CHAPTER 7

All of it happened so suddenly, Tommy barely had time to process it. Somehow all his former ranger comrades and some new allies had unexpectedly joined this battle. He wondered how Jason and the others got their powers back and wait… Aisha was now the white ranger! Her suit was different from his though and looked much cooler. He supposed Ninjor had something to do with all this.

He summoned his sword, now mysteriously fixed after he'd remorphed as Ivan Ooze charged at them. As the warlock ran at them, he started to replicate himself till there was a small army of oozemen following him.

"Really? After a while, doesn't this get boring?" Tommy facepalmed. He swung his sword, cutting through the oozemen.

From the corner of his eyes, he saw Jason and his team assemble the Power Blaster and eradicate an entire group of oozelings. Justin shot rapidly at the swarm of purple minions with his twin blasters, as if he were operating a machine gun. It was the same with Marigold and her D-Magnums. Icthiyor, Doggy, Ninjor, the ninja rangers, Aisha and Sherriff Skyfire had cut through the ranks of the purple army with their sabers. Cestria was using her telekinetic powers in tandem with Arella's magic to squash the oozemen against the deck, reducing them to purple smoke.

He nodded at his team. All of them joined their weapons and formed the Zeo Power Blaster and fired on the remaining grunts.

The original Ooze twisted his shape till he became a giant purple dragon towering over them. He lashed his tail at them, sweeping some of them back. Tommy's eyes fell upon the bodies of the unconscious EAGLE agents sprawling on the deck, completely vulnerable to Ooze's attacks.

"Alpha, teleport the EAGLE agents out of here." He said, touching the side of his helmet.

"Aie aie aie, Tommy." The robot replied and almost immediately, they were whisked out by white teleportation beams.

Tommy sighed. That took care of the bystanders. Now for the monster. Even though he had never fought with so many rangers before against a single monster, he still felt seriously overwhelmed. Ivan Ooze had to be the most powerful opponent he'd ever faced.

He watched Aisha charge forwards, white flames blazing around her. He blinked as spectral projections of a smilodon, white tiger and a bear appeared beside her before attacking Ooze. The three feline spirits tackled the purple dragon to the deck, clawing and biting the villain. Aisha yelled, jumping at the dragon, as she unsheathed Saba and chopped off the dragon's head, which splattered into purple ooze on hitting the floor.

The rest of the body fell limp, dissolving to ooze as well, which tried to slither away.

Ninjor shot his hands forward and the ooze floated in the air like small purple bubbles before they coalesced to form a single purple blob encased in a blue orb. He nodded to Arella, who snapped her fingers and the orb lit up in silver flames and exploded to purple fumes which quickly dissipated.

"He's gone… for now." Ninjor announced.

"What do you mean he's gone for now?" Grace asked suspiciously as all the rangers demorphed.

"As you all saw he has the power to regenerate from a single cell and create copies of himself, each of his replicas sharing his consciousness. I can still feel his presence somewhere. The Ooze we just fought was nothing more than a vessel. It seems he had a backup plan, should he be defeated. However, do not despair. The injuries we have dealt his vessel would have been transmitted to his real body and it would take him months to recover. Enough time for me to find and end him."

"So, after all this, he is not destroyed? We almost lost Kat!" Tommy yelled.

"I realize that, Tommy. I tried to gather all our allies as fast as I could." The blue warrior replied, his head bowed down. "But the fight isn't over. Dark Specter has captured Zordon and draining him of his lifeforce. The UAE has taken over Eltar. It won't be long before they come to Earth. It is too much to ask of you but you need to be rangers again on a fulltime basis."

"Of course." Jason said, his team nodded behind him.

"Once a ranger, always a ranger." Tommy smiled. "We're in."

"Good. But first, we need to go to a more secure location." He said, turning towards Blue Centurion and the SPD rangers. "I take it you will be able to take care of matters here. Rangers, come with me. You too, Justin."

At their affirmative nods, he clapped his hands together and a portal opened in front of them.

"Come back to Promethea after this." Grace said to Tommy and the zeo rangers. "If you need to be rangers fulltime, you can't juggle your personal lives with your ranger duties like you did in high school. I will be giving all of you living quarters in Promethea Island and for the rest of the world, you will be doing a prestigious exchange program in Promethea. That way, you can have your civilian lives back after all this is over without burning any bridges."

"Thank you." He smiled before they followed the ninja master through the portal.

Grace narrowed her eyes. There was still work to be done. Why did Ooze, a galactic criminal attack EAGLE, whose existence is known to select few, instead of attacking Angel Grove or any other ley line nexus like Rita or Zedd? Whatever Ooze's master plan was, it wasn't over. She needed to scan EAGLE's systems to be sure but she had a sinking feeling that all of this was just a distraction for something more sinister.

AUTHOR'S NOTES:

This is the end of the first arc. Next arc will have the return of some fan favorite villains to Earth. Any guesses as to who?

Hope you enjoyed the chapter and please review. :)