Noah stood in place, as he had since the fight's abrupt ending, Jake's attack hadn't hurt his body.

But it had hurt his spirit.

If only he had been strong enough to fight back, but the surprise and the heat of the battle had frozen him in place. Allowing Jake to run off.

"I can give you a ride home," Emma offered, everyone else had since cleared out.

"No," He said softly, "I'm fine."

Emma nodded, "Well I'll be around, text me later okay?"

"Yeah," He said and watched as she walked off.

He could still feel the heat of Jake's ax blade, and how jarring it had felt to be attacked by his best friend.

"You," A voice said through his fog, "I have a question."

"Yeah?" He responded, now realizing he was talking to Lyra.

"I noticed you examine your interest in Gosei's technology," She said in her normally blunt tone.

"Well yeah," Noah said, his face growing warm. "It's all so awesome like it's totally out there."

"Are you good with technology?" She asked.

Noah paused, for the first time since meeting Lyra he realized how awkward she was. It made sense, after all, she was literally an alien.

"Yeah," He said, feeling more comfortable, "I mean, I'm not great, but I've fixed my mom's tablet, and I built my own computer."

"Do you know anything about interplanetary transmitters?"

"I mean- I can't say I've ever seen one," Noah said, "But I can take a look if you want."


Noah knew he was totally over his head. This stuff looked like it was ripped straight off the Millennial Falcon. He couldn't even tell which parts were broken and which were suppose to look like that.

"I might be able to figure it out," He said nervously, "But it'll take me awhile."

"Okay."

Noah could tell by her worried expression that wasn't the answer she was expecting.

"What do you need it for? Maybe we have something on Earth that'll work in the meantime."

Lyra's cheek's flashed red, "That's classified."

Noah felt her embarrassment second hand and stopped pressing the issue.

"So what's it like," Noah began but momentarily lost himself in the question, "Uh- on your homeworld?"

Lyra chewed her thoughts before speaking, "Different... less exciting. Though the world I grew up on was closer to this."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah," She said with a distant gaze. "It was more structured though, less chaos..."

Suddenly a loud beeping echoed through the small room.

"I'm assuming that isn't good," Noah said.

"No. It means we need to head back to Gosei and find out what's going on."


Back at the slime-covered street, the two Rangers were eager to continue their chase for the Insectoid responsible for infecting the humans. Unfortunately, they had a new adversary standing in their way.

Emma fired six consecutive shots at the new Insectoid. And every single one missed.

The creature known as Dragonflay moved at almost impossible speeds, dashing around in a blur that completely defied his bulky body. By the time Emma caught the creature in her crosshairs, he was close enough to attack.

And he sent her body flying backward. She crashed into a nearby car, causing its alarm to ring loudly through the quiet street.

"I need your help," She said to Jake.

"On it!" He said and slid a card inside of his morpher. A bolder sailed towards the creature and missed entirely.

The Pink Ranger ditched her Phoenix Shot and instead drew her small blaster, assumably in hopes that its light weight would make hitting the enemy less difficult.

Dragonflay struck again, moving back and forth so fast he was a pure wall of motion, striking Emma with a rush of sparks each time he crossed her path.

Jake watched in pure horror as she was tossed around so easily.

Sure, he was still mad that she had interrupted his duel with Jayden, but he knew that she was only trying to protect them.

"Roplant!" He screamed and summoned a rush of roots that tore the assault under his feet and headed towards the Insectoid.

"Nice try," Dragonflay mused and leaped into the air, letting the roots slide safely under his form.

The Insectoid shot out a powerful eyebeam that exploded into a burst of fire next to Jake's feet, sending him crashing hard into the concrete of the nearby sidewalk.

Emma rushed to his aid, but Dragonflay knocked her back with a swift upwards blow.

"You're good as dead," The Insectoid said and approached Jake. "There is nothing in the universe that can challenge the will of Lord Vrak."

Jake touched the card in his hand and felt a hole where his guts should be.

He didn't like it, but there wasn't another choice.

He just hoped he wouldn't lose control again.


It was insane how quickly dread and anxiety could twist into a complete nightmare. This was something Gia was learning first hand.

"Gosei…" The green creature moaned using her own brother's voice.

Gia looked down at the figure in complete disbelief. Her brain was going so fast it had practically ceased all functions.

"Gosei…" The creature repeated.

How did he -it- know that name?

"I've never seen anything like this," The boy said, "And I've seen a lot of weird stuff."

"Can you please leave me alone," Gia said sharply.

"I- uh- yeah," He said, "Just keep me updated."

"Sure, whatever," Gia said.

"Thanks," He said and slowly walked out, walking backward so he could keep his eyes glued on what was left of Brad.

"I'm Axel, by the way. Just in case Brad hasn't mentioned me before."

"You already told me that," She muttered, "Bye Axel."

In a way, she felt rude being so harsh with the boy, after all, he was only looking out for her brother, for whatever reason.

But he couldn't be around for what she was going to do next.

"Gosei this is an emergency, I need you to teleport me and my brother to the Command Center right now."


Jayden rolled away from the swinging sickles and pushed himself back to his feet, his blade in hand and ready.

He thought back to his training his Ji, where he had learned to master the blade. He might not be a Samurai Ranger, but he was still a warrior.

"I have watched your battles," Creepox said, "And all of your friends too." The Insectoid shot an eyebeam that Jayden jumped to avoid. By the time he recovered from his abrupt leap Creepox was behind him, and slashed into the Red Ranger's back.

"When I'm done with you I'm going to take down your team one by one. Especially that Pink one. I'm going to enjoy slaughtering her." Creepox kicked Jayden, sending the Ranger back a few feet and rolling across the ground. "Nothing tastes sweeter than a naughty little Power Ranger."

Jayden felt himself surging with anger. He allowed the emotion to fester, to fuel him. Normally he'd be worried about having his true vision clouded by such potent feelings, but this was a moment of grave emergency.

Jayden stood up and charged forward. His body was still half hunched, but he shot like a torpedo, his blade extend outward like a jouster.

Metal hit metal, and then something broke.

Fortunately, it was Creepox's chest plate.

Jayden shoved his blade further into the Insectoid, causing the fresh wound to foam with green liquid.

Creepox screamed in anguish and threw the Ranger away.

Jayden hit the ground, his armor fading in a flash of light.

Unfortunately for Creepox that caused the only object holding in his blood to disappear as well.

The Insectoid grabbed for its fresh wound, a gush of blood seeping through its fingertips.

"That's it…" It muttered, "Loogies, get him!"

Jayden looked around as a sinking feeling opened up inside.

And about a hundred human faced Loogies appeared around him.


Gia hit the ground of the Command Center with her brother in her arms. She tried to ignore the cold, dead, feeling of his green flesh as she turned to Gosei.

"Fix him- please!"

"Oh, my!" Tensou exclaimed, "We need to get him to the medical bay."

"Don't bother," Lyra said as she stepped over to them.

Gia couldn't help but scowl at the girl. She didn't quite understand what it was, but something about Lyra made her feel uneasy.

When she pointed her pistol blaster at Gia's brother the Yellow Ranger didn't have to wonder much.

"What are you doing?" Gia snapped.

"I'm doing him a favor, trust me."

Gia pulled her brother away, fighting against his strength the whole time.

"Your brother is gone," Lyra said coldly.

"And how do you know that?" Gia asked.

"I've seen this before, on a hundred different planets. This is Vrak's killing move."

"Well there has to be something," Gia said, "And I'm not going to let you hurt him until I know that there's nothing."

"Maybe if we defeat the monster," Noah offered, who was standing a few feet away.

"It would have to be soon," Lyra retorted, "Pretty soon the Insectoid is going to return to Vrak's ship, and then it's glorian, essentially its brain, will be removed and put into stasis." She looked hard at Gia, "Meaning that everyone infected will be stuck unless someone crashes the ship."

"Well, I'm going to make sure that doesn't happen!"

At that moment the Loogie knocked its elbow into Gia, causing her head to shoot with pain and allow it to escape her grip.

It plowed right into Lyra, knocking her off guard and sending her body crashing into the hard metal.

Gia might have been amused if not for the fact that the creature lifted her gun to the air and aimed with Brad's eyes.

And fired into Gosei point blank.


Emma knew she was fighting a losing battle. Dragonflay was completely out of her league, and if things kept going she would definitely lose.

Still, there wasn't anything else she could do.

"Twistnato!" She called and summoned a tornado that whipped through the area, sending debris and everything else in its path flying around aggressively.

But just as before Dragonflay dodged flawlessly.

The Insectoid jumped into the air, the stubby wings on its back fluttering with enough speed to help project the creature towards Emma.

Moments before it could reach her something knocked it clear out of the sky.

"You're gonna have to try a little harder then that if you wanna lay your hands on her," Jake said, his black armor on.

Emma couldn't help but scowl, noticing the red visor across his helmet.

"Why are you still using that card?" She asked.

"Sorry babe," Jake said, "It's a package deal now."

The Black Ranger raised his weapon and fired it from behind, ejecting sparks from the Insectoid as it tried to sneak up on them.

"That might have worked on Pinkie," Jake said and held his ax up, "But now you're dealing with the Brawn." The Ranger charged forward and swung his weapon into the creature, knocking it back as easily as it had with her.

Whatever that action card had done to Jake definitely increased his power, and at that moment she had to be grateful for that.

But what was the cost of the power?

Sure, Jake seemed okay physically, but there was something off about him.

Even the way he stood was wrong. It was like something else was living in his body, pulling the strings from behind the scenes.

"I think your the least disgusting bug I've had to exterminate," Jake said. "But we'll have to see if you're any less messy on the inside!"

This time when Jake's ax connected with the Insectoid there was a loud crack.

Shallow cracks spread from the point of impact, with tiny orbs of green appearing across the lines.

The Insectoid fired an eyebeam that hit Jake in the chest. Despite his darkened armor, and a spray of sparks Jake didn't even flinch.

Jake silently raised his ax as it began to fluctuate with dark lightning and swung it down. The world around them filled with an eerie static as a spinning wheel of energy soured right towards the monster.

The energy connected with the Insectoid and tore it right in half.

Emma didn't even know how to process what was in front of her as green ichor splashed across the concrete and the two halves exploded.

"Remember that next time you want to get in my way," the black ranger said, grabbed Emma by her uniform and pulling her into the air.

"Jayden isn't your enemy, and I'm not going to let you two kill each other because you're both too stupid to talk things out."

Jake growled, pulling Emma closer. Close enough to see her reflection in his crimson visor.

"Jayden is just some privileged little bitch. Just because he was born a Red Ranger doesn't mean jackshit!" Jake threw Emma down and turned around.

At that moment Emma had a lapse of emptiness inside.

She knew that voice was Jake's.

She could sense conflict with every move he made as if every action was the result of some grand struggle.

"Find that snot ball," Jake said, "Kick its ass for me."

And Jake ran off.


"Hey Gosei!" Jayden called into the morpher and feeling really stupid by the lack of a proper answer.

With no one to pull him out Jayden was forced to break into a run and attempt to escape the Loogie monstrosities on foot.

Normally this won't be difficult for someone gifted with a Ranger's endurance, but their sheer numbers were absolutely overwhelming.

And Jayden was quickly running out of space.

Every corner he turned brought more of the monsters in his path. It was as if every corner of the city was crawling with them.

An actual infestation.

Jayden found himself facing another biological wall of green flesh, with the creature's behind him filling in the gaps.

Jayden held his sword firmly. He knew that he didn't want to risk harming anyone that could be saved, but he had to face the possibility that there not be any other course of action.

Suddenly the Loogies in front of him were thrown into a mess of motion. Their bodies littered around like debris.

And Jake at the center of the storm.

Jayden knew he had to step in, whatever dark energy Jake had allowed inside himself had taken over. And if he wasn't stopped civilians would be killed.

Jayden rushed forward, ignoring his wounds from Creepox.

Jake was about to deliver a killing blow to a human/Loogie when Jayden slid in between the two.

Metal hit metal, and sparks followed.

"Why don't you leave these poor people alone and take on someone a bit more challenging," Jayden said.

"Only if you think you can handle losing, especially without Emma to babysit."

Jayden didn't reply, instead, he took a defensive stance and prepared for battle.

The Phantom Ranger fell to the ground in anguish. His spiritual connect to Gosei was weak, but whatever had happened to him was strong enough to send waves past any barrier.

The pain was excruciating, like a red-hot dagger being plunged into his very spirit.

The Phantom Ranger picked himself up only to fall back into the wall, sliding down to the ground.

The Phantom Ranger knew that if things were to continue down this path he would have to resort to desperate measures.

The Phantom Ranger relaxed, allowing his body to feel the flowing energies of the universe.

The flow of the morphing grid itself.

He let the power wash over himself, to drown into it and sink into the very bottom of the universe.

"Please Zordon, forgive me."


The lowest section of the ship smelled absolutely horrid. Like a Regnar beast having its intestines gutted and set out in the hot sun for a week.

But Eezek ignored that, along with the soupy air, because this is the one spot Vrak wouldn't be watching…

"This is Agent EZ," The orange Insectoid said into the handheld device. "I have adjusted the virus to your specifications, and I await further instructions."

A small chirping escaped the device, a secret code that Eezek couldn't speak, but he could very well understand.

"Yes, my Lordship," Eezek said and killed the communication.