Disclaimer: Everything you recognise belongs to Disney/Haim Saban
"Centaur!"
Even as the scream erupted from the rangers below, two ninjas jerked forward, nearly falling off the roof. Hunter caught Cam, Shane caught Leanne and they dragged them back from the edge. "Trev!" Leanne struggled in Shane's arms, tried to get away, tried to get down, to her child. "Oh god, Trev. Trev."
"Cam," Hunter managed, jerking his head away from Cam's swinging fists. "Cam, damnit, calm down. Use your head! You go down there, they're going to question it and you're going to blow their cover!" He shook the green clad ninja. "Damnit, Cam, think!"
"Shit." Cam took a deep breath, closed his eyes. And struggled to find calm. "Oh god, damnit. Leanne." He shook off Hunter, took his wife from Shane, hugged her close. "Oh god Leanne."
"Trev." She managed through hard sobs. "Cam, he's hurt."
He cupped her head, kept it on his shoulder. "He'll be all right. He's fine."
"He's down!"
"He's a ranger. And a samurai. And a ninja." He pulled away enough to look in her eyes. "Healing abilities beyond anything any human can imagine. Believe me." He cupped her face, compelled her to focus on him and him alone. "I know."
"I want to. God knows I want to. He's my baby boy, Cam."
"He's mine too."
The others backed away, wanting to give the couple privacy.
"I want to be down there."
"Me too." He gave her a hard fast kiss. "We've got to stay up here. Go down and we risk endangering him and everyone else."
"It's so wrong…"
Knowing how she felt – because, hell, she felt it too – Tori stepped forward, curved an arm around the older woman's waist. "All we can do right now is pray they'll be fine. That's all that we can do right now."
"We tried everything." At Marah's words, everyone turned to look at her. She stood, Dustin's arm holding her sung to his side, her face pale under her dark hair. "We tried everything we could to destroy the rangers in our time. And we failed, every time. Whatever these bastards try, our kids'll survive it. Survive and thrive. Because not only are they rangers, they come from rangers. They have double protection in their veins." Her eyes were on fire. "I know what it's like to be on the side of evil and always failing. I know that this bastard will lose and lose and he'll keep trying more desperate and dangerous measures, because that's what Lothor did. And he's going to fail each time because rangers don't lose. Ever."
"She's right." Blake added. "Look back into ranger history and you'll see we come out tops, every time – no matter how bad, evil or, sometimes, close the baddy is to us. They'll do what needs to be done because it's what rangers do."
"They'll fight," Shane said simply. "And they'll win. Because they don't know any other way."
"They're rangers," Dustin said. "How could they?"
Leanne brushed at the tears still flowing down her cheeks, managed a harsh laugh. "How is it you guys always know the right thing to say?"
Tori shrugged, smiled. "Damned if we know." Then she hugged Leanne. "He'll be all right. We always were – no matter how hard a hit we took."
"Thank you." Steadier, Leanne placed a hand on the blonde's arm, squeezed. "Thank you."
"Look."
At Cam's words, they turned, looked. And saw six rangers standing before the monsters. Again, Leanne's eyes filled with tears, but now they were tears of relief. "He's all right."
Cam swung an arm over her shoulder, hugged her tight. "Were we ever in doubt?"
The others could only laugh.
"Bastards take it up another level," Jay growled, "I say we meet it and more."
"Did anyone understand what he's getting at?" Ris asked, but her voice was cold and grim.
"I did." David placed his fingers on the gleaming red gem stitched into his glove. "Let's bring out the big guns. Dragon's Sword!"
"Minotaur's Sabre!"
"Centaur's Staff!"
"Unicorn's Slings!"
"Griffin's Bow!"
"Phoenix's Daggers!"
Lights, red, black, green, pink, blue and yellow descended, formed into weapons in their respective ranger's hands. David held a gleaming sword with a solid hilt of red. Jay's sabre had a gleaming black blade. The staff in Trev's hand was all green, and had two heavy stones hilted on the end. Jeanie's slings were predominantly pink, without the usual rubber cradles. Eva held a bow without a string, its tips blue. And Ris carried two identical slightly overlong daggers with yellow hilts, the phoenix's head topping them.
Jeanie and Eva stepped back as the others stepped forward. Hardly moving anything other than her hands, Jeanie began whirling her slings. Pink lights began to form in the invisible cradles, getting bright and larger with every moment she swung them. Eva moved her hand back, as if pulling at a string, and blue light the shape of an arrow appeared at the bow, lengthening as she pulled her hand back.
"Go!"
At David's order, they let loose, blue and pink lights streaming in quick succession, with a wide coverage that hit all the monsters, all at once. Again and again they summoned the lasers and hit the six opponents, again and again. And the monsters, unable to do much under the barrage, stumbled back, step after step, while little explosions raced across their torsos.
Then, almost as abruptly as they'd began, the two rangers stopped their attack. And the others surged forwards.
They worked as a team, making sure no one fought more than two monsters at a time. Jay and David took three, Ris and Trev the others. Jay and David pretty much bounced off each other's attacks, both using their blades in similar ways to slash and slice their opponents, each slash sparking off another series of explosions. Trev mostly used his staff to block and stun his opponents, so Ris could get in with her daggers to rip holes in their skins, or hides or whatever. And wherever they could, Jeanie and Eva provided cover fire.
David fell back, panting, when one of the monsters wild swipes swung a little too close for his comfort, allowing Jay to move in with his heavier, broader sword to strike the one that had tried to hurt his cousin. "This is gonna get us nowhere fast," he managed as he swung back into the battle.
Jay blocked a slice, swung his torso to dodge a sudden laser, swung down with his sabre and struck a claw. "These bastards just won't stay down."
"I saw we bring out the bigger guns."
"Is it useless to point out," Trev said as he whirled his staff overhead before bringing it slamming down on a lunging monster's head, "that none of us are carrying guns?"
"Is this really a time to be picking on that?" Jay asked, blocking a punch with his forearm, retaliating with his blade.
"We were smart asses. It's always the time," Trev shot back as Ris nipped past him to lay a monster's skin open.
Instinct had David backing away, twisting his body as three lights – two pink, one light blue – seared past him to plough into the nearest monster. "I want this done with so I can go home and sleep."
"Always a good reason to bring out the bigger guns," Ris decided and flipped backwards, towards Jeanie and Eva.
The boys followed her lead and fell back as well. The pink and blue ranger didn't have to be told. They moved almost as one, putting their weapons together with near scary efficiency while the monsters were still confused about their sudden apparent surrender. Until they aimed the newly formed Spirit Cannon at them. This time, David didn't bother with his usual salvo of ready, aim, fire. His order and short and to the point; "Fire!"
They fired, the now familiar swirling grey mass blasting out of the mouth of the cannon with enough force to send their muscles recoiling. It moved with unerring accuracy towards the retreating monsters, expanding, expanding until it enclosed them, and, with no sound, exploding.
And the rangers stood, their weapons disappearing as if sensing they no longer had a need for them, chests heaving from the exertion of their drawn out battle. "It's –"
Jay broke off as a yellow glow appeared from seemingly nowhere, surrounding the smouldering remains of the monsters. "Oh shit."
They scrambled back, knowing all too well what was going to happen. "Dayton! Dayton, we need the Zords damnit!" David roared even as the remains crowded closer together, began to grow and expand.
"Call for them," was Dayton's calm voice, managing to cut through their rising anger and panic like nothing else could. "Call for them and they'll come for you."
"Right. Okay." David took a deep breath, fisted his hand and thrust it into the air. "Red Dragon Zord!"
