"Just a reminder, midterms are next week," Ms. Johnson explained, although she knew that, as this was the last class of the day that they had all heard about it from all of the other teachers, "I'm sure I don't need to remind you that your midterm is an important part of your grade, I am sure that you'll all do your very best. Are there any questions about what will be on the test?"

There was silence for about five seconds before a loud snore punctured the classroom. Everyone started to look around, trying to pinpoint the sound, until at last, their eyes fell upon J.T. whose head was down on his desk, fast asleep.

"J.T." Ms. Johnson snapped, but J.T. didn't stir, "Mr. Taylor," she called again. No response. Taking a deep breath, walked down the rows of desks to the culprit, leaned down so she was just inches from his ear, and snapped loudly, "Jeremiah Taylor."

J.T. groaned and swatted his hand towards her.

"Ms. Johnson," Frank said, raising his hand, "I think I can wake him up."

"Really?" Ms. Johnson asked, turning to the red ranger with a pleading look in her eyes, "Then please do."

Frank pulled out his phone, fiddled with it for a second before holding it up so that everyone could hear the twinkling sound of an ice cream truck. J.T. almost immediately jumped up, wide awake, "Ice cream!" he exclaimed, "Where's the ice cream truck."

It was at this point in time that he looked around and realized where he was, "Uh..." he said, blushing slightly, "I'm sorry, it won't happen again, I promise, I just," he yawned loudly, "Didn't sleep well last night."

Ms. Johnson nodded, before glancing at the clock, the bell was about to ring, "Well, perhaps you should have an early night tonight, make sure to study for the midterms," she called out, as the bell rung, "Class dismissed."

The students stampeded out of the room calling out to friends as they flooded the hallways outside.

Mark groaned as he watched the tumult, midterms already? He had only transferred three weeks ago, how was he supposed to get a good grade on midterms.

"Mark," Ms. Johnson was looking at him, "Don't worry, We'll be starting a review of everything tomorrow, as I am sure the other teachers would too."

"Thanks," Mark said, "and I'm sure I can find others in my classes who can loan me their notes too. I mean it's not my fault my mom decided to dump me here."

…

Mason threw his book bag down next to the table in one of the study halls, while his grades were average, he wanted to get the best grade he could on his midterm, as a low enough score could affect his scholarship, and he really didn't want to have to go to public school next year, even if he would have his Uncle Tommy as a science teacher. He didn't want to lose his friends he's made.

He didn't even really look up as Frank and Melody joined him, pulling out notebooks and textbooks and staking them a mile high on the table in front of them.

"Where's J.T.?" another voice asked as Sara arrived, pulling out a math book and sitting down.

"He said something about being too tired to think," Frank said, "I think he went to take a nap. I think he stayed up last night, watching some horror film on his computer."

"Well, J.T. needs to pull it together," Sara said, "I heard some of the older classmen say that those who fell the midterms could get kicked out of school."

Mason glanced up from his book he was pouring over, "I don't know about you, but I really don't want to find out the truth the hard way, and I have to maintain a certain grade point average to keep my scholarship so..."

...The Enchanted Forest…

"So midterms are coming up," Mordred said, standing up from the table with the crystal ball, "This might just be the lucky break that we need, if the power rangers fail their exams they will be kicked out of the school and then they won't be around to stop us, and I know just the creature for the job."

A cat-like creature was weaving its way through the other monsters causing them to flinch away in terror as it brushed against them. Mordred watched the cat for a moment before smiling, "Nightmare Cat, you're the perfect solution to our little problem, I need you to go into the school and ensure that the power rangers do not pass their tests."

"How do you plan for Nightmare Cat to be of any use?" a cold, hard voice, asked, causing Mordred to look over at Morgana, she was awake and standing up.

"It's quite simple really, Nightmare Cat causes nightmares, which will make the rangers so tired that they can't think straight, which would cause them to fail their tests and be forced to leave the school."

"I hope you haven't been listening to silly gossip and rumors again, like what happened with their so-called Queen."

…

Melody was working with her horse when movement out of the corner of her eye caught her attention, "Whoa there," She called out pulling sharply on her reigns to bring her horse to a halt, "What's that?"

She swung herself off the horse and peered at the hedge, seeing a tail disappearing into it, She softly clicked her tongue and made some other noises that she heard her sister-in-law make multiple times when working with animals.

Large eyes glowed back at her, "Here Kitty, Kitty, kitty," she coaxed, wriggling her fingers in an enticing way.

Slowly a pitch-black cat emerged from the hedge, pressing its head against Melody's leg and purring loudly.

"You're a friendly little thing aren't you?" Melody said, "Let's go see if we can't find you anything to eat, shall we?" with that she scooped the purring cat up into her arms.

...Later that night...

Sara threw herself down on her bed with a groan, "My head hurts from all of that studying," she complained.

"Hey, look on the bright side," Melody said, slowly climbing into her own bed, "After Midterm we have Family Day and then two weeks off of school."

"Hey, I'm not looking forward to that either," Sara pointed out, "I don't really have anywhere to go, my only living relative is in Paris France, and, well, she's the one who shipped me off to here."

"Oh..." Melody said slowly, "That must be hard, I mean even Mason has his Uncle."

Sara didn't respond to that, as she rolled over to turn her back on Melody.

Both of the girls were fast asleep when their door creaked open and a small black cat slid into the room, looked around, before leaping onto Sara's bed, curling up next to her.

...Sara's Dream…

Sara was back home in Seattle, she recognized the layout of the house at once, she took in a deep breath, smelling the mixture of cologne and spices that had been a major part of her childhood. She looked around, no one was around. Where was everyone?

She quickly raced up the stairs to the second door to the right, that had been the bedroom her mother had used. The door was slightly opened and she could hear the crystal sound of her mother's laughter, carefree and happy, just like she remembered it.

She flung the door open wide, a greeting on her lips only to freeze. Her mother was standing next to the window, where she had liked to sit when she was alive, only she looked different now. Her cheeks were even more sunken in, her eyes were large yet beady at the same time, her clothes hung as rags around her body and her hair hung in greasy clumps down her back.

"What have you done?" Her mother hissed, lurching towards her in an unnatural gait, "Why did you abandon me?"

"I didn't," Sara cried out, "I would never!"

,,,

Sara cried out, thrashing in her sleep before kicking the cat, who jumped off and ran over to Melody's bed.

...Melody's dream…

Melody was at the old youth center in Angel Grove, she recognized it from various home videos that Rocky had shown her. She wasn't sure, but if her brother was a power ranger, like they suspected, this was their hangout, where they went to unwind after saving the day.

She looked around, she had actually never been to the Youth Center because it had shut down before she was old enough to really enjoy what it had to offer.

It was eerily quiet, too quiet, "Rocky," she called out, if this was the Youth Center then Rocky would be there with his friends, just like when Rocky had been her age, right? Nothing but silence, "Aisha?" she called out, if only she knew for certain what the names of their other friends were.

There was no response, and around her the Youth Center changed, the chairs, tables and exercise equipment broke down and a thick layer of dust covered the floor. Thick cobwebs clung to the surfaces, as large eight eyed creatures stared at her from every direction.

Melody usually wasn't scared of spiders, but then again spiders usually weren't big enough to ride. "Rocky!" she called out, as she whirled around looking for an exit, "Aisha! Mom!" the spiders scurried closer to her, "Dad!" she cried, "Anybody, please, how do I get out of here!"

…

Melody shot up in bed, sweat pouring from her forehead, blinking rapidly, what was that? She wondered.

"Melody?" a voice called out in the darkness, "What's wrong?" Sara was sitting up in bed her eyes still huge from her nightmare.

"I just had the worst nightmare ever," Melody shuddered at the memory, "Spiders the size of horses, and they were surrounding me."

Sara looked at Melody in confusion, "I had a nightmare too, it was Mom, only it wasn't Mom and she was attacking me. It was horrible. I don't think I can go back to sleep."

"Me either," Melody agreed.

...The Boys Dorms…

The black cat slipped out of the girls' room without being noticed before making its way out of the girl dorms and heading into the boys. It padded up and down the hallways until it finally stopped in front of one of the doors, with a quick meow the door swung open, allowing the cat to pad in and jump up on J.T.'s bed.

...J.T.'s dream…

Everything was gray, gray walls, gray floors, gray furniture, and gray clothing. "What's going on here?" J.T. demanded, "Where is everyone?"

Someone walked by gray-skinned and dressed all in gray, "Hey," J.T. demanded, grabbing the person by the shoulder, "What's going on here? Where is everything?"

The girl looked at him with wide gray lifeless eyes, "Hello, what a beautiful day, it so gray out."

"Sara," J.T. yelled, somehow he knew that this gray pigged tail girl was his friend, "Snap out of it, what's going on?"

Sara just stared at him blankly, "The Weather's nice isn't it?"

"Sara!" J.T. wanted to shout, but Sara had pulled herself out of J.T.'s grip, and continued on her way, her eyes fixed straight ahead, "Sara, you're scaring me. Snap out of it."

"Come with me," Sara offered, "The Smug will take your fear away, he'll take everything away, and let you live without a care in the world." Sara's voice was as flat and emotionless as she could possibly imagine.

Just then Frank showed up, "Yes," he said in the same monotone voice as Sara, "We must take him to the Smug, as we've been commanded so we must obey."

…

J.T. groaned rolling over in his sleep, "No, Frank, Sara."

The black cat slid off J.T.'s bed and silently walked over to Frank's bed, jumping up.

...Frank's Dream…

Frank's shield was cracked, and that had only been a fraction of the power Morgana had now.

"Our morph can't hold much longer," a silver ranger stated.

"Another blast like that and our shields are toast, and with them our ability to morph," a white ranger pointed out."Then what do we do?"

"I've contacted T.J.," the purple ranger announced, "But reinforcements are still hours away."

"But," Frank sputtered, terror gripping his chest, as he realized something important, "Mason, where are you? J.T.? Sara? Melody?"

"They must have gotten separated from the rest of the group during that last onslaught," Silver Ranger insisted.

Suddenly the scene changed, and Frank saw his friends, all with eyes wide staring up at death.

…

"No!" Frank gasped, sitting up with sweat pouring down his forehead, he glanced over at J.T. who was thrashing and crying out in his sleep. It had just been a dream, a bad dream, but a dream never less, but somehow he had a strange feeling that he wasn't going to go back to sleep.

"This is pointless," J.T.'s voice filtered through the room as the other occupant sat up, "I just had a..." he trailed off, "I woke up and now I can't get back to sleep."

Frank frowned, "It wasn't a nightmare was it?" he asked, "Because I just had a nightmare."

"Weird," J.T. said.

…

The black cat left J.T. and Frank's room just as fast as it had left the girls' room earlier, and rushed down the hall towards Mason.

Mason was sound asleep when the cat curled up on top of him.

...Mason's dream…

Mason stared at his uncle, "but Uncle Tommy," he insisted, "That doesn't even make sense, aren't we suppose to stop this from happening?"

His uncle stopped and patted him on his head like some little kid who had said something funny, "Trust me," he insisted, "I've been a power ranger long before you were in diapers, trust me."

"But you aren't making any sense," Mason repeated.

Tommy laughed, "Why should I have to make sense," he demanded, "Everyone will listen to me just because I'm The Tommy Oliver, who would listen to you, nobody even notices you since I showed up."

"Hey, Tommy," Ms. Johnson called out, rushing into the room, "I need you to..." she bumped into Mason, "Oh, hi Mason, I didn't see you there… Anyway..."

Mason frowned, what was that about, he thought leaving the room, the school was empty and eerily quiet, "Say what happened to everyone?" he called out.

A girl with red piggy tails walked past him, causing him to let out a sigh of relief, "Hey Sara, what's going on?"

"What are you doing here?" Sara asked her face twitching upward in a snarl, "You aren't suppose to be here, this is for gifted students only, not for idiots like yourself."

"But I am a gifted student, I'm in advanced science, remember."

Sara snorted, "Don't tell me you inherited your Uncle's bad memory. You bombed that test and had to drop out of Knight Academy, Remember?"

What, Mason wanted to ask her what she was talking about but he couldn't, he seemed to be rooted to the spot, he had failed, he had been asked to leave Knight Academy, but out of all of his friends he and Melody were probably the only ones who had been truly excited about the school.

Everyone was surrounding him, laughing at him, poking fun at him for failing. His teacher arrived and forced him out of the school, he was living on the streets begging for money now, this wasn't right, something was wrong.

"Hey Mason," a new voice called out, "Scat cat," Mark's voice continued, "Scram, Mason, wake up, it's just a dream."

The world around Mason started to shake around him until…

…

Mason's eyes flew open and he sat bolt upright in bed, whacking Mark in the forehead as he did so.

"Ow," Mark groaned, "Sorry to wake you but you were having a nightmare, and that cat that Melody found was lying on top of you. It was weird though, I've been trying to wake you for five minutes, but you didn't wake up until I got that cat to move."

"The cat?" Mason asked confused, "Look Mark why don't you go back to sleep and I'll explain what's going on later, I just need to check on something."

"Check on what?" Mark demanded, "It's two in the morning, lights out was four hours ago."

"It's nothing you need to worry about," Mason insisted, "I'm just going down the hall to the restroom."

…

Mason gently knocked on Frank and J.T.'s door, "You guys awake?" he called out softly, well aware of the other students asleep around him.

The door opened a crack to reveal J.T.'s disheveled hair, "What's going on?"

"Did you have a nightmare?" he asked.

"Yeah, and now both Frank and I can't go back to sleep."

"I think it was a monster attack," Mason hissed, "Mark said I wouldn't wake up until he shooed that cat Melody found away, I think it might be a monster."

…

"Look, there it is," Melody shouted, pointing to a black shape moving through the moonlit lawn in front of the school.

"Stop right there," Sara shouted, firing an energy bolt at the cat.

The cat leaped ten feet in the air and twisted, turning into a humanoid cat creature before grabbing something from the air.

"Call your Zords," Frank ordered, "That Nightmare Cat is growing big."

…

The Megazord caught one of Nightmare Cat's paws as it swiped angrily at it, before delivering a blow to its stomach. Nightmare Cat stumbled back a few steps, hissing at the teens, who blocked yet another blow.

Finally, the Megazord knocked Nightmare Cat down and drew its sword, swiping it at the cat monster.

…

Mason tried to sneak back into his room, but Mark was waiting for him, "Are you one of the power rangers or something?" he asked as Mason entered the room.

"What?" Mason asked, "What are you talking about."

"I saw the whole thing from our window," Mark explained, "And I just think it's a little odd that that monster targeted you, and then you spent forty-five minutes in the bathroom, the same length, I should add of the monster fight. It also explains why you kept disappearing and appearing somewhere else. Also, I looked, I can't find any secret passages and none of the other students know about them."

Mason let out a loud yawn, "It's three in the morning, we have school in the morning, I'm going to bed."

"I'm right, aren't I," Mark said, "That's why you're changing the topic."

"You have to keep quiet about this, okay," Mason pleaded, collapsing onto his bed.

…

A/N: Next time on LMPR: It's time for Midterms and the teens are busy studying with the help of Mark who has figured out their identity, but when a monster defeats the power rangers does Mark have the skills to save the day?