Magi Ranger
By: Tenstar12
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Power Rangers.
Chapter 25, in Which Harry Averts One Potential Disaster, but is Unable to Stop Another…
It took next to no time for things to get especially crazy after the Rangers morphed and teleported to Angel Grove proper.
Upon materializing, they all noticed the giant form of Mutitus stomping around between the buildings of the city a few blocks away. Even worse, the monster immediately noticed them as well.
So distracted were the Rangers by the proximity of the monster and the fact that it was already grown and was now approaching them, Harry was the only one who noticed the girl frozen in fright right in the monster's path and about to get stomped on.
"Harry! Where are you going?" Trini yelled as Harry sprinted forward and away from the others, summoning his staff as he went and jabbing it in front of him.
"Accio!" Harry near screamed, his magic reacting as expected and latching onto the now screaming girl, pulling her back mere moments before the giant monster's foot crashed down where she had been standing. The only problem was that the shockwave produced by the monster's step knocked the girl out of the fragile hold of Harry's spell and sent her sprawling to the blacktop.
The girl's scream of fright abruptly cut off when she hit the ground, only to be replaced by cries of pain as she cradled one of her knees to her chest. Harry continued in his dead sprint, internally grateful at the increased stamina and speed granted by his Morph. He noticed briefly that Mutitus had now spotted the girl, and Harry's approach as a result, and seemed as if it was preparing to stomp on the girl deliberately this time.
Seeing that he wouldn't reach her in time at this rate, Harry spun his staff around him as he ran, gathering his Power for a desperate move. When Mutitus's foot was a mere ten feet over the injured civilian's body, Harry released a concentrated Forcewave. The burst of purple energy smashed into the bottom of the monster's foot and halted its momentum, if only barely. This brief pause gave Harry enough time to scoop up the girl and dash out from under the giant foot mere moments before it crashed down once again.
Without pausing to think, Harry jumped into the air while holding the girl, twisting them in midair and vanishing with a sharp crack only to reappear back with the other Rangers who had yet to react in their shock.
The girl's sobs began anew, though she now looked a bit queasy on top of her scraped and bloody right knee that she was still clutching.
"Ha- uh… Magi! Are you alright?" Billy asked, moving up to cast a wary eye over the injured girl and the Magi Ranger.
"Yeah, that was a close one, dude." Zack followed up as Trini knelt down next to the girl when Harry moved to set her on the blacktop. When the girl refused to remove her arm from around his neck, Harry was forced to stay crouched next to her while Trini gave her a quick once over.
"Her knee is pretty badly scraped, but it doesn't look too serious." Trini said moments later. "You should be able to fix her up fairly quickly if I remember what you told us about your magic right."
Before Harry could use said magic, Jason interrupted them. "We don't have a lot of time now. Magi, you take the girl somewhere safe and then come back to help us. We'll summon the Zords and try to take this guy down."
Harry glanced down the road to see Mutitus was still standing where he had been before Harry apparated away, glaring at them with his hideous visage. "I don't know, Red." Harry said after a moment, only momentarily pausing to keep himself from using the Ranger's actual name. "This doesn't feel right. He's just standing there…"
Jason nodded while the others shifted their gazes up toward the monster. "I know. It has to be a trap, but we don't have much choice but to meet him on even ground, even if we are playing right into Rita's hands. Just hurry up and get back to us as soon as you can."
Harry nodded. "Right, I'll get her away from here and fixed up before I start back. Hopefully it won't take too long."
"Alright, let's do it guys." Jason glanced at each of the other four core Rangers before nodding as they moved to stand in line with him, with only brief hesitation on Trini's part before she stood after patting the somewhat calmer girl on the shoulder reassuringly. "We need Dinozord Power, NOW!"
Mere moments later, as the five color coded robot dinosaurs made their appearances, the five Rangers leapt into the air and landed atop their Zords. Shaking himself slightly, Harry once more stood, lifting the girl as he did so. "Alright little missy, let's get ourselves out of here before the Megazord starts in on our big ugly friend over there, yeah?"
The girl squeaked slightly, as if surprised at being addressed directly, before nodding and tightening her grip around Harry's neck with her left arm while her right stayed wrapped around her injured leg. It was a bit of a difficult position to carry someone in seeing as her weight was more than a bit uneven, but with the added strength from his suit, Harry was able to solider on as he ducked into an alleyway and sprinted through, doing the best he could to avoid jostling her too much, and then down the next street over.
As he ran, Harry idly studied the girl clinging to him so tightly. At first glance, Harry guessed her to be twelve or so. She was wearing a white dress of some kind with floral patterns stitched into it and had her shoulder length hair swinging freely. At present, her face was streaked with dirt and tears, but he imagined that she was a rather cute kid when she hadn't just been crying after nearly getting turned into a pancake.
Turning into another alleyway and cutting across to yet another street, Harry spotted a sort of garden plaza complete with a fountain surrounded by wooden benches in front of a building labeled as the Angel Grove Center for the Arts. Deciding that the relatively open garden area was as good a place as any to try and fix the girl up, Harry ran over to it and set her down on a bench.
"Now, hold still. This may sting a bit, but you'll feel better afterwards, alright?" When the girl gave him a wide eyed nod a few moments later, Harry waved his staff over her injured leg, casting both a cleaning charm to remove the dirt and whatnot from the injury and a minor healing charm. In a few seconds, the girl's knee was fully healed and she was staring up at him in wonder.
Harry shuffled uneasily. "There you go. Good as new."
"Wow…" The girl finally spoke breathily. "I can't believe I was actually saved by a Power Ranger! Are you the Purple Ranger? I know all the others go by their colors, but you have so many that nobody has been able to figure it out!"
The girl spoke very fast, reminding Harry idly of an eleven year old Hermione back on the Hogwarts Express. He chuckled briefly before bowing slightly to the now excited child. "I am the Magi Ranger. I'm an ally of the Power Rangers who has joined in their battle against Rita's forces."
"Magi Ranger? Does that mean magic? Is that how you fixed my leg? With magic?" The girl was getting visibly excited now, her former queasiness from the apparition either passed or forgotten. "Were you a bad guy like the Green Ranger was? Did the other Power Rangers beat you up until you got good again? That's what my mommy said happened to the Green Ranger."
Harry rolled his eyes behind his helmet as the girl's rapid fire questions kept coming. She was sounding more and more like Hermione every moment. "Yes, I used magic to fix your leg. No, I wasn't a bad guy like Green was. I helped the other Rangers fight Green until we were able to break the spell Rita had on him. That was before I got my actual Ranger suit though."
The Girl's eyes somehow grew wider than they had before. "Are you the guy in the cloak that the fat idiot and the skinny idiot were talking about on the news?"
When Harry simply stared at her, his mind processing her comment, the girl wilted slightly and drew in upon herself. "That's what Mommy and Daddy called them when they saw them on television…"
Harry broke his silence with a chuckle. It seemed that even complete strangers were able to figure out Bulk and Skull after a single interaction, even if it was only one way and over the television. "Yeah, that was me and while what your parents said may be true, it's still not very nice to call people names."
"And it's not very smart to get so wrapped up in your fans that you don't pay attention to your surroundings, Mageling."
Harry spun around, moving from a full crouch into a fighting stance with the Magi Staff held defensively as he stood to face Goldar and the group of a half dozen Super Putties with him. Internally, Harry cursed himself. Goldar was right about one thing, he had gotten a bit wrapped up in his conversation with the girl. All the same he felt his Gryffindor courage and his saving people thing rising within him, all but demanding he step up and respond to the taunt. "What are you doing here, Goldar?"
Alright, so he was still working on the witty banter part of the superhero gig. In his defense, the other Rangers weren't too good at it either.
Goldar merely laughed. "Empress Rita noticed that you weren't with the other Rangers anymore and felt you may be a bit lonely, so she decided to send you someone to keep you company."
"And of course you felt that you couldn't possibly come alone, am I right?"
Goldar threw his head back and laughed harder still. "I shall enjoy this fight, Mageling. We have yet to truly cross weapons since you acquired your new Power. I will greatly enjoy crushing your hopes, and your skull, personally."
Harry glanced back over his shoulder where the girl was still on the bench, though now she had curled herself up to be as small as possible and was barely peaking around his side to catch a glimpse of the monster and putties before them. "Hey, kid…"
"My name is Marie!" the girl, Marie apparently, snapped before instantly covering her mouth with both hands and going pale.
"Marie then," Harry continued as calmly as possible, still keeping most of his attention on the now slowly advancing putties and stationary Goldar. "I'm going to have to fight these guys. When I charge in, I want you to run the other way and head inside the building behind us, alright? You should be safe there. I'll come and get you once I'm finished with these clowns."
Marie nodded frantically, now reminding Harry of Dobby as her hair flopped around similar to how the elf's ears would. He was certainly reminiscing a lot today… "Alright Mr. Magi Ranger, sir." Not waiting for his signal, the girl immediately jumped off the bench and started running, drawing the attention of a few of the putties.
With a growl, Harry jabbed his staff toward the closest one. "Reducto!" The red bolt of magic lanced forth, smashing into the chest of the putty and causing a small explosion that sent it flying backwards with a sizable crater in its chest. "Over here, numbskulls. Your fight is with me."
Having successfully gotten the putties attention, Harry drew up the Power within him, letting it flow freely through his body. He knew that he wasn't a great fighter still, but with the help of the Power, he should be able to at least handle a few putties.
While the silver runes on his suit began to glow brighter in response to the Power, the putties charged in, their overly large hands reaching out to grasp at him. Just as the first one got within striking distance, Harry moved, swiftly bringing his staff around and slamming it into the construct's side, just under its arm.
When that putty went flying to the side in a shower of sparks, it left room for the next one to move in and catch Harry out of position with the large heavy ball it had shifted its right hand into. Harry felt the impact of the putty's weapon solidly in his right shoulder. He stumbled slightly, but the hit wasn't enough to completely knock him off balance. Instead, he jabbed the offending putty with the butt end of the Magi Staff, catching it in the side of its knee and dropping it to the ground as its leg gave out.
The next two putties came at him with their hands shifted into swords, forcing Harry to backpedal as they double-teamed him. This lasted long enough for the three putties he had already downed to get back to their feet, though the one with the cratered chest was noticeably slower to do so than the others.
"You see, Mageling?" Goldar taunted. "You can't even handle a few Putty Patrollers! How do you intend to stand up to me?"
Harry growled slightly before gathering his power with a quick spin of his staff. "I'm only just getting started, Goldar. You haven't seen the barest hint of what I can do!" With a sharp cry, Harry thrust his staff into the chest of the nearest putty, the resulting impact releasing the built up magic in his weapon to blast apart that putty and knock the other five to the ground.
Moving as quickly as he could, Harry drew more heavily on his connection to the Grid, gathering more and more Power into his weapon while the putties recovered and Goldar stalked closer.
"You know," Goldar began again. "For someone trained by Zordon, you don't really show any of his better traits. I fought against him back before my Empress's imprisonment, you know. He was a mighty warrior and a mighty wizard. You are neither." Goldar pointed at Harry as he snarled dramatically.
Harry just rolled his eyes and continued gathering Power. He was planning something more than a little over the top, but he really wasn't trained for fighting crowds just yet. He needed to even the odds a bit.
"It is truly a disappointment that the first true apprentice the old wizard takes in ten thousand years turns out to be as big of a waste of Power as you are, Mageling." The monster continued with a scoff as the broken apart pieces of the putty Harry had blasted began reforming into two new putties. "He certainly wouldn't have made the mistake of letting one of these Super Putties reform while he was showboating."
Harry smiled under his helmet as he finally felt the gathered Power reach the level he needed. "And that's the difference between us Goldar. Zordon was all finesse and control back in the day. I don't have the training for that quite yet. But I do have a certain fondness for overkill from time to time that tends to come in rather handy. Now let's see how you stand up to this!" With a furious cry, Harry thrust his now glowing staff straight up, rather dramatically he felt, and released the gathered energy in the form of a bolt of purple tinted lightning that shot straight up into the air for about twenty feet before arcing back down and splitting into eight different bolts, one for each putty and Goldar.
Goldar, seeing what was about to happen, managed to leap back out of the way, leaving the now seven Super Putties behind to get struck by Harry's lightning spell, turning them to little more than ash by the time the energy was expended. "HA!" Harry panted lightly, bringing his staff back down to his side and taking a fighting stance. "Let's see them regenerate from that!"
"Well played, Mageling," Goldar drawled as he started forward again, paying no mind to the putty-ash swirling around his feet as he walked through it. "It seems I'm always underestimating you, no matter how many times we meet. No matter. Perhaps it's even better this way. Now we will face each other one on one!"
With a roar of fury, Goldar charged through the last dozen feet between them, swinging his sword diagonally downward at Harry, only for the Ranger to block it with his upraised staff. Goldar merely sneered though before almost negligently kicking Harry back and breaking their weapon lock by consequence. Harry went flying backward, crashing into and through the wooden bench Marie had been on earlier, and finally skidding to a halt a few feet from the edge of the fountain.
"Even as a Power Ranger you still cannot stand against me, Mageling!" Goldar taunted as he made his way slowly toward Harry's downed form.
Grunting, Harry pushed himself up from his prone position before standing slowly, leaning heavily on his staff. "There's just one thing you're overlooking here, Goldar."
The monster paused for a moment before snarling. "And what might that be, little Ranger?"
Harry steadied himself before pointing his staff toward Goldar. "I always managed to beat you before I gained this fancy suit. The only difference between now and then is that I've gotten a little Karate training. Be that as it may, my strong suit… is still in my magic! Reducto!"
With Goldar standing so close, he had little to no time to avoid Harry's sudden spell. Honed battle instincts managed to allow him to shift just enough to avoid getting hit in his torso, but the solid impact and follow up rain of sparks from his shoulder still managed to twist him enough that he tripped over his own entwined legs, falling facedown and facing away from Harry.
The Magi Ranger acted quickly, leaping backwards in the same kind of dramatic jump that he had seen the other Rangers do so often, raining down destructive spells and Grid Powered Fireballs as he went.
He hadn't though too far ahead though. Because this was really his first time doing a super jump like this, let alone going backwards, so when his feet met the ground again he wasn't fully prepared. The end result of this was that Harry stumbled to the ground and went rolling head over foot until he finally hit the front wall of the theater building.
Harry groaned as he tried to rise, finding himself remarkably unsteady as he did so. It took him a few moments to realize that he wasn't all that unsteady personally, the ground was just shaking. From a position on his knees, Harry looked up toward the roofline of the buildings across from him and caught sight of the massive forms of Mutitus and the Megazord locked in a grapple as they stumbled around, causing a minor earthquake with each heavy footfall.
Cursing slightly, Harry forced himself back to his feet, still disoriented enough from his tumble to have to rest most of his weight on the Magi Staff as he stood. Upon reaching his feet, Harry looked up in time to see Goldar once more charging toward him with his sword held in front. "MAGELING!" The intimidation factor Goldar held was only slightly tarnished by the scorch marks dotting his armor from Harry's spells, not to mention the darker patch of skin on the side of his blue face that showed some actual damage done despite the monster's full body armor. All the same, Harry found himself quite unable to defend himself as Goldar approached.
It turned out to be unnecessary, however, as Goldar's charge was interrupted by both a fierce battle cry and a solid flying kick to the head. "Aiyah! Si-Aiyah!" Tommy's white-booted foot impacted solidly with Goldar's face and easily knocked the monster to the side, sending his sword skidding along the ground with him as he rolled away while Tommy landed on the ground in a half-crouch before running to Harry's side. "Harry!" Tommy near shouted, placing a supporting hand on his shoulder. "Are you alright? Zordon said you might need some help before we go back up the others."
Harry nodded. "Yeah, yeah I'm good…"
Further comment was cut off by an unexpected source. "WOW! Another Power Ranger! And it's the Green Ranger too! Hey, my mommy said the other Rangers beat you up so you'd be a good guy. Is that true?"
Marie leaned out from behind a concrete pillar supporting an overhang on the front of the theater building a mere ten feet away from the two confused Rangers. "And he called you Harry… is that your name Magi Ranger? Is that your real name?"
Tommy turned back toward Harry, most likely with a guilty look on his face under the helmet, but Harry just waved his hand airily and stumble-walked over to the girl. "Now that's supposed to be a secret, Marie." He said as he knelt next to her with a small grunt of pain.
"Then is the Green Ranger in trouble for saying it where I could hear?"
Harry shook his head but any verbal response he would have made was once more cut off, this time by an angry roar from Goldar. "You may have beaten me this time, Power Rangers," the monster shouted while struggling to his feet with the help of his sword. "But you will be unable to stand up to my mistress and her plans this time! Today marks the end of the Power Rangers, one way or the other!"
With his final taunt made, Goldar waved his free arm around before bringing it horizontally across his chest and vanishing, presumably teleported back to the moon.
Marie once more made a wide-eyed exclamation. "WOW! I can't believe I got to see the Power Rangers beat a monster in person! And I know one of your names too! I can't wait to tell all my friends!"
Harry raised an eyebrow under his helmet before waving his free hand idly. "Yeah, I'm gonna have to stop you right there. Somnus."
Easily catching Marie before she fully collapsed, Harry settled her down on the ground before standing once more and touching the end of the Magi Staff to her forehead. With a mumbled spell and some harsh mental focus, he cast a memory charm and then a summoning charm to bring a small, decorative stone out of one of the nearby gardens. Tapping the stone with his staff, it glowed blue briefly, and he dropped it onto Marie's stomach, at which point she vanished with a soft pop of displaced air.
"Woah…" Tommy mumbled. "What did you do?"
Harry turned back toward Tommy, still resting on his staff a bit, but glad his aches were already fading thanks to the Power flowing through him. "Sorry, Tommy. I forgot you haven't really seen me use much magic aside from combat stuff. I put her to sleep for a bit, then erased her memory of you saying my name and then made a portkey to send her to the Youth Center. I figure Ernie will be able to take care of her until she wakes up in about ten minutes or so."
"That's kinda cool, man." Tommy smiled, a slight hint of awe in his voice. "I never realized that your magic was so versatile." Tommy paused for a moment before speaking again. "You may be having some troubles with your Karate instruction, but with your magic you're still a definite asset in our fight."
Harry sighed. "Yeah, I just wish I'd remember that more often. I almost got my arse handed to me because I tried to fight Goldar and those putties up close. Thanks for the save by the way."
Tommy nodded. "Happy to help, Harry. Happy to help."
The relative silence, save for the now once more distant rumblings of the giant monster battle, was split by the six tone chime of their communicators. "Rangers, you must move quickly. The others will need the aid of the Dragonzord and Hedwig if they hope to stand a fighting chance against Mutitus."
Shaking himself briefly and inwardly cursing, Harry brought his left arm up near his mouth. "Right, Zordon. We're on our way." Glancing back up at Tommy as he lowered his arm, Harry nodded. "You ready to go face off against big and ugly?"
Tommy nodded, clenching a fist and punching it into his other hand. "Born ready. Let's do this."
Harry nodded back before passing his staff into his left hand as the two Rangers jogged out from under the overhang. While Tommy summoned the Dragon Dagger and began playing his summoning tune, Harry threw his right and into the air and released a pulse of Power. "HEDWIG!"
High above the city of Angel Grove, Hedwig appeared in her full sized Zord form in a flash of purple light, letting out a vicious screech as she began flapping her wings. –I see the dead-thing, Harry/Wizard, and it just knocked the big robot man down.- Hedwig's words were punctuated by a massive, though brief, tremor that was most likely the Megazord hitting the ground. –I am going to try to draw its attention away from the others.-
Harry nodded, idly noting that Tommy had just performed a super jump onto one of the nearby skyscrapers. "Alright, Hedwig," Harry said, trusting in their connection and the Power to ensure she heard him. "Just be careful."
Hedwig's wordless affirmation was followed by another fierce screech before she folded her wings back and began a steep dive toward what Harry could only assume to be the monster's location. Thinking quickly and feeling rather against attempting another super jump any time soon, Harry glanced around until he spotted a balcony high up on a nearby building and used a little line-of-sight apparition to reach it. After that it only took one more quick apparition to reach the roof of another building that allowed him an easy view of the oddly large clear area between large buildings that the Megazord and Mutitus were using as a battleground.
Just as he jogged to the inside edge of the building, getting a clear view of the entire fight, Hedwig flared her wings out sharply, transferring the speed of her dive from vertical to horizontal as she raced through the air toward Mutitus while the monster towered over the downed Megazord. As Harry watched, the dome on Hedwig's head began glowing with Power before a lance of bright yellow energy shot from the plate on the right side of her head and smashed into the unsuspecting Mutitus, sending the monster stumbling back with an accompanying shower of sparks.
Hedwig fired her laser attack once more, this time knocking the monster to the ground, before she passed it, lashing out with her talons as she did and leaving a twin trail of sparks leaping up from the monster's torso. Immediately afterward, she began beating her wings to help the turbines in them restore some of her height to avoid crashing into any buildings.
"Alright!" Harry cheered from his perch. "Nice move Hedwig!"
"Harry!" Jason's voice came from Harry's communicator. "Boy are we glad to see you and Hedwig. Were you able to get the girl to safety? Any sign of Tommy?"
Jason's question was answered when Tommy's rally tune echoed across the area, followed immediately by the mechanical roar of the Dragonzord. The giant mech stomped into the area and used its tail to sweep Mutitus's legs out from under it again the instant it regained them, buying the Megazord enough time to stand once more.
Harry still smiled as he lifted his communicator arm. "I believe that answer's your second question, Jason. And yeah, I got her to safety. Portkeyed her to the Youth Center a little bit ago."
"Awesome." Jason cheered, accompanied by relieved exclamations from the others heard in the background. "Good work, Harry. Be careful with this guy though. He's a lot tougher than most of Rita's other monsters. You might want to have Hedwig stay a bit further back. She really can't take too may big hits without feeling it a lot more than our Zords. Maybe take shots when you see the chance, but try to leave most of the fighting to the Megazord and Dragonzord."
"Sounds good, Jason, you guys watch yourselves out there." Harry lowered his arm again and watched somewhat anxiously as the Zords engaged Mutitus again.
With the monster now on its feet once more, Harry could see how the Rangers had had so much trouble with it so far. While Mutitus was at least a full head shorter than both the Megazord and the Dragonzord, it made up for this slightly smaller stature by being far and away more nimble than both. Any time either machine attacked, be it a punch from the Megazord or a tail or claw swipe from the Dragonzord, Mutitus would almost negligently duck or spin away from the strike before moving back inside their guard and delivering a swift blow.
Harry was momentarily startled by a scuffing sound next to him, but relaxed when he looked over to see Tommy standing from a crouch, having just leapt to Harry's building. "Things don't look too good right now, do they?"
Harry shook his head as Tommy came to stand next to him, the two watching the battle before them solemnly. "Not really… Megazord is too slow and Dragonzord is a bit too wild with its attacks. Mutitus is staying too close to the Megazord for Dragonzord to be able to properly engage it for fear of hitting the others…"
Tommy seemed deep in thought before nodding firmly. "Well then, I guess we need to give the Dragonzord a little more help." Without another word, Tommy brought the Dragon Dagger up and played the rally tune. Immediately, the Dragonzord stepped back from the battle and stopped moving, much to Mutitus's confusion if its tilted head was any indication. With another nod, Tommy clenched his free hand into a fist. "Alright, it's time to do this the old fashioned way." Without another word, Tommy leapt into the air toward the Dragonzord, covering at least a hundred yards if not more, before landing atop his Zord and then dropping through some kind of hatch."
Then his voice came from Harry's communicator. "Alright guys, Green Ranger checking in. Dragonzord and I are ready to take this guy down!"
"Huh…" Harry mused after the Dragonzord entered the battle once more, now moving more precisely than before. "It looks like Tommy is controlling his Zord directly now instead of through his songs… Hedwig, do you have anything like that?"
-I am… unsure, Harry/Wizard. Though I do not believe there is any kind of trapdoor anywhere on me in this form.-
Harry shrugged before turning his attention back to the fight. Now that Tommy was controlling the Dragonzord, the tide of the battle was turning. With a little help from Hedwig, the now faster Dragonzord was able to prevent Mutitus from taking advantage of the slower Megazord as easily and the Rangers had landed several strong hits in the process.
Then the air was split by Rita's laughter. "BELIEVE THIS, POWER PUNKS. MUTITUS IS NOTHING COMPARED TO THE MONSTER I HAVE IN STORE FOR YOU NEXT. BEWARE THE TERROR… OF LOKAR!"
"What the…" Harry tried to locate Rita, but her voice had emanated from everywhere at once. It was even possible that she was merely projecting her voice from her moon palace to try and distract them now that the Megazord and Dragonzord appeared to have the upper hand.
Before any further musing could take place, the sky suddenly went black. It wasn't a gradual thing either. One moment it was a bright and sunny blue sky overhead with a few random clouds, and the next it was a starless night.
Once more laughter echoed throughout the area, though this time it was much deeper in pitch and accompanied by a surge of the darkest example of the Power Harry had felt in his time in this dimension. Mutitus seemed to relax even as bolts of lightning lanced through the sky, centered on a point over its head. The Rangers were confused though, their Zords looking this way and that as they tried to figure out what was going on. Hedwig too was confused, based on the mental feeling Harry got from her, but she was more concerned with avoiding the lightning bolts and so flew down to hover just behind the Megazord and Dragonzord.
Mere moments later, the lightning coalesced into a gigantic blue head with incredibly spiky hair, the same one Zordon had shown them in the Viewing Globe earlier. The floating and vaguely phantasmal head was laughing maniacally as the Zords all recoiled slightly at its sudden appearance.
Rita's laughter began anew, still echoing from everywhere. "PREPARE TO MEET YOUR DESTINY, RANGERS." Then her voice took on a strange cadence, one that reverberated with Power. "OH GREAT LOKAR, BEND TO MY WILL. MAY YOUR BREATH OF DOOM MAKE MUTITUS MORE HORRIBLE STILL!"
Lightning once more split the sky, arcing around the floating head confirmed to be Lokar before a wicked smirk stretched across its face. "Yes, Summoner. They shall feel the Power of Lokar!" While Harry watched on, all but paralyzed by the immense amount of dark Power flowing from Lokar, the head opened its mouth wide and released a gout of what looked like steam that washed over Mutitus, entirely hiding it from view.
When the steam cleared off though, it was clear that the monster had gone through a drastic transformation. Where once it had looked like a zombie type thing, now Mutitus looked more like a serpentine demon of some kind. It still had the same bone like shoulder and arm plates, but now there was a sort of short cape coming from its shoulders. Its lower body remained much the same, but there was now a comparatively tiny representation of Lokar's head mounted on its chest. And finally, its head was now on a long stalk-like neck that made it taller than the Zords it was squaring off against.
While Lokar and Rita laughed, Mutitus gave out a grumbling roar of challenge and charged toward the three clustered Zords. Hedwig quickly beat her wings once and fired up her rocket boosters, almost instantly shooting off into the air where Mutitus couldn't reach her, but that meant little as the monster merely charged bodily into the Megazord and knocked the machine back while barely recoiling itself.
The difference in the battle became clear almost instantly. Whereas before, Mutitus had used its smaller size and greater speed to avoid the Rangers' attacks, now it was so powerful that it didn't even have to. Whatever Lokar had done to the monster had made it strong enough to shake off even a direct strike from the Dragonzord's tail drill.
"Shit!" Jason cursed over the communicator just as Mutitus landed another strong blow across the Megazord's chest. "Nothing we do can faze this guy now. Harry, any ideas?"
Harry narrowed his eyes as his mind raced. "I don't know, Jason. Whatever Lokar did to Mutitus supercharged it with Power. I don't think any spells I cast on it would hold for even a second before they were overwhelmed…"
Hedwig took that moment to make another stoop at Mutitus, carefully picking her trajectory to keep her from passing very close to the still laughing Lokar. This time though, when Hedwig fired her laser blasts, Mutitus merely shrugged them off, and when she tried to rake him with her talons, Mutitus actually managed to grab hold of one of them. This caused Hedwig to begin flapping her wings frantically in an attempt to escape.
It was not to be, however, as the monster's grip was too strong. After a few seconds, it began spinning in place while holding Hedwig out in front of it. Eventually Mutitus's momentum became too great for Hedwig to overcome and she was pulled into a level orbit around it. Finally, while Harry looked on helplessly, Mutitus released Hedwig, sending her flying through the air toward the Megazord and Dragonzord which had been standing by trying to find some way to help the other Zord.
The end result of this was Hedwig crashing into the other two, knocking them all to the ground in a heap.
"Hedwig!" Harry shouted, looking around frantically before apparating to a building closer to the pile of Zords. "Hedwig are you alright?"
It took a few moments for Hedwig to respond, and when she did, her mental voice sounded somewhat rattled. –I… I believe I am mostly undamaged, Harry/Wizard. As are the other Rangers. I do not think I make a good projectile, Harry/Wizard.-
Hedwig's head spun around a few times as she tediously extricated herself from the pile of robots. Once she was off them, though not yet airborne, the other two were able to climb back to their feet somewhat unsteadily while Mutitus looked on, a somehow haughty look on its serpentine face.
"How are we going to beat this guy?" Harry asked himself aloud, once more looking toward Mutitus, who was just watching them with its arms crossed. "No matter what we've thrown at it, Mutitus just shakes it off and comes back twice as hard."
"We can't give up you guys!" Jason called through the communicator once the Megazord was fully up again, though decidedly worse for wear with the large number of scorch marks dotting its hull. "Let's try the Dragonzord Battle Mode!"
"Right!" The others chorused as one.
Their plan was interrupted, however, when Rita's laughter took on an even higher pitch before she began speaking again. "Now you're finished, Rangers! Hit them Mutitus! And I'll send them to the Island!"
Mutitus unfolded its arms before flinging them forward and opening its mouth wide. From within its gaping maw came a spray of some kind of white foam that stuck fast to the Megazord and Dragonzord. Hedwig seeing the attack coming and not liking her position on the ground, fired her rockets once more, launching herself into the air fast enough to avoid the foam attack, though the powerful burst left her too high for an immediately counterattack.
The Megazord and Dragonzord almost immediately began showing a reaction to the foam as their movements became short and jerky, almost as if they couldn't move too well.
"What is this stuff?" Tommy cried out, grunting as he tried to move the Dragonzord.
"It's some kind of highly adhesive mass." Billy responded quickly. "It seems to be gluing our Zords in place!"
Hearing this, Harry began gathering his Power before apparating to the closest building he could reach, this one placing the now frozen Zords between him and Mutitus and Lokar. Moving as quickly as he could, Harry wove the Power into a vanishing spell and let it loose upon the foam covering the two Zords. For an instant, the spell took hold and the stuff started to dissolve, and then Mutitus resumed the spray and Harry's spell was shattered.
"It's no use, guys." Harry panted into his communicator, slightly winded from the high power spell. "Mutitus replaces the stuff faster than I can get rid of it."
"AND NOW!" Rita's voice echoed once more, "BE GONE POWER RANGERS!"
From atop Mutitus's head, where Harry could barely make out a tiny figure that had to be Rita, a bright Red light grew. In mere moments, the light was blindingly bright, forcing Harry to look away just as Rita released her spell, sending a beam of magical energy toward the downed Zords and the Rangers.
-Harry/Wizard!- Hedwig's mental scream barely registered in Harry's mind, frozen as he was in the face of the massive spell bearing down upon them. Harry barely even noticed when Hedwig's massive mechanical talons closed around him, yanking him off the rooftop and into the air, leaving deep furrows behind where her claws had dug into the building. She managed to get out of the way just before the red beam washed over where he had been standing.
When he finally came to himself again, Harry looked down upon the battlefield from where he and Hedwig were flying. He watched as the Megazord and Dragonzord, still frozen in place, tilted and finally fell to the ground. He looked toward Mutitus and swore he could feel Rita's steely glare as she watched the Magi Ranger and his Zord fly away, having avoided whatever plot she had set into motion to defeat the Rangers.
"Guys," Harry called into this communicator, keeping his other arm wrapped tightly around Hedwig's gigantic talon. "Jason! Trini! Tommy! Zack! Anyone! This is Harry, come in!"
There was no response.
-MR-
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