2. The Size of Hunger
At the Power Base, Devin is helping Alpha repair parts that had been damaged over the long period of inactivity. Judging by the damage, and the dust that had accumulated, Devin concluded that they must have lost power at least a century before the rangers found them. Alpha couldn't remember what happened, all he could remember was that one minute he was going into his charging bay, and then the next he was waking up to five intruders. That is, the five rangers who fell through the roof. It was fate that brought them there just in time, if they weren't on the class trip they wouldn't have stumbled upon the Power Base and received the Powers of the Universe in order to stop Titan and his zombies.
The rangers hadn't seen any action since they defeated Titan. Since then the only fighting they've been doing involved sparring matches. Devin was trying to get them trained for the next attack, which they all knew was inevitable and coming soon. Devin was also busy with the alterations to the Power Base and was becoming well overworked. He sat at the main control panel, running through battle simulations in his head and rubbing the Power Ring on his finger. As one of the doors to the room opened, Devin looked over to see Teresa walking in.
"Hey there, Teresa!" Alpha said happily, setting down a box he was carrying. "What brings you to the power base?"
"I came to see if there has been any activity. Ever since we defeated Titan we haven't gotten to use our powers at all except for training." She pouted, taking a seat next to Devin and turning the chair around so she could put her feet over his lap.
"Do you want Marisa to attack earth again?" Devin asked sarcastically. He knew what she was saying, but he'd rather be bored and have the power to save the world if the time came than the time come at all where they were needed.
"I guess not, but what use are we as a team if she hides up there on the moon? Is she waiting for us to die of old age?" She sighed and leaned back in her seat. She smacked the control panel and there came a loud siren sound throughout the room. Teresa and Devin immediately jumped out of their chairs as Alpha ran up to the controls and started pressing buttons. Teresa shouted, "I swear I didn't mean to do anything!"
"It wasn't you, Teresa," Alpha started, pulling up an image on the screen as the siren turned off. On the screen was a monster of some kind running through the streets of the city. It looked like some kind of humanoid bug, with actual armor as its exoskeleton. "Marisa has sent a monster to Seraph Orchard!"
"Alright!" Teresa shouted, throwing her arms in the air. When she saw the other two staring at her she put her arms down to her side slowly and smiled awkwardly. "I mean, 'oh, no!'"
"Marisssa, this iss Sswat. No sssign of the Rangers ssso far…" The creature was sitting on a branch in the top of a large tree. He was scanning the area, spinning his head around on his neck to do so. His eyes could see everything beside him and in front of him at the same time. He's specifically trained for search and destroy, an aspect Marisa was in need of if she was ever going to find Mason and destroy him for good.
"Alpha, we're in the area but there's no sign of the monster!" Teresa and Devin ran over a hill in Swat's view just after he sent the message to his queen. He saw them immediately, recognizing them by their ranger suits, but when he found that they hadn't noticed him he waited until they got close and he shot them with lasers from his antennae. The two shouted as they were blasted backward, sparks flying from their suits. They landed on their stomachs and struggled to get up as Swat jumped out of the tree and landed in front of them.
"You can't defeat us that easily, bug-breath!" Teresa yelled as the two got back up on their feet.
"My name iss Sswat, Red Ranger." He hissed, taking a few steps back. "I'm not looking for you; Marisssa told me to ssstay clear of you five until I've found the Power Bassse." He stopped and let out a yell as his body gave off a faint glow. His entire body turned into thousands of tiny insects and he flew away.
"We've got to stop him!" Devin yelled.
"No shit?" Teresa agreed, running in the direction that the Swat swarm flew in. Teresa put a finger to her headset and yelled, "Alpha, try calling Erik so he can get in contact with the others!"
"Understood, Teresa!" He replied quickly.
At about the same time, Glory and Jessica were making their way through the Seraph Orchard Mall, trying to find the exit. Glory was a flower child; at least she was born and raised by flower children. Her parents were hippies and they all lived in a van by the river connecting to the Seraph Orchard Lake. She never had much money, and so she never was much for shopping. However, Jessica insisted that she go with her. Jessica was raised in a rich family and always got what she wanted, hence why she could buy so many things without having a job. Since Glory was one of her best friends, she even bought her some new outfits.
"Look, I know the exit is around here somewhere!" Jessica complained, dropping her bags and taking a seat on a nearby bench. Glory sat down next to her, placing her bags down to the side next to her. "Glory, sometimes I don't like living in this city because it's so bland, but this mall is huge! It more than makes up for it, I believe." She looked at Glory and the two laughed with each other. Then Erik appeared in front of them, panting like he had been running for a long time.
"Jess… I've been… Looking for you…" He looked up and over to glory. "Oh good! You have… Glory with you…" He stood up straight and took in a deep breath before letting out a groan.
"What's up, Erik? Want to ask me out on a date?" She stood up and wrapped her arms around his neck jokingly. When she noticed how much sweat was coming off of him she quickly retracted her arms and shook off the sweat with a disgusted look on her face.
"No, Marisa sent another monster down! It's some kind of bug apparently, and he's been trained to find and destroy things. In this case it's looking for Mason."
"Marisa sent another monster? Yay, I get to show off my awesome moves!" She jumped for joy but Erik and Glory's looks made her stop. She looked away while trying to keep a smile from showing. "Well, we shouldn't let bugboy waiting!"
"Come on, princess, Glory." He nodded to both of them and they took off, Glory and Jessica grabbing their bags as they followed Erik. The three of them ran into a hallway where there weren't any people and Erik pulled out his phone and dialed a number. "Alpha, I've got Jessica and Glory with me. Can you pinpoint our location and teleport us to the others?"
"I don't know if I can teleport you right next to them, but I can get you pretty close!"
"That's good enough, Alpha. Thank you." He hung up the phone and looked at the other two. "You ready." They nodded in response and in beams of light they were gone.
"That's it, Swat!" Teresa and David caught up with Marisa's monster outside the community center. When she shouted at him he turned around and let out a loud buzz which made it seem like he was frustrated.
"You bratss again?" He said as his arms began to change shape, turning into two large sickles. "I'm going to take care of you two, and then I'm going to find Massson." Wings sprang out from his back and began flapping quickly, so fast that they were making a vibrating noise. He flew at them at top speed, disappearing in the blink of an eye. He hit Teresa first and made her fly backward, and when Devin went to attack him from behind he saw him out of the corner of his eye and flew into the air.
"Teresa, are you alright?" Devin yelled.
"I'm fine, Devin. Don't worry about me, watch out!" Swat came back down without hesitation and swung for Devin, but he had already pulled out his staff and blocked the blow. He swung and hit the monster in the head, sending him buzzing around aimlessly. Teresa quickly ran to his side with his Nova Blaster drawn and aimed at him, when she couldn't get a lock on him she sighed and lowered her gun.
"You fuck!" The flying bug shouted. "You hit me in the eye!"
"It's kind of hard not to, they're both bigger than your head!" Devin responded before laughing.
"Aahhhhhh!" Swat yelled out, throwing his arms in the air. "Sssstop laughing at me!" Devin and Teresa looked at each other and shrugged; Swat used this opportunity to attack them, flying at them at top speed again. The two were distracted, by the time they looked back at him it was too late. The two were saved at the last moment by two brightly colored people who came out from behind them and kicked the monster in the face. It was Jessica and Glory, and they joined their two friends after sending Swat reeling backward, slamming into the ground shortly before Erik came in. He hit him directly from both of his void axes before moving to his friends' sides as a large explosion erupted from Swat's body.
"Alright guys, we beat him!" Jessica yelled joyfully, jumping and clapping her hands. However, their victory was short lived as a silhouette appeared from the smoke. When the smoke cleared, the team saw that Swat was still very much alive. When he was out he started flapping his wings again, blowing the smoke away as he lunged at the group. He was laughing manically and swinging his sickle arms around in the air. As he flew by them he hit them all, sending sparks flying from their suits and causing them to all flip through the air. He landed a few yards behind them, but it was a rough landing.
"But how? You exploded!" Jessica shouted as she tried to push herself back up.
Meanwhile, at the Empire, Marisa was walking back and forth on her balcony gazing into the large ball at the bottom of her staff. In it she could see the whole fight taking place, and was growing increasingly angry with every attack. Titan was standing behind her, looking at her with interest and wondering what her next move would be. She saved Swat from being destroyed by their blow, which was something Titan wasn't used to seeing her do. She flipped her staff around and aimed it off the balcony towards the earth.
"Soon to death but far from done, let Swat grow up toward the sun!" A beam of light shot off from her staff and hit Swat back on earth just as the rangers stood up. Swat stood up and yelled out like he was in pain, and then his body began growing rapidly until he was the size of a building. He let out a roar and cut off the top of the nearest one. As the rangers watched in horror as it crashed on the ground with people inside, David put a finger to her helmet to call the Power Base.
"Alpha, this monster just grew to an exceptional size! I think it's time we show the others what we found. Are they awake?" The others looked towards him, wondering what he meant.
"Alright, David! I just finished the process of waking them up, I'm sending them in." The rangers heard loud footsteps behind them, and when they turned around three large creatures ran up and slid down different streets that were all lined up. Then there were two other creatures that were flying in a circle above the others. "Rangers, meet the Universe Zords!"
"Wow, those are incredible!" Teresa yelled, throwing her hands in the air excitedly. The others followed with their own cries of excitement as well, and then the five Zords let out their own mighty roars and charged Swat. Swat swung his arms around trying to hit the dragon and bird shaped Zords, while at the same time he had to dodge the efforts of the three on the ground, in the shape of an ape, gargoyle, and Sphinx. When their basic attacks did little to the monster, they began a larger assault on the giant bug.
The dragon let out a blast similar to that of Teresa's Nova Blaster, and the bird waved its wings and its feathers shot out like the arrows from Jessica's Crystal Bow. The other followed the pattern as the Sphinx's tail swung like the end of Glory's flail, hitting Swat dead on. The Ape summoned a large bo-staff and attacked his legs as he stumbled backward, sweeping him toward the ground. The gargoyle drew two axes from his sides and went to attack him as he fell but Swat's wings came out and flew out of the way just in time. Instead he hit the ground and made two large holes in the street.
"Whoa, these Zords need to be more careful!" Teresa yelled, pointing in their direction. "That gargoyle just destroyed Main Street!" Though the others agreed they couldn't do anything about it, there was no way for them to help. At least, that was until they began calling out to them.
"Red Ranger!" The dragon landed on a building that was next to the rangers. He looked down on them, especially Teresa. "Combine your powers with me and we can beat this guy by ourselves!" Teresa looked up at him confused, she didn't know what he meant but she wanted this fight to be over with before anyone else got hurt.
"Alright, what do I do?" With that, the dragon flew down and swept past the rangers. As he did so, Teresa jumped up onto his head and they headed back to the battle together. Instinctively Teresa pulled out the Nova blaster and aimed it at Swat. It began to glow a bright red as the dragon Zord roared. "Let's do this! Nova Dragon blast!" As the dragon charged his attack, and Teresa charged hers, the Gargoyle Zord flew into the air and grabbed onto Swat to bring him back to the ground. Then the two let their attacks go and hit Swat dead on, the Gargoyle jumping out of the way just in time.
Sparks flew from Swat as he fell to the ground. The dragon landed on the nearest building and let out a final roar as Swat exploded. The explosion shook the entire city, causing the rangers to stumble around on the ground. When the shaking stopped, Teresa joined the others as they celebrated the first official destruction of one of Marisa's monsters. With that done they decided to get back to the Power Base. The five Zords disappeared as well, going wherever they came from.
"Rangers, that was amazing!" Alpha greeted the rangers as they teleported back into the Power Base. "It's a good thing we found out about the Zords sleeping on earth when we did!"
"Yeah, what was that about anyway? Where did they come from?" Glory asked, standing behind a chair as Jessica sat in it.
"Yeah, and where are my shopping bags!" Jessica complained, throwing her hands into the air and leaning back in it. Glory laughed and ran a hand through her friend's hair.
"Don't worry, Jessica." Alpha walked to a door and opened it, and then he leaned inside and came out with a bunch of shopping bags. "I teleported them here, I knew you'd be worried about them." He laughed and everyone joined in.
"So, Alpha," Teresa said as everyone stopped their laughter. "Where did the Zords go?"
"That's a good question, Teresa!" The robot moved over to the control panel next to Glory and Jessica. He started pressing buttons until images of different animals, and a statue, appeared. One was a Komodo dragon, another was a lion, then an ape, a falcon, and the statue was a gargoyle sitting on the roof of a building. The building appeared to be the entrance to a zoo of some kind.
"So they're at a zoo?" Glory asked.
David stepped in front of the screen to explain, "You see, Alpha said that the Zords are ancient beings from Mason's home planet. You guys know about the story of the Lost Galaxy Power Rangers, right?" Everyone nodded, recalling the stories told about the power rangers that traveled to Mirinoi on Terra Venture. "Like their Zords, ours seem to be sentient beings, except ours seem to be able to talk, as evident by the dragon Zord speaking to Teresa during the battle."
"That doesn't explain how they're normal animals now…" Teresa mumbled.
"Shut up, I was getting to that." Teresa widened her eyes and put her hands up sarcastically. "Their Zords weren't always in the mechanized form, such as we saw ours earlier. They apparently had a more lifelike form that they stayed in normally. This is like our Zords' version of that… Alpha and I found files on them in the Base's computer. Have a look for yourselves…" Each of the rangers walked up to the screen and watched as files on their Zords came up."
"Burning Dragon Zord, to be equipped to the Red Ranger…" Teresa said out loud, and everyone followed suit.
"Cosmic Sphinx Zord, to be… Equipped to the Yellow Ranger…"
"Void Gargoyle Zord, to be Equipped to the Black Ranger…"
"Crystal Phoenix Zord, to be Equipped to the Pink ranger. It's obviously the most fabulous one!"
"Lastly, the Lunar Ape Zord. Of course, it's 'to be equipped to' the Blue Ranger." He turned off the large screen and walked behind the control panel to stand with the others in front of it. "We still don't know what it means by 'to be equipped to', but we think it's just a way of saying that specific Zord corresponds to that color ranger."
"This is great, guys!" Jessica yelled out excitedly, jumping around and clapping her hands. "Now there's nothing Marisa can do to stop us!"
"Right guys, and now we can focus on freeing Mason from his sleep." Teresa walked up to the large tube with Mason's body in it. She put her hand on the glass and closed her eyes…
"Blasted bug, you've failed me!" Back at the Empire, Marisa was furious. As she watched her monster explode, she shot a beam at a support beam in her throne room and destroyed it. "Swat, I'll give you one more chance. I need your skills one last time. The sands of the Desert of Despair are shining brightly, the gem must be there. I need you to find it and bring it back to me before the rangers do."
"Yes, my queen." Swat was kneeling before Marisa, undamaged by the rangers' efforts. Marisa had saved him from exploding just in time for one final mission. Because if he failed, he wouldn't save him again. After receiving his mission, Swat stood and left her throne room. Outside the room Titan was leaning against the wall.
"This is it, Swat. If you fail her again she won't protect you." He said, moving away from the wall and walking towards Swat.
"I know, but I won't fail her again!" He was determined to prove himself to Marisa, to earn back his honor.
"I know you won't, because I'm going to come with you." Titan looked away and stroked his chin. "'Cause, if you fuck this up, I'm the one who's going to have to deal with her."
"Alright, I could use the muscle." Swat reached out and squeezed the giant zombie's arm, but Titan elbowed him in the face.
"Do not touch me, else you wish to die at my hands!"
"Jeez, alright. Let's go then…" Though he wasn't excited about the arrangement, Swat was willing to let Titan help him if only to not get blown up again. "…To the planet of never ending wastelands."
