Twenty Rangers.

Tyler had not thought terribly long or hard on it before; in the light of the troubles they had gone through, the fighting and the struggles to find each other, to try and save people, it just seemed like it wasn't important. And it really wasn't. They always seemed to be the underdogs anyway, there were never enough of them compared to the government, compared to the populace, compared to everything. There was a twisted sort of pleasure in it for him he realized; the small group of the Renegades, versus the world, it made him feel good whenever they won and survived another battle. No matter what came, no matter what might happen to them, they would survive, they would always survive, and nothing could defeat them.

But they were twenty and he realized more than ever, as they arrived at the scene of the chaos, how few that really came out to be. Because there were easily over a hundred monsters, not to mention the strange mooks, and over the din of Tommy's calling out orders to the Rangers who had come down to help, the call of monsters as they saw worthy enough adversaries, Shelby calling out his name and his heart beating in between his ears, Tyler could barely focus on anything other than the sudden and violent realization that truly they were outnumbered. And they were just twenty Rangers.

Chase glanced at him for a moment before starting to shoot and Koda was downing mooks left and right without concern. A little girl screamed and he snapped out of it just in time to see RJ drop down and kick one monster in the mouth, it's rotten teeth going flying as it screamed and fell to the ground. He saw the purple Ranger grab a scared child and bundle her up in his arms before running back past the creature, stumbling to get back to it's feet. He heard someone tell him to look out and he ducked as a ball of ice flew overhead and the newbie red turned to see the same monster from behind, facing him. Drawing his morpher he lined up the shot and took it, failing only narrowly to miss hitting it square in the chest. Instead the energy blast hit the creature's arm and threw it to the ground screaming, cursing at him. There were probably words to it, some sort of manifesto of anger; Tyler couldn't make it out with how noisy everything else was.

"Tyler, keep focused!" Abby called out and the boy blushed, realizing his mistake. He needed to focus; there were twenty of them and a lot more of their enemies. And he knew he just had to be thankful that it was just monsters right now; if and when the army shows up this would turn into a far worse situation.

"Shelby, stay near me; we're more likely to survive this as a team than apart!" He yelled to her and she nodded, moving so her back was against his; he shot at the cavity monster when it finally stood again, listening as it screamed more, drawing more attention to them and a new wave of identical mooks rushed the newling Rangers.

He raised his weapon and narrowed his eyes; he felt Shelby shift behind him and he told himself that if nothing else he had to protect her. That was a Red Ranger's duty after all.

There were a lot of monsters though and as Billy made his way through the crowd of them, finding his newly teenage body remembering the movements and motions needed for techniques he hadn't used in years, ones taught to him by one he knew to be his enemy now. He thought on the implications of this. This could not be a coincidence; Tyler, Shelby and Riley all get their Energems and come to the museum, the group finds out about the existence of a brand new and growing team, and suddenly a massive wave of monsters attack the city. There were more than a few implications of what this could mean, and none seemed particularly good to him.

A monster using heat tried to burn him but he kicked out their feet from under them and a splash of water had them screaming; he lifted his head to look at another blue Ranger.

"Thanks Tori," he spoke and she nodded before rushing off to help Annie and Hunter fight a monster with cages.

It was clear, if nothing else was, that these creatures were far from organized but seemed pretty well directed in their goal; from the moment the Rangers had arrived they had stopped their attacks on the civilians, with a few exceptions, and had focused instead upon the colorfully spandexed heroes that had come to stop them. Obviously someone had told them about the Rangers, and likely that someone had told them to destroy them; a quick look around didn't seem to lend a clue to who that exactly could be. There were a lot of faces about, and quite a few without as well, but no one who seemed particularly in charge. For a moment he saw a strangely pink and happy looking monster, watching everything from the sidelines rather than fighting, but there didn't seem to be any orders coming from them and as they saw Billy looking at them, they shrieked and ran off somewhere. The blue blinked for a moment before having to return to fighting; a creature with a bird like mask tried to attack him and he had to quickly move to fight them off until a shot from elsewhere brought it to it's knees with a yelp. Feeling like maybe he was being saved more than he was actually helping out, Billy took hold of a mook trying to help the bird monster up and laid them flat, striking at them with his Power Lance. Mooks were luckily pretty much all the same; give them enough damage and they all explode into goo.

Tommy was honestly having fun for once and he wasn't certain he shouldn't feel guilty about that. He knew that was ridiculous, but as he changed to White Ranger form, cutting down an enemy monster with Saba before returning to Black and using his Brachio Staff to use the Wave Strike against them, there was a nagging sense that he shouldn't be enjoying this as much as he was. It went beyond the obvious fact that they were overwhelmed by countless nasty creatures and monsters, all that were more than happy to harm and torment humans for their own goals, and likely were at the command of some greater more dangerous force. The normal elements of why he, as someone who cared for the wellbeing of others, should not like having to fight so many of them at once in an attempt to keep them at bay, these were valid of course but there was more to it than that for him.

She still hadn't woken up. Tommy wasn't an idiot; he knew the others had noticed a chance in his demeanor and he was willing to admit that he had been throwing himself more into fights lately, going out on missions more often, trying to distract himself from the fact that in the end Tsuki still hadn't awoken and neither had Dustin nor Karone nor Anton. And a part of the man felt the guilt eating away at the edges of his mind more and more by the moment. He knew that it wasn't like it was his fault any of them were like that; logic made it clear that Tommy Oliver had not been the one to throw the bomb that had burned Dustin and forced him into a coma, or injected the strong drugs that now kept a slowly mutating Anton and Karone asleep. And he hadn't told Tsuki to save him; her voice, so desperate as it told him how it would be okay, the way she held him as he had bled, the way she shook, it was burned into his memory and try as he might it refused to leave. She blamed herself so she had made her choice without a thought to how it would affect him, how it would change everything. And now he was there, fighting an ocean of monsters, switching between Ranger powers, and trying not to think about the people in the infirmary and the guilt that they all elicited from him, not simply the one he felt personally responsible for but the ones he knew he shouldn't as well.

So no, he shouldn't be enjoying this. But the thrill of the battle was hard to ignore and he couldn't help that for a moment he didn't feel like the weight of the universe was on his shoulders. For a second in time he was just Tommy Oliver, fighting monsters alongside his allies and friends, his team, surrounded by what looked to be near impossible odds yet still they survived. His staff made contact with a mook's head and he called out to Abby as the woman took down a creature who seemed to have a spatula for a hand, "Abby, this isn't going to work! We need to combine forces somehow."

"We can certainly try; not sure how well it will work when there's only one complete team here and they're newbies," she called back, glancing over at where Tyler was assisting Shelby with fighting back more mooks while Chase and Riley shot and cut at their enemies respectively. It was very much like looking at any other newborn team, no true teamwork, no actual cohesion. The only difference was that one of them was her son and she was still not happy about it but at this point she had no choice in this matter whatsoever. She could only watch over him and hope for the best.

And nearly rip the ice monster's spine out when it tried attacking Tyler while his back was turned. The young Ranger turned to watch as his mother practically eviscerated the creature and with some terror he just stared at her. She straightened herself up and spoke sternly to him, "Tyler Navarro, you do not take your eyes off a wave of monsters at any time; if you get yourself hurt on your very first mission as a Power Ranger I am going to lock you on the Megaship and take away your morpher, do you understand?"

"Yes mom," he said trying not to shake and she walked off to continue to deal with enemies; Tyler just stood there staring after her.

"Your mom is kind of crazy," Shelby said after a short silence.

"No, just extremely terrifying." And right of course but he couldn't say that much aloud.

Elsewhere someone else was enjoying this too, but for reasons far darker than he was willing to admit to.

Trent had not been feeling all that well the last few months. It had started with the incident and only gotten worse as the days went by; he had at first tried to attribute it to stress, or to the pain of seeing his dad laying in the infirmary, unresponsive but Billy kept saying he was really just sleeping. He hadn't understood why his father had done what he did, nor why Karone had done the same.

Until earlier today and suddenly it all made sense and he couldn't help feeling sick, well, sicker than he already had been. It had all begun again: the secrets, the trouble, and worse yet for Trent, the voice, the creeping sensation, that innate inner voice that was very much him and at the same time very much not. He'd been content to believe it was just a dream or hallucinations, he was getting used to having his body back like this, his powers back like this, that he was more than willing to think that it was just his imagination. But when Billy and RJ had spoken, telling them of what they had found out about Karone and Anton, he knew it wasn't a dream. This was closer to a nightmare, and one he desperately wished he could wake from immediately.

The White Dino Gem. He shot a monster through the head using his weapon then contemplated his gem. Mesagog was supposed to have been separated and destroyed years ago, yet a tiny mutation and the Morphing Grid's "grace" brought him back. Astronema should have been defeated years ago, yet Karone was showing signs of having those powers return to her. He wondered if Tommy heard the call of the Sword of Darkness; he'd heard stories about Merrick, what he'd gone though. He wondered if Zen Aku still spoke to him. The White Dino Gem; it was supposed to have been purified, the evil in it destroyed, by Anton's actions no less. Yet he heard the whispers again and he felt his mind struggling against something he couldn't quite put a finger on. But he did know that it liked the violence, the fighting, the thrill of the kill, and it wanted more.

His attention turned from the felled enemy over to where the others were all fighting as well. Kira was doing relatively well, better than some of their teammates at least; she moved gracefully through the battlefield and glancing at him she gave a quick wave before striking down a mook that got too close. She seemed fine, she seemed to be doing fine; how easy it would be to strike her down while she was busy trying to destroy their enemies? The moment that thought formed he pushed at it with all his mental might, forcing it into the corner, refusing to let it see the light of day. Kira was his friend, more than a friend really, and he couldn't, wouldn't do that.

Part of him wanted to hate Tsuki and Tommy for this. The latter was always an easy target for anger, and he'd dragged him and Anton back into this after all. If he hadn't gotten involved, if Tommy had just not gone to the courthouse, if they all had just ignored the news, maybe, just maybe... And then there was Tsuki who actually caused their powers to come back, revived the villains inside Anton and Karone, the dark ranger in him. He wanted to hate them, to be as angry with them, and swinging his Drago Sword, cutting through some strange buggy monster with a hazard symbol on it's head with ease and aggression, he felt it flowing through his mind and blood. His fingers clenched tight around the hilt and with an angry scream he stabbed down into the monster's chest, watching it writhe, watching it struggle, watching it scream and curse him and then finally disappear to nothingness, destroyed. And the voice laughed, he felt pleased by it and he hated that. He didn't hate Tommy or Tsuki, or his father or Billy or RJ or Abby or Kira.

Trent only hated himself, because the thrill of the fight was so intoxicating and he didn't want to enjoy it.

Annie and Kira seemed to have their area covered though the situation was far from being under control. It was interesting to the pterodactyl how easily Annie took charge of the situation and Kira became quickly occupied with a three way job of keeping an eye out for Trent who had been acting weird for a while, trying to protect herself by fighting monsters left and right, and only seeming to be able to make visual contact with her team once in a blue moon. But Trent was not far and she heard his scream, and Annie had taken to her side with some comment about RJ being fine on his own. She seemed worried; so was Kira. Because there were so many of their enemies and not enough of them she feared.

She had been trying to focus on the mooks around her, creepy things that looked like paint had been splotched all over them, when her eye caught something. A new monster, looking a bit more squished than the others, with a mask and mean glowing eyes; it came down on a jetpack and it struck Kira that it didn't attack immediately. She heard a voice, heavy with an accent, call out, "That's Sledge!"

The name struck a chord and she remembered the conversation in the museum, the enemy who had followed Keeper to Earth, inadvertently caused the extinction of the dinosaurs and the Dino Gems to end up on earth. The bounty hunter known as Sledge. She frowned and worried, wondering what he planned on doing, why he was there; it seemed reasonable to assume that he had been the cause of the massive wave of monsters. He struck her as the Big Bad type, though he didn't have the elaborate appearance of some of them. There was something about him, or maybe she'd gotten used to knowing the difference between the final boss and the mini bosses. And thinking that way, like this was a video game, made her stomach lurch, remembering.

"What do we do?" She asked no one in particular but loud enough to be heard by the nearby Rangers.

"We need to tell the others," Annie called back, her back inching closer to Kira as three monsters tried zeroing on them.

"Get me their Energems!" Came a gruff annoyed voice and the singer didn't need to look to know who said that.

"Tyler and his team first," Kira stated and the jackal nodded before both women tried forcing their way though.

Fighting was like riding a bike, in that she had to avoid being hit by things that could do serious damage to her and she was always acutely aware of falling. But doing backflips was half the reason she kept feeling like the latter. Some creature tried grabbing her foot and she kicked them in the face before attempting to reach the newest Rangers. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Abby trying to grab a certain red and she could hear the woman yelling angrily as her son, followed by the pink ranger, rushed towards Sledge.

"Tyler, no!" Kira yelled and tried to intervene but she was grabbed around the midsection and started beating the offender in the head, "Trent! Dr. O! Someone, grab them!"

"Get back here right now young man!" Abby called out and grabbed for her son, only to miss and be grabbed herself by some nearby mooks.

The black and blue of Tyler's team moved as well, and Riley looked around, his body language saying he was confused.

Zack, who was in the middle of trying not to be burned by a volcanic looking monster, the same one Billy and Tori had tried dealing with but had been too distracted by other enemies to finish off, started to look for a way to try to help. Instead the young man saw something else that made him blanche. And over the din of life and war he could hear the sounds of lots of footsteps and familiar voices yelling.

"Guys Jason's here!" He tried to warn them but everyone was distracted by fighting, trying to stop the new dinosaurs attacking the obvious big bad, and most were just too far to hear him. He cursed lightly under his breath and kept trying. "Guys! We got other problems!"

No use. Kira heard but the others seemed still semi oblivious and she frowned. Monsters were bad enough, a sea of them and mooks worse, the big bad showing up now yet another level of misfortune. The government Rangers and the military showing up when they were doing their best to stem the tidal wave, that went beyond worst; that was sadism.

So Kira did something she hadn't done for years. She took a deep breath, feeling a familiar sensation inside her, a bubbling of power that built up more and more until she let it out, in one massive wave of yellow energy emitted from her Ptera Scream. It blasted back multiple enemies in front of her and caused multiple Rangers to duck down with their hands over their ears. Billy glanced over and Kira, newly released from her capture, pointed towards where the combined forces of the US military, led by a morphed Jason out for blood, was approaching. The blue paled too and ran to Tommy, "Tommy, Jason-"

"I know," he said curtly and the black ranger moved, pushing through downed monsters to grab Tyler by the scruff, "You, come!"

"But Sledge-"

"Now." His voice left no room for argument and he watched as Abby finally made contact with Shelby, the pinks seeming to have a short conversation before moving to leave.

"What's going on?" Riley asked frowning, "What are you doing?"

"We need to retreat, now," Billy told the green and tried to do a quick visual examination of the damage to their group and to the surrounding area; most Rangers seemed mainly untouched, and it appeared they had successfully minimized damage to the buildings for the most part, only some minor cracks and debris. This should have been a win but he was worried still, especially as the image of the Ninja Academy, what had become of it, flashed before his eyes.

"Why should we?!" Chase asked and tried to struggle as Merrick dropped in and grabbed his arm.

"Sledge still here," Koda said looking confused but followed as the Renegades pulled together to try to leave.

"And now the military is here too." Lauren was unmorphed and holding her side, blood trickling between her fingers and turning them a dark red; a young man was helping her, her other arm over his shoulder as they carefully made their way through the madness and seeing the civilian, Tommy frowned. He walked over.

"Lauren let me-" As he reached out to take her, she slapped his hand away and glared.

"I don't need your help," she snapped, causing Tommy to sigh.

"Don't worry about it, I don't mind helping the lovely lady," the man said and gave an apologetic smile.

"We'd really prefer not to bother you with this," Tommy responded hesitantly and heard the first sounds of guns going off; bullets started flying and in the new mayhem he could make out Sledge screaming orders. At the same time there was a loud roar of sorts and a lion-like monster came charging at them, causing RJ to have to step in as Koda tried attacking the newcomer.

The caveman yelled something along the lines of "Fury" and the Pai Zhua master groaned, struggling to hold him back. "Um guys, retreat to the ship?"

"We have to get Kendall and Keeper!" Chase yelled.

"They're safe; we're not!" Zack retorted and yelped, ducking as a bullet flew by his ear, "Hey!"

Chase stopped. "But-"

"We'll go get them," Tommy snapped and turned his head to look at Abby. "Abby, you come with me; you can lead me to the museum."

"I'm coming too!" Tyler chimed in and got a glare for his troubles.

"You are in enough trouble mister," Abby said, "You are going back to the ship and you're staying there."

"Well then I'll go at least," Chase said, "I'm not about to let you guys go without me being there too."

"Fine," the irritated current black said, "Abby, Chase, you're with me; Billy, get everyone else back to the Megaship ASAP."

Billy nodded his affirmative and pulled Tyler along, gathering as many of them as possible. Tommy meanwhile made his way, Chase and Abby in tow, out of the madness, avoiding monsters and mooks and soldiers alike. Enemy Rangers were running around and right as they managed to get close enough, the Renegades had teleported back to the ship, avoiding being hit. They did notice Tommy's trio and Wesley called out, directing attention to them; Chase took aim and shot back, trying to keep them back until Abby yelled at him to stop, grabbing him and hurrying after Tommy.

"They're attacking us!"

"We are not stooping to their level; we are Rangers, not hoodlums." Abby's tone left little room for argument and even less room for discussion. Chase frowned more but said nothing, running after them.

The path to the museum was full of danger and trouble. Monsters and soldiers chased them and someone yelled Tommy's name, demanding he come out and face them. Tommy was tempted to cover his ears to drown it out but couldn't, didn't. Abby dragged them through alleyways and backways, the trio returning to their civilian forms in hopes of going unnoticed for a little while at least. Away from the main mass of trouble there were people frantic and the conversation as often was the case encircled what was going on, what the monsters wanted, what the Rangers were up to. Someone said something about the Rangers causing all this but Abby bit back retorts, dragging her teammates along.

When they finally reached their destination, relief quickly turned to concern seeing how quiet everything was. Abby took them to the back and Chase pulled on the dino tooth, letting them down the slide to the hideout. Kendall upon seeing them widened her eyes and ran over, "Are you guys okay? What's going on? Where's the others?"

"Didn't you see on the monitors?" Abby asked and Tommy took a look around, getting a weird feeling.

"They went black soon after you left " Kendall answered pushing up her glasses, "I tried checking the news but all I got was that the military had been dispatched and was 'handling the situation'. They didn't..."

"No, everyone else is fine; they're back on the Megaship," Abby said smiling, "We just came to get you."

"For us?" Kendall furrowed her brow.

Keeper looked at the three Rangers then towards Kendall. "It may not be safe for us to stay here."

"Keeper's right; its only a matter of-" Tommy's words were cut short by explosions and the ground shook, nearly throwing them all off balance. Chase looked up then back at the elder Rangers and his mentors.

"That was dangerously close," he said and Tommy nodded, starting to input the teleportation command into his communicator.

"Yeah I've come to know that when they're that close, that's when you need to run."

"We can't just leave, all my equipment is here!" Kendall protested, gesturing to the monitors and devices, the crevices for the Energems to rest.

Another explosion, another ground quake; Tommy grabbed Kendall by the arm. "The Megaship has plenty for you to work with. We can't stay here."

"They can't possibly-" The third crash came right over them and the room started to collapse; Kendall stared wide eyed above her. Tommy cursed and grabbed hold of her, Abby securing Chase and Keeper before both teleported away. The slide collapsed, the monitors crashing to the ground with loud thuds. Sledge's forces and the military had arrived soon after the Renegades had, and they fought, destroying everything in their wave, trying to kill each other and the ones they sought.

As always everyone ended up in the command room. Lauren was sitting with the young man from before and Hayley was knelt before her, tending to her wounds.

"Luckily they're mainly superficial," Hayley said and smiled meekly at Lauren; she never knew what to say to the woman, "Some bed rest and taking it easy should fix you right up."

"Got it," Lauren muttered and closed her eyes, leaning back against the wall.

Tommy let go of Kendall who glared at him angrily. He just stared back. "They destroyed my house already; the museum was next."

"You didn't know that," she said coldly.

"The museum is gone, Kendall," Billy said gently and she looked over to him; he gestured to the viewing monitors, showing the news feed of what was happening below. Her heart fell and Abby could only stare in disbelief, watching as all their hard work, all their effort, the museum they cared so much for and had built from the ground up, crumbled to nothing. It left her feeling numb and not even tears could form seeing it unfold.

Tommy was not interested in watching another Ranger location be destroyed; far too much had been lost already, homes, families, lives. It just hurt too much to let himself dwell on it.

What he was interested in was the unrelated civilian aboard the Megaship. He frowned and approached him, seeing the other man take note of the movement. The man smiled and carefully got up, meeting him halfway.

"Thanks for helping Lauren," Tommy said, figuring gratitude was the best next move.

The man shrugged. "Least I could do; you all were doing so much to help save us from the monsters, only right to help."

"Why weren't you gone with the others?"

"I actually was trying to get to safety when I saw the lovely lady being surrounded by some of those things. I couldn't just leave her there so I grabbed her while they were distracted by an attack from a different monster." The man looked around the room they were in, "Where are we anyway?"

"The Astro Megaship, its our base of operations," Tommy said, "We'll see about getting you back home but-"

"Its probably better I not go back right now," the man said and rubbed his head, "I mean you're all wanted right? If I go back now the authorities will just come after me seeing as I was helping you; they haven't been all that kind to pro-Ranger sentiments."

Tommy winced; there was some logic to it but he didn't like it. Abby walked over, "He's right; he's already helped us, he's a target now too. He'll be safer here with us than down there, at least until things blow over."

"I guess you're right," Tommy grumbled lightly; he sighed and held out his hand out to the young man, "Guess you're stuck with us for a while then, sorry. I'm Tommy by the way, Tommy Oliver."

The man smiled and after adjusting the goggles around his neck he took Tommy's hand, shaking it firmly. "Nice to meet you then Tommy. You can call me Heckyl."