Disclaimer: Sigh. Saban owns the Power Rangers, not I.
But hey, give Power Rangers some major respect. Any show that can survive being cancelled as many times as Tommy Oliver has had morphers deserves it.
This is more or less a rehash for anyone who has only seen certain seasons. Please endure it because with any luck this is the last of the start-up chapters.
PS: if you review, please wish me a happy birthday- please?
Chapter Eleven: Mega Meeting
The first six had led Time Force and Wild Force, the last two teams to arrive, down to the medium-sized auditorium in the Dino Lair. Most of the cushioned seats were already filled, as the room could only seat a hundred. But there was a cluster of seats in the back the pair of teams took. Merrick, who was sitting towards the front, exhaled in relief.
Jason, his arms akimbo, stood before everyone while the other five original Rangers made themselves comfortable on the edge of the stage at the front of the room.
"Hello, I am Jason Lee Scott for those of you who don't know me. I am the original Red Power Ranger and the Gold Zeo Ranger. Behind me are the other five Rangers who had morphers the school year of 1993 to 1994, our freshman year of high school."
"Billy Cranston, the first and only Blue Power Ranger."
"You're never going to let the rest of us live that down, are you?" Jason sighed. Billy smiled, "Negative."
"Anyway, I'm Zack Taylor, the first Black Power Ranger."
"I'm Trini Kwan, the first Yellow Power Ranger."
"The first Pink Power Ranger is me, Kimberly Hart."
Tommy counted his morphers, ticking off a finger with each one. "I'm Tommy Oliver: the Green Power Ranger, the White Power Ranger, the Red Zeo Ranger, the first Red Turbo Ranger, and the Black Dino Ranger. Yeah, that's all of them."
"So far," Zack intoned.
"Shut up."
"You know I'm right."
"I said shut up."
"Boys," Trini sighed. Sheepishly they chorused, "Sorry."
Shaking his head out of bemusement Jason stated, "I think Justin has a presentation to introduce everyone more or less to one another?"
"Yep," Justin nodded, getting up from his front row seat. Today he wore a jean jacket, a blue-grey T-shirt, and jeans. "I have it on a DVD."
Tommy pressed a button on his remote control, lowering a projection screen. Billy noted, "I might be the genius of the team, but you Tommy are the crazy prepared mad scientist."
"That's how I got a fifth morpher," he shrugged modestly as Justin set up to show his presentation.
"I suppose we all know how the Power Ranger legacy began…" Justin noted the awkward looks on most of the Rangers' faces. "Whew. Good thing I included our origins then, eh?"
An image of the Gym and Juice Bar came up, 'Autumn 1993' written in brown letters across the bottom.
"This is where it all began. The Gym and Juice Bar, then owned by a guy named Ernie, in the city of Angel Grove. A group of five high school freshmen who were all friends were spending time at this location when an earthquake occurred. We all live in California, so this wasn't too much of a surprise, especially as it was a fairly mild earthquake. But what happened next was."
The image changed to one of the Command Center, taken by Trini at some point during their freshman year.
"The five friends found themselves transported to a strange place where they encountered a fully automated droid named Alpha 5 and a mysterious floating, giant head who introduced himself as Zordon. This Zordon explained that an evil sorceress named Rita Repulsa, along with her minions, had escaped and now sought to conquer Earth. And he had chosen them as Earth's heroes- to become Power Rangers."
A huge cheer occurred. Most of them hadn't heard the origin story before, so it was understandable. Justin let the noise die down before changing the image to that of a fourteen-year-old Jason and resuming the narration.
"Jason was given the Red Power Coin, becoming the Red Power Ranger, the leader of the group."
Then the image was that of Zack as a fourteen-year-old.
"Zack was given the Black Power Coin, becoming the Black Power Ranger. He would more or less serve as the cornerstone of the team."
Next came an image of Trini as a high school freshman.
"Trini, the heart of the group, was given the Yellow Power Coin. She became the Yellow Power Ranger."
After that came an image of a fourteen-year-old Kimberly.
"Kimberly received the Pink Power Coin. The spunky and admittedly girly one of the team, she became the Pink Power Ranger."
Then came an image of a young, very geeky Billy.
"Last but not least was Billy, the brains of the team. As the holder of the Blue Power Coin, he became the Blue Power Ranger."
As the image shifted to that of the fivesome together as freshmen Justin continued, "But, of course, these guys had never heard of Power Rangers before. So they left, although Jason and Trini almost immediately had doubts about leaving. Zack argued against the weirdness, but before the remaining two could voice their opinions Putties –the minions of Rita Repulsa- attacked them. After being soundly defeated by them, the group used their morphers for the first time. Next they returned to Angel Grove where Goldar and more putties were attacking."
The image changed to a somewhat grainy newspaper image of the five morphed Rangers fighting Putties.
"Zordon and Alpha 5 gave them their Dinozords when Goldar supersized. Together they defeated Goldar but didn't destroy him. And thus the Power Ranger legacy began."
The image changed again, this time to an image of the moon.
"Rita sent down more monsters from her moon fortress as time went on. Billy made the communicators towards the beginning of their adventures, which accidentally proved to double as teleporters to and from the Command Center where Alpha 5 and Zordon dwelled. Zordon also told them about the Power Weapons, which proved useful as time went on. But it was still fall when the Rangers faced their greatest threat yet."
The image changed to that of Tommy Oliver as a freshman.
"After tying with Jason in a karate tournament Rita Repulsa chose new student Tommy Oliver as the evil Green Power Ranger. Mostly due to luck the other Rangers broke the spell on him and he joined their team, raising their number to six."
"Now I'm going to be fast-forwarding through the second year of Mighty Morphin all the way through RPM because otherwise we'll be here all day- literally. It turns out Billy has somehow made a collection of comic books based off of all the Power Rangers adventures save for RPM's. Go talk to him if you want more details."
So Justin, in rapid succession, showed Lord Zedd's arrival, Tommy's draining of Green powers and his receival of White powers, the power transfer (carefree Rocky, tough Aisha, and shy Adam), the union of Lord Zedd and Rita Repulsa, the addition of sweet Aussie Kat, and the destruction of the Power Coins.
Then came Zeo: Kat, Tanya (an upbeat musician), Rocky, Adam, and Tommy, with Billy as tech support and the Machine Empire as their foes. The addition of Jason as the Gold Zeo Ranger, the departure of Billy to Aquitar, the loss of Jason's Gold powers, and the stopping of the Machine Empire were all recapped.
But then came Divatox, and so the Turbo powers were given to Tommy, Adam, Kat, Tanya, and a preteen yet brilliant Justin. But soon the elder four passed on their powers to TJ, an earnest baseball player; Carlos, a cocky soccer star; Cassie, a rebellious musician; and Ashley, an upbeat cheerleader. The Phantom Ranger came and helped out for a bit. A few more of their adventures were shown but then came the fall of the Command Center.
Sans Justin, the Rangers and Alpha 6 went into space. They joined Andros the Red Space Ranger, who gave them the other Space morphers. Their main foes were Astronema and Dark Spector, who had taken Zordon captive. Zhane was revived and resumed his post as the Silver Space Ranger. Astronema proved to be Andros' lost sister Karone but was re-enchanted into Astronema by Dark Spector, and the Psycho Rangers proved to be a serious threat before finally being defeated. In the end, Zordon sacrificed himself to save not just Angel Grove but the universe and redeem the villains who could be redeemed- Rita, Zedd, Divatox, and Karone.
On the spaceship Terra Venture a new team of Power Rangers came into play: Leo, a young wanna-be adventurer; Maya, an empathic alien; Kai, an upright military person; Damon, an easy-going mechanic; and Kendrix, an intelligent but sweet researcher. They were needed to fight Trakeena and her allies from taking Terra Venture or the Quasar Sabers for themselves. Later, freed from the spirit of the original Magna Defender Leo's older and more serious brother Mike joined the team. However when the Psycho Rangers were revived, even the combined might of in Space and Lost Galaxy was not enough. Kendrix had to sacrifice herself, Karone taking her place. In the end, Terra Venture found and escaped from the lost galaxy, landing on Mirinoi. Upon replacing the Quasar Sabers, the Mirinoians were restored to normal as was Kendrix.
Near the city of Mariner Bay a portal to the demon world had been opened and they wanted to destroy Mariner Bay. Captain Mitchell and Ms. Fairweather in the Aquabase collected a team of five to battle the demons: Carter, a firefighter; Chad, an aquatic mammal trainer; Joel, a stuntman; Kelsey, an extreme sports athlete; and Dana, a nurse as well as the Captain's daughter. They fought the demons as the Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue. A short time later under the demons' dark influence a human stole the new Titanium morpher and used it to defeat the Rangers. But the Captain revealed that this human was in fact his lost son Ryan, Dana's older brother. So once redeemed, Ryan joined the team although he later left to find a way to seal away the demons for good. After many struggles the team came together to defeat the demons once and for all.
Far into the future even now, a Red Ranger named Alex took down the evil mastermind Ransik, a mutant. But on the way to prison his daughter Nadira helped him escape to the chagrin of Alex's teammates- Lucas, a former race car driver; Trip, a psychic and innocent alien; Katie, a super-strong and loyal friend; and Jen, a tough fighter. The pair, along with their robot Frax, used a time ship to go back to 2001 after Ransik seemingly killed Alex. Jen, enraged at her new fiancée's death, took the morphers and her teammates in the other time ship to follow Ransik. But they had to add in Alex's far less serious doppelganger- Wes- for the Time Force morphers to work despite Jen's repeated reluctance. But just as the team got to work together as a cohesive team Wes' old school friend Eric obtained the Quantum morpher and refused to work as a teammate. But the others eventually wore him down into joining the team while Frax revealed his own treachery against Ransik. Despite heavy defeats, and a marked change in the returned Alex's personality, in the end a redeemed Nadira talked her father into giving himself in. Sadly Wes and Eric were left behind while their equally miserable teammates returned to the future.
An Air Force pilot named Taylor had found the reality of her favorite childhood story- Animaria, the flying island full of living animal Zords. It was ruled over by the Princess Shayla. Taylor was joined by sweet college student Alyssa, brash teenager Max, and shy plant specialist Danny. Later the empathic and curious Cole arrived and became the team leader, usurping Taylor to her initial displeasure. The five protected Animaria as the Wild Force Rangers against the evil Orgs. In time they began to find and free more Wild Zords, but not everyone being freed was friendly… such as the dark wolf Duke Org Zen-Aku. Then the surprised Rangers learned that Zen-Aku was in fact one of the original Ancient Warriors, Merrick the Silver Wolf. Even after being freed of the dark spell on him, Merrick proved to be uneasy to join his teammates mostly due to his crush on the princess (an audible squeak was heard at this time but the Lunar Wolf Warrior otherwise remained silent). The Master Org proved to have a vendetta against Cole having been a former friend and the killer of Cole's parents, and when revived became a full Org. But in the end all Orgs were either defeated or redeemed. So the princess and her Zords retreated back to the Animarium, leaving behind the six Rangers.
When the dark ninja Lothor destroyed the Wind Ninja Academy outside of the city Blue Bay Harbor, only three students remained free due to being late again- tough skateboarder Shane, tomboy surfer Tori, and geeky motocross mechanic Dustin. Their sensei had been turned into a guinea pig by Lothor while the sensei's son Cam became the tech support of Power Rangers Ninja Storm who began the battle against Lothor as well as his nieces Kapri and Marah. But Lothor tricked the Bradley brothers into believing that the Rangers' sensei had killed their adoptive parents so they fought the Rangers- older, sterner Hunter as the Crimson Ranger and the younger, more relaxed Blake as the Navy Ranger. In the end it turned out that Lothor had killed the Bradleys so after some inner turmoil the pair joined the team. Shortly afterwards, tired of being discounted due to not being a Ranger, the smart and sharp-tongued Cam accidentally went into past and learned some dark secrets about his family past- namely that Lothor and his father were twins! But he also became the Green Samurai Ranger, helping the other Rangers in their fight against Lothor. In the end, though, Lothor's real plan was revealed in that he had plotted to fill the Abyss of Evil with felled monsters in order to unleash its full power. So the Rangers drained their powers in order to defeat Lothor once and for all, with Marah and Kapri being redeemed.
On their first day as seniors at Reefside High School carefree soccer star Conner, loner musician Kira, and wise-cracking computer gamer Ethan all managed to get detention from Principal Randall. She gave detention duty to the rookie science teacher: Dr. Thomas Oliver (here Justin paused to wet his throat and let the cheering die down). Dr. O. just sent them off to find some dinosaur-related items and the trio found exactly what he was looking for- the three Dino Gems to use against the mutant dinosaur scientist Mesogog with his allies Elsa and Zeltrax. He soon joined the Dino Thunder Rangers himself as the Black Dino Ranger, but shortly afterwards the new evil White Dino Ranger entrapped him in amber. Then Kira's crush, the shy and artistic Trent, admitted that he was slowly going under the influence of the evil White Dino Gem. Yet things turned out better than expected; Trent and the White Dino Gem became good, joining the team, while after a series of mishaps Dr. O. was restored to normal. However Mesogog still had some cards up his sleeve- most notably that Elsa's alter ego was Principal Randall while his own alter ego was Trent's adoptive father… and that Trent had known for a while but had kept it a secret. Yet their good alter egos were redeemed and their bad ones defeated in time for the Prom.
In 2025 a dimension over the intergalactic Power Rangers agency of Space Patrol Delta was facing a major threat of their own- the Troobian Empire, headed by Emperor Gruumm with the dual-sided Mora-cum-Morgana at his side. After the A-squad was captured the B-squad was put into action: Jack, a tough loner; Sky, a strict by-the-books overachiever; Bridge, an eccentric, innocent mechanic; Z, a wry and cautious tomboy; and Syd, a complete girly-girl. They were later joined by their aloof commander, Doggie Cruger, and a quiet friend from the future named Sam. While the Rangers grew closer to finding out how to stop Gruumm once and for all their tech support Kat Manx became a Ranger for an hour to stop a monster only she could stop. Finally, Emperor Gruumm's main ship arrived at Earth and the final showdown occurred. The B-squad had to first face off their gone-to-the-dark-side-counterparts in the A-squad while Doggie stopped Gruumm. For his part, Sam got some last-minute aid from his friend Nova, who was also from the future. In the end Gruumm and Mora were captured and stopped.
Outside of the city Briarwood is a vast, mysterious forest. In 2006 five young people volunteered to help an old man who proved to be the White Mystic Ranger under an illusion. By volunteering to help, they had actually volunteered to become the new Mystic Force Power Rangers. But Udonna, the White Ranger, had her morpher stolen by the Dark Wolf Koragg who was the right-hand warrior of the Master of the Underworld. Thus Nick, a newcomer and a wary loner; Vida, a defiant DJ; Chip, a loyal geek; Madison, the shy but willful twin of Vida; and Xander, a confident and grounded Aussie, were on their own in battling the forces of the Underworld, such as the general of the undead Morticon and the vampire queen Necrolai. The former was defeated by the Rangers during the time when Udonna's accident-prone apprentice Clare actually turned out to be the new Gatekeeper and her mother, the previous Gatekeeper, had been Udonna's sister who had died in the Great Battle 20 years ago that had sealed away the Underworld until recently. Next the Solaris Knight Daggeron and the evil wizard Imperious were both freed of the curses each had imposed on one another during the battle fought over when Daggeron was taking Udonna's son to safety. Chip accidentally let it slip to everyone else that Daggeron had told him about Udonna's husband Leanbow, the previous Red Mystic. Soon it was revealed that Leanbow had not died sealed within the Underworld as Udonna had thought- he had been cursed into Koragg. Although freed Leanbow had to leave to stop the Master while Imperious' defeat at Daggeron's sword had unleashed the Ten Terrors. But at last reunited the eight Mystic Force Rangers defeated the Underworld once and for all as well as united the magical and mundane worlds within Briarwood.
The next year billionaire archeologist Andrew Hartford rallied up a team of Power Rangers to collect and defend the jewels of the Corona Aurora because he had found the crown part, freeing both its guardian the Sentinel Knight and the evil estranged brothers Moltor and Flurious. Rose, the genius college student; Ronny, the –ah- driven race car driver; Dax, a skilled stuntman; Will, a talented item retriever; and Mack, Andrew's protected son formed the team of Operation Overdrive Power Rangers. More threats came to face the Rangers as other villains learned of the possible completion of the most powerful artifact in the universe. But they also gained an ally in the friendly and heroic alien Tyzonn, who later joined the team as the Mercury Ranger. After many twists and turns the Rangers completed the Corona Aurora and defeated all the evils after it.
After Dai Shi had escaped his confines in the Pai Zhua Academy, killing Master Mao in the process, three of his Pai Zhua students- the cheerful Lily, the focused Theo, and the youthful Casey- journeyed to Ocean Bluff where they found a new teacher in RJ, an oddball pizza place owner who gave them the Solar morphers which turned them into the Jungle Fury Rangers. As time passed the trio learned to use different animal spirits but their fellow employee Fran got more and more irritable about their constant disappearances. Then Dai Shi and his right-hand woman Camille took RJ hostage, so the trio traveled to the Spirit World to take on the next level of power while RJ survived a battle against Dai Shi. Although the trio saved RJ, their victory came at a relatively low cost- Fran learned their secret. But then the cost rose as RJ proved to have been spiritually wounded during his battle with Dai Shi, turning him into a werewolf. After Fran managed to turn him back, RJ joined the team as the first ever Violet Ranger. As threats rose and were dealt with, bookworm traveller Dom became the fifth Ranger as the White Rhino Ranger. In the end Casey broke Dai Shi's host free of Dai Shi, so that Dai Shi and Dai Shi alone was destroyed at the end of the day.
Justin wrapped up with a group photo of RPM, stating, "Since it took place in such a distant dimension, even Billy doesn't know much about RPM. All we know so far is that they had it really rough, battling an evil sentient computer virus who had already taken over ninety-nine percent of the world by the time the morphers were given out. Their mentor was, for almost all of their adventures, a seventeen-year-old genius. The seven Rangers were: Scott, the Red Ranger, a former Air Force pilot; Flynn, the Blue Ranger, a Scottish mechanic; Summer, the Yellow Ranger, a reformed party girl; Ziggy, the Green Ranger; a literal thief with a heart of gold; Dillon, the Black Ranger, a loyal young man who Venjix had turned into an amnesiac cyborg; and then Gem and Gemma, the twin Gold and Silver Rangers, two friends of K's from the military think tank they had been raised in. But like all Power Rangers before them, they defeated Venjix… if not as completely as they would have liked as new data as revealed."
Worn out, Justin turned off the DVD player. Trini commented, "Now that the rehashing is over with, I believe Billy has quite a few morphers and uniforms to hand out."
Billy opened an adjoining door. "All right, let's do this in reverse chronological order. Dr. K already repowered the RPM morphers and handed out her team's uniforms, so Jungle Fury you're up first."
After all the morphers and uniforms had been passed out, the Rangers hung out in various clusters, asking out what had been left out in the recaps. Conner strolled up to Dr. O., clearly amused.
"I noticed there wasn't anything on your relationship with Kim or your relationship with Kat. Or with any other official couple. The closest we got was Kira's crush on Trent, which is interesting in and of itself…"
Tommy shrugged. "Well, it was because of their mutual crushes on one another that Trent had told Kira about him being the evil White Ranger. And you forgot- Merrick's crush on Princess Shayla was referenced, as well as Alex and Jen's failed relationship although it is interesting that Justin didn't go into details about why it failed."
"True. It's good to be back in action."
A faint, repetitive 'ai ai ai' could suddenly be heard coming from the other room. Conner frowned, "Is that one of the Alphas?"
"No; Alpha 6 is at Adam's dojo. That's my rebooted monster detector… it looks like Billy handed out the morphers just in time."