Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, they're Saban's.

CHAPTER 35: Force From the Future/Earth Fights Back

Emma stood up, slamming her hands against the bench. "I can't take this anymore." She pulled out her morpher and looked around. "Tensou, can you get a lock on Troy?" she asked into it, and waited. Next to her, Gia watched the crowd, making sure nobody could see Emma's morpher.

"I'll take a look, Emma," the little robot promised.

Emma sighed. "I don't like this, Gia. He's been gone without contact for too long."

"He's fine, Emma," Gia said reassuringly. "I'm sure he's fine."

"I wish I could believe you," Emma said. Come on, Tensou…find him.

"The future." Troy let that bounce around in his head a bit. "You're a Power Ranger?" he clarified, and the man in green nodded, not taking his eyes off the panel.

"Yup. Bridge Carson, SPD Gr-no, sorry. Red Ranger." He sounded apologetic. "Sorry. I still get confused."

"What are you doing here?" Troy asked him.

"Well, my commander, Sky, who used to be the red ranger, detected an anomaly in the past-that's here-and he needed someone to go check it out. Since I'm the Red Ranger, I'm highest-ranking, and I volunteered to go figure it out."

Troy processed that. "Uh. Huh. So this…the alien invasion, that's the anomaly?"

Bridge shrugged. "I don't actually know. Maybe. See, time isn't fixed, it's fluid, but this wasn't there before. Something happened…or is going to happen, that's going to mess with the time stream."

"So you came back to the past." Troy nodded. He wished Noah was here. It would make more sense to him. "Okay, but what happens if you'd like…."

Bridge didn't turn around from the console. "Die here? Well, I guess it all depends on what's screwing up time. 'Cause, well, it doesn't really matter, since I'm from a point after Grumm, it won't mess up our defeating Grumm, but it could affect the events leading up to that point if we die in the past, since technically, right now, I'm like…what, let me do the math-"

"Whoa. New conversation," Troy cut in. "How did they even know about you?" Troy asked. He was amazed he was making as coherent of a conversation as he was. This guy had just told him he was from the future. Then again, my parents were Power Rangers, my dad fought on the moon, and I'm in a battle against evil aliens, so….why not?

Bridge pulled out a panel and started rearranging some wiring. "That's actually a really good question," he said. "My only guess is that coming through space they picked up on the power surge or something, and figured it was coming from me, and then realized I have SPD tech on me, which shouldn't really be in this galaxy yet-"

"SPD?"

Bridge grinned. "Space Patrol Delta," he said. With the hand that wasn't buried in wiring, his fingers gripped an imaginary rectangle-shaped piece of plastic and thrust it forward like he was showing a police badge. "SPD, emergency!" he intoned. At Troy's look, he offered him a smile. "Sorry. I'm rambling. That's sort of my thing."

Troy remembered that one now. They'd just used it the other day. And now he remembered from his dream-the uniforms numbered 1-5. "I think some of this is starting to make sense to me," he admitted.

"Speaking of starting…" Bridge closed the panel with a now worried look. "That was way easier than I thought it'd be….the missiles are active."

The alien general appeared out of nowhere. "Well done, Ranger!" it applauded. Bridge glared at it. The general stepped forward and pushed him to the ground. Bridge landed hard on the concrete, wincing as pain radiated up his arms. "Now the world will be ours!" He looked at Troy. "And you and your friends will be powerless to stop us."

"Rangers!" Tensou's little voice was a little garbled through the material of Gia's jacket, but Gia whipped out her morpher anyway. The four remaining Megaforce Rangers were still at the mall. "I found Troy. He's at a warehouse near the docks. And there's more! There's missiles inside and they're counting down!"

"We're on it," Gia replied, standing quickly. Emma and Noah followed, Noah stuffing his laptop back into his bag. "I'll go find Jake."

Bridge and Troy now sat back to back, Bridge's wrists behind him. "Please tell me you didn't actually make those missiles active," Troy said. Bridge was silent, and Troy couldn't see his face, so he didn't know what the SPD Ranger was thinking or doing.

"Let's test your handiwork," the general said. He flipped up the plastic box over the trigger, and pressed the button.

Troy closed his eyes.

Nothing happened.

"What?!" The general actually pounded on the console, as if that would help.

Bridge was smiling. "I didn't actually make those missiles active," he said with a grin. "The complete opposite actually. They're completely dead. Just big, pointy paperweights." He dropped his grin and eyed the general. "I told you, you're making a big mistake."

"All right, Bridge!" Troy cheered under his breath.

The general leaned in, his face even with Bridge's. Troy could feel hot breath on the back of his neck. "They say timing is everything," he hissed at him. "Your time is up."

Bridge didn't break a sweat. "Yeah?" he countered. "Well, if I'm going down, you're going down with me," he said. With that, he and Troy burst from their places on the floor, their hands untied and nailed the general in the chest with two perfect kicks to the chest. As he staggered, Troy grabbed Bridge's hands and pulled him to his feet. Bridge took off, ducking back behind some barrels as Troy stood up to face the general.

"It's morphin' time!" Troy turned the key and his pirate-themed uniform appeared.

"Pirates!" Bridge gasped from his hiding place. "Oh dude, that's so cool!"

Gia, Emma, Jake and Noah skidded to a stop as they were greeted by a crew of X-borgs. "There's too many," Noah said, doing a quick count.

"Troy needs us," Jake pointed out. "Let's take 'em down!" Jake hopped over a large crate, kicking the metal head off one of the robots, which then connected with a couple others, knocking them backwards. Next to him, Noah tipped a barrel on its side, then kicked it, rolling over three of the robot soldiers. "Strike!" he cheered, pumping his fist in the air.

Emma found an abandoned car, probably left during the initial invasion, and plowed an X-borg into the open driver's side window. "How we doing?" she yelled.

Noah looked over at her. "Let's go Super Mega!" he decided, and Emma nodded in agreement. Gia ran up to join them and the four of them morphed into their Super Megaforce mode.

"This should give us the upper hand!" Jake pointed his sabre at the standing X-borgs.

"Let's get this over with and go Legendary!" Gia suggested.

"Yeah, I have an idea on that!" someone yelled from behind her.

Gia and the others looked up to see Troy, in Super Megaforce uniform, hightailing it out of the warehouse, being chased by a two-faced alien general. Behind him, Emma spotted someone, a dark haired man in green and red, poking his head out from the doorway.

From behind them, there was a massive explosion. The guy in the doorway tucked and rolled, coming up next to Troy and the others. Troy helped him stand, and he grinned, adjusting the gloves on his hand. "A little parting gift," he grinned. "You should see what I can do with a toaster."

"Say what?" Jake frowned.

"Guys, this is Bridge," Troy introduced them. Bridge waved, wiggling his fingers. "He's-"

"You've ruined everything!" the general bellowed, interrupting. "You're going to pay for this!"

"Oh, really?" Troy shot back. He looked back to Bridge, who was standing patiently. He turned back to his team. "Guys, I'm with Gia. Let's go Legendary." He pulled out his morpher, then, threw his hand out in front of him, brandishing the morpher like a badge. "SPD, Emergency!"

The pirate motif disappeared, getting replaced with a slick red and black uniform, with a "1" emblazoned on the left chest. "Space Patrol Delta!" The others followed suit behind him, Jake in Green, Noah Blue, Gia in Yellow and Emma in Pink.

"So, I need to ask a question," Bridge began, as a few of the foot soldier guys surrounded him. "Maybe you guys can answer it for me."

They stared blankly at him. "Okay, okay. So…if he's in my uniform, if I were to try to morph in the future, would I be able to access my uniform? Or would I change color?" The X-Borgs stared, unmoving, at him. Bridge nodded. "Okay then." With that, he attacked.

Troy landed a solid hit with his sabre, Emma backing him with her blaster. "You'll never take over our planet!" he yelled at the general. "You picked the wrong planet to mess with." He looked at Emma. "Let's finish him off!"

"You got it!" Emma's blaster shimmered and changed into a slick looking pink and black blaster. She saw Troy and the others do the same. "SPD Delta Max Blasters!" Troy commanded. "Fire!" The five of them fired simultaneously at the general, and he disappeared in a shower of sparks and smoke.

Then, the inevitable. The general grew to massive size. "You're about to go up in smoke!" the alien general roared from up above their heads.

"I don't think so!" Emma yelled. "Release the Zords!" From over the city, the Skyship appeared, the other zords trailing behind it. The rangers teleported up into the cockpit.

From down below, Bridge swung two of the X-borgs into each other, and watched them collapse with a satisfied smile. He looked up at the Megazord battle happening above his head. The supersized alien general reached into the burning rubble of the warehouse and pulled something out of it.

Bridge paled. "That's not fair," he complained, as a final missile rose above him in the general's hand. "Hey! Guys! Watch out, he's…" He trailed off. "What am I doing? They can't hear me up there."

"Where'd that come from?" Troy demanded as the general aimed the missile point blank at the MegaZord.

"It doesn't matter. We can't let him launch it. At us or anywhere else," Noah said. "We've gotta get it from him."

"I'm on it," Emma replied. Troy swung the wheel and got them closer to the general. Then, Emma lashed out with the arm of the Zord and grabbed his shoulder. Noah swung their massive sabre so that it knocked the missile from his hand. Then, Emma pushed the general away and caught the missile with the free hand.

"Yeah!" Gia cheered.

"Hey, guys," Jake admonished teasingly, "stealing isn't right."

"Yeah, and since we've got an SPD Ranger watching us, we'd better return it," Troy added. All four of his teammates turned to him.

"What?" they chorused.

Troy pointed to Emma. "Send that thing back to the Armada, first class!"

Emma gave him a thumbs up and a nod. Then, she reached back with the missile, and threw it skyward.

What they couldn't see, but would have been very satisfying, was the missile exploding just outside the Earth's atmosphere, taking out the entire front line of the Armada. It barely missed the flagship, but everyone aboard felt the chain reaction of explosions as the ships shattered into pieces.

Back on the planet, Troy and the others faced the general. "Rangers!" Gosei's voice boomed from inside their helmets. "You've mastered the SPD powers, and assisted an SPD ranger. You can now access the SPD Delta Squad MegaZord."

The Megaforce Legendary Zord broke into its respective pieces and disappeared. Once on the ground, Troy heard the sound of an extremely loud siren. A red police cruiser the size of the skyship was cruising toward him, lights flashing.

"Oh hello," Jake noted, as the other zords appeared.

"Hey! Look!" Noah said excitedly. "Just like I showed you guys!" They jumped into the Delta Squad Runners and formed the Delta Squad MegaZord.

The alien general shuddered. "Back off!" he yelled at them, as if that would do any good.

"I don't think so!" Troy smirked. "Mega Blaster!"

Bridge shaded his eyes as he watched the general disintegrate. He grinned. "Are you guys seeing this?" he pronounced. He looked down at the pile of X-borgs at his feet. "Guess not."

Footsteps pounded toward him, and he looked up to see the pirate rangers running toward him. Their uniforms disappeared in a flash. "Are you okay?" the boy in red asked him.

Bridge nodded. "Yeah. I'm good. Better than good. Really good." He grinned at them. "So, you guys are the new Power Rangers huh?"

"I'm Troy," Troy said, offering Bridge a hand. "And that's Emma, Jake, Gia and Noah. Guys, this is Bridge Carson. He's-"

"SPD Green," Noah said. Troy glanced at him in surprise.

"Technically, right now I'm SPD Red," Bridge countered. "You must have a out of date database."

"Can it be out of date if you aren't the red ranger yet?" Troy asked him, and Bridge shrugged.

"You're from the future?" Gia asked. When Bridge nodded, she asked. "So…can you tell us…do we win? Against the Armada?"

The rangers looked at Bridge expectantly. "I can't tell you that," Bridge said finally, after thinking on it. "I mean. I want to. But I can't. For a couple reasons, the most important being-"

"You can't mess with the timeline," Noah suggested, and Bridge nodded.

"Yeah. Well, that, and honestly? In the future, this hasn't happened. At all. There's no record of an invasion of earth in this year. Something's messing with the timeline. Something big." He looked at Troy. "I have to go back to SPD to report this. We'll monitor the situation."

"You can't stay and help us?" Emma asked him.

Bridge smiled at her. "Technically, you can morph into me." He frowned. "That's weird to say out loud. But what I mean is, we're already helping you," he told her. "I promise though, if SPD feels the need to interfere, we'll be here."

He clapped his hands together. "Okay, seriously, I haven't eaten since breakfast at the academy this morning." He paused. "Which…hasn't happened yet. But, it has."

"I'm confused," Jake muttered.

Bridge looked at Troy. "Got any good recommendations for places to eat in this time?"

Troy grinned, checking his watch. "Actually, yeah," he told Bridge with a grin. "I do."

The mall was packed. The place smelled like fresh paint, along with the smells of frozen yogurt, pretzels and other fast food items. As the five rangers and Bridge walked into the newly-replaced glass doors, they threaded their way through the throng of people to stand at the end of the mall occupied by the food court and Ernie's. "Looks like the whole town is here for the reopening," Jake noted.

"That's a lot of people," Bridge noted. "I hope I don't accidentally run into myself while I'm here."

"Is that possible?" Emma asked him.

"Oh yeah. Although right now, I think I'm still in elementary school…or am I younger?" Bridge bit his lip, thought about it, and then shook his head. "I'm too hungry to think."

"You are in luck, my friend!" Ernie appeared with a red tray from the Brain Freeze in his hand. He handed Bridge a yellow-colored smoothie. "Enjoy!" Then, he turned to Jake. "Jake, I need to have my Mr. Brain Freeze costume back."

Jake groaned as Ernie disappeared through the crowd. "I don't remember where I stashed it," he moaned. Noah laughed.

Around them, people were starting to yell. "Five! Four!" The rangers joined in. Even Bridge, though he didn't know what he was counting down for. On "One!" a giant banner unfurled from the skylight, with EARTH FIGHTS BACK emblazoned on it in bright white letters.

"Awesome," Bridge proclaimed, and took a sip of the drink in his hand. His eyes widened, and he broke into a huge grin.

"What is it?" Troy asked him. Bridge shook the smoothie at him.

"It's buttered popcorn!" he said excitedly, and Troy noticed on the word 'buttered' Bridge's fingers wiggled uncontrollably on his free hand. "You've gotta try this!"

Author's Note: This is a major departure from the events in "Earth Fights Back" simply because I don't feel like they should earn the new Zords just by morphing into the legendary team X# of times. I figure helping Bridge earned them their SPD stripes, so to speak. Plus, any excuse for some Bridge.