Whitney announcing – "Previously on Poké Rangers Neo."
…The Pink Ranger fainted and collapsed, falling into Rocket Red's arms.
"Excellent, Hypnotinza!" Rocket Red hissed lowly.
"…She's just plain and simple, the Pink Rocket Ranger."
"Anna!?" Kris cried.
All seven watched in awe, as the Zords changed shape, from Dusclops and Togetic to…
"Dusknoir!" Rocket Red gasped.
"Togekiss!" Anna cried.
"Kris? What's going on?" Anna asked.
"Neo Blaster, fire!" Anna called.
"Did you really think one of my plans would fail so spectacularly!?" Rocket Blue yelled, laughing maniacally.
"Anna Danime is gone!"
"Oh, and you can have this," Anna said, throwing her Neo Phone at the Rangers.
Rei knelt down beside Kris, and hugged him, and he let out his tears, as the four other Rangers gazed uneasily out at the lake, as night truly descended.
(Backing music plays, Rangers shown battling, including the Neo Cycles)
To protect the world, from devastation! Go Neo, Go Neo, Go! (Kris, Red Ranger, Arcanine Zord shown)
To unite all peoples, within our nation! Go Neo, Go Neo, Go! (Greg, Blue Ranger with Thermo Booster, Octillery Zord shown)
(Kurtis, Green Ranger, Sunflora Zord shown)
To denounce the evils, of truth and love! Go Neo, Go Neo, Go! (Anna, Pink Ranger, Togekiss Zord shown)
To extend our reach to, the stars above! Go Neo, Poké Rangers! (Rei, Yellow Ranger, Manectric Zord shown)
(Backing music plays, Ritchie, Silver Scizor, Scizor Zord shown)
Poké Rangers Neo! (Jessie, James, & Meowth glaring at Cassidy & Butch)
Poké Rangers Neo! (Jimmy meeting with Dr. Nanba)
Poké Rangers Neo! (Giovanni sat on his throne)
Po-ké Ran-gers! (Neo & Rocket Megazords, and Mega Insectazord battling)
Poké Rangers Neo! Neo! (Rocket Rangers shown)
Poké Rangers Neo! Neo! (Rangers with Neo Weapons, Rangers with Neo Blaster, Scizor with Insecta-Ray)
Poké Rangers Neo! Neo! (Whitney, Miborg in Sanctuary)
Po-ké Ran-gers! (Kris and Rocket Ranger using Battlizers, fighting in the air as a rocket takes off behind them)
Poké Rangers Neo! Neo! (Donny, Carl & BT peaking out of a bush, Nanene and Kyle shown at a table at Golden Youths)
Poké Rangers Neo! Neo! (Kris/Megazord using Legend Armour)
Poké Rangers Neo! Neo! (Rangers with Laser Sabres)
Po-ké! (Neo Garuda Megazord using Brave Bird)
Ran-gers! (Ranger teens at Golden Youths)
Neo! (All six Rangers stand before season logo, credits below read "Characters created by Psyduck Ranger – Super Jack, Cassie Chan Astro Pink, Daniel the Dragonfly, anonymous, Phoenix Espeon, and Nintendo; Everything Else by Psyduck Ranger – Super Jack")
Chapter 36; The Grass Is Pinker On The Other Side – Part 2
Rei arrived home, and kicked off her shoes at the door, and tried to creep up to her room without being noticed – no such luck.
"Anna, Rei? Is that you?" the twin's mother called from the living room. Apart from being taller, she was practically identical to her Pink Ranger daughter – her golden blonde hair fell shortly below her shoulders, however, and her sparkling blue eyes had a hint of green in them. Otherwise the resemblance was uncanny.
"Oh…uh…it's me, Mum…" Rei said awkwardly, entering the room. Her highly outgoing father was there as well. He had green hair, and was wearing huge baggy t-shirts and jeans, but he also had a pipe and slippers and was reading the paper. He reminded Rei of a Kyle who knew where to stop. He was weird, but the twins couldn't have asked for a better Dad.
"You're home late. Where were you? And where's your sister?" Mum asked.
"Oh, she's um…she's staying round Kris' place tonight," Rei said nervously, and her Dad lowered the paper, raising an eyebrow at her.
"No. Just no. Ew! Thanks for the mental picture!" Rei cried, running out of the room after answering the unasked question, and her parents chuckled.
At the door she bit her lip, before running up to her room.
Meanwhile, at Kris' house…
"Kris? Are you ok?" the Red Rangers mother asked, as she slowly pushed open the door to his room. She had her brunette hair done up in curlers, she was wearing a pink dressing gown, and a mudpack on her face. The light was off, but he was not in bed; rather, he was staring out of his window at the night sky. Anna's Neo Phone was still clutched in his hand.
After a moment of silence Kris croakily answered. "Yeah."
His Mum didn't ask any more questions, and simply frowned as she closed the door, leaving him alone.
Kurtis' house…
Kurtis was sat, silently watching the news with his parents, though in reality his mind was far elsewhere.
'Poor Anna…she must be so confused…we've got to help her…I hope Kris is ok…and Rei…Kris was letting it out, but she didn't…oh man, I didn't say anything! What kind of boyfriend am I? I'm a git, I'm a git, I'm a git!' he screamed in his head.
"Ooh, dear, that doesn't sound too good," Kurtis' Mum said, tutting at the news, and the Green Ranger turned to watch, "They're thinking that the Pink Ranger has joined Team Rocket. That can't be true."
"No…of course not, you know the media…" Kurtis said.
"You alright son?" Kurtis' Dad asked, "It's just you sound a bit more…intelligent than usual…"
"Yeah…but…I gotta go!" he cried, and he ran up to his room.
Greg's house…
"I've gotta think of something!" Greg said, pacing his room anxiously, "I'm supposed to be the brains on this team! Well, me and Anna…but if Rocket Blue can brainwash her into joining them, then I must be – I've got to be the one to snap her out of it!" he cried, stomping his foot.
Downstairs…
"That boy really needs to learn to calm down, and get some sleep," Greg's Dad said, shaking his head.
"Yes, well, you know what he's like. He's presented with a problem, a challenge, and he's got to sort it out. And from the sound of things, Anna's in a pickle, do you really think he's going to take one of his dearest, lifelong friends in trouble lying down!?" his Mum argued, smacking his Dad's wrist.
"Ow!"
Meanwhile, at Ritchie's flat…
"Nanene!" Ritchie cried, bursting into her room. Hers was the largest in the flat, and was stuffed with all her shopping, and her piano.
"Ritchie! Ever heard of knocking before entering!?" Nanene cried, sitting up and pulling off her eye mask.
"Whatever, anyway, it's an emergency! If Anna's parents ask, she's staying at Kris' place, ok? But if Kris' parents ask, she's staying here, got it?" he cried.
"Pardon?" she asked sleepily.
"Good!" he said, slamming the door. Nanene sighed, pulling down her eye mask, and lying down to go back to sleep.
And finally, Team Rocket HQ…
The six mutants triumphantly warped into the throne room, and the other inhabitants of the castle turned to them.
"Well, well, well. We have done well, hmm?" Giovanni said, giving a few claps. As the other mutants began to cheer them unenthusiastically, Giovanni bellowed "Silence!"
"Most of the praise should go to Rocket Blue, sir. It was his idea to gain control of the Pink Ranger, and for the Zord evolution, and, well, everything," Rocket Red said proudly, waving to Rocket Blue.
"Quite frankly, I don't care who came up with plan. As I said, you have to work together as a team. And what of the return of Rocket Pink?" Giovanni asked Anna.
"Well, sir, it's hardly a return, is it. Since I'm not the original Rocket Pink," she said. Giovanni looked confusedly between the mutants.
"Sir, Hypnotinza was not designed to make her believe she was Rocket Pink, but to show her that our cause was right. That way simply reminding her of Anna Danime would never work to break her out of it. Furthermore, Hypnotinza was designed to immediately vanish from the scene should he be placed in any extreme danger, in order to aid his own survival," Rocket Blue explained.
"Well very good job to all of you, especially Hypnotinza!" Giovanni applauded. Rocket Blue felt a twinge of anger at this, since Hypnotinza didn't design himself.
"Anyway, I'm going to bed, and I suggest you all do the same. For tomorrow is the day when the Poké Rangers finally meet their demise!" Giovanni laughed, and he left the room. All of the standing mutants bowed, and the Rocket Rangers, Hypnotinza and Nanba shortly followed.
"I still don't like them," Jessie said on the sofa, watching after them.
"We coulda done that," Butch grunted.
"We DID do dat! Well, sorta…pretty much…" Meowth grumbled.
The next day, in Goldenrod…
"But I still don't get it guys, can you just show me how to play football?" BT asked Donny and Carl.
"Can we? I'll have you know we were once asked to go out for Johto at the World Cup!" Donny told him impressively.
Flashback
"Excuse me, hello, do you have a minute?" a man asked the young duo's Mums out shopping one day, "We're looking for mascots for the FIFA World Cup2098. Would you be interested in your children going out with the players?"
"Ooh, not right now thanks, little Carl's got "tummy problems"," Carl's Mum said. The young boy was trying to cross his legs.
"Right…well, thanks anyway…" the man said, and he walked off.
End flashback
"Wow. I guess that means you're good then?" BT asked.
"Oh yeah. Now watch," Carl said, as they entered the Goldenrod gym's concrete pitch.
"Now, the first thing to learn is the positions. There's offence, defence, streaker, goalie, cheerleader, midfield, and evil invading mutant intent on conquering the world by ruining the game," Donny explained.
"Now when you do something like this!" Carl cried, punching Donny in the face, "Or this!" he added, kicking him in the groin, "That gets you one point. However, to be fair, and give them another chance, the vampire, sometimes called referee gives the ball to the other team for a free kick."
"You mean like this?" BT asked, punching and kicking Donny himself.
"Aw-haw-haw!" Donny moaned in pain.
"Exactly!"
"Then they, uh…they get to kick it without the other team being able to do anything except stand in front of the goal, at which point they have two choices," Donny said woozily, standing up again.
"Either protect their faces, or, the more common choice, protect the family jewels," Carl told him.
"Now since, if you've got any family jewels they'll probably be on your planet, we'll lend you some of ours," Donny said. The duo poured fabulous gems such as diamonds and sapphires into his hands.
"Ooh, pretty!" BT admired, speaking in a childish tone.
The trio continued on with the sport, ignoring the Rocket Megazord, with a Togekiss head and Dusknoir torso, attacking the town around them. The Mega Insectazord, flanked by the Manectric, Octillery, and Sunflora Zords, were soon surrounding it.
"Cross Chop!" Ritchie called, attacking from behind, forcing the Zord to topple, but to spare the city, the Sunflora Zord tried to hold it up, but the Rocket Megazord fought back, sending the Zord (and Kurtis) flying.
"Where the heck is Kris!?" Rei called out to the others from atop her Zord.
"I dunno, he must've got the call! But we don't have time to spend worrying about him right now, we have to protect the city!" Greg yelled back, "Try an Octazooka!"
His Zord splattered gunk all over the opposing Megazord' windshield, impairing the Rocket Rangers vision.
"Fine, you want to play it that way, then your city's gonna pay! Gunk Shot, fire everywhere!" Rocket Green called. The Megazord stood still, but for rotating, and fired poison in all directions from its Arbok arm.
"String Shot!" Ritchie called on instinct. He sprayed a large amount of the sticky stuff, coating the arm and preventing anything from getting out of it.
"Time to call out the big guns," Rocket Blue said with a grin.
"Rocket Garuda Megazord!" Anna called. The Megazord combined with the Ultrazord.
"Ok…I say it's time for a Quadrazord!" Kurtis called.
"Right!"
The Mega Insectazord split into its original components. The Scizord remained in its Megazord formation, and combined with Greg and Kurtis' Zords for arms, and Rei's for legs.
"Vine Whip!" Kurtis yelled. His left arm Zord shot a rope out at the opposing Megazord, preventing it getting too far away.
"Now a Waterfall!" Greg called, and the right arm pointed towards the Rockets' Zord. However, the water crashed down from the sky rather than from it.
"This is ridiculous! Earthquake!" Rocket Yellow cried, and the Megazord stomped down hard, shaking up the other Zord.
"Magnet Rise!" Rei commanded. The Quadrazord rose into the air, avoiding the attack, but relinquished its grip on the Rocket Rangers. They then rose into the air as well.
"Volt Tackle!" Rei shouted. The Megazord crackled with electricity, and swam through the air at the Garuda powered Megazord, with the mutants finally kicking them back with the immune Donphan legs.
Rei then shot a Shock Wave at them, but they again fought back by kicking the ball of lightning right back at the Rangers, and it collided with the Scizor chest, sending them right back down to the ground.
"And now to deliver the final blow!" Rocket Red hissed.
"Rocket Punch!" all five called. The Megazords hand blasted out towards the Quadrazord with such force they probably would have caused internal explosions for all four Zords if they'd hit.
If.
Seconds before impact, something shot in front of the Neo Rangers' Megazord, taking the fists with it. All nine "Rangers" looked off in the direction the red, black & cream blue had sped to. It was Kris, atop the Arcanine Zord, which was chewing on the two hands in its mouth. Kris silently looked out, rage radiating around him. A moment of silence, before…
"We're leaving," Anna said hoarsely.
"Just because your ex has turned up?" Rocket Blue asked with a chuckle. Anna pointed over at him, not looking at him, and he instantly began to choke.
"Pink, let him go. The rest of you, we're out of here," Red said tonelessly. The Megazord faded away before the Rangers eyes, as did the hands in Arcanine's mouth, much to his disappointment.
Soon, at Team Rocket HQ…
"So what's the next move?" Rocket Green asked, as the mutants arrived in the oddly empty throne room.
"The next move is mine and mine alone. Nanba!" Anna yelled. The humpbacked scientist entered soon entered the room, holding a large vial of the orange substance so incorrectly called lava.
"What's that?" Rocket blue asked uneasily, as Anna took the vial, and motioned Nanba to leave. He did so, but with a scowl on his face, not that any of the Rocket Rangers cared.
"I'm going to put this into Kanto & Johto's water supply. It'll be highly diluted, but it's more than strong enough to mutate everyone on the entire continent by drinking just one glass of water," Anna said with an evil laugh.
"But they won't work for us, if anything that could just gain us new enemies!" Rocket Yellow argued.
"Which is why it's been treated by Hypnotinza," Anna told her.
"Fine, we'll just dump it, and-" Rocket Red said.
"Not you! Me! Alone," Anna cut off. Before any of them could respond, Anna left in a lava hole.
"Do you think we should give Hypnotinza a go at her?" Rocket Green asked, though whether or not he was joking wasn't clear (A/N: He was).
Just outside the room, a certain two mutants…let's call them…C and D-
"It's B!" one yelled angrily at the narrator.
C and Q were secretly listening in, ready to report to their Boss as soon as they had enough incriminating evidence…
Soon, in the Sanctuary…
"Thanks for coming when you did Kris," Rei said.
"Yeah. Could have used you a bit earlier though – OW!" Kurtis cried.
"We've just got to do whatever it takes to get Anna back to her old self again…there's no room for me moping…" he said, clenching his fist.
The Rangers were all sat around the Sanctuary, demorphed and waiting for any sign of Anna. Whitney, Miborg and Greg were all working furiously at the computers.
"Hey, guys, this could be her! We're getting a strong source of energy from near the Vermillion Water Plant. Could be worth following up," Whitney said, turning round to the Rangers. Five of them plus Miborg were stood around her.
"Where's Kris?" she asked.
Shortly, at the Water Plant…
Anna knelt down to tip the lava into the water carefully Two guards bodies were piled on top of each other nearby – hopefully just unconscious. She paused as she heard footsteps behind her.
"Why did I know that you'd try and stop me?" Anna asked. With a sigh, not even turning around, though she did after asking, to face the Red Ranger.
"Because I'm here to stop you from doing something that's wrong. At one time, it would have been some other mutant stood where you are, and you'd have been here helping me," Kris said coldly.
"Once upon a time, but I'm wiser now. I've seen the light," Anna replied.
"Anna, what is wrong with you! Two weeks ago – heck, two days ago, if you could've seen yourself now you'd have thrown up. You'd be sickened by it. Helping Team Rocket to do evil, hurting millions, even billions of people! What's wrong with you!?"
"Silence! It's time to end this once and for all! Only one Ranger is going to leave this plant today!" Anna hissed.
The two Rangers began circling each other, until eventually, Anna leapt at Kris, and tackled him to the ground.
"Just couldn't keep your hands off me, could you?" he chuckled. Anna moved from on top of him, picked him up by the neck, and threw him into the air.
Anna quickly tried to tip the vial into the water, but as he fell, Kris kicked her into the water, barely managing to catch the vial in time.
"Please, think about what you're doing! The real Anna wouldn't do this! Because she's understand how many people would be hurt by it! Please, just stop now! Snap out of it! I mean, look what you've done to those guards for a start! How much farther will it go!?"
All the while, Anna was crackling with electricity, holding her head in pain, not even concentrating on remaining above the water.
"My – my head! It hurts!" she wailed, but then the electricity stopped, and she jumped high from the water, and landed right in front of Kris.
She punched him in the groin, causing him to fall down in a foetal position, and she took the lava from his hands, and turned back to the water.
"Fine. Fine, do it if you must. Just – just do me one favour before you do," Kris pleaded. Anna casually turned her head back to face him first.
"Just kill me. Because I don't want to live my life without you," Kris said, tears welling up beneath his helmet.
"Heh. With pleasure," Anna said. She summoned all three of her weapons, and prepared to strike. Kris looked away and closed his eyes, flinching – but the attack never came.
He looked up to see Anna on her knees, crying her mutated-into-a-visor eyes out and pounding the ground.
"Why! Can't! I! Do it!?" she wailed, completely collapsing onto the ground.
"Anna! Anna, are you in there? Please, it's me, it's Kris. Fight it Anna! Break free!" Kris said as he kneeled down in front of her, and helped her sit upright. They stared into each other's helmets.
"I – I can't!"
"Yes you can! I believe in you!" Kris whispered, briefly putting his arms round her. But she then broke free of him, and tore away at her armour, throwing it to one side (not into the water, mind you) until eventually it all just melted away, dissolving back into lava itself, once again leaving Anna Danime.
"Anna?" Kris asked tenderly.
"It's me, Kris. I'm ok! Thank you!" she cried, putting her arms round him, and ripping Kris' helmet off, almost taking his head off with it. She then proceeded to – actually, that wouldn't even be appropriate for an "M".
"Ok, that's enough you two," Kurtis said, as he arrived with the other Rangers, all unmorphed.
"What are you guys doing here?" Kris asked.
"And why did you come all this way for what'll probably be just a few minutes of being here?" Anna asked.
"There's a highly interesting and exciting answer to that question, and I'll now go into the full, in-depth, gory, incredible details-" Greg said, and he took a deep breath to explain before being cut off.
"No time for that! Steven just called, we've got our first match later today!"
"Might I suggest we get home pronto, get some rest, train some, yadda, yadda, you know the deal?" Ritchie asked.
"To the Mew-Mobile!" Rei cried, pointing up in the air.
"The what?" Anna asked, and Kris shrugged.
"Oh, right. It was part of Greg's story that there happened to not be time for," Rei explained.
"Oh, ok. To the Mew-Mobile!" Kris announced.
Later that day…
As the teens thrashed the other team from Mahogany (known as the Mahogany Mareeps) on the court earlier inhabited by our favourite comedy trio (cue the angry Jessie, James and Meowth), playing alongside new, irrelevant teammates Libby, Jo, Joe, Ryan, and Dawn, Anna, Nanene, and Anna's inexplicably evolved Togekiss were acting as cheerleaders, complete with the cute outfits ("This is so degrading!" from Nanene), styled as Goldeen for the team's new name, Goldenrod Goldeens. Greg had a seat in the stand next to Steven, but he was wishing he'd chosen somewhere else to sit.
A/N: Did much of that make sense?
"COME ON, GUYS! I'VE SEEN YOU BEFORE, YOU'RE A MILLION TIMES BETTER THAN THOSE PIPSQUEAKS, THRASH 'EM!!!!!" he screamed, and Greg edged away from him slowly.
"And that guy with brown hair whose name I'm still not quite sure of is on the ball, he dodges Robinson without causing him any mental or even physical pain, that's sure to cost him big points in the final round, he, whose name I've just been told is Dave Weaver has volleyed it on to Daleson, who shoots it right across back to the team's Carvanha Man, Kris Douglas, whose spinning round like a ballet dancer in the area that's marked off with blues lines near the net. I'm not sure what those lines mean, but I believe that areas forbidden!" BT announced nonsensically.
"What are you talking about?" Carl chuckled.
"I don't know!" BT cried, and the three announcers laughed uproariously, "Oh, but now Douglas has kicked the ball past the goal guardian, but not his own, that's cost his team 50 's!"
As Kris did a victory lap round the pitch at having in fact scored, he gave a wink and a thumbs-up to Anna, and she winked back.
"Go Goldeens!"
How will Giovanni handle another failure at the hands of the Rocket Rangers? What are they going to do next? And what happened to Hypnotinza? All of these questions and many more will probably not be answered next time on Poké Rangers Neo!
A/N: Ah, lovely. Hope you enjoyed the editisation. Despite the fact that for a few days I was struggling to think of what would actually happen in this episode, I think it turned out quite well. All those scenes of the Rangers at home near the beginning, and the Rocket HQ scene were in fact cut from the last episode for time…what? I can't have cut scenes unless it's a TV show or movie now? Eh…even though she answered many of your reviews last chapter, Anna will again be doing that today, accompanied by Kris, of course. If this chapter looked dodgy or anything, it's because the site is screwing about right now, so I've had to copy and paste this into an exported chapter to upload it. Anyway, see ya!