pink a chance to attack this time, ducking to one side and hitting her hard in the back as she stumbled past, following it up with a hard kick to the head that sent her falling to the ground. Beside her, she could see the other Rangers similarly defeated as she pinned her down and started to sort through her mind.
The Pink Ranger's mind was calm, ordered, and completely defenceless. Psycho Pink quickly looked through her memories; there was some kind of relationship budding with a Phantom Ranger, and she took an extra second to inspect that before concluding that he was busy in another galaxy, and therefore not going to be a problem. She pushed past this, ignoring the Pink Ranger's mental pleading as she found her way to her training and fighting techniques.
She was taken completely unaware as the far wall was blown inwards, and a motorcycle bearing a Silver Ranger drove into the new entrance. They had already completed their first mission, teleporting away before the Silver Ranger could attack them.
It was hard not to notice Ecliptor standing guard as they appeared in the main control room, sword raised in a clear threat. Psycho Pink did her best to ignore him as Astronema spoke to them. "So, the Power Rangers have met my Psycho Rangers. Did you get their energies?"
Psycho Red nodded. "Yes. Each of us has tapped in on a Power Ranger."
Astronema almost seemed a little pleased at that. "Good. Soon you'll know them inside and out. You'll know their thoughts, predict their next move." She stopped by Psycho Red, her voice suddenly raised. "Find them! And don't come back until they're destroyed."
"As you command." He led the way out, and Psycho Pink followed quickly. Astronema's cold calmness was dangerous, and none of them wanted to stay in the room after she had raised her voice. They quickly gathered in another room, and Psycho Red used a monitor to pull up surveillance footage of the old warehouse they had just left. "They're gone!"
Psycho Blue pushed him out of the way, quickly scanning through the footage himself. "Where are they?"
Psycho Pink saw no need to look for herself, instead shaking her head. They must have left after the attack. " We won't find them this way," she told the others, noticing the general air of unstable anger in the room. "We'll have to look."
"Hmm." Psycho Red was distracted from his anger, and nodded in agreement. An idea clearly struck him. "Wait, we all know the sound of their communicators. We go to the city, and wait. They'll show up eventually."
Psycho Yellow was pacing impatiently. "Let's hope they don't take too long."
They teleported down to different parts of the city to search. Psycho Pink and Psycho Yellow were on a high rooftop together, searching for the communicator bleep they had stolen from their counterparts' memories. Psycho Yellow heard it first, after a few long moments. "I've got one!"
Psycho Pink ran to join her. "Then let's go."
They jumped off the building together, and as they landed easily on the street below Psycho Pink heard the sound as well, now coming from a car driving away. She pointed at it, unable to hide her excitement. "They're in the car!"
Psycho Yellow was already reaching for her weapon. "I'll stop it." The car's tyres were no match for the power of a Psycho Ranger, and the vehicle span out of control. The two Psycho Rangers ran after it as it came to a halt.
Psycho Pink ignored the door handle in favour of simply pulling the entire door off, holding it out of the way so Psycho Yellow could get at the pair within.
"I've got you, Ranger!" She reached in, but stopped in clear confusion instead of attacking. "That's not the Pink Ranger..."
She threw the door to one side, confused as well. "I thought you heard her."
Psycho Yellow shook her head, clearly as lost as she was. "So did I. Come on." She ran, leaving behind the still-screaming couple in the car, and Psycho Pink ran after her to search again.
Apparently, the others were having more luck than they were, as Psycho Red contacted them only a minute later. "Psycho Yellow, Psycho Pink, we've got one Ranger prisoner."
Psycho Pink shook her head. One? Was that it? They had been ordered to destroy all the Rangers. And what was the point of taking one prisoner anyway? "One isn't enough," she replied. "We'll keep looking."
"No!" Psycho Red snapped angrily. "We lay in wait. They'll come to rescue him before long."
She was going to argue, but Psycho Yellow interrupted her. "He's right," she said, sounding reluctant to agree. "They'll come running to rescue their friend."
"I hate waiting," Psycho Pink snapped, accepting her point but not wanting to sit around doing nothing.
"So do I, but they'll come as soon as they can. And you don't know where to look, so come on!" Psycho Yellow gave her no chance to reply, vanishing immediately.
Psycho Pink blasted a hole in a nearby wall, more for something to take her anger out on than anything else, before following the other Psycho Ranger.
Psycho Blue was tying their unconscious prisoner to a chair as she appeared. "This one's Silver," he was saying. "He won't be interfering this time round."
"Good," Psycho Yellow replied. "Astronema will be pleased once we've destroyed all six."
Psycho Pink folded her arms, tuning out the others' conversation. "I hate waiting," she muttered to herself, still reluctant to admit this was indeed probably the best plan.
Their impatience was interrupted as Psycho Red shouted. "Psychos, I hear them." He listened for half a second longer, confirming his suspicions. "I knew they'd make a mistake, let's move!" He teleported, the others following his lead across the city and onto another rooftop. "I think... yes! This time we've got them."
They teleported down in front of the odd-looking car that was driving towards them, shooting out its wheels and sending it crashing hard into a wall. Psycho Red pulled the back door open, only to stop short. Psycho Pink could not see inside the vehicle from where she stood, some distance behind the others, but his confusion was palpable. "What's this?" He punched something, and she heard the sound of something electronic breaking. "It's a decoy!"
Slightly further away from the others' racket, Psycho Pink's delicate hearing picked up a tiny, distant shout: Let's rocket! Her mind instantly turned to the memories she had stolen from the Pink Ranger, and she realised they had fallen for a trick. "Wait, I hear them!" There was no time to explain; already she heard their force-field shattering. "We've got to get moving now!"
They got back in time, teleporting back in front of the Rangers before they reached the building.
"It's them!" The Red Ranger stopped, clearly shocked.
"Were you expecting someone else?" Psycho Red was clearly enjoying himself.
Psycho Blue folded his arms. "Did you think you could fool us with that old trick? You're pathetic."
Psycho Pink ignored the Red Ranger's posturing in response, resisting the urge to point out that they had indeed fallen for 'that old trick'. She charged the Pink Ranger, not bothering to let her have hope this time. She punched her, too fast to block, seeing the others fighting in a similarly brutal way beside her, and threw the gasping Pink Ranger to the ground.
Psycho Red took just a moment to enjoy what was to come; none of the Rangers could quite stand up straight. "You haven't got a chance against us."
"We'll see about that!" Somehow, Red had managed to stand, and led the Power Rangers on a shaky charge.
She followed Psycho Red's lead in blasting them straight back to the floor with an energy bolt; as they tried, and failed, to stand, she channelled her vast energy into a long, powerful string of lightning. This was it, the Pink Ranger was weakening by the second, this was the end-
She gripped her head as the world span around her in a painfully dizzying way. She vaguely heard Psycho Red cry out in confusion, but it was too late to wonder; the Pink Ranger faded from view as the teleporter snatched them back to the Dark Fortress.