Chapter 25 – A Whole New City

"Seriously, what is going on," Tommy asked again, standing slightly behind the others. They were standing on the outskirts of the city, looking at it in confusion. "This isn't the Angel Grove that I remember. It looks so different than it did when we were further away." Buildings that Tommy and Billy did recognize were mixed in with ones they didn't. It wasn't just that new ones had been built, some buildings were sitting on top of other ones or partially inside of them, like they had been mashed together by a five year old. Streets that had once moved in a straight line now zigzagged and dead-ended around structures that obviously hadn't been there when they were laid down. The strangest looking collection, however, was where five tall skyscrapers reached upward from a central point, like a hand. While most of the placement seemed random, the way those five buildings looked, did not.

Alex, noticing Tommy staring pointedly at the structure, cleared his throat, "We should head for that structure. The hand looking thing. It could be a main building of some kind."

"Wait," Billy said. From their vantage point, they could see crowds of people walking in the streets of the mutated Angel Grove. Who were they? "Are the people down there the people from our time? Mine, I mean." He glanced down at his uniform, "Should we put our helmets on? I don't really want to be exposed as the Blue Ranger." He didn't want people following his every move, expecting him to be a perfect hero every second. His secret identity was one of the only most precious things he had.

Alex thought about this and nodded, again noticing that Tommy had gone ahead and put his one, "Anyone who doesn't feel comfortable with their identity being know, feel free to don your helmet." Billy and Vida joined Tommy in hiding their faces. "When we get in, don't stop and talk, just head for the center of the city. We need to remember that we have a time limit."

Summer shook her head, those people down there were stuck in a strange place and possibly had been for months. If six Power Rangers simply wander into their midst, there could be a riot. "Maybe we should find a way to disguise Ranger suits, Alex. I don't want people to panic when they see us." She looked down at her own yellow suit, "It wouldn't be hard, just a long skirt and loose shirt. Might be a bit harder for you guys but we could do it."

"Why would they panic," Vida asked.

Tommy caught on, "Don't we usually save them from strange things? They see us, they instantly think we'll be able to get them home."

"But aren't we?"

"Eventually but first we need to find the…," he turned to Billy looking for the name of what they were looking for.

Billy provided it, "The Trans-Dimensional Bridge."

"…yeah, that… so that we'll be there when the other Rangers attack. We can't miss that deadline." He noticed Alex almost having a fit and trailed off, "I mean…" He stopped talking and stared upwards at the sky, "Hey, Alex, what do you think?" This whole not leading thing was going to be harder than he thought.

Summer, realizing what was going on between Alex and Tommy, rolled her eyes. She solved the dilemma by simply walking away, towards the city.

The shouting started immediately. People of all kinds seemed to spill from the hodgepodge of buildings, clustering together just beyond the seven Rangers reach. Unfamiliar faces looking both hopeful and afraid.

"Now I know how you and the rest of Mighty Morphin felt when you first arrived," Vida whispered to a helmeted Billy. "It's strange being stared at by so many faces."

"Yeah," Billy whispered back, "but I didn't like it then and I don't like it now." He had never liked being the center of attention. Even when it he was talking about some of his inventions

"Quiet," Alex commanded, "no more talking."

Vida stuck her tongue out but the helmet blocked Alex from being able to see it.

The crowds began to press closer, their voices growing louder as the Rangers didn't vanish.

"Guys," Vida said as one particularly brave person reached out. She flinched away and the hand retreated.

Summer!"

Recognizing the voice, Summer scanned the sea of faces, finally recognizing one, "Colonel Mason?" She stepped towards him only for him to disappear as the crowd rushed towards them. The Rangers found themselves unable to move freely.

Screaming in anger, the crowd forced the seven Rangers to where they had been headed anyways, the five tall skyscrapers. The crowd tussled and pushed the Rangers, who found themselves unable to lift a hand to defend themselves. These people were obviously upset and for all they knew, they had reason to be. So they rode with the fury of the crowd, each one imagining with their minds eye what could have happened to turn the people against them. As still more people joined the crowd, they reached the five buildings. Standing at the edge, the Rangers attempted to regain their balance. Chad smiled winningly at the nearest person, "Hi, my name's Chad Lee, I'm with Lightspeed Rescue." He held out his hand, "And you are…?"

The man glared at him and pointed towards the center of the structures, "Go."

The Rangers looked at the dark path leading into the collection of buildings. They couldn't see anything beyond the first few feet. They took a step back.

Chad looked back at the guy, "Yeah, how about we don't." He grinned, "Is there a snack bar around here? I'm starving!"

The guy pointed harder, "Go! Now!" The crowd followed suit chanting 'Go!'.

Alex, shrugging, started walking that direction when a blur sped in front of him and held his hand out.

"Stop!" The tall man glared at him, "Are you stupid?"

Summer smiled in relief, "Colonel Mason! She walked past Alex and threw her arms around him, "It's so good to see a friendly face!"

Colonel Mason, uncomfortable with hugging, quickly disengaged himself from Summer, "Um…you too…" He straightened his uniform, "All right, we have to get you guys out of here." He whistled and a group of serious looking soldiers, a few wearing the familiar uniforms of Corinth Guards, others dressed in Silver Guardian gear, some just wearing street clothes, appeared from the slowly boiling crowd and surrounded the Rangers, guns pointed outward. The crowd retreated slightly.

Alex looked back at the center of the five buildings, "But we were told to go in there."

Colonel Mason chuckled dryly, "You go in there, Red and you won't come back." He motioned to the soldiers, who tightened their ring, "Come on, the crowd's still small. But if we wait much longer, we'll all be taking that trip into the Ring."

The soldiers pushed their way through still growing, still yelling, crowd.

Colonel Mason and his soldiers led them away from what he had called 'the Ring', going all the way around it. Some of the crowd remained near the structure but most of it followed, at a distance, the Rangers and their escorts.

Summer decided it was time for some answers. She dropped back to Colonel Mason who was bringing up the rear, "Colonel? What's going on? What was in those buildings? Why are you in Angel Grove? Who's taking care of Corinth?"

"All in time Summer." He glanced behind them at the crowd, "Right now, we have to get somewhere safe."

Summer glanced back too, "Why are you afraid of the crowd? None of the other Rangers ever mentioned people who were this," she tried to think of a way to say it nicely.

Colonel Mason supplied the appropriate answer, "crazy?"

"…yeah, that seems about right."

Mason shrugged, "Being taken out of your natural environment and put, with your entire city in some cases, in an strange place with other people in the same strange situation? It does things to a person's mind. The strange disappearance of you Power Rangers didn't help the situation. Things were hairy there for awhile, I had to put Corinth in total lockdown for a week." He stopped talking as they caught up with the soldiers who had come to end of an ally way. There was a steel door set back into the brick. "Excuse me." He walked to the front of the group, knocking hard twice on the door.

A section of the door was ripped away, revealing a long peephole. Two eyes glared out at them, "Who is it? What do you want?"

Mason sighed, "Ernie, let us in."

Ernie, the friendly owner of the original Juice Bar, squinted suspiciously, "How do I know you're the real Colonel Mason? Not some evil clone?" He noticed the Rangers and his eyes widened, they fell on Billy and he squeaked, "Blue Ranger!" The peephole was quickly closed again and the door thrown open a second later, "Blue Ranger!" He shoved past the other Rangers and drew the startled Billy into a bear hug, "Oh Blue Ranger, you've come back to save us!"

Billy, like Mason, was extremely uncomfortable with being hugged this tightly. He looked around for help. With a hidden grin, Tommy pulled the now sobbing shop owner away. He leaned closer, "Come on Ernie, not now."

Ernie blinked, "Who are you? And how do you know my name?"

Colonel Mason noticed the crowd was moving closer and forcefully pushed Mack towards the door, "Could we continue this discussion inside? You really don't want to go back to the Ring."

Inside, Colonel Mason led them down a long hall, passing only three doors before stopping at one marked 'Private'. He opened it and went inside, Ernie and the Rangers followed. He closed the door behind them and they heard a lock click.

Mason nodded, "It's safe in here, we have it soundproofed and shielded from surveillance technology."

"Is that really necessary," Alex asked. "Who would want to spy on you?"

Mason sat down in one of the chairs scattered around an oblong table, "Like I said, it got hairy and we're still not sure who believes what. Better to be safe than sorry." He motioned for the Rangers and Ernie to take a seat. Mack and Alex took seats closest to the door while Ernie was flanked by Billy and Tommy. Summer sat next to Colonel Mason and Vida dropped herself into the chair next to her. Chad stretched out at the opposite end of the table, putting his feet up on the table.

As she sat down, Vida took off her helmet, shaking her hair out of its helmet pressed state. She tousled it and looked at Mason, "Ok military man, it's time for an explanation."

Billy and Tommy glanced at each other, then at Ernie, and shrugged. They took off their helmets too. Billy smiled shyly at Ernie, "Hey Ernie, it's good to know you're ok."

Ernie's mouth dropped, "Billy? Quite, smart guy Billy? You're the Blue Power Ranger? Didn't see that one." He noticed Tommy and he leaned back in his chair, "Tommy, you too?" He paused, "You… I can believe it." He took in the uniform, "But I don't recognize that suit."

"It's…ah…for the Turbo Rangers." Ernie looked confused and Tommy smiled, "After your time."

As Tommy and Billy caught up with Ernie with Mack listening in with interest; Chad, Alex, Vida and Summer turned to Mason who was sitting with his fingers steepled, deep in thought. Summer leaned closer, getting his attention, "Colonel?"

Mason glanced at her then away again. He found a spot on the far wall and stared at it, "I never really thought that you had abandoned us Summer. Not you or Scott or the rest of the RPM Rangers." He nodded at Vida, "The other Rangers I didn't know so I couldn't judge whether or not they were trustworthy, but you guys? My own son? I knew your sense of right was just too strong for you to just disappear like they were saying you had." He paused for a second and Summer got the feeling Mason had not had a joyful few months. He continued, "When Corinth appeared on the edge of that lake out there, only Angel Grove, in its original form, was here. And, at first, it wasn't so bad. We explored the surrounding forests, made contacts with the citizens of Angel Grove, who were just as confused as we were, and tried to find a way home. But then other cities began to appear, overlapping with parts of Angel Grove. Buildings grew other buildings, people appeared out of thin air. A Ninja Temple appeared in the park, a large mansion took over where the power plant was, an advanced academy was split into three parts and scattered around town, the Aquabase appeared in the lake next to Corinth and, well, it was all chaos. Then the Animarium crashed out of nowhere, the people of Turtle Cove were stunned and more than a few injured. None of them knew how they got onto the Animarium, much less in this place." He sighed, hiding his face in his hands, "Even that calmed down after a couple of weeks or so. But then…then Terra Venture crashed. The people…oh Summer… there were mass casualties. Not one person walked away without some kind of wound. And that's when the panic's started. On a level of I haven't seen. Even when the world was ending around us, people maintained a certain degree of decorum. But the people here just lost it."

Ernie spoke up, looking far away, like he was relieving the time. "It was terrible. People looked around, saw all the destruction and wondered where the Power Rangers were, why they had been abandoned. And as the months grew longer, the confusion became anger. And the anger…led to some very scared people doing scary things."

Mason nodded, "I didn't have enough soldiers to contain the situation, SPD, Time Force and the Silver Guardians did what they could but most of their forces hadn't been transported to this place. They couldn't help much. The people demanded to be protected, from what I'll never know, but with the Rangers missing, they felt unsafe for the first time in years." He rubbed a hand across his face, "And that was when a teenager took over." He growled, "A teenager! Not even out of high school! A skinny little pipsqueak!"

The Rangers looked at each other in confusion. "A teenager," Alex asked, not able to keep the laughter out of his voice. "How did that happen?"

"He started out harmless, less than harmless even. He was just rallying a few low spirits, making people remember that we weren't helpless beasts. He gave a few bits of advice here and there. But they were good. It was his idea to abandon the other places and live here in Angel Grove. I don't know how it got into people's heads but it wasn't long before the people were letting take him care of everything. He turned this place into his own personal kingdom. If anyone so much as sneezes without his permission now, he takes them into that ring of buildings and nobody ever hears from them again. But these people don't care, they were just glad to have someone 'protecting' them again."

"Except you guys," Mack asked, "I noticed that you had your own security guards."

Mason nodded, "Some of us recognized Trevor for what he was and took a few steps back from everyone else. Right now, we have about a hundred or so from the thousands here. We mostly keep to ourselves but we've stepped in to save those we could." They heard noises outside the door, like people were running down the hall outside the door. "Of course we may have drawn too much attention to ourselves rescuing you. The wrong kind of attention." He glanced at the door, "I was hoping we would have at least a day." A boom, "Guess not."

The Rangers leapt to their feet. Alex and Tommy both yelling conflicting things. Alex glared at Tommy, "Rangers!, outside, now!" They did so but Colonel Mason beat them to it.

Smoke filled the hall, soldiers were running in both directions, shouting. Mason planted himself in the center of the hall and raised his voice above the din, "At-tent-tion!" The soldiers skidded to a stop, staring at him. Mason glared, "You will return to your posts unless there is an emergency!"

"But sir," one of the nearby soldiers said nervously, "they've broken down the front door!"

Mason considered this then again yelled, "All right then, everyone to the front!"

Ernie timidly peeked out of the room, "Um, I think I'll stay back here."

The soldiers parted for Mason and the Rangers although all kept their weapons trained in front of them, at the large hole where the door once stood. A lone figure stood in the gap. He wore a white shirt and white pants. Once they were closer, recognition hit most of them like a lightning bolt.

"Trent," asked Vida, peering at the bright light. "Is that you?"

The boy smiled, "No." He waved, "Hi, I'm Trevor and I'm the real White Dino Ranger. The only Power Ranger who didn't abandon their people to this." He spread his arms and people filled the space around him, "Welcome home." He took a step backwards, so that the crowd completely surrounded him, "Now, are you going to come quietly? Or are you going to try to hurt some innocent civilians?"

The Rangers were still, each running through everything they'd learned over the last hour. They had no doubt that this pretender to Trent's title was a bad guy but it was his wall of citizens of the towns they had sworn to protect that made them hesitate. Most of them anyway. Alex took a step forward with the intention of attacking but Tommy and Mack pulled him back. Chad raised his hands in the air, "We surrender."

Trevor grinned, "Good choice." He glanced at Mason behind the Rangers, "Mason, you, I'm not interested in. So go ahead and keep playing 'soldier' with your little friends." He turned his grin back on the Rangers, "I've got some real toys to play with now."

*AN*

So, yeah… Things aren't turning out as the Rangers had hoped. The people are pretty mad at them and a crazy evil, clone Ranger has taken over. But how did he escape from whatever took the other Rangers? And what is he going to do with them? Will they be able to make the rendezvous on time!

*AN2*

Ok guys, I have a question for ya! I have some ideas as to how these different cities fared after the Rangers vanished, including the crash of Terra Venture, the Animarium and the like, but seeing as how I'm thinking one chapter for a season, this could take up quite a chunk of time if I put them in here. Now, if you want me to I will but I can also stick them in a new fic, Not Just Action Figures: Side Stories, since they would mostly feature minor characters or OCs. That fic would have a slightly more erratic schedule than this one but would be updated regularly. That way they would be optional to anyone who wanted to read them. I can also shove them down a deep hole somewhere if nobody really cares. Either way. Let me know in a review or PM which you would rather!

*CL*

Mystery Universe Team

Billy Cranston - Mighty Morphin Blue

Tommy – Red Turbo but remembers Zeo

Chad Lee – Blue Lightspeed Rescue

Alex – Red Time Force

Vida Rocca – Pink Mystic Force

Mack Hartford – Red Operation Overdrive

Summer Landsdown – Yellow RPM

Mystery Universe Inhabitants

Colonel Mason – Commander of Corinth in RPM

Ernie – Owner of the Juice Bar from Mighty Morphin to Zeo

Soldiers – from assorted seasons

Evil White Dino Clone(I'm calling him Trevor) – a 'soulless' clone of the White Dino Ranger Powers, which belonged to Trent, created by Mesogog(Dino Thunder).

People from every city in Power Rangers history