Five Hills, 6:00 a.m., 2000's

Xanthe found herself already morphed and riding a motorcycle. She skidded a little, but quickly regained control. A glance down told her that she was a Green Ranger today, just as two other Rangers, Blue and Red, shot past her.

"Gwen, hurry up!" The Red Ranger yelled. His visor was shaped like a plus sign.

"Please!" Blue added, sounding distinctly more panicked. It was Garfield. Quickly, Xanthe reached out to guide the controls. The bike nearly hit a building, but swerved just in time. Relieved that her telepathy was working again, Xanthe guided him after her as they drove through the city. It was early morning, and the sun was barely up.

Hearing a symphony of laser blasts, Xanthe accelerated, and all three Rangers reached the city gates. Outside, a cluster of foot soldiers charged towards them, shooting at a running young woman. They were blue, slimy humanoids with breastplates and shoulderpads. Xanthe tried to remember which team fought those creatures, but she couldn't focus. The running girl screamed and ducked, and the three Rangers climbed off their motorcycles.

"Hold it, Gel Troopers!" The Red Ranger shouted. All three dropped into fighting stances as the Gel Troopers kept coming. The girl saw them, and her eyes widened. Then the Rangers charged.

"Neutron Blaster!" Garfield yelled, and triple-barreled pistol appeared in his hands. He opened fire, and each Gel Trooper he hit melted into a smoking puddle.

"Electron Daggers!" Xanthe summoned her own weapons, a pair of green daggers, and began slashing at the monsters. The air had a funny taste to it, burnt but sickeningly sweet. Xanthe tried to remember everything she knew about this team. Atomic Force, was it? Yes, and they were fighting a villain named Gelato. Suddenly Xanthe craved ice cream.

"Proton Sword!" The Red Ranger, Seymour, whirled the wakizashi with a metallic shing, and charged. He hacked through the Gel Troopers, even tossing a few energy blasts from his hands. After only a few seconds, all of the Gel Troopers had been defeated.

"Hey, are you okay?" Xanthe called, as she ran over to the civilian. She was a blonde, and though her clothes were in rags, she didn't look hurt. Even so, she fainted.

"Woah!" Garfield exclaimed. Seymour quickly gathered the unconscious girl.

"Let's take her back to the labs."

"Why?" Xanthe asked.

"She might be under Gelato's control or even know something important," Seymour replied.

It was nighttime when Kodi woke up, groaning a little. Climbing out of the sickbay bed, she began wandering the halls of Fisher Labs. Description of Fisher Labs. Coming around a corner, she nearly ran into Gwen arguing with an olive-skinned young man.

"I can take care of myself, Marcus! Stop treating me like a baby!"

"I'm not—you're one of three people standing between Gelato and the rest of the world! I'm allowed to worry about you!" Marcus's Scottish brogue was thicker than normal; he was pretty upset.

"Um, excuse me?" Kodi said awkwardly. The two stopped abruptly. "Can you tell me where I am. Wait—you're Power Rangers?"

"She is. I'm just part of Fisher Labs," Marcus replied. He sounded oddly bitter. "I'm sure this big, strong Ranger can take care of you just fine. Bye." He stormed away.

"Men," Gwen sighed, coming up to Kodi. She flicked her dirty blonde hair over her shoulder with an angry twitch. "Are you okay?"

"Fine. You know, I think there's more to this than him just being worried," Kodi said, after a moment's hesitation.

"Really? Big surprise—he wants my spot," Gwen replied. "They all want to be Rangers."

"Um, actually, I think he's worried about you because he likes you," Kodi replied. Gwen stopped.

"Seriously? Marcus?" Kodi giggled a little. "Huh…that might explain why he didn't want me to go into the Pit. And those flowers I found in front of my room."

"Flowers?" Kodi gave Gwen a shove. "Go get him back right now!" Laughing, Gwen ran off. Kodi smiled at her back. Then, faintly, Kodi heard a high-pitched noise, and decided to investigate.

Opening a door, Kodi was met by screaming. It was Andrew, the Blue Ranger, curled up on the floor and clutching his head. Kodi ran into his quarters. The room was barely big enough for two people, but she dropped down beside him as the door closed.

"Are you okay?" She asked anxiously, catching him by the shoulders and stopping him from slamming his head into the wall. He flailed in her grip. "Hey, hey! Calm down, you're fine!"

Panting, Andrew paused. There was a brief silence. The Cherokee looked over at Kodi, and ran a hand through his tangled blond hair. A light had fallen off of the one bookshelf, and Kodi quietly set it upright again.

"You're that girl we saved."

"Kodi. You've been Gelato's prisoner too?"

"What gave it away?" Andrew's voice was shaky, but wry.

"It's kind of obvious. You're the Blue Ranger, Andrew Davis?"

"Yeah. What of it?"

"When I was running to get here," Kodi paused significantly. "One of the Gel Shockers deflected a shot for me. She was called Biomecha, and she told me to tell Andrew Davis that she—Haleigh—was going to try to free the human prisoners in a few days, and meet you at the gates of Five Hills. That was about three days ago."

"What?" Andrew's shout was startling in the midnight silence. "Haleigh? As in—"

"Yes, your girlfriend Haleigh, she made a point of telling me so!" Kodi replied, with a laugh. Andrew ran off to wake Dr. Fisher, and Kodi hummed a little to herself. Getting up, she straightened up the rest of the room, put the books back on the shelves, and left, closing the door behind herself.

The Akra nearly ran into a young woman wearing an eyepatch. They both sprang back, the other woman dropping into a fighting stance. Kodi quickly put up both hands.

"Easy, easy, I'm not a Gel Shocker. I'm Kodi. Who are you?"

"Rebel," the other woman replied, after a second. She straightened, and Kodi offered her a hand. Stiffly, Rebel shook it. "You're that girl the Rangers saved yesterday?"

"Yeah. You're Marcus's sister, aren't you? You look like him," Kodi added, seeing the surprise on Rebel's face. The other nodded slowly. Hearing footsteps, both women looked around, just as the three Rangers came rushing down the hall. Seymour, a brunet, nearly ran into the pair, and the others went on. Kodi noticed the look Rebel gave the Red Ranger, and her eyes sparkled.

"Thanks for the tip," Seymour gasped to Kodi, sliding past them. He was gone before Kodi could respond. Rebel folded her arms with a huff, watching the others skid away.

"Give him a second when he's not busy, he'll notice," Kodi said. Rebel shot her a glare, and Kodi rolled her eyes. "Like I couldn't tell what you were thinking! Come on, do you really expect a Red Ranger to pay attention to a girl when there's a fight brewing?"

"All we ever do is fight," Rebel muttered. Kodi put a hand on Rebel's shoulder.

"There'll be a moment, just you wait." Brushing Kodi's hand away, Rebel left. The Akra watched her leave, and sighed. Some people were just so stubborn.

Early the next morning, the three unmorphed Atomic Rangers stood near the gates of Five Hills. Xanthe and Garfield hadn't had a chance to figure out where Detra had gone yet. The sun was barely up when they heard footsteps. They looked up, and saw a pink Gel Shocker, wearing multiple knives, leading a group of battered humans towards the city.

"Haleigh?" Garfield called softly. The Gel Shocker whirled around, her braids flying with the movement. Her shoulders slackened in relief as she saw the trio. But just as the Rangers hurried forward, torrents of toxin tore into the ground in front of the group, throwing them back.

"Not so fast!" A Gel Shocker cried, marching forward. It was about the height of a normal person, and armored around the waist and shoulders. It raised its arms, revealing rows of purple pores dripping with toxin. Biomecha stumbled, drawing her knives.

"Hydrotox!" She cried. "But the Rangers destroyed you!"

"Yeah, traitor? I got better," Hydrotox sneered, and shot more toxins at Biomecha. As the captives scattered, the blast knocked Biomecha flat on the ground. "And by better I mean better than ever!"

"That's more than enough, Gel Shocker!" Seymour shouted, and looked to his team. They drew their cell phone-like Atomic Morphers. It only took a second to dial the passcodes.

"Atomic Scramble, Engage!" The Rangers charged into battle, meeting a conveniently timed wave of Gel Troopers to pad out the battle.

Stabbing one monster in the head, Xanthe heard a shriek from the edge of the battlefield, and looked around. Kodi struggled in the grip of a pair of Gel Troopers. She was here again…why?

"Hang on!" Seymour yelled back, running towards Kodi. With a roar, the Red Ranger charged, smashing his way through the foot soldiers towards the girl. Automatically, Xanthe started forcing her way towards them, but then a terrible pain shot through her head, and she stumbled back. The slimy Gel Troopers crowded in on her, barely giving her room to move.

"What, Red, all alone?" Hydrotox called, striding through the battle. He raised his arms as Seymour reached Kodi, punching her attackers into puddles. Tendrils shot out of the monster's pores and slammed Seymour into the wall—repeatedly. There was an explosion, and the Red Ranger crumpled, losing his morph. Clutching his side, he glared defiantly up at the monster.

"No!" Rebel screamed from the gates. Charging forward, she sprang between Seymour and Hydrotox just as the creature fired. The entire wave of venom slammed into her, throwing her into the wall behind Seymour.

"Rebel!" Seymour exclaimed, springing to his feet. Garfield reached Hydrotox at that moment, and distracted the monster with a fight. Xanthe's wall of attackers finally thinned out, letting her run over. Breathless, Seymour darted over to Rebel, and gathered her in his arms. The one-eyed woman was gasping like a fish out of water, covered in violet poison.

"Rebel," Seymour said, in the soppiest voice Xanthe had ever heard from a Red Ranger. "Why?" He started swiping the toxin away, though it burned his hands. With a laugh, Hydrotox teleported away, leaving the Rangers, Biomecha and the freed captives alone. Quietly, Garfield went to help Biomecha.

"Not…your fault," the injured soldier managed. "I…should have…told you before…" She made googly eyes at him, and Seymour paused.

"Seymour," Kodi ventured, creeping closer, "When I was captured by Gelato, he…upgraded me."

"What?" The Red Ranger asked stupidly. Kneeling beside the pair, Kodi took Rebel's face between her hands, and shut her eyes. White energy shimmered around her hands, and the poison vanished. Kodi cried out and recoiled, panting. Rebel opened her eyes, and Seymour's face lit up with relief.

"Thanks," the one-eyed woman said, sitting up and pulling a familiar pink Gyro Morpher out from under her grey uniform, "But why would Gelato give you healing powers in the first place?"

"Let's get busy," Garfield said, returning to the group and taking up his own morpher. "Sands of Time, Rise Up!"

"What?" Kodi screamed, springing to her feet. "No! Monitors!"

"Where?" Garfield said, stopping. Seeing the portal open, Xanthe tackled Garfield to the ground. Startled, he struggled out of her grasp—just as a hot laser shot over their heads. Detra let out a shocked exclamation.

"What's going on?" Garfield yelled, and somersaulted away from another laser blast. Summoning her Hourglass Revolver, Xanthe shoved Seymour aside and caught Kodi by the throat. The girl clawed at her hand, but Xanthe slammed her into the wall and shot the gas pellet into her face. It only took a few seconds to knock the Akra out.

"What do you think, stupid?" A Monitor yelled back at him, shooting and hitting the wall behind his head. He flinched as bits of debris bounced off his back, and stepped in a Gel Trooper puddle. Slipping, he turned his fall into a cartwheel, dropping back into a fighting stance.

"Garfield, can you try an attack?" Detra called, from where she was holding off a Monitor with her wristguns. Nodding, the Cerulean Ranger gestured, and the blue cord appeared in his fist.

"Punjab Lasso! What do I do?"

"Um, um, um—Phantom Noose!" Detra yelled, blasting a Monitor in the chest. The man hit the ground, and Xanthe somersaulted over to him, pinning him beneath one knee. She stabbed the Trank Mode Hourglass Revolver into the side of his neck, and waited for him to stop struggling.

"Brilliant, Phantom Noose!" The rope blazed blue-white, and Garfield tossed it at the two Monitors running towards him. Without any guidance, the cord shot towards them and snared them around the throat and picked them up in the air. With an incredulous laugh, Garfield swung them around into a pile of crates, smashing them.

"Great, I love this!" Garfield cried, summoning the rope back and coiling it around his arm. The three Rangers looked around the battlefield. All of the Akra hosts lay prone, a few in Gel Trooper puddles. Toppled Hourglass gathered back together.

"Five," Detra panted. "They're really starting to take us seriously."

"Fun times!" Garfield cried, and twirled the Punjab Lasso back into its pocket dimension. He sounded serious.