The monster growled. Shelby gawked. And Tyler, Tyler was so full of excitement and adrenaline he wasn't entirely certain his heart wasn't going to explode any second now or that he would not soon awaken to find this was a mistake or a dream. He was a Power Ranger, a real Power Ranger, and a red at that; he thought of other reds, of Tommy and of Andros and of Connor, and he decided he wanted to do them proud, and as his mind thought of Jason and Rocky and Wesley, he told himself he would be better. He looked to Shelby who looked to be looking herself over in confusion, and he told himself he would protect his team no matter what.

There was another roar and as their enemy advanced he held the gun aloft and prepared to shoot; sure he had little understanding of what his powers really were, what this Energem would gift him in terms of skills, whether something special like the Dino Gems or something generic like the Power Coins but in Tyler's mind there was no better way to find out than in an actual fight.

"Give me the Energems!" the creature exclaimed, causing Tyler to laugh and he squeezed the trigger, sending another shot at it.

"Fat chance, iceface; prepare to be extinct," he retorted and turned to look at Shelby once more, smiling behind his helmet, "Come on, Shelby, we'll need to work together if we want to lay this thing to waste."

"Wait what?" she asked panicked, "No, I can't; I mean-"

She seemed to have more to say but another louder noise sounded, a earsplitting roar that made him wince and lower his gun. The monster moved to approach but earth-shaking footsteps threw all three to the ground and Tyler felt himself unmorph and look up in time to see what looked to be a T-rex zord. Not Conner's, and it didn't look like what his mom and Tommy had described Jason's as being; it looked sleek and had yellow spikes that moved on it's head and back of neck as it roared and charged across the ground. Shelby stared up at it with wide eyes, "Wait that...that looks like a T-rex!"

"Yeah a T-rex zord!" Tyler yelled excitedly and tried to get up, watching as the zord, his zord, made it's way to the monster.

"Hey get away from me!" the monster yelled and screamed as the T-rex leaned down and grabbed it in it's mouth, shaking it a little before throwing it off into the horizon.

Tyler's heart pounded and he cheered it on, trying to approach only to have the zord run off; his smile faded and he furrowed his brow. "Hey wait!"

To no avail; the zord was soon gone and he was left alone with Shelby, standing in the middle of the woods, the strange red gem glowing in his hand as he unmorphed. He looked at it, watching it sparkle and shine, and he tried to think it couldn't have been a dream; he'd really morphed into a Red Ranger, he'd really been chosen by the Grid, and he had even seen his zord. His living, sentient, apparently completely uninterested in him zord; he wondered if any of the others knew how it felt to have their zord not even want to talk to him, maybe Merrick.

Shaking that thought process off he turned to Shelby, finding her still sitting on the ground and now staring at him. There was something in her expression, something that made him stop before he could take a step towards her, and he frowned a little before speaking, "What?"

"Who the hell are you?" she asked, her tone fighting to be calm and frantic at the same time; she got to her feet and backed away from him, "You know about morphers, you got all excited about what just happened, you seemed to actually enjoy that; you act like you liked being a Power Ranger."

"Well yeah, of course," he said then paused before continuing carefully, "Didn't you?"

"Of course not! Power Rangers are dangerous! They get hurt and they cause all sorts of trouble and damage around them and...and...and who in their right mind actually would want to be one?!"

Tyler froze up and just stared at her for a moment. For a moment he wasn't sure what to say or do; it was far from the first time he'd had someone talk like that about the Rangers, far more from the hundredth either. Yet something in the way she spoke, the way she looked at him, it cut him deeper than any of that, and he thought again of the courthouse. He thought of his mother bleeding, he thought of the Samurai Rangers dying, he thought of the Ninja Academy and the sad look on RJ's face when he spoke of his teammates, and he felt his heart lurch.

"I do," he said, in a far softer tone than he really meant to; his hands clenched tight at his sides and the Energem cut into his skin, "I've wanted to be a Power Ranger since I was tiny, since I first saw Connor ride in on his Raptor and save that little girl from a Tyrannodrone. I've wanted to be a Ranger since my mom told me of the first time she met Titanus. I've wanted to be one of them for longer than I can even remember. The Power Rangers save lives, they protect people, and yeah sometimes they get into trouble; they don't always do it perfectly the first time, sometimes they mess up and they get affected by the monsters or sidetracked by silly life things and sometimes they have to fight each other. But they're not bad people, they've never been bad people. They have always done everything they could to defeat the evils that would try to take over the world, all while never even being acknowledged for it as the people they are underneath the suits. They're heroes, real life superheroes, so yeah of course I'm excited that of all the people on Earth, of everyone I would be given the right to wield the Power and fight just like them," she continued to stare at him and he took a deep breath before looking back at her with a stern expression set upon his face, "My name is Tyler Navarro. My mom is Abby Phillips, Pink Dino Thunder Ranger and Silver Mighty Morphin Power Ranger; I was raised around the legendary Tommy Oliver himself, I was babysat by Rangers, I was raised by Rangers, I have seen them at their best and their worst and even their weirdest So if anyone knows what kind of people the Power Rangers are, if anyone can say whether or not they're dangerous and only ever cause problems, I'd sure as hell think it would be me."

She was speechless and he could feel his heart pounding in his chest; he felt his gem digging into his hand and glancing at it for a moment he then turned back to her and offered her his other hand. "Look, I know it's scary, and considering what the government and the media have been saying about us, I can understand if you are hesitant to feel like you can trust the Power Rangers. But don't you remember how it felt before, when they were heroes, when we could know they were our protectors and not worry? Didn't you ever dream of being one of them too?"

"I..." Shelby started and trailed off again; she looked at his hand, simply staring at it, and he gave her a soft smile. Moments passed that felt like centuries, and part of him wondered if maybe she would run, try and get as far from him as possible. Yet a part of him, a little voice in his head that he couldn't quite place but that felt weirdly familiar, whispered: she was chosen by the Power as well, and the Power never chooses wrong. She has the heart and the will of a Ranger, if only she'd believe in herself.

Finally she reached out, taking his hand in hers and squeezed as she stepped towards him; she looked conflicted and scared still but he didn't wish to ask for any more. It was enough in his eyes that she had willingly approached, that she didn't run. And he smiled brighter as she spoke in a low whisper, "Every kid has dreamed of being a Power Ranger at least once."

"Hell yeah they have," he told her and beamed, "And we get to live that dream."

"In a nightmare," she said, turning her eyes to him, "The government...other people...if they find out, if my parents find out...I don't want to be hunted down, Tyler; I don't want to be seen as a criminal."

"I know, I understand," Tyler said and sighed; he took a look around them, at the silent woods full of trees and rocks. He then turned to his communicator and tapped at it, still getting nothing; he wanted to be more worried about that, he figured that would be the smart thing to do but there honestly seemed like a lot of smart things he could be doing. And right now his mind was back on how his Zord just walked off without him and about the monster that had been thrown into the distance. He was no fool, and as he had told Shelby, he knew the Power Rangers and by extension their enemies; he knew that where there was one creepy monster running around, there were many more to waiting in the wings to take it's place, and a puppet master to lead them on into the assault.

"Hey!" He didn't actually notice the voice at first, too lost in his own thoughts; it took three or four more yells, and Shelby calling out to someone and tugging on him in one direction, for the boy to finally come back to reality and start paying attention. There was a truck there and a trio of people, two men and a woman; the woman was watching them with a frown and crossed arms, reminding him a little too much of his mother in the morning. On the other hand between the two guys, one built like a tank and the other looking like he was better suited for a skate park than out in the woods, it seemed there was no lack of friendliness.

"Chase, Koda, Mrs. Morgan!" Shelby yelled and stopped in front of them; she froze upon seeing the woman's expression and bit her lip, shuffling her feet, "I, um, can explain; see I-"

The woman raised a hand and pushed up her glasses. "Save it Shelby, we'll deal with this when we get back. Both of you, into the truck; we have to get back to the museum asap."

Shelby gulped and turned to look at Tyler who continued to watch the woman. She seemed familiar and something about her told him it was best if he just listened and went along with it; shrugging some he climbed into the back of the truck with Shelby, hopping in beside him. The skater dude smiled as he closed up the tailgate and nodded, speaking with an accent that Tyler couldn't quite place, "She'll be right, mate."

"Um thanks," he said and the boy gave them a short wave before climbing into the truck as well and as it started up, Tyler felt Shelby grab for his hand again and he couldn't help but feel like there was something more to the recent events. He squeezed her fingers with his own and he watched the forest move beside them, taking them from the caves and where they had been attacked. And still he held tight to his Energem, refusing to let it go.

The trip felt both long and all too short, the entirety of which Shelby didn't say a word, leaving Tyler to his thoughts. His excitement at becoming a Ranger was starting to wane, not into an anxiety of what that meant in terms of how the government would see him once they knew, but what his mother might do. God knew that Abby didn't want him fighting monsters, and no doubt when she finds out he snuck off the ship and back down to Earth she would have more than words for him. Tyler wasn't sure he wanted to know what would happen when she found out that her only son had gone and become a Ranger; he told himself that she wouldn't stop him from doing his duty, any more than any of the Renegades could be stopped from doing what they had to as Rangers, but he wasn't foolish enough to think that he was going to get away from this completely unscathed.

So when they drove up to what looked to be a rather nice museum and into the back to where a large dinosaur head sat half covered by a tarp, and the first person he noticed there was the very person he was thinking about, he was torn between two instincts: to freeze up like a rabbit in the eyes of a hungry wolf, or to take his chances and try to jump out of the car before she could notice him. But seeing as her eyes seemed trained on him and only him it occurred to him that jumping from a moving truck might just make things worse for him. Tyler still wasn't sure; could things get worse than his mother's wraith? Even the Ninja Academy falling him felt like it paled in comparison.

The truck came to a stop and for a moment he almost humored the idea that maybe it was an illusion and it was just a teenage girl who happened to look a lot like his currently teenaged mother. Something that quickly was remedied as said girl said his full name in a deceptively calm voice and walked over to grab him by the ear, dragging him not only away from Shelby but out of the truck as the skater, muscular dude, Shelby and the other woman all watched.

"Ow ow ow oooowwww, moooommm," he whined and winced as she brought him back down to the ground, holding tight to him.

"Do not mom me, mister; you can't even begin to imagine the trouble you are in right this moment," Abby said and tugged harder, "The universe hasn't created the length of time for which you are grounded."

"Abby, come on, let him go," said another voice and Tyler winced more as Tommy walked over, followed closely by Billy and RJ, both of whom made their way over to the boy as his mother released her prey finally. RJ in true fashion checked him over and Billy frowned lightly, looking at him with an expression that just made him feel bad.

"He seems to be okay, that's good," RJ said and hugged him tight, "We were all so worried; Billy suspected you would try something but by the time we managed to get to teleporting down here you were already gone and we couldn't find you. Abby suggested we make our way here, it seems like she had connections here."

"She contacted me," said the woman and she walked over, "Told me that her son was missing and to keep an eye out; didn't expect to find him hanging out with Shelby or bonding with an Energem."

"Thanks for bringing him here, Kendall," Abby said then froze, staring at the woman for a moment then turning to Tyler, "Wait...an Energem? No...no Tyler, please...please tell me you didn't..."

There was a strange sort of desperation to her voice and he hesitated for a moment before holding out his hand and opening it to show them the red crystal. He was convinced by the look on his mother's face that she was going to faint, stumbling back some as she stared at the thing in his hand with a look akin to seeing a venomous snake in his hands; her eyes widened for a moment before suddenly narrowing and she grabbed onto his wrist, pulling him along towards the dinosaur head.

"No, no no no," she said and tugging on one of the teeth Tyler watched as the wooden back of it opened, revealing a slide; she shook her head and gestured for him to go in, "In, now, Tyler."

"Mom-"

"No, no butts, no ifs, no nothing. Get in there right this moment or I swear..."

"Abby, you're both confusing and scaring him," Billy said softly and walked over to place a hand on her arm, "And you're also sort of scaring and confusing me too."

She pulled away harshly and Tyler gulped before doing as she ordered, making his way down the slide down the dino head. He heard others follow, one by one, and reaching the bottom he was stunned to see what looked to be a command center, different yet at the same time eerily the same as the ones he had known. Not much different than the bridge of the Megaship or Tommy's secret lab under his house in Reefside. He got to his feet and walked further in, taking it all in; nearby were a set of crystalline features, two of which held two more Energems, blue and black this time. A circular desk was set in the middle of the room and he was about to say something when he heard his mother call out, "Keeper! Keeper, please I need your help!"

"Abigail, what is it?" This newest voice seemed old and kind, and from the back of the command center he saw a creature approach. It was not human, obviously an alien, yet there seemed to be no malice, no cruelty, that came from it. It wore robes and held a staff in one hand and looking at him with it's big eyes it smiled and approached, "Aw I see the Red Energem has found someone."

"Keeper," Abby said and walked over, the desperation filling her features, "You have to unbind them, Tyler cannot be a Power Ranger and certainly not a red."

The way she said the color made him stop for a moment and he turned to look at her with a furrowed look. "Mom..."

"I can understand your concern, Abigail," the creature Keeper said and it...he reached out to take her hands in his own, patting them gently.

"No, no you don't understand," she said, "He can not be a Red Ranger, not my boy. He's...he's just a kid, he can't. Please, just unbind them; it's enough we have the Red Energem, we don't need a Red Ranger too, right?"

Keeper just looked at her for the moment, listening to her words calmly before turning to him. Tyler stood up straighter suddenly, feeling as if it was necessary and as the rest of the group arrived he barely noticed them under the wise gaze of the being before him, this mentor. Keeper smiled again. "Tyler, do you wish to be unbound to your Energem?"

"Keeper," Abby started but was stopped as the mentor raised a hand.

"I understand that you are worried; you are his mother, and you are well aware of the pains and tribulations of being a Power Ranger, not to mention with the current situation or when one is the Red. But it is ultimately not your decision nor my own whether or not Tyler stays attached to his Energem, but his own. If he wishes to be unbound, if that is what he truly wants, then that will be it. But it must be his own choice."

Behind them Shelby looked at her own Energem, the glistening pink stone that lay on her palm, and she stayed quiet, clenching it tight. She felt a hand on her shoulder and glanced up to be face to face with RJ who smiled gently back at her. She felt the urge to return it though her heart hurt and both watched as Tyler was questioned.

"No." The response came without hesitation and Abby looked at her son, seeing his expression harden as he bit his lip and shook his head, "No, I don't want to be unbound from my Energem. I might not have picked it up knowing what it was but...I don't want to give up. I was chosen for this duty by the Energem and I will respect that choice, no matter what."

"The Energem saw your strength of character," Kendall spoke up, causing him to turn to look at her, seeing the way she smiled, "Your conviction, your willingness to protect; it is not simply a matter of being strong enough to wield the power, but to understand that wielding it is an honor and a responsibility. It saw in you the heart of a leader; I suppose then it chose very well."

"Thank you," he said blushing some from the apparent praise given by the stranger.

She pushed up her glasses again, "You can call me Mrs. Morgan. I'm the curator of this museum and a friend of your mother's."

"As well as the younger sister of Kendrix Morgan, correct?" Billy spoke up, tilting his head, "I've heard about you."

"Yes, Kendrix is my older sister," Kendall said nodding.

"The first Galaxy Pink, the first Ranger to have died in the line of duty, the one Karone took over for?" Tyler asked blinking, to which Billy nodded, "Wow...I mean, I'm so sorry..."

She cleared her throat. "That does not matter. What does is that you wish to accept your new duty, and hopefully you'll be as willing to help us."

"There's more Rangers down here," Tommy said under his breath then turned to Abby, "You knew about this?"

She frowned, seeming rather displeased after Tyler's refusal to relinquish his Energem. Sighing she ran a hand through her hair. "Barely Rangers and I wasn't certain; I knew about the crystals and I'd been helping Kendall and Keeper with the museum and with trying to find all of the missing Energems. I hadn't actually seen any of the transformations, I'd only met Chase and Koda once before everything else started to happen. I didn't know for certain that they were Power Rangers."

"But it would be a logic enough assumption that the Energems could act like the Dino Gems and give them the power to morph, wouldn't it?" Billy asked furrowing his brow.

"Maybe but-"

"You seemed confident enough when you heard Tyler had the Red Energem and started demanding that Keeper unbind him from it," Tommy said with a harsh look; Abby started to fidget, "You didn't seem to doubt that he had become a Ranger then. You've been around enough teams, been a part of enough teams, to know that anything like this has a high chance of linking to the Morphing Grid."

"I-"

"What would have happened if Tyler hadn't caused us to come down here, huh? What if they had been found by the government before we could even get here? Abigail, they could have been captured, hurt, killed; we've been looking for Rangers and you kept the existence of these ones a secret from us?!" His voice got louder and angrier the longer he spoke and she didn't respond, wouldn't even look at him; he was half shaking and stepped forward to approach her, "Abigail!"

There was a crash and a scream and the group scattered as yet another person came tumbling down the slide. He was young, about Tyler's age or so; there was a sense of naivete to him and he landed in a pile of limbs and clothes on the ground, letting out a soft groan. The skater rushed to help him up, getting the boy to his feet and helping dust him off; once noticing it the newcomer quickly moved away from him and looked around, wide eyed and obviously continued, "Where...where am I?"

"Oh god damnit," Kendall said facepalming and the skater smiled.

"Hey, look at his pocket."

"Hey, don't stare at my pants!" The boy yelled but at that point it was too late; they were looking and saw the soft green glow of something. RJ walked over and reached into his pocket, causing the boy to yell and try to push him away, only to allow him to remove what looked to be a very familiar form at this point to Tyler. Just this time in green.

"Yet another Energem!" Abby exclaimed and the boy snatched it away from RJ who just blinked and apologized.

"Another one," Kendall muttered and approached, looking at the boy, "Who are you?"

"I think you guys should probably tell me that first," he said frowning, "Who are you people, where am I, why did I find this place by going into a dinosaur's mouth and what exactly is an Energem?"

"Another Ranger," Tommy said in a low voice and looked at Abby momentarily before turning back to the boy, "I'm Tommy Oliver; the teenage girl refusing to look at me is Abigail, the boy in the red shirt is her son Tyler, do not ask, the blond with glasses is Billy, the guy grinning like an idiot who is not wearing a sleeveless shirt is RJ. We're members of the Renegades, the Power Rangers currently hiding from the government and trying to figure out how to fix the situation at hand. The woman with the glasses is Kendall, the robed one is Keeper; they're...people."

"How descriptive," Kendall muttered and cleared her throat, "I own and operate this museum; you have a Energem, one of a set of gems that hold untold cosmic power. By bonding with it, you have become it's chosen partner and a Power Ranger yourself, much like Tyler, Shelby, Chase and Koda."

"Hey," the skater said raising a hand, "Chase Randall, hotshot, Black Ranger."

"Hi I am Koda," the muscular one said slowly, as if the words were hard for him to say; still he smiled in a friendly manner, reminding Tyler quite a bit of RJ.

The boy looked at each in kind then turned to Tommy again. "Power Rangers, like the ones the government are hunting down? The ones who supposed caused that kid's death?"

The ex-red nodded and the boy was silent for a moment then smiled. "Cool."

"Cool?" Shelby piped up, her voice cracking and causing everyone to turn to her, "How is this cool? We're going to get killed."

"We'll only get killed if we get caught, right?" the boy said and she stared at him, "I mean I've heard of the Renegades, even where I live. You guys stormed the courthouse in Angel Grove in hopes of breaking out the Samurai Rangers, the ones who were actually being accused of being involved in that kid's death; official talk is mainly that you caused a lot of property damage, people got hurt, all that stuff, but I've also heard that all you actually did was try and save your friends and got into some serious trouble because of it. The adults love talking about you as being bad and trouble but logically speaking if the Power Rangers were really bad guys too, and didn't care about what damage they did like people say you do, then why would you all work so hard to save people's lives yet not allow your identities to be known? You'd think that if you were actually just doing it for fun or because you had a hero complex you'd want to be known, but the number of publicly identified Power Rangers pre-Ranger's Initiative is basically quantifiable on two hands."

"I guess," she said hesitantly, "But it's still dangerous being a Ranger..."

"So is living on a farm but I did so all my life; so is coming here on my own when I'm just seventeen years old but I did that too. There's a lot of dangerous things in life; being a Ranger is just slightly more statistically dangerous than spending my days practicing swordplay in a barn and riding a tractor. It just has more monsters in it." He stopped for a moment then looked around, "Right...monsters..."

"You saw one too?" Tyler asked and the boy nodded.

"Yeah," the boy said slowly then shook his head, "Wait I should introduce myself shouldn't I. I'm Riley, Riley Griffin; I came to the museum because I found that stone after some cat-like creature was terrorizing my dog and I tried to fight it off. It got all angry about me finding that 'Energem' thing but ran off after I fought it off with a sword that used to be a pipe. Sounds sort of crazy when I say it out loud..."

"Eh not much more than that I got my Energem from a Maori fortuneteller, mate," Chase said slapping his back, "Or that Koda is actually a 100,000 year old caveman who was frozen in ice after finding his Energem."

"A caveman?" Tommy said and part of Billy was happy to hear the delight and excitement in his old friend's voice, a welcome change from the subdued or angry way he'd been acting since the Incident. Yet seeing the glint in the man's eyes he suddenly became aware of how frightening it had to be for others when he got a little too interested in something technological; Abby grabbed Tommy to keep him from approaching Koda.

"We once fought the anthropomorphized purse of our friend Kimberly," Abby said, "Like, literally, her purse was turned into a monster."

"Don't forget Pumpkin Rapper." The shudder that went through Abby and Tommy when Billy said that was enough to shake the latter from his archaeological fascination.

Pulling away from Abby Tommy nodded. "Yes, anyway, point is that's really not much weirder than the normal fare for a Ranger."

"You did say a cat-like creature, correct?" Keeper asked Riley and the boy nodded; the mentor frowned some and Chase looked at him.

"Keeper, do you think it's Fury?" the skater asked, causing Keeper to nod.

Tyler furrowed his brow and then took out his journal again; flipping through it he then showed Riley the picture of the beast that had been following his dad. "Did it look like this?"

"Yeah exactly like that!" Keeper took the book from Tyler to look it over, garnering a serious face.

He hesitated for a moment before speaking, deciding it was important, "We weren't attacked by that creature; we were attacked by a different one, he looked to be made out of ice or something. It wanted the Energems as well."

Keeper looked at him and Kendall walked over, furrowing her brow.

"Keeper?" she asked, "We knew about Fury and it makes sense there would be more monsters but..."

"But if there's another monster after the Energems, then it can only mean one thing," the mentor spoke and no one answered, allowing there to be a pause of silence before he went on, "Sledge is back."

How Iceage got back to the ship was not important. In fact when he had managed to arrive back in the cargo hold where the transport pods were kept, and tried to start in on what he had to report, not a single creature seemed to give much more care than to grab him and drag him to the cockpit. He had a story to tell though, a lot of one actually when it came down to it, but as far as the Vivix were concerned, which was nowhere considering they weren't mindful enough to really have concern, all that mattered was getting Iceage to where their leader was.

There was more than a few people together in the cockpit but the important one was Sledge. The bounty hunter had seen and had better days; managing to just barely get his ship back to the planet where last the Energems had been seen, along with all of his precious asteroids, he had immediately sent a monster down to see about finding said elusive crystals. They would after all give him the power to take over the universe and what creature didn't want power like that?

He sat in his rickety captains chair, Vivix and crew wandering around doing this or that, and as the doors opened to the cockpit and the shouting Iceage was dumped before him, Sledge pulled himself forward. Fingers clenched the arms of his chair. "Where's my Energems?!" Sledge almost always was yelling; Poisandra and Wrench were used to such things, the Vivix didn't much care.

"I tried to get them but they bonded to some humans," Iceage exclaimed, getting up onto his feet, "And they turned into Power Rangers!"

"Power Rangers huh," Sledge said and sat back in his seat, "Well if that's all-"

"Actually sir, I have something to add." The bounty hunter grumbled but turned his head to acknowledge the fidgetty tinman known as Wrench; the would be inventor and mechanic shifted about and worked on the controls, bringing up multiple pictures. They were of a various places on Earth, some videos of events; a massive fight at some hidden school, a riot in a city by the ocean, a group of people suddenly changing in the middle of a building. Followed by images of multiple suited figures, so many that Sledge's head almost started to spin.

"There seems to be a lot of Power Rangers, not only the ones Iceage saw. It might be worth it to be cautious considering-"

"Cautious? Of what, some pitsqueak humans who think they can fight?" Sledge boomed and Wrench nearly fell over; the bounty hunter lifted himself up and continued, "Nothing is going to stand between me and the Energems this time, not some idiot humans, not Keeper, not anything!"

"So what do you suggest we do?" wrench asked, voice shaking.

Sledge hesitated for a moment then waved his hand. "If there's multiple Rangers then we'll just have to give them multiple problems. Unleash all the monsters from Cell Block One."

Wrench did not have a face capable of changing much but his voice was more than capable of expressing the terror and incredulousness he felt hearing those words. "U-unleash...all of them?"

"Are you questioning me?! I said unleash them, now!" Everyone in the room jumped, Vivix and monsters alike, and as Sledge sat back down they all run to go about fulfilling his plan.

It may be overkill but it was necessary. Besides if he razed the earth to the ground, the Energems would still be there, still survive. And then he could pick them up and go about his way. That was all that mattered, he told himself; all that mattered.

It took about a half an hour for Keeper to get everyone else caught up but it left Tommy with more questions than answers. He knew that the Dino Gems had come from the meteor that had hit the earth and killed the dinosaurs, but it sounded like Keeper had inadverently been the cause of them coming to the planet in the first place. It made him wonder if they had some connection to the Energems then or if it was simply strange coincidence.

What he did know for certain was that this Sledge fellow didn't sound much worse or better than the other villains he had faced in the past. It didn't make him feel better, with things as they were they didn't need more enemies to have to worry and deal with, but he told himself that at least it meant they had some idea of what they might be dealing with. The big bads always seemed to follow unspoken rules, guidelines for all supervillains, that made it so that the Rangers could better deal with them. As long as that stood then they would be fine, they had to be fine.

The alarms started going off soon after that line of thought started up in his brain and he stopped for a moment and thought about whether or not he was a living jynx or his life was permanently cursed by the Green Ranger's power.

"What's going on?" Riley asked, placing his hands over his ears as the loud shrieking continued around them.

Kendall rushed over to what was likely the main control panel and brought up images. What they saw was nothing good; monsters, multiple monsters, and very obviously not simply mooks. They ran the gambit of appearances, sizes, and power types based on the destruction they seemed to be wroughting upon the city and area around. Fire, ice, what seemed to be evil cake, makeovers with a makeup brush, all sorts of ridiculous and horrendous things happening just outside. People were screaming, running for their lives as the chaos erupted and Tommy frowned deeply, staring at the screens.

"That's," Billy started but trailed off quickly.

"That's a lot of monsters," Tyler spoke in a low voice.

"Oh god," Abby whispered unable to look away.

"We have to help them," Riley said and moved to try to find a way out, "We have to go!"

"There's too many of them," Kendall exclaimed, turning to the boy, "There's no way we-"

"Billy, hack into the command center, get a message back to the Astroship," Tommy called out and after a second of confusion the bespectacled teenager rushed over to Kendall's side, muttering a soft apology before taking control.

The woman frowned lightly then turned to Tommy. "What are you doing?"

"We're getting the rest of the Renegades down here," he answered and then turned to Tyler, "You ready for a fight?"

Tyler stared at him for a moment, uncertain how to answer immediately. Things were moving fast, there was chaos, and he did not expect when he came down here to have to fight what seemed to be an army of monsters. But his heart raced and a smile crossed his face and quickly he nodded. "Of course, I was born ready!"

"Tyler," his mother said and he looked over at her.

"I'll be fine mom; after all I'll have multiple experienced Rangers there to help me out. And I'll have my team, right?"

His gaze moved to the other Energem wielding Rangers. Koda and Chase had already summoned their Energems to them, getting out their morphers, and Riley had finally found the exit it seemed and started out, followed quickly by the other two boys. Tommy, after a look at Abby, followed suit and she sighed before doing the same. Kendall looked more than a little frantic, at first, but then got to work helping Billy with what he was doing and Keeper seemed to be smiling just a bit.

That left Shelby. The girl was frozen, staring at screens and her expression seemed to be unreadable. Tyler thought about her concerns, her fears, how she didn't really want to be a Ranger. He walked over to her and placed a hand on her shoulder, causing her to jump before turning her eyes to him. In those eyes he saw so much more uncertainty than before and he wondered how to help her, how to make her feel less scared.

He didn't know, he couldn't know; they were the same age and while he said he was born ready, even he was scared. Because part of him remembered the courthouse and all the pain there, he remembered the Ninja Academy and how bad things got there. He remembered all the times the Rangers, the Renegades, his friends and family had fought and almost died. But the almost stuck in his mind and he gave her a light smile.

"It'll be okay, we can do this," he said gently and in the background he could hear Billy say something about the connection being established and reinforcements being on the way, "You won't be going into battle alone; the Renegades are all great fighters and nothing will happen to you."

"I've never done anything like this before."

"You'll do fine; it's always scariest the first big fight."

"You talk like you've done this before."

"I told you, I was raised by Rangers; I've been preparing for a day like this my entire life."

He offered her his hand; she stared at it then at his face, searching for something in it. Tyler simply continued to smile and waited for her to take it.

"You really think we'll be okay?" she asked.

"I promise we will be; as the red of our team, I promise I won't let anything happen you or to Riley or to Chase or Koda."

That caused her to crack a tiny smile, though it seemed more incredulous than anything. "Think yourself tough, a knight in shining armor, huh?"

He shrugged. "Nah, just a Red Ranger. It's our responsibility to lead our teams; you're the pink, you're the one who will be the toughest of us all."

That made her smile grow and she brushed off his hand before heading off towards where Riley had led the others, Billy having already made his exit as well to join the fight. Shelby called over her shoulder. "Well then Red, you better get going; our teams already way ahead of you."

Tyler grinned and ran after her, feeling still the racing of his heart in his chest, a growing fear of what might come. But the Energem in his hand glowed so bright and he told himself that it would be alright.

Kendall and Keeper were all that were left and the former glanced at the latter, pushing up her glasses. "Sledge is serious isn't he?"

The being nodded. "Very. I did not expect him to be so bold as to attack the Earth with such numbers. Yet I cannot help but feel hope seeing the Power Rangers rush into battle; this will certainly not be the end of them."

"I hope you're right, Keeper. I hope you're right."