It was the morning after the defeat of Kodokor and Mark and Lulu were sitting down to breakfast at Lowfall Apartments, now their temporary residence until the insurance company payed up, which they said they wouldn't do until the monster attacks stopped. Hey were greeted halfway through their meal by Leroy, the manager. "I trust you're enjoying your stay here, Mr. Goodman."

"Indeed we are, Leroy.", Mark answered him. "It was nice of you to let me stay in Miss James' apartment while she's…" he briefly paused, thinking of a reasonable description that wouldn't give too much away "on her trip."

"Hey it's the least I could do.", Leroy smiled. "You show up to this place so often you're practically my best customer. By the way, you've got a phone call."

Mark raised his eyebrows. "A phone call? Who from?"

"Some lady named "Brown". She said she wanted you and your sister to meet her at the park as soon as possible." Leroy then leaned in to a whisper. "This wouldn't have anything to do with your job saving the world, would it?"

Mark was shocked to hear this, but he did compose himself and pull Lulu up with him. "Well, wed better respond to that phone call quickly. We'll talk again, Leroy."

"But I'm not finished.", Lulu complained.

"You are now.", Mark insisted as he pulled her out of the mess hall and back into their apartment. "How did Leroy find out about what we do?", he asked her. "After all, we aren't supposed to tell anyone under any circumstance."

Lulu had a realisation. "I maybe saw some friends of mine being attacked by looters yesterday. I decided to save them and in the heat of the moment, I may have overlooked that rule."

Mark sighed in exasperation. "That Lila. I've told you that she's not dependable, yet you've still hung out with her. But we can't dwell on it now. Let's see what Carrie wants to tell us."

Up on the Dominion ship, Halatia was showing off a Hybrasect to the other commanders. "Thanks to the notes provided to me by Fwelf, and the animal DNA samples I spent the night collecting, I have created the first of the new Hybrasects."

"Excellent.", Algrin smiled. "I shall take it out and destroy the Flying Rangers." He reaches out to grab it, but Halatia snatched it away.

"No you won't.", the female commander said sternly. "If we're going to beat Mark and the others, we need to do it through intelligent planning, not slashing and stabbing in hope of results." Halatia didn't say it, but she was still annoyed at Algrin for almost messing up their plan to dethrone Uuhcura.

Algrin recognised the insult and thrust his sword forward to cut down the faux-Princess. After all, there was no longer any need to keep her and killing her would probably make a difference against the Rangers. However, his sword was stopped in its tracks by Galvahex. "Be mindful of who you antagonise, my Lord. Without Halatia, you would still be trapped on Earth, living a life of exile.

Algrin conceded that the robot had a point and put his blade away. However, Halatia noticed that the sword had penetrated Galvahex's robotic hide, drawing motor oil. "Here let me help you.", she said as she went over and bandaged the damage with a cloth.

Galvahex was intrigued as to the cloth's sudden presence, since Halatia had never had it when he had attacked the Garuda. "Where did you acquire this fabric? You never had it prior to now."

Halatia thought back to how she - or rather, Mary - had acquired the cloth.

5 years ago.

Mary James was not having a good day. Not only was she running late on her first day of College, but she had run into a gang of thugs while taking a detour through a back alley. "Look guys, I don't want any trouble. How about you just let me go and we'll forget the whole thing?"

"Oh no.", the gang leader said, giggling like a hyena. "You don't understand. People who enter our territory don't come out without some reminder. And since you're a lady, I've got a special reminder in mind." This caused Mary to scream.

"Leave her alone.", a quiet voice called out from across the alley. Everyone looked up to see a young man, about Mary's age standing there, his arms crossed. "If you know what's good for you, you'll do as she asks and let her go."

"Ooooh, someone's trying to play a hero.", the gang leader laughed. He then went up to the newcomer. "Listen here, man. You're also trespassing on our turf, so don't think we'll be more -."

But the gang leader was stopped by his target, who proceeded to lead a brutal beat down on him. The other gang members tried to avenge their boss, only to meet the same fate. "Now then, what are you going to do with this young woman?"

"We're going to leave her alone.", the gang leader said nervously, before he and his cronies bolted from the area.

Mary went towards her saviour. "Thanks for that. They were going to show no mercy." But as she ran towards him, she tripped and grazed her leg.

The other man promptly took out a cloth to tend to the injury. "Here you might as well use this. I'm not really going to have much need for it.", he said as he wrapped it around her leg.

Mary smiled at this. "You've saved me twice in about 45 seconds. How can I repay you?"

"You'll have to do it another time.", the man got up and began moving. "I'm already going to be late for my first class at WV College."

Mary perked up. "Hey, I'm going to start there today too. I'm doing an Applied Physics course." Hen she had a realisation. "How do I find you again?"

"Just go to the student dorms. I'm living there for this year. I'm under the name 'Mark Goodman'."

Mary smiled again as she waved. "Ok then. I'll see you around, Mark Goodman."

"It's nothing.", Halatia assured Galvahex. "Just a souvenir I picked up from my stay on Earth." As she walked off to use the Hybrasect, she managed to say. "Why don't you see if the new U-Clones work in the field?"

Fwelf nodded. "Right away." He summoned up a screen and saw Wayne out in a street, tending to his Jet Cycle. "I think I've got the perfect test subject."

Down on Earth, Wayne had finished up with his modifications. "If this works, then I can really get an edge in combat with you now." He moved a few feet away and held his communicator to his mouth. But before he could say anything, he was surrounded by multiple opponents. They all resembled Queen Uuhcura's Berserker Mode, only more feral and lacking the gem on the forehead. "I thought just one of her was tough.", Wayne commented. "Well, I already beat one of these things, so a few more shouldn't be hard."

However, Wayne soon found himself outmatched. The U-Clones' thick hide and large bulk made them impervious to almost everything thrown at them. Plus their sheer strength was enough for one of them to overwhelm an unmorphed Wayne.

"Maybe this will actually be a challenge.", Wayne realised. He then morphed into the Black Ranger and began to have more success. "I guess this means I won't be fighting out of the suit as much if they've got these things." After knocking the U-Clones back a few feet, he pulled out his weapons and assembled his Hyper Cannon. "If these things are cloned from a monster, then I can take them out the same as a monster." Sure enough, the Hyper Cannon sent the U-Clones up in flames. As he detransformed, he realised something important that he had forgotten. "I was supposed to meet with the others in the park." He then leapt onto his bike and drove off towards the park.

Meanwhile, Halatia was in another park. A baseball park, where she was looking at one of the overhead lights. "Ah, perfect for my latest plan." She then sent the Hybrasect flying towards the light. "Now with the resilience of an armadillo and the shadow-controlling properties of a light, a new creature will be born. Come forth, Lumidillo!"

The infected light turned into a flash of energy which flew to the ground as it assumed its new form. His form was a humanoid armadillo with a light in his chest. Unlike their predecessors, Hybrasects had their bugs stored on the inside of their organic membranes. "At your service.", Lumidillo said in a scratchy voice.

In the park, Mark and Lulu met up with Carrie and Steven. "Do we have to discuss this out in the open?", Mark said, exasperated. "Wouldn't the base be a more secure location?"

"I don't think it would.", Carrie said in response. "I'm starting to think that Avior was right when he said not to trust the Group captain."

Lulu was confused by this. "What's brought about this change of mind?"

"I did some investigation into Steven's past last night. I found out that whoever our friend is, he isn't Steven Hartford."

"What?", everyone said in unison.

Steven was more confused than the others. "But I saw my name on my dog tags."

"On A SET OF dog tags.", Carrie pointed out. "According to our friend Private Dawson, Steven Hartford was blown up in the exact same area where we found you. When I tried to verify this, I found that our Steven's records had been faked. There were no references or past history and multiple grammatical errors."

"But who would create a fake record simply for one man.", Lulu asked.

"I wondered that myself. When I checked to see who had created the record, guess who turned out to be responsible for it."

"Group captain June Gordon.", Mark said, with zero emotion in his voice. Something had been telling him as much and now seemed to be the time to voice those suspicions.

The sound of clapping filled the air. "Bravo Mark. I can see why they made you a Flying Officer." Everyone turned around to see Halatia approaching them, accompanied by Lumidillo. "Oh and Corporal Hartford, I wouldn't get too upset about having your life faked for you. I had mine faked and look how I turned out."

"Halatia", Mark said vindictively. "And a Mutasect."

"It doesn't seem like a normal Mutasect though.", Lulu realised.

"Pfft. Mutasects are so last month.", the monster declared. "I'm a Hybrasect, half animal, half object."

"Great. Just great.", Steven groaned. "First we have this faked ID business and now there's a new type of bugs that make a new type of monsters. Is it too much to ask for a regular day?"

"Unfortunately it is.", Carrie replied. "How about we see just how much worse a Hybrasect is than a Mutasect."

Everyone stepped forward and pressed their bracelets. "Let's Fly!"

"Now.", Halatia called after they'd finished morphing. Lumidillo blasted the 4 Rangers with his light, causing entirely black duplicates of them to appear facing exactly opposite to them. "Good, now we only need to create a Darkness copy of the Black Ranger."

"What just happened?", Mark said as the 4 stepped backwards, an action mimicked by their doppelgängers.

"I knew you wanted to bring us back together, Mark.", came Halatia's reply. "So I decided to create a Hybrasect monster with the ability to make a copy of you, on my side. And while I was at it, I thought 'Why not get all the Rangers copied as our allies?'."

"Except my Darkness Rangers are much stronger than the originals.", Lumidillo gloated. "In fact, they'll soon be stronger by a long shot." He burst into maniacal laughter.

All 4 Rangers did their pre-battle poses, which were mimicked exactly by their Darkness copies. "Let's just take these knockoffs down.", Steven declared as he ran into battle, with Darkness Yellow doing likewise. However, their perfect synchronisation only led to both taking each other down at the same time. "Even our moves are the same."

The other Rangers also attacked their counterparts, with equal lack of success. Carrie's decision to try sword fighting for a change, Lulu's acrobatics fighting style and Mark's defensive-offensive style were all matched step for step. "This isn't working, we need to try a different tact.", Mark suggested.

"Maybe we should try attacking different targets to our doubles.", Carrie suggested.

And the two did exactly that, launching consecutive kicks at the Darkness copies of Steven and Lulu. While it knocked the two down, the real versions flew back as well. "What just happened?", Lulu asked. "Nobody hit us, but we still felt pain."

"It seems that we take the same damage as our duplicates.", Carrie realised. "But why didn't the other duplicates attack you two?"

"Because we knew that letting our allies take the hit would hurt your friends.", came a new voice. It sounded like Carrie's but it was deeper and sounded distorted.

"You fell for our trap hook, line and sinker.", this voice was an evil version of Mark's.

"What's going on?", Lulu asked, now terrified. "I thought these guys were just miming us."

"We were at first.", her copy said in response. "But we've grown beyond being your shadows."

"And now we've become capable of existing without being tethered to you.", Steven's copy said.

Then, the four Darkness copies developed coloured highlights, which made them resemble the real versions more. The main difference was that they retained the black colouration, with some highlights on their helmets. The 4 Darkness Rangers then repeated their poses, now with added words.

"Red Dark!"

"Evil Yellow!"

"Dark White!"

"Blue Darkness!"

The 4 Rangers were shocked, but quickly regained their composure. "Let's finish these fakes off quickly."

But before they could do anything, the Darkness Rangers pulled out their weapons. "Black Blasters! Schwarz Sabers!" They then put their weapons together like the Hyper Cannons. "Dark Cannons!" They then pointed and fired their weapons at the real Rangers, knocking them down.

"I want in on this too.", Lumidillo called out. He turned himself into a ball and crashed into the Rangers, disorientating them further.

Mark reached for his communicator. "Rover Launcher!", he wheezed out. The vehicle drove across the plains as it jumped into view.

Cannon Mode! Red Yellow White Blue Charge!

The Rangers aimed it at Halatia and the Darkness Rangers. "This might just be our easiest fight ever.", Steven commented.

Cubic Firebird Impact!

"Oh no, you don't!", Lumidillo called out, jumping into the way of the blast and absorbing it with his shell. "They don't call us "armadillos for nothing.", he commented.

It was then that Wayne leapt in and attacked Lumidillo, knocking him back. "I must be seeing double. Since when were there 16 of you?", he commented towards his teammates.

"And he calls my jokes bad.", Lulu said, folding her arms.

"Hey, I can actually complete my task and get all 5 Rangers copies at once.", Lumidillo realised. But before he could do so, a set of clouds covered up the sun, which caused the Darkness Rangers to vanish in a flash. "Oh no, I can't work without total sunlight." He then teleported away rather than continuing the battle.

Halatia was also unhappy. "We'll finish this later.", she said before vanishing.

The other Rangers, no longer under constant threat of death, now got up and powered down. "Where the hell have you been?", Mark yelled at Wayne. "We could've used you earlier."

"As it happens, Goodman, I got caught up battling some new mooks from the Dominion. They're clones of the late Queen Uuhcura."

"So our enemy now has new monsters and new mooks.", Carrie mused. "We should return to the Nest and discuss this."

"…so that's all we've found out about our new opponents.", Steven finished explaining to the Commander. None of them had brought up the elephant in the room regarding their Yellow Ranger, namely because it wasn't relevant, and because it was still something that Mark and Carrie felt should be investigated privately.

"This is severely dire.", the Group captain mused. "We thought that defeating their Queen would leave the enemy weakened. Instead, it seems to have only made them stronger. This new Hybrasect could pose a problem."

"Well I don't really see a high threat level coming from a monster who can only create clones.", Mark said.

"Especially clones that vanish when there's no direct sunlight.", Carrie added.

"The threat is that while they may deactivate in darkness, they still exist as long as that armadillo is alive. You need to find and destroy him while the copies are dormant."

"I'll do it.", Wayne volunteered. "He'll be looking for me anyway and I know his weak point."

Gordon put her foot down at this. "No. It's too dangerous to go out there on your own."

"Well it's dangerous for us as well.", Mark pointed out. "The more injuries those fakes sustain, the more injuries we gain. Like it or lump it, Wayne is the only one of us that isn't a risk at this point in time."

Gordon sighed at this. "Ok then. Dr. Burley will head out to deal with the threat while the others stay here."

"Thank you, Comman - Captain. You won't regret this." With that said, Wayne went to his Jet Cycle and sped off into the night.

That same night, Halatia was standing on top of the tallest building in the city. "If Lumidillo wants to wait for the daylight to destroy the Rangers, then I'll just bring the daylight to him. She aimed her sceptre at the sky and fired a beam upwards. The beam surrounded the whole town, displacing it twelve hours into the future and restoring the daylight. This caused the townsfolk (or what was left of them after multiple monster attacks) to look up at it with surprise. One drunk actually celebrated the event, since he was technically getting the day off. In a plaza, the 4 Darkness Rangers reappeared, ready to commence their battle once more.

Down in the city, Wayne also noticed this sudden daybreak. "This isn't right. It's still half-eleven in the evening. The sun isn't due up for another few hours."

Before he had time to rationalise it, he was kicked off his bike by Red Dark. "We've been looking for you, Black Ranger."

"Now we can complete our team lineup.", Dark White added.

"Tempting.", Wayne replied sarcastically. "But I'm going to have to decline your offer." He then morphed into the Black Ranger and began fighting the Darkness Rangers. "I can't drag this out, or I risk seriously hurting the others." He initially managed to fight off all 4 of them with little more than his Wing Saber, but then Evil Yellow and Dark White managed to break his focus with simultaneous slashes from their Schwarz Sabers, before Red Dark and Blue Darkness grabbed the Black Ranger and led him to Lumidillo, who was standing across the park from the fight.

"I'm about to be 5 for 5 on copies.", the Hybrasect gloated. "Not bad for a day's work."

"Are you sure you want to do this?", Wayne asked. "I mean, I'm already mostly black. Creating a Darkness copy would just be redundant."

But Lumidillo still moved forward, until he was hit by a shot from above. "What was that?"

"I'd like to know as well.", Wayne said as he looked up. It was the other 4 Rangers, fully morphed and dropping down from the sky. Hey promptly engaged their duplicates in battle. "What happened to 'its dangerous for us as well'?"

"That's what we thought.", Steven called out as he wrestled his doppelgänger.

Mark carried on the sentence. "But then we realised that we weren't feeling any pain from your battle with these fakes."

"So we decided to do something about them.", Lulu continued as she tackled her imposter to the ground.

"We hold off our doubles here.…", Carrie struggled with her counterpart.

"While you find Halatia and stop whatever she's doing to the time.", Steven concluded.

"What're you waiting for?", Mark asked as he held off Red Dark. "Get moving."

"Okay.", Wayne said, pumping his fist. "Just stay safe.", he called out before heading off on his Jet Cycle.

"So now the gang's all here.", Red Dark exclaimed. He then turned towards Lumidillo. "You find and head off the Black Ranger. Leave our inferior prototypes to us."

"Since when did you become the boss.", Lumidillo complained. "But I do like your plan." He then left the area, trying to head off Wayne in his tracks.

"Looks like it's just us and our inferior lookalikes.", Blue Darkness commented.

"Funny, I was about to say the same thing.", Lulu retorted.

Elsewhere, Wayne had found Halatia on top of a skyscraper, using her sceptre to maintain the daylight. "Well, if it isn't Mark's crazy ex.", he commented to no-one in particular. He then pulled out and readied his Wing Saber. "Nothing personal, it's just business." He then began running towards her, eating out a battle cry in the process.

However, just before he could bring it down on her, Galvahex appeared and blocked the hit. He then punched Wayne back a few feet. "I won't allow you to hurt her, Wayne Burley.", the robot declared as he stepped forward.

"Really?", Halatia whispered, surprised at Galvahex's chivalry.

"Talk about a case of Lima Syndrome.", Wayne commented before he engaged his new arrival in battle. In spite of Galvahex having a bandaged arm from earlier, Wayne still found himself facing a tough opponent. While he did manage to get a hit in, Galvahex got a lot more in, eventually grabbing his opponent by the weapon and throwing him around.

"Let's take this elsewhere.", Galvahex exclaimed as he threw Wayne into the air, shooting him with his arm cannon in the process. As the Black Ranger fell to the ground, Galvahex jumped down after him to continue the fight.

Elsewhere, the Rangers were still fighting their doubles, with Carrie eventually getting tired of it. "Let's just get this over with.", she said, assembling her Hyper Cannon and firing it at Dark White, which destroyed her. "Phew, that's better."

"No!", Blue Darkness exclaimed in reaction to the loss of her comrade. "You'll pay for that, White Ranger.", she growled as she abandoned her fight with Lulu to avenge her comrade.

"You're open.", Lulu exclaimed as she stabbed her copy in the back. "Now Carrie, fire again."

"You don't have to tell me twice.", Carrie said in response. She then fired her Cannon again, destroying a second Darkness Ranger.

Seeing this, both teams decided to regroup. "They're making too much progress.", Evil Yellow complained. "We've lost two of our team and there are two of us left."

"We can't let them beat us.", Red Dark exclaimed, clenching his fist.

"Oh boys." Both Darkness Rangers turned around to see that the real Rangers had summoned the Rover Launcher. "Maybe you should spend less time planning and more time doing.", Mark said as he pressed the fire button.

Cubic Firebird Impact!

The blast hit its targets this time, destroying Evil Yellow and injuring Red Dark. "Three down, one to go.", Steven commented as the 4 ganged up on the last of the Darkness Rangers.

Elsewhere, Wayne was thrown against the wall, during which he got a good view of a nearby clock. "Ten to midnight. I've got to end this soon.", he said.

However, Galvahex was unrelenting in his attacks, throwing Wayne elsewhere and shooting at him with his Gatling Blaster. "Don't you realise it yet, human?", the robot taunted. "Our battles have made me invincible. There is nothing you have on you that can damage me anymore."

"Maybe not on me.", Wayne wheezed out. "But I probably have something." He spoke into his communicator. "Jet Cycle, come closer!" The bike obeyed, ramming into Galvahex and sending him flying. He then got up and assembled his Hyper Cannon, aiming it at Halatia. "Sorry about this, Mary. I hope you'll forgive me."

He fired his weapon at the brainwashed head technician of Space Station Garuda, but Galvahex leaped up and blocked the shot. However it had the desired effect of breaking her concentration. The daylight spell wore off, with the night sky returning to its rightful place.

Elsewhere, Red Dark stumbled about, before disappearing completely. "I think that's the last we'll see of him.", Steven commented.

"We need to make sure of that.", Mark replied. "Let's track down Lumidillo and put an end to him."

Speaking of Lumidillo, he had caught up to Wayne, who was now exhausted from fighting with Galvahex. "You've ruined everything.", he yelled at the Ranger. He then knocked the Black Ranger down and held him in place. "Since you destroyed my plans, I'll destroy you."

But before he could do anything worse, the other Rangers arrived and shot him off their friend. "Talk about the nick of time.", Wayne commented as he got up.

"We're not done yet.", Mark told him. "We need to exterminate this shrew first."

The Rover Launcher once more flew down and landed in the arms of the 5 Rangers.

Red Black Yellow White Blue Charge! All Charge, Combine! Full Power!

"Perhaps we can talk.", Lumidillo said, changing his tact. "That whole 'making Darkness copies of you guys', that was a joke."

"If that was a joke, then here's the punchline.", Mark said as he once more pressed the fire button.

Maximum Firebird Bombardment!

The fireball hit Lumidillo, destroying his body. But the Hybrasect within survived, using the flames of its body's destruction to reconstitute as a giant. "Now let's see how bright I can really get."

"New monsters, same old tricks.", Carrie commented.

"But we have a new toy to play with.", Mark said in response. "Falcon Corde!"

F-F-F-Falcon!

The giant spaceship appeared and beamed the 5 Rangers aboard. "Transform to Megazord mode, now."

Transfalcon!

The Falcon Megazord now stood in front of Lumidillo, who fired a beam at it. However, the Falcon dodged and continued fighting. Despite the Hybrasect using his ball form to get in some good hits, the Falcon withstood all of them. "Avion Maser!" The Falcon then fired its chest beam, which knocked Lumidillo down.

"Ow, that hurt.", Lumidillo complained.

"If you thought that was bad, try this on for size.", Mark said, preparing the final attack. "Scratch Break!"

The Falcon then leaped into the air and slashed at Lumidillo with its claws, vanquishing him for good.

"Can we go home now?", Lulu complained. "It's getting late and I'm probably up way past my bedtime."

"Agreed.", Carrie nodded. "We could all do with the sleep, after this incident."

Aboard the ship, Galvahex placed Halatia down. "This was too desperate a manoeuvre. You were almost killed.", he said to her unconscious form. "You may be a false persona, but that doesn't give you any reason to risk your existence pointlessly."

As if on cue, the woman awakened. But Galvahex sensed something different about her. That this wasn't Halatia. "Where am I?", she asked. "I'm not back on that awful ship again, am I?" And then Galvahex realised what had happened.