Edward Ratcliffe had just returned from his extended vacation. He had been allowed to take one as per his contract giving him up to 5 weeks off a year. He had decided to use the, all at once soon after the incident with the camera monster, which had the Red Ranger Mark Goodman thinking about his presumed dead girlfriend. The whole incident had reminded Edward of his grandmother, bedridden and slowly dying in a nursing home in Newark. So, with permission from Commander Gordon, he had gone to spend time with her, as she may be close to death. He knew that his co-worker Jimmy Caldwell could handle his duties in his absence. However, when news reached Newark of a giant monster rampaging through Winter Valley and destroying half the city, Ratcliffe knew the he would be needed to help the Flying Rangers. So he had hastily cut short his vacation and returned to the Nest as soon as possible.

"Hello.", he called through the corridors of the complex, expecting some reply. But he heard none, not even as an echo. He proceeded to go to the main control room, where he knew that Wing Commander Gordon would be. After all, she almost never left the room, to the point that before they had left for the Garuda project, Michael and Rachael had joked she was born in the room. As he opened the door, he saw a green bird-like creature standing in the room. It turned around to face Ratcliffe, before a green flash blinded him, to the point he had to rub his eyes.

"Are you okay, Ratcliffe?", the familiar voice of the Commander filled the air. Edward opened his eyes to see that she was standing there, with no trace of the bird-man anywhere.

Ratcliffe nodded nervously. "I'm fine now.", he replied. "I thought I saw a giant bird standing in this room though, Commander."

"It was probably a trick of the light.", Gordon assured him. "And by the way, I've been promoted to Group captain while you were away. And Pilot Goodman is now a Flying Officer."

This brought up the burning question that Ratcliffe had on his mind. "Where is Flying Officer Goodman anyway? It's not like him, or indeed any of the others to miss work."

"I gave them the weekend off.", came the answer. "Goodman was exhausted after their last battle, so I decided to let him and the others spend time in Fenmore, recuperating."

"That seems like a good idea.", Ratcliffe said in response. "Let's just hope the Dominion doesn't get up to anything while they're away."

And talking of the Dominion, Algrin and the others were in the middle of a rude awakening. The newly-crowned Emperor Tann, who had previously made clear his intention to come to Earth, had sent his right hand man Cannant on ahead. And tha ant-like humanoid with a large cannon was not happy with their progress.

"You're a disgrace to the Emperor's forces.", Cannant yelled. "You've had ample opportunity to take this planet by force and you've failed to do that, thanks to these 'Flying Rangers'. I'd assumed, since even our own Queen Uuhcura lost her life trying to take them down, that they were simply more powerful than us. But as it turns out, no. You simply failed to anticipate their reactions, no matter how you improve your forces with Hybrasects and those brutes I saw teleporting to Japan."

"You know about that?", Algrin gulped.

"Of course I do. I was there, handling the situation with my Bio-Roids before your 'U-Clones' interfered with my attempt to destroy the AviAttackers before they could be put into service. Who's pathetic idea was it to interfere?"

Mary, still posing as Halatia for appearances sake, pointed to Fwelf. "It was him, sir. Our robot can prove it."

Sure enoug, Galvahex replayed audio of Fwelf's conversation with Algrin from the eponymous incident. "Did we send a squad of Bio-Roids to attack a place called 'Hoak-aid-do'?"

"Thanks a lot guys.", Fwelf growled. "So much for 'honour amongst thieves'."

Cannant grabbed Fwelf. "I'm impressed with your work engineering those U-Clones." He was unaware they were cloned from the late Queen Uuhcura, whose corpse now lay in a device Algrin had dubbed 'the Fusionliser'. "I want you to help me with a project of my own."

"What project?", Fwelf said curiously.

"I want to see how far my ant virus can spread amongst the humans without my interference. I already have a carrier heading to a town called 'Fenmore', where our experiment will commence."

"And what will happen if the plan fails to go as you intend?", Galvahex thought to ask.

Cannant turned towards him. "If my plan fails, then my ship has a neutron missile aimed at the town. On press of a button and there won't be any evidence of anything. The Flying Rangers will be caught unawares when they come to investigate."

Unknown to Cannant, the 5 Rangers were on their way to Fenmore, but under different circumstances. Steven was sitting near the back of the bus, looking out a window at the country scenery. Lulu decided to interrupt his solitude. "Hey, grumpy-face. Cheer up, we're going on an all expenses paid trip to the country. You should appreciate the time off."

"I do.", Steven assured her. "It's just, that a while ago, I remembered something about my past that involved the town we're going to. Carrie and I tried to go here and find the truth, but you know what happened with that case."

Lulu assumed he was referring to the incident with Brakedecker, where her brother had almost been murdered by a living car. "Speaking of Carrie, she's been acting pretty strange lately." She then pointed at her friend, who was seemingly trying to pry her way into the wall of the vehicle. "I tried asking her about it, but she insisted nothing's wrong."

Before the conversation could continue, the bus came to a stop and a loud bang was heard. The driver opened the door and disembarked, with the smell of engine oil filling the air. Carrie immediately dashed to get off the bus, alongside another man in a white suit. "Wait, Carrie.", Wayne called, running off after his teammate. Lulu and Steven decided to follow the commotion, ending up outside the vehicle where the driver was inspecting the engine.

"Looks like some idiot has shot a hole in our engine.", the driver noted. "We're leaking oil, but I'm sure I can patch it." But before he could begin any work, Carrie and the other man lunged for the leak, with ravenous looks on their faces. Wayne and Steven managed to hold their friend back, but Lulu was less lucky with the other man, who began to drink from the leak. The driver pulled him out after a few seconds. "Look buddy, even if you're thirsty, this is not the way to quench it." He then turned towards the other 3. "The same applies for your friend. Try to keep her out of trouble."

"We will.", Steven nodded, before having the other two lead Carrie back onto the bus. "Carrie, what's gotten into you? You weren't seriously trying to drink that engine's oil, were you?"

Carrie was in shock. "I don't know what I was doing. All I remember is feeling hungry."

"Maybe, but Steven's point still stands.", Wayne pointed out. "You can't just drink something potentially lethal, even if you are hungry."

It was then that Mark, who had decided to stay in his seat for the purposes of staying calm, stood up to join the argument. "Have you sorted out the problem?"

"I'm don't think we have.", Steven said in response. Instead of returning to his original seat, he decided to sit down next to Carrie, in order to keep a closer eye on her.

From afar, Cannant observed the outcome of his handiwork. "So the ant virus has had an effect on both of my infected already. This spells good news for our upcoming main tests."

Fwelf was confused. "You know that one of those two is the White Ranger, right?"

"Of course I knew, you fool.", Cannant said as he slapped his inferior. "I infected her myself earlier with a slower-acting dosage of the same virus while we were in Japan. I expected her to become another ant-drone, but the fact she's coming to the town with her comrades is even better news. Now all of them will become my thralls when the virus spreads."

Some time later, the repaired bus pulled up to the Cliffside Hotel, where the Rangers had been booked to spend their weekend. Leroy had recommended it to Mark, as he was an old friend of the owner, a Mrs. Samandra Hinton. The passengers got off the bus to see that there was a construction site next door to the hotel, where, as seems to be habit for these sorts of situations, a girder in the process of being moved fell off its supports and descended towards, of all people, Carrie.

However, before anyone could call out 'Look out', the girder hit its unintentional target. However, instead of being crushed, Carrie simply picked up the girder effortlessly and threw it back into the site. "You should really make sure the safety in this area is improved.", she said to a worker, who nodded nervously.

Mark and Lulu both looked on, dumbfounded. "Ok, something is DEFINITELY wrong with her.", the older sibling noted.

"Agreed, but what could it be?", asked his sister.

The party went inside the hotel, where Steven was stopped by a picture on a wall. "That's me.", he said in shock. "But this photo is from the '60s." He looked at the plaque beneath it.

'Dedicated to the memory of Marvin Hinton, who was declared MIA in South Korea, 18th May, 1968. This dedication was erected by his mother, Samandra and his brother Keenan.'

"My name…" Steven said simply "…is Marvin Hinton?"

Wayne stopped this thought. "Hold on a minute, Steven. This can't be right. There was no fighting in Korea in 1968. The war was in Vietnam at that point in history. Just what would this guy be doing in South Korea, even if he wasn't you?"

"Oh he weren't in 'Nam at that time.", a middle-aged, African-American woman came over to them. Wayne and Steven assumed this must be the manager they had been told about, namely because she was listed on the plaque as the mother of the missing GI. "Marvin was on a trip home at the time, when his superiors ordered him onto this Korean mission. The last we heard of him, he'd met a girl in his squad who seemed like a nice person from what he told me of her. June Gordon, her name was." She then got a good look at Steven. "Come to think of it, you do look like Marvin. The resemblance is uncanny."

But Mark had overheard this conversation, particularly the part about the girlfriend. "So, if Steven really is this Marvin guy, Gordon is somehow involved in him ending up in Kuwait. The plot thickens."

But Lulu ended this train of thought. "Big bro, don't think too hard about this. If this Marvin guy did become Steven, then how come he looks exactly the same after 24 years? It doesn't make sense."

"Okay, I'll let it go.", he fibbed to her. As she walked away, he resumed that thought. "Something happened in South Korea in '68. And I need to find out what it is."

As if by magic, Private Dawson from the Disaster Response Team that had dealt with Kodokor's aftermath turned up. "Did I hear you musing about the Korea case? Because I've looked into that myself."

"Private Dawson, as I live and breathe.", Mark reached out for a handshake, which was reciprocated. "What brings you to this remote town in the countryside?"

"I've been doing research on your friend's identity since we last met. That led me to Marvin Hinton's file, which led me to research the Korea incident. I guessed you'd probably come here sooner or later, so I made sure to book myself in as a guest. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any details about the incident other than the co-ordinates they were travelling to." Dawson then handed a small slip of paper to Mark. "If you want to find your answers, then this is where you'll find them."

Mark nodded. "Thank you. I'll make sure to put it on the agenda when I get back to work. But for now, I'm on a break to recuperate."

Later that evening, the 5 sat down in the dining hall for dinner. All of them had picked up food items from the bar, but Carrie's stood out the most. "Is anyone else going to point out how that is way more meat than the recommended amount?", Wayne asked.

"Yes it is.", Steven nodded.

As soon as they had noted this, Carrie began to eat. But instead of using utensils, she buried her face in her food and began to wolf it down ravenously. Everyone cringed at that. "Have I mentioned that I've become a vegetarian?", Lulu commented

Wayne was genuinely intrigued. "Oh really, since when?"

"Since right now."

When Mark put his hand closer to Carrie, she moved her head up and snarled at him. Only now, she had black skin, mandibles surrounding her mouth and feelers sticking out of her head. "Ew, gross.", Steven commented. At the same time, the man in the white suit from the bus stood up, his face similarly transformed. Carrie joined him as the two released a black haze into the air. The other 4 Rangers wasted no time in rushing out of the room.

"Great, just great.", Lulu complained. "We came to this place to catch a break and suddenly Carrie becomes a gas spewing spider."

"An ant actually, but still.", Wayne corrected her. "A virus that turns people into ants. I've never seen anything like it before."

"I have.", Mark realised. "When I got sent to the planet where they're keeping our station crew, one of the foremen had that as a power. I saw him do it to one of the escapees."

Lulu guessed what her brother was thinking. "You think he's come to Earth for some reason?"

"Either that, or someone like him.", Steven contributed.

Then the ant-converted Carrie burst out of the dining room, followed by an entourage of other converted victims. When she spoke, it was with a voice that clearly wasn't hers overlaid over her own. Wayne, Lulu and Steven didn't recognise it, but Mark did. It was Cannant's voice. "I see you Rangers have worked out my role in this affair. Well done, I can see how you've constantly managed to thwart our conquering attempts."

"It's an unpleasant surprise to see you're here, you overgrown insect.", Mark said back to Cannant. "What's brought you to this planet, hibernating for the winter?"

"Very funny, Mark Goodman.", was Cannant's reply. "If you must know, I am here because Emperor Tann has decided to come and take control of the Earth conquest strategy so that he can kill you to avenge the losses of Equiptile and Queen Uuhcura."

"So your boss is now the big cheese of the Dominion, huh? I always thought his manners were pretty stale."

Wayne decided to stop this verbal sparring. "If you're done with your 'mom jokes' contest, what have you done to Carrie and these other people, you freak?"

Cannant's mouthpiece laughed. "Your friend is part of my experiments with my Ant-Drone virus on humans. I have a machine which has increased the strength of the venom in both of my patient zeroes, one of which was your friend Caroline Brown. I had her infected when you were in Japan and the machine has caused the venom to take effect the closer you got to this town, along with my other victim."

"So that's why Carrie was acting so weird lately.", Steven realised.

"Exactly. The virus awakened more of her ant traits as she approached the machine. And now it has progressed to the point that the infected have spread the virus in an airborne form. Now this whole town is a large contained ant farm, where the effects of my latest viral strain can be studied. But I'm going to give the three of you a chance to stop me."

Wayne was confused. "'Three of us'? But there are -." Before he could finish, he cried out in pain and was converted into another Ant-Drone, much to the other threes' horror. This new creation began taking over Cannant's speech.

"As I was saying, you three have a chance to find and stop my machine, getting through my Ant-Drones as you go. But as a little handicap, you will still begin to suffer from the ant virus. It will simply take longer for you to suffer it's effects and the strains will activate at different intervals. Good luck." The Ant-Drone that used to be Wayne suddenly returned to the same zombie-like gait as the others.

"I think we should be going.", Steven suggested. Mark and Lulu concedes, following him in running out of the building.

Back at the Nest, Ratcliffe and Caldwell noticed there was an alert on the computer. "What's happening?", Ratcliffe asked.

"His alarm indicates that something is wrong with one of the Rangers.", Caldwell answered him, as he looked at the computer. "This can't be right. It says here that the bearers of the Black and Pink Ranger powers are human, but now possess non-human DNA."

"What does that mean?"

Caldwell looked his co-worker in the face. "It means that Wayne and Carrie have been infected by something that's changing their DNA. Hopefully the others." He brought up their scans, only to be even more distressed. "Oh no. They've got the same virus. And although it's dormant for now, it could go off at any time."

"We can only hope that they can stop this before it's too late.", mused Ratcliffe.

Back in Fenmore, the remaining Rangers had morphed and were now pushing their way through the hordes of Ant-Drones. "Remember, try not to hurt them.", Mark reiterated. "These are people too and we can't risk hurting them with our weapons."

"You mean we have to face these things simply by pushing?", Lulu asked.

"No we don't.", Steven realised. "We still have one weapon." He pulled out the AviAttacker and adjusted the setting to "Freeze Attack". He then fired on the infected civilians, freezing them in place. "Ok, this should hold them in place for a while. We need to figure out where Cannant built that machine."

"Presumably he built it somewhere where it would have a large uninterrupted area to disperse its signal." Lulu thought. Then she had a realisation. "Are there any large fields around here?"

"Yes there is one.", Mark answered her. "It's over to the west, just past -." But before he could continue, he convulsed in pain, demorphing and revealing that his hand had already turned into one like the Ant-Drones.

Lulu was scared. "Oh no, not you too."

But Mark resisted the transformation. "Don't worry, I can still hold out for a few minutes. That should give you two enough time to find that machine and smash it." With his last moments of lucidity, Mark said to Steven "I leave the rest to you.", before the signal took hold of him and he began convulsing.

"It's too late for him, but not for us. Come on.", Steven stated, but Lulu wasn't budging. "Let's go!", he yelled, having to pull her along with him.

"No.", Cannant cried as he observed the monitor. "They're getting too close to the machine. I need to end this experiment now." He pressed the button to launch the missiles, but nothing happened. Not even after several minutes.

"Shouldn't there be a kaboom?", Fwelf asked, semi-mockingly.

"My neutron missiles have been stolen.", Cannant said, annoyed. "Change of plans: you go out and deal with the Rangers. I'll follow in a few minutes." He then forcibly teleported his subordinate down near the machine.

Fwelf gulped. "Well, sometimes you gotta live with the changes.", he summoned a platoon of U-Clones to protect the machine. "Let's see those two Rangers get past this."

Onboard the ship, Galvahex was dragging in a large missile. "Are you sure it was a good idea to sabotage Cannant's plans, my Lord? What if the Emperor finds out?"

"He won't.", Algrin assured him. "I have a cover story ready for when that fool inevitably fails. Besides, the prospect of working with neutron missiles is too great to ignore." He then pulled out a Hybrasect. "Far too great."

Down on Earth, Steven and Lulu had found their way to the machine's location, out in an open field. "So this is the thing causing all this trouble? Well it's not going to be hard to break.", Steven commented.

"You'd think it would be better guarded than it is,", Lulu said offhandedly. As if on cue, Fwelf appeared with the U-Clones. "I just had to say it, didn't I?"

"I'm sorry, Rangers.", Fwelf gloated. "Looks like your long and hard task is coming to an end here. Get them!"

The U-Clones engaged the two Rangers, who quickly found themselves overwhelmed by the enemy drones. Even worse, Lulu's ant disease caught up with her, turning her into a Ant-Drone. "Looks like its up to me.", Steven said. He whipped out his AviAttacker and Beak Blaster and combined them into the Sonic Smasher.

Fire Attack, Power Up!

"No, stop!", Fwelf cried out. But it was futile, as Steven leaped up and aimed his weapon at the machine, depressing the trigger.

Strike Out!

The machine exploded, taking a few of the U-Clones with it. The Ant-Drone that was Lulu collapsed and reverted to normal. "What happened? Did we do it?"

"Oh we did it.", replied Steven. "The others should be returning to normal around now."

In the town, Mark and Wayne woke up next to each other. "No seriously, what do you mean by - how did I get here?", the latter said.

"They must've done it.", Mark smiled. He then grabbed his friend. "Come on, Steven and Lulu need our help." He dragged him along with him towards the scene of the battle.

Elsewhere in the town, Carrie also regained consciousness nest to the other carrier. "What happened? I was in the dining hall of the Cliffside."

"So was I.", he other man said. "How did we get here?"

Then Carrie saw a plume of smoke in the distance. "Trouble. I should be over there." She then dashed towards the scene, leaving the man behind.

Fwelf was angry over the Rangers' victory. "You may have destroyed our plan, but I'll still destroy you. U-Clones, attack!"

But just as they began to lumber towards their targets, they were destroyed by a shot from behind. Everyone turned around to see the Red and Black Rangers standing there, Hyper Cannons in hand. "I guess we're fashionably late.", Mark commented.

"On the contrary.", Lulu interjected. "You're right on time." She then reached for her bracelet and activated it. "Let's Fly!" In a flash, she was morphed into the Blue Ranger. "Let's pound this creep into the ground."

But that was no easy task. Mark tried leaping at Fwelf with his Wing Saber, but was blown backwards by telepathy. Steven and Lulu then tried shooting him, but he blew their Beak Blasters out of their hands and into the air a split second before they fired, resulting in the two of them being the only ones to suffer. Finally Wayne tried to grab hold of the dwarf, only to be dodged via teleportation and eventually a cloak, which exploded in his hand. "Do you really think you pitiful idiots can get the better of me?", Fwelf mocked, throwing a barrel at the 4 via telekinesis.

"Oh no you don't, you little -!", Wayne yelled. He leaped into the air and punched the barrel with his Sky Enforcer, sending it back to its sender.

It was then that Cannant teleported in to the scene. "Do I have to do everything right?", he growled, before firing a blast at the Rangers, sending them back. "I'll just have to crush you myself." He leapt into the air and grew to giant size.

"He can grow on his own?", Fwelf said in disbelief. "Well I'm not sticking around." He then teleported out as Carrie arrived on the scene.

"Can someone tell me what I missed?", she asked, before looking up and seeing the giant Cannant. "Never mind, I think I get the gist of it." She then morphed into the White Ranger. "And I'm pretty sure he did something to me, so I want payback."

"Well, I'll make sure you get it.", Mark said, speaking into his communicator. "Falcon Corde!"

F-F-F-Falcon!

The Falcon Megazord appeared in front of the giant Cannant. "This isn't human technology, where did you get it? No matter, I'll find out when I wreck it." He fired his cannon, but the Falcon dodged and engaged in hand-to-hand with the Dominion's higher-up. Eventually, the Megazord gained the upper hand and beat him down. "I didn't think you were this powerful."

"Avion Maser!" The robot fired a beam from its chest that knocked the giant back further.

"And this is for what you did to me.", Carrie said, operating her joysticks. "Falcon Corde, jump!" The robot jumped into the air. "Scratch Break!" The Falcon Megazord performed its finisher on Cannant.

"This can't be. I was supposed to destroy you.", Cannant cried as he exploded.

"Good riddance.", Carrie declared.

"Yeah.", Lulu commented.

Back at the Nest, Ratcliffe noted something on the monitor. "Ma'am, according to this, the Falcon isn't returning to base. In fact, it's heading outside this country."

Gordon was concerned. "Where is it headed?"

"According to this, it's going to land in… South Korea? I can't think of a reason why it's heading there."

"I can.", the Group captain said. "And it's something I hoped they wouldn't find out until later."

Down on the ground, Wayne, Steven, Carrie and Lulu were in the middle of a conversation. "What do you mean 'Mark took the Falcon to South Korea'?", Carrie asked.

"I mean exactly that.", Wayne stated. "Its all here in this note he gave me back in the cockpit." Everyone gathered around to read the note.

"I'm sorry I couldn't stay here and enjoy this weekend break with you. But thanks to Private Dawson's findings and the old lady's retelling of what happened to her son, I have too strong a lead on the mysteries of both Steven and Gordon. So, I've decided to take this opportunity where a giant monster appeared to take the Falcon to South Korea, where Marvin Hinton disappeared on a mission with June Gordon, and find out the truth for myself. I don't know when I'll return, but for now, enjoy the rest of your break. Your leader and friend, Mark Goodman."

"So what do we do now.", Steven asked. "We don't know when he'll come back."

"For now," Lulu answered "we carry on. All we need to do is wait and he'll bring us the answers we need to solve this case."

Coming soon on Power Rangers Wing Force!

Tann stands on top of a hill.

"This guy is the new leader of the Dominion?"

The 5 Rangers are knocked back by an explosion.

Mark confronts Gordon. "Who are you really?"

Gliderak runs through the exploding corridors of the Nest, sword in hand.

"You weren't supposed to find out this way."

A large, foreboding black figure stands in the middle of the ruined city.

"This world is mine!"