Chapter 36

Pink Panther (6)

"Alpha, I'm getting a strange reading," Billy said, motioning for the animatronic robot to come over to his area. Bailey, Fred, and Alpha crowded around his control panel and watched as he made sense of the maps in front of him. "There's a massive energy spike that seems to be coming from numerous directions at once. Or else is changing directions at a constant pace."

Bailey looked over the maps the blue ninja ranger had pulled up for them. "Do you think it's Kim?" She asked. "It doesn't appear that the energy readings are coming from another dimension, but the Lunar Palace."

"If that's the case, then why weren't we able to pick up on her readings before?" Fred questioned. He leaned against the panel, staring down at the map for a few seconds before reaching over and pressing a few buttons on the panel in front of him. The image of the map increased, coming into focus to take the shape of a 3D topographical map of the moon. "It could be her, but how do we know it's not a trap of some sort."

"We don't," Billy pointed out.

"Ay yi yi! This may be a risk we have to take," Alpha pointed out. "Even if it's not Kimberly, you may find a way to get into their hangar and destroy their ancient zords before they're brought down to Earth." He brought a hand up to his head. "The Ancient Zords are a force to be reckoned with; you may not be able to handle them when they're fully functional, especially now that they have the pink power coin to power them."

"So we get Kim and the pink power coin back and the ancient zords aren't anything Rita and Zedd can use against us," The purple ninja ranger said firmly, clenching her hand into a fist. There was a sudden blaring sound as the klaxon went off and a picture blinked onto the Viewing Globe. "Spoke too soon."

Billy gave her a small smile before turning to the viewing globe to see what was going on in Angel Grove. He swallowed hard, placing his hands on his hips when first the picture came on screen. Goldar and Rito stood in downtown Angel Grove with a wave of Tengas flying around, destroying everything in sight. Then the picture changed to that of the Youth Center where Kat stood over a fallen Tommy, Jason, and Avalon with Tengas flocking around them.

"Looks like they're doing their best to make sure we can't get to them," Fred remarked under his breath. He looked over at the rangers by his side. "You two better go, or else we're not going to get to Kim in time."

"What about Goldar and Rito?" Bailey asked, turning to Zordon. "They're strong and something tells me they're not going to down without a bloody fight."

"We'll have to have Rocky, Adam, and Aisha hold them off until we can get back on Earth," Billy said. He spoke to Alpha and Fred as he and Bailey moved away from the control panel to give themselves enough space to teleport. "Alpha, can you pinpoint the coordinates on that energy reading? Once we have them, Bailey and I will teleport there and see if we can find Kim. If we run into Rita and Zedd at the same time, then that'll be serendipitous. Just so we can see if they have the Power Coin."

"Yes, Billy, we'll get on that as soon as we can," Zordon said. "I hope you proceed with caution, as venturing out to the Lunar Palace has proven to be very dangerous in the past. We have nearly lost Tommy and Jason to the forces of evil before; we can't afford to lose you two as well."

"You got it, Zordon," Bailey said, giving him a thumbs up. "We'll be carefully and we'll get Kim back, yeah? Just you wait." Zordon gave the rangers a rare smile before instruction Alpha and Fred to get the coordinates as close to the power source as possible. She pulled her hair back into a ponytail, carefully tightening with the scrunchie wrapped around her wrist. "Are you ready?" She asked Billy.

"Affirmative," Billy replied. "We have to get going now lest we lose tract of the source." Billy turned to Alpha, waiting for the signal that they were ready to teleport. He nodded once Alpha and Fred turned back to them with a thumbs up. He then exchanged a nod with Bailey. "Ninja Ranger Power, now!" He and Bailey did the arms movements that tapped into the power of their ninjetti, bringing forth their gis upon their bodies.

"We won't come back unless we have Kim with us," Bailey declared.

"Wait a second." Fred turned and hurried across the floor of the Command Center and pressed his hand against the wall where a flat panel slid open. He went inside and looked amongst the half-finished weapons and tools before picking up one that resembled a radar gun. He brought it back out and handed it over to Bailey. "It's an energy reader. It'll pick up on Kim's energy output so you can track her down if you don't find her right away."

"Thanks Fred." She smiled at her boyfriend as she took the energy reader, holding onto it tightly.

She and Billy brought their hands down to their belts and teleported out of the Command Center. They streaked out over the desert and across the sky before landing somewhere in the Lunar Palace. As far as either of them was concerned, there had been little to no detection of their arrival or else there would have been a swarm of Tengas that immediately flocked to them. Bringing down his mask while simultaneously pulling back his hood, Billy looked around the dungeon-like area they had landed in. He looked around for a few moments, trying to get an idea of where they were.

"I guess it's good that the moon doesn't have the same sort of center that Earth does," Bailey remarked, lowering her hood and mask as well. "Or else we'd probably be fried by now." Billy smiled a little, continuing to look around the area. She was right, judging by the cool, dryness of the air around them they were underground at some depth. If the Lunar Palace was a big as he thought it to be, then there was bound to be a way out of the dungeon and up to the main area of the Lunar palace, where she was to be held.

He didn't want to entertain the idea of what he expected to be the reasoning behind the seemingly constant target on her, but he wasn't stupid either. As Rita had such a strange fixation on Tommy for so long via being the Green ranger or having had turned against her as the white ranger, it had to have the same sort of reasoning as to why Zedd was always going after Kimberly. For his own pleasure. If they didn't get to her soon, he didn't have an idea of what was going to happen to her if Zedd managed to be successful this time around.

"Come on, let's see if there's a way out of here," Billy said quietly. The purple ninja ranger nodded and followed the blue ninja ranger as he led the way to the far side of the room. Waving a hand in front of his face to get rid of the smoke that continued to swirl around them, he found the opening to the room and slid out. Once out in the hallway, they found themselves in a hallway that split off into numerous directions. "Looks like we really are in the Lunar Palace."

"I think under it is the operative word, mate," Bailey pointed out. She held up the energy reader and turned it on. For a few seconds there was nothing but static, but then there was a light pinging sound and a bright pink dot appeared at the top of the screen. "I think that's Kim. But f this reading has anything to say about it, it appears that her energy is running out, we have to get to her soon."

"Come on!"

Billy glanced at the screen of the reader and followed it down the winding hallways. As they went, he found that they passed many empty cages and cells along with paths that took them to random areas of the Lunar Palace. As they continued to move by cells, Billy was struck by how terrible the conditions of living there had to be, not to mention those that were stuck there in captivity. Ones that had been ripped away from their homes and stuck within the confines of the palace with no end in sight, stuck underneath Rita's and Zedd's rule.

"It seems that Kim is running around a lot," Bailey said as they came back around to the opening of the dungeon they had been in before. "Maybe she's being chased by someone or something." Pressing a button on the side of the reader, the map on the face of the screen changed so that there was a clearer view of the area around them. Frowning, the purple ninja ranger turned the reader back and forth then looked up at the dirty ceiling above them. "She's up there! Let's go!"

There was a sudden sound of a scream of which Billy and Bailey both recognized being that of Kimberly's. But it didn't sound to be a scream of terror or pain, but a scream of frustration and rage. Shortly afterwards there was a low zapping sound and an implosion, sending dust raining down from the ceiling.

Billy turned over to Bailey and tightly grabbed onto her arm. "Hold on tight," he instructed. She nodded and he bent low, allowing her to climb up onto his back and wrap her arms around his neck. Once he was sure that the power reader was out of the way he closed his eyes, taking in the power of his animal spirit, tapping into its speed. Billy then used his newfound enhanced speed and raced through the hallways of the Lunar Palace until they came upon the balcony that Rita and Zedd used to spy on the rangers on Earth.

He came to a sudden stop, nearly throwing Bailey off his back and onto the floor. He gently removed her from his back and crossed his arms as he gazed up over the Earth. He hadn't realized it was so close to them, no matter how long they thought things were peaceful, Rita and Zedd had been watching them all along.

Bailey gasped lightly, walking towards the telescope and peering down through it. She jumped when she saw how closely she could see the Youth Center, and then leapt backwards, falling onto the throne that was directly behind her. Billy walked around the balcony, turning this way and that as he took in the holding area Rita and Zedd continued to create their plans against the rangers. He had only ever been in the dungeon once before, when Goldar had created the copy of the evil blue ranger and had him stuck within a sort of fog that would put him to sleep. Otherwise, he had never been around it before. He could see how intricate their work truly was, with remnants of parts used to create a machine or a weapon of some sort scattered on the ground, probably left by Finster. There had to be a laboratory around there somewhere, which meant there were still portions of the Lunar Palace he and Bailey hadn't reached.

The two rangers froze as the sound of metallic footsteps approached them. "Where are you my darling crane?" They heard.

Billy's head jerked back as he heard the sound of Zedd's rumbling. It sounded strange, compared to how they normally heard Zedd. His voice that was typically filled with malice and darkness was instead that of smugness and…something Billy couldn't quite place. But it caused a shiver to roll down his spine. Exchanging a glance with Bailey, he saw that she looked horrified and disgusted all at once. The footsteps continued to approach and Billy raised his hands, falling into a fighting position.

"Billy! Bailey!"

Hearing his name whispered, the blue ninja ranger turned around, looking for the source of the voice. He then potted a white gloved hand waving from around the corner of the room. He glanced back in the direction that Zedd sounded to be coming from and hurried towards it. As soon as he neared the corner, a hand was placed against the front of his gi and he was yanked around and shoved against the wall. "Ow!"

"Shh!" Kimberly pressed her hand against Billy's mouth, shushing him the best she could. Bailey came around the corner after them and the pink ninja ranger grasped her arm, pulling her out of sight as well. She then reached up and pulled off her helmet. "How did you guys get here?" She looked back and forth between the two, her eyes lighting up. "I'm so glad to see you."

"We teleported here after we found traces of your power on our reader," Bailey explained. "We've been looking everywhere for you. What's going on? Why did Kat kidnap you like this?"

Kimberly motioned for the two rangers to be quiet, glancing around the corner once more. "They took me because Zedd wants me to be his queen," she explained, looking like she was about to puke. "But I've found out a few things while I've been running around here, trying to stay away from him." She shuddered, holding her helmet against her hip. "I can't hold him off without my Power Coin for much longer." She smiled before reaching out and giving Billy and Bailey both a hug. "Oh, I'm so glad you're here."

"So are we," Billy replied, returning her hug. "Do you know if your Power Coin is up here?"

"No, Kat has it, that's what's powering her ability to turn into the pink ranger," Kimberly said. She then let out a sigh, punching herself on the thigh. "I should've never let her into our group; I should've known there was something wrong with her when we first met. If that didn't happen, then she would've have stolen my coin and I'd have my powers and there wouldn't be any ancient zords to worry about and we wouldn't be in this mess."

"You can't blame yourself for this, Kim," Billy reminded her. "None of us would've known what could happen if any of us had befriended Kat. We didn't know she was underneath one of Rita's and Zedd's spells; there was no way to know, truthfully. Right now we just have to focus on getting out of here."

"Well, I don't believe that'll be that easy," Zedd growled as he came around the corner, holding up his z-scepter. Before any of them could move, he sent a shockwave of energy over towards the rangers, causing to fly back off of their feet. Billy let out a grunt as he crashed into the back wall of the hallway and fell to the ground. Kimberly and Bailey fell around him. Running a hand through his hair, Billy looked up to see Zedd slowly walking towards them, glowing as bright a red as he had ever seen. "How dare you break into my palace you filthy ranger!" He growled, bringing up his scepter once more.

"How dare you kidnap our friend," Bailey spat back. "She doesn't want to be your queen!" The young girl immediately moved to block the pink ranger from sight, holding her arms out to the side as she did so.

"Tough words coming from such a little pipsqueak!" Zedd drawled. "But there isn't much to be said for a pile of ashes."

"It's morphin' time!" Billy declared. "Blue ranger power!"

"Purple ranger power!"

Billy and Bailey took their power blasters out of the holsters of their suits and shot them towards Zedd. Bolts of purple and blue shot off his metallic armor, only a few making direct hits. It wasn't enough to hurt Zedd, but enough to have slow down his progress. Then, to their surprise, Zedd seemed to have changed his mind. He stopped advancing towards the rangers and lowered his Z-Scepter, starting menacingly at the rangers. Billy continued to hold up his blaster, but lowered it slightly when he noticed the halt in Zedd's steps.

"You're letting us go?" He asked.

"What's a game of cat and mouse if the cat catches the mouse all the time," Zedd growled, continuing to stare at Kimberly. She shuddered and turned away. "So you can go and join the crusade you and your friends have against my henchmen and my zords…" he turned on his heel and slowly started to walk away. "She's going to be dead before you come close."

"We'll see about that," Bailey declared.

Billy continued to hold up his blaster until he was sure that Zedd was out of the vicinity. He then let out a quiet sigh and lowered his arms, replacing his blaster to his holster. He dared not to look at Kimberly, knowing she had to be on the verge of tears, hearing about her ultimate downfall and knowing there was nothing she could do about it. Rather than dwelling on it, knowing there were more important things that needed to be handled at the moment, Billy brought up his communicator. Kimberly and Bailey followed his lead and the two brought up their communicators as well and the three teleported out of the Lunar Palace.

"It's a shame, really," Kat said, tilting her head to the side as she looked down at the three friends. "I thought you would put up a better fight. I mean, you're rangers aren't you? Aren't you supposed to be able to fight evil and do good and all of that?" She eyed the Tengas that continued to tear through the Youth Center. "Not get beat by these bird brains."

Tommy rolled back and did a kick-up back to his feet. Jason followed his lead and did the same maneuver to get off the floor, and Avalon rolled onto her stomach before rearing up as well. The three turned back to Kat and fell into fighting stances as the Tengas continued to swarm around them. The three exchanged glances before launching into an attack. He turned on the ball of his foot and did a high, roundhouse kick that connected with the Tenga's beak, knocking it backwards. Avalon rolled across the floor in a somersault, moving out of the way as a Tenga flew overhead, then turned around and gave a strong punch and mighty stomp to the Tenga. Taking upon the power of the tiger, she then twisted the other way and punched a Tenga hard in the stomach, causing it to go flying across the room and crashed into the wall with a hard thud, leaving a Tenga shaped dent as it did so. Jason jumped up high as a Tenga dove towards his legs and flipped over, landing hard on its back. He flipped back to his feet and gave a combination of punches and kicks that knocked the Tenga back away from him.

Kat watched, a slow smile coming to her face as the rangers continued to fend off the Tengas that swarmed around them. She then gave a slow clap, which prompted the Tengas to leave the youth center as quickly as they came. "Now that's what I'm talking about," she declared, then lifted her mask and replaced her hood. "Let's see if you can handle me!"

She leapt into the fray, taking on the three friends as they circled around her, fighting as hard as they could. Despite Kat's obvious lack of fighting style, technique, or training, she still had the viciousness of a cat that fended them off the best she could. The training with Goldar had to have helped, for even when Avalon and Jason had hold of her, she managed to kick Tommy in the chest and stomach enough to keep him back away from her. He grabbed onto her foot, but she twisted out of the way and knocked Jason and Avalon off her before backing away, holding up her hands, her fingernails elongating into claws.

"Unless you'd like to get clawed, I suggest you give up, now!" Kat declared. As she smiled, the rangers could see that her canines had elongated as well. Avalon's eyes lowered towards Kat's arm and spotted a long scratch on her forearm. "It'll be so much fun for me!" Her eyes flashed as she laughed loudly.

"We're not giving up until we get Kim's power coin back," Jason declared. "And we'll keep fighting until we do." He nodded over at Tommy and Avalon and the two nodded before calling out for their ninjetti powers, allowing them to take on their ninja gi and leap back into the fight. Jason stood back to watch as the three power rangers fought each other, spinning around the Youth Center, each person taking the upper hand when they got the chance. However, there was still something that continued to keep Kat on her toes. "It has to be Kim's Power Coin," Jason finally figured it out. "The power of the ninjetti weren't destined to you more than the dino powers were. Rita and Zedd must've found a way to allow her Power Coin to give anyone who has it in their possessions the power."

"Like what happened with the green ranger powers," Tommy agreed, backing as far away from Kat as he could, the orange ninja ranger right by her side. "But something tells me there's isn't a pink candle lying around somewhere that holds the key to getting it away from her."

"Something tells me you're right," Avalon agreed. "I don't think Rita and Zedd would make it that easy." All of a sudden, their communicators went off and the orange ranger quickly brought her wrist up to her mouth. "Yeah, Zordon, what's up? We're trying to take down Kat…but we think the powers of the crane are really going deep within her. She's not a strong fighter, but she's fending us off pretty well."

"I was afraid it would come down to this," Zordon replied, his voice crackling through the communicator. "Goldar and Rito have touched down in the park and they've brought the ancient zords with them."

Kat cackled and teleported out of the Youth Center before Tommy, Jason, or Avalon could grab her. Then Alpha's voice came through the communicator, "Rocky, Adam, an Aisha are holding them off the best they can, but they're going to need everyone's help to defeat them. Your zords are the only things that can hold up to its power. Unless you can stop them, Angel Grove will surely be destroyed."

"What about Kim?" Avalon asked, feeling her anxiety rise at the mention of her best friend's name. "Has anyone found her? Is he okay? Did they manage to get to her in time to—"

"Billy and Bailey got to the Lunar Palace and got to her in time," Fred now came on the line. "She looks a little shaken, but she's okay. They're going down to help Rocky, Adam, and Aisha against Goldar and Rito. I'd go now if I were you. They're really getting their butts handed to them."

"Unfortunately we got that treatment as well," Jason spoke up. "She has a sloppy fighting style; I don't think she's ever really fought before. We should've been able to subdue her pretty quickly, especially with the experience that Tommy and I have in martial arts. I don't know for sure, but I think Kim's Power Coin gave her at least a bit of a boost to her power."

"It's quite possible," Zordon agreed. "Since we have to separate her human life fore from the power that connected with the Power Coin of the ninjetti, it has been granted the opportunity to latch onto someone else that has the ability to use the power."

"But Kat is working for Rita and Zedd, how would she be able to use the power of the ninjetti?" Tommy pointed out.

"I don't think there's anyone any fucking less deserving than Kat," Avalon commented, earning a look of disapproval from both the white ninja ranger and the former ranger. "I'm just saying what you all were thinking."

"Much like what had happened with Tommy, Kat seems to be underneath a sort of spell that Rita and Zedd have managed to place upon her. If you can break her out of the spell she should turn back to her normal self," Alpha said. "As it is, you've said there have been many times that she has acted like a friend to you all. I think I believe that Rita's spell doesn't have a strong hold on her for that reason alone."

"You don't have much time to talk this over," Fred pointed out. "You have to stop Goldar and Rito. Jason, Zordon, Alpha, and I'll see if there's anything we can do to help Kat up here, you need to stop those ancient zords."

"You got it," Tommy replied. "Please teleport Jase to the Command Center and we'll get to the others." He turned and watched as Jason disappeared in a flash of white light then turned back to Avalon. "You ready?"

"Ready!"

"It's morphin' time! White Ranger Power!"

"Orange Ranger Power!"

Adam immediately morphed and summoned his Frog Force as his feet touched the ground. He held his mace high above his head and charged towards Rito, who sent energy blast after energy blast towards cars and nearby buildings, laughing hysterically as they imploded.

"God, how I wish I could do that to someone's head!" He remarked. Hearing Adam's footsteps coming towards him, he turned around and pointed his sword towards the black ranger. "Oh! Looks like someone went and answered my prayers! Well, bring it on black ranger!" He held his sword with both hands and raced towards Adam. Their weapons clashed together, sending sparks around, and Rito knocked the black ranger's mace back before slashing down. He crowed as Adam cried out in pain, feeling the sword rip through his suit and through the skin of his arm. "Oh come on, you have to make it easier than that or else this will be boring!"

"Rito, you bumbling fool, don't taunt them, just kill them!" Goldar declared. He was stuck within a battle between Rocky and Aisha. Though he was doing a good job at holding his own, knocking the red and yellow ninja rangers back with each savage blow, tearing through their suits. They seemed to have gotten stronger, if not more systematic, when it came to fighting the rangers, after having had practiced with Kat for so long. "That's much more entertaining."

"Oh yeah! You're right!" Rito agreed as he and Adam spun around to try and attack each other once more.

"Let's see if you can catch me first!" Adam declared. Closing his eyes, he summoned the power of the frog and stared to rapidly move around the bone monster, getting punches and kicks in every now and then when he wasn't using the mace to add in extra attacks. Every now and then he would hear a distinct cracking sound as he landed a solid blow on Rito, and heard the skeleton monster's screams of rage increase with frequency. The black ninja ranger finally came to a halt a few feet away from Rito. "How do you like that?"

Rito glared and brought his hand up towards his face. "Let's see how you deal with this!" Bringing his hand down, he shot a massive beam of energy form his eyes that rocketed forward and socked Adam in the stomach. He cried out before he landed on the ground, continuing to get rallied by the energy blast. He screamed in pain, trying to get out of the way of the energy beam, but found that he couldn't move away. There was the distinct sound of his visor cracking, and he instinctively closed his eyes to keep from getting the glass in his eyes. "Ha ha! You can dish it but you can't take it can you? Hey Goldilocks, what do you say to you and I turning this rangers into colorful bags of bones and going to get something to eat? I'm getting hungry."

"Just focus on the job at hand!" Goldar snapped back.

Adam opened his eyes to find Rocky and Aisha lying on the ground next to him. The red ninja ranger lost his grip on his ape arsenal and watched it skitter across the ground. Rolling over, he painfully got to his feet. Reaching up, he grasped onto his arm, gloved palm falling over a hole in his suit that held an open wound, blood oozing down his arm.

"Something tells me that these guys mean business this time," he ground out.

"I think you're right" Aisha agreed. Adam looked her over and noted that she appeared just as worse for the wear, though Goldar seemed to have gotten more entertainment out of riddling her with as many wounds as Rocky more than trying to destroy the rangers in general. "They're really not holding back this time. You don't think they're trying to hold out Kim's powers until they're completely taken from her, do you?"

"It's possible," Adam agreed. He sucked in a sharp breath between his teeth as pain shot through his body. "We have to fend them off the best we can until the others get here to help us out." He grabbed onto his Frog Force once more. "C'mon!" This time, he went after Goldar and used the chain that connected the mace to its staff to use as a buffer to keep Goldar's sword at bar.

At one point, Adam twirled the mace around his head then bent low to the side, throwing it as hard as he could, cracking Goldar in the leg and bringing him down to his knees. Adam started to bring down his mace once more, but was stopped by Goldar whipping up his sword, length-wise, and pushed it back against his mace. He then pushed hard, causing Adam to stumble back and fall onto the ground. There was a sudden flash of pink light and Kat appeared with Goldar and Rito. She made a sound of disapproval.

"Should've known you lot wouldn't be able to do this on your own," she declared.

"Wolf Howler!"

"Crane Lasher!"

"Lion Lance!"

"Tiger Token!"

"Falcon Flyer!"

Billy, Kimberly, Bailey, Avalon, and Tommy all landed near their friends, weapons at the ready. Kat looked over them for a moment before raising her hand and snapping her fingers. "Let's bring out the big guns!" As the last of her words came out of her mouth, there was a low rumbling sound and the ancient zords, which resembled samurais, slowly stomped up towards them, the ground shaking immensely. "See if you can handle this, rangers!' Kat, Goldar, and Rito leapt into the cockpit of three of the ancient zords and brought them together to form a massive zord that towered over the rangers.

"We have to stop them!" Kimberly cried.

"Kim, you can't," Tommy said quickly. "We don't know how much power it will take out of your or your coin."

The pink ninja ranger shook her head. "I don't care," she insisted. "This wouldn't happen if I had kept a closer eye on my power coin. And none of this is going to end if we don't do something to that coin, even destroy it if we have to. I don't care about potentially not being a ranger anymore; I don't care about my health. Not as much as I care about you guys and Angel Grove."

Tommy looked over at the rangers then looked back at Kimberly, who continued to stare hard at him and he finally relented, nodding as he stood up straight. "You're right. We need to stop them and we'll do everything we can to make sure that happens." He then thrust his hand into the air. "We need ninjazord power, now!"

"Orange Tiger, ninja zord, power up!"

"Purple Lion, ninja zord, power up!"

"Red Ape, ninja zord, power up!"

"Black Frog, ninja zord, power up!"

"Pink Crane, ninja zord, power up!"

"Blue Wolf, ninja zord, power up!"

"Yellow Bear, ninja zord, power up!"

"White Ninja, Falconzord, power up!"

The rangers leapt into the cockpits of their zords and maneuvered them together to create the Ninja Megazord and moved it forward to face the Ancient Zords. The two robots fought each other as hard as they could and the rangers were surprised to find Kat, Goldar, and Rito piloting the ancient zords so efficiently. Tommy frowned as he held onto the control sticks and pressed them hard, causing the Ninja Megazord to slam into the Ancient zords, knocking them flat to the ground.

"You're going to have to do better than that to beat us," he murmured under his breath.

"It looks like we have to start thinking the same way, Tommy," Billy pointed out. "I don't have any ideas as to how to beat these zords. We've only faced them once before and it seems that the only way to break out of them is if we can destroy them all together, but they're too strong for that."

"There's always something we can do, guys, don't give up," Kimberly said, sounding a bit desperate. "Let's try the power sword!" She pressed a few button s on the control panel of her zord and the golden blade appeared in the hands of the zord.

"Good idea, Kim," Rocky agreed. He maneuvered the zord to swing the sword back and forth a few times before the Ninja Megazord charged forward and crashed against the ancient zords, swinging the sword into it. Sparks flew off the face of the ancient zords and the Ninja Megazord continued to thrash them around.

"I thought these zords were supposed to be indestructible," Rito complained as the ancient zord tried to pull itself back to its feel. "What's going on?"

"Yeah, Kitty-Kat, don't you know how to control these things?" Goldar added.

"You can't blame this all on me," Kat hissed. She brought her hands up to her forehead, shaking her head. She didn't understand what was going on either; this wasn't the way things weren't supposed to go. She was supposed to be able to destroy the rangers with little effort and be able to take over the cit the way Rita and Zedd had wanted. Kimberly was supposed to be keeling over, gasping for her last breath with either Kat's hands around her neck or a sword plunged through her chest. "I'm not the only one doing this!"

She looked up and reacted quickly, maneuvering the ancient zords out of the way as the rangers came back at them with another slash of the sword. The ancient zords knocked the power sword out of the Ninja Megazord's hands and it went flying through the air, clattering to the ground. Then the two zords were lock in hand-to-hand combat where they each got solid punches, kicks, and throws in, each zord gaining the upper hand when it got the chance.

Kimberly chewed her lower lip as she wracked her brain to figure out what it was they could do to save the Ninja Megazord and stop the monsters. Something. Anything. All of a sudden she gasped, closing her eyes as she felt a familiar wave of energy wash over her. The same feeling she got when she first received the power of the crane. It was the feeling of coming one with the crane as she managed to improve on her ninja training, before they ultimately found the Great Power that helped them morph back into rangers once more.

Even as her eyes were closed, Kimberly could see a bright light that started to change from a white color to pink as it increased in brightness. Then out of the light, she could see the form of the crane as it slowly drifted closer to her. Reaching out, Kimberly gently raced her fingers across the tip of the crane's beak, smiling gently. The Cane folded its wings to her side and walked closer to Kimberly, resting her head against the pink ninja ranger's chest. Kimberly continued to run her fingers over the crane and it finally stood up straight, extending its wings to its full wingspan and wrapped them around Kimberly. She felt nothing but protection as she reached up and wrapped her arms around the crane in response.

Then the light continued to increase in brightness, to the point that Kimberly became aware that it wasn't coming from inside her head, but was actually happening. Opening her eyes, she saw the pink glow coming from the cockpit of the ancient zords. It continued to increase in brightness then shot out of the cockpit and into Kim, striking her in the chest plate of her suit.

"Hey!" Goldar looked over towards the main control of the ancient zords as it tilted to the side, noticing that Kat was suddenly gone. "What's going on?"

"That dumb pussycat teleported out of here when she got the chance," Rito replied. "I knew I should've gutted and maimed her when I had the chance."

"What's going on?" Kimberly asked as the light amongst the front of her suit continued to glow. Bringing her hands up to her chest plate she found that there was another flash of pink light, and she could see her inner crane cawing loudly at the return of her power coin.

"There's been an energy spike in your readings," Alpha commented.

"It looks like the power of your animal spirits is increasing, that they've completely bonded with you," Fred said. "Your power cells are flying off the charts. If you're going to do something, you should do it now, while the ancient zords are down."

"Let's do it!" Avalon cheered.

"I'm with you," Bailey agreed.

"Ninja Falcon Megazord, power up!" The rangers all called in unison. The white falcon zord shifted to the back of the Ninja Megazord, attaching to its back with ease. "Counter Strike!" The Ninja Flacon Megazord took off into the air, soaring as high into the air as it could go.

"Uh-oh! Looks like we're toast!" Rito said.

"Let's get out of here!" Goldar agreed.

The two scrambled to leave the cockpit of the ancient zords just as the Ninja Falcon Megazord soared through the air, turned sharply, and rapidly shot towards them. As the Ninja Flacon Megazord picked up speed, the arms of the Ninja Megazord started to glow as it took in energy and stored it in the arms.

"Fire!" Aisha declared, pressing her thumbs into the red buttons atop her control sticks. The energy stored up within the arms of the zord shot out and crashed into the ancient zords seconds before the Falcon Ninja Megazord slammed into the face of the ancient zords, immediately blowing them apart.

"Yeah!" The rangers cheered loudly.

…

..

.

"Hey, there she is!" Adam called, pointing over towards Kat as she stood, looking around the destroyed area in confusion. With a wave of his hand, the rangers, Fred, and Jason—who had been teleported down from the Command Center once the rangers had defeated the ancient zords. "Kat. Kat, are you okay?" He reached her first, gently grabbing onto her arms as the rangers crowded around her.

"I think so…" she agreed, bringing a hand up to her forehead. "It's just…I don't know how I got here."

"Do you remember anything about what happened?" Aisha asked anxiously. She exchanged glances with the rangers. It was the best they could hope for once the rangers had seen her teleported out of the cockpit of the zords once Kimberly's power coin had returned to her. "Anything at all?"

"No," Kat replied. "I just remember…leaving the Youth Center and…now I'm here. I just…I don't know." She looked around at the rangers. "Did…did something happen?"

"Nothing that you have to be so concerned about," Jason said quickly. "But…we'll fill you in on it if you want. There's a lot that we need to talk about."

Kath nodded, brushing her hair behind her ears. She then looked over at Kimberly, who stood off to the side of the group, watching Kat carefully. "I know I don't remember it, but I feel like I should be apologizing to you, Kim. There's been so much going on…and whatever I did, I'm so truly sorry."

"It's alright, Kat," Kimberly replied with a light smile. "It wasn't anything you had control over…we've all been under that sort of spell many times before." She looked around at the rangers before turning back to her and smiling gently. "No hard feelings."

"Maybe not with you," Avalon murmured under her breath.

Because there was something else that was more important to talk about that was consistently being pushed under the rug.

A/N: I hope you didn't feel that the fight was anti-climactic. I thought it would make sense for the spirit animal's close connection with the rangers, more importantly the crane with Kim's, being the power that would stop Kat and ruined the zords made more sense than what the show had happen. But that's just me.

Thanks to lizziestrong, 1980sjfk, Adela, Ashley, Son of Whitebeard, brankel1, and TerraHart for reviewing.

~Avalon