Magi Ranger

By: Tenstar12

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Power Rangers.

Chapter 35, or Power Ranger Day! Best! Idea! Ever!

In the wake of Harry's kidnapping and rescue, there was a good bit of work to be done for the dimensionally displaced wizard: He, with the help of the other Rangers, had to arrange for his reintegration into society. This included coming up with a suitable cover story that would help keep the people of Angel Grove in the dark.

Initially, Harry had suggested just telling the truth, slightly modified to help hide his status as a Ranger. His suggestion would have the entirety of Angel Grove knowing that Harry Potter was kidnapped by Rita Repulsa for some unknown reason and was then rescued by the Power Rangers.

Needless to say, the other Rangers shut this down quite quickly.

It was Trini who first pointed out the attention that that would bring upon Harry, far above and beyond what he got after the incident at the bank. In this case he would be specifically involved whereas with the bank he was just a name on a list. Admittedly, he would receive attention regardless of Rita's involvement, but it would be far less if the space witch's name was left out of it. If that wasn't enough, the other Rangers couldn't think of a single plausible reason for Harry to have been targeted by Rita other than him being a Ranger, a detail that they felt such a story couldn't do without. It was rather possible they were too close to the problem, so to speak, but ultimately they all decided, supported by Zordon, that it would bring up a few too many questions to chance Harry's identity on it, even with the Grid's protection.

Besides all that, Ernie, with some support from the Rangers, had filed a missing persons report on him a few days after he had gone missing. While the Rangers hadn't thought it would do too much good as they knew there were very few Earthly threats that could harm their magic wielding teammate, they couldn't really talk the kindly man out of it. And after so long with no leads on his disappearance, the police had released the information to the public in the hope that someone knew something.

This was yet another aspect that made it a bad idea to involve Rita in their explanation. If the people of Angel Grove started worrying that they could be randomly snatched up by Rita at any given time, it could cause all sorts of problems, general aura of peace and happiness caused by the Grid's focal point or not.

In the end, a story was settled on that was partially truthful, while still avoiding getting close enough to the facts to cause them problems.

And so it was that Harry James Potter, approximately 19 days after he was last seen in public, stumbled into the outskirts of Angel Grove, California, covered in dirt, showing signs of malnutrition and dehydration, and carrying some heavily damaged and very basic camping supplies.

Of course the supplies were conjured and just generally magiced into their worn condition and the symptoms he was displaying were created with a bit of clever spellwork, but the effect was the same either way.

The story he told the police when he was interviewed was that he had accepted a small magic job from a stranger with a Jamaican accent at the Youth Center. After arriving at the designated location, a suburb on the outskirts of the city, he knew he had started his performance, but most of his memory of the event were fuzzy. What he guessed was that at some point he had passed out and when he awoke he found himself tied by ropes and being manhandled out of a SUV somewhere in the mountains to the North of the city.

Fortunately for Harry, the kidnapper hadn't secured his hands very well and Harry was able to free himself shortly after the man deposited him on the ground and turned back to their vehicle. Unfortunately for the kidnapper, Harry was partially trained in Martial Arts, and was able to catch the man off guard when he sprung up at him. Unfortunately for Harry, the man managed to wrestle his way free after a lucky blow that left Harry dazed. By the time he had recovered himself, the man had jumped back in his vehicle and sped off, leaving Harry with the clothes on his back, a length of rope, and a pack that the man had been carrying from the SUV when Harry jumped him. The pack had, conveniently enough, contained some basic camping/survival supplies and the like, which, along with an insane amount of luck, allowed Harry to survive for the 19 days he was lost. He probably wouldn't have been missing for so long if he hadn't had so much trouble getting oriented when finding his way back. Harry was certainly no outdoorsman though, so he couldn't really be blamed for that.

It took several run-throughs before the detectives assigned to talk with him were satisfied that Harry had told them all he knew. It certainly helped that the other Rangers had drilled Harry on this story mercilessly the day before to make sure he didn't mix anything up. They all figured that any small detail of Harry's story that changed could cause all kinds of problems with his believability, which would open up a whole new set of troubles and so was best avoided.

Once the officers were done interrogating him they informed him that his magic supplies and props had been recovered by the true owner of the house he had performed at. It was one bit of evidence that supported foul play in his disappearance early in the investigation and would be returned to him within the week. With that out of the way, Harry was immediately shipped off to a hospital where he was poked, prodded, examined, tested, and generally treated for all of his "symptoms." It was at this point that Harry was forced to use a plethora of Confundus charms and other similar spells to make sure that his story held up medically as well. It wouldn't do for him to test as being mostly alright when he was supposed to have barely survived a life or death hiking trip through the mountains.

The entire ruse was supported by the arrival of Tommy, Kimberly, Zack, and Trini, who all rushed into his room, of course incredibly happy to see their friend after so long and more than thrilled that he was alright. After a bit of prompting (read: teasing) from Kimberly and Zack, Trini even reenacted her own greeting from the Command Center right there in his hospital room while he was confined to the bed, though with significantly less hitting, a less spontaneous kiss that was also perhaps less intense, and a great deal more blushing during the rant.

Harry was later congratulated by one of the male nurses on having such an attractive girlfriend who obviously cared about him so much. Harry just smiled in return and commented on his insane levels of luck.

Once Harry was released from the hospital, again with judicious use of spells to ease the way a bit quicker than usual, he was faced with yet another problem: Ernie. The lovable man was almost as worried about Harry as the Rangers had been and nearly crushed his employee in a hug the moment Harry walked into the Youth Center.

Ernie then spent the next several minutes ranting about how he knew that there had been something weird about that guy and that he shouldn't have let Harry go off on that job. That if he had voiced his concerns, maybe Harry wouldn't have gotten stranded for so long and wouldn't have come so close to death. Apparently the tests from the hospital had been leaked and his spells made him appear closer to death than he had thought. The police detectives were even commenting on how he had seemed quite alright to talk during their interviews and that if they had known how bad he had really been that they would have conducted the interviews after the hospital visit.

It was a huge mess no matter which way you looked at it.

In any case, Ernie hadn't really let up on his overprotective bit since, and his return had been staged a few weeks ago. In the meantime, Rita had made no further moves toward Earth, though the occasional pulses of magic detected from her palace by the Command Center sensors and occasionally by Harry and Zordon when the pulses were strong enough let them know that she was far from inactive. When compared to the worry this brought upon Harry and the other Rangers, the near constant jokes about camping (mostly from Bulk and Skull) were fairly easy for the Magi Ranger to ignore.

Speaking of…

"Hey, geek!" the overweight bully shouted upon entering the main area of the Youth Center and catching sight of Harry behind the counter. "I heard you were planning another camping trip. I might be able to give you a few tips if you want. It might keep you from nearly killing yourself this time." This was immediately followed by Skull's shrill laughter accompanied by the parroting of Bulk's last several words and more laughter.

Harry just rolled his eyes and focused on his cooking.

A few moments later, Harry imagined he could feel the floor shaking as Bulk stomped his way up the few stairs to the food court area of the Youth Center and over to the counter. "Hey! I was talking to you, geek! You think you're so cool, huh? You think you can get away with ignoring us just because you were on the news? Well news flash! We were on the news too, and for a much better reason than nearly killing ourselves on a camping trip."

This was apparently the source behind Bulk and Skull's continued attempts at taunting Harry: they felt he had usurped their popularity with the people of Angel Grove with his kidnapping and subsequent return. The fact that most people didn't even remember their minor interview on the events of Rita's solar eclipse didn't seem to register with the two.

And so Harry cooked on.

It was a rather familiar tactic for the Magi Ranger of late, burying himself in his work to avoid those wishing to speak of his ordeal. If he wasn't working he was typically with one of the other Rangers and so could beg off talking of it by manner of propriety. It had worked well so far, though such subtleties were lost on Bulk and Skull, in most cases only driving them to try harder, to talk louder.

In this case, Bulk decided to grab a ketchup bottle from the counter and spray Harry with the red condiment, splattering it all down his left side. "I said I was talking to you, Potter!"

Harry took a deep breath and counted to ten internally. It wouldn't do to turn the idiots into toads. It would completely blow his cover, not to mention being generally insulting to toads everywhere.

Luckily enough before Harry was forced to turn and interact with the bullies, Ernie swept in to deal with the two. "Alright, you two, that's enough! I've dealt with you causing trouble around here every once in a while, but now you're wasting my ketchup and assaulting my employees. OUT!"

Bulk and Skull almost immediately started protesting, claiming that they had been provoked or something, Harry wasn't really paying attention to be honest. Ernie just made his way out from behind the counter and grabbed each of them by their shirts, hauling them bodily to the entryway of the Youth Center's main room and shoving them through. "And don't come back for a week. If I see you here before then, I'll ban you for even longer!"

With a final huff, Ernie turned around to find every eye in the Youth Center trained on him. As it was shortly after noon on a Saturday, there were quite a few eyes to be trained. Blushing slightly, Ernie smiled and waved a bit before making his way back over to and behind the counter to speak with Harry. "You alright, Harry?"

Harry nodded to his boss even as the man offered him a roll of paper towels to try and clean off with. "Yeah, I'll live. It's only ketchup after all."

Ernie just huffed again. "All the same, I should have stepped in sooner. I might have to take a firmer stance against that kind of behavior in the future if those two feel like they can go as far as they do without reprisal."

Harry shrugged, wiping ineffectively at the red stains on the silvery-grey shirt he was wearing under his work apron. "I somehow doubt those two will ever get the memo, Ernie…"

Ernie sighed while nodding sadly, his eyes betraying his internal mirth even as a much more welcome laugh rang out across the area, quickly followed by Zack as he slid into a seat at the counter. "Going for a new look there, Harry?"

Harry rolled his eyes. "Oh yeah, Zack. It's the latest design from Chez Bulk and Skull. Do you like?"

Zack winced, glancing around a bit before catching sight of the offending condiment bottle and speaking again. "Ketchup?"

Harry nodded. "I was ignoring them. Apparently that is a high offense."

"I don't know why anything those two do surprises me anymore, seriously." Kimberly said as she and the other Rangers walked up, gathering around Zack. After a moment of silence during which Harry gave up removing any more of the stains as a bad job until he could magic them away, Kimberly spoke again. "So, Harry, are you still planning on meeting us at the Power Ranger Day Festival?"

Harry sighed internally. The Power Ranger Day Festival was the creation of the Mayor of Angel Grove, Mayor Carrington. With the decrease in overall activity from Rita in recent months, the Mayor had decided to celebrate what she saw as the inevitable victory of the Rangers over the space witch. While Harry didn't want to say that he didn't think the Rangers would win, not in the least because he is one of said Rangers, he still felt that the celebration was a bit preemptive.

He had been against the concept almost from the beginning, but the other Rangers (mostly Trini if he was honest) had managed to talk him into going with them to enjoy the festival. Word had it that the mayor had brought in a carnival group and who knows how many other games and activities to entertain the public, though she had been quoted as hoping that the Rangers themselves might deign to make an appearance as a main attraction of sorts.

Harry, aside from his general disdain for politicians and their clearly political moves, felt that such a festival was just creating a massive target for Rita, though that could just be his paranoia talking.

And so, Harry replied to Kimberly's question, though he was less than enthusiastic about it. "Yes, Kimberly. I'll be meeting the six of you there after I help Ernie close down the Youth Center." It was the one saving grace to the situation as far as he was concerned. Ernie was planning on closing early so that he himself could partake in the celebration and had asked Harry to help him with the closing duties. This way, he would miss an additional few hours of the festival with a legitimate excuse.

And then Ernie went on to rain on his parade. "Actually, Harry, why don't you go ahead and take off now. I can close up by myself and you look like you'd need to head home, which you still haven't told me the location of by the way, and get a change of clothes before heading to the fair anyway."

"But Ernie, I-"

Ernie cut him off. "I won't hear another word on it, Harry. Go ahead and enjoy the rest of your day with your friends."

Harry gave another internal sigh. While Ernie may not have known of Harry's general disdain for the Power Rangers Day Festival, the other Rangers certainly did, and they were all currently giving him satisfied smirks. While Ernie may have thought that Harry would have to run home to change first, the others knew he merely needed to get somewhere private and cast a simple cleaning charm on himself before he would be ready to head out.

Giving in to inevitability, Harry thanked Ernie before hanging up his apron and leaving the Youth Center with the other six Rangers following close behind. Shortly after they left the building, Trini came up next to him and took his hand shyly, getting a soft smile from Harry that she returned as the group started walking toward Angel Grove Park.

Partway there, Harry was able to duck into an alley and magically clean himself of the grime that comes with cooking and the extra helping of ketchup care of Bulk before rejoining the group and their conversation, of course regarding the upcoming festival. Kimberly was actually reading a quote from a newspaper clipping she had pulled from her back pocket.

"And because of their contribution to justice, and their unending efforts to protect the entire planet, Angel Grove city officials have declared today as Power Ranger Day. Mayor Carrington hopes that the mysterious superheroes will make a public appearance in Angel Grove Park where countless fans will be gathered to celebrate them." Kimberly glanced slyly around at her friends and teammates. "I have a feeling that the Power Rangers will show up. don't you?"

Tommy chuckled at his girlfriend. "I agree that the Power Rangers may well show up, but the question is whether or not the Magi Ranger will make a public appearance alongside them…" Tommy turned to raise a questioning eyebrow toward his student.

Harry just rolled his eyes. "We'll see, guys. I still don't think this is a good idea. What if Rita attacks the festival? I mean, it's practically a huge taunt aimed right at her with the way Carrington set things up."

Jason shrugged, a smile on his face. "Well, if Rita does try and cause some trouble, then we'll all be there to fight her off and protect the city like we always do."

"Yeah," Zack jumped into the conversation, bouncing through a few dance steps in excitement as he walked. "Wouldn't that be a heck of a way for us to show up? Fighting off some putties and a monster before greeting our adoring fans?"

"Oh, sure, Zack." Harry scoffed. "Let's put the huge crowd of people in danger because you want to put on a show." Harry glared lightly at the Black Ranger who had the decency to look somewhat ashamed. "If Rita does decide to attack, we'll have to worry about protecting all the people before anything else. This entire thing has the potential to be a huge disaster."

A tense silence settled over the Rangers after Harry's comment as they all really thought about Harry's view on the entire festival. The Magi Ranger had been rather uneasy since his return from Rita's Palace, and so they had largely dismissed his concerns, getting swept up in their own excitement at the concept of an entire festival/holiday for them. It was a difference between Harry, jaded with the trappings of fame due to his own experiences with the Boy-Who-Lived craze, versus the Rangers who were liked, but not necessarily celebrated in any official capacity. But with the day upon them now, they couldn't help but see his point.

The group traveled a few more blocks in silence before it was broken again by Billy. "So, Zack, are you planning on meeting with Angela to enjoy the festivities?"

This proved to be enough to break the tension, mostly because everyone readily grasped onto the change of subject. "Of course, man," Zack replied eagerly, spinning as he walked, his enthusiasm returned. "We're gonna meet there and spend some time cruising the games and rides."

"We should probably all do that and plan on meeting up again before the mayor makes her presentation." Kimberly interjected, still perusing her newspaper. "The report says that it's scheduled for 4 o'clock, so we have a couple of hours still."

"Prodigious!" Billy responded, smiling brightly. "Perhaps I'll be able to locate Marge as well so we can peruse the educational and scientific exhibits!"

As always, Harry was rather unsure on the state of things between the brainy Ranger and his equally brainy maybe-girlfriend. He rarely ever saw the girl around the Youth Center and never specifically in Billy's company, but the occasional mentions the Ranger made of her were enough to keep him wondering.

And based on the curious looks of the other Rangers he wasn't the only one and Billy was maintaining his silence.

-MR-

The Rangers continued on their trek and reached the entrance to Angel Grove Park within a few minutes. The entire area had been decked out with streamers and posters advertising the Power Rangers Day Festival and the stream of people filing into the park was going strong.

Just beyond the parking lot and main entrance to the park, there was a stage set up with a heavy curtain hanging down in front of it. All around the area there were what looked like inflated tubes crisscrossing around each other in the signature colors of the seven Power Rangers. The carnival workers had set up their rides and games off to the North of the stage, straight back from the entrance, while there were several other booths and activities sponsored and hosted by various businesses around Angel Grove that had set up to the East.

After reminding everyone of their rendezvous later on where, presumably, they would be discussing the possibility of sneaking off to morph and put in a personal appearance, the group split up. Kimberly and Tommy set off together toward the carnival while Billy set off for the booths, searching for both Marge and something to tickle his intellectual fancy. Jason followed after the Blue Ranger, commenting on a youth martial arts tournament being hosted by a local karate dojo that some of his students were participating in. Zack almost immediately began looking around the stage area for Angela, as that was where she had indicated that she would meet him, which left Trini and Harry to their own devices.

Shrugging, Trini grabbed Harry's hand and practically dragged him toward the carnival. Despite Harry's misgivings due to his last experience with a carnival, it only took her reminding him of their first out-of-suit meeting also being in a carnival (though admittedly the same one that caused his misgivings) for him to grudgingly give in and at least try to enjoy himself.

Not-so-surprisingly, Harry found that he greatly enjoyed the scramblers and roller coasters, small scale though they may have been in order for the carnival to keep to its mobile nature. While Trini didn't necessarily enjoy those as much, she did manage to absolutely annihilate Harry when they rode the bumper cars.

After passing by a fair few carnival games, most of which Trini assured Harry were merely scams and nearly impossible to win even if some of the prizes looked nice ("And no, you can't use your magic to win them despite all that.") the two found themselves about an hour away from their scheduled meeting time with the rest of the Rangers. Having ridden all the rides they wanted to at the carnival, the couple decided to head over toward the booths and see what was on offer there.

Many of the setups were little more than advertising for their businesses and handing out cheap advertising material in the form of bags, paper fans, whistles, pens, and the like. Occasionally, there would be drawings to sign up for, provided of course you gave them your name and address so you could be inundated with junk mail. Some of the booths, like one of the larger ones run by the Angel Grove School Corporation, were displaying several art pieces done by their students and putting them up for judging by the public.

After wandering for a bit, Harry and Trini found the martial arts tournament Jason had mentioned, with the Red Ranger watching intently from nearby, and they spent a bit of time watching the bout in progress. It was a fight between two young teens, one of which was one of Jason's students, which explained the Ranger's level of focus. They watched the rest of the match, which was won by Jason's student, and cheered along with everyone else before moving on again.

While wandering through the maze of advertising and games, Trini turned to face Harry and spoke. "Do you really think that Rita will try something today, Harry?"

Harry nodded grimly. "Yeah, she's up to something up there, I know it. Especially since I can feel her magic every so often. It hasn't been any more common today than any other day, and Zordon hasn't called with anything out of the ordinary from the sensors either, but… Well, just look around!" Harry waved his free hand at the booths around them. While they were all run by different companies, all of them had gotten involved in the Power Rangers Day spirit and their booths were sporting various Power Ranger themed decorations. "Each and every person here is celebrating the Power Rangers and, perhaps indirectly, the fact that Rita is always losing. The whole thing is just one big insult to her, even if it wasn't designed that way."

Trini's face grew grim as she took in his words. "Well, when you put it that way, you really do have a point…" Checking her watch, Trini gave his hand a squeeze. "Come on, let's head back to the stage. The others should be there soon and I'd rather we were all together if Rita really does do something."

Harry just nodded, even as a chill went up his spine.

-MR-

When the two Rangers returned to the stage area, there were about fifteen minutes left before the mayor's presentation and the crowd was growing. They managed to find Tommy and Kimberly almost immediately, but were forced to rely on some subtle magic from Harry to find the others.

Finally, the collective group of Ranger tracked down Zack, who had been glancing around eagerly with a bag from one of the booths held in one hand. "Hey guys!" the Black Ranger called with a smile, jogging up to them.

"Zack," Harry nodded. "Where's Angela? Didn't you say that you guys were meeting up today?"

Zack nodded back, still smiling. "Yeah, man. And we had a blast with all the games and such. She had to run to the little girls room and said she was gonna head for the actual brick buildings instead of the porta-johns. She told me to go ahead so I wouldn't miss anything and gave me my goodnight kiss in case she couldn't find me again." He glanced back and forth with a conspiratorial smirk before leaning closer to Harry. "If it isn't any trouble, do you think you could magic me up a way to find her again so I can get a repeat?"

Harry just rolled his eyes even as Trini and Kimberly both took the opportunity to smack one of Zack's arms.

Shrugging off his teammates' response, Zack reached into his bag and began rummaging around. "Anyway, I've got something for you guys…"

The other Rangers just exchanged glances briefly before Zack brought their attention back to him with a cry of success. And then he pulled a doll out of his bag.

A Power Ranger doll…

A Magi Ranger doll…

Harry groaned and smacked his forehead with his free hand.

Zack just laughed before tossing the doll to Harry, who caught it reflexively, and reaching into his bag again, ultimately producing a doll for each of them in the form of their alter egos.

They weren't really the best quality toy, being little more than a cotton stuffed, human shaped pillow around six inches tall, but they were rather standard fare for carnival prizes, a thought that Zack confirmed with his next statement. "Yeah, the Zack-man has still got it," he said with a smile. "I won one of those at a ring toss booth over in the carnival and I figured, hey, I might as well go for the whole set, right?" He punctuated his statement by pulling out a Black Ranger doll for himself and smiling brightly at his friends' exasperated faces.

Then Zack paused for a moment, glancing between Tommy and Kimberly and then Harry and Trini before his eyes widened. "Oh! I'm sorry!" He stepped forward and yanked the Magi Ranger doll from his hands before swapping it with Trini's Yellow Ranger doll and giving that to Harry. He then repeated the swap with Tommy and Kimberly. "I gave you four the wrong dolls!"

At this point Trini was blushing and had hidden most of her face in Harry's shoulder, though she still kept one eye free to glare at Zack who was now laughing again. Harry himself was leveling his own glare at Zack for his little prank, but the Ranger seemed completely unfazed. Jason and Billy were both chuckling to themselves, so there was no help coming from there, and Tommy and Kimberly were in much the same state as Harry and Trini.

Luckily enough, a distraction appeared in the form of Bulk and Skull strutting their way onto the stage… wearing spandex costumes and capes…

"With iron chests, and arms of steel…" Bulk spoke into a microphone, immediately drawing the attention of the crowd onto him. He was wearing a largely blue outfit with a backwards yellow "B" on it and black boots and gloves with a domino mask to top it off. He wore a yellow belt with several objects hanging off of the front of it along with a purple cape that didn't even reach down to his waist.

"We've got real superhero appeal…" Skull continued, though slightly herder to hear as Bulk was hogging the microphone, striking a pose next to Bulk. Skull was wearing a purple outfit with similar boots, gloves and mask. His belt was brown and had nothing more than an oversized buckle on it, but his blue cape billowed out behind him and looked to be dragging the ground as he moved.

"We'll protect this city with all our might… Bulkster!"

"And Super Skull!"

"Will set things right!" The two spoke the final line together and left the crowd entirely silent. If one ignored the sounds of the carnival rides and such, Harry imagined he would have been able to hear crickets, so deep was the crowd's shock and confusion.

Zack's prank now forgotten, Jason stepped forward with a look that was equal parts amusement and confusion. "Come on, guys. This is something I've just gotta see…"

Even Harry couldn't help but agree with Jason in this regard and joined his fellows in following the Red Ranger to a better vantage point amongst the crowd. As they got closer, Harry was finally able to make out the objects on Bulk's belt as a large foam pizza as the buckle with a hamburger and a hot dog on either side. Apparently the Bulkster had a thing for food… much the same could be said of his alter ego…

"Hello good citizens of Angel Grove," Bulk began speaking again, most likely once he decided that the crowd had grown around him to a sufficient point to support his ego. "And welcome to this city's most historic moment… A moment when two of the most dynamic, powerful, and incredible superheroes ever to walk the earth decided to move to this fair city… And protect it." The entire time Bulk was speaking, Skull was striking poses next to him. Harry supposed the effect was supposed to be dramatic or striking, but most of the crowd has broken down into whispered conversations and there were a few chuckles to be heard as the two bullies made fools of themselves.

"Hey, Harry…" Tommy asked, leaning toward the Magi Ranger and catching the attention of the rest of the Rangers. "This isn't any form of… magical payback after Bulk's little ketchup stunt, is it?"

Harry shook his head, still staring in amazement at the two morons on stage. "No, Tommy, I don't think I could even begin to dream up something as ridiculous as this even if I was inclined to get some payback on those two… I mean… I can't… Just… Why?" By this point Harry was merely gesturing helplessly toward Bulk and Skull, at a loss for words.

"That is one question even modern science cannot hope to answer in our lifetime," Billy responded solemnly, bringing a chuckle from the others even as Bulk and Skull continued their presentation.

"Of course, I am talking about myself," here, Bulk gestured to himself with a twirl of his hand. "And my sidekick." He briefly jerked a thumb in Skull's direction at this. "I'm…" Now bulk began waving his hands in the air before striking a strongman pose that would have been more impressive if it hadn't been so absolutely ridiculous. "The Incredible Bulkster!"

"And I'm…" Skull whipped his cape around himself, serving to hide most of his body behind the overly long piece of cloth. "Super Skull, boy wonderful."

At this statement, the crowd largely burst into laughter, even as a few kids up close demanded to know what kind of superpowers the two "heroes" had. The two then launched into a series of poses and faux martial arts moves that sent the entire crowd into near hysterics.

It was only the fact that Bulk and Skull seemed oblivious to how stupid they looked and the fact that they were making themselves out as laughing stocks that kept Harry and the other Rangers from laughing along with them. It wasn't that they liked the two, far from it in fact, but it still lowered the humor of the situation knowing how pathetic the bullies really were in their quest for fame and recognition.

And then, Bulk and Skull vanished.

The crowd stopped laughing almost immediately and Harry felt his feeling of foreboding surge forth anew.

"Hey…" Zack asked, his brow furrowing in confusion. "Where'd they go?"

Then another group of people, these ones the closest to the stage, vanished as well, glowing briefly with a flashing aura of purple light before they were gone.

"Look over there!" Jason shouted, pointing to the now empty space.

"What's going on?" Trini asked, looking around frantically as if to find a source for the people's disappearance.

Then Harry finally noticed the buildup of Power mere moments before another bunch of people, this one making up a full quarter of the assembled crowd, vanished just like the others.

Harry growled. "It's Rita! I felt her magic just before that last group disappeared."

"It's what!" Jason demanded, turning to face Harry just as everyone else in the crowd around them disappeared as well.

In less than twenty seconds, the Power Ranger Day Festival had gone from teeming with people as everyone in Angel Grove who had been able to come prepared to celebrate their heroes to only the seven Power Rangers. The carnival rides were almost ominous now as they continued to run without their passengers or operators and without the accompanying screams of enjoyment.

Harry turned to face Zack. "Well, Zack, you were the one who was hoping Rita would attack… It looks like you got your wish…"

-MR-

Thanks for reading and don't forget to review,

Tenstar12